April 25 Daily Life

It is hard to describe why the life here is so wonderful. Probably it is a combination of the beauty and the lifestyle. Wherever I go there are beautiful things to see and photograph. Though I have taken so many photos over the last few years, I always want to take them again. The colors are amazing and because the sky is always blue and mostly clear, the light is devine which is why artists have flocked to San Miguel over the years. The Mexican way of life is more relaxed than it is in the US even though we are busy with many activities of our choice. One difference that is noticable is that in restaurants people linger for hours and no one makes you feel like you should be moving on. The bill is not brought till asked for and so relaxing and enjoying the companyof friends is just part of everyday life. We have many friends here as we have been here before and each week we make new ones. We are getting involved in several volunteer activities which brings more people into our lives. Through our yoga classes we have met so many wonderful friends and of course we have our friends here from Chapel Hill(Barbara & David) that live here now. Our friends from Durham (Bob & Jamie) are not here right now but will return in June.

My big weekly focus is spanish. I am taking private classes and learning the past tense and direct and indirect object pronouns. I find it difficult, but feel progress happening - poco a poco. I enjoy my spanish teacher very much (Rocio). We also go to an "intercambio" which is at the Biblioteca (Library) where people of all levels meet - to learn either English or Spanish. Richard has been doing this for quite a while when here but last week was my first time. I met a lovely woman who is at about the same level as I am and she will be here for the summer to learn English so hopefully we will have many chances to work on our languages together.

Wonder what Richard is doing right now??? Most of you know that we do not have a TV in NC so are used to never watching. Here at Kathie's house (we are housesitting) there is a large screen and he is enjoying watching "Spiderman" in Spanish. I have not heard a peep from him in over an hour other than to answer questions about conjugating verbs in spanish!

Here you will see pictures from the Earth Day celebration at the Botanical Gardens yesterday, a view of the city, and "Tiangus" - the big Tuesday Market.