A Collective Groan

We had one last meal together, breakfast at Cafe Monet, before we saw Susan off to the airport. We were sorry to see her go but so glad she was able to come and join us for the week. I hope that, despite the incessant rain, she enjoyed her stay.

I put off all of my school work for the duration of her visit, so I spent the afternoon watching videos and reading articles and taking quizzes and things like that which don't have much to do with Mexico, but Mexico did look pretty out the window. We did go out in the evening for dinner and to see if we might have any more luck tracking down a door knocker than Susan and I had. We didn't. We may dedicate the whole of our last week here to finding one. The people here are friendly and helpful, except when it comes to door knockers. We ended our day in the Jardin Principal so that Chris could see the light show against the Parroquia. They will do the light show every weekend for the next two years in honor of the bicentennial. It was raining, so there were fewer people than the night before but it was still spectacular, until they stopped it abruptly right in the middle to begin a film that was scheduled to be shown in just the same spot. Apparently, using the Principal Jardin is just the same as signing out the auditorium for use at Prosser: just because one person has already done so doesn't mean another person can't go ahead and do so, as well.

Today, it rained from breakfast til dinner and then started again. While we are still having a delightful time, I'm growing tired of being damp perpetually. We visited the Aurora Fabrica this morning, a large development that used to be a major textile plant but which closed in 1991 due to a change in necessity as a result of free trade agreements. It is now an artist's community, and the majority of the space is given over to galleries but there is also active studio space. We walked through a dozen galleries full of huge installation pieces, fountains, jewelry, furniture, art. It's a lovely setting.

We walked back into the center from the Fabrica and had drinks at the Biblioteca Publica while we waited for the film festival (Expresion en Corto) film to begin in the theater there. Chris went to a raucous party the other night (he described it like a college party but conducted by people who had 40 additional years of experience at having college parties), and now everywhere we go people are hugging him and shaking his hand and asking if he has this person's email or that person's number for next time. The Biblioteca was thick today with people who knew him. In any case, there are no tickets for the film fest and we were told there is no saving seats, so we waited and waited and then scrambled for seats together and then waited some more and then, one second before the film began, the host told the audience that because the film in question was not in competition there would be no English subtitles. I haven't been on the groan end of a collective groan in a while; it's usually a response I receive from my students.

Because of the rain, we called the game and went home. On the way, we did arrange one last day trip to Queretaro, a more modern city that we will visit on Wednesday.
There was guitar playing and reading and the making of pico de gallo and some preliminary research for next summer and just a bit of sporcle to carry us through the rainy afternoon.

We're still holding out hope for a bit of sun tomorrow.