It has been a slow week in Oaxaca for me since I’ve been glued to my keyboard and trying to write. However, yesterday, I HAD to get out! So down to the zocolo for beer and quesadilla.
SIDENOTE: A few things about beer in Oaxaca. First, it's cheaper than water. Literally. And if you order beer, order it suero. That mean in a salt-rimmed glass with ice and about an inch of line juice in the bottom. Tastes great PLUS you feel like you’re getting vitamins while you get plastered off cheap beer.
Not that I get plastered here. Hey---I WALK everywhere and no one wants to see a drunk American girl weaving down the sidewalk.
Anyway, during my little afternoon jaunt, I encountered certain ‘universal truths’ (other than no one wants to see a drunk American girl weaving down the sidewalk)
1) If you don’t understand another language—the person talking to you WILL talk louder and more adamantly. Yes, its true. Not just something to laugh at in a Jackie Chan movie.
I was browsing in a shop and the shopkeeper started talking to me in Spanish (I get that a lot). I said that I do not speak Spanish, but that didn’t stop her. Nope. Just got LOUDER and more firm her what she was saying. It’s as if these people, by sheer will, will MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND.
I simply left.
2) If there is a family of four walking towards you, they INSIST on walking next to each other instead of in a line. Thereby, taking up the entire sidewalk. If you don’t move, they shoot you dirty looks and if you jump into the gutter that is flooded due to the BUCKETS OF RAIN we had yesterday—they simply see it as their ‘right’ to be sidewalk hogs.
3) A single woman, eating alone, is source of interest. From single men mostly, or men who act single, or men who’s wives don’t understand them...blah blah blah. Fuckwits... The upside? FREE LUNCH!
4) People with cell phones think their conversations are so interesting that they simply MUST share it with the rest of the room. Yes, even down here. People (I hate to say it but mainly Americans) yammer away, loudly, as if their lives are fascinating. I do NOT want to know the details of the ass boil you got lanced or the girl you knocked up. Ewwww. Private lives are just that—PRIVATE.
Now, let me tell you about...
The world through the eyes of action-adventure novelist and vagabond, Sharron McClellan.
2 comments:
Sharron,
What's happening in Oaxaca? I hear the Guelagetza has been cancelled, and there's people with rocks, sticks, etc.
What do you see happening?
The Guelagetza was cancelled but I haven't seen anyone with rocks or sticks. :-) I was at the zocolo on Sat and it was business as usual. Still is as far as I know. I've been hearing reports from the US about Oaxaca and so far--they all seem to be horribly wrong! I wish they'd actually SEND someone here.
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