I’ve been in Mexico for a week now. Today is the first day that Margarita, Isabel’s sister, has NOT come to my apartment to take me to one place or another: the bank, the cable company, the grocery store, a restaurant, a seminar on Sequeiros at the university, nearby towns for outings, the school where I’ll be working, or some other destination. To be honest, I was ready for a rest today, and I’m sure Margarita was, too.

Margarita is retired—jubilada, as it is said in Spanish—from teaching primary school here for over 20 years. That’s why Isabel enlisted her to be my guide in Xalapa at the beginning of my stay. I can’t thank Isabel enough for her foresight in anticipating what I would need and enjoy in my first week here, and Margarita for her abundant energy and patience in taking me all around. Her daughter Miriam went with us, too, to most places, and her and Isabel's first cousin Joaquin has been the driver for out-of-town excursions and has been patient in answering my many questions.

Here are some observations and recollections from my first week here in Xalapa:

Banking: Margarita took me to her bank on the first day so that I could withdraw pesos from my credit union using my ATM card. After several attempts both at a teller window and the ATM machine, Margarita finally asked a man at a desk, clearly an officer of the bank, who told her that I would have to transact my business at Banamex instead because Santander Bank doesn’t handle these kinds of transactions for non-members.

Banamex was only a block or two away, and in no time, I had money to buy groceries and pay my first month’s rent. What a relief!

Walking: That’s how people get around here in Xalapa, along with taking buses and taxis. The steep streets of this city and the ease with which people climb up and down them amazes me! Xalapa is built on hilly terrain with mountains and a large volcano, el Pico de Orizaba, visible in the distance when the sky’s not covered in clouds. I’ve been physically tired at the end of each day because of the exercise I’ve been getting just going about my business--and that's a good thing.

The narrow sidewalks of the main streets are often crowded, and Margarita has warned me about walking in the streets when cars are approaching. Drivers here are definitely more aggressive than in Albuquerque—or perhaps I should say that more drivers are aggressive here than in ABQ—and evidently cars have the right of way, not pedestrians, except in intersections with stop lights.

Grocery shopping: Margarita took me to Chedraui’s, a supermercado near my apartment, to buy groceries on Friday, my first full day here. Since we’d spent so much time at the bank earlier, I bought only the most important items--cheese, dish soap, toilet paper, cream for my coffee [the closest I could get was a thick, barely sweet media crema in a can] and a few more odds and ends needed right away. (Isabel had given me a bag of coffee, Bola de Oro, grown and roasted here in the state of Veracruz, before I left ABQ so I didn’t have to buy any—and this coffee, I’ve discovered, is rich, dark and smooth.) Margarita suggested I wait until Sunday to buy fruits and vegetables at the outdoor mercado. By the time we left the supermarket, Margarita, Miriam, and I were running out of steam.

And so, on Sunday, we went—Margarita, Miriam, and I—first to her cousin Joaquin’s house to pick up him and his mother, Dona Teresa—and then to the mercado.

What amazed me was the variety of fruits and vegetables for sale. Stall after stall stretching for several blocks featured vegetables—but especially fruits—that I had never heard of before and in sizes I had never seen before. The avocados! Ay, que grandotes! I bought them and red grapes and oranges and limes and tomatoes and cantaloupe and guayavas and a fruit the size of cherries only yellow in color and different in flavor and whose name I now forget—and corn
tortillas freshly made. My kitchen is still full of fruit four days later. I’ll know to restrain myself at the mercado next time. But the guacamole I made from the avocados and spread on my homemade tortillas—delicious!

Speaking Spanish: People here have been so helpful and patient when I ask them to "habla más despacio, por favor," and I've been surprised at how much I can understand when speaking to someone in person versus when I listen to TV in Spanish. I've also encountered many people who quickly switch to English for my benefit and, I'm sure, to take the opportunity to practice their English skills. And as eager as I am to learn more Spanish, I find I'm always happy to switch to English and be able to express myself without wracking my brain for words that I know I don't possess. I said to Margarita (but I don't know if I expressed myself clearly, lacking verbs as I did) that I wanted to go to the verb store and buy some verbs, some Spanish
verbs, preferably on a card similar to the phone cards here that would allow me to download Spanish verbs to my brain and from there to my tongue.