The Day After the Night Before

Just finished class for the day ---- arrghhh, tough day. I was actually in tears during the last class -- had to excuse myself and get a drink of water. I always dread the afternoon class (a "class" is actually only one or two people) because my afternoon class is made up of me and a woman who is very advanced. I am perhaps a low to mid intermediate. So for me it is a feeling of constant pressure to keep up. I have to remind myself that Mary Ann has been studying Spanish for 10 years, against my 2 years. AND, I am able to stay with her most of the time. So I should feel proud of that, instead of feeling pressured and inadequate. Part of it is that I'm just so afriad she will be bored, or feel she's not getting enough out of the experience if she has to wait for me to respond, or has to sit through my mistakes ... but after all, I wasn't the one who decided on this pairing! Typical me, though, I take on all the responsibility for it. I have to say, I'm kind of amazed at being able to keep up with her at all -- and as everyone knows, you always learn more and get better faster when you're with people who are better than you are, no matter what you're trying to do. It's that way in tennis or in anything else.

Later Mary Ann (from Monterey) and I and probably Lynn (from near Durango, Colorado) will probably go out and walk along the Malecon (by the sea, a fabulous walkway that runs miles, the length of the city along the water) and look for some little spot to eat. Or maybe sit under the umbrella-ed tabled on the beach and have a beer or two. Mind you, we had quite a few beers last night at the little place, "Suriana", 3 blocks up, run by a great little old couple who have an alligator in the back. We were intending to ask them if we could go back and see their alligator, but I guess we had too many beers, because we forgot. Oh well, next time. Supposedly you can even pet it. Which I may or may not do. This place is dirt cheap and has fabulous seafood -- well, I mean, what place doesn't have seafood in Veracruz? I hate to say it, but it isn't even the end of week one yet, and I am already getting a little tired of fish! But the prices in this place are so cheap that I actually feel sort of guilty. It's hard to get used to the "cheapness" in general, actually. A beer in a restaurant is somewhere between $1.50-$2.00, depending on the brand. The roll of my favorite guava candy that costs $6.00 at home, costs $2.00 here. A huge shrimp cocktail in a tall soda glass chock-full of enormous Gulf prawns costs about $1.80. A taxi to almost anywhere in the city will run you about $2.50. The bus is 50 cents. And you may as well take the bus, because they're very nice, very speedy (s0metimes TOO speedy, ahem) and they come every few minutes. But let me post this and then I'll be back with pictures.