Good food, bad luck.

My day began with pancakes and chocolate. In a place where I sometimes find eating to be the biggest cultural obstacle I have to overcome, a good meal can help make my day. Is that pathetic? I hope not. Anyways, despite the fact that I was recently exalting the mole here (and believe me, it deserves the praise), in the past few days I have had to do battle with my fair share of questionable dishes, including my arch nemesis of culinary challenges: liver. So, I was more than pleased when I walked into the kitchen this morning to find Emma setting out a plate of steaming pancakes and chocolate con leche. A good start to a great day, I thought to myself. Well, I was only sort of right.

I've been waiting for today to come since we had our orientation last week when we learned about the intercambio program hosted by the ICO. Basically, the program pairs up international students with Oaxacans who are learning English. They get to practice the language with native speakers, and we get to hang out with people our own age who know the city and, obviously, the language and culture. Bingo. While I love the people I've met from PLU/UPS and the ICO, I am sick of feeling like a tourist. Ok, so I really am a tourist. But I hate walking around here feeling like I'm wearing a giant sign around my neck that reads 'EXTRANJERA.' While there's no way in hell that as a 5'10" blonde I could ever pass for a native Oaxaqueña, I would like to be able to hang out without causing too many heads to turn or eyebrows to lift. Easier said than done, so far. Any time I head out for a walk or a drink with any more than three other students, I feel as though we are causing a scene. I need some Oaxacan friends. Unfortunately, since the ICO only boasts international students and I live with two 70+ year olds, those have been hard to come by so far. So, needless to say, I am pretty enthused about this whole intercambio thing. I showed up at the ICO after lunch today, super excited to meet my intercambio partner. As everyone else was paired up one by one, I waited patiently for my compañera Estefanía to show up. After about 20 minutes, I was the only one left. Ok, I thought, she's probably just running on Oaxacan time, where showing up anywhere on time means you're early, and showing up late means you're on time. Wrong. I got stood up by my intercambio. I'm crossing my fingers she shows up tomorrow, but as of now my closest Oaxacan friends are still the 5-year old grandchildren of Manuel and Emma.

Trying to put the intercambio bit behind me, I headed to the laundromat to pick up my laundry. I was sort of amazed when Bri and I showed up to the lavandería on Sunday, prepared with our dirty laundry and plenty of soap, when the dueño snatched our bags away from us and told us to return on Tuesday. Apparently, you don't do your own laundry in the laundromats here. It works more like dry cleaning... only, as I came to discover today, a whole lot less luxurious. Try taking the 'dry' out of 'dry cleaning.' The laundry that I picked up was still wet. Surprised and a little confused, I accepted my clothes and took them home to put away. As I was hanging them from the shower curtain to dry, I was faced with the unpleasant surprise that not only were they still wet, but they also smelled pretty bad. Great. To top it all off, when I was done hanging, I realized that three of my shirts were missing. Thankfully, when I rushed back to the laundromat, they were waiting for me. Still though, I think it's time to pick a new lavandería.

I headed to salsa class, feeling a little dejected. After two hours of spinning, stepping, and swinging with our eccentric maestro Roberto, I felt a little better. I then decided to head out in search of coffee with a few other ICO kids. Good decision. After wandering around in the rain for a while, we found a cafe slash (wait for it) BAGEL SHOP! Ok, so I know it is not the most Oaxacan of places, but I'm not about to turn down a bagel. Once again, a good meal can go a long way in shaping an afternoon here. A good end to a great day? Maybe not. More like a good end to a long day. Still, I'll take what I can get. And I will definitely be heading back for more bagels in the future.