Sunday I walked six miles all over the city. I went back to Mercado San Juan and bought some cumin, cayenne and garbanzos from the spice dealer, Maximiliano. Like everyone who can, when he heard me struggling in Spanish, he switched to English. He has worked in California and Oregon, and has a friend who worked in Worcester, 20 miles from where I was born. He loves to talk and doesn't seem to be busy, so perhaps I will go back and inflict my Spanish on him.
Sunday evening I was turning onto the main boulevard, where upscale restaurants serve upscale diners under the lovely old arched colonnade, when I heard George Harrison singing Here Comes the Sun. I thought it was odd that a fancy Mexican restaurant would be playing old Beatles tunes, but in a few more steps I was delighted to find a live band with a singer who sounds just like the real deal. Somehow with only a guitar, bass and drum kit, three guys were able to reproduce the Beatles sound. And the lead singer has a chameleon voice. The next song was Imagine, and he sounded just like John Lennon. After a while, they switched to Creedence songs, and he sounded just like John Fogerty. Then spot-on Eagles songs. A waiter informed me this trio is The Breets and they are from Morelia. The lead singer speaks Spanish with a Liverpool accent. Most of the patrons were just talking to each other and ignoring the show. I ordered a limonada con kiwi (delicious) and some tiramisu (ditto) and sat at a table under the gorgeous portico listening until I realized I'd better go home and get ready for my first day of school.
Escuela Baden-Powell is a five minute walk from my apartment. It's in an ancient masonry stucco building with beamed ceilings and huge hand-carved doors with massive black iron hinges and handles. Tile floors. I couldn't answer a single question on the placement exam, so I told them to just start me at the beginning. However, they assumed I wasn't completely clueless, and the first two instructors taught entirely in Spanish. To my surprise, I was able to follow them. There are three fifty minute lessons each morning taught by three excelente maestras, with 10 minutes between classes. Things are starting to make a little bit of sense and I can sort of put together a sentence, something that has always eluded me.
I have the beginner's classroom all to myself, which is great. There is only one other student, Ann, who is more advanced and spent a month at the school in February, and just came from other schools in Guanajuato and Oaxaca. So when I'm not monopolizing las maestras, they are with her. We have much in common. We are tall grey haired ladies, and she is a birder, a vegetarian and she worked in Tucson for several years in the '90s as an urban planner. Now she lives in Dallas.
Yesterday Ann and I went to lunch at the vegetarian restaurant I discovered on Saturday. Then she showed me a larger farmer's market, Mercado Independencia. It has everything, and we split a package of 10 papel picado (cut paper) flag banners with a Noche de los Muertos (Night of the Dead) theme. I also found a great plastic shopping bag with a zipper to take home things I can't live without, and a cute kitchen utensil that slices, dices and makes julienne fries for $1.25.
Today I was supposed to go to see Coco, a Disney movie about Day of the Dead that will open in Estados Unidos around Thanksgiving. Ann invited me to go with her home-stay host Lucy. Unfortunately, it was sold out on all three screens at the Cineplex. We will order tix online for next week.
We stopped at the living statue on the way back and I got a photo of Ann and Lucy.
Ann has been organizing a birding trip to the coast of Texas near Louisiana for 24 years. It has a changing cast of characters, and I am invited.
I can't believe this spectacular country is so close to home.
