Agua Fuerte

Deep blue, grey clouds roll over the hills surrounding Guanajuato, filling the sky above the little town with blanket of moisture and darkening the landscape. The light in Guanajuato is always beautiful because there are always huge puffy clouds sitting in the sky, casting shadows onto the colorful buildings. The sun is strong though, and I do my best to not let it beat down on my neck and cheeks while I walk but since there the streets are made up of curve after curve after curve, I have to switch sides of the street every ten steps to stay in the shade. This becomes difficult because there are two main streets that each have cars going opposite directions and there tends to be bit of traffic and very little room for more than one person to fit on the sidewalk. Walking the streets feels like an uncoordinated dance with strangers.

I have a 15-20 minute walk to school, which is on the other end of town from where I live. My school is next to a place called Plaza Embajadores, or ambassador in English, and up an ally named Agua Fuerte, Fire Water. My school a year old and much less colorful and equipped with books and tools for students than the other school around town that teach English. It was also cheaper and has less students so I am so lucky to be receiving solo classes rather than group classes, which is what I paid for. My teaches are very good, or at least I like them very much. There is no pressure, no tests, but a lot of speaking and listening. I am on day 10 of classes and very frustrated with my terrible communication skills but I am sticking with it, knowing that my reward is a cold beer and warm delicious food.

Water here is much harder to come by. In my house, my roomate is used to buying one garrafon, or five gallon container of water per week or so, and with me in the house we go through one every other day. Most every tienda has garrafons to buy, and you pay for one when you bring back your empty bottlle. The same goes for beer. I am still not used to this, but I really like the way things are reused here. I basically had to stop drinking hot water becuase the cost of gas and time it takes to heat as much as I want to drink is uneconomical. I do however, fill my thermos a few times a week and share tea with people. With that said, I am still alive. I feel hydrated enough and still amaze people here with how much water I drink. My showers are usually cold, so I only take two a week, also because I barely fit in the bathroom let alone take a shower in it. This house is made for very small people. Everything about it is small. I am trying not to gain weight so I can keep fitting though the doorways, but with the tasty, rich, cheap food here, I might be moving to a bigger house soon.