I should probably make note— I’ve been typing these entries up in the evening, and posting them the next day, so when I say “today” I mean yesterday…. Hope that’s not too confusing… not that it really makes that much difference! Onward:

Today was quite a good day—it was still cold in the shade, but I had lots of opportunities to warm up in the sun outside. I believe I will be quite well fed here! I had toast and eggs with salsa and home-made tortillas and tea and papaya (I’m not big into papaya, but it was so fresh, I had some anyway—by far the best and biggest papaya I’ve had) for breakfast. I’ve been speaking only Spanish in my homestay, so I’m getting lots of practice. After breakfast I haltingly explained that I wanted to do laundry, and Fernanda (the 11 year old daughter of Rosi, my homestay mother) walked me over to the “lavanderia.” They have a hanging scale where they weighed my dirty clothes, I paid 24 pesos ($2.40), and I go back to pick it up tomorrow morning. Easy!

Post laundry, I went back to the little internet café I found yesterday to print my poems and poems from the other workshop participants to read before the workshop begins (on Friday). I think the woman who runs the café thought I was a bit odd—I had over 100 pages to print. But apart from one jam the printer did quite well. I decided to make copies of my poems so that I wouldn’t have to print a whole lot more pages, but the copy shop turned out to have a much worse machine than the café, so I’m going back tomorrow to re-print the poems that copied illegibly. The copy shop, however, had a hairbrush (my other goal for the day) and lots of other random items for sale, so I didn’t have to go looking for one of the “farmacerias.”

After my large dose of computer time, I went over to the market and got lunch at one of the little stands. They have dough for the tortillas ready, and they have a machine like a flat waffle iron (not heated) to press the dough flat. They do this while you wait, and you get to watch your tortilla cook. They have a wide variety of fillings for tacos, quesadillas, etc. including pumpkin flowers (which I’m planning to try tomorrow…), but I went simple with cheese and mushroom quesadillas. The salsa was spicy! An excellent lunch over all.

Yesterday I had emailed Laura, another of the poets who has already arrived, and we had decided to meet in the main square for coffee. I had a few hours to kill before meeting her, so I took the time to start reading the poems of the other people in the workshop. They are quite a talented bunch! There’s a really big range of styles (which always makes it more fun), but we are doing that thing that workshops do: we have all written about some of the same things—it’s like some strange collective unconscious where we are presented with ideas for poems simultaneously without knowing it. I’m really excited to meet everyone, and especially to see my friends from the Skidmore writer’s institute, Brandon and Jeannie. What a great place to meet up with them again!

While I was hunched over someone’s packet of poems, Laura walked up and recognized me immediately from my cliché writer’s pose of hand on chin. Laura is 36 and has been living in Mexico for 10 years. She said that she came without meaning to stay for that long, but decided to anyway! We had coffee and got to know one another a bit, and then walked around town. She has traveled extensively, to Japan and India among other places, and writes beautifully about her experiences. She owns a piece of land in a city north of Mexico City (I forget the name), with her house and then 5 or 6 guest houses, and she works as a translator and editor. I got to see her hotel, which has a stunning view out the back window of the mountain over the town, and she showed me some of the places she’s discovered so far in Tepoztlán (she’s been here for about a week already). Given her interest in meditation we naturally had lots to talk about. She’s also a vegetarian. The strange connections continue to abound!

I returned to my homestay and unwound for a bit in my room before dinner. For dinner, I had French toast and yogurt with granola (?!). It was unexpected, but excellent. It reminded me a lot of when my family used to have pancakes with yogurt…

Tomorrow evening is the welcome reception for the workshop, when we’ll get our packets with info about the town… I’m glad that I’ve had these two days to get settled before launching into the workshop—I feel ready!

Whew! These keep getting long… I’ll try and make them a bit more manageable in the future!

One more thing—I was cold last night, but I spied a blanked on top of the dresser/closet. It turns out it’s a Little Mermaid blanket. Sweet. I also have a wide variety of stuffed animals and games in my room…I think it must have been a kids’ room at some point…. The mirror is pink and definitely mounted for someone under 4 feet tall. ¡Tan excellente!