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So I have had a very good week despite the recurrence of my stomach issues. I saw another on Tuesday night so said that I have an amoeba, yummy. I am taking an antibiotic to kill the pet in my bowels and hopefully this time it will work. I am definitely looking forward to being able to eat without having fear when I get home. Tuesday after my Dr. visit I went to see a presentation on campus of a Mexican folkloric dance group. It was very good. The majority of the group was young. They played their own traditional (mostly Mariachi) music and danced to it. I took some videos that I can share when I get home. Wednesday after class I found the music department at the Uni and hit the jackpot. There are about 8 practice rooms and they all have pianos in them. I was the only one in the whole building so I picked a room, closed the door and played for about 2 hours (I almost missed my bus). It was very nice to play and a nice release for me. Thursday after class I went walking to downtown Cholula with some friends from Texas. As we were walking the daily downpour started so we ran into a little restaurant where we enjoyed some nieve (lit. snow/ the best ice cream ever) and sat out the storm. Afterwards I just decided to walk home because I had to meet Gaby and Alfredo for dinner. I definitely got my exercise. When I got home around 3:45 there was a note on the table that said “Comemos a partir de 16:30” (We will eat around 4:30). I sat down to watch some tv and relax for a little while. There wasn’t much on tv and I could heard some kids playing outside so I decided to go outside to see if I could play too. ‘Davidcito’ the couple across the street was outside with his grandma playing ball. This is the couple who are the missionaries, Kelly is from TX and her husband is from Mexico. Kelly’s mom is here visiting for a couple of weeks so I started talking to her. She just retired from the school system in Houston where she taught Spanish for 30 years. She is a Christian as well with a lot of insight into the wonderful world of education. She was very sweet and we spent over an hour talking. What about eating at 4:30, you ask? 4:30 in Mexican time could mean 4:30 or 7pm, this day it meant 6pm. That is when Gaby and Alfredo finally got home and we ate. I love the Spanish concept of time – it was the same in Spain.
Today (Friday) was an awesome day. I slept in, watched a little tv, then headed out to meet my friend from MI in the zócalo (center) of Cholula. We had planned to walk around the market, get some lunch and do a little shopping. We decided to eat lunch in the same place where Gaby and Alfredo took me in the market the other weekend. It is the place where the ladies pat out the blue corn tortillas and you can pick what you want in your quesadilla and they make them for you. The food was just as delicious as last time but the company was a bit more exciting. As we sat down a young Mexican guy asked us where we were from in broken English, so we told him in Spanish where we were from. He told us that he had lived (worked) in Georgia for a while and how much he loved the US. That was the end of the conversation, I thought. Well the lady served us our quesadillas which were piping hot and hard to eat b/c they are so huge. The Mexican guy kept staring at us and eventually started laughing as we ate, so I decided to ask him what he was laughing at in a friendly tone, Nada he said. This started a longer conversation between the two ladies working the quesadilla stands, me, him and my friend. I still can’t get over how nice Mexicans are. We spent about an hour talking with these Mexican whom we didn’t know at all and it was awesome. As we were about to leave to do some shopping, our new Mexican friend, named Vicente, asked if he could walk with us and we said sure. So the three of us spent the afternoon shopping for pirated CD’s and DVD’s which was quite fun. We walked all around Cholula and later shared a couple beers and watched some fútbol. Now tell me where in America this would ever happen with a complete stranger. I learned a lot about Mexico and the immigration issues from Vicente that I will be happy to talk about when I get home…way too much to write on here. Needless to say I had a great day. I love meeting and talking to total strangers and that is very easy to do here in Mexico. Tomorrow, I plan to explore downtown Puebla so maybe I will meet some more cool people. I miss everyone, and I’m sure I’ll write more after the weekend. P.S. I’m half way through my time here, I can’t believe how quickly it has passed but I’m excited to return home in a month!