Back to University?

Time passes differently in Mexico. There is a peace here that extends the days. Getting about is quite simple, a short walk here, a few pesos there. Tonight as I sit on the moonlit patio listening to the crickets chirp and the thunder rumble between flashes of sheet lightning, it has been a full day. Even after a few hours studying Spanish, a long chat in the gringo cafe, a luxuriously lengthy dinner party and time spent helping clean up while sharing stories, there is still plenty of time to spend online.

There was an incredible thunderstorm last night. Hail beat down on the roof so hard that it sounded like it was heralding the apocalypse, and the torrent of rain that followed tamed the dusty roads and scrubbed the air clean. Still it only rains at night here. The days are mostly warm and sunny. As I write this the thunder turns to another downpour and I move inside leaving the door open to listen to the rain's aggressive rhythm.


With high hopes, I entered the university. There was a table with brochures for Spanish classes just inside the door. Even though they were for new students who didn't know Spanish, the brochures didn't contain a word of English. A woman behind the table said, "¿Español?" I started to ask questions in English but she too only spoke Spanish. I wondered, maybe I can fold the brochures into meaningful shapes and make myself clear that way? Just as I was about to do this she pointed to a back corner. I went there and found a glassed in office and a ticket window but no one was in either one. So I came back. Somehow I made my point. Nobody there. She smiled and pointed to a woman walking into the office behind her and said "Espere". So I waited. And waited. So long that I felt forgotten. I went back to the locked room in the back of the university and peered through the window and read a sign about Spanish classes that didn't give much information.

Then I realized, this is like the library! These were the snapping turtle women. So what I have to do is find Arnold. So I started on a quest, looking down the hallways trying to find the open office where Arnold would be. I thought, maybe he's on break and checked the cafeteria. But no Arnold was to be found. I felt abandoned.

Finally the woman who had been pointed out left the front office and motioned to me to follow her. She took me to the back office and I waited while she opened it and stood behind the window. We tried to communicate without much luck but I knew what she was going to eventually say. After a while it came: Manana, diez.

So shortly before ten the next morning, I pushed through the throngs of chattering twenty-somethings into the university. The same woman was behind the window in the back. But now my luck changed. She pointed me to the language office where to my delight there was a smiling clerk who spoke English. When I asked about the Spanish class the clerk told me that it had already been going for a month. She paused and looked me in the eyes, as if deciding what to do. "Why don't you go up and see if it's too advanced for you or not?" I was elated.


It didn't take long to find room cien diecinueve. Leslie from the cafe was there so I sat beside her. She said, "I thought you'd show up". There were a number of other students there, mostly retired folks, both women and men. Someone grinned and said, "This is the best class in the university." They told me about how dramatically the professor presented the lessons because she would never use English and would often act out or exaggerate the meanings of words. They said she dressed in traditional Mexican style and part of the fun was seeing what new outfit she wore when she walked into class each day. At that moment the maestra flowed into the room with a handful of books and a long green gown. She took a moment to arrange the books on a small desk at the front then looked at me and made a comment in Spanish about a new student. I felt a little out of place but she smiled and taught me my first Spanish word of the day, "Bienvenido."