Zumba!

My friend Holly and I have been exercising every morning with a method called Zumba. I have included a few pictures, which really don't do the whole thing justice. Zumba is a dance exercise based on Latin dancing - mostly salsa. Click here to see an example of the class.

If you want a dose in humility, take a Zumba class! Especially a Zumba class in Mexico. Holly and I are two of the maybe five gringas in the room (out of about 80 women). We have noticed that the average Latina in the class seems to have a pivot in her body that Holly and I don't have. We can move our torsos and hips separately, but the women in the class can move their legs completely independently of their hips, also! Plus, they can do some fancy shoulder and arm movements.

Our instructor, Cesar, is a lithe and talented dancer. He is, shall we say, fit and handsome and uses a lot of hair gel. He puts lots of flourishes into the steps. These flourishes are completely beyond Holly and me, so we have to look to someone in the class to figure out the steps. Here's a tip. That stout older woman in front of you is NOT going to be the one to watch. She will be able to wiggle her body like a 19 year old senorita. We have found our best bet is to find someone currently injured - we look for an ace bandage around the knee. That woman will be eliminating the extra foot twists and little hops that everyone else is doing. Once we get the basic steps down we can watch (and admire) the rhythm and style of the able-bodied women.

One of the other challenges I find is that some of the suggestive wiggles, bumps and grinds are gestures I was not permitted to make during my youth. I have been trying to get into the swing of them. Take a moment and imagine how ridiculous a middle-aged gringa looks trying to figure out how to do a whole series of rapid pelvic thrusts to music!

Oh, and one other thing. This workout costs us 20 pesos - about $1.50! By the end of the hour class, everyone is literally dripping sweat. It is a lot of fun, and we feel quite virtuous.

Haircuts

As we have spent more time in Mexico, we have begun to take care of more and more everyday things here. For example, I now get my dogs' annual exam by their vet here. I get my shoes repaired, have furniture made and car repaired.

Last week, Mary Alice got a haircut and had highlights put in her hair at our local Estetica. The husband and wife who own the shop are very nice. One of the things I absolutely love is that she got her hair cut and highlit for 160 pesos - that's $12 at today's exchange rate. The boys get very nice haircuts for 45 pesos, or $3.50. I think I'm even going to get a trim this week, before we head back to Colorado.

Shoes, shoes, shoes

Yesterday we finally made the trek to Leon to check out the shoe scene. Leon is the center of the shoe industry in Mexico. If you have shoes that are "hecho en Mexico" they were probably made in Leon.

We had a driver take us - what a luxury! The disappointing part of the trip was that the fabled Cole Haan outlet is no more. The excellent part of the trip is that we hit a lot of shoe stores and had someone to do all of the schlepping!

This first photo is from the Plaza de los Zapatos. It is an entire mall of shoe stores.

We found that the selection of quality shoes for men was larger than that for women. There was also a very broad selection of cowboy boots.

My fashionisto (19 year old boy, Brad) swooned over the selection of shoes in exotic leathers. He is now the proud owner of a pair of shoes made of stingray skin. The shoes with the white eye-shaped spot on them or the white stripe down the middle are made of stingray. It is an interesting glittery skin.

I was able to find two pairs of loafers acceptable to my non-fashionisto Chris (15). One brown, one black, both Brad-approved and acceptable to Chris. Score.

Mary Alice now has two new pairs of shoes and some very fashionable boots. All of these shoes were (relatively) reasonably priced. I say (relatively) because I think stingray shoes are never going to be cheap. But for all the others, we did not spend more than $50 US, and generally less.

My friend, Holly, found several pairs of shoes for her daughter, but neither one of us was really in the market for shoes - unless we had found Cole Haans for really cheap! But, alas.

We also found that we could buy a skin and have a wallet made in very little time. Maybe next trip. Or ostrich and/or lizard cowboy boots?

The wildlife in San Miguel can be muy guapo

Muy guapo is the Spanish term for very handsome. And let me tell you that there are some guapo waiters in San Miguel. Guapo others, also, but this gentleman happens to be a waiter at my (current) favorite watering hole, La Azotea. That means "the roof," and it is a wonderful spot to watch the sun set.

La Azotea can be pretty crowded with beautiful young people from Mexico City (or the DF, as we totally cool folks call it). However, with the slowdown in the economy and the swine flu hysteria, business is slower this summer than it has been. But there is no cloud without a silver lining, and the silver lining here is that La Azotea has an Hora Feliz every weeknight. And at Dos por Uno (two for one) on margaritas and mojitos, that is one feliz hora!

So, I haven't posted for a while because I was getting discouraged at only having two followers (a big shout out to Sue and Suzanne. Must be something excellent in the S). But maybe some others are reading, too. Hoo noze?

Monday - ahhhhhhhhh

Well, the idea of getting a post published before the guests arrived didn't work out very well yesterday. We had a Welcome! party for Holly, who arrived with her daughter Tricia in the afternoon.

This weekend, while we were hanging out on the outdoor sala, a funeral procession walked by the house. I think it was walking from the church at Valle de Maiz, just up the street from us, down to the cemetery on the Ancha de San Antonio. Because San Miguel is compact, the funeral processions take place on foot. Somehow it seems more respectful to me.

You can see in the photo that the coffin is being carried on the pallbearers' shoulders. The car is filled with flowers. People have umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.

Umbrellas are paraguas (for water) here. I realized that parasol is a word from Spanish - for sun.

At any rate, things are back to normal around here. The kids are off at Casa de los Angeles, I am on the computer and my maid, Amalia, is upstairs cleaning up the mess!

I'm falling behind!

There has been just too much fun around here! "They" tell me I should post every day, and I am just trying to squeeze this one in before the Welcome party starts.

Yesterday we had a "Farewell" party for Jody, which was very sad. She's off to LA, Boston and Aspen. Which, if one has to leave San Miguel, is a pretty good set of places to go. It turned into a very fun afternoon of food, beer and kids kids kids in the pool. My pool isn't very large, but the water slide is a big attraction.

The English-language newspaper is out!

Friday is a big day here - the Atencion, the English-language newspaper - comes out today. Mary Alice and I took a walk into Centro, to the Jardin. On the way, we stopped by the Virgins, Saints and Angels office. I asked them what they were closing out, and I may have bought one or two things.

When we got to the Jardin, we bought a newspaper and some ice cream cones. The Jardin is sometimes called San Miguel's living room. Many Sanmiguelenses and visitors alike stop here some time during the day to sit and watch the town go by.

I haven't read the newspaper yet, but there was a teaser on the front page about many art openings this week. That should be fun to check out!

We have been making plans for the weekend. We are going to have people over both Saturday and Sunday for a casual meal and a swim. While one friend is leaving (boo!) another is arriving Sunday. Of course, both need to be honored. Plus, the kids love the water slide!