Shopping – Mercado Style

I did most of my shopping for clothes, food, and household things at the mercado on Avenida Lazaro Cardenas next to Vincente Santa Maria or at other stores in the immediate area. This mercado occupies a huge city block area – more like 3 or 4 blocks here in the U. S. I have never experienced anything so unique as shopping mercado style. Everything under the sun seems to be here. I could go and get fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats here, eat a restaurant style meal at one of the many food stands, buy leather goods, get my school supplies, etc. The food stands are basically a long counter with chairs and cooking facilities. The meals are simple and nourishing and generally cost around $2, never more than $3 or $4.

One of the funniest experiences I had in Morelia was at this mercado one afternoon during a break in my classes. I had decided to purchase a couple of ears of corn to go along with my spaghetti dinner that evening. Now, I had always learned the Spanish word for corn to be maiz (my-eece). When I first asked for some maiz, one of the vendors went and got me a can of cut corn from a neighboring vendor. Then, I tried drawing ears of corn and explaining what they were by means of gestures and other descriptive words – to no avail. Finally, one of the young children looked up at me with big eyes and said – “elote, elote!” Si! Elote! I really was not sure what elote was; however, I figured it was worth a try. So, the little girl brought me back, yes – thankfully, an ear of corn. I have never forgotten the Spanish word elote.

Another time, when I was doing my shopping at the mercado, I got another lesson in Spanish that I will more than likely remember for the rest of my life as well. I had said something to one of the young women in the shop that I thought for some reason had embarrassed her from the response she gave me. I had no idea what I might have said, but I tried to ask what it was and apologize. So, I tried to think of what the Spanish word for embarrass could be. Now, a lot of Spanish words are similar to their English counterparts. To make a word end in ed (embarrass – embarrassed) you add ado. So, I added ado to embarrass and asked the lady if I made her embarasado, to which she adamantly said – “No, no señor!” Her face said differently, or, so I thought. I asked again – “No, no señor!” came her immediate reply. Now, I was really confused. I dug through my backpack and found my pocket dictionary. Imagine my horror – I had been asking if I had made her pregnant. Thankfully, she realized I was stumbling over my words and we both had a good laugh. Incidentally, the Spanish word for embarrassed is averganzado. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that word either.

One of my favorite stores in Morelia, Milano’s Men’s Clothing, was right across the street from the mercado on Avenida Lazaro Cardenas. I never paid more than $10 for any of the shirts and pants I purchased there. Within a couple of months of moving to Morelia, I lost over 40 pounds from all the exercise I got every day in walking back and forth to my school and around the city. So, I bought a new wardrobe. The quality of clothes at Milano’s was wonderful and at prices I could easily afford. I even had my own personal clothes-shopping assistant that would meet me and help me to match colors on my outfits.

The Sounds Of Morelia

One of the other things I came to appreciate about Morelia was its sounds. From the roosters crowing all over town at the crack of dawn heralding the beginning of a new day to the vendors and various service providers on the streets, each would have their own sound. For instance, the garbage man had a unique sounding whistle that he would blow as he wound through the neighborhood streets. Generally, when you heard the first hint of the whistle, there would be about 5 minutes or less to make sure any unwanted trash was at curbside for pickup. Trucks loaded with bottles of gas for cooking and heating had a special horn sound. And, on most weekdays, the streets teemed with sounds of traffic and people as they hustled about busily involved in their day’s activities. Weekends would bring the music of fiestas (parties) as people would get together and socialize. When Morelia’s futbol (soccer) team played a neighboring city’s team and won, sounds of jubilation could be heard as people drove up and down the street blowing whistles or making other noises and shouting “Morelia, Morelia” at the top of their lungs.

Making Morelia My Home

I never wanted Morelia to be just a place to visit, study, and work. Right from the beginning, it became my home. I knew I had to learn to communicate effectively to fit in and do well. The teachers at my school, CMI, played a big part in helping me to learn to conjugate Spanish verbs, but it was the people I came into contact with on a daily basis, however, that helped me to build my vocabulary of words and learn to communicate well. Very few of them knew English. So, to eat, do my shopping and other day-to-day activities, I had to speak Spanish well enough to be understood. It took me between one and two months of trial and error to learn to converse freely.

My students were another part of what made me feel at home in Morelia. I have never seen people so eager to learn. English opens up a whole new world to many of them. For many, traveling to, living and working in the United States was a dream or goal. I tried to remember this while teaching practical language usages that would make it easier for them to adapt to a new culture and land. A lot of my students loved to read books and magazines, surf the Internet, and listen to American music. So, I would use each of these avenues to make learning enjoyable for them. Learning is a two-way street. My students could always sense that I really cared. To this day, though, I feel that they taught and helped me more than I ever did them.

Learn The Language, Make Mistakes, But Keep Your Sense Of Humor

So, you want to live in Morelia, eh? The best encouragement I can give you, then, is learn the language to the best of your ability, surround yourself with good friends, keep a strong positive attitude, and try not to lose your sense of humor when you make mistakes. And, though you do not want to be tied to your dictionary or other language aids - keep them handy just in case you encounter a word or words you are unsure of.

If you enjoy history, culture, adventure, and people, by all means – go to Morelia!

You can find Dave and more of his writings at http://www.dave-wix.com or email home at dave@dave-wix.com.