For Valentine's Day Roxy, Sean, and I went to Guanajuato. We had decided to go because the day worked for us, but it turns out that being there for Valentine's was a GREAT choice. There was so much happening in the city. I'm pretty certain that anybody in the general area who had a Valentine went to the center of town to show off the present they received. There were markets set up selling all types of V-Day items. Flowers, balloons, and candy everywhere.

The city itself is beautiful. It's about an hour and a half from San Miguel by bus. We had a short checklist of things we wanted to see and first on my list was the Diego Rivera museum. I was so excited to see it that we had the taxi from the bus station drop us off directly there. Things were going well until I stepped out of the car and ended up face to face with a closed sign. Definitely a disappointment. I guess there's always next time. We did a good job of finding great things to do all day, so it ended in success.

Teatro Juarez:

Aaand the stuff just to the right of Teatro Juarez:

These are just a few of the many stairs up to the museum of mummies. The museum itself was a little strange. It boasts the world's smallest mummy, a really tiny baby who is propped up next to his or her mother, whose crudely stitched up stomach suggests that she died and they tried to save the baby. Not sure if that's exactly what happened, but a really sad thing to see.

We took a blind stab at heading up to something titled "mina" on the tourist map. We assumed that would be one of the mines that Guanajuato is famous for. Could have ended really badly but it ended up being one of the best parts of the day. We had a beautiful view over the entire city and it felt pretty nice to be up in the quiet after a long day navigating crowds and dodging balloons.

We were going to have a bit of a wait at the bus station before returning home so we picked up a deck of cards before heading there. Turns out they were for a specific game, and certainly not one what I know. Instead of the regular suits they had coins, goblets, swords, and clubs (like what cavemen have). Instead of the Jack, Queen, King combo they had three royal men of various ages for the 10, 11, and 12 cards, no 13. The numbers 8 and 9 were skipped, too. We should have looked harder at the box the cards came in, because it said count: 40 pieces. The three of us had been spending a lot of time playing hearts and rummy so we decided we could make it work with hearts, but it was tough. Definitely not a good 3 dollar purchase.

On Saturday my sister Roxy and her boyfriend Sean arrived. They booked tickets to come visit me in December so we've all been looking forward to this for a long time. It's been so much fun to prepare for them coming- I've been making lists of the things we can do since the first night I got here. San Miguel is so much fun to walk around in; the streets are filled with interesting things and if it weren't for the ever-present danger of stepping in a huge hole in the sidewalk I would never look down while walking. Right after the house tour when they arrived "Really?? This is where you live?" we headed out to grab some lunch (Lebanese food down the street- delicious baklava) and mosey around for a while. Seeing Roxy and Sean walk around in awe reminded me of what a great place this is.

The colonial style buildings add an interesting spin to seeing the sights- the streets are all lined with walls that have various sized doors and windows and so you have to stare straight in the door right as you walk by to see what's inside. This is made much more difficult by the previously mentioned gaping holes in the sidewalks. A door, when open, might lead to a huge courtyard filled with little shops and cafes or it might lead into a tiny pharmacy- you never know until you catch it at the right time. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to when businesses here will be open. Team R&S will agree with me on that one. A lot of shops don't have signs permanently posted outside either, a lot of the time they just hang a sign up on the opened door. All this gives the town a feeling that things are ever-shifting. Streets are different every time you walk past. It reminds me a lot of Harry Potter with the magical shops that you can only see if you are tuned in enough.

Although I have a good handle on where things are in the town, I've become REALLY aware that I don't actually know where anything is specifically. I can lead Rox and Sean somewhere but if I have to give directions it goes something like this: "Turn right on Relox and go a few blocks... the tortilla shop is going to be on your left somewhere along the way. You'll hear the whirring of the machine when you go past the door. There are always three men inside and a lot of tortillas. If you hit Calzada de le Luz you've gone to far." No joke. But it's because that's how I find things too. There are very few permanent landmarks you can use. To find the movie theater we're going to tonight (something I've been to three times already and walk past at least twice a day) I just have to see if there's an open door on my left while walking up Hernandez Macias before I hit Umaran. Nothing more tangible than that. If you don't see the inside of the theater somewhere along that block it means it isn't open. Come back later. No, there are not posted hours. No sign outside either. Nice try.

We went home and played a round of Acquire, the current family obsession before the tired travelers went to bed. Acquire has really taken the Dunbar/Raab/Reids by storm this winter. The fact that both Team Mama-Grandma and Team Rox-Sean lugged the game to Mexico tells you how we feel about it.


The next morning we ran into a little trouble trying to find a place that was open for breakfast. We followed our noses to a delightful pastry shop that I have always admired when I walk by but somehow have never gone into. I think I knew it would be trouble. We ordered three scones and two slices of cake. Cake for breakfast is something along the lines of a family tradition for us. This cafe (the Petite Four for anyone looking for the recommendation) is one of those really rare pastry shops that makes beautiful AND delicious sweets. I can tend to be a snob about sweets and I get really annoyed with pastries that look pretty but don't taste good. We have returned to the Petite Four multiple times since that morning. Our cake of choice was the heart-shaped raspberry one on the bottom shelf:


Yes, that is lined with white chocolate. It was good. Really good.

For dinner our second night we went to the spectacular Dila's restaurant, which is famous for it's huge margaritas and blow-your-mind delicious food and center of my mother's reasons for starting a "return to San Miguel" fund.


After slurping the last of our margaritas and repeatedly thanking the restaurant staff for such a wonderful experience, we followed the noise of loud music to the Jardin, the town center, where there was a concert going on. Maybe it was in honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day, or maybe they set up the concert because Sanmiguelenses (and I think Mexicans in general) love to dance. The crowd was huge but we easily wiggled our way to a good spot. We arrived in between songs so I was pleasantly surprised when the music started again to see the sea of people start moving in waves of dance. Partners made up of fathers and daughters, grandmothers and grandsons, and couples of all ages danced and sang along to the music. The performers brought up a bunch of people from the audience for a dance contest. A woman who was probably in her late 70s won. All this was happening beneath the San Miguel Parroquia (read: big, beautiful church) lit up against the night sky above us.


Walking home we passed the street vendors in the Jardin that sell these 4-foot long blow up crayon-shaped things filled with air. I've never seen them before coming here and I really, really wish they were around when I was a kid. Since first seeing them I always jealously watch kids play with them from afar. They're made of really thin mylar (like the big silver birthday balloons but more delicate) so they don't have much weight to them. One end is slightly rounded and the other is tapered, so you can bounce the rounded end on the ground and it shoots up unexpectedly high in the air then floats down. They seem to defy gravity and when you add in wind they turn out to be worth their lifespan in fun. It's a shame they don't last longer, but what can you expect from something that has a tendency to float into oncoming traffic. As the three of us were leaving the concert we passed a bunch of families that had kids playing with the mylar rockets. Sean did a really good job of knowing that even though I was saying that I didn't really want one that I actually did, so he talked me into getting Roxy (the only one with change) to fork out the 2 dollars we needed. I was really excited about it.


It's very possible that the reason these haven't (as far as I know) been imported into the US is because they basically wreak havoc on any family foolish enough to buy them for their children. We saw a mom, holding an infant, who was patiently walking away from her son as he whopped her on the head with the rocket/sword. Sean and I played like kids with our new toy until it finally deflated enough that it didn't really work anymore. One of us would go upwind and throw or bounce it into the air for the other who would have to run around to catch it. That's really all there was to the game, but it entertained us for probably a half hour. We were a total spectacle. It was a good community bonding experience, too. We sent our toy sailing into lots of groups of people, including some passing police, who laughed at me more than my joke when I tried to tell them in Spanish that they got the points for that round.

So I have officially survived three days of living solo in Mexico. I feel (mostly) okay with being here alone, but I am really excited for when B and M's neighbor, Mary, comes on Friday. It will be great to have someone else in the house. I'll be staying in the upstairs part, she'll be downstairs. I feel pretty safe in my little fortress, maybe it's the reassurance that all the walls are topped with shards of glass that protect me from potential bad guys.


I found out this weekend that the glass daggers, however, don't protect me from scorpions. Scorpions are fairly uncommon to see here, they're definitely around but reclusive enough that people usually only find them while moving wood piles or something like that. Apparently you usually only see them in a house when their hiding place has been disturbed and they're looking for a new one. Bruce was messing around in a closet that hasn't been opened in a while, and a few hours later Marsha found one near her bed upstairs. We all decided that it was just a single occurrence and nothing to worry about ...until a little bit later I found a second one right by my bedroom. I slept on the couch that night (somehow downstairs seemed way safer than up) with visions of a disturbed nest of scorpions that had gone searching for new hiding places in the house... such as my pillowcase or my shoe. I don't really mind living in the same house as insects and other creepy crawlies when they have their own living spaces (dark unused crevasses- the kind they only leave to kill cockroaches) and I have mine (the rest of the house). It's when something that is specifically engineered to punish me for accidentally stepping on it starts wandering around in my walking territory that I begin having problems. The story ends well, though. I talked to my Spanish teacher (first thing) when I got to class the next morning and she said that scorpions live in pairs so it's always best to see two if you see one. If people find only one scorpion they get worried because they know that it's mate is going to be searching around and maybe fall underfoot in the process. Finding two scorpions meant I was sittin' pretty, not that I had a nest of disturbed little stingers checking out the real estate market upstairs.

I like the idea that scorpions (like quail!) live in pairs for life, add that to their list of endearing qualities. Well, they kinda mate for life. When the female gets pregnant the male leaves (a good choice- he knows what's about to happen) and immediately after she gives birth her babies eat her. I guess you could add that to the list of why I'm glad I'm not a scorpion.

The week has been busy so far, I made fast friends with a Swiss woman, Susanne, at my school on Monday and we went out for drinks after our tour of the beautiful Santuario de Jesus Nazareno in Atotonilco. The church is a World Heritage Site because of its intricate murals and definitely something to check out... you know, if you're ever in the area. Susanne is a great person to spend time with because she is always willing to practice Spanish. I'm fairly certain she knows at least 6 languages well enough to get by in their respective countries and although she speaks English, there is less of a draw to get lazy and fall into speaking it with her. Also, she's a giggler, which I always like.

The worn wooden doorway into the church:

Today after class, my friend, Maria Elena, and I went to the Tuesday Market, Tianguis de Martes. She has been to San Miguel six times and really knows her way around. She's full of good advice and always makes a point to share information with me. She's also one of those great people who will surprise you with casual stories about things like the two months she spent leading New York high schoolers from rough backgrounds around India on an all expenses paid (for everybody) trip. No big deal. The two of us navigated our way through the sprawling market, picking through assortments of any and all items that could be sold from stands. Pirated DVDs and video games, childrens toys, new and used clothing, chicken feet, party poppers, musical instruments, produce, cheap cell phone chargers (great for me, I was really overdue in replacing my broken one. The process to get it to charge my phone required two rubber bands and only worked a third of the time), all kinds of food vendors, and a random, seemingly endless supply of blender parts. ANYTHING. My favorites were the stands that sold a haphazard selection of things that maybe had been in surplus at some point, somewhere, and had found there way to the Tuesday Market: plug adaptors, a children's games, porn, old car parts, songbirds, vegetables, and maybe 7 identical paintings of an iguana all on one table.

Candy! Strawberries! Produce! Watches!

The stands are all set up underneath high tarps that are strung up for the occasion. I think it's a really impressive feat to have everything so well protected from the sun- the market is HUGE. This week has been especially windy in San Miguel, and periodically when a big gust came you could watch the wave of the tarps flow through the market, arcing up then down, knocking over a few items and smacking people in the head.

A little note for my parents: If it's hard to see what's going on in a picture, like the above two, you can click on it and a window will pop up with a larger image.

I hear different things from everybody regarding what food is safe to eat here and what isn't. Ask any cab driver and they'll earnestly tell you that every restaurant and food stand is absolutely safe to eat at. Ask almost any foreigner and he or she will tell you that they only eat at the high quality (expensive) food places or that they hear through the gringo rumor mill which places are safe. I'm not really sure who gets to be on the underground panel of foreign food testers that whisper their results through the high society of San Miguel, but I'm going to start doing my own research. I can't help but think that I would be missing a huge part of Mexico if I didn't regularly eat at Mexican food stands that the Mexicans go to. I think I'm reasonably safe eating food that's been cooked, my problem is that I really have a hard time resisting fresh salsa or chopped tomatoes and avocados, and I'm willing to suffer the consequences. I can remember all too clearly Megan Martin's problems (and both subsequent IVs at the hospital) in Peru that undoubtedly resulted from all the delicious food at the street vendors, but that doesn't really stop me. I don't even think that stopped her after she got out of the hospital. I'm not naive enough to think that I won't be changing my ways if I find out this current plan doesn't work, I guess I'm just one of those people who has to learn their lessons the hard way. I'm sure there will be further updates on this topic.

I feel compelled to say that I have been blown away by the avocados here. I didn't know they could be so delicious. They're damn cheap, too. In case anybody has been on the fence about visiting me here (the window of February 19 through March 15 is wiiide open, FYI), just consider the avocados. Ohhh, and fresh tortillas. Ohhh man they're good. I'm not really the type to eat a plain tortilla, but I usually find that I have a few less than I started with when I return from my favorite shop. In case any potential visitors are held back by the steep price of a plane ticket down to Mexico, let me add that it's 5 or 6 pesos for a half kilo of just-made warm tortillas (literally hot off the press), which will feed me for a week, and 10 pesos is roughly 80 cents. Juuust saying.

My language abilities are definitely getting better. I had two strangers today tell me my Spanish was very good. I should confess they both had ulterior motives, as one was trying to butter me up in the hopes of convincing me to buy some of the rainbow-colored Sharpies he was selling and the other, a cab driver, was smart enough to know that saying sweet nothings about my Spanish would probably result in a bigger tip. Even if it is a huge stretch of the truth, it's encouraging to hear someone say that. I certainly am not very good at Spanish yet. The list of basic words that I'm constantly discovering I don't know is, well, ever expanding. I am also pretty sure that I'll never be able to understand what native speakers say while talking to each other, but I'm progressing, and that's the point.

Here's a picture of my dinner tonight. I took it with the little camera on my computer so it's fuzzy, but I think you get the point: