...and it's only day two....whoa.it was a tough day, one where i left like i took a step backwards. but, as i told garvie, it's good and i'm still givn'er, or trying to - but it can hurt your head sometimes. and really, i'm at the beginning of what, could be, a lifelong journey and i shouldn't expect too much from this trip but, i'm still making the flash cards and reading and listening and....good lord it's hard. i need a head massage.
i met my inter-cambrio/language exchange local today and he's a good guy - so far. a 28 year old government worker who is kinda between contracts right now so he has time to come to the school and try and improve his english by talking to me and i, hopefully, will learn from him as we speak. his name is jose luiz. but wants me to just call him luiz because jose is so mexican...he said this laughing...he said, 'you'll tell your friends you're hanging out with a guy named jose and they'll laugh....'. so luiz it is. he told me about his life, his schooling, etc...and then when i told him i worked in film, and then that it was special effects, i became a very cool guy in his eyes...i tried to assure him i was but a small cog in a rather large FX wheel but he was having none of it...lol. so i told him how a few things were done and some films that i had worked on, some of which he had seen, and now he's even more stoked to hang out...so great. we're only scheduled to talk an hour a day but he asked if i wanted to go outside of school and talk and walk around and he would show me things and teach me more that way instead of just being at the school. i think this is great. he knows i cook and wants to take me to the market and teach me things there...coolio. mucho beuno.
i hope luiz doesn't get me into trouble.
i have met some great people here at the school and am finding it easier than i expected to get in there and say hello, and make mistakes (like tonight when i asked a woman at the food stand i was at - after eating - where something was instead of what something was called....), and the cross section of students is very wide. i have had great conversations with some of the students who are much older than myself...i'm gonna get a picture of bill, a guy from madison, wisconsin, who is so fuckin' awesome. i'll leave my description of him for when i get a picture but he's wicked. also zack and julie who are a retired couple who live in jackson hole, wyoming who are excellent as well. he is some sort of big deal scientist - though he'd never tell you so, and his wife - julie, was a player in the san francisco philharmonic but she downplays it...she helps me when it's clear i don't know what's going on. they're all in classes higher than mine but our cooking class is a mixed group so most, well all, of them are far more advanced in their spanish. but that's ok...
the cooking was interesting today - even though i didn't understand much of what the teacher had to say - a very nice local woman of perhaps 6o or so - but i followed along as she made the food...we help as we can, she gives us tasks. we're making some fancy refried beans tomorrow and corn tortillas from scratch. and today we made a corn based hot chocolate drink. really good shit chico.
tonight i went to the zocalo and walked around - i find it nice to not come directly back here after school. better to go for a walk, listen a little, eat, then come here. sort of a zone out time.
ok. homework now.
i love you.
g. xo
that's zack - world famous scientist or so i'm lead to believe by bill from madison...and the teacher. zack is awesome. and his wife julie is as well...
a bunch of posters i saw near my apartment. i love that on the one poster the music is done by rooster soundsystem. only in mexico.
we all took turns mixing the chocolate drink...the woman working it in the picture is from victoria, the woman beside her is cassie, from seattle - she had her boyfriend are in mexico for six months and my man zack.
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