18 February 2009

An update from our weekend in Guanajuato; a language ramble; and photos of Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Guanajuato, and San Miguel de Allende

On Valentine's day, we went to Guanajuato with Joanne and Silvia (other students in our program). We got up absurdly early on Saturday to meet up at 5:30 and catch a taxi. When we walked into the dining room, Silvia (host mom) had left us bowls, cereal, and bananas all laid out very sweetly to make sure we ate before leaving! We're kind of spoiled here...

We walked towards the center to meet our travel partners, caught a taxi, and headed off to the bus station where we purchased tickets with ETN, the fancy-schmanzy bus that has headphones (so that you don't HAVE to listen to the movie), huge comfortable seats, and onboard WiFi.... Though I'm pretty sure we all just slept the whole way there.

Upon arriving in lovely Guanajuato around 10:30, we wandered around in search of breakfast and lodging before exploring the alleys, plazas, and general beauty of Guanajuato. The self-titled "Capital of the Kiss" was a great place to be on Valentine's Day, although apparently (and quite ironically) the government of the city is seeking to outlaw PDA (specifically, kissing in the street)... but that law is still in progress, so no jail for the couples on "el día del amor y amistad".

We went to the Callejón del Beso (Alley of the Kiss), where the alley is so narrow that people on the second floor balconies on either side are close enough to kiss. According to local legend, this is where the young lovers Ana (some stories say her name was Carmen) and Carlos met. Ana was the daughter of a Spaniard, and Carlos was a local, relatively poor miner. Ana lived in the house on one side of the alley and, to be with her, Carlos moved into the house on the other side. At night they would meet each other on their balconies and talk all night. One night, Ana's father (who intended for her to marry a wealthy friend in Spain) caught them and warned them never to see each other again, as he would not accept their relationship. Ignoring his warning, the two continued to see each other secretly from their balconies until Ana's father caught them and, furious, stabbed Ana in the heart with a dagger. Carlos, helpless to do anything, kissed Ana's hand as she died.

In memory and recognition of the tragedy, the Callejón del Beso is a place frequented by partners. According to local superstition, if you go there with your partner and kiss on the steps, you will have good luck in love and happiness for 7 years (at which point I suppose you have to go back to renew). If you go with a partner and don't kiss on the stairs, you will have bad luck for 7 years. If you go without a partner, you aren't affected either way. ...We got in line with all the rest :-)

Afterwards, we all went to a lovely French restaurant near the University. They had a set menu of cream of mushroom soup or salad, pasta with salmon, and chocolate fondant or fruit and ice cream. When we walked in and admitted that no, we didn't have reservations, they explained that all the tables were reserved, but we could have the VIP room instead for no extra charge. Um... okay! The room was beautiful, with photos on the wall from various places in Paris, and 3 mini-tables with individual table settings perfectly decorated with little candy hearts for the occasion. It was lovely, the food was delicious, the wine was great, and we had it all to ourselves for evening. Nice!

When we finished dinner, we wandered towards the hotel and stumbled upon a live salsa (and bachata and cha cha) band playing in the plaza. We watched couples dancing (at first a few die-hard dancers, then more joined in) and danced for a few songs, and finally called it a night. The next day we woke up mid-morning to head off to San Miguel de Allende.

Although the architecture was beautiful, San Miguel de Allende has far more foreigners living there than it does Mexicans, and we were rather overwhelmed by it. After lunch, Silvia and Joanne headed off to shop and we took a few photos (see below), ate some ice cream, and hid in an internet cafe until it was time to meet up and head home.

In our defense, (1) we DID take photos first, (2) it was really hot to be outside, (3) seriously, tons of Americans and Canadians, and (4) I had to study my Italian.

...Speaking of which, Jay wants me to share my online-language-addiction with you, and I've already organized it all nicely for a couple e-mails, so here you are. All sites are free or at least the services that I'm commenting on are free.

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Courses

http://www.livemocha.com/ : Lessons structured for multiple languages, with text and audio submissions evaluated by native speakers. Language exchange available. progress tracked ... *best feedback for focused writing and speaking, structured lesson plans*, offers courses in Icelandic, Russian, Hindi, Mandarin, Japanese, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian.

http://lang-8.com/ : Write a blog or online journal or note in a language you want to practice, native speakers correct your mistakes. (French, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese) *best opportunity for free feedback of creative writing*

http://lingq.com : Lessons based off of conversations, songs, and articles of varying levels. Includes native speaker's reading (downloadable), and words highlighted as unknown are translated and saved as flashcards (they are automatically removed if you correctly identify them twice in a row). Time with a tutor is available for points (money or contribution). Better after you have a bit of exposure to the language (at least beginning words). GREAT for advanced work on vocab and accent. Allows you to download mp3s of article/story/song/conversation for free. *best resource for reading/audio materials for new vocab and on-the-go audio practice*

http://www.mangolanguages.com/ : (French, Spanish, Dutch, Braz. Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Greek, German, Italian). VERY similar to Pimsleur, with repetition and explanation, plus written form of what you're learning, at your pace.Slideshow format, with audio and textual explanations, breaking down phrases, and other tools to build vocabulary naturally. Downloadable to mp3 format. *best grammar explanations, best on-the-go lessons*

http://en.babbel.com (only spanish,, german, french, italian) uses word, image and sound, memory devices leading up to writing entries that are then uploaded for correction/feedback. Collects vocabulary that you're working on in one section (takes a couple minutesto refresh?), language exchange. You can pick your lesson by theme, no cronological order. Many possible images for each word (you can force it to show you another one). built in dictionary and special characters at top of page. Emphasis on vocabulary. *best vocab builder*

Dictionaries

http://www.wordreference.com/ : Multilingual dictionary

Vocab builders

http://www.internetpolyglot.com/mainMenu.html?locale=en : (English, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Portuguese, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Hindi, Polish, Swedish, Romanian, Turkish, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Amharic, Norwegian, Estonian, Bulgarian) Learn with written word, image, and sound clips. Has games and memory tests, and an ability to manage your own lessons. vocabulary builder

http://www.ingolingo.com/ : (German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Chinese, ) goal is to learn 3000 words per month. Images and text and repetition, but no audio, may be slow or may be just this computer... vocabulary builder

Language exchange, user-designed courses

http://www.italki.com : Has wiki-style lessons in all languages (text explanations), language exchange, Q&A...

http://www.palabea.net/ : videolectures (stories, movies, lectures), language exchange, online study resources

http://www.wordchamp.com/ : flashcards, audio recordings of native speakers, webreader (read foreign site, with pop-up translations as needed), vocab and grammar drills, language partners

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I'm currently eating through the Livemocha Italian 101 lessons, but Lingq is pretty amazing for vocabulary building, listening and reading practice...

That's it for now. I'm going to go work on my languages and we need to try to figure out how to ship a guitar to the States without losing our minds, since we just have one week left!

And here are our photos. We're all caught up now! (Until tomorrow, when we go back to Guadalajara...) Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Guadalajara, Mexico

Tlaquepaque, Mexico

Guanajuato, Mexico

San Miguel de Allende

Third week!

Hace tres semanas estamos aqui en Tlaquepaque, y damn, me gusta mucho. Estoy aprendiendo mucho y cada dia hay nuevas personas a conocer y hablar con. Ahorita estoy en una clase nueva - En lunes, tenía una clasa privado (yay!) pero despues hay dos mas estudiantes. Esta bien.
Nuestra familia aqui es fantastica, especialmente la madre y el hijo menor. Tambien tenemos una "language exchange" compañera, se llama Nayeli, tiene diez y ses años, y es muy muy simpatica. Ella practica su ingles con nosotros, y yo practico mi español con ella, y Jessie practica hablar, pero no hay muchas nuevas palabras para ella. Conocimos su familia también, y acábamos de cenar con ellos en un restaurant que a ellos les gusta mucho. Despues, preguntaron a nosotros, si hay un lugar en Guadalajara que quieríamos conocer mejor. Respondí "el centro", y el padre dijo "Bueno, cuál día y a qué hora quieres salir?" Wow. Okay. Entonces, a domingo a las diez, vamos a ir con la familia al centro de Guadalajara. Yay! Para nosotros, estadosunidenses, es un poco difícil aceptar tanta hospitalidad, pero estamos haciendo lo que podemos.

Y ahora este párrafo en ingles:
And now for that paragraph in English (maybe)

For three weeks we have been in Tlaquepaque, and damn, I like it a lot. I am learning a lot, and every day there are new people to meet and speak with. Right now
I'm in a new clas - on monday, I had a private class (yay!) but afterwards there are two more students. It's cool.
Our family here is fantastic, especially the mom and younger son. Also, we have a "language exchange" partner, her name is Nayeli, she is 16 years old, and is very nice. She practices her english with us, I practice my spanish with her, and Jessie practices speaking, but there aren't many new words for her. We met her family as well, and just ate dinner with them in a restaurant that they like a lot. Afterwards, they asked us, if there is a place in Guadalajara that we would like to know better. I responded "the center" and the father said "Okay, which day and at what time do you want to go?" Wow. Okay. So, on sunday at ten, we will go with them to the center of Guadalajara. Yay! For us, americans, it's a little difficult to except so much hospitality, but we are doing what we can.

That's it for now. Jessie's going crazy learning Italian on livemocha.com (I'm sure she'll write all about it when she gets a chance) and I'm busy eargasming over Lamb Of God's new album on youtube.
Good luck to all of you in the states, sounds exciting with all the news, but also a bit scary. I hope Arnold knows what he's doing. Likewise Obama.
-Jay

**Note** Jessie helped with the spanish spelling, because I still really suck with accents and the natural placement of vowels. But other than that, ¡estoy muy animado por aprender español! ¡Con un keyboard hispaña, tambien!

Photos from Tequila

More photos...

Tequila, Mexico

16 February 2009

Guachimontones Photos

Whew.... Updates are coming. Slowly, but surely.

Guachimontones

10 February 2009

Photos from Chapala and Ajijic, Mexico

Slowly, but surely, the uploads are happening. Today's additions: Chapala and Ajijic.
Chapala, Mexico
Ajijic, Mexico

09 February 2009

A few photos...

It's already 9:00 pm and I have work to do, so I'll upload the last week's photos as soon as I get the chance. For now, enjoy Teotihuacán (ruins near Mexico City) and Paracho, where we bought our new guitar (Sally 23).
Teotihuacán, Mexico
Paracho, Mexico

Tequila, Mexico

Last Saturday, we left with a few other students for the program-led trip to Tequila, Mexico. After about an hour-long drive, we arrived at the La Cofraida distillery. We enjoyed free margaritas and the lovely scenery while we waited for our guide, and then began our tour of the factory. In the span of a couple hours we learned more than we ever needed to know about tequila - the process of making it, the history, the types, and the correct way to taste it. Because I can, I'll share this info with you.

First, Tequila is made from blue agave plants. This is a type of cactus that takes 10 years to mature (when it does, it sprouts a single flower in the center). The plant's leaves are then sheared off and the center (which looks like a pineapple) is baked for 40 hurs in batches in huge ovens, causing it to become naturally sweet. (In fact, Agave is also used as an alternative to sugar). The "pineapples" then need to be picked apart by hand and are pressed to extract the liquid (the remaining fibers can be used for clothes and paper). The agave is then fermented in huge vats with some salt water and yeast before it is distilled. Legally, it is required that the factories distil the alcohol twice before selling it as tequila, and from the giant fermenting vats, only about 10% of the liquid makes it through the 2nd distilation. (Some types of tequila are distilled an additional time after that).

The pure resulting tequila is called Tequila Blanco, which in its best form (and from this distillery) is made from 100% agave and bottled directly after distillation. It's completely clear, and burns a bit when you drink it, but it tastes very crisp. Alternatively, tequila is also placed into wooden barrels for various amounts of time to soften the bite, adding flavor and color. Tequila reposado has spent 2-11 months in a barrel, is slightly softer and darker than tequila blanco, and tastes slightly sweeter. Tequila añejo spends 1-3 years in a barrel, is smoother still, and darker. There is also another type of añejo that spends 3-5 years in a barrel, and another name entirely for tequila that ages even longer than that, but I don't remember those names and we only tried the first three types.

Apparently, the correct way to drink tequila is to simply swallow the first taste (or shot, depending on the person) without pausing - "Don't think, just drink" as our guide explained. This is to open up the throat and allow you to enjoy the other tastes more. After that, you should put the tequila in your mouth, move it around a bit for a few seconds, inhale, swallow, and exhale. This leaves the taste very strongly in your mouth (though, with the blanco and reposado, it does burn a bit). The custom of drinking tequila with salt and lime (salt to build up saliva to help with the tequila, then lime to soften the taste) comes from a long time ago when the tequila was much stronger, and is still used today for crappier tequilas (the ones you don't WANT to taste). Apparently, with 100% agave tequila, you should drink it alone or else you kill it by mixing in other flavors.

Are you an expert yet? There's more. For instance (not trying to shatter your worldview), tequila never has a worm. That drink is called Mezcal and is made from a different type of cactus, although it looks similar to blue agave. Also, you are about to discover how tequila was discovered (or the legend thereof). Originally, the natives who grew agave used the leaves for all sorts of things (including roofing of their houses!) but, upon trying the bitter raw agave, decided it was not useful for anything and thew it away. One day, there was a storm and a bolt of lightning hit the agave plant. The people came out to see where the new, sweet smell was coming from and they tried the new, cooked, agave. They loved it! They began to use it as a sweetener and to make drinks from it. Well, one day some dingbat left the agave water out for too long and it fermented. He tried it anyway, and it's been party-time in Mexico ever since...More or less.

We tasted some of the very sweet flavored liquors as well and bought a bottle for our host family before heading back into the town of Tequila for lunch. All in all, a fascinating, educating, and slightly intoxicating day. But now that we both understand the process and history of tequila (a drink that neither of us had ever liked before), we appreciate and enjoy it much more. That's all for now until I can get more photos up... much love to everyone and *cheers*.

A week (and counting) in Tlaquepaque

We've been in Tlaquepaque (a neighbor of Guadalajara, in Mexico) for just over a week now. Our host family is very nice and talkative and Silvia's food is amazing...although the cat, Boris, did pee on our bed when he got the chance to enter the room. (We don't let him in anymore.) We get up around 8:00, have a huge breakfast (Silvia won't let us get away with any other kind), and then get to school by 9:00 for a two hour class followed by a half hour break and another 2 hours with a different teacher. My classes have 2 other students right now (the newest started today) - a 27-year-old graduate student in history, and a maybe 40-something counselor who lived in Guadalajara 10 years ago. They're both very nice and we have fun conversations in class. Our two teachers are Alejandra and Miguel (these are Jay's teachers this week too, though in the opposite order) and the classes are strongly conversation based. Alejandra's classes have a bit more grammar and structure, whereas Miguel's classes are almost entirely conversations based off of tangents of tangents. I love the combination, and we're all getting a lot of conversation time.

The program at the school offers almost-daily excursions and outings including dance classes, tours of Tlaquepaque and Guadalajara, wrestling matches, and trips to nearby cities. We tried the salsa class but didn't like it (more flair than partner dancing); went to Chapala, Ajijic, Guachimontones and Tequila (yes, THE Tequila); and this week we will probably see a wrestling match, go for a hike, and take a weekend trip to Guanajuato and/or Queretaro.

We're also getting to know Tlaquepaque and the people in our program a bit better. It's amazing to see the age range of students - within the regular group classes, we're the youngest and the oldest couple right now is somewhere between 60-70 years old. Though most are from the States or Canada, there are a couple Japanese girls who came today, a girl from Holland, and 2 girls who take private lessons (and are studying ceramics with our host family!) from England and Australia. I say "girl", but again, there's a large range of ages with 19 being the youngest and the oldest maybe late 20s or early 30s. Everyone comes from a different background and it's fascinating to learn more about the travels and experiences of our classmates.

One week flown by, 3 more to go. Many more updates (and photos!) to come, but I'll add information about Tequila in another entry... Jay will tell you about the other trips.

Our excursions

So since we´ve been here for a week in Tlaquepaque, we´ve had the chance to go out on a couple trips around the area. Last Wednesday (the 4th), we headed out to both Chapala and Ajijic, both smaller areas within Jalisco, for the afternoon after classes ended at 1:30. Jill, the organizer, along with her fiancè Danny, Jessie, myself, and many other students in the program hopped in the rented van driven by the young yet very talented Miquel (who has since driven us to two other locations). Jill made sandwiches (which were amazingly good), and after we all downed them in record time, we arrived in Chapala.
We didn´t have much time or space to explore the city properly, but Chapala has a lovely beach area with a small plaza and an excellent walking area. There was a bit of construction going on near the docks, so due to the noise Jessie decided to spend most of the time napping on a bench near a central fountain. After an hour or so of leisurely relaxation, we hopped back in with Miguel and ended up in Ajijic, another small town where, honestly, I can´t even remember what we did. There was, however, a great resort-ish area with a restaurant, lots of awesome buildings and native-looking structures (for example, a sauna in the top of a faux-ancient giant wooden head). Lots of stairs, too. We all retired to the restaurant for a few drinks and just chilled. It was nice, relaxing, and mostly uneventful in a good way. We got a chance to talk with our fellow students and have a small change of scenery and pace.

The next day after classes, we all boarded up with Miguel again, this time to Guachimontones, an archelogical site showing the Teuchitlàn tradition, which is, according to Wikipedia "a complex society that existed from as early as 300 BCE until perhaps 900 CE." We went to a small museum first which explained a bit of the history of the culture, watched a short movie (where I started and completed much of my homework for the night) about the restoration of the sie, and then headed out to actually see the stepped pyramids. The area is relatively small, and not exactly grandoise, but very very beautiful (with a great view of the city below) and extremely telling of the culture. There were a couple restored pyramids, with the largest one being about 60 feet high, and our guide had a lot of information. One thing that really stood out was the Mesoamerican ballcourt, where the losers of the game were sacrificed. Funsies. We asked a bit about this, and apparently (Jessie correct me if I´m wrong), there are two types of games.
1) A personal challenge, between friends or enemies, wherein the challenger and challengee each bring their own team (however the judge makes the ultimate decision of who can play), they all duke it out, and the winner gets to say "lo, take this loser and cut off all [or only some, if he´s nice] of his limbs, and spread them far and wide so that he may forever remember how he has lost to me."
And 2) The time of the sacrifice has come, the players volunteer themselves, and the winners are sacrificed. Willingly. Like, they play harder so that they may be the chosen ones. So at least they´re ready for that one.

Saturday we went to Tequilla, which rocked hard (Jessie will tell you all about it).
And our most recent trip has been to take a Tapatio Bus Tour around Guadalajara on Sunday. It´s a double decker bus with an open top, where tickets cost about $110 pesos (roughly $8 USD) and we receive an orange wristband which allows us to get on and off at any of the designated stops. Buses come every 30 minutes or so, so the tour can last anywhere between 2 hours or all day. The interesting thing at the beginning of the day for us was that, being Sunday, the local road to Guadalajara, where the bus normally picks people up, was closed off for bikes. Apparently this happens every Sunday. Which rocks, but damn it, that was our bus street. So we asked around (the locals are exceedingly friendly and used to tourists), walked about, finally found the bus, and enjoyed the scenery. Photos forthcoming of that.
We got off at two seperate points, and by the time we wanted to get back on at the end, the Tapatio buses had stopped running. We ended up again asking la gente de la calle y la ciudad for help, they accomadated us con mucho gusto, and we made our way back without event. Oh, except the first city bus broke down in the middle of the street without warning, so we all had to transfer over to another, which was fun.

The next trips planned are (maybe) a Mexican wrestling event in Guadalajara on Tuesday, a small historical walking tour of Tlaquepaque on Wednesday, and a weekend trip to Guanajuato and/or Queretaro as Jessie has said.

Thanks for the time! Love to all :)
-Jay

01 February 2009

Mexican health clinics, crafstman guitars, and our new home for a month

After exploring the huge park, historical center, and Korean restaurants of Mexico City, we had an adventure of another type: Going to see a doctor. Thanks to the doxycycline that we've been taking religiously to prevent malaria (we'd been in and out of malaria zones during our time in South America and would be entering one again by going near the Guatemalan border)...my stomach decided enough was enough. Well, actually my stomach had been doing fantastically well, but I had abused it by taking one of the daily pills too late after eating, with not enough water, and just before sleeping. Starting the next morning (coincidentally, the day we left for Mexico), and continuing for the rest of the week, every bite of food resulted in a very angry, painful, burning response from the top of my stomach. It was useful in a way (I now know that it takes only 3 seconds for food to travel down my esophagus), but mostly just painful and extremely non-condusive to eating, traveling, or otherwise enjoying life.

Worried that it might be something very serious, but not in any mood to spend time in a hospital, we went to a pharmacy in central Coyohuacán for a cheap (about $1.50) consult. The doctor was the sweetest person I have ever seen in a health clinic - she talked with us about our travels, commented that Jay looks very Mexican (sigh), and, additionally, clearly knew exactly what was happening as soon as I mentioned Doxycycline. Her remedy: Stop the doxycycline for as long as possible (at least 10 days), take some fun new medicine to fix my stomach lining (pharmacy next door), and not eat any spicy or greasy food for three days.

...Hm. As to the first two, we'd been 4 weeks out of a dangerous malaria zone, so we were okay to stop the pills for a while (until entering Guatemala), and I am fine with the new pills... but no spicy food? No greasy food? And we'd just arrived in Mexico. So I've been quietly watching Jay down large quantities of delicious, spicy, greasy (deliciously so) food while I timidly munch away at.... cucumber. And tomatoes. And the occasional agua de horchata. Oh well. At least we've taken two things away from this: (1) Cheap Mexican health clinics are amazing, and (2) doxycycline should be consumed with food and lots and lots of water.

The next day, reassured that I wasn't dying, we headed to Teotihuacán, a site of Aztec ruins near the city. We spent a good deal of time observing mere mortals from the tops of huge pyramids, and we saw an Isaac look-alike. (Photos to come later, but seriously, he was identical except for the speaking Spanish). A good day.

We then boarded an overnight bus to Uruapan, where we dropped our stuff off in a hostel and headed to Paracho, a center of classical guitar-makers. We browsed, "ooh"ed, and "aah"ed at the pretty nylon-stringed instruments, sampled a few, and ended up talking for at least an hour with the (40-something) son of a guitar-maker. He practiced his English, Jay practiced his Spanish, and many band names were exchanged. All the while, Jay was playing away on one of the pretty guitars. Upon entering the store and noting the higher quality of the instruments, we were pretty sure it was going to be out of our price range, but the guitar ended up being well under $100, with a sturdy case included. We took her home and named her Sally 23 (in honor of the absurd number of Korean students who have adopted the English name Sally, and the fact that Mexico is Jay's 23rd country to visit, not to mention our current age).

So yes, we have a new guitar. She's very pretty. And she sounds nice. (These are my professional observations on the matter... I think Jay could be a little more descriptive).

That night, after spending the last night on a bus and the day wandering around in the sun, we crashed early, but were woken up first by fireworks from the nearby plaza (WHY does EVERYONE need to celebrate our arrival? These little celebrations seem to follow us...), and then by a band. A loud one. With distorted guitar, bass, and a drummer who may or may not have been on speed. Turns out there was a Metallica tribute concert next door. Starting at 10:30 PM. Ending at... I don't know, but when I woke up at around 5:00, I was surprised by the silence.

And now we are in Tlaquepaque, a district just south of Guadalajara. Did you notice the slight change of plans? The school in Oaxaca finally got back to us about homestays and it turned out that I had a family with 3 family members and 5 foreign students... and Jay had a separate, similar situation. That's not a homestay, that's a hostel. We asked for a single family for just the two of us, and the program director said she'd get back to us...but we still haven't heard (seeing as the classes were supposed to start tomorrow, we aren't holding our breath). In the meantime, we researched options in other cities, and found a school here that has a similar program, but with better homestay options. We met our family just a few hours ago - Silvia, the mom, is the main person in charge of foreign students. We are the only two staying, and we have our own area of the house (in fact, the entire Northern half of the ground floor) for studying and sleeping. Silvia is incredibly sweet, as is her younger son Jacob, who learned English in school and is happy to practice with either language. The father (Eduardo?) and older son are a bit more reserved, so we haven't really had a chance to talk to them yet. The family also runs a ceramics business that they inherited from Eduardo's father (who started it over 80 years ago). Their workshop is attached to the house and takes up half the entire block. Right now they're working on sink basins for a 5-star hotel in Chihuahua. Hand painted and everything!

They also have canaries in the patio, a few stray cats that they've sort of adopted, and a purchased cat that hides upstairs. The younger son is still in school, and the older son runs an internet cafe on another side of the house. (But we found a cheaper one near town center :-))

Ah, and in addition to the house being a 3-minute walk from school, we also found a Taekwon-do/Hapki-do/Kickboxing studio right down the street from the house, so we'll go in tomorrow (after our first day of classes!!) to see if we can sign up for a month. Plus, Silvia is a great cook and, upon learning that my birthday's on Tuesday, she's making tamales! We're pretty excited.

That's all for now, I have to go take my medicine and we need to go settle in.

Much love to everyone and remember. When stuck in Scrabble with too many Qs, "Tlaquepaque". (If you can slide a proper noun in.)