SMA: Adios San Miguel

In less than a day we are off back to Mexico City for New Year’s Eve and then on to Oaxaca (pronounced Wah Ha kah mostly)!  It seems hard to believe that we have been here in San Miguel for seven weeks:  we have made a lot of new friends (locals and expats), actually learned to get by in Spanish although we are far from fluent, tanned up a bit, fattened up a bit (unfortunately), seen a couple of plays, went on multiple bicycle rides into the cactusy high desert (good for flat tires), rented quad motorcycles for a day of tooling around in the Campo, seen lots of art most of which is out of our price range and only a tiny amount of which we even like, eaten lots of tacos, indulged in some tequilas or three, walked up hill and down dale every day, enjoyed warm weather and gorgeous sunsets nearly every day, enjoyed a thunder and lightning-filled rain storm, practiced cooking local dishes and learning to make a few new ones (sopes for instance), watched a little of the local TV, went to the local hot springs, had massaahhges, watched the Gemenid meteor shower, sampled the local cookies once or twice, visited nearby towns (Dolores, Queretaro and Pozos), went to the big Tuesday market known as La Placita to the locals and the Tuesday Market to the turistas, listened to and watched countless fireworks, participated in a Posada and the neighborhood Dia de La Virgen de Guadalupe fiesta till two thirty in the morning, sampled the occasional ice cream, went to several clubs and listened to live music till two or three in the morning, met lots of dogs and a few cats, knitted several turtles and a scarf, read several Mexican history books, managed not to get Moctezuma’s revenge otherwise known as Turista, visited numerous beautiful churches (some of them formerly beautiful), had traditional American Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, received (and ate) a fabulous care package from home (Christmas Pud de Barbara – muchas gracias), saw Avatar in 3D with Spanish subtitles,went to Costco and ate a Costco pizza, tried mailing postcards and packages using MexPost and generally had a really chilled-out and great time.