Class runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with a break about 11 a.m. Elizabeth, our teacher, uses games, conversation and interesting items to read that are more or less on our comprehension level. With only Sharon and me in the class, there's no goofing off and hoping not to be called on! We have to be on our game constantly. It's mentally exhausting but exhilirating.
At break time, Sharon and I usually walk about a bloque to a pequeño cafeteria (that's a coffee shop here, not something like MCL). It has coffee drinks similar to Starbucks' but at about half the price. $22 gets me a small mocha cafe. Sharon and I take turns buying a cafe Americano for Elizabeth. We always look longingly at the postres (desserts) in the case, but decide to save the money and calories.
At lunch, we have a choice of a vegetarian restaurant that I still haven't tried and Pepe Grillo's, which puts out a special buffet of Mexican foods for the students in its back room. We eat earlier than local people, for whom 2:30 p.m. is lunchtime. Today, for the first time in a week, I'll be eating from the buffet, not having something special made to comply with my bland diet. The staff there has been a bit clueless, even after Antonio, the school director, explained, but have been very gracious.
After lunch, during which some people struggle to keep using Spanish and some take a "brain break," we walk to the Zocalo, the large central plaza that is the hub of the city, to meet our guias. The guias all are university students who speak English in varying degrees, but use it only to explain things when Spanish fails.
Glenny and Francisco were my two previous guias; both were friendly and helpful. This week, Cecilia, who teaches English part time in a local school, is my guia. Maybe that's why I find it easiest to talk to her, or maybe it's because after 2 1/2 weeks my brain is acclimating to actually speaking in whole sentences without lapsing into too much Spanglish.
Cecilia and I visited the municipal building here to see the ofrenda -- the Dia de Los Muertos offering/memorial. This year, it's dedicated to the heroes of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. It's hard to describe, but very elaborate, with skeletons costumed as revolutionaries, plenty of large sugar skulls, etc.Marigolds are the flower of mourning here, but the silk flowers used in the ofrenda were something else that was the right color but the wrong shape. (Yes, you can take the girl outta the flower shop, but . . . )
If I ever get a chance to add photos to this blog, the ofrendas will be among highlights.
We popped into a couple of bakeries to admire the skulls molded of chocolate, sugar or tiny seeds (maybe amaranth) and the little figurines for Dia de Los Muertos. If I can figure out how to protect them in transit, I want to get several. In one bakery I bought some cookies for my host family; in the other, I bought a small bottle of rompope -- Mexican eggnog with rum. (Elizabeth was shocked to find that eggnog and cider were alcohol-free in the U.S.!)
Finally, we visited the Museo de la Revolucion. It's the home of the Serdans, a prosperous family that was among those most involved in the revolution, and just has been restored to look much as it did on the day that government troops burst into their home and killed most of them outright. A couple of family members hid under floorboards for more than 40 hours before one coughed and they were found.
No comments:
Post a Comment