By Willie Bodrak

My latest adventure (or moment of insanity) was to immerse myself in a Spanish class in the lovely town of Pátzcuaro, Michaocan, southeast of Guadalajara, during the last two weeks of September. My travel this time was by first class bus – all on my own, as my husband was the designated pet and house sitter. I took Elite from the Mazatlán central bus station to Morelia, with a stop in Guadalajara but no change of bus. In Morelia, I took the Autovias line into Pátzcuaro. The bus was to leave Mazatlán at 6am Sunday morning, but the ticket agent said I should be there by 5:30am which, as a good gringa, I did. Of course, things being the way they sometimes are here (and you would think that by now I would be used to this) the bus didn’t leave until about 6:45am. I had a row to myself, so I was very comfortable in the reclining seat. I had no idea how long it would take to get to my destination by bus, having only traveled there a couple of times by car which took about 10 hours. But when it started getting dark, I realized it was taking much longer than anticipated and I had no idea where the home, in which I was to stay, was located. It was about 9:30pm by the time we pulled into Pátzcuaro and thank goodness there were still taxis in front of the bus station. I gave the address of the home that the school had arranged for my stay to the driver and we took off. He pulled into the street but came to an abrupt halt when the pavement gave way to actual boulders – not cobblestones. He got out to ask about house numbers while I called my hostess who then told him that he had to go into Centro and up the hill to access the street from the other side. She was waiting out front when we pulled up – in the rain. She ushered me into the spotless house, showed me to my room and I crashed for the night. I had a private room and the bed was very comfortable. My first clue as to what to expect as far as temperatures should have been the HEAVY blanket on the bed. But she was there the next morning to make sure I was up in time to shower and have breakfast before my classes started at 10am. I thought I was going to freeze when I threw back the covers! It was still raining lightly and very cold compared to what we have here. It was about 62F! I walked down the hill (about a 45 degree incline) three blocks to the school. I registered and paid my fees the first morning, learned where the kitchen and coffee was, met my first instructor and off we went to class, one-on-one. We were in an upstairs room with no heat and no sun. So there I sat, in two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, a