I’ve been adding links to some personal Oaxaca milestones, and while going over my blog archives I realized some things. Like, I’ve lived in Oaxaca for almost a year now – Guelaguetza next month will make it a year ago that Greg and I flew down, procured jobs, then flew back to Texas, loaded up the car and drove here. Also, that I’m still unhappy. More on that in a bit. And finally, when I think of my favorite places to eat in Oaxaca, all my favorites are streetcorner stands. Eating street food – unrefrigerated mayonnaise! mystery chorizo! is “res” beef, ‘cause I can’t tell! – used to be such an adventure; now eating inside a restaurtant, especially one that caters to tourists, is the adventure.

Why am I unhappy? People give me props all the time for having the balls to pick up and move practically sight-unseen to another country, and usually I can say, yeah, that was ballsy, and be glad I’ve got that in me. But sometimes it is so hard looking back at what I miss, and while I miss a lot of things – Jason, other family being within a day’s drive or short BART-ride away, so many restaurants, my house and garden, friends, the dojo – what I really miss the most is all the physical activity. I remember Manuel giving us this test during our training to see what kind of learners we were, and it was really no surprise to see that among other things I am a physical learner. I’ve always thought of myself as kind of a lazy person, what with that feline influence and all, but I did a lot of running around in the Bay Area, what between all the karate, the biking, the hiking and backpacking, and the general walking around The City and East Bay. And it’s making me crazy that I don’t do that here. When I came back from DC after my section hike this year I returned with the resolution to just accept being a Californian and not try to be a Mexican, and if that means hiking from pueblo to pueblo instead of taking the bus, then that’s what I’m fucking going to do. Only, I have to say, I am a little nervous about it. My Spanish is better, though that’s not always a help out in the sticks where a lot of folks do not speak Spanish. And I wish I had some hiking buddies like the fabulous folks in BayAreaHiking. Maybe I’ll find them, I don’t know. But I have to either get out and hike or get out of Mexico. I just can’t sit still.

If only it were that easy.