I got to sleep in today. Why? It's Sunday and that means street noise is at a weekly low. Plus, Liz from work came by yesterday afternoon and scrubbed the heck out of the apartment, so not only can I walk around barefoot now, but it just feels ... nicer. And after I burned some incense Marcos gave us, the boiled potato smell is now only apparent if you sit on the fabric cushions on the sofa.

Also yesterday, I spent some time chatting amicably with one of our neighbors. Oscar speaks English, Italian, and French along with his native Spanish, and is an alternative kind of guy -- he's a buddhist, practices chi gong -- plus he's funny, and now in love with a woman from South Carolina he met on the street yesterday. The longer story is much more romantic than that previous phrase makes it out to be. So we had a beer and chatted and enjoyed the apartment's new-found cleanliness for a couple of hours, then popped down to Restaurant Quickly for a bite. (Restaurant Quickly is on Alcala, a pedestrian walkway, down near the zocalo. The people-watching is great, and it's relatively cheap, good food so lots of travellers go there.) One of the things we learned from him yesterday is that in Oaxaca they call migas chilequiles.

In a couple of minutes Greg and I are off to Gringolandia, and maybe a movie. Gilberto says most theatres play US movies with subtitles, so I'm stoked.