“Boy, do I miss Whole Foods” department

[Warning: the following is a rant.] My local Mexican supermarkets have some ways which are really annoying to someone trying to live a non-wasteful lifestyle. For example, the way they have to make it really hard to get my groceries home. It almost seems like that’s what they’re trying to do. I don’t own a [...]

The Pacific Trash Vortex

I recently read up on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or Pacific Trash Vortex), the giant swirling island made entirely of plastic trash which floats in the northern Pacific ocean – with an estimated size of at least the area of Texas (and some say much larger). I had been aware of it before, but [...]

How can I think about something without attaching any words to it?

The other day in Spanish class, I was trying to understand some sentence the teacher had put together, one that was a little complicated. We don’t speak much English in this class, but occasionally they allow it, so I asked her if the sentence meant such-and-such in English. But she interrupted me halfway, saying (in [...]

The subjunctive: the trippy, creative verb tense

I’m studying Spanish, as I have been for two years, but with even more ferocity than ever. I’m in school 5 days a week at Solexico here in Playa del Carmen, and I often spend another couple of hours studying on my own. It has been a long haul, and very discouraging at times, but [...]

Beautiful hand-made jarana from Veracruz

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m thinking of buying it.

Mexican supermarket t-shirt phrases

I was looking at t-shirts in the local San Francisco de Assis supermarket here in Playa del Carmen, and found some really funny messages in English printed on them. I totally understand not having command of a second language. But if I were going to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to have cool, clever [...]