This year, I'm thankful that we decided to come to this beautiful city. I'm thankful that the owners of this house entrusted it to us during our visit. I'm thankful for the beauty that is all around us here. Not the architecture and art (for that is surely spectacular), but the people and their kindness. I'll get to that in a bit. First, a recap since my last post.
We've settled into a morning routine. When we come downstairs, Graciela serves coffee. We sit around reading and drinking coffee until she announces that breakfast is ready. Yesterday, she'd made chilaquiles and this morning it was a mélange of eggs and nopales. After breakfast, we head to El Jardin and stake out a bench in a puddle of sun and watch the world go by for an hour, or so, with a few hundred of our closest friends. They've started decorating the Jardin for Christmas. That involved the delivery (and planting) of hundreds of poinsettias. There was a news report yesterday about some controversy over the placement of this year's tree. (hell, I've only had six months of Spanish...how am I supposed to know what they're talking about?).
After the 'morning sit', we headed to a beautiful colonial structure called Bellas Artes, which houses art classes, music and dance classes, art galleries, a spectacular courtyard and some incredible murals from the 40s.
We then headed over to the library, which is a cultural/social center of the community. On the way to the library, a funeral procession passed by, led by the hearse, a mariachi band playing 'My Way', followed by the mourners. Passersby all stopped and doffed their hats in respect. In the courtyard of the library, there were several lessons in Spanish taking place, people meeting for walking tours and, of course, the ubiquitous dogs of San Miguel. The dogs are the best behaved pets I have ever witnessed. I don't think we've heard a dog bark. Of course, we've yet to see a cat. After a bit of shopping for gifts and other treasures and a late lunch, it was time for a siesta. Dinner last night was at a chain restaurant. Not ANY chain restaurant, but Pollo Feliz (happy chicken). It's legendary here. It's as big as an airplane hangar. You order your pollo al carbon and head to the salad/salsa & chips bar and, upon your return to your table, your food is there. The cab driver on the way to dinner was pretty chatty and told a joke (yes, in Spanish) about the chickens not being so happy, as they're dead!
After our 'morning sit' today, we decided to make Thanksgiving dinner at home. Terry announced that he'd roast chickens, so we headed to the Mercado to fetch a couple, as well as 'all the trimmings'. Today, that is including camotes, which are candied yellow sweet potatoes, in syrup, as well as carrots and onions, which are roasting with the chicken...which brings me to being thankful for the warmth and generosity of the people of San Miguel. I ran to the Super Bonanza (a little store near the house) to fetch some laundry detergent, some wine, some sugar and some string (for trussing the birds). I was almost to the store when I realized that I had not a clue as to what the word for string was. I hoped to see a package on display to avoid the humiliation of having to play charades with the store employees, but no such luck. I started with saying that it was thinner than rope, but white. Naturally, I began to add the inane hand gestures (simulating tying a bow). THAT, of course, led to the assumption that I was looking for white shoe laces. By this point, 3 employees were playing the game, 'Guess what the moronic gringo wants'. A light bulb went on over my head, literally. I saw a bare bulb and simulated 'pulling the cord'. 3 chants of AY...hilo! One of the contestants ran off with a pair of scissors and returned with a bit of white string, just as I wanted, that she cut from somewhere in the store. They didn't sell it, but sent me elsewhere. The woman at the second store didn't have hilo, but wanted to know whether 'thread' would do. I said I was using it for cooking and she sold me a packet of white thread, just in case, but sent me to the paper store around the corner for 'hilo para paquetes marrones' (that's right...string for brown packages). I announced my need at the third store and the woman ceremoniously produced balls of string in 4 different sizes. All of these people had the generosity of spirit to help me and not laugh about the crazy gringo, at least until I was out of earshot. For that, I'm most thankful.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
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