Day 9

We are getting in to more of a groove now with our host family. We still have a hard time communicating with them though. Of course most of the problem is our lack of ability to speak Spanish, but also for whatever reason our hosts are particularly hard for us to understand. If people really enunciate we have a much easier time understanding them, and some people are good at guessing what we mean or helping us with words. Our hosts might not feel comfortable correcting us, so it’s a little harder to have a conversation go anywhere. That said, we have already found that just getting around in daily life is much easier. We cover so much material in class and it’s overwhelming, but after a few days of reviewing it and after the conversation portions of our classes I find that the material we covered a few days back seems somewhat easy and the words come more quickly.

We have all, except Hugo, gotten our turn with “Montezuma’s revenge”—nothing too bad, but still, when you’re out in public and need to find a bathroom NOW it’s a little nerve-wracking. It’s always best if you’re near a café you’ve been in before and know where the bathroom is, so you can casually walk in and make a beeline for the rest room door, hoping you don’t have the desperate, panicky look of all the foreign tourists that have come through before with weak stomachs.

Last night we went to a mini Guelaguetza festival in the famous theater in town, the Macedonia Alcala. The Guelaguetza is said to be the largest folkloric festival in the world with hours of music and dances from the indigenous people from this area. We knew the festival itself would be too much for the kids (and us too), lasting for 6 hours or so after getting to the arena at 8am and sitting in the hot sun. It’s expensive too, even by US standards. So last night was perfect. Inexpensive, in a beautiful theater and lasting less than 2 hours. Jasper wanted to come with us and Hugo opted to stay with the host family which shows how comfortable he feels here. He doesn’t care that they don’t speak English, he just walks right over to them and talks very loudly and repeats himself. The dances at the show were interesting and the costumes were truly amazing. The women often danced with large baskets on their heads and with pineapples on their shoulders. If they weren’t holding an object they were typically holding their skirts. The men often had their hands behind their backs. We were surprised by the music, which was played by an orchestra and sounded kind of like oompa music from Bavaria. We expected more drums and xylophones.

We also went to the Basilica Soledad yesterday which is really beautiful. The church is filled with ornate carvings and lots of gold paint. There were statues inside of Mary and Jesus, and they were encased in glass which I found a little odd. There was a gorgeous square and amphitheater outside, and the University of Fine Art which used to be a convent. The whole area is amazing in it’s scale and how ornate the buildings are.

One of the best cultural experiences we’ve had here so far is riding the regular city buses. They are crowded, noisy, bumpy and the drivers often blare loud music. The buses also are personalized by the drivers, so they might have colored lights inside, fabric with fringe hanging on the inside, statues, etc. The kids think the bus is a riot too, and we tend to get a lot of odd stares when we’re on one as I don’t think tourists usually opt to ride them.