Week 1: Into the Swing of Things

One thing that I realized this week is that coming to a place for one month is very different from going to a place for six. Already, one fourth of my time here is spent, and I've already had to think about what's going to happen when I leave. But the good thing about that is I'm really making good use of my free time.

First, let's discuss the school. My apologies to anybody from my Barcelona days, but the DQ school in Guanajuato is better than the one in Barcelona. I already knew that, since I'd been here before, but it was reinforced here. The reason, basically, is because it's much, much smaller, which means you get to know the students and the teachers much better, and much more quickly. And the school makes sure that there are things for us to do during the week, so that really, if you wanted to, you could do things with DQ all week. My teachers here are very good, but I've reached a level of Spanish now where it's not really that much fun; it's actually a lot of work. Now the work is good, and necessary, but it IS a lot of work. On Monday, one of the teachers gave us a 2-3 page essay, which was due on Friday, and then we have to do a 5-10 minute presentation on it. ¡Ay, Dios Mio! But clearly, I'm moving into a whole new level of Spanish. It's weird when you're the translater in a group of students, when you could barely speak it 6 months ago.

The other nice thing about this school is that it's a much greater mix of ages. There a number of people who are older than me, a lot, of course, who are quite a bit younger, but a few who are essentially my age. In Barcelona, 98% of the students were very young. There is, however, a much lower level of mixing of nationalities. There are, as one would suspect, a ton of Americans. There are people from other countries, of course, but this is definitely more of an American program.

Guantajuato is crazy right now because of this Cervantino. Last night I was walking around the center, and there were 10s of thousands of people down there. There{s supposed to be a million, but I have no idea how to gauge if that was true. This is a huge destination for Mexicans during this week, and you can tell the people from other places, particularly Mexico City. They are dressed much more nicely than your average Guanajuandense, and they walk around with an amazing sense of entitlement (kind of like New Yorkers in the U.S. (yep, I went there)). There were acts on the streets, so you don't have to pay anything to see something. Last night, I watched what I think were American/Mexican rock bands play on the street. I think they were American because their lyrics were in English, which they sang without any accent whatsoever, but they spoke to the crowd in what seemed to me perfect Mexican Spanish. But it was definitely contemporary rock-n-roll, and had nothing to do with the history of Mexican music. The crowd loved it, and it was a really young hip crowd. I've also seen a reggae band, from where I don't know, a bizarre goth band, and some commedia dell'arte type street theater.

Meanwhile, I've seen two paid acts. The first was the orchestra last week. On Friday, I saw a theater troupe from Slovenia (!) do a kind of post-modern re-make of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was very good, actually, with a lot of commedia dell'arte touches in it. The more interesting thing about the performance was the audience. This seriously was one of the rudest audiences I've ever been in. They announced 3 times to turn off cell-phones, but this one guy kept on getting calls, and answering them (!) and having conversations (!!). People were shushing him, but that didn't stop him. We were also told not to bring cameras in, but people were taking pictures with their cell-phones, or answering text messages, which meant that periodically I'd see this light shine from a phone. Meanwhile, and I just to have to think that they were employed by the festival, there were about 6 men, 3 on each side of the theater, with humongous cameras taking pictures, which reverberated in the house. The whole thing was weird, and when I told one of my teachers about it, she laughed and said, "That's Mexico." It's definitely true here that rules are obeyed here only when absolutely necessary. I'm learning to relax.

I went to San Miguel de Allende yesterday, a small town near Guanajuato that has essentially become a colony of Texas, filled with retirees. I've heard a lot about it, and I thought I should go, but frankly, I didn't like it very much. The only reason to go is to shop, and there were groups of women with Texas accents walking around buying stuff. But for me, it was kind of a bore. I don't really know what I'm looking at when I look at all this stuff.

A note on shopping. Mexico is completely the opposite of Spain. EVERYTHING is open on Sunday, and everyone seems to do their shopping on Sunday. I went to a few markets today, and they were packed with people. Ironically, more people go to church here than Spain, but then, I suppose, they go out shopping afterword. I think it's because Mexicans work so hard during the week, including Saturdays, and so, like Americans, they shop on Sunday. Also, I think, but I'm not sure about this, that Mexicans are as addicted to shopping as Americans. There was a lot of commerce going on, and some of the stuff they were buying seemed ridiculous. Not any more ridiculous than in the U.S. (I mean how many small figurines of Mary does one need), but considering that this is supposed to be a poor country compared to the U.S., it was interesting to see the people buying stuff with such abandon.

Today, I also went to the Alhóndiga Museum, which is the city's main museum. I had been there before, but they have some special exhibitions for Cervantino. One was this hysterical stuff by a Mexico City artist named, Luis Fernando Guevara. I don't know how to describe them, except to say that there was a picture of Shirley Temple, holding a tray of something for us. It was very surrealistic, but also very comic-book-y (if that's a word). There was a great piece about 9/11, which I liked very, very much. There was a collection of funerary urns created by contemporary Mexican artists, which were weird but interesting, which just reinforced the idea of the Mexican obsession with death. The best exhibition was this amazing one of photographs by a Mexican living in Colombia, named Rodrigo Moya. The exhibition was called "La Eterna Infancia", "The Eternal Childhood", and it was an exhibition of his photgraphs during the early 60s of children in Mexico, Guatemala and Panama. They were intense portraits. You can see information about this exhibitions at http://www.festivalcervantino.gob.mx/fic35/?q=exposiciones&page=2.

Tonight I'm seeing a Dutch dance troupe, so that should be interesting, but I think this has to be a day of rest for me. I'm tired! I've been going non-stop since I came here. But it's weird being in someone else's house. The family is great, but you're basically invading their house for awhile, so it's a little awkward to just stay in my room. But it's still the best way to stay here, I think, for 4 weeks.

No photos, obviously. The problem with me having been here already is that I already have photos of most everything here, and I still have to figure out how to upload the photos on a strange computer.