Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Bienvenidos

Living at 6700 feet, the elevation of Guanajuato, or 7000 feet, where our apartment is on a street aptly named Panoramica, makes me breathe a little harder than I would like as I hike up from el centro.  If we stop for a moment along the way though, the amazing view is of multicolored buildings, interspersed with the domes of churches, layering out in every direction and topped with the rock and green mountains that ring the valley.

Our neighborhood includes many dogs.  We have a beagle next door, two pugs on the other side, and uncountable others who live on people's terraces or rooftops.  We are learning to tune out barking dogs, although when Tom go
t up and checked one noisy night he watched cows passing by in the street below us.  The soundtrack here also includes lots of fireworks going off (warming up for Independence Day mid-September), grumbly-geared buses and frequent music.  Last night it was a New Orleans-like street band, often salsa wafts from bars below us and once we walked by a guy working on his car and blasting Michael Jackson.

We are learning something new every day, and that's not even including our formal school time.  Tom and Noah ventured to the tienda (a tiny store attached to a home) across the street for a five-gallon bottle of water.  Now we know if you return the previous bottle, the charge is 22
pesos ($2.20 US dollars), and what the shop owner's living room looks like.

A week into being here, we've followed many different callejones (little alley-pathways) down to el centro, wandered there to get our bearings, checked out a string of parks and little resevoir
lakes on the edge of town, met interesting international folks, pantomimed with our energetic landlady, and of course started our schools.

Noah and Dana are at Colegio Yeccan Waldorf, a five-minute walk from the apartment on our same ridgetop, and Tom and I have classes at Escuela Mexicana.  (If you do follow the links, the Michelle mentioned in the Waldorf article has the 7th grade now and is Noah's teacher, and both sites have some photos.)  

In the photo of Tom walking, the white building is our apartment building, and we're the second balcony up. What looks 
like a driveway closer to him is actually the start of the callejon we take up to the kids' school.  More on our schools next post.



4 comments:

Roxanne Sailors said...

It looks from the pictures like Dana has grown an inch or two since you left! I'm happy to see all the beautiful pictures. I'll email you soon about our adventures in moving!

Diana Gruman said...

Laural and all--

I am so happy to see the photos of your town! Those smiles tell the whole story.

We had a good start at Larrabee so far. Lillian has a new teacher named Lindsay McDougal (Jenny's former student teacher) and she loves 1st grade. It's nice to see so many familiar faces (kids and parents) around the school.

We had a beautiful day for the Ride 542. Did you see the photos from Jeremy's camera? If not, I will send you the link.

Keep those blog notes coming!!

Diana and all

ecogirl said...

Hi guys!! that is one small street, its so skinny. Im glad you are liking mexico and school, it all looks really fun to me. everyone is missing you here though and we can't wait to here all of your adventures and to have you back!! bye,
Emily Lauren Jennie and Chuck

ecogirl said...

Hello, Hi!!! how are you doing? you sound like your having a blast!! your schools sound confusing but really cool and different, I wonder what halloween will be like? Middle school is weird without Noah and school is weird without dana. choir just started and we are thinking of you noah. dana i still really want that green shirt of yours!! It isnt the same without you guys, I miss you horibly. miss you guys, love Emmy and the rest of the pittis's