I’m now on emergency bandwidth and have no idea when the internet guy is going to show up, but otherwise life on Isla continues to be wonderful, especially since today is Chickenday!

First, I got an email from reader Janet (*waves*) who read about my earplug plight and offered to give me a pair of waxy ones (thank you!). I tried foamies last night and they weren’t great, so I hope these are better! She and her husband Grant stopped in to introduce themselves and drop off the earplugs.

I learned that there are Leys grocery stores walking distance (by my standards) from the panga in Mazatlán and that prices aren’t that much better than our little market here, but, of course, the selection is better. This is excellent news! I had a hard time believing that the only grocery options were to take a panga then a pulmonia to Walmart, Soriana, or Mega.

Around 2:00, I gave up on the idea of internet installation today and headed down to the chicken stand. I passed a few people holding chicken bags, so that put a spring in my step!

On the way, I stopped at the small convenience store just a block from me to see if they sell newspapers. I had to wait to speak with the clerk, so I perused the wares. They were similar to what’s available at the Super Deli. No idea about prices, but good to know there’s much closer option for basics if I’m stuck needing something.

As it turns out, there are no newspaper sellers on Isla. 🙁 I’m told to go up and down the main road betwen 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning to catch the paperboy. If he has any left over, he sells them to the little store next to the chicken stand, but I shouldn’t count on finding one there. I am going to try to find the newspaper boy tomorrow since I love reading local papers to get a feel for what’s going on in the area.

Next, chicken! I only got one today because I’m still trying to stretch my pesos (doing okay in that regard, I won’t be going hungry!) and going to Mazatlán tomorrow. I again had to wait quite a long time for the chicken to be deemed sufficiently cooked because a guy ahead of me bought FIVE. Croft told me to try bargaining for my chicken prices, but this local guy paid 500 pesos for his five chickens, so I don’t think the price is negotiable.

They were running low on rice in one pot by my turn and the gal scrapped the pot very well, giving me lots of lovely crunchy tomato bits as well as fluffy rice from the middle of the pot. She asked if I liked the rice and would eat it all if she just gave me what was left in the pot. YES! So I got quite a big mountain of rice in addition to my entire chicken!

There were a couple of funny moments while I was waiting for my chicken. One, there was a chicken roaming around looking for stray bits of rice. I said to it (in Spanish), “Careful, chicken, or you’ll be coooked next!” and two people heard me and laughed. Then, a little girl started twirling her hair around and her mother said, “Careful! The lady won’t like hair in her chicken!” I said that no, I wouldn’t, but it would be a small price to see such a happy child. The mother relaxed and the girl just beamed at me.

As I headed off, just steps from the chicken stand, I saw something shiny in the dirt and found a 2 peso coin. That’s enough to tip someone!
On the way home, my neighbour across the street was standing in her doorway seeing her child off. She saw my bag and asked if it was chicken. Yes. Were there a lot of people? Just one person behind me. She then yelled to her girl to run as fast as she could to the chicken stand!

I know I keep going on about this, but I am so ecstatic about my language skills! One thing I have to say about Mexican Spanish is that it is MUCH easier to understand as it is spoken slower than South American or European Spanish. I have only once or twice had to ask a person to slow down. Just think of the lady at the convenience store explaining to me how to buy a paper, where to buy it, and when. Lots there and while I didn’t catch every word, I got what she was saying.

I am convinced I wouldn’t have been able to do that in Spain or South America. I also appreciate that no one is trying to simplify their speech with me either, no dumbing down for the turista, just talking to me normally, albeit probably a little slower.

With my grammar and syntax being so solid, I’m adding more verb tenses and vocabulary daily, not worrying about formally adding this knowledge like I would in a classroom, but rather absorbing it as a child would. I’ve got a long, long way to go to fluency, but I’ve been in Mexico for about two weeks now and am conversing comfortably and doing what I need to do, so I imagine I’ll be very close to a level of fluency by the spring.

In fact, one of my clients is hoping to be able to use me for very basic and small Spanish transcription projects starting next year. He’s had me transcribe the odd phrase in the past and said that I got good feedback on that from a Spanish speaker, so this is quite realistic and would mean I could increase my rates! 🙂

I’m going back to work now, trying to get ahead on tomorrow’s project so I can take off with Dale without a deadline looming over my head. I know I have work incoming for Monday and Tuesday and hope it will be in tomorrow so I can go to the bar to download the files since I won’t want to leave home again on Monday. I’m debating whether to get a small (1GB) Banda Ancha package or not for this week…