People ask me what I do all day! It is different every day. The first six weeks, since I arrived May 30, all my time was spent running errands and setting up the apartment while trying to keep track of the activities of the teachers strike.

I live in a two-story four-apartment complex inside a walled compound. There are huge red locked metal doors that open into a pebble and stone “plaza.” Visitors ring a bell and someone always runs to open the doors. A family downstairs manages the apartment and I get my apartment cleaned whenever I ask for it.

I have WiFi internet access in my apartment that helps keep me connected with my kids and my friends in the U.S. One friend, who recently moved to Querataro, north of Mexico City, has already visited me with her Mexican husband…on June 14…the day the police routed the teachers out of the Zocalo (see blog entry “Police Try To Rout Teachers.”)…which was also my birthday.

One of the first things I was determined to do was find a place that sold thick foam pads for the top of my rock-hard bed…so after several walks around the city I finally found what I needed…

I turn the corner outside my apartment and buy fresh hot corn torillas from a torilleria up the street…3 pesos or 30 cents for about a dozen.

For grocery shopping I walk three blocks to the bus stop on Periferico…kind of the main big ring road that runs south and east around this city of 250,000…to take a bus north to the Chadraui Market…a nice big supermarket that also has dry goods. Here I can buy some of the many Oaxaca cheeses.

Or I can continue on the bus…on around the corner on the right to Plaza del Valle with a collection of stores that cater to gringo expats…Soriano Market or on up a couple more blocks to Sam’s Club (like Costco), Office Depot, KFC Chicken, Burger King, Sears etc. If I have a lot of groceries I bring the taxi back to my apartment for $3. ($3 will get me around most of the city but I am slowly learning to take the buses for 3 pesos or 30 cents.) This will take up half a day. I bought a comfortable Italian black leather chair at Sam’s Club because the kitchen chair I was sitting on at the kitchen table to use my computer was killing me. Sam’s Club is the best place to buy meat….and strawberries picked in Watsonville California! But I miss my Walla Walla Sweet onions…here onions are strong and bitter.

For fresh vegetables and fruit, however, I can walk about 5 blocks to 20, November covered market…and maybe buy fresh flowers and hot tamales from Zapatec women who sit on the floor in the aisles with their baskets of food. Benito Juarez Market, across the street, is full of food booths that is the best and cheapest place to eat…hot soups…mole and freshly made corn torillas. On the way I can buy delicious ripe mangoes from a street vendor. Or on the corner of Bustamante and Colon about 4 blocks north I can go to a smaller corner market where I can buy milk, eggs and staples if I only need a few things. On Fridays there is a great market in a small park about 10 blocks north where local people shop for fruit, veges and all manner of miscellanous things…clothing, CD’s etc.

Then about 3 blocks west of there, on Fridays and Saturdays, I usually go to Pachote Organic Market where I have met several interesting expats and tourists who patronize the market. I can buy organic free trade coffee beans and honey here…fresh from the fields sold by Elvira…a lovely Zapotec lady who brings the bus in 5 hours from her farm in the mountains. Last Friday I tasted and bought three kinds of Mescal while visiting with a Mexican-American lady standing nearby. She had lived most of her adult life in LA and moved back to Durango Mexico two weeks ago. Her U.S. university-educated daughter has recently moved to Oaxaca. We plan to visit again.

The water in Oaxaca City is undrinkable, so every few days we listen for the guy on a bicycle pulling a cart with huge water bottles yelling “El Agua, el Agua!” Then we run out into the street and tell him we want water…14 pesos a bottle…about $1.50 a bottle.

Yesterday, my friend Sharon, who I met on the plane to Oaxaca, went to the huge Abasto Market several blocks east of my apartment that rivals, but not quite, the souk in Marrakech or the Covered Bazaar in Istanbul. On Fridays and Saturdays farmers bring their fresh produce from outlying areas to sell. Besides some tender cactus leaves and some zucchini, yesterday I bought some green glazed Oaxacan pottery dishes.

I found a video store on Bustamante where I can rent DVDs to watch on my computer. Also had some personal cards made up at a stationary store nearby with my name, email address and phone numbers.

For miscellanous kitchen articles I walk one block up from my apartment to a plastics store for cheap stuff…bought a plastic three shelf stand to set my food stuff on.

My landlord is 25 year-old Gerardo Alcala who comes to my apartment regularly to practice his English and answer my questions. I have made friends with his mother, who gives cooking lessons in her home, and also with many of her friends. I am their “amiga” she says…a part of their family now. Gerardo’s father is a retired judge and his 27 year-old cousin is a national congresswoman. I am slowly getting to know his politics…and he is slowly trusting me enough to tell me.

The first day after I arrived, Gerardo picked me up at the Paulina Hostal and took me to his home for coffee and then with him to the Botanical Gardens while we waited for the carpenters to finish installing my kitchen cupboards (see earlier blog entry for pictures of my apartment.) The next Friday I joined Soccoro (Gerardo’s mother) and several of her friends at the “El Pescador Restaurant (with two bands and two dance floors) for salsa dancing.

A few days after that I joined the family to watch a couple of the soccer games that Mexico was playing in the World Cup games. After Mexico won it’s first game, the whole city turned out to celebrate at one of the plazas in the Centro of the city and we joined them with flags waving from the car windows (see blog entry). Gerardo’s family usually has guests in their home who are here studying Spanish and they joined us too. Ticketmaster finally reimbursed my tickets for the cancelled government Guelaguetza and Monday, I will go with the family to watch the free Guelaguetza in the outdoor amphitheater. Then on wednesday Soccoro and I will go to her hairdresser before my hair turns grey!

I spent one morning going to the Mexican immigration office with Sharon while she got her one-year visa. I am in the process of completing all the requirements for my one-year visa and will return to immigration soon.

One day Sharon and I took a bus to nearby Tolucalula to visit the wonderful market there. Another day Gerardo took an Australian couple and I on a tour to the ruins at Tula and to a rug factory that uses natural dyes and original Zapotec weaving practices. I bought three beautiful rugs for my apartment!

Many days, I just walk to the Zocalo.
We are very high…about 6-7000 feet and the weather is mild…cool in mornings and evenings…warm in the afternoons. The hotter months are Jan, Feb, March and April…ending with the rainy season in May, June and July and August. September through December are supposed to be the best months for weather.

It is said that there about 350,000 people in Oaxaca City…but that just includes the city limits. There are more than a million in the immediate region.

So every day is different…