November 1, 2021 - November 3, 2021
On Monday two events occurred. First, I had my first Spanish class at Hablar Espanol language school. At first I was placed in a class with two other students who had started the class a week before. After about 30 minutes the director of the school took me to another classroom and taught me many of the basics of the language. The lesson was total emersion in Spanish and took a large amount of effort and concentration to understand the instruction and answer the questions correctly, but I learned a lot. After class and after lunch with Bob I reviewed and organized my notes and did my homework . I was required to write 10 sentences using the material we covered in class. After I wrote my sentences I called Nancy and she helped me with pronunciation and made grammatical corrections. I felt like I spent the whole day studying Spanish.
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| As are many buildings in SMA it is not very impressive from the outside, but inside is a lovely courtyard with two floors of classrooms overlooking the courtyard. |
The next big event was the “Dia de Los Muertos” celebration downtown. Bob and I walked to the square after lunch. It was very crowded, but there wasn’t much going on so I decided to go back after dinner. The crowd was much larger then and there were many more people in costume with the traditional makeup. The makeup artists were still providing their services all along Hildago Street ( which was closed to traffic).
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| Children and adults both participated in the celebration. |
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| Perfectly made-up |
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| Red and Black were a popular color selection |
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| This Catrina with her amazing costume happily posed for photos. |
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| A Catrina and a Catrin are ready for the parade. |
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| These ladies had the most beautiful crowns. |
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| On the way home I captured this photo of chandeliers hanging in the entrance of a hotel. |
Another important aspect of the Dia de Los Muertos celebration are the alters family members construct to honor their lost loved ones. The alters contain photos of the person, a special pan de muertos, and other favorite food items of the deceased. Of course, they are decorated with marigolds.
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| The entire front of this house was an alter . |
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| A smaller alter inside a home's entrance |
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| This alter was constructed on a street near our apartment. |
Tuesday was grocery shopping day. We tried a new market that is just across the highway from La Comer. It is named City Market and is owned by La Comer so Bob and I are wondering why the markets are so close together. City Market seems to be focusing on the more organic minded customer, but La Comer had many organic products too. After lugging and stowing all of the groceries we each ate two empanadas that we purchased at the market, carne pecante and espinacas y queso - yummy!
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| The lovely entrance to the market |
At 2:00 pm I had my weekly Zoom with my sisters and then headed to my Spanish language class. I definitely had a very full day.
On Wednesday morning I talked to my daughter, Rachel, and my granddaughter, Claire. Claire is teething and not her cheerful self, but still adorable.
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| It's getting colder in Oak Park. |
Thank you for reading my blog.
