Take That, Crocs

After D got his sandals, E wanted a pair. He remembered fondly the sandals made out of tires that he saw the day I got my sandals, at Mercado Abastos. Today we headed there again to do all of our final shopping in one fell swoop. While we didn't quite achieve that goal, we did find a number of gifts, food for the last days, and these beauties. Maybe not made out of airplane tires, but the name stuck. For the record, handmade for $4.

Price Is Right

While not exact, I'm using a basic exchange rate of 10 pesos to the dollar. It makes for easy math.

It doesn't change my constant bafflement at prices. Most food seems relatively inexpensive. Some is just crazy cheap - a few bags of salt for 60 cents.

When things strike me as expensive (olive oil, parmesan cheese), I do the calculation and realize it's about what we would pay in the states.

Anything imported or with branding is a lot more. We see action figure toys for 500 pesos, that's $50US. Are they really selling a collectible action figure in a discount grocery store?

Tlacolula

One of the "problems" with being so busy here is that I feel we have fallen way behind on describing our adventures.  Alas.  

The weekend before last we went out to Tlacolula, a nearby town, for the big Sunday market.  From what we have read, this market draws tens of thousands of people from the surrounding communities each week, and what we saw seemed to agree with that assessment.  In addition to the normal market building filled with panaderias, vegetable vendors, butchers, and comedors, there was block after block after block of people with temporary stands set up.  And it even bled into the large (and beautfiul) churchyard where vendors were walking around and setting up their wares for sale.  And they were selling everything you can think of -- handmade clothes, cheap t-shirts, tamales, sandals (hooray!),  weavings, toys, fruit, knives, ice-cream, wood-carvings...it would probably be easier to list the things they didn't sell rather than the things they did sell.  

We even bought a handwoven hammock to replace the one that we bought in the Yucatan seven years ago that has outlived its time.  And we had a very nice conversation with the woman who sold it to us and wove it.



Even compared to the other market experiences we have had here in Oaxaca, and we have had many, the Tlacolula experience was quite interesting.  At one point, Kay suggested that comparing the market to a Super Walmart would be both the best comparison she could think of and the worst, and I think that hit the nail on its head.

PS - If you go to the market, it is well worth searching out Comedor Mary for lunch, which is one of the storefronts on the outside of the market on the side facing the church.  I am sure that other comedors are equally tasty, but I would happily vouch for Mary's mole, which was among the best we have had in Oaxaca, which made last weekend a very good weekend for mole.

At Last!

I know you have all been waiting on pins and needles to find out if I would ever find a pair of huaraches in my size. Well, after several dozen times of me asking vendors at sandal stalls at different mercados "Tiene 11? Tiene gigante?" -- and almost always being met with laughter and shaking heads -- we finally had success at the Sunday Market in Tlacoloula today. Note that the soles are made out of tires. And no, I dont know what the white thing in the middle of the strap is.

Ready for School

It doesn't look like uniforms are going to come in time for us to feel like its worth spending the money for them. In the meantime, 3/4 of E's pants now have holes in the knees. At the Soriana last night, we picked up some clothes that resemble the uniforms. The other kids wear white or gray polos with navy blue pants. Confirming people's comments, he wears a size 6 here. E was excited about new clothes - a fashionisto through and through - so agreed to a photo shoot before school. Can you believe what a little man he is?

Living The Dream

My day today:

* Wake Up
* Help E do a maze for his math homework
* Play ball with E
* Walk E the two blocks to school through the quaint little park around the corner
* Come home and catch up on email and read the two Timeses (NY and Gettysburg)
* Go to coffeeshop a few blocks away and read some math papers while drinking really good local coffee.
* Go to the zocalo and eat an empanada with yellow mole right off the comal
* Spend several hours doing math in my office at IMATE, both by myself and with my collaborator. Prove a lemma.
* Go to the big market and buy fresh produce and breads on the walk home.
* Play with E some more
* Watch cartoons while eating a nice salad and chips and salsa homemade by K
* Read a book to E at bedtime
* Read a novel and catch up on things like...er...blogging.

Why can't I be on sabbatical all the time?

My lack of new shoes

Much like Kay, I was also very excited about buying new sandals when we went to the Abastos market yesterday. In fact, after three hours of meandering around the market randomly, Kay and E were ready to go home but I said we should push back in and look for the sandal makers, as we had yet to find them.

So when we found a sandal maker who was very friendly and asked him if he had anything in my size, I was somewhat surprised at what happened. Mexican sizes run differently than US sizes, so I tried an 8 and it was way too small. And I tried a 9 and it was still too small. That was the biggest he had, so he started going around the market talking to other sandal makers and eventually came back with a size 10. And it almost fit but seemed a bit too narrow so I decided not to buy them. And then we wandered stall after stall, and never saw another pair of size 10's, let alone the size 11 that I think I needed.

Now, I know that I am not a small person. At six feet tall and some larger number of pounds than I would like to admit, I am definitely in the higher percentiles of size wherever I am. But I'm not used to being the biggest person in a room, either.
When we went to the Yucatan a few years ago, it was very strange as the people there are all very very small, and when I walked down the street I was regularly a foot or more taller than anyone else I saw. Things in Oaxaca arent nearly as obvious -- there are plenty of Oaxacans who are roughly my size and even some who seem bigger -- but I guess as far as the sandal-makers are concerned I am too big to cater to. Sigh.

My new shoes

Huaraches from Señor Adrian in the Central de Abastos market. Sole is made of rubber from an airplane tire. $15.

Super Shopping

Here's our $100 (American) cart full of school supplies, bulk paper products, and international ingredients (ground pepper and Parmesan, most importantly).

Finally

K and I have been married for nearly 12 years, and I'm pretty sure that today was the first time she has ever referred to me as her hero. The occasion? When I handed her the container of ground black pepper at the big grocery store in the suburbs we ventured out to this afternoon.

I guess its the little things that keep a marriage exciting.