A regular day in Oaxaca

I thought that I would paint a picture of what I do on a regular day here. I wake up around 6:30 and run to the University that is about 1/4 of a mile away. They have a dirt track that is about (an estimate) 1 kilometer around. There are a lot of people there in the morning, so even if it is slightly dark, I feel safe. When I get home, Sylvia, my "mother", has breakfast for me. I love the plate of fresh fruit: mango, bananas, grapes, apples, and melon. Yummy! As a side note, my new favorite thing to eat is mango con sal de chile, or mango with chile salt. Muy pico and very good. Sounds strange, but the mix of sweet and salty/spicy is delicious. People sell it on the street everywhere.
My walk to school is about 25 minutes. I have grammer class for two hours from 9-11. Then from 11-1, I have conversation class. Up until now, it has been me and a teacher for class, but this week four more students arrived. Two are near my level. Yea! After class, we sometimes have an excursion. For example, we have gone to nearby pueblos famous for something. We have also been to salsa lessons. I guess that there are cooking lessons as well, but I have not sone that yet. I like salsa dancing, but it is hard and I would need more practice to feel more comfortable. Every club/bar/etc places salsa music occasionally. I like it...for the most part.
Then, usually, I either go to an internet cafe or home. La comida, or lunch/dinner is at 3:30. Sylvia is an excellent cook. The meal involves soup to start with. I have had cream of broccoli, chicken with eggs and rice or pasta, tomato, and meatball. There is always plenty of crackers and bread to go with it. After that, the main course is usually some type of meat and either salad or rice. I have had to open my horizons to all kinds of meat. Nothing too exotic, but pork, beef, and chicken. After that, we get desert. I rarely eat it because I am so full, but it is an option. La comida is the main meal here, not dinner (cena) Usually Sara, Sylivia´s sister and her her husband Kiki come to la comida. Sometimes one of Sylvia´s sons is there. I always like when other people are thee. Sara and Kiki are awesome and always include me in the discussion. Sara doesn´t know any English and Kiki only knows some.
After lunch, I study or relax for awile. As I learn more, I have to study more. There are endless verbs and conjugations for me to study.
Sometimes, I go to a cycling class at a gym near my school. The gym is nothing special, but I enjoy the spinning class. The teacher is great and knows what she is doing. Other evenings I meet up with Nora (plus other people at times) for a drink. There are places that remind me of tapas restaurants here. They offer a botanlla (snack) option. This means that for every drink you order, you get a small plate of something. For the first drink, you get soup, then for the next drink you get a tamal or taco, etc. I am not sure how long it goes, but I think it is a great deal. I like going on weekends. They usually have a live band or music.
By the end of the day, I am usually exhausted from learning and walking everywhere. Plus it is hot most of the time. The weather here is strange. All day it is usually sunny, then in the late afternoon or evening the dark clouds come from the north and it rains....hard for about 30 minutes. Most people here don´t even carry an umbrella, but I take one everywhere I go. The sky turns dark so fast. The first time it happend, I was sleeping and I had dreams of floating away because it was raining so hard.
It is starting to rain right now.....when it was sunny just seconds ago. Oregon can be that way sometimes too, schizophrenic. Better run home.