Apartment #2: My NEW new place

Yes, I know I'm a gypsy. In the space of one week, I had THREE residences. Surely that's a record for even me. I was living in a hotel room, a new apartment, and a completely different apartment.

Yep, the cute little place I wrote about in the posts below continued to flood. It's the rainy season here, so this was something I was going to be looking at on a daily (nightly) basis. The roof leaked like a sieve. The effect was sort of like living under the canopy of a tropical rain forest.

And then there was the MIRACLE OF THE GAS LEAK. Read on: As I wrote in the post below, the gas man came and installed the gas tank. So far, so good. Warm showers. Great. He even showed my how to use the gas burner stovetop.

Midafternoon, I lay down to take a nap. I was really sleepy (wonder why?, hmmm...) I awoke to the sound of a torrential rainstorm, and water dripping from the ceiling onto my leg. Once I was awake, I noticed the powerful smell of GAS. Checking out the gas stove, I found that one of the on/off knobs was broken. You couldn't turn it completely off, the knob just spun around without a hard stop. I turned off the gas intake valve below the cabinet and opened all the doors and windows.

And that was about enough of that. I called the landlady (on my nifty new cellphone) and told her I wanted my money back. Thankfully, she didn't kick. Well, she said she could get the roof fixed in 3-4 days if I'd stay. "No, gracias." The last night there, I 'camped out' in another unfinished (dry) apartment in the building (with no water of working bathroom).

Happily, I was able to get into a different apartment the very next morning. It was the place I had looked at about a week ago. Still available. What luck, huh? It's more expensive--5,000 pesos vs. 3,500 pesos. But that's still only about $380 US/month or $13/night. That's a lot cheaper than staying in any hotel. I love having my own complete kitchen. It's got 2 bedrooms (only need one). There are 3 other apartments in this new buidling occupied by long-term American residents. And the landlady here lives in the front. She's like a mother hen taking care of her tenants....very solicitous that everything is A-OK.

I'm posting some photos of the place above. I'm really taken with the apartment. It feels more like a home. The last place felt like a hotel suite. This feels lived in.

Tonight, I'm off to the baseball stadium for another game of the Oaxaca Guerreros.

Happy & Sad

Today I was happy. I got a second opportunity to be a guest lecturer at the Queretaro Institute of Technology (in their foreign language department). I spoke to an advanced English class (level 6).

For a lesson plan, I chose a short fairytale by Danish children's writer, Hans Christian Anderson. Many of you may be familiar with it, "The Princess & The Pea." I did a dictation exercise, reading the short work line by line to the class. They had to listen, understand, and write what they heard. Later, we compared the original printed version (handout) to their own writing. Then, we read for pronunciation. Then did a oral translation. Then discussed new vocabulary words, and certain verb formations.

All in all, it was a delightful class. They all paid attention, and the department chair sat it. Genial!
--------------------------

But yesterday, I was sad. I've been volunteering every day at a local shelter for abused children. Tuesday was the day that many of them had parental visits at their former homes (some supervised, some not). After lunch there was a little girl who'd been on such a home visit who stood in the corner of the playground (outdoors), and slapped the wall, continuously, while sobbing. One of the ladies who works there tried to calm her down. No luck. I sat down on the ground next to her and tried to calm her down. No luck. So, it was the end of my shift, and I left. With the little dear still crying uncontrollably and hitting the wall. The image stays with me.

U.S. / Mexico Two-Step

It's become like the Rihanna/Chris Brown celebrity wife-beater case--he loves me, he hits me, I can't leave him, he's out of control, I can't live without him.

The U.S.-Mexico relationship at this moment seems a bit like that...with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton scheduling a diplomatic visit to Mexico to try to patch things up. Our economies (yes, even drug economies) are so completely intertwined.

Mexican President Calderon even invoked the old saying once used by the former Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz around 1910 in an interview with an American reporter back then.

Diaz said, "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States."

Check out this link from Bloomberg News to see what's been going on--

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=axUjKcbAt82w&refer=latin_america

The Jacarandas Are In Bloom in Queretaro

All over the city you see these beauties. Beneath their branches a carpet of fallen royal purple blossoms covers the ground.

My New Amiga

This is the owner of the hotel's new puppy. Her name is Lena, and she's my new best friend. The old dog, Whiskey, isn't sure what to make of his new playmate. Both are Scottish Terriers.