Yo No Entender...

I've been in Mexico almost 9 years now.  And I wouldn't trade the experience of living here for anything!  But there are still those moments that are so unbelievable you just have to laugh.
For example, I don't particularly stand out in a crowd in Queretaro.  Yeah, I'm "blonde" (read: "don't have dark brown or black hair"), and I'm a little taller than a lot of women, but haven't reached the magic 5'9" that makes you "freakishly tall."  People generally know that I'm not a native-born Mexican once I start talking - my grammar isn't perfect, and people tell me I speak Spanish with a German accent (what's with that?)  Anyhow, in general, people don't focus on the fact that I was not born here.

But a few times per year I'll get a totally different response from people.  I may be going to a small store that I'd never been to before, or using a service that I haven't used before (new dry-cleaner, etc.)  And it's like the person attending the business sees me coming, and they must think ahead of time that I am a foreigner so they won't be able to understand me.  Because when I walk in and ask a question (and it always seems to happen on a "good Spanish day," when I know I spoke grammatically correct, AND without much of a foreign accent), they give me a blank stare and say in Spanish, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."  I'm confused as to why they didn't understand "how much do the tomatoes cost," so I repeat myself.  I know they understood this time, but they still kind of stare for a moment before responding, "Esteeee ("um" in Mexican Spanish) 12 pesos per kilo."  It used to really bother me that people would like mentally freak out upon having to deal with me.  But now it's just funny.  I still don't understand why this happens.  Especially when people from other parts of Mexico assume that I'm from maybe Northern Mexico, or somewhere that isn't where they're from.  This has only happened in Queretaro.  In fact, no one bats an eyelash in Mexico City when I'm asked where I'm from and say "Queretaro."  They just know that I'm not from Mexico City. 

It's just a funny thing that comes with the territory of living in a country that you weren't born in! 

The Market and the Pilon

The beginning of each month, I go get about 20 pounds of fruits and vegetables from the market.  This lasts most of the month, with the exception of some fruits that don't last long, I need to buy those again later in the month.  So I take my market bag and head off.  The place I go has really low prices (a head of broccoli for 20 cents US, 2 pounds of tomatoes for 50 cents, etc).  The thing that some people don't like about this particular place is that the guys who work there choose your produce for you.  You ask for a half pound of jalapeños, but they get to put them in the bag for you.  But I have rarely been disappointed - it's rare that I get any produce that I wouldn't have chosen myself, and you can see the produce displayed so if you see that tomatoes are squishy, maybe you shouldn't buy them that day. 

I tried taking a couple pictures of the produce place without being noticed, because people just don't take pictures of the produce place, that's weird!  haha!

Here are the market bags for sale, as well as bananas, tomatillos, oranges, mushrooms, cilantro...

And this one really didn't turn out well, but there are boxes of carrots, onions, broccolis, zucchinis, and cactus leaves.

This stuff comes straight off the farm, so it lasts for a couple weeks in the fridge since it didn't spend 2 weeks in a truck or grocery store!

Then there's the "pilon!" (pee-LONE)  They don't give a pilon at this particular market, but the lady who owns the little store on my street gives me the pilon frequently.  A pilon is: when you buy 10 eggs and she gives you an 11th for free; you ask for 1 pound of sugar and you get 1.1 pounds; buy quite a few things in the store and the owner asks you if you want the half head of lettuce that someone bought the other half of.  It's like your freebie for being a good customer.  I even got a free churro once because I was there when the churro delivery guy (yes, that's a thing here!) came while I was talking with the store owner. 
JP and I really miss the punch card system in cafes, restaurants, and stores in the USA.  But we have pilones here, so even though it's not a formal "buy 10 get one free" card, and you never know when you're going to get it, getting a pilon is always a treat!