Naked in Oaxaca

or, Help! The washing machine is eating our clothes!


Our latest adventure in Mexico involves the local lavandería. Emily and I, being just about out of clean clothing, took our dirty laundry down the street yesterday to have it washed. When we went to pick it up this afternoon, at the set hour, the woman who runs the place asked if we could come back later tonight. What happened? The washing machine broke while washing our clothes, and our clothes are now stuck inside. The woman gave the washer's door a couple of good shoves to illustrate the point, in case we weren't understanding her Spanish. I don't mind when a dryer eats a sock or two, but this is too much. Please send positive energy to the nice man who is trying to fix the thing and rescue our apparel.


In other news, Emily and I have a new roommate. Viky told us yesterday that she had met a girl from another language school in Oaxaca who was having a miserable experience with her host family: they gave her food and a bed but just about completely ignored the poor thing while watching TV all day. Viky asked us if we would mind having a new student move in, and how could we possible say no? After all, this is part of Viky and Toño's livelihood, aside from being a boon for the poor girl who was unhappy with her situation. So, Emily and I were a little sad to lose our private apartment, but we welcomed our new roommate, Lizzi, at lunch today. As it turns out, she's a very nice student from UW finishing up a degree in human geography (which, I take it, is closely related to anthropology), and we're looking forward to making a new friend.


Not a lot more to report right now. I've been getting solo Spanish lessons the last few days because my former classmate switched over to Emily's class, and poor Emily went from having individual attention to now having a class of 3 students. She's thinking about asking to move higher, though, because the current class is going slowly, so we may wind up in the same class together (finally). In the meantime, my teacher and I are having great discussions in Spanish about abortion, feminism, spousal abuse, government corruption, and other light subjects. Most of our big trip plans (such as visits to Tolmec ruins at Monte Albán and petrified waterfalls called Hierve el Agua) have been postponed thanks to steady rain, but we're crossing our fingers the weather will pass and we'll visit some cool stuff this weekend.