arthur richards

I was originally going to write this a few days ago and title it "I've been here for almost a week and I still haven't had a taco". But all that changed after I ate two and experienced "La Venganza de Montezuma". After a friend suggested papaya enzymes (you rule, Dion!), I'm feeling immensely better.

It's been an exhausting week. For the most part we've just been trying to get oriented and acclimated. The altitude, the city, the heat, the food, the people, going back to school (!), the exchange rate, the pollution... have all been dizzying in their own way.

We decided to begin our time here with Spanish classes at IMAC. We started out with private lessons (since we arrived between when group classes normally begin) and this past Monday we switched to group lessons. It's been tricky adjusting to being back in school (homework?!) But overall, the classes have been great. From the moment we arrived, Sarah and I decided to talk to one another entirely in Spanish unless absolutely necessary. It's been uh... hard, but the rule is serving us well. Between this and our classes, our Spanish has gotten a lot better in just a week.

Through IMAC, we're staying with a family here. The house is... a bit far from the center of town and the school, but we've got our own private apartment and our host mom makes us lunch and dinner (hella tasty). She's also shown us around town a bit and in general has been super sweet to us. She introduced us to her neighbor who freelances as a tour guide - this past weekend, she and her husband took us to Lake Chapala. This was a fantastic first outing - the scenery is magnificent and the lake will be playing a big part in our project, Adapting to Scarcity.

We've explored the old colonial part of Guadalajara a bit - but honestly, it's been so friggin hot and we've been so busy/overwhelmed we haven't explored half as much as we'd like. That said, we've got plenty of time and want to make sure we don't completely wear ourselves out from the beginning. The picture attached to this post is of one of the spires of La Catredal de Guadalajara - the major cathedral at the cityś center. From what I understand, most (all?) Mexican cities have a large central square with a cathedral, market and governmental buildings.

Since we live so far from the center of the city, we have to take long bus rides to and from school. As Sarah points out, the buses crickety-creak through the busy streets with lots of style. It wouldn't be a bus ride without pink fur-lined mirrors and a large, similarly vested crucifix. On all of our rides today, we experienced something new - a gentlemen wielding a guitar and booming voice boarded the bus and played for pesos while we hurtled down the streets of Guadalajara.

Without a doubt my favorite thing about Guadalajara so far as been the FOOD. In spite of some tummy troubles, I have never eaten so many delicious things with such regularity as I have over the past week. Our host mother is a fabulous cook and has served us a bunch of typical dishes from the area - birria (a stew traditionally made from goat, though ours was made with beef), chiles rellenos, fresh tortillas, gorditas stuffed with cheese and spinach, hella frijoles, fresh salsas, pan dulce and many more with names I can't remember. Of course, we've thrown back a handful of beers - but last weekend I tried a surprisingly delicious beverage called tejuino - made form mildly fermented corn with a pinch of chile, salt lime and ice. ¡Qué delicioso!

For reasons I can't entirely explain, and in spite of a recent resurgence of interest in photography, I haven't take more than a few photos. But now that I'm feeling more confident and comfortable here, I think I'm going to start lugging my camera around. Guadalajara is incredibly colorful - in every way you can imagine - and I've been taking mental notes of places and things that I'm eager to capture. In anticipation of all the photos, I added a 'recent photos' widget to my sidebar which displays recent photos I've posted on Flickr. Many more to come!

I'm going to try and post a little more regularly with shorter, more topically focused tomes. Until then, ¡nos vemos!