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.)
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