Our First Fiesta, No Water and a Bruise

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Spanish classes have been hard. They cram a lot of knowledge into the 2 and a half week course. We have learned 100 verbs over the last week and a half. I have lots of homework every night and often ask myself…”What was I thinking!?” But, even as stubborn as I am getting, every day I am able to understand more and more. Even recognizing words that quickly fly out of my neighbor’s mouths…I am starting to understand and even reply a little. This is what has made the whole studying thing worth it. The other thing that made it worth it was the great fiesta we were invited to at my professor: Warren Hardy’s house. The whole class had a giant potluck on Wednesday after school. I was going a bit crazy trying to figure out what I could possibly make with one day’s notice…but Eleanor gave me a grand idea…[I] deviled eggs. [i/]

We crammed into a car with other classmates and drove way up on a hill to Casa Hardy. The place was stunning. Their house was very small and humble, but they had amazing gardens and a wonderful swimming pool. There were also two fishponds, a “Girls Kick Ass,” room for guests to stay and a man lair that included a small area of weights and Warren’s office. They had a large fire pit that looked out over all of San Miguel. Warren and Tulli (his wife) are just as happy to be. In fact they are some of the most inspiring people I have met in many years. They simply enjoy the joys of life, meeting and having fun with all kinds of people and are totally in love with each other. Warren is also a painter and around their house, he has many painting of the two of them together in romantic scenes…and not in a cheesy way…but in a sincere and honest portrayal of his feelings for her. Needless to say we ate a lot of great food and drank many coronitas. (See an earlier entry if you don’t know what a coronita is.)

Thankfully, we were offered a ride back to El Centro with a lovely couple who had driven down from Arizona and a girl from Palo Alto volunteering for a month. We just made it in time to apply for absentee ballots and sneak into the second part of the Mayan lecture the library was holding. Sadly, the lecture wasn’t as good as we were hoping but we were still having a good time with each other. Wanting an early dinner, we headed to Romano’s, a fun Italian restaurant with a lovely outdoor terrace. After our first glass of wine, a huge crash of thunder startled us. We decided to try to tough it out in the covering from the rain, but we were defeated. We moved to the indoor area with another couple. Talk about love! This couple could not keep their hands off of each other and by the end of the meal, she was sitting on his lap and kissing him completely…even with the waiter tending to them! Certainly something you would not see in the states…but it cracked Ronnie and I up and it was good to have dinner [I] and[/I] a show.

Ah yes so our water! Well, we have had a leak in one of our closets when it rains, so we told Eleanor all about it. She instantly called a repairman who took out one of our water holders…and said he had to order new ones. Long story short, he kept us from having water for 3 days and tried to overcharge Eleanor on everything. Of course you can’t pull one over Eleanor and she figured it out. She then fired him and called another plumber friend who said all we needed was a two dollar patch…and wah-la! Water runs for us again. And good thing! We were tired of drinking out of giant bottles, no showers and trying to use as few dishes as possible.

Oh yeah! On Monday we went and saw Batman at the local theater. It was subtitled so luckily it was in spoken English. Hooray! And we made it to an early show and only had to pay 38 pesos ($3.80) to get in. A coke and popcorn was 40 pesos which Eleanor thought was crazy…but Ronnie and I were in heaven. We will certainly attend more movies there. Eleanor was with us and we of course loved the movie. Afterwards we went for drinks at Harry’s to discuss the movie. We also shared a sip of absinthe with some other gringos and then over to the German restaurant called Berlin for a light bite.

In other news, I slipped and fell on our slippery steps this morning. Luckily, I was holding onto the handrail and so not too much damage was done. Just a small cut on my hand and a giant bruise on my butt…how embarrassing...

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