How do we learn? Sometimes, for me, acquiring a new Spanish word -- like, for realsies, not just for a fleeting moment -- requires the creation of a mnemonic device and other times it requires an embarrassing situation.

I just hadn't been able to keep the word(s) for "straw" in my brain until about a month ago, when I met Jesús at a taquería in downtown Oakland. I had finally remembered bombilla, but that's really just for drinking mate (so really only of use in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay). J reminded me that a common word in Mexico is popote (also used: pajita). That struck me as sounding pretty indigenous, sort of like the tongue-twister (and lip-bumper, I guess) street name we came across during our vacation in Mexico City: Popocatépetl (took me probably 5 tries to get it right). So I made myself a little sentence incorporating as many puh sounds as possible: Vamos a la calle Popocatépetl para comprar popotes para Penélope.

Speaking of streets, that's a simple word -- calle -- but I used to have a hard time remembering whether it was feminine or masculine (English is a harder language to learn than Spanish, but damn it, at least we don't have gender attached to nouns). I finally connected la to calle after listening to the Julieta Venegas song "Eres para mí." The lyric that made this click in my head is "la calle que canta su canto de diario," which also is full of alliteration.

As I mentioned earlier, embarrassment works, too. Almost exactly a year ago, within a half-hour of checking into my hostal in Madrid, I knocked a glass ashtray off a table in my room, causing it to shatter on the tile floor. Lots of glass everywhere. I had to tip-toe into the private area to ask the señora de la casa if she had a broom I could use to clean up the cenicero. I had to use my nerdy electronic dictionary to look up that word, but I haven't had to look it up since then. Watching a little old Spanish granny clean up your mess (hey, I offered but they shooed me away) will make a word stick.

It's hard not to focus too much on the impending 9-week trip to el D.F., but it helps that the next month and a half will be full of travel, work schedule-shifting and moving-related tasks. First up is a trip to NYC/NJ for Thanksgiving at my aunt's new place and my freaking high school reunion. A week from tomorrow, I will be back at the hotel that hosted my senior prom, living out a movie scene by greeting people at the registration table (only for 20 minutes or so, but still). Thank God for the open bar. I plan to be completely wasted an hour into this thing. A delight!

Summer/fall of 2001: Book it to the Bay Area. Summer/fall of 2003: Back to NJ. Summer/fall of 2005: Another cross-country move. Summer/fall of 2007 seemed to break the cycle, but a year later I was planning another escape of sorts. A mini-escape, but enough to shake things up and feed the wanderlust the seems to overtake me every couple of years.

Thanks to the relative location-independence of my specific job, I proposed (and was approved for) a 9-week stay in Mexico City, where I will take Spanish classes and work remotely, all in the cute, hip neighborhood (and, in fact, at the same lovely house) I stayed in during my 2007 visit. In the middle of the trip, Jesús will come down and we'll explore a beach town (Acapulco, most likely) and one or two of the colonial cities in Central Mexico (probably Guanajuato, possibly San Miguel de Allende). But the real purpose is just to keep working toward 100% fluency. And to be able to do that while still working for a rad company is a big win.

The trip will come in the beginning of February. There's plenty to do before then. I'm peacing out of my current place in Berkeley -- after three years !!! -- at the end of December, kickin' it in SF at J's (tiny) apartment for January, heading south until the second week of April and coming back here, where J and I will figure out what makes sense moving forward.

The trip is one of the reasons this blog still exists. Being in such an insane and exciting city for so long will, I'm sure, provide great blog fodder. And if not, read his stuff instead.

In the Minority

One of My Favorites
Originally uploaded by tjdee

From Sunday's Prop 8 protest at the Capitol Building in Sacramento.

As I walked around these days I decide which group each person passing me is in. It's a fun game.

Rev. Amos Brown
Originally uploaded by tjdee

My favorite moment from the No on Prop 8 event on Tuesday night. Rev. Amos Brown shares some powerful and colorful words about diversity. The "I'm gay and I'm gorgeous" is just cute and playful enough to maintain the impact of the rest of the statement. (He's not gay; watch the clip.)

Strong words from Mayor Gavin Newsom (also knows as Babycakes), as well: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjdegroat/3008036937/