Dias en Mexico

It's another beautiful day in San Miguel. Today is a national holiday, celebrating the birth of Benito Jaurez, the first “real” president Mexico. I think that means he was the first president after the revolution in the 1900's, and he is a national hero, but I'm not sure exactly why. I can hear the military band playing in the park (Parque Benito Jaurez) below the casa.

This morning, I woke up at my usual time, around 8:30. I was a bit grumpy, so I took myself up to the roof and did some yoga, and wrote my morning pages. I finished the notebook I began just before leaving Nanaimo; tomorrow morning I start a new one. Inevitably I feel happier and more positive after yoga, meditation and writing.

Patricia, who owns this casa, and her boygfriend Shayne, have gone away for a few days, and to save Leon, the gardener, the trouble of coming all the way into town, on the holdiay, just for this, I offered to feed the animals and give Vato his medication.

I then had a nice brunchy breakfast: coffee, toasted ham and cheese sandwich on sunflower bread, and a banana., followed by playing with the dogs for a bit. Allie has this baseball, which she has chewed to the perfect state of play: she has loosened a flap of leather, and this makes a great handle for shaking and such. It is much harder to get the ball from her to throw it, so it is mostly tug of war. It's sweet to see when Vato gets into the act, as he is so ancient, but he still loves to play. Vato is a bit of a flirt, too. He is somewhat lame, and limps around, but always with a happy expression on his face and a great interest in life, especially at meal times!

I've been thinking of having a shower, but I'm not committed yet.

Yesterday I went to the Mexican market, just down the hill from the Plaza Civica (the one with the huge statue of General Allende on horseback). This is an indoor market, with fruit and vegetable, flowers, and meat counters, and some clothing and accessories as well as food booths. I bought some groceries for the week, including: a pinapple, a jicama, some carrots, tomatoes, radishes, new potatoes, and a shopping bag to carry everything home in. I stopped in at the Buena Vida Bakery for bread, and then carried on down to the deli, for cheese and ham. I also got a few slices of bacon-yum!. Some mustard, mayo and bananas completed my shopping. I took a cab home, because my load was heavy. It is 20 pesos to take a cab anywhere in the city. And there are cabs, green and white, everywhere.

When I got home, I disinfected the produce, and made a funny potato salad, with bacon, sauteed red onion, radishes and jicama. With boiled eggs, it's a bit breakfasty, but as Raquel, our maid, said, “muy rico”. Very rich. Cultural differences are relative. I would not consider this dish rich by Canadian standards Sadly, the Pina was overripe, and I couldn't eat it.

In the evenings I often get together with a friend and hang out for a bit, but late I mostly end up in front of the computer, blog surfing, or in bed reading a good mystery story. Sometimes go out for a bite to eat, or sit in the Jardin and watch the action and talk with friends.

Most days I try to write a bit, and I usually go out to do this. And I'm learning some Spanish from a great book called Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish by Margarita Madrigal. This is a great book for learning the language, as she makes it really easy, and you can learn a lot in a very short period of time.

This is how the days pass. I'm trying not to schedule anything too demanding this week. Nancy upstairs asked me if I wanted to go to the Tuesday market this morning, but it's just too exhausting, to be out in the heat and the noise and the bustle. There are many, many distractions in this city, so I am trying to keep my time for the important things.

I am happy that I am here. It is a huge gift to be able to have a complete break from working. It's deeply restful. But I have brought myself with me, and so, many of my activities are similar to what they would be at home. There is simply a lot more ease.

This is how my days pass, in general. I've been posting mostly pictures for a while, and now here are some words. I'm here in San Miguel for another month and a half or so, maybe a bit longer, but plan to start heading North around the beginning of May. There are a couple things happening in Austin in mid-May ( a writing workshop and Charles' friend's church's men's group's brisket bar-be-cue), and then, back to the Island, briefly, before heading out to Ontario for the summer.

Beyond that is still a mystery. Stay tuned!