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: