In Mexico, tuna is a fruit

At the Mexico City Buddhist Center.

I am in Mexico City, staying at Lena and Maya's in Tecamachalco. Maya made us the most amazing dinner last night! Georgian food (fried eggplant rolled up with walnut paste) and vegetarian sushi.

The retreat was wonderful. There were over 50 women, around half from the US and Canada and half Mexican women, at a beautiful and spacious retreat Center in Morelos state, called Chintámani.

I felt very sad, or at least cried easily, the first couple of days. I tried to welcome it, I have cried so little this year. The first day of the retreat was Day of the Dead, which I LOVE, but I felt too weepy to participate much. I very much enjoyed leading a Vajrasattva puja (ritual).

Trying to speak and understand Spanish to chat with folks on the retreat was a bit frustrating for me. (For events everything was translated.) By the end my Spanish had came back a bit. I have been told I have a good accent in Spanish, but unfortunately I don't know many words and am trapped in the present tense...

Symptom and self care update:

• 

  For sale in Tepoztlán

  My toes are still numb. They might be slowly getting less numb, it's hard to tell. Walking down the pyramid (Sun Temple at Teotihuacan) yesterday was a little scary. I got a pair of sandals specifically for this trip but have hardly been able to wear them because my feet are usually cold now, even when the weather is very warm.
• I slept great on the retreat with no drugs. I am very very happy about this.
• Digestion has been weird but that's caused by the herbs Misha gave me which I have mostly stopped taking.
• I am not eating a lot of veg or getting as much exercise here. Although yesterday we walked a lot, including up the large and amazingly steep steps of a pyramid. PT, Dawn and I were talking about doing some kind of cleanse/fast when we're all back. 
• I have around two (total) eyelashes now. There are a few new hairs on my head. 
• I had a couple of days of extreme fatigue on the retreat, not sure of the cause. Sometimes that happens on retreat. I think I burned my eyes a bit too (I was not often in direct sunlight. My eyes seem to be very photosensitive now, possibly because of burning the crap out of them while in Tahoe a few years ago). And the pollution from burning cane fields. 
• I felt some congestion, or something, a slight ache, in my lungs. (Could be from the air quality, or emotions.) 

At a local church

I have an appointment with Dr. Nelson on Friday, December 7, 11 am.

I am reading the excellent A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (public domain books are free on Kindle), and Subhuti's paper, Re-Imagining the Buddha, which I am mostly enjoying.

Heading for San Miguel de Allende tomorrow morning. More about the retreat later.

Las cosas como son.