El tiempo se fue y otras cosas

Here it is Friday, I've finished my first week of school, and have not had a spare moment or brain cell to post to this blog. Oaxaca has a way of immersing and enveloping you. There is always something going on, people to talk to, new foods and drinks to try, window shopping to do. The streets are full of auto and pedestrian traffic day and night, and it's noisy but in a friendly way.

I had to get used to the ubiquitous sound of cojetones--the kind of fireworks that are all noise and no light. When I was here during the Christmas season in 2008, I thought they were related to the various churches' fiestas for their Virgin Marys; but no, they seem to shoot them off all year long, just for the heck of it. Explosive prayers.

Spanish is reappearing from the recesses of my brain but I don't have enough RAM to simultaneously conjugate verbs in Spanish and retain all my English words. After several hours of talking in Spanish about the environment and learning new vocabulary, I couldn't remember how to say "garbage disposal" even in English!

Here is some vocabulary I learned out on the town:

• ¡Que padre! means "cool!"
• Bacardi, the rum, is pronounced with the accent on the last syllable--Bacar-DEE. Say it the US way and you might be served Vacárri, an anisette.
• La Red can mean: web, internet, fishing net, or a great and inexpensive seafood restaurant on Morelos street.
• Tiburón is shark, and can be found in your soup.

Tomorrow I am going on a daylong tour of pueblos in the mountains near here, and the archeological site Monte Albán. More about that later.

Hurricán Patricia meanwhile has made landfall near Manzanillo, and we are watching and hoping that people will be safe. We are well south of it and 5000 feet above sea level, so experiencing no more than intermittent rain.

Hasta luego, with some scenes from daily life.

sopa (soup) de flora de calabaza

cats that hang out at the Instituto