anika in mexico

I had planned to meet Megan at Starbucks at 11am, so after breakfast I headed over that way. We both arrived at the same time. We talked a bit about my plans for San Miguel, and she gave me some tips. I felt pumped up about my idea to go there. She says it’s a beautiful town with tons of art and I’m sure to love it!

Megan also mentioned that she was planning tomorrow to go to the orphanage that she visits every week, and asked if I might like to come along. I said that I’d love to, so we plan to meet tomorrow at her house at noon.

When she left Starbucks, I decided to spend some time on the internet trying to get a few things in order for my upcoming trip. I was just about to submit my registration form for the art classes I wanted to take at the Instituto Allende, when, right above the submit button, I saw the sentence: “you must submit this form 4 weeks before your intended start date.”

I immediately became annoyed and frustrated. Things have been falling through lately left and right, and this was yet another example. I thought, if this doesn’t work out to go and take a class there, I might just go home. I seriously considered it too. I even looked up flights for next week, and I found one for just about $120 on October 3rd.

But I tried not to get too carried away, and reasoned that I should call the school first thing when I got back home.

But first thing when I got home, Sigrid suggested that I get something to eat. I was a tad annoyed, but I soon felt much better after getting something in my stomach. My mood was leveled, and I was much better prepared to deal with everything. I called the school, and it was no problem at all. The woman I talked to was so friendly, and put me down for both of the art classes I wanted. She said that she’d keep an eye out for me on Monday.

What a relief. I get to go to San Miguel de Allende after all. Now I just have to figure out a hotel situation. I called the place that looked like the best deal, but didn’t get through, so I’ll try again tomorrow before I calling to another location.

After all the made up drama subsided, I took Sigrid to the grocery store.

Then I drove over to Karin’s because Teocrito is going to take my car and get everything fixed and get the verification done for me tomorrow. It took me almost an hour to get there. I only know one way to get to their house which involves a tricky left turn where 3 lanes turn into one immediately after the turn, so I just had to sit in the traffic at the light.

The way home took 5 minutes with Teocrito navigating.

I had supper with Sigrid, but then headed to bed.

I woke up at 10, but didn’t get up til 11. Today was supposed to be the day of cookies, but I feel like everything is just falling apart lately. I went downstairs to have breakfast and see what the plan was. Sigrid fussed over me a lot, refusing to let me have cereal when that’s what I said I wanted to eat. She remarked, “oh come on, that’s no breakfast.” So instead I had to eat eggs and toast. The eggs were kind of scary. They were hard boiled, but the “whites” were an odd gray blue color. The yolks were bright yellow, and it didn’t smell bad, so I went ahead and ate my 2 scary eggs, but I had to kind of not think about the odd coloring.

After breakfast Siggy called to try to figure out the deal for today. She mentioned that she was bringing her boyfriend, Santiago, and this really upset Sigrid. She said that she couldn’t possibly feed so many people for lunch, and if her boyfriend came we’d have to make something more special than what she’d already planned. She also said that making the cookies isn’t fun, it’s work.

Personally I don’t know why she’s so surprised. I was there when Siggy and Sigrid first decided that they would be starting the cookies this Saturday, specifically so that Santiago could also come and help. So now I’m just waiting for Siggy to come so we can work out exactly what is going to happen.

When Siggy stopped by, she brought two dresses over for me to try on. They are both very bright. The one from her is bright fuschia, and the one from her mom is bright fuschia and orange silk. Both were too tight toward the top once I tried to zip them. She and I are invited to a wedding today, and I guess she actually would like to go. It’s so funny because I briefly thought about bringing my black formal dress, but I really thought I wouldn’t need it. Now of course I wish it were here. *sigh*

I decided to go for a walk because it was decided that Siggy would come back after lunch to help make the cookie dough. I walked to the lake, around it once, and back. This took almost an hour, and when I returned it was a little after 2:30, the time that I’d said I’d return. All my aunt said to me was, “oh, you’re so late.” I didn’t really know what to respond to that, so I was like, “uh huh.” I wasn’t sorry so I didn’t apologize. As I walked into another room she said, “I was just joking, I wasn’t actually angry.” So I said back to her, “ok.” I personally don’t find that kind of joking very funny, especially when you can’t distinguish the difference by the tone of the person’s voice.

Then we had lunch. It was ok, but Sigrid is always making a fuss about what I eat. She told me to take all the potatoes. There were 3 largish pieces of potato left, and I’d only taken 2. Luckily she can’t see very well, so when she checked, she thought I had indeed taken all 3. Sigh. She has it in her head that I “always eat so much” which isn’t at all true. Sometimes I eat more, sometimes I eat less, but it’s like if I don’t eat enough to satisfy her tastes, she thinks something is wrong. Anyway, it’s just a minor frustration I’ve been dealing with.

After lunch I called Siggy about the dresses, and told her that they didn’t fit. She said she was going to call her friend and arrange some other options, and that she’d have her friend call me. I wasn’t sure when that might be, so I decided to lie down for a while, then I fell asleep. I woke up when Siggy did indeed return, at about 5:30.

The thing that annoys me most of all about days like today and yesterday when things just kind of fall through, is that it means a day wasted for me. I’m there, I’m on time, I’m waiting. I could have gone to the Bazaar de Sabado like I’ve been wanting to for the past few weeks. I could have actually gone and done something new. But instead, I sit and wait at home, expecting that at any minute things are going to get going, but they are always pushed back.

After Siggy finally arrived, I guess I snoozed for another 1/2 hour before I got up. By that time they were totally done with everything. Great. I waited all day for absolutely nothing.

To add insult to injury, we’re not going to the wedding after all. She has the most legitimate reason not to go–a father of one of her friend’s died today and she has to go to the funeral. Ok, these things happen. So I called Chucho who last night had invited me to see an friend’s band play tonight. Originally he’d offered to pick me up, but now the band’s car broke down, so he’s taking them and all their stuff to the show. There was some vague reference that another friend of ours is going, and he said that he’d message me with his phone number, but I’ve yet to receive a message from him. He finished our conversation saying that he’d call me in 2 hours. Great. I get to wait another 2 hours to see if anything is actually going to happen.

I decided to go to Starbucks, instead of just sitting around waiting for something. When Chucho finally got in touch with me, he said that he would pick me up, but I told him that afterall, I just didn’t want to go out.

I stayed at Starbucks until it closed. I was the last one there.

I drove home, and parked in front of the house for a while. I didn’t want to go inside yet. At home when I feel somewhat melancholy, I like to just drive around, maybe go somewhere remote and just sit by myself for a while.

But I’m in Mexico City, which is very different than the area where I live. Green-space is scarce, and somewhat scary at night. Not a place you want to hang out by yourself at night. But I wanted to be around plants for some reason.

Since I just wanted to go somewhere, without a specific destination in mind, I started driving. I remembered that Siggy had said that the lights at the Zocalo are great because it’s still decorated for the Independence day, so I headed down Reforma. As I came near the Angel statue I passed by an outdoor festival of plants and flowers. In full swing, even at 10:30 at night. I found my green space, even if it was the urban version!

After I’d meandered up and down the aisles a few times on either side of the street, I considered walking across the busy traffic circle to sit on the steps of the Angel of Victory statue, but instead I headed back to my car. I had in mind to continue down to the Zocalo, as was my original intent. Somewhere I must have missed a turn because I was suddenly in an area that I didn’t recognize at all. The neighborhoods were getting shabbier. The smells were getting worse. The trash was getting more plentiful. The puestos that were lining the streets were getting more and more ramshackle.

I didn’t immediately panic. I figured I’d just go back the way I came and follow the signs to the Zocalo, or to Lomas, or to Periferico, and that then I’d be ok. I saw a sign for the Zocalo, so I turned down the street. I felt somewhat smug at my Mexican street smarts, until I ran out of signs pointing me to the Zocalo. Again I was driving in unfamiliar territory. The first wave of panic washed over me, but I reasoned it back, and held it at bay for a while.

I saw a sign for Insurgentes, a familiar name that I sort of knew would eventually lead me to somewhere that I would recognize. But I guess I got on it in the wrong direction, if I got on it at all. Street signs in Mexico city can be scarce at times. The road suddenly turned into more of a highway with tunnels, 4 lanes, and exits to places I’d never even heard of. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just kept driving, hoping to eventually find a place to turn around, or find a place with a familiar name.

I was driving fast and getting hot with the panic that was taking full, firm control over my level headed reasoning.

Eventually I found a place with a familiar name. “Pyramides de Teotihuacan” which incidentally is waaaay outside of the city, and you need to go through several toll booths to get there. I was driving in the right lane, but I spotted a U-turn to the left, so I pulled a fancy/stupid maneuver to get to it just in time.

Headed back to the city, I felt a bit better. A bit less panicky. I saw a sign for Chapultepec and I felt even better. That’s right in my neighborhood! But my night wasn’t over. I wove in and out of local lanes and the highway, trying to figure out where exactly to go to get to the “Chapultepec” exit that several conflicting signs promised. I ended up in another quiet, not so savory and equally unfamiliar section of town. At this point I wasn’t even panicky, I was just pissed off. Pissed off at the crappy signage in the city, pissed off at other cars on the road, pissed of that it was night time and getting later all the time, pissed off that I was still so unfamiliar, even when theoretically so close to my neighborhood. So I made another U-turn, took a right down and unmarked lane, and suddenly, with no fan fare, no fireworks, no drum roll, I was back on Reforma in the direction of Lomas.

Sigh.

All the panic, all the hotness, all the frustration, all the desperation and pissed off feelings faded away in an instant. I knew where I was! I’d be home and in bed in a matter of minutes. And I was. Whenever I told anyone what I ended up doing that night, I just said, “oh, I went to Starbucks and worked on some stuff.” I figure what they don’t know won’t harm them, and I wouldn’t want to worry them unnecessarily.

I woke up somewhat late, around 10am. I ate breakfast with Sigrid, and then I cleaned up my room a bit. I left for a walk around 11:30 or so. I went 4 times around the lake, and was awarded with some minor blisters from the semi-new sandals I was wearing. It was an incredibly beautiful day. There are some murmurings that the rainy season might be at its end. I sure hope that’s true because I could really get used to these mild yet very sunny days.

I went to Starbucks and chatted with some friends online and worked on my journals. I got back late–at 3:30 for the family dinner. Everyone was already finished their soup and enjoying some sopes. I explained that I’d lost track of time, and was very sorry. Their response, “ah don’t worry, just means you’re becoming Mexican!”

After dinner I got ready for Liza and Pollo’s birthday party. They just started dating a month or so ago and they have the same birthday. How cute.

Chucho said he’d pick me up at 4:30, but for one reason or another, he finally showed up at 6:30. We headed down toward the south to Liza’s house. We turned off the main road onto streets that were paved with stone, and not very well maintained. Chucho’s poor car had a tough time with it, but we eventually made it to our destination.

The boys went to go get some chelas (beers) and cigarettes (I’m still so amazed about how many people here smoke. I’d say at least 80-90% of the people at the party were smoking). I stayed and chatted with Liza and her friend Elsa. They were both really nice and easy to talk to; something that I’ve found can be rather rare here.

For example, later in the evening I was playing billiards with an architect named Julian, and I won! He got one of his friends to play with me, and the guy was totally kicking my butt. He was solids, and very soon the table looked very stripey. One of his friends (a girl named Andi) came over to him and asked if he was the one winning. When he said yes, she was like “oh good” and made it known that she’d play the next game. I thought, well maybe she’s just happy for her friend and also would like to play. On his last shot, going for the 8 ball in the corner pocket, not only did he miss, he also scratched, so I automatically won.

I looked at the girl who appeared a little surprised and stunned that her friend had suddenly lost. As I was getting all the balls back on the table, assuming that she and I would play next, she quickly made herself scarce. At first I didn’t believe what seemed to be happening. But then all her friends also avoided eye contact, and I realized I was without another player. I’d love to write about only great experiences that I have here in Mexico, but the truth is, sometimes things aren’t so great. Sometimes they are shitty. Well this made me feel pretty shitty. Embarrassed, finding myself rejected by these people, I slinked off into the other room where my “friends” were.

Not to say that the night was all bad. At one point earlier on in the night, I was on a couch in the sitting room, surrounded by people having lively conversations, feeling the isolation of my own private little island of “i only really speak english”. As I sipped my vodka tonic, I fell deeper and deeper into my self pity. I really thought that if someone would ask me if I was ok, I’d start crying. I thought about going to the bathroom to compose myself, but I was stuck. I didn’t want to move, didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to sit and feel sad.

Well, I guess this one girl noticed that I was just kind of sitting staring off into space, so she came over and said, “que divertido, eh?” and we both laughed. I thought she was very brave for coming over, admitting that her English wasn’t that good. Then of course we continued to have a conversation together in near perfect English. Ha. After a while she got tired, so we switched to Spanish. It was fun, and she was really nice and interesting to talk to.

After that I went over to refresh my drink, and that’s when I first met Julian. We actually talked mostly in Spanish. Just a few words that I didn’t know I’d say in English, and sometimes he’d re-explain something in English when I hadn’t quite caught the Spanish version. After a while I sensed he was getting a little bored with our conversation (I do speak rather slowly and simply I suppose), so he suggested that we play billiards. We all know how that turned out, but even so, it was nice to talk to someone new for a while.

After the billiards incident, I ate some more tacos. All in all I had 6 tacos that night, which is really a lot, but they were really good.

Chucho and I left at around 3:30 and he dropped me off by 4am. He said that he’s going to pick me up at 9pm to go see his friend’s band play. I told him, we’ll see.

Today was my first day with no class! Unfortunately it didn’t really go as expected. I woke up at 10am, showered, and then had breakfast with Sigrid. Afterwards she asked me if I’d take her to buy an ingredient at a specialty store in Polanco so she could finish a batch of cookies. I of course said I would, but that I had a lunch date with Siggy. Well, for one reason or another, she wasn’t ready to go until after 1pm. I was nervous about missing lunch with Sigs, and since Teocrito had stopped by for a visit, we asked if he could take her.

He agreed, so I went back upstairs to confirm the time to meet with Siggy. Then it became clear she didn’t really have time to meet up, and I didn’t want to push it since she’s been really busy and stressed lately. So instead, I thought I’d take some photos of my patterns that I’ve done recently so that I can write some journal posts about them. I was in the middle of downloading them to my computer when Sigrid returned. She was surprised to see that I was still around, but said that we were going to Karin’s for lunch. Greeeat. I suppose I could have refused, but I suppose I was also a bit hungry.

So we went over to Karin’s and actually had a really nice lunch of cauliflower and twice baked potatoes with coffee afterwards. She invited me to go to Tai Chi again, but I’d heard of plans to meet up for drinks to celebrate Pollo’s birthday which is today. Chucho was going to call me to confirm.

I drove us back home, and Sigrid was expecting a guest, so I headed over to Starbucks. to work on my photo and journal stuff. Chucho called me to tell me that the plans were off.

Ah well, so much for making the most of my day. I’ll have to think of something interesting to do for tomorrow.

We had another meet and greet conversation in my Spanish class. It was with another level one class, and it was conducted entirely in English. It was kind of funny because one of the guys in the class is from New Zealand, and as near as I can tell he’s an artist, but he introduced himself as an alchemist, and my eyes glazed over a bit. He was totally loopy in that very artsy way, and very funny to listen too. When we were talking about what kind of transportation we preferred (I said driving was fun here, and everyone laughed), the New Zealand artist guy said that he absolutely loved the Metro because it is truly beautiful because you can see “real” Mexicans. How delightfully pretentious, and yet fully committed his ideas was he.

The other guy is from Australia and works for the World Bank, and seemed genuinely interested in practicing his Spanish, but the New Zealand guy would complain that he couldn’t understand what we were saying everytime we spoke in Spanish.

The professor of their class liked to talk about tacos and made a lot of poop jokes about the effects of chile on one’s system.

The whole thing was totally random, yet highly entertaining.

I think my up-tight, by-the-book professor was more than a little flustered, and as we left she said, “well, at least you got to know another part of the campus.” Ha.

The rest of class went by ok, if not very quickly. I talked a lot which is what I prefer.

After class it was a beautiful, sunny day, so I decided to go right to the Chapultepec park to go for a walk. I parked and started walking, and not 5 minutes later I saw Siggy’s car driving by, and she parked nearby. She had swung by my house to see if I had wanted to come to the park with her for a walk. She had her roller blades, and while she kept me on my toes, we were able to stick together for our walk/roll.

Peluches was with her too, and he is kind of dumb we decided. He can’t hear or see very well, but insists on wandering around all over the place, not caring if he gets lost. He’ll get a little panicky if he doesn’t see you, but the moment he sees you he feels secure, and then turns right around and wanders off in the other direction again.

We had a good time and after the first lap we stopped and got a fresh juice and a small fruit plate from the stand on the circuit. It was really good and the owner realized I was not from Mexico, so he practiced his English a bit while I practiced my Spanish. He lived in California for 8 years and was familiar with San Francisco as well as Southern California.

We did one more lap together before Siggy went to meet a friend for lunch. I did yet another lap around the lake, then drove home.

I had a simple, but really great lunch with Sigrid. Some kind of thin meat with noodles and beet salad. Just perfect.

Afterwards I headed over to Starbucks to catch up with this here journal, and catch up with some email too.

I’m going to predict that I’ll go home, have supper and then do my homework and/or draw or get some more photos ready to upload, so I can post this journal entry early and not wait til tomorrow. I wonder if I’ll be right, or if I’ll have more to add.

Class was agonizing today. I didn’t want to do anything. Didn’t want to learn, didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to listen, didn’t wanted to check homework. Nothing. Se la vie. It was over soon enough I suppose, then I went over to Starbucks and checked email and so forth.

I had lunch with Sigrid and Siggy which was nice.

After lunch I worked on some patterns and eventually Siggy told me that her mom would pick me up to go to a the concert. I didn’t have an idea about when, so I just kept on working on my pattern, assuming I’d find out one way or another. Eventually Karin came in and asked, “shall we go?” I got ready in less than 10 minutes, but still looked rather sharp.

We met up with Pancho and Carlos, and we all went to a concert of Mexican music played by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the UNAM. It was really amazing. The concert hall itself was incredible. It was designed specifically and only for music performances. No dance, no theatre, just music. The acoustics were near perfect, and it was beautiful to boot.

For the concert itself, there was a guest pianist who was as mesmerizing to watch as to listen to. The audience kept on with the applause and he completed no less than 3 encores.

The second part of the concert was dedicated to contemporary Mexican composers. All 3 composers were present, and I particularly enjoyed the first and last of the three songs. The first was called “Pacifico” and it really captured perfectly the essence of the Pacific Ocean in music form. It was enchanting. The last was a fun Dance song with a lively beat that was just fun to listen to. Of course at the end of the concert, there was yet more standing applause, and at least 2 more encores. It was a long night of great music.

Afterwards we all headed over to a place that makes churros right near the restaurant where I had the crepas with Sigrid for lunch just the day before. This place wasn’t nearly as classy, and service wasn’t that great, but the churros were crispy and sweet, and the hot cocoa was good. I particularly liked dipping the churros into the hot chocolate as is customary. Afterwards we headed back home, and I was asleep a bit after midnight.

No school today! I took the day off in order to attend Siggy’s talk at a Conference at the UNAM. Her talk began at 8am though, so she picked me up at 6:45am to give us plenty of time to get there. It was eeeearly, but it was still better than going to class.

We picked up Saskia and also Pancho who was vital to the plan because none of us girls had the faintest idea of how to get to the lecture hall where the conference was, but Pancho is very familiar with the campus, so he directed us, and we got there with no problem. We even somehow managed to get into the student parking lot with the help of a little sweet talk from Siggy to the parking attendant.

Chucho met up with us. We all walked to the hall, and soon were established in our seats. We had to wait just a few minutes before Siggy’s talk started. I understood probably 60-70% of what she said. I understood the gist of all her points, but missed a lot of the details. Still, pretty good I thought. Her speech was on the science of love–how the reaction in the body when one is in love is like the same effect that hard drugs have on your system, and so it sets up a dependence on the feeling of love, and it’s why everyone is looking for the next fix. Very interesting indeed.

After the talk, we met up with Siggy’s boyfriend who unfortunately missed the speech since he didn’t have the help of Pancho’s navigation and instead had been driving in circles for a half hour (the campus of UNAM is really like a maze, and a lot of it looks the same). We all went to the Arollyo for a nice long breakfast. We ate so much. I tried a lot of the things that were offered in the buffet. I had a couple of blue corn sopes, pozole (a delicious soup with the corn that pops when it’s boiled that you also add a bunch of fun stuff to like lettuce, radish, lime and spices, to suit your taste), an assortment of meats in various sauces (all spicy, and I liked most of them. the only one I didn’t actually eat was the dark mole ((mole is a type of sauce, not a small mamal. pronounced “mo-leh”)) because the meat looked suspiciously like a pig’s ear), fresh-squeezed orange juice with some carrot juice, 3 tepid cafe americanos (rather disappointing indeed), and juevos revueltos con jamon y queso (scrambled eggs with ham and cheese) which may have been the best eggs I’ve had since I’ve been in Mexico (aside from the ones we cooked on the plantain leaves). The ham and cheese made it extra yummy.

After we finally finished eating, we all were allowed access to the area where they have the adjoining ring for bull fights which occur every Sunday. It’s a very touristy location, but it is very festive overall, and I had a lot of fun looking around.

After the restaurant, it was already late when we got back to Saskia’s. She ran up and got her school books, and then we all (me Saskia and Chucho) went to Santa Fe and had a coffee. Saskia’s friend showed up and they went to have lunch together. Chucho and I didn’t really have a destination in mind, but we headed back in the direction of my house, and ended up in Polanco.

We parked near a big cathedral and went in to look around. It was an interesting mix of old and modern styles. Definitely very grand.

We walked around Polanco a bit, and eventually decided to get something to eat. We ended up at a place that serves delicious pastas for very reasonable prices. They start at $48 pesos which is less than $5 USD, but it doesn’t taste like $5 pasta. I had the spinach raviolis and they were soooo good. We also got a carafe of the house red wine, which Chucho informed me doesn’t count as alchol because wine is food. Heh. Whatever you have to tell yourself.

But it was nice, and I counseled Chucho on his girl problems. I doubt he took my advice, but that’s probably not the point anyway. I think he just needed a neutral ear to hear his story and offer sympathy.

At one point while we were sitting enjoying our wine, I got a text message from Siggy: “Concierto Joss Stone hoy. Alguien Quiere?” My response, “me, me, me!!” So we some how managed to all meetup (the traffic was the worst that they’d seen in a long time. It took Saskia and Siggy 3 hours to get back from school–usually a 20 minute drive). We went to Salon 21 where the concert was already underway by the time we arrived, but we still got to see Joss Stone perform a bunch of songs. She’s got quite an amazing voice, and a fun stage presence. There was one girl in the crow who had bright red, long, curly hair. I wonder how disappointed she was to see that Joss’s hair had changed and was now dark brown with chunky purple and blue pieces.

After the concert I was pretty tired, and luckily just had to drive Saskia back to her house before I could go home. Unfortunately I still had Chucho with me (he’d left his car at my house), and he still wanted to talk. Not that we didn’t discuss some interesting things, just that I was so tired already. As it was, I didn’t get to sleep until 1:30, and I so my homework stayed unfinished.

I admit that I’m writing this entry about a week after the date (as I did for the last two entries as well!). I don’t remember too much that happened this day, which leads me to believe it wasn’t terribly eventful. What I do remember is that in class we had “guests” from next door. Three students in level one Spanish. One from Germany, one from S. Korea, and one from China. We talked about basic things like where they are from, what they do for a living, why they are in Mexico, and what they like about Mexico, and what kinds of foods they like/have tried here.

I was a little bored, but it was a nice change of pace, and the rest of class went by quickly.

The rest of the day is a bit fuzzy. It’s likely that I went to Starbucks to check my email, but it’s also likely that I went back home and slept or something since it had been a busy weekend.

I told my professor that I’d left even earlier than the day before, but that I still arrived late. That wasn’t entirely true. I left later, but it still took a long time, though not as long as Monday. Maybe 40 minutes total. I was only 5-8 minutes late for class depending on the clock I checked, but my professor wasn’t there. So I pulled out my laptop and surfed the web a bit. 20 minutes later I was calculating how much time I’d let pass before I left. I decided I’d wait until 10:30. I had the internet to entertain me after all.

But I didn’t have to wait that long. One of the secretaries, who saw me enter the classroom as I walk right by her desk to get to the room, came in and talked to me in fast Spanish. I got the gist that she didn’t want me in that room, but I was more than a little confused overall. Finally she communicated that I was supposed to leave this room and go to another one. I told her that I didn’t know which one, and she told me she’d show me.

So I followed her across the hallway to another room, a mirror image to the one I’d been in, and saw my professor sitting there calmly. She assumed I was just arriving, and had bad luck with traffic. I said that I’d been a little late, but that I’d been waiting for a good 20 minutes. She was rather dismayed to hear that. We were both perplexed about why they secretaries would have let me go in the room in the first place.

She agreed to tack on an extra 20 minutes to class on Thursday to make up for the time. Great. I get an extra long class. Just what I really wanted.

Class went by slowly. My head’s still stuffy and fuzzy so when it came to the conversation part of the class, I literally couldn’t think of anything to say. Even the simplest terms were buried somewhere deep inside. I struggled to talk about my trip to the supermarket and all the things I bought. Not very enlightening conversation to say the least. Mercifully she agreed to stop the conversation and instead do some more activities in the book.

I’m starting to admit to myself that I don’t really like my professor. She’s too serious, too formal, and she doesn’t speak English which is frustrating when I ask her how to say something in Spanish, telling her the English word. She gets the same panicky look on her face that I must get when I’m confronted without warning with a question in Spanish, especially one that I don’t understand.

Today I didn’t know the word for “habit” in Spanish, so I asked her, “como se dice ‘habit’ en espanol. Blank panic looked back at me. She admitted she didn’t know what I was even saying. So I describe circuitously, “una cosa que se hace muchos veces y no es facil a pararse.” “Ah!” she responded. “Un habito!” (pronounced “ah-bee-toh) “no entendi la pronuncion.” Der. Habit, habito. Doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to remember. And how can you be that thrown off by the pronunciation of something? Anyway, that’s how it goes everytime I ask the translation of any word from English to Spanish. She just kind of flounders around a bit, and sometimes comes up with the answer.

After class I went right to Starbucks to meet Megan for coffee. After the struggle through the desert that is my class, talking with Megan was a much needed oasis. I haven’t had such an interesting, fast-paced conversation with someone in a long time. Now that I think about it, I probably talked most of the time, but I needed to speak freely and fluently for once. I didn’t have to alter my pace or over enunciate, either in Spanish or in English, to make myself understood. I didn’t have to simplify ideas, or circuitously describe a simple term because of my limited Spanish vocabulary. It was really fun. Megan and I get along well, and we both have interesting things to say, plus we can relate to each other in a way that I haven’t been able to with anyone else I’ve met here yet.

After a couple of hours Megan headed out, but I stayed behind to catch up with internet things and to learn some more PHP.

I headed home at 4pm. I told Sigrid that I’d not be around for lunch, so I had all the time in the afternoon that I wanted. Still by 4 I was hungry and tired of computing, so I went home to get something to eat and to do something different.

I made myself a sandwich with salami, cheese, tomato, and mustard. It was really good. Afterwards I ate one piece of orange chocolate that Sigrid had bought me.

I spent the afternoon/evening finishing up the pattern I’d started yesterday and doing my homework. My professor only gave me a few pages to do. I think she had sympathy for my stuffiness.

I ate dinner with Sigrid. When I went to join her in her little sitting room she was listening to Heino. I walked in and exclaimed, “Heino!” A look of utter bewilderment struck her face. “How could you possibly know Heino?” she asked. I told her that my mom was a fan because they used to listen to Heino a lot in Germany (go figure). She was then equally surprised that my mom would like Heino. She kept remarking how amazed she was by the fact all throughout dinner.

We ate hotdogs. She bought the hotdogs specifically because she was sure that I would love to eat hotdogs. At times I really do enjoy a good hotdog, and these were pretty good ones. Reina put good toppings on them too–onion, tomato, pickles and mustard. I’m amused by the things Sigrid is sure I will like, and the stuff that she thinks I don’t like. If she could only truly understand that I’ll pretty much eat any food made for me, and be very happy with it! If only life were always that easy!

But yes, the hot dog was good. I liked it a lot.

Listened to a bit more German folk music after dinner. This time it was some other guy I’d never heard of (probably the reaction she would have expected for Heino). She had fun playing her favorite songs for me on the CD, singing along with gusto to each one, and saying “listen, listen, this is really so great” before the start of the chorus.

After a few songs we were both ready for bed. German folk music will do that to you.

Monday again. It took me one hour to get to school. I think I was maybe 10 minutes late to class. It took me about 40 minutes just to get out of my neighborhood–a drive that usually is about 3 minutes.

I decided not to fret about it though, so I was pretty calm when I arrived at school, even when my professor bluntly asked, me “que paso?” without much sympathy.

Class crawled by as slowly as ever. Afterwards I again went to the bank, and was again confronted with an out-of-service atm. I didn’t even bother to stand in the somewhat long line to deposit the money that I’d withdrawn at the Supermarket.

Instead I went to Starbucks before lunch.

I got home in time to see Anne again before she left for Cancun. I’d heard earlier that day that another hurricane was brewing which she was dismayed to learn.

All her camera SD cards were full, and she asked me if she could transfer them to her memory sticks using my computer. I helped her out of course.

Then I went downstairs to have a very german meal with Sigrid. Weisswurst with mashed potatoes and green beans. It was very good. For dessert we got a whole bowl FULL of raspberries. That’s my favorite way to eat raspberries–just the unadultered fruit.

Afterwards I went upstairs to work on a pattern that I’d started and was eager to finish. I didn’t entirely complete it, but I got the first color done. I then went to read to Sigrid from our book. We also had some tea and cookies, and then I continued to read a bit until we were suddenly interrupted by Sigrid’s friend Lolita who had stopped by. She’s very german and when I offered her the chair I was sitting in since it was the most comfortable, she said, “yeah, that’s my chair.” A ha. I decided to return to my room rather than hang out.

After Lolita left, I took Sigrid to the supermarket again. This time she also wanted me to put anything I wanted in the cart. The only concession I made was to get a couple of pan dulces which are really good from that store.

When we got home, I went to my room and I got to finish the pattern I’d started yesterday. Then I started on another one that I got half-finished. I wanted to complete it, but I still had my homework to do, and I noticed it was 11:30. I blew through my homework carelessly and as quickly as possible and was done in an hour, then to bed.