A couple weeks ago I was in Xalapa again for work. It was lovely as always and every time I go, I try to do or see at least one new thing. This time I was in town for Day of the Dead and there were lots of alters and invitations to tamales and hot chocolate. (and I didn’t get one single tamal!)
I was able to go see the Symphony. The Orquestra Sinfonica de Xalapa is one of the best symphony orchestras in the country. About 90% of the performers are of foreign origin, which is amazing for such a small town (Pop. 500,000 is a small town when compared to Mexico City). We heard a Bassoon solo played by a guy from Illinois! The concert hall was packed with a wide variety of concert goers. The price for tickets is $70 pesos and I believe there must be a student discount based on the number of student-aged audience members. The audience was also musically educated and there was no clapping between movements and people were very enthusiastic and polite at the same time.
That night I prepared to return to Guadalajara and laid all my clothes out for my 4am alarm, in order to catch my 5am bus. When I woke up I started brushing my teeth and getting dressed. I went to put on my pants and sort-of shook them out in front of me and as I started to put my leg in my pants…. a scorpion crawled out of my pant leg and went directly under the bed!!! I had never seen a scorpion live and in person and this one was about 4 inches long and black. I was immediately wide awake.
As, I had packed all my clothes and had no other clean pants, I had no choice but to put on the pants that had housed a scorpion all night and head out to the front desk for my taxi. It was quite a send off.
November 11, 2008 at 8:34 pm |
Yikes! I saw a scorpion in Tucson once which was the same light tan as the carpet, so – not having my glasses on and being blind – I had to put my face about an inch from it before I realized what it was. Unfortunately, this happened just before bedtime and therefore, scorpions producing wakefulness equal to 10 cups of coffee, I did not sleep much that night.
P.S. Cali and I were just talking about concert-audience etiquette this weekend and I’m glad the audience in Xalapa was savvy.
November 12, 2008 at 7:53 am |
Eeeeek! That’s WAY worse than the baby iguana that was found in a bag of dirty clothes when I was at Riviera Maya. I had to ‘herd’ it out of the room via the patio doors with a booklet and an envelope at it’s only guide.
November 13, 2008 at 8:33 pm |
I’m glad your life remains exciting…..
November 17, 2008 at 9:37 pm |
Happy birthday to me! Yeeehaaaaaa! Scorpios rejoice! We’re still keeping pretty young women awake at night. JGW