A New Place in Oaxaca

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Michael Kane

A New Place in Oaxaca

Hello friends! Today was a really great day, I hope it was for you as well. First, it was my second day of Spanish language school at the Institute of Oaxacan Culture. I’m really digging my class, I’m in the absolute beginner class but it’s a good spot for me as I prefer as a student to be a little ahead of the curve than behind. We’re doing a lot of vocabulary and basics which I already have, but it’s given me lots of time listening to a native speaker talk so that I can improve my listening comprehension skills. Not that I’m not learning things besides that, I’m picking up new vocabulary and tightening up details I have a tendency to skip over when learning on my own. Our teacher is great, very approachable and the other students in the class are super nice and they are from all over the world, the US, Canada, Japan and Scotland. I do three hours of basic class and one hour of conversation training each day. I have classes for the next four weeks so I’m hoping to make some good progress.

Today was moving day for me, as I was leaving my last place one of the other guests and I got talking and he mentioned this festival he goes to, maybe I’d heard of it, Burning Man. I smiled and let him know I’ve been on the playa eight times, we had a great conversation, he’s a great guy and let me know that there is a burner community here in Oaxaca. He also turned me on to two burners who are producing their own brand of mezcal, their names are Gem and Bolt and the link will take you to their website. Great product, cool website and I really dig the spiritual nature that they infuse in what they do. Turns out there’s a burgeoning burner community in Oaxaca and I’m happy to have gotten hooked into it.

So I moved into my new place, my last place was great but it was on the basic side. I’m now in an apartment that is all mine, in the central district of Oaxaca so a little closer to sites, the zocalo etc… It also meant tonight two things, a really hot shower and being able to cook in a kitchen I’m not sharing with anyone. The apartment is great and I checked-in with the mother of the woman who owns it, who although I said I spoke a little Spanish, waived me off, said my Spanish was great and then started talking at the speed of a coked up New Yorker. I was impressed I followed her as well as I did but I’m sure I missed something important like don’t open that closet there’s a nine foot python inside. The apartment also has a great wifi connection so I’m really happy to be here for the next month.

I celebrated my move in with a pasta dinner, a coke and my old favorite white chocolate covered Oreos for desert. Even bigger as I lament the diminishing amounts of protein in my diet, I bought a dozen eggs so I can have eggs for breakfast. I’m more excited for that than you can imagine. I’ve spent so much time in places like Spain, Portugal and Mexico, places that tend toward bread, pastries, juice and fruit for breakfast that it will be a joy to have a couple of eggs each morning for the next week and even better to get back to my standard egg beater, veggie omelets in the morning.

Well my friends, a great but long day, I hope you’re smiling and had a happy day as well. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in 2018 Adventure | Tagged burning man, change, mescal, mexico, mezcal, moving day, oaxaca, spanish | Leave a comment

Happiness is Community

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Michael Kane

Happiness is Community

The original AARP group after their climb out of the NOC

Without a sense of caring there can be no sense of community. ~ Anthony J. D’Angelo

Sunday’s are always an interesting day for me because they are the day I write my Sunday post. While here in Oaxaca City, I’ve been writing a new post nearly every night. I hope to be able to keep that up for the entire time I’m here, we’ll see how that works once I start four hours of language school each day tomorrow. So far it’s been easy, a new place, new revelations and the Dia de Los Muertos festival.

Each day I take a couple of walks, I’m trying to make sure that I walk at least four miles every day. Typically later in the day I take a walk through the zocalo to see what is happening. One of the really nice things about Oaxaca is the zocalo. The space is ringed with restaurants, shops, vendor booths and food vendors. There is almost always some form of entertainment happening each night.

One of the things I really noticed tonight as I was walking around was the sense of community that I saw in the zocalo. Small groups of friends and/or family eating dinner. Groups enjoying the music or just walking and talking snacking on the corn on the cob that is so prevalent from the street vendors.

A sense of community or sense of belonging is an important factor in feeling happy. This need is initially addressed as children by our immediate and extended family. As we grow older, particularly as we complete school and begin working that default community structure is not always as strong or available. Particularly for those of us who move out of the places where we grew up. No longer having family near at hand, or being in a town where there are people you’ve known your entire life can make finding community a lot harder.

There are plenty of recommendations about how to build community. People most often develop community through their workplace, or via their children’s connections to other children through school. People participating in church or volunteer organizations build community through those structures or through group activities/hobbies. But what if these don’t work for you? For many of us, particularly those of us who are introverts, we find that at work, we’re often the youngest or only single people in the office. Without children and if you don’t have a strong religious conviction, you lose out on those opportunities as well. Finally, particularly for those who are just starting out in their career, you are putting in a lot of hours at work and for those of us further along overworking often becomes a substitute for community. It’s hard, I don’t pretend to have a solution, I know all of the right things to say, I listed a number above. And one thing that I’m not very good at is just putting yourself out there, become a joiner until you find something that works for you.

For me, given my nomadic nature, my community is virtual. Not is the sense that the people aren’t real, but that they are not physically present in my life. It is something that I would like to change, it’s a hole I feel in my life, but given my core nature, I’m not sure I can. So I was more than a bit envious tonight walking the zocalo and seeing all of these little communities. I was happy for all of these folks and their happy smiling faces, I hope that you’re smiling tonight my friends and having a happy day. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in personal happiness | Tagged adventure, be happy, blog, community, happiness, mexico, oaxaca, travel | 2 Comments

Time Warp in Oaxaca

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Michael Kane

Time Warp in Oaxaca

True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories. ~ Florence King

I’ve been in Oaxaca for over a week now and being here is starting to take on a certain sort of familiarity as I fall into certain patterns. My days here are pretty nice right now. I get up in the morning and make my bed, yeah, I make my bed, no idea why, I certainly don’t do it at home, ever. But then I do a morning walk, maybe I walk a couple of miles to the grocery store or down around the zocalo or go exploring to a part of town I haven’t been in yet. I come back, relax, eat, work on photos, my Instagram account (@reverendmichaelkane) or on a writing project. I then nap or watch a video and then do my afternoon/evening walk a few miles typically down around the zocalo to see what music/art is showing up there on this day.

The change that has been happening in my head over the week has been my brain getting familiar with the place. I’ve gone from noticing every little thing, to noticing the subtle to starting to overlook the subtle, to overlooking the obvious because it has become so familiar. Now this is all about to change this week as I start language school on Monday and move to a new place to stay on Tuesday and then I’m sure the entire process will start all over again.

What our brains, or at least what my brain does, is to look for the familiar in the new so that it feels more comfortable. Over the last couple of days I’ve really consciously started to notice this process in my brain. So tonight I thought I’d take you through some of those pathways in my brain, basically show you how my brain tries to keep me happy, because the familiar is generally something that makes us feel, comfortable and good, happy.

One of the first things that my brain has done has been to connect my impressions of Oaxaca to another Spanish speaking town, Oviedo in Spain. I wrote a lot about Oviedo, so you can follow the link and I won’t rehash all of my thoughts here. But it was a walkable, social city that seemed very focused on art. I have a similar feel for Oaxaca although Oaxaca is a bit less modern (I’ll talk more about that in a minute) and four times as large as Oviedo.

The second big thing my brain has been doing, in a very odd association is connecting me emotionally to what America was like in the early 70’s. You see there are a lot of similarities between Oaxaca in 2018 and Hudson, NY in the 1970’s. The first is the prevalence of VW Bugs, there are a lot of them around. Now of course there are mostly modern cars and the bugs are even recently produced, but they look just like they did in the 1970’s. The second is packs of dogs. As those who know me well know, I’m not great with unfamiliar dogs, I’m leery and usually give them a wide berth. And something I wonder about from time to time in America is what happened to packs of dogs. As a kid in the 1970’s, I remember from time to time running into packs of stray dogs. It’s something you just don’t see anymore. I don’t know if it’s because people are better about their pets, or the rise of animal control, but they just don’t seem to exist anymore. I see at least one pack a day in Oaxaca, mostly strays but everyday I also see one on a roof near where I’m staying this pack obviously owned by someone.

The third thing that takes me back to the America of the 1970’s is litter. Yeah, Oaxaca is a city with a good bit of litter on the streets. For those who don’t remember the America of the 60’s and 70’s it was a place with lots of litter. Happily no longer the case. And this brings me to the interesting thing about Mexico. It’s both a country in some ways every bit as modern as the United States. I mean there is an airport here with huge jumbo jets, I’m typing on a home wifi setup and was even on a 5G connection at my language school today. There is food from all over the world, almost everyone has a cell phone. Yet, on the other hand there aren’t big giant stores everywhere, but small specialized stores and services. People have LP gas delivered, there are water trucks and food trucks that roll through the streets much like there used to be in the US. There are some advantages to this decentralized approach that we’ve abandoned in the US. Here in Oaxaca, unlike almost everywhere I’ve lived in America in the last 10 years, I know exactly where I can get a button sewn on, and can get it done it like 10 minutes. There is a laundry service on the corner, and one a block later and another a block later. Tiny neighborhood businesses mean that the businesses get replicated a lot.

So my brain is using nostalgia to make me feel comfortable and happy in a new situation. Our brains are really cool. I don’t see this as a good thing, or a bad thing it’s just what are brains do and it helps us all have happier days. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in 2018 Adventure, oaxaca | Tagged adventure, be happy, happiness, mexico, nostalgia, oaxaca, travel, vw bug | Leave a comment

Speed Bumps in Oaxaca (DOTD)

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Michael Kane

Speed Bumps in Oaxaca

xo 6 blue white

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. ~ Thomas Campbell

So last night I did something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, I visited a cemetery in Mexico during Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The idea of the holiday is based around that idea that during this time of year, that the veil between our world and the hereafter are at their thinnest point. As such, spirits from the hereafter can cross over into our world. In America we’ve turned this into a scary thing, Halloween is all about protecting ourselves from all of the scary spirits we’ve learned about in horror movies and being mischievous. Heck I’ve had several occasions while working in colleges where people have been upset about Halloween decorations on campus because it’s “devil worship.” And like most US holidays really now it’s just about the merch.

xo 8 girl 2

I’ve always like the idea of Dia de Los Muertos much better, the general idea is that given that spirits may cross over, people invite their deceased relatives to come home. They decorate their graves and create altars to help bring their ancestor’s spirits to the right place, so they can be with their family for two days. In this way, as a family member was explaining to someone last night, they don’t lose their ancestors, this holiday helps them stay connected to those who have passed on.

So last night, I did a tour to one of the oldest cemeteries in Mexico, Xoxocotlan. It’s a small cemetery that I was told is over 400 years old. The town it is located in is someplace that takes Dia de Los Muertos very seriously and keeps the tradition very faithfully. So I was excited to get there, of course it was a bit of journey.

xo 3

Our tour group met, including some really cool German people from Sweden. That’s a bit of an inside joke, they were a super cool couple from Switzerland. According to our closest sources of information our correspondent Michelle from the CBC and actor Michael Cera, this whole thing would be a couple of hours, a couple of cemeteries, a little mezcal, bread and chocolate. Well, the planning was way off, the tour didn’t go to midnight as we’d been told, it was going to last to past 2AM, it wasn’t three cemeteries as billed, but 2 cemeteries and building an altar at someone’s house. Travel around the area is slow, not helped at all by what seemed like a speed bump every 100 feet on the road.

xo 2

To be fair the activity period, I didn’t participate in the altar building, did included mezcal, hot chocolate (the Oaxacan,not the American version) and very tasty tamales. Of course this occurred after our visit to Xoxocotlan and by time it was wrapping up it was after midnight. A little revolt broke out and about half the group decided to take the vans back to Oaxaca and I joined them.

The logistic fails weren’t the source of my disappointment though, those types of things are expected in a foreign country with people communicating in different languages. My disappointment was with the visit to Xoxocotlan itself. It’s a small place and we were told before we arrived that we should be respectful, but that the locals really welcomed the tourist visitors in the cemetery.

xo 1

When we arrived there were a lot of immediate revelations. First, this cemetery is really, really tiny with the ruins of a church in the middle. The graves cover 80% of the ground and it’s difficult to walk between them. Even more so when you literally add thousands of tourists into the space with a single gate people have to go in and out. The graves were amazing, people do a magnificent job of decorating and sitting with the graves. However, my take is people are so thrilled to be invaded by thousands of people while trying to welcome their dead loved ones back home. Especially not when a lady paying to attention at all knocks over the huge floral display at the top of the grave you’ve decorated. A couple of people were talking with tourists at their sites, but most sat at their sites looking thoroughly unhappy. It felt just wrong to be there.

xo 4

I took some photos while making a loop around the church and headed for the gate about twenty minutes earlier than required. Meeting up with my Swiss friends and talking about the experience I found they felt very similarly to how I did. It was disappointing for me after waiting for this experience for so long, but I was truly sad for the families that we and in particularly I had intruded about this time in this fashion. Some photos below. ~ Rev Kane

xo 7

Posted in 2018 Adventure, personal happiness | Tagged adventure, day of the dead, dia de los muertos, happiness, mexico, oaxaca, photography, travel, xoxocotlan | Leave a comment

It’s all about Your Attitude

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Michael Kane

It’s all about Your Attitude

oaxaca sign

Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one. ~ Hans Selye

Last night I was kicking around on Facebook before crashing for the night and I found an article, 10 famous travel locations that DO live up to the hype. I looked through the article and had to laugh, the list was pretty similar to pieces I’ve read before entitled, 10 famous locations that don’t live up to the hype. The two on both lists included the pyramids at Giza and the Eiffel Tower.

So hopefully not some huge spoiler for you, but the Great Pyramid of Giza is a half block from a Pizza Hut and the entire city of Giza, there’s garbage, there are tourist traps and scams that surround the pyramid. So one person’s list makes this place a huge disappointment. On the other hand this massive structure was built to exacting mathematical, geographic and construction standards thousands of years before anyone in the western world knew for sure North America even existed, so a person approaching it with that attitude sees an ancient marvel and is moved by the experience.

The Eiffel Tower has similar reviews, if you have romanticized the idea of the Eiffel Tower, of standing alone upon the tower and viewing Paris, well, long lines, admission fees and tons of rude tourists might really kill the experience for you. However, the person writing last night’s article basked in the reality of just standing underneath such an amazing and iconic piece of architecture.

The only difference between these being horrible let downs or amazing experiences were the writer’s expectations and attitudes.

oaxaca cathedral

Watch Your Attitude

I’ve been experiencing this phenomenon a lot on my 2018 adventure. The first was my Camino Experience in Spain. I went into it with lots of doubts and not the best attitude and the universe helped me manifest an unpleasant experience. The opposite could be said about my time hiking in Scotland, where some bad weather, a huge blister, getting lost, getting ripped off due to a mistake by my tour company and some fierce midges at one point was a great experience. My attitude going into Scotland was sooo much better than my attitude on the Camino. Not that I didn’t have valid complaints about the Camino, but I would have been happier had I had a better attitude.

marigold streets

For me Mexico has been a microcosm of the same issue. The trip in was stressful, I was tired and so things seemed overly negative. Happily as I talked about in a blog post about the trip, I was aware that the stress and lack of sleep were likely ganging up on me. Day 2 in Oaxaca was better, I was feeling more myself and had some time to do a bit of photography and look around after getting settled in. Today was much better, I have come to realize that the place I’m staying at for the first two weeks is a bit at the edge of the hood. This is not a revelation, the razor wire kind of gave it away, also for $12 per night you have to kind of expect you’re not in the center of the tourist section of town. Not to scare anyone, the neighborhood so far seems very safe and the place I’m staying is actually great and very secure. We’ll see how I feel walking home at midnight after my cemetery tour on Halloween night.

However on my morning walk today, I decided to take a left turn and head for the big cathedral in the city which I see when heading down into the center of town. Once I got into that area it was a whole new world. Here was the Oaxaca you read about in the travel guides. The cathedral is surrounded by artisan markets, galleries, coffee shops and you’re walking on cobblestone streets. The restaurants are pretty and serve the traditional foods Oaxaca is famous for world-wide. I had to laugh, I instantly had an even better impression of Oaxaca than I already had. The apartment I have while in language school is actually located three blocks from the cathedral in this area.

marigold streets 2

It was a great illustration of the effect of your perception, expectation and attitude really impacting your perceptions of a place.

Business was slow today

BUT, this is not the sole reason I came to Oaxaca and I’m happy for how things played out. You see the first night I arrived late and stayed in the tourist zone at a very nice hotel near the zocalo. Riding in from the airport, tired and grouchy and through a rundown section of Oaxaca didn’t leave me excited. Walking to my current location I used Google Maps to give me the route to my place. And here’s the thing about Google Maps, I love Google Maps and it’s made traveling a hundred times easier than it used to be. However, there is no humanity or additional knowledge. The algorithm picks the “best” meaning the most direct route. It does not account for the types of things that also matter, how pretty is the route, how safe is the neighborhood you’ll be walking through, hills anyone?

So my first day I took a direct and efficient route that took me down streets that gave me the razor wire and broken glass fence top route. Again, and I can’t emphasize how safe I feel in Oaxaca, not a terrible place. We’re not talking about walking through the South Bronx at night in the 80’s. However, I could just as easily have walked the tourist route that first day up Dia de Los Muertos, skeleton filled and marigold lined decorated streets with a more gently sloping hill. So today’s walk improved my attitude and allowed me to find some really neat places. So my friends, watch your attitude and you’ll have happier days. Below are some photos from today’s Oaxaca explorations, enjoy. ~ Rev Kane

street art

Posted in 2018 Adventure | Tagged adventure, attitude, Camino, giza, mexico, oaxaca, paris, scotland, travel | Leave a comment

Stranger in a Strange Land

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Michael Kane

Stranger in a Strange Land

church muertos sign

‘Grok’ means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the process being observed — to experience.
~ Dr. Mahmoud (Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land)

Greetings from Oaxaca City, Mexico!

I finally feel like I’m here in Oaxaca City now that I’ve checked into the space I’ll be living in for the first two weeks. My plan here is pretty simple, two weeks of playing tourist and getting my bearings. Then four weeks of language school to improve my Spanish language skills while living in my second space. Right now I have a room in a courtyard with a shared kitchen and bathroom. Space number two is a full apartment all to myself. During this period of time I plan to get a bit of writing done, there are things hanging out there that I need to get to. Primarily my next book of poetry, work on a website project, digging into some fiction projects and my next non-fiction book.

So I’ll be in Oaxaca for at least six weeks, a few weeks in I’ll decide if I want to extend this trip into February or make a move sooner somewhere else. My initial impressions of Oaxaca is that it is a lovely city. There certainly is an emphasis on food, art and music so we have that in common. The town is ramping up heavily for the Dia de Los Muertos festival with decorations going up everywhere, people in costume are on the streets heading to parties and all of the little kids are dressed up. I love this holiday so much.

I have to admit to a certain weariness at the moment. I’m not sure if it’s just having had so many nights on so many variable sleeping surfaces or being so many consecutive nights on the road. More likely it is that on this adventure I’ve spent more time in non-English speaking countries than I ever have before. It adds to the stress I talked about the other night. So it will be a careful decision about whether or not I will extend my six weeks in Oaxaca to ten or to move on. Either way I am really determined to improve my Spanish skills, it frustrates the hell out of me not being able to easily communicate with people.

Stranger in a Strange Land

So I picked tonight’s title and quote very purposefully. If you have not read Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land you really should. Most people know the saying but have never read the book. It is all about a Martian to who comes to Earth in an attempt to Grok earthlings. I really feel like the Marian right now, trying to Grok everything about Oaxaca. Especially at the moment, why they have been firing rockets from our neighborhood for the last 48 hours. They fired them until midnight or so last night and started again at seven this morning. Think of bottle rockets on steroids, the big boomers without the sparkles from fourth of July. The concussions have at times been significant enough to set off all the car alarms on the street. Oaxaca – 1, me groking – 0 at this point.

So far there are four primary reactions to me by people here. At least 50% pretty much ignore my existence, just another tourist, nothing to see here. Of the other 50% I get three primary reactions. The least frequent and most disturbing are the occasional men who just glare at me, they are definitely anti-gringo at every level, one guy stared at me for a third of a block, I didn’t make eye contact but it’s a weird reaction. Not one that really makes me feel unsafe, but a tad bit unsettling. The second, is utter fascination. I get this a lot from little kids. I think this has a little to do with being a gringo and a bit about size and facial hair. My friend Larry who has spent some time in Oaxaca made a comment about Oaxacans that has stuck with me, he said, gleefully, “they are so tiny!” He’s right, the further you get from the tourist section of two the lower the average height gets. Without exaggeration I have walked by a whole lot of four-foot full-grown adults, especially older folks. One lady was working at a booth with her six year-old granddaughter and the kid was only about two inches shorter than her grandmother. So a nearly six-foot, two hundred pound bald man with gleaming white skin and a beard is definitely a bit of an experience, especially for the munchkins. The third reaction has been utterly friendly. The women I met at the airport, the folks at my first night’s hotel, my Air BnB host, random smiling folks on the street and some folks at the grocery store. The usual question, in English is to ask where I’m from, when I say California they all expect me to be from LA. I think they get a lot of Angelinos in Oaxaca.

The food so far has been good, I’m just getting out but have been eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables from the markets and tonight for dinner had my first of the many, many moles they make here. A little mole verde with pork, it was quite good.

mole verde con pork

By the way, why are the rest of the world barbarians when it comes to salsa. Since arriving in Mexico not once have I gotten a bowl of salsa that didn’t come with a tiny serving spoon in the bowl. Really puts an end to the disgusting double dipping that so many people do. Okay, tangent over.

So, below are a series of photos from the last couple of days, about a third of what I’ve shot already, it’s going to take me months to catch up with all of you on photos, so you’ve got that to look forward to. Enjoy and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in 2018 Adventure, personal happiness | Tagged adventure, art, be happy, dia de los muertos, food, happiness, mexico, music, oaxaca, travel | Leave a comment

The Stress of Travel and the Wonderful Part as Well

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Michael Kane

The Stress of Travel and the Wonderful Part as Well

It’s not stress that kills us, it’s our reaction to it. ~ Hans Selye

The very first caveat for this post is that I’m writing this at 10:30PM at the end of a day and a half of travel and I’m very, very tired. Things always look better after you get some sleep. I set out from Albany, NY last night, flew to Charlotte, spent the night, got about 5 hours of sleep. This morning I got a plane from Charlotte to Mexico City, had a 6 hour layover and flew to Oaxaca City, Mexico where I’m writing this from.

STRESS

So travel, particularly travel to a country for months at a time when you don’t speak the language has some built-in stress. When that country is Mexico you get an extra dose of US media about crime in Mexico. Then, everyone, right after you tell them you’re moving to Mexico says in concerned and hushed tones, “is it safe?” And occasionally, “are you crazy, it’s not safe there.” Add in tonight that the guy on the van to the hotel sat behind me and explained for 10 minutes to his client how she is almost certain to get pickpocketed tomorrow when they go to the market.

The stress of started the day before the trip, I had over estimated how much I had of one of my medications and had to have it rush filled at the pharmacy. I’d also let my departure date sneak up on me and so was doing last-minute things right to the wall, only to realize in Mexico City, that I had not set travel notifications on my credit cards, and one Citibank, sucks because you can only do it by phone. Happily, Bank of America let’s me do it online so I was able to rectify that situation tonight at the hotel after I checked in.

The stress on the road is always a bit my fault, I’m always a little too worried about missing planes and that gets ramped up even more when you’re overseas, when you check-in and they give you one boarding pass for a flight with three legs, when every flight is threatening to make you check your carryon that I honestly have no faith will arrive when I do in a foreign country 36 hours later. It spikes a bit when at the airport in Mexico City where the airport has gates 1-36 and your flight says gate B. And of course for some reason my phone refuses to get time zones correct, for your reference I’m on Dizney Time (hello John Thorne) otherwise known as Central Standard Time.

The flights didn’t help, first take off this morning was side to side in a similar way to my near death experience in Phoenix 15 years ago. And the cream of the crop was coming in half sideways to Oaxaca when suddenly the flaps start groaning and the pilot ramps up the engines full speed and pulls a crazy hard bank to the right. My Spanish comprehension isn’t great but I definitely caught the gist of the pilots speech after, everything is cool, perfectly normal situation, yeah right.

It all builds up over a couple of days, you get worn out and you start second guessing all of your decisions. Like I said, sleep makes it all look better. Then of course:

The Wonderful Things

First the little things, like asking an older Mexican woman in perfect Spanish if she needs help with her bag, and this older, nervous looking woman falls all over me with gratitude and then smiles and says so you speak Spanish. I corrected her, then in Mexico City after fumbling my first few conversations in Spanish I had a perfectly lucid conversation with a phone vendor. I met a cool guy from Austin whose friend is getting married in Oaxaca this weekend and an immigrant from Seattle who was really fun to talk with and having the sunset above the clouds as we flew out of Mexico City be my favorite color, creamsicle blue. Then arriving in Oaxaca to see Day of the Dead art just bloody everywhere, I’m excited for my photographic opportunities over the next week.

One of the wonderful things today was sitting down next to a mom and daughter and eventually the mom asked if I spoke English. Her daughter has been studying for several years and she was hoping to practice as they headed for Los Angeles. Her English was awesome, far better than my Spanish and we had a lovely conversation. But more than that, there is something really wonderful about someone who is just so incredibly proud of where they are from. They both created an amazing list of all the places I needed to go, all the food I needed to eat and even took my contact information and have offered to be my tour guides when they return from America. On top of that, mom even mentioned that since I wasn’t married she had some single friends I needed to meet. Super nice people.

So I’m here, about to crash and I’m sure I’ll be much higher energy and far more positive in the morning. Even more so once I’m settled in my Air BnB tomorrow. Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in 2018 Adventure | Tagged adventure, be happy, day of the dead, happiness, mexico, oaxaca, stress, travel, wonderful | 1 Comment

Leavin on a Jet Plane

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Michael Kane

Leavin on a Jet Plane

How’s that title for an earworm and in case you have no idea what I mean, here’s a link to Peter, Paul and Mary. I’m leaving again, well technically, changing locations but I’m leaving my birthplace to head for Mexico tomorrow. I’m excited for my next temporary home in Oaxaca City, Mexico for the next several months. My time back in New York has been very good, first of all I’ve seen a lot of people I haven’t seen in decades. I got a chance to catch some hockey games and of course it has all corresponded with the fall colors in New York, including some great photographic opportunities in cemeteries.

It’s been great as well to spend time with my nieces and nephews all who are happily as nuts as I am apparently.

It’s been funny telling people I’m going to Mexico. First, no one has any bloody idea where Oaxaca City is so here’s a little map to help. The next country east is Guatemala.

Second, everyone asks me, “is it safe.” The only answer I’m giving these days is one of the cultural norms from Burning Man pictured below.

It’s as safe as it can be, as safe as it will be, life is inherently dangerous friends. I’m excited to start language school, to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, the Day of the Dead in the country of the holiday’s origin, for more photography and especially writing time, hoping to have my next poetry book published by Christmas. It’s time to leave the northeast, my favorite time of year is transition to my least favorite time here, so it’s time to go. I see many happy days ahead and I hope you do as well my friends. ~ Rev Kane

Posted in 2018 Adventure | Tagged adventure, day of the dead, happiness, mexico, oaxaca, photography, travel | 3 Comments

A Beautiful Fall Day

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Michael Kane

A Beautiful Fall Day

fall header

Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt. ~ William Allingham

Today was just a really wonderful day, the kind of day you hope to have when you’re on the road. First, I was in Plattsburgh, NY a place I went to college. The thing is when I toured SUNY Plattsburgh, the tour guide told me it was a really special place. I rolled my eyes, it would be my third college and honestly a college was a college was my thought. I was wrong. My time at SUNY Plattsburgh would turn out to be three of the best years of my life, I’ve held on to more lifelong friends from there than I have from anywhere else I’ve been. Sure, I was lucky to be around good people, sure I was making better decisions in my life at that time, sure there were great staff and faculty at the institution but I maintain there is something really special about that college and I’m far from alone in that opinion.

So I started the morning having breakfast with a close friend from those days and one of the staff members that was really helpful to me while I was there. It was great to catch up, the conversation was lively and deep, not just the silly chit chat you often get from folks. I left to head for a cemetery near Montpelier, VT to do some photography. It was a really crisp fall day, I love this time of year in the Northeast. It was around 40 degrees, the kind of cold fall air that when you draw it in stings just a bit but the air tastes clean and clear. It also helps that I was driving through multicolored landscapes, as if nature had decided to turn Monet loose and let him do his thing on a global scale.

I’ve been photographing the fall colors for the last week, I’ll have some cemetery posts coming out soon, but tonight, just a pile of fall color photos, enjoy and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane