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.

You Can Take a Girl From Her Hoops, But You Can't Keep Her From Making More

The universe has, once again, provided. Alex and I were wandering around this afternoon, completely directionless, hoping to find a store that sells tubing that I could use to make hula hoops. I remained hopeful, but Alex was trying to be more realistic. We didn't know the Spanish word for the tubing so we couldn't ask anyone for help locating it. Moreover, stores in Oaxaca are extremely specialized -- there's a store, for example, that just sells cooking oil. Another sells corn tortillas (but not flour...you have to somewhere else for those). And then, there it was, sitting in the window of a store that sells generators and grinding machines: a large coil of 3/4" polyethylene tubing. They even had the right sized insert couplers. We bought enough to make three hoops and had them cut the tubing on the spot. After another adventure I managed to track down several different colors of electrical tape. And, now, dumdadum, we have hula hoops!

Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos was pretty awesome down here. There were altars made of sugar cane and marigolds. The altars were covered with offerings for the returning spirits of dead relatives. As per tradition, the offerings are tailored to what the dead relative liked when alive -- i.e, many altars had Coca Cola, cigarettes, whiskey and mezcal. And there were so many comparsas (lively bands parading down the street followed by throngs of costumed dancers) that you could jump from one to another nearly every block. We also visited the old "general" cemetery. It's ringed with walls of graves, each of which gets a candle on Dia de los Muertos. Everyone spoke in hushed tones. It was quite beautiful. In contrast to the solemn atmosphere inside the cemetery, there was a full on carnival (rides, food, carnival games) just outside the cemetery walls. One thing that's very clear when you're living down here is that Oaxacans don't miss an opportunity to celebrate. You can find our slideshow here.

Two Buck Chuck, We Miss You

Our local market is surprising well-stocked in the booze department. The one thing that we have yet to find, however, is a decent table wine. Alex insisted that we try Padre Kino, a Mexican wine in a carafe-shaped bottle with a pry-off plastic top.











1L for about $4. Best served cold, according to the label, or used as an ingredient in Sangria (not the best sell for drinking it straight). Here's Alex's reaction before, during, and after.








Yeah, it's that good. Neeeext!

Alebrijes

There are many different types of folk art in the state of Oaxaca -- rugs ("tapetes"), black pottery, green pottery, baskets, tin art. Each pueblo has its own speciality. Alebrijes -- brightly painted wooden figures -- are among the most recent additions to the Oaxacan folk art tradition. According to the May 1991 Smithsonian article that was included in one of our wedding cards, artists have only been making them since the 1950s. The subject matter can be pretty much anything. Animals are quite popular. Back in SF, we have an armadillo, a turkey and a porcupine. I found one at an artisan stand the other day that I had to have. Check it out:


It's from Arrazola, one of the three main alebrije towns in the Oaxaca Valley (the other two being San Martin Tilcajete and La Union Tejalapan). The level of detail is pretty amazing, plus there's a picture of a bat on top. We had just learned in class that the Spanish word for "bat" -- "murcielago" -- is the only word in the language that includes all five vowels. It's like I was predestined to own this alebrije. Alex is working on his "Alas, poor Yorick" monologue so that he can entertain guests when we have dinner parties.

Dodging Earthbound Fireballs...Just Another Friday Night in Oaxaca

Friday night, Alex and I wandered down to the main square (el Zocalo) to do some people watching. It was so packed that we couldn't find anywhere to sit so we just milled about. Just north of the Zocalo there's a plaza that faces one the big churches in Oaxaca. We heard some firecrackers popping near the church entrance so we wandered over to check it out. And what did we see? A fireworks show so spectacularly dangerous that it wouldn't even happen at Burning Man. For starters, there were two guys wearing hats (I guess that's what you'd call them) with effigies on the top. The effigies were rigged with fireworks, and I'm not just talking cute little sparklers. I'm talking about real, smoking, crackling, booming fireworks. Not only that but the effigy hats were animated so that the fireworks would spin in circles, showering the nearest onlookers with sparks and ashes. There was a mariachi band playing and the "hat" wearers would run/dance around in a circle until their fireworks were spent, then reload and shower the crowd again.

Next, there was a large tower covered with different animated fireworks that a very brave/stupid dude would light by climbing a ladder in the center of tower. There were spinning hearts and rotating diamonds, a giant spinning flower, and fireworks that looked like the church. The animations were lit progressively upward. After all of the lower fireworks were spent, a device on the top of the tower fell open into a flat purple star and started spinning around as a cross was lit beneath it. Then a crown of white light appeared in the middle of the star. The crown started spinning faster and faster until it shot up into the air 30 feet and dissolved into the night.

For the grand finale, they lit a string of fireworks from the top of the church. Instead of exploding skyward, the sparks cascaded down in a waterfall of white light, illuminating the front of the old stone church. It was a beautiful sight. The Oaxacans sure know how to party.