17.05.29-06.2 mi Madre Mexicana in Tulum

One feature of the total immersion experience at the  Meztli Spaniah Language school is the opportunity to live with a local family.  

I opted in to this lodging arrangement and  arrived on Sunday night last week when I got a ride to Tulum from Bacalar with Lupita, Claudia and Eric after the wedding. (The trip from Bacalar to Cancun is a four hour drive in a car and goes right through the center of Tulum on the only road north/south along the coast, so it was easy for them to drop me off along their way home).  I experienced a strange sensation being "dropped off at school" by my son.  He was concerned about ME this time - my how the tables have turned!

The school placed me with Paty Urbana.  Paty was a great hostess and a patient listener as I attempted to converse in Spanish. She  is a divorced mother of two, Valerie, 10 and Habbib, 2.  

 

Both Paty and Valeria were addicted to the one cell phone between them ( What's App messaging, faceBook, etc) and Valerie kept looking up words on Google translator to assist with conversation. 

I had my own room behind the dining area on the ground floor of a two story apartment in a complex of apartment buildings.
   

I also got a bicycle for transportation and used it twice daily to make the 10 minute ride to school. Most of the Meztli students took this option and rode to school from the same housing complex. 

 

I also rode in to town, (an even shorter distance than from home to school) to check out Tulum each day after evening class, but didn't spend much time in town because school and afternoon siesta took time and home is where I got three meals per day as part of the housing arrangement. 

Paty made breakfast each morning and left it on the table for me because she needed to leave for work before I got up each morning. Paty's neighbor, Cesssie was very helpful friend to Paty. 

 

 I understood they discussed and worked as a team to plan and cook the meals.  Cesssie cooked the main meal of the day which was waiting for us to eat  around 2:00 after Paty and I both returned home from school.

Next came siesta time before returning to the school for late afternoon extra activities.   There was a light snack after dark and before bed. 

One day after the main meal I did laundry at the house. This was a different experience.... 

First Paty filled the wash tub on the left side of the machine with a hose and added detergent. I put in my clothes.  Paty started the wash cycle which lasted about 5 minutes. Next, I pulled the clothes out of the wash tub, wrung out the excess water and did the rinse by hand in a big bucket of clean water sitting on the ground next  to the washing machine that Paty had filled for me with a hose.  Next I wrung out the excess rinse water and put the clothes in the spinner basket of the washing machine - on the right in this picture

 

then hung them up to dry in the back yard which was big enough for a clothesline but not much else.  The sun was shining brightly when I hung the clothes, and  I didn't hear the rain that started during my siesta after laundry so was surprised to see all the clothes draped over furniture inside when I  got up to go to school later that afternoon.  Thet were dry by morning despite the rain and humidity. 

I enjoyed this local family home stay experience, and am glad I did it, but my sense of adventure and desire for change dictated I not be tied to the house for meals, so after class on Friday I moved out to a small hotel very near the school that I had identified the day before after making the decision to move on the weekend. More on the new hotel in the next post.