earth horse

today´s title is my chinese year horoscope animal. i am the year of the horse, and specifically the earth horse. you can have water horses, and fire horses, and probably air horses too. this came up in today´s spanish conversation class as there are 2 japanese girls in it too so we were talking about different traditions and religions and superstitions.

my casa here in oaxaca is still lovely, but i am not in it much, just in the morning for breakfast, and when i get home to get in my big bed and do my homework. mother teresa and her husband whose name i don´t know, but he can be father teresa, went to puebla yesterday until friday, but the 3 daughters are in the house and winnie the dog and all the birds. during the nights there are huge dog barking contests on the rooftops, and random fireworks going off, perhaps because it is december. this morning there was a big crash as 2 lorries hit each other on the corner outside. over breakfast yesterday i was chatting to mother teresa, here is our conversation (transcribed from the spanish)

me-do you often have students to stay
mother teresa-no not much
me-oh really why not, do you not like it
mt-no
me-oh.
mt-*silence*
me-oh well i suppose it´s a lot of work
mt-yes for me it is a lot of work

so that was nice. mother teresa by name but not by nature. then she packed up her packed lunch and off they went to puebla. she is, despite this, quite amiable. and i don´t think it is too much work to make me a little breakfast every morning and some juice and a coffee, i´m not a very demanding house guest. i even ate the scrambled eggs she served me which as a rule i don´t normally do.

i have finally bought a new pencil, i was searching alto y bajo for one of those bic ones that you twizzle and the lead comes out, but they don´t have them in mexico. sarah/rod - could you bring some out in january please. i can send a catalogue number if you are unsure which ones i mean.

spanish classes are going well, i did my research on the queen (thanks mum for the info too), and reported back to them today. they asked some more questions, so i made up the answers. i learnt today that japan has an emperor, but he doesn´t really have much power. and that black cats are lucky in most countries, i think they are unlucky though in england, especially if they cross your path. and the number 4 in japan is unlucky as it is the same word as death. and in china, but even more so there, they don´t have 4th floors on hotels for example. and hong kong has it´s own currency, this i don´t understand as it is part of china.

yesterday evening me and jenny from my course (who is also writing a blog of her trip) went to see breakfast at tiffany´s at the free little cinema at the top of town. it´s a little room under some arches, and they project the films from a computer onto the wall. it´s free, and this month´s theme is food and film, so on friday they are showing 2 buñuel films - el angel exterminador, and el discreto encanto de burgouises, which i will try to see as they are brilliant. he was a friend of salvador dali and other such nonsense surrealists, and he lived the last part of his life in mexico. oaxaca is generally a very cool place, there are loads of galleries, museums, churches, things going on. tomorrow there is a chamber orchestra concert, it´s also free so i´m dragging people to that too whether they like it or not. this is another ´first since leaving england´ event for me. perhaps i´ll take a clothes hanger with me as a surrealist token of my affection.

today i went to an english school to ask about jobs. seemed nice and informal, and hopeful. they are having trouble with mexican immigration who are insisting that as of january they have to have only 10% of the staff non-mexican. i guess this is because oaxaca has unemployment issues, it is not a nationwide policy i don´t think, as the school in guzman was mainly american teachers. anyway, richard, who i spoke to there - the first thing he said was my boss said we should hire you based on your name alone. i said well it´s good to know it´s good for something. this is why if i ever get married i won´t change it. i didn´t tell him that, that would have been a bit too much to say at a first meeting. he had long grey hair and a picture of some native mexicans on his wall, and also one of john lennon.

i have also been in touch with some other schools and hope to visit them tomorrow and friday.

this afternoon we went on a trip to a hotel which was previously a convent and was built in the 16th century. we saw a very old bedroom with furniture from the 16th century. there are lots of ghosts in the hotel and we kept trying to get our guide to tell us ghost stories, but he didn´t want to sully the reputation of the hotel so only told us one, and it was pretty lame. there are underground tunnels linking all the churches and old convents in oaxaca so in the past the monks could move from one to another without getting caught. there must be more of a story to that story because i don´t know why they couldn´t just take the bus.

today´s things i have to research for friday´s conversation class are
where are blueberries from
what is the biggest city in the world (size and population wise)
when was buddha´s birthday
why is the number 13 unlucky

i also have to get my degree certificate apostilled. this sounds like some religious process. i will investigate.

adios x