Today's lunch was in a little place upstairs from a street in Ocatlan. We walked in and the two ladies who worked there looked a bit surprised to us. We asked for a table and Zak asked about the food. I can actually ask...Quisiera uno coca light por favor. What I love about foreign languages is you can actually learn these things, and when you get it down, you say things and what you asked for actually appears!!! AND YOU HAVE FUN. There were 3 men in the place who couldn't stop looking at us. But they were friendly, it was not threatening, they were just curious.
Bringing home turkey in Ocatlan is a little different than Brooklyn's Trader Joe's.
OK-I wanted to buy the cilantro, she asked for 3 pesos, I gave her 10 because I have a very soft spot for grandmas. Then Angela asked to take her picture and she said OK. After the pic, she asked for 30 pesos more. I admired her chutzpa.
After lunch we walked a quarter mile to the home of one of Mexico's famous clay artists. The master artist is sitting on a cushion making the clay figures, her son is painting them (note he's watching "House" in Spanish). The grand daughter takes the money. In one corner of this courtyard someone is washing clothes in a huge tub, someone else is making chicken on the grill. A Chihuahua is walking around and a couple of kids are playing. This was their business.
Zak is giving directions to the driver-thank goodness to have a wonderful Spanish teacher in the cab with us...we had to slow down because...can you see oxen are on the side?
This is another master carver forming the Alebrijes (fanciful wooden carved figures, from an Arabic word meaning freeform or misshapen). All these places have the whole family working. The master carver is older, the teenagers are sanding, and a little 7 year old had a small piece to work on with sand paper. When I was watching he sanded, when I walked away he ran off to play. Good for him!
Here's what I bought from the Aguilera abuela (grandma). $220 pesos. (about $16.50US). Can you imagine? Hours to form the clay, hours to paint it. Thank you to Zack (Bklyn teacher), Jake (San Fran. teacher) and Angela (Houston teacher) for a great day!
Today's lunch was in a little place upstairs from a street in Ocatlan. We walked in and the two ladies who worked there looked a bit surprised to us. We asked for a table and Zak asked about the food. I can actually ask...Quisiera uno coca light por favor. What I love about foreign languages is you can actually learn these things, and when you get it down, you say things and what you asked for actually appears!!! AND YOU HAVE FUN. There were 3 men in the place who couldn't stop looking at us. But they were friendly, it was not threatening, they were just curious.
Bringing home turkey in Ocatlan is a little different than Brooklyn's Trader Joe's.
OK-I wanted to buy the cilantro, she asked for 3 pesos, I gave her 10 because I have a very soft spot for grandmas. Then Angela asked to take her picture and she said OK. After the pic, she asked for 30 pesos more. I admired her chutzpa.
After lunch we walked a quarter mile to the home of one of Mexico's famous clay artists. The master artist is sitting on a cushion making the clay figures, her son is painting them (note he's watching "House" in Spanish). The grand daughter takes the money. In one corner of this courtyard someone is washing clothes in a huge tub, someone else is making chicken on the grill. A Chihuahua is walking around and a couple of kids are playing. This was their business.
Zak is giving directions to the driver-thank goodness to have a wonderful Spanish teacher in the cab with us...we had to slow down because...can you see oxen are on the side?
This is another master carver forming the Alebrijes (fanciful wooden carved figures, from an Arabic word meaning freeform or misshapen). All these places have the whole family working. The master carver is older, the teenagers are sanding, and a little 7 year old had a small piece to work on with sand paper. When I was watching he sanded, when I walked away he ran off to play. Good for him!
Here's what I bought from the Aguilera abuela (grandma). $220 pesos. (about $16.50US). Can you imagine? Hours to form the clay, hours to paint it. Thank you to Zack (Bklyn teacher), Jake (San Fran. teacher) and Angela (Houston teacher) for a great day!
You said 'chutzpah'! (And btw, I stole some photos... gracias!)
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