Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Segundo Semana

Second week here.

We had a relaxing weekend. Friday night we spent the night at the Maceda house. It involved me sharing a twin bed with Luvia, and Stephanie sharing a twin bed with Sarai. That was not very comfortable.

Saturday we (Stephanie, Luvia, Sarai, and I) went to the globos, or the market, in San Quentin, which is about 15 miles south of this town. There is a traveling market that comes to this town every Tuesday, and the market must be explained. There are a few things they offer. 1) used goods from the states, like clothes, shoes, knick knacks. Think large yard sale. 2) Food: chiles, spices, vegetables, fruits. Also snacks like churros, horchata, chamoy, chips, fruits ready to eat, etc. 3) new goods like clothes, hair accessories, shoes, and more. All of this is set up on tables and under tarps in the neighborhood streets. This is the local market.

The San Quentin market is a little more consistent, I think, and is operated from booths that have garage-like doors. But, it´s all the same stuff being sold. We went there, shopped around, and then went to another store in town that the girls wanted to go to. After that we stopped in Santa Fe, where the Macedas have been building a house for years, and said hi to the family. We four girls then drove out to the beach, and Stephanie and I kept track of how far it was from our home to the beach. It turns out to be about 3 and a half miles! Yikes. We had hoped to bike that on Thursday and stopped at about 1 and a half.

Sunday we decided to try it out, so we biked to the beach the 3.5 miles. I don´t think it would be so bad on cement, but everything´s covered in a layer of sand and bumpy. Stephanie did alright, but man... I didn´t like it. We laid around the beach reading and sleeping, and then headed back after about 3 hours. The ride back was much worse for me... my behind already hurt, my legs were already tired, and it was a hotter part of the day. I don´t see myself doing that again very soon. And, although I put on a lot of sunscreen, parts of my legs got sunburned. ouch. When we got back we bought a pizza and vegged in front of a movie.

Last week I finished reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Sunday I read The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck. Monday I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe from the Narnia series, which I had never read before. I loved all of these books. Last night I started reading America and Americans by Steinbeck, a collection of his essays from his journalism. I really, really like Steinbeck, and so I´ve brought a few books of his to read.

We ventured into unknown territory Monday night when we stopped in at the video store and rented a movie... I´d never done that before. Most of the movies are in English with Spanish subtitles. We wanted to rent Munich, but they didn´t have it in, so we rented A Day Without Mexicans, a movie I´ve wanted to see for a while. While the premise is good (that without Mexicans, or any latinos, the state of California would not be able to survive), the presentation was choppy, mixed up, and a little too sci-fi.

Yesterday we walked to the globos here in town, solely to look for churros to eat, and I ate too many.

posted by Meghan @ 9:48 AM