soy saves the day once more

Training is over!

Last night was way better and my higher spirits flowed into today, too. First, every night we've had a segment in the agenda called "In-depth Personal Stories", and we tended to go other places to do that. Yesterday, we went to a coworker's rooftop, where we could see most of the city, to tell our stories. After, I got two cell phones, a wfp one to use for stuff in Mexico, and then another one to use mostly to call home. I got the cheapest cell phones that didn't look like they were made of cardboard, and they are tiny and bricklike and almost identical. Then, we walked into a natural foods store. These are referred to as "naturista" stores and don't actually sell a lot of food at all, mostly loaves of dense, heavy-looking whole wheat bread and then a few shelves of vitamins and herbal supplements, henna, and other randomness. But then there was a near-empty refrigerator that had fake meats in it! We bought some soy chorizo and then one of my new coworkers and I walked to "Pizza Italia" and had some very not-Italian seeming pizza, which we purchased from an Italian man in a keffiyeh.

Talking to my parents after all that adventure was over was great. I miss them, but they were being really sweet and that makes talking to them much easier.

Today went well in terms of training, and our soy chorizo breakfast was delicious. We celebrated the successful training with a tres leches cake, and then we "decorated" our apartment, hung out, planned a bit of the day off tomorrow, and my roommate played Bob Marley while stringing up Christmas lights.

Then, we all played Apples to Apples and laughed a bunch, and since our ED has been down here for the training, she is heading out tonight and we joined her for a late meal. We went to a place really close to our apartment and ordered Oaxacan specialties, tlayudas (big, toasted tortillas filled with Oaxaca cheese (which is amazing) and other stuff--mine had black beans, onions, and mushrooms) and hot chocolate. They offered me bread for my hot chocolate (like, as a side) and I fell in love (because how can you not love a place that believes in bread as a side?!). They also brought out steamy hot bowls of a tomato-jalapeno salsa they'd just made, and a bowl of onions with hot peppers (tasted like habanero but looked very pale green and they left it seeded) and lime juice. The whole thing was delicious and now the combination of hot chocolate, good food, and general loveliness of the evening has me feeling warm and happy.

Tomorrow, we're out to buy kitchen wares and I'll probably gather up some last things before my trip to Chiapas. Saturday will probably be more exploring, maybe getting around to organic markets. Through a friend of a friend, I met someone on facebook who lives in Oaxaca and today he invited me to a metal concert he is having on saturday night! I'm definitely going to try to make it out to that! Then on Sunday, I think I might go to a benefit lunch for one of our partner organizations and explore a small town called Mitla that is supposed to be really awesome. Then, back to the house, and then off to Chiapas, which'll be an all-night bus ride.

Exciting stuff!