Noche Buenas. (Poinsettias.)
Did you know this Christmas decoration is actually a tropical flower?!
There are several of them growing in the surrounding barrios (neighborhoods).
I walked past this one every day. Christmas is coming soon, folks! And I will be coming home soon, too : ).
"Lainie, what have you been learning?" English. (You mean "Spanish"?) No. English.
Allow me to explain.
I knew how to speak English, of course. (I've been practicing for nearly twenty years...) But it is an entirely different scenario when you have to explain "how" and "why".
It's actually rather exciting.
All that to say, I'm been learning a lot of English alongside my students : ). (Though, some are equally as eager to help me learn Spanish. They are especially fond of finding words they KNOW I can't pronounce. That is, the ones with "rr". I haven't quite mastered the tongue-rolling yet.)
So, then, what have WE been learning? I'll tell you.
Nearly every concept we have covered in the last three months can be summed up by one song: "We are the Champions" by Queen.
It's lyrics contain past, present, present perfect, and future tense. (It also has idioms.) Thank you, Freddie Mercury.
*Fun Side-Note: We just took the test over "present perfect" tense. This covers sentences using "have" or "has". Thus, the title of this post.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the WHOLE year. A day for the whole nation to celebrate being thankful? Yes, please! Along with fabulous, hypo-allergenic food. And crisp weather with the leaves changing color. And add scarves and Charlie Brown and things that taste like pumpkin. Perfect. Thus, I was a little disheartened at the idea of NOT celebrating this year. Thanksgiving is a holiday of the United States of America. (Though, I heard it is also celebrated in Canada. Fact?) BUT! My heart had nothing to fear. For the sake of extending thankfulness this season (and certainly for educational purposes, too : )), my community here celebrated ALL DAY LONG. Here's what happend:
1. I had my English class re-enact the history of Thanksgiving. (This was complete with pilgrims in an imaginary boat and a Native American head-dress made of colored-paper.) Then they wrote thank you notes to important people in their lives. I was so excited about their writing abilities! (This actually happened on the Wednesday prior, as we don't have English class on Thursdays.) 2. Thursday lunch. A traditional Thanksgiving at the Overcasts! (They are the directors of NOE.) All the other "gringos" were there (of which we totaled four), along with other guests. There was turkey and cranberries and potatoes and sweet potatoes and rolls and pumpkin and sparkling cider and all of it! (Contented sigh.)
photo credit: Brian Luis Overcast
3. I help in the tutoring class on Thursday afternoons. They asked me to explain Thanksgiving to them, but in Spanish. I made my best attempt and drew turkeys on the pizarron (whiteboard). : )
4. In English-conversation class that night we celebrated "Charlie Brown" style. This meant with toast! Thank you, Snoopy! (If you haven't watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", it's on Youtube.) They really enjoyed it, and we each shared what we were thankful for.
Samy is a beautician. She painted her nails like this : ). (And she took the photo.)
I was the one who wrote "legs" photo credit: Samy
5. After all our classes were finished (around 8:30pm), a large group of friends walked up the street to Kristen's house, were we proceeded to celebrate again! We had a turkey and potatoes and cranberries... and mac and cheese and whatever else was collectively brought : ). It wasn't "traditional", and that was wonderful all on its own.
I was ASTOUNDED by the willingness and enthusiasm of this community to celebrate. I was very blessed, very thankful, and very full!
*And I hope you caught the "Portlandia" reference in the title.
"Festival International de los Globos" happens each year in Leon (a town in the another state). It was a once-in-a-lifetime event! (And, by that I mean, now I've done it once and won't need to again.) Actually, quite a story... The pictures turned out really well!
with Kristen
I went with Damaris on an exploration of the furniture store (the one referenced in "Walking"). Three-floors, packed corner-to-corner with statues and chairs and wall art and other things! Of course, some pictures were taken...
Damaris had some basketball games in Uruapan (an hour or so away). It's the avocado capital! (This certainly meant another paleta de aquacate for me!) We also walked through the national forest park. That may have been my favorite place I have visited so far.
There is some significance behind the celebration currently happening downtown (though, the explanations have been vague). It has something to do with the Catholic church, I think. But the reason everyone has been flocking to "El Caballito" ("The Little Horse" plaza) these last few weeks is because of the cañas (sugar cane). It is skinned, sliced, and sold in bolsas (bags). You chew it for the juice and then spit the fiber into the trash bag. And the flavors slightly differ from vendor to vendor. There are a TON of vendors, so there is also a ton of sampling. (So much so that I didn't feel a need to actually buy a bag of my own!) My English conversation class took me out to try it. We called it a "field trip" : ).
Similar to the most recent "Hunger Games" movie (of which I have not seen yet) (nor have I read the books), there is just too much that happened in noviembre to put it in one post. So here is "part one". Noche de Muertos. It is celebrated the night in between November 1 and 2. It is, as I understand, a remembrance of the dead. (There are also historical and "spiritual" aspects of it. Here, consult Wikipedia.) "Ofrendas" or "alters" are erected, and there are candles and cempazuchitl flowers (marigolds) everywhere. Janitzio, an island an hour or so away from here, is apparently the international gathering place for celebration. We went to look and stopped a few other places, too.
Pansita de Calabaza. AKA, pumpkin bread. I'll tell you, folks, in the absence of Halloween AND Thanksgiving, pumpkins are a rare sight in Morelia. And they are not a "flavor of fall". There are certainly no cans of "Libbys" to be found here. (Except the one sitting in my locker at NOE, which was sent to me by my mother, via a visitor to the US. Thank you, very much. : ))
I shared about the traditional November goodies with my host-mom, who then went to the neighbors and retrieved half a calabaza. That is, a pumpkin. Like, a pumpkin-pumpkin. So we cooked and scraped and blended and made our very own pumpkin puree. I felt like an accomplished pioneer woman. (Ha! A pioneer woman with an electric blender and a gas stove.)
Lupita and Damaris helped : )
Evan Craft. I hadn't heard of him, or his music. But he was coming to town, and we got tickets. It was fun, and actually really encouraging! He is a "gringo", just like me, who learned Spanish a few years ago and is doing something incredible with it. (He has his own songs, but he also does covers of "Hillsong United" and other similar artists and translates them into Spanish.) Way to go, Evan.
This refers specifically to the stone pavement in some of the streets.
(Also, a reference to the general neighborhood with such streets, like the one I presently live in.)
Las puertas. (The doors.)
The inside doors are "normal" (and I put that in quotes, as "normal" is ENTIRELY subjective, especially in this case).
So, by that I mean, the doors to rooms within the house have the standard knob/ handle that I am accustom to in the United States.
It is the big, outside doors here that are tricky. (These are the ones that close the garage-patio. They are much heavier, and the handles look like this...)
You pull the handle to the side, and then push. (More or less.) A lot of the times you also need the key. (Otherwise, you might be locked IN!) It took me a little longer to get a grasp on this. (Longer than the T.P. adjustment, that is.) And my first experience using the house keys ALL BY MYSELF resulted in much confusion, and I sat on the banqueta (sidewalk) until the friendly vecina (neighbor) walked by and helped me. She was very kind.
