Here Comes Santa Claus

Last Friday one of the directors of our language school called me and Alex into the office to ask us an important question -- "would Alex be willing to be Santa for 200+ primary school children on Monday morning?" Heck yes he would. The suit was awesome, although the beard, wig and gloves were all a bit damp from a recent washing. Once Alex was fully dressed with a pillow to give some bulk around the middle he was almost unrecognizable. Our roommate Alana and her boyfriend Antonio joined us for the fun.

The kids were totally adorable, especially the young ones, who really thought it was Santa (Alex had to eat his snack behind one of the backdrops so they wouldn't see him without his beard). The older kids were a little more skeptical. One class of kids was convinced that Alex was "Maestro Tony," their gringo English teacher. They also wanted to know why Alex was wearing Converse. He told them he'd left his boots up in the North Pole because they're obviously too warm for Oaxaca. Alex played the part perfectly and I spent the whole time taking pictures. Here are a couple of teasers (the rest of the photos are on my Flickr site):

Meet the Pets

One of the many benefits of our new apartment is that it comes with some pets. Here's a quick intro:

Marta. Tabby cat. Sleeps in our apartment.

Pros: she's clean (not as clean as Eugene, but she makes a decent effort), she's playful and snuggly, kills cockroaches and scorpions (or so we're told).

Cons: annoying meowing in the morning and night, attempts to jump into the refrigerator to eat our food, during Thanksgiving dinner she jumped up and licked the top of the cheesecake, devoured part of the birthday cake our roommate baked for me thus ruining the word "cumpleaños", Jekyll and Hyde purr then attack personality.

Nacho. Puppy. Recently acquired by our neighbors, Byron and Victoria, from the pet store outside the supermarket.

Pros: adorable.

Cons: going through his excited peeing phase, perpetually dirty because of all of the dust in this town.

Nube (Spanish for "cloud"). Semi-feral outdoor cat.

Pros: stays out of the way.

Cons: forgot/never learned how to clean herself which means she is covered in kitty dreadlocks, mostly deaf, indifferent to humans.

Dozer. Rescued shepherd who belongs to our apartment manager's son.

Pros: wants to be our friend

Cons: doesn't know how make friends, has a bad habit of nipping Alex, lurks around in the shadows on the roof at night, gets nervous and pees.

The Stray. A gray cat that has been eating Marta and Nube's food. She's elusive --finally managed to catch a picture of her as she was fleeing across the rooftops.

Pros: she's cute.

Cons: totally wild, her meow sounds like a dying baby goat.