First Spanish Classes This Morning

Kathy and I began our classes today. We are both pleased with the instructors we have been assigned to. Kath has four  people in her class and they seem very nice. They all know a little Spanish and that actually is good for her because she learns from their responses. I think she is going to be a dynamite Spanish student judging from the  work she's been doing the last few days on Dueling and the questions she asks me.

I have a teacher who is new to me and I think she's going to be wonderful. I told her I wanted to work on direct and indirect pronouns. And then, I'd like to spend most of these three weeks working on the Subjunctive mood. Well, she didn't skip a beat. She had pronoun rules, diagrams and sentences up on the white board before I knew it. I'm quite thrilled to be attacking the two things that I know the least about but would like to learn.

Walkway between San Pablo Foundation 

and

San Pablo Restaurant

Western Wall of San Pablo Foundation

View Below The Restaurant

Kathy and I are both reading T.C. Boyle's "The Harder They Come" on our Kindles. It is only today that I have discovered that the main character is based on a man with deadly serious mental problems who shot two people in my own community. I was actually urged to not leave my house while he was traveling on foot around my neighborhood before he was apprehended. Being in Oaxaca gives me a special sense of remoteness from this subject and yet it is all so easy to relate to because it takes place so close to home. I still have almost fifty percent of the book to read and I don't know how much this new revelation is going to affect the rest of my reading of this chilling story.

I've been having digital problems beyond reason. While attempting to put my blog in place more easily on my desktop I know I responded to questions and requests by Google regarding areas of these machines (computers) I don't really understand. At one point they would not accept my password and I had to make a slight change in it in order to go on. At times when it appeared that they would not let me continue with my project unless I answered them with the checking of a box here and there, I proceeded to make a guess about the right answer and move on. So, now, as I try to just send a simple reply to someone using my email, I find that my reply is being written  on a dialogue box with absolutely no "send" button. If someone out there knows how to help me out of this quandary, please write to me with suggestions.

I know some of you good friends have worried about Kathy and me coming to Oaxaca because of all the news in the medea with warnings serious enough to be reasonably considered. We are happy to report that we are having a most interesting time here. Yes, there are demonstrations, mostly having to do with upcoming elections and we have been warned to stay some distance from them and not to photograph them. Seems like good advice. But Kathy and I hadn't heard a word of that before we both had taken pictures of several of the marches and demos taking place on prominent roadways. Otherwise, the Zocalo seems to have returned to being a very pleasant place and while trying to get from one place to another we crossed right through one of the long marches with all those we passed allowing us to make our way across the street. Inocense is bliss. We're loving Oaxaca and feel very safe here. Just like any other place we know, there are certain areas or locations you just don't go to. But that has always been the case. So please know we're having a great time.