Caddy Shack

Wall art Oaxaca

I have unfortunately been informed that I flunked the final exam and I will have to come back again next year for a month to prepare for the make up exam… such is life in the tropics, sigh!

Tomorrow early I am on the big bird to Cancun via Mexico City and although I should be able to send and receive emails until it is time to be home (Apr 22), I probably won’t be blogging much as internet access is much more limited in Cuba. 

So this could be Adios instead of Hasta Luego, but don’t be shy about sending me a note on email…

Don Tomas

You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic.
  – Doris Egan

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.
  – Malcolm Forbes

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
  – James Thurber

Well school is almost over and graduation day approaches.  I would have to admit to being a bit frustrated with my progress in Spanish but when I think back to where I was when I started this year and where I am now I realize progress has been made. I have also decided that I could make Spanish a whole lot easier with a get together w  and get my diploma while the getting is good.

Ah Spanish, sometimes I just don’t get it.

Hasta la proxima,

Don Tomasfew simple changes if they would let me.  Do they really need 14 tenses?  Couldn’t they do without all the irregular verbs. My favorite so far is the verb Caber: “to fit”. Here are 5 of 14 tenses in the first person singular:

Don’t you have to wonder who was at that meeting and what substances were being consumed at the time. So as you can see I can’t take all the blame for slow progress in this endeavor. 

The main thing lacking in the Spanish language is a word for “get” and we should thank our lucky stars that this little jewel exists in English.  You can get going, get together, get the groceries, get drunk, get sick, get better, get the bill, get a job, get familiar, get acquainted, you can even get lucky ( get really acquainted), and for each of these concepts in Spanish you have to use a different sentence structure and or a different verb. 

Another noticeable thing about Spanish is that if there is a long word in English, you can count on the fact that it will be longer in Spanish.  I will leave you with some examples that you can use to impress people the next time you are having a conversation with a Spaniard:  intrinsicamente, ironicamente, coincidentamente, evidentamente; exquisitamente, elequentamente, efectivamente, precisamente, casualmente, honestamente, individualisticamente. …

OK, got to go.  Got to get to school for the morning

Dining at the Biznaga

It is my last week in Oaxaca and to provoke some conversation my professor asked me today to name 3 things that are different in Oaxaca than at home in Canada.  Well as you might imagine there are lots of things but the one that just screams out at you everyday is the amount of commerce in the streets and how everyone allows everyone else to try to make a living. There have to be hundreds of restaurants in this town and yet on virtually every street a vendor will be set up selling tacos, tlayudas, tamales etc.  Vendors weave in and out of the restaurants and stores and even offer pastries and other categories of things already for sale in the venue.  The streets and sidewalks become places of commerce for all sorts of vendors; scarves, blankets, clothing, trinkets, carvings etc, all laid out in front of existing businesses.  I took the attached photo in one of the better restaurants (the Biznaga).  The two young girls wandered in selling chick lets and must have negotiated a few deals as I noticed them later dining at their own private table.  I had noticed the table on a previous visit to the restaurant but I had no idea it was for anything other than novelty.  I don’t know the whole story but it appears to me that the ‘Biznaga’ has some compassion for young street vendors.  One other noticeable thing about Oaxaca which is also related to commerce is the number of shoe shine stands there are in town.  There are probably a dozen in the Zocalo alone and as I was reading the newspaper in the “Zoke” yesterday I noticed that 5 consecutive shoe shine stands within my view were all busy.  Also seen in the Zocalo yesterday was a woman advertising a very shrill and noisy bird whistle by blowing quite strenuously on it.  This would not have attracted my attention at any other time but she was working her way around the periphery of a crowd that was watching a 50 piece orchestra playing classical music.  Not one person turned to shush her or give her an eye roll.  She was trying to earn enough money to live for another day and that seemed to be well accepted by everyone.

This afternoon I went to the market for lunch which consisted of a bowl of mole soup so good that I went back this evening to sample other things on the menu.  A family of 3 sat down on the bench beside me and within 5 minutes they had ordered their meal, purchased a bag of mangoes from a passing vendor (one of the women behind the counter also bought a bag), negotiated for a clay plate and pot and said a polite “no gracias” to a couple of other vendors including a woman selling chapolines (grasshoppers).

Speaking of grasshoppers, they seem to be a bit of a delicacy here, they taste a bit oily, crunchy and smoky to me but maybe we are missing out on an opportunity.  If the French could trick us into eating snails maybe we should be working harder on this grasshopper thing in the prairies.  OK, there is a million dollar idea just waiting for someone and I will give it to you for free.  It is time to make a few calls with my new bird whistle.    

Hasta la proxima

Don Tomas

Teo the Toucan

After my last posting one loyal reader, lets call her “Juanita”, sent a gentle reminder that my presence might be required back in Canada.  At times like this it has been my experience that the discussion of birds comes in very handy as in: “look is that a Barn Swallow?!” or “how about those Bluejays”?  So meet Teo the Toucan. Teo has been perching himself on my windowsill in the morning and bangs his beak on the iron grating every time he turns his head.  I have become very fond of Teo and feel that he would miss me greatly if I left Mexico at this time.

I might also add that it really would be a bit of a loss to leave now as I have just ordered a silk smoking jacket and a pipe from the local haberdashery.  I have decided to press on with my intensive Spanish lessons and will hope that “Juanita” doesn’t decide that “Toucan play this game”.  

Studying hard in Oaxaca,

Don Tomas

The second reason is in the attached photo and requires little in the way of explanation.

Gracias Adios!

Don Tomas

Motivation

I know what all of my male readers are thinking.  You are thinking where is that distinguished looking older man that used to be in Don Tomas’s class.  Well get over it, I am on my own here!

Meet Hugo

These photos are more or less just to let my faithful readers know that I am still studying Spanish.  In addition I have heard through reliable sources that my mother has been reading my blog and for that reason alone it is worth continuing.  Hugo is a very nice man and well educated and reasonably opinionated.  I haven’t encountered any Mexicans yet who think they are being well governed but nobody seems to complain too much.  Hugo has a great sense of humour and has a pretty broad spectrum of things that humour him ( does this remind you of anyone).  Today we had a discussion on the philosophy of life vis a vis ‘los correcaminos’ aka the Roadrunner(s). I lent him my book of spanish Dilbert cartoons and he read the whole thing in an evening. Hugo is quite well read and my spanish is getting to the point that I can discuss politics and religion so he deserves a place on my wall of fame. 

I know what all of the guys out there in reader land are asking yourselves, you are asking yourselves who is that distinguished gentleman in the front row and who is that really short guy in the back row… stay tuned!

Meet Norma

Norma is a single mom raising 3 children.  Sometime ago her husband evidently heard the sirens sing and bailed out for Las Vegas putting another statistic on the illegal immigrant sheet in the US.  Norma is actually quite jolly and exceptionally animated.  To get us warmed up in the morning she usually relates part of her daily trials and tribulations in her family life. She speaks incredibly quickly with all sorts of gyrations and inflections and if I can keep my mind from wandering I can actually get a lot of it although don’t ever test me on that.   

I know what all of my male readers are asking themselves.  They are asking “what happened to that distinguished gentleman from the last class?”.  Stay tuned.

One week more of school after tomorrow and then it is time for a ‘vacation’.  I will spend a couple of days in Playa del Carmen and then finish up in Cuba.  I have been advised that the US government has introduced legislation to allow US citizens to travel to Cuba.  If the law passes things in Cuba will change pretty quickly after that, so if you haven’t yet been and would like to go I would suggest you grab your passport and come on down.

Hasta la proxima

Don Tomas