It really is curious how we behave in the face of passing time. On one hand it seems slow, especially when you're trying to measure your own progress toward whatever you've set out to do. On the other, time genuinely flies. Incredibly, today is the last day of August and we've already been in this city for two weeks. The truth is that we've focused more on letting time pass, and through that, adapting little by little to this culture in every sense, than on anything else.

As for the language, I think I can say that, while I still understand almost nothing, the ear is adjusting, and at least I can now distinguish certain words people use in conversation. I'm realizing I was wrong when I thought that a couple hundred words of vocabulary would be enough to start communicating with people. Right now, my Thai vocabulary might stretch to 50 words (including the essential numbers, meaning zero through nine and the way to form the tens), and I'm still incapable of any real communication to speak of. The grammatical structure and composition of the language is, curiously, similar to Spanish's (I should clarify that we've already taken our first Thai lesson and that today we'll take our second). The one thing that genuinely complicates matters is the use of five different tones for each word. That is, a monosyllabic word can be said five different ways, and we've already found one where each of those five tones carries a completely distinct meaning. The biggest challenge is learning to pronounce them and to identify them when someone else does. Either way, we feel quite satisfied to be able to say a few things and understand a few others. Yesterday, when we bought a papaya and a bunch of bananas together with Adriana, it was magnificent to understand the woman who told us how much we owed, without needing to gesture or have her show us a calculator with the total on screen.

A few days ago, we ventured to use a tuk-tuk as our mode of transport (a vehicle similar to the three-wheelers you see in the center of Mexico City, only motorized). Quite an experience. It should be noted that although we come from a country where right-of-way on the streets is not exactly a sign of the most advanced civilization, in this city the hierarchy of traffic is truly dictated by the size of whatever is moving through it. Which means that human beings traveling on their own two feet end up at the very bottom of the list. Add to that the fact that this city drives on the English system, and you'll understand that simply crossing a street is a high-risk adventure, especially at certain intersections where the left turn (the equivalent of a right turn back in Mexico) never stops. But I'm getting off track. I was saying we ventured to take a tuk-tuk. Since this business has no meter, the first part of the experience involved negotiating the price, something you must always do upfront if you don't want an unpleasant surprise at the end. They drive a hard bargain. I imagine that here, as in Mexico, they assume foreigners are a little slow and try to take advantage of that as far as they can. What followed was an experience quite similar to what I remember of a rollercoaster. Perhaps because of the heat, these guys gun the engine from the very start, so the breeze that hits you is genuinely refreshing. Too bad that same breeze means you have to hold on for dear life and pray to whatever you believe in just to arrive in one piece. I don't think we'll be using them much going forward, especially considering that the taxis are modern, air-conditioned, have meters, and on top of it all are cheap and plentiful.

As for our temporary home (the guest house), I must say that in general terms it has turned out to be excellent. The room is a good size, the queen bed is very comfortable, the air conditioning is modern and in good shape, makes no noise, and lets you adjust both temperature and fan speed in such a way that even Adriana and I, who have always had the thermostat set differently, can find a negotiated point where we're both comfortable. In exchange for that, there are a couple of drawbacks that seem incredibly easy to fix (and even more incredible that no one has fixed them). The first is the complete absence of any place to put your things. The room has no wardrobes, drawers, hooks, or anything resembling them, which forces you to keep most of your things inside your suitcases (though there are a couple of tables, a decent-sized armchair, and a coat rack). The bathroom, despite being large enough to arrange the fixtures in a practical way, is not arranged that way. It's impossible to take a shower without soaking EVERYTHING in the bathroom, which means that before bathing you have to move the toilet paper out of the way unless you plan to use it dripping wet afterward. The water available is always cold, which isn't a big problem given the climate, as long as you don't overdo the air conditioning.

The food at the guest house restaurant is tasty, with a selection that, if not exceptional, is sufficient (though we've done almost nothing but have breakfast there). Speaking of food, we paid a visit to the supermarket closest to what will be our address in the coming days, and one thing that is striking compared to Mexico is the absence of a dairy section, at least as far as cheese goes (yogurt and similar products do exist). In this country, as we already knew, people eat virtually no cheese, and the smaller supermarkets sell NOT A SINGLE ONE. The same can more or less be said for cold cuts. If you want those things, you have to go to a larger store or a gourmet shop. In stores of that type, however, the selection is quite good and the service is excellent (they hand you the cheese repackaged in ziplock bags, and I'm not sure whether that's because they find it a more convenient way to deliver it, or because it keeps the other customers from smelling the cheese, something that doesn't seem to appeal to them much). The inconveniences of the room seem likely to end soon, since we've been promised the apartment we're renting will be handed over to us this weekend.

As for my personal health, two or three things:

The high blood pressure I dealt with in Mexico seems to have disappeared. I had already reduced the dose of the relevant medication back in Mexico, but here in this city, it's been almost two weeks since I've taken it at all, because the first readings of my blood pressure were quite low, hovering at levels even slightly below what I had during my healthy years. Perhaps the combination of low-salt food, the absence of Coca-Cola, and being at sea level has been responsible. My sciatic pain got substantially worse in the first few days, due to the enormous number of kilometers walked and perhaps the luggage, which, though I only carried it in short bursts, is one of the activities that tends to bother me. Although we're still walking a great deal, we're trying not to run marathons every single day (and when I say marathons, I mean that in addition to walking as our main form of transport, we were also covering quite long distances when visiting places, from temples to shopping malls, which as I mentioned before are substantial in size), and I'm swimming in the pool almost every day. This seems to be correcting my discomfort fairly quickly.

This week I suffered a fairly significant stomach upset from which, fortunately, I've now fully recovered. I don't think it was an infection, mostly because I can't recall eating anything of questionable hygiene in the meals before it happened. Perhaps it was simply my body's reaction to spices that are not only different but far more intense.

I'm writing this on the new computer we bought three days ago. The technology plaza in this city is enormous (at least by my standards) and the selection of brands and models of electronic equipment, especially computers, makes choosing difficult. We finally bought a computer from a brand I hadn't known before: Asus, of Taiwanese origin. I hesitated before buying it, but the price difference compared to the familiar brands was the deciding factor. It's a notebook weighing about 1.5 kg, with a nearly 14-inch screen. It has an Intel Centrino Duo processor running at 2 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, a wireless mouse via Bluetooth, a dual-layer DVD burner, and an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera, just to mention a few of the main treats. All of that for just under $1,500 dollars. I think it was worth it, especially after a couple of days of use. It's excellent. I think if any of you are thinking of coming to visit and have been planning a laptop upgrade, this is a good place to do it. The Canon camera we bought also turned out to be affordable. As for quality, Canon is Canon even in Thailand.

I want to thank all of you for the response to my first email. It really does make you want to sit down and write about your experiences. Don't forget to tell me yours. Remember that I'm quite far from Mexico, and the everyday events of life back there feel more interesting to me than usual.

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