Tacos

Mmmmm, nothing like a good taco. But, I bet that most of my reading audience has never had a GOOD taco. Oh sure, you've had various tasty things wrapped in a tortilla calling themselves tacos. And I enjoy most of those things as well. But, a GOOD taco is a very different thing.

First, you need to go to a taqueria. As Peter explained, you just need to add -ria to the end of most nouns to get "a place who makes _____". And thus, a taqueria specializes in just that, tacos. At a very good taqueria, you can really only get a few things, tacos, maybe a torta, and a soda or beer. That's it. Taquerias are generally dive-y places, not known for high levels of apparent cleanliness, amenities, or bathrooms (particularly bathrooms). But, you can always tell a good taqueria, it will look like this one in Cuernavaca

Hordes of people waiting outside La Cubana for a taco

Good tacos come from simple ingredients. Many gringos are confused when they first try a GOOD taco because it looks so naked. Just a little sliced al pastor (or tongue or carne asada or chicken or something), cilantro, and onion all served on tiny 3-4 inch corn tortillas with lime and green and red salsas on the side. At a fancy place you might have pico de gallo as well. That's it. No lettuce. No cheese. No sour cream for heaven's sake. Simple and delicious. And you certainly can't eat just one. In fact, I've been known to eat 6 on my very own. MMMMmmmmmm

The best GOOD tacos to get are tacos al pastor. Al pastor is a mysterious meat rotisserie that looks a lot like the gyro or kebab places in Europe. The meat sits all day, slowly spinning as the guy in charge skillfully slices small amounts for you.

The al pastor spinning

And the best place to get them is in Mexico City... down the street from our hotel and next to the chicken rotisserie (mmm another post about that sometime!). At that taco place, we waited for a table to clear (from the 5 available ones), and parked ourselves down and ordered, what else, but tacos. They came, delightfully warm and juicy, right off the spinning al pastor machine, topped with tiny bits of pineapple with the cilantro and onion. At the best places, a whole fresh peeled pineapple is placed at the top of the rotisserie and the juices drip down over the meat, adding to the flavor. And at any place, these tacos are CHEAP! Generally, we found tacos to be between 4-8 pesos a taco (10 pesos=1 dollar). And with a llimited menu, you certainly aren't tempted to upgrade or go "high-end".

I'm missing the al pastor a lot by now. I have a good carnitas recipe, but it's just not the same. When you go to Mexico, you must eat a real taco, it will change your world.

Otros Gringos

To my surprise, there weren't many foreign tourists in Mexico, especially in DF; most of the tourists were other Mexicans checking out there own country. I imagine in the coastal cities/areas (Cozumel, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, etc), this is different, since those areas often cater to Americans from North of the Border or Spring Break students. Every once in a while you would see another gringo wandering around, but it seemed like they were few and far between.

[For the most part, Mexicans were pretty dark and short, due to their ancestry of Mayans, Aztecs, Zapotecs, etc, so most gringos stood out like sore thumbs; I was often the tallest person around and Kimberly was almost always the whitest person around. There is some Spanish blood in Mexico, which resulted in some additional height and lightening of skin, but it was a lot less than I suspected before arriving.]

Then we arrived in Oaxaca, and all of a sudden, we were surrounded by gringos. Everywhere: in the restaurants, at museums, in the markets. You name it, gringos were there. But the interesting thing is that barely any of them were USA-ers. I would say 90% of them were French. The other 10% were German or Dutch or English. I suppose that July is vacation month in France, so a lot of French are traveling, but it was pretty amazing seeing some fancy dressed people sitting in the cafes, smoking their cigarettes all French-cool like.

I'm not sure what the point of this post is. I just thought the number of French in Oaxaca was impressive, as was the lack of USA-ers traveling in some of the most culturally interesting cities of Mexico, our closest neighbor (tied with Canada). I would write it off as a microcosm of the traveling attitudes of Europeans vs Americans, but I know there are lots of Europeans that are xenophobic, so I'm not sure this fully explains it.

I guess to sum it up, I think more USA-ers should travel to Mexico since it's close, friendly, has good food, and is packed with interesting history.

Quick Notes on Mexico

Some things I learned in my short time in Mexico, and which you should know which will make all the forthcoming posts easier to understand:

• In Mexico, Mexico City is called DF (pronounced de-effe), as in Mexico DF. It stands for Distrito Federal. It's like the DC in Washington DC. It also easier to say/write DF than to say/write Mexico City all the time;
• If a store in Mexico makes churros, it's a churreria. If it sells perfume, it's a perfumeria. If it makes shoes, it's a shoeria. If it sells crickets, it would be a chapulineria. Add -eria to anything, and you make it or sell it;
• The Mexican Peso is currently valued at approximately 10 pesos = 1 US dollar. This makes conversion really easy; just move the decimal point over one place to the left. Things in Mexico are cheap, except McDonald's, Coke, and Starbucks. Let me know if you see a trend in those three things.

El Moro and the Magic Churro

You should immediately stop what you're doing, board a plane to Mexico City, and head on down to the Churreria El Moro and get yourself a cup of Chocolate Espanyol and 4 churros con canela (basically a cup of melted chocolate and churros covered in cinnamon). You will never view dessert (or even breakfast) the same again.

Kimberly, her mom, and I were hanging out in the Historical Center of Mexico City when we were approached by some Mexican students who wanted to interview us for their english class. After some questions from them, we decided to ask them where to go eat. One of the kids (who, judging from his portly size, has eaten a churro or two in his lifetime) first asked us if we wanted Chinese food. After a laugh on our part, and a quick explanation that we were hoping for something more Mexican in nature, he told us about El Moro. I'm glad we didn't go for Chinese.

Short, middle-aged Mexican waitresses, dressed in mint-green outfits straight from the 60's, buzz around this diner-like, 24-hour a day, beehive of activity. All they serve is churros. Solo for 6 pesos. Or with chocolate, coffee, or milk for about 30-40 pesos. I think that's it.

It was packed every time we went there. And in the 10 days I was in Mexico, 5 of which were in Mexico City, I visited El Moro 4 times. Almost 5 times, but I expressed some self restraint, which is strange for me.

So what is a churro? It's fried dough, dropped from a star-shaped extruder straight into hot oil, then removed, sprinkled with sugar and/or cinnamon, and dropped directly in front of you. I preferred mine dipped into hot chocolate.

[Chocolate will be covered in more detail in a later post. I look forward to that one almost as much as this one]

I had a churro once in Portland, and I was not excited. It was cold and kind of soggy. I was not excited about going to the churreria in Mexico City. As often is the case, I was wrong.

The churros at El Moro were hot and crispy on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. The first time we went, we had 2 each; the next 2 times, we had at least 4 each (the sugar coma I went into after the first 3 makes the experience a little hazy); the last time I think we held ourselves to only 3 each.

And if you really go all that way just for a churro, you should probably stay a little longer and check out some of the Azten and Mayan ruins. We'll cover those things in later posts, but for now we're concentrating on the important stuff: food.

Surprise, you're eating a churro!

Chapulines

Or as they're known in English, Crickets.

Kimberly ate them in tacos when she was traveling, where the true flavor could be masked by things like salsa and tortilla. I ate them solo when we were in Oaxaca, where the true flavor of the cricket could come through.

Either way, you get legs stuck in your teeth.

I was a little hesitant about eating the little critters. But really, how could I pass up eating such a different and new thing - when was the next time I would be somewhere that crickets were part of the everyday fabric of life and literally everywhere. I'm all about trying everything at least once. And sometimes twice, just to be sure.

As we were walking in one of the markets, a tiny little Mexican woman came up to me with a basket of chapulines and just dropped some in my hand. After a moment of contemplation, I threw them back. They were really salty and kind of spicy. And soggy. I was expecting them to be crispy and crunchy. She wanted to sell me 5 scoops of chapulines for 20 pesos (about $0.20), but I wasn't about to buy a whole bag full. They weren't terrible, but they weren't very good either. Maybe they're better fresh out of the fryer.

[ps after reading that wikipedia article above, specifically the parts about the nematodes and lead content, I kind of wish I had eaten them in a restaurant instead of on the street. Ce le vie!]

[pps I left the pictures really big, so if you click on them, you will get a super-up-close view of the fried little critters - especially that top photo]

¡In Mexico!

Mexico City is kind of crazy. If you combined the chaos of Italy with the congestion of Hong Kong, you'd be somewhere close.

So far it's been great. We've eaten lots of street food, including tacos al pastor and quesidillas (not liek your mom used to make them).

Kimberly and I are heading to Oaxaca tomorrow, which is the cultural capitol of the country. Also, they make lots of mole and chocolate things. Needless to say, we're excited.

More to come in the future.

Triste...

Well, Friday was my last day at the Tec. And my last day with Gabriela. I'm pretty sad, because we became good friends during our 5 weeks of talking each day. We've exchanged email addresses and offers to come visit (as well as offers to help with our respective languages over email and Skype). And Friday, we discovered that we share a love of Italian food! She's incredibly jealous that I live with such a fantastic cook, and I'm supposed to mail her recipes for gnocchi and pizza dough when I get home.

Although I'm happy to see Mom and PEter and to get to travel and see new parts of Mexico, I'm very sad to be leaving the wonderful friends I've made here. My teacher, Suzie, is absolutely incredible and was wonderful to learn from (both Spanish as well as teaching ideas).

Being back in Queretaro has been a wonderful experience and I'm so sad that my 5 weeks are already over.

¡Miles!

Miles,


I've been hearing that you aren't treating PEter very well. I want you to know that even though I'm gone, you still need to behave appropriately. This means that you shouldn't be howling all night and morning. I know that you are especially scared of the lightning and thunder that's been going on in the Middle. But, remember that you are inside and that the weather won't get you. You shouldn't pee on PEter's stuff just because you're scared. Instead, try snuggling with him. I know he's fidgety, but I'm sure that he'll sit down long enough for you guys to snuggle.


And, if you don't shape up?

I met a very nice cat in Patzcuaro...

Ya, ya, I suck...

So, well, the posting hasn't been as frequent as I had either hoped nor promised. But, well, the connection here isn't super speedy and it gets a little tiresome to wait and wait and wait for pictures to load. But, I have been taking tons of photos (way too many, I have no idea how I'll ever reduce them) and so you'll get a stack of updates once I'm settled back in the Middle. It's either that or hoe PEter's garden. In the summer. In the Middle. Trust me, I'll find lots of posts to write!

But, the limited posting is going to get even less as Mom arrives on Saturday and we head off for our adventures together. And then Peter arrives the Friday after... so you can see that I'll be so busy showing my family around this beautiful country I probably won't make it into many internet cafes. Ah well, you'll survive I'm sure. For all those counting the days, I'm here for only 18 more days and then back to the sweaty, sticky Middle.

You know you're old when...

the students hear things you can't. Let me explain. We had our last class yesterday and students were finishing up their presentations. J and I were leading a discussion about what they had learned from the assignment when a bunch of the students started cringing and holding their ears. I looked around puzzled and they started laughing. J asked, 'what's that sound?' and they laughed even more. I asked, 'what sound?' and they kept laughing while holding their ears.

Well, it turns out that I'm old. You see, people created this high pitched sound to deter loitering by teenagers outside of stores. Those pesky (but smart!) teenagers turned it into a ringtone. The catch is that adults can't hear this high pitched but kids can. So the kids are now using it to get calls during class. Smart! Well, it turns out that I am officially over the hill since I didn't have a clue what was going on. Eventually, as we're laughing and the students are joking about how old I must be, the student turned the sound down (lowered the tone) and eventually I was able to hear it.

The npr article will let you listen to the tone (assuming you can!).

Another day, another verb tense

Well, so the truth is, I haven't taken a Spanish class in 11 years, actually, since the last time I was in Mexico. This means that although I can get around well enough, I haven't the foggiest idea about any of the various tenses. If only I could only live in the present! As I'm in Intermediate 2, we've been spending a lot of time 'reviewing' various tenses* and learning new ones. In fact, since I've been here (3.5 weeks of classes) we have covered: presente, imperfecto, preterito, subjuntivo, pasado perfecto, futuro perfecto, futuro simple, imperativo, pluscuamperfecto, progresivo, y la voz pasiva. Today we added two new ones, condicional and imperfecto de subjuntivo. This adds up to a grand total of 13. Phew. I can't actually control all these tenses (control here meaning that I can use them on my own without prompting) but I can correctly use most of them on tests. It blows my mind that some of the students in my class are getting 60s on their tests... they took spanish just a month ago! How can they do so poorly? (and obviously the answer is that they are out until 3 am most nights while I'm an old lady and asleep by 11 but still...). Study abroad is wasted on the young.


*Note to grammar teachers: I'm not going to distinguish between tense and aspect here... but I do remember that's there's a difference!

What goes up, must come down

This weekend, we joined the college kids for a quick tour of Mexico City (aka DF) and surrounding areas. It was a whirlwind trip, not enough time to really do any of it jusitce, but that's just fine, because... Mom and Peter arrive shortly and we'll have a few days together to explore at a more reasonable pace. Plus, thanks to Oscar, our most fantastic guide, I now can explain a bunch of the things we'll see! Woo hoo!

So, what did we see in this quick tour, well, we started by leaving very early in the morning... mostly we slept on the way down...We first stopped at the Pyramids of Teotihuacan. These gigantic ruins are from 200bc to 600 ad or so and the largest, Pyramid of the Sun, is the second largest in the Americas. This was a highly advanced civilization with a system to bring in fresh water and remove sewage from the city. They installed drains throughout the area (something the Europeans didn't figure out for a long time!). These ruins have mostly been reconstructed (the stones are original but had been covered over the years with dirt, trees, etc. There are still large numbers of undiscovered temples... they expect that every hill in this area is actually a temple.

After hiking up and down the pyramids, we headed into DF itself. We went right downtown to the zocalo (this word means pedastal and the story goes that one of the rulers (current era) was planning on installing some large statue, but he was deposed and all he had finished was te pedastal. Over time, people began to call the plaza 'zocalo' and now you can find zocalos all over mexico, they're always the main plaza). Anyway, we were dropped off in the most enormous plaza and walked over to Palacio National. No pictures for you as we rushed though it (and without flash, they never turn out) although go to this link to see someone else's great photo. However, the murals by Diego Rivera are amazing and recount the history of Mexico.

We also went into the cathedral, a fantastic example of the mix of indigenias and catholic faiths (plus crazy recoccoo art). Then we headed to Templo Mayor. This Aztec ruin was discovered in 1978, right below the streets in DF. They were doing electrical work, and someone hit a rock that turned out to be pre-hispanic. The ended up tearing down some buildings to uncover the ruins (although there is clearly much more as the Spanish built right on top of the Aztec city, however, these are also beautiful historical buildings, and as Oscar put it, 'we're a mix of the two cultures and we need to find a way to preserve both'). The Templo Mayor is celebrating its 30 aniversary (hmmm... just like someone else I know!) and there are great new signs and other information.

We then popped in to the Palacio de Bellas Artes home of more beautiful murals, but weren't allowed to go upstairs as we were running out of time. Peter and Mom will have to tolerate my oohing and ahhing in a few weeks. This beautiful palace is art neuvo on the outside and art deco on the inside and weighs so much that the entire building is sinking. This is a huge problem in DF. The city is built on infill (it was originally a lake) and as the residents continue to use a lot of water, the water table is sinking and the buildings are too. Interestingly, the ruins are rising, so the Aztecs are reclaiming the city!

Finally, after all of this, we arrived at the hotel. A fancy 5 star hotel in fact. It was so great that we didn't really want to leave.


After a bite to eat, we ended up having a little slumber party in our room (a six pack of beer and chips and a movie... yes, I know we were in Mexico City, but it was so great to relax on these comfy beds...)

On Sunday, we went to Xochimilco and took a leisurely boat ride down the floating gardens.

We listened to mariachis

and marimba bands and watched the world go by.

Then we headed to Chapultepec Park and the Museo Nacionale de Antropologia. Here we were very lucky. Our guide, Oscar used to work here and knew the musuem inside and out. We toured several of the civilizations displayed in the museum (there were many more than just the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas that we learned about in Social Studies in 7th grade!).

More pictures to come on Flickr... but the computer connection today is particularly bad. Hopefully I'll get them up tomorrow.

Home again

A lengthy Mexico City post coming soon, but I'm tired and it'll have to wait to tomorrow to be posted. The trip was good but rapid, the students behaved well, and gosh there are a lot of stairs (Mom, Peter, start walking the stairs, you're going to need it!).

Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Philsophers Stone in Spanish. Will probably go buy the second one today. I'm learning all sorts of useful vocab like spell, witch, whimper, and ghost.

More tomorrow...

Food

For updates on food... check out What we're eating
Off to Mexico City (DF) this weekend and should return with great photos of some of my favorite places!

Easier said than done

So many adventures, so little time to write. Today you get to join me on a grand shopping adventure. Mexico is an interesting blend of Old World (each shop selling one thing and one thing only) and the Us (WalMart, Costco etc).

Join me as I search for contact solution....

Trip 1 (giant mega grocery store a la Fred Meyer): I wander around the Farmacia section and finally discover the eye care. Hooray! My excitement is short lived as I discover that they don't sell me brand (I wasn't really expecting them too) AND they don't sell saline.

Trip 2 (downtown to the land of tiny shops): I stop in the first farmacia I pass. I tell the young woman that I'm looking for liquid for my contacts. Hmm, does 'solucion' mean contact solution in español? We negotiate a bit and then she points me to the selection. Same as at Megastore. Oh well. I move on.

Trip2b: Optical store. This seems promising! They sell glasses and give eye exams, they definitely must have what I'm looking for. Same conversation ensures (but I learn how to say 'multipurpose'!). I enquire about 'salina' for my eyes. The young woman gives me an odd look. No, she says, we just have this. Ok, I reply, do you know where I can find 'salina'? She directs me to the next farmacia down the street.

Trip2c: Farmacia. We start over with the conversation. The young woman directs me to the display of eye care. Hmm, again, not my brand and no saline. I ask her, do you have 'salina'? Strange look on her face. You know, I plunge ahead, water and salt? Like tears? Why do you want that she asks? Well, I say, it put it in my eyes sometimes. You don't want this multipurpose stuff? she wonders. Well, I use a different brand and I don't think I want to mix them. Hmmm... this conversation is getting strange. She consults with an older woman and then goes to the back. She returns with a clear bottle of liquid. This is salina she states. I look at her funny. Hmm I say. She explains that the salina is used to give IVs. Oh, I exclaim, that's not quite what I want! I begin to wonder if I have a vocab problem. I explain that in the US, the companies that make the multipurpose liquid also sell salina in the same boxes just for the eyes. They look at me like this is the weirdest thing they have ever heard. The older woman says that this bottle is just water and salt, so I should be able to use it, if I want to experiment. I laugh and say that I'm not quite ready to experiment on my eyes.

Trip 2d: Another optical store. I've resigned myself to not finding anything, but now I'm just curious. People here don't use saline? But it's so cheap! And this is a fairly dusty place, you'd think that people othe than me would want to wash their eyes from time to time. So, another optical store it is. I've gotten comfortable with my topic, so I know that I can express myself. I confidently walk in and explain what I'm looking for. The young woman explains that no, they don't have my brand or the elusive saline. But, she confidently explains that I should have no problem switching to a new brand, just maybe a little irritation at first (!). I sigh a little, express my thanks, and head off to my second mission (where the hell is the post office and how can 5 people not know?)

Trip 3 will probably be to WalMart (sigh). I've never been inside one, but I should probably check. Just because no one else has encountered the mysterious saline, does not mean that it doesn't exist.

Patience is indeed a virture.

It's raining everywhere!

So, I've been following Peter's stories of the flooding in Iowa. In fact, the floods in Cedar Rapids have made CNN en español here, which is interesting and a little strange. But, I 'm not missing all that much, because it is rainy season here too. This part of Mexico really has two seasons (like Portland really). Wet and dry. But, unlike Portland, wet = summer and dry = winter. So, we are just beginning wet season. The monsoon like rains come in the afternoon or evening usually, and they downpour and then stop very dramatically. We're in a valley, so you can watch the storms come in from the north and make their way down the valley, with full thunder and lightning shows. It's dramatic and exciting.

The other weekend, in Guanajuato, we endured epic rain (all day long). Since Guanajuato is hilly unlike Queretaro, the water rolls downhill.

It looks like this.

Instead of streets, we had rivers. And we waded through them to get from place to place.

Here's poor J trying to make her way across the street

We got through just fine, of course, but they told us that during the real rains, people can't leave their houses due to the water levels. Flooding everywhere it seems.

¡Soap Opera Stars!

Sometimes you just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Mostly, for me, the opposite of this is true. But very occasionally, I happen upon some pretty cool things.

While in Guanajuato, we happened upon a large group of people, hanging out outside the basilica Saturday night. This is a fairly unusual thing to do. Certainly, people go to chuch at night. So that wasn't weird. But these crowds were outside the church, lolling on the steps. And there were the Federales, the National police (kinda like the national guard I guess). They were hanging out too, watching the people. And there were the guys with the little doodads in their ears wearing suits... they kinda looked like Secret Service guys. Hmm, we starting thinking. Something is going on here! So we waited to see what would happen. Cuz, really, clearly something was up.

And we waited and waited and passed the time telling stories of ... well... nevermind. Lets just say we waited.

And THEN! Some people began leaving the church! By this point we had deduced that there might be a wedding (the sounds of mass giving us this idea). And the fact that there were news reporters with video cameras and microphones around led credence to this theory. So, we wondered what famous person was getting married. Clearly, someone important and interesting (and, yes, this is the long version of the story, I want you to appreciate the suspense we were under). So, FINALLY, people were leaving. And this quite attractive guy walked out (alone) and the girls started screaming 'Geraldo' really loud in that Elvis or The Beattles sort of way (and no, not that Geraldo). He posed and smiled for the cameras (everyone's cell phones were snapping photos) so we took pictures too, of course. He pushed his way through the crowd, walking right by us and touching us!! Woo hoo (granted, we had no idea who Geraldo was). A girl ran past us and grabbed him and kissed him. Clearly, he was the heartbreaker of middle Mexico.

We watched the rest of the wedding leave, the bride and groom posed for pics but weren't as popular as Geraldo. And then we wandered off to find beer and dinner (beer as the reward for finding our way home as described in this post). Later, I recounted the story (en español) to my friend from Paraguay. She didn't know who he was, but when I showed her this picture

She exclaimed 'Oh, he's from the telenovela!' So, it turns out that Geraldo is a famous soap star. Isn't that exciting?

Guanajuato- city or stairmaster?

J and I went to Guanajuato last weekend for a little excursion. We had a great time that involved many, many stairs. So many winding paths leading to stairs.

We went to the Museo de Momias (pictures in a separate post in case you're uncomfortable with mummies). It was surprisingly tasteful and was interesting to learn about how the soil and weather combination in Guanajuato leads to the creation of mummies (some were only 20 years old). We also saw the birthblace of Diego Riveria, a muralist and painter who I adore. NExt weekend we head to D.F. (Mexico City) and I'm really looking forward to seeing his grand murals in Palacio de Belles Artes. I'm planning on taking Mom and Peter there as well, that's how much I love these murals. Anyhoo, we toured his house and saw some of his earlier works (he had an impressionist phase inspired by Picasso) as well as some of the sketches for other works.

We treked and treked through the city....


And walked and walked and walked...

And then, we got lost. You see, Guanajuato is small. A Tiny City, really. 70,000 people, but lots of those live out in the suburbs. So getting lost? Really, that takes some special talent. Luckily, both J and I have this specical gift. So we saw on our completely ineffective map (published by the tourist bureau) that Calle Alameda went rightish and upish and then connected to this other street we wanted. So, we went rightish and upish. And kept going rightish and upish. And Kept going. And Kept going. Calle Alameda didn't have any cross streets. None. We'd round a corner, thinking, oh here it is, only to find that is was just a corner. We ended up walking a least an hour, through a tunnel,


which had its own stalagtites

and a parking lot before we found our way. In fact, we basically ended up walking in a gigantic loop. We ended up back where we started. See, that takes talent.


And this is the view from my bedroom window at Casa de Pita.


Even better, these are the views of the INSIDE of our room!

The door to our bath

J headed to the shower

Our pretty sink and mirror

J and our bunkbeds

I tell you, it sure was cute!!

I'll never be a photographer....

Just for fun, here is a series of photos I took, attempting to get you all a great shot of Bos, our house dog.

Nope, he looked away. How about attempt 2?

Not even close, although you can see how flexible he is. Attempt 3?

No, not even with J's help. One more attempt?

Well, you can kinda see his goofy face, but this picture doesn't even do justice to the very strange face of Bos. I think my photography career is over. Luckily, I like writing.

Stories from the house

I promised earlier some stories told by Alfredo and Cristiana. They are great storytellers and also have tremendous patience with my varying spanish ability. My favorite recent story tells about the orgins of their house.

Cristiana's father was just married to her mother and they were living in a tiny house on the edge of town. While he was sleeping one night, he was awoken by a ghostly woman. This woman told him about some money that was buried beneath the orange tree. She wanted him to dig up the money (that had been buried when there was a war against the Christians) and release her soul. He did this and found a huge stash of money. He used the money to buy their big house near the centro and raised 11 children there. Alfredo and Cristiana later bought the house from him.

Cristiana spent a lot of time making sure I understood how these ghosts are not frightening, because they have no strength of will over a person. They can only hurt you if you give them the power to hurt you. However, she said that they are stuck here until someone can help them finish whatever they were doing before they died. It was a facsinating conversation, not particularly sentimental or emontional but rather matter of fact. She was just describing reality, not something mysterious, or something to really exert much energy on.

Other stories don't translate as well, but I've been learning lots of great words and jokes... in particular, two handy words. A fresa (strawberry) is a person who's kinda stuckup. A mango is a person who is so sexy that you drool.

fun fun!