Esta bien

Right now I'm in Espanol overload! I should probably be out in the city dancing salsa and drinking cervezas, but I just need to rest. Even though, most of today was spent in a very relaxing way. My homestay family invited me to the grandmother's town today. This seemed very generous of them. They drove me down to San Pablo where the family has a farm. What a beautiful town! The grandmother was inside the house making something and the family put on a pot of Oaxacan chocolate con agua (not con leche I think - no problems so far!). This was the real deal! They gave me a big bowl and bread. I wasn't sure how to eat it. At first, I drank and ate. Then the other kids started eating by dunking the bread in and eating just the bread. I ended up drinking most of mine, because it was quite good. After a family friend showed up with his 3 wheel taxi to take the kids, we all headed for the mercado. Here we sat and ate some quesadillas, tortillas with
beans and cheese, and tortillas rolled up with fresh grilled carne (the mercado has several butchers in the back where we were seated at the tortilla merchant. Next to the butchers were charcoal pits that anyone could use to grill. Probably a good idea as the raw meat was unrefrigerated.) Interestingly, when I've been offered agua, it's usually flavored with orange or lime or melon or whatever, it's not just plain. After what I thought was the main comida of the day the father, Alan, and their neice and I strolled around the plaza. In order to fill in the gaps in conversation, he taught me some basic spanish. (Note: so far my homestay family has spoken maybe half a dozen english words and I the same amount of Spanish words). With perfect timing the mother, Paula,'s sister called me over to try Tejate (famous Oaxacan drink made of corn and cacao often stirred in a large plastic tub similar to how cousin eddy's daughter stirred the
koolaid in Vacation). It was actually quite delicious (grainy from the corn meal but the chocolate was evident). Then we went back out to the plaza where we ate spicy jicama and relaxed. There was a wedding going on at one end of the plaza and they lit off fireworks at the end of the ceremony which made more noise than anything else (maybe as a pseudo gunfire). Then the band played and the couple and wedding parade made its way out of the plaza onto the streets presumably off to the casa novia. After a while we went to go watch a soccer game in which Paula's brother was playing. Unlike a lot of soccer, this game was intense and fast paced. After the game, we headed back to the family's house. (The family actually has a house in the suburbs and the apartments in the city center. The apartments are also where they run a kitchen. I'm not sure how it all works yet - will learn more as I go I guess.) At the house Alan and I had an afternoon
cerveza (Sol cerveza - Oaxaca's choice beer). Then while Paula prepared some salsa for the chicken and tortillas for comida, I played nintendo with the children. Their favorite games were mario kart and super smash bros. Comida (lunch) was around 4:30pm, which caught me by surprise because I thought we already had comida. After comida the family and I went to a place where they make black pottery. The pottery was fashioned into the many shapes you see in Mexico: turtles, fish, ducks, and boxes, but the ceramic has a black finish on it which I take it is only made near here. From here we dropped the kids off then Paula and I headed back to the city apartment. So now I'm back here and I realize that while some things are different here like the language, there are certainly many things that cross cultures: the meal as a way to get together and the family as a home. Miss you, mi familia y novia.