Apparently luxury is synonymous with LazyBoy. Last night we went to the VIP theater (sooooo glad to be shelling out pesos instead of pounds, am loving the exchange rate). The seats are built wide enough to accommodate even the most American of arses. Why sip soda when you could guzzle martinis and mocha? And popcorn is so passe, have sushi instead.

Kim swung us by the city center today so we could see the square. Beautiful architecture and people abound. I'm so accustomed to one stop Wal*Mart shopping that the market districts took me completely by surprise. There's a toy district, a food district, a craft district and so on and so forth. I'm used to having a small selection of everything, but here there's an enormous selection of a few things concentrated in blocks. There are shops devoted to lace, others specializing in ribbons, and still more focused solely on fabrics. Crazy.

Kim mentioned something that rings really true for me, "It takes a long time to live here." I don't think I would have appreciated this thought prior to the past two days. Everything we do takes time. Lots of it. This hasn't prompted impatience on my part, just acknowledgement that I need to budget thrice my usual time slot to shop or get from point a to point b.

I'm considering coloring my hair so that I blend in a bit better. By American standards I have relatively dark blond hair, but down here it may as well be platinum. The stares and whistles are getting old. Today a woman walked up to me (or teetered, really. We're pretty sure she was high or mentally ill and possibly a prostitute) and started waving a wet umbrella in my face, then she started flicking my hair with it.

Baffled (and worried the umbrella was going to miss ringlet and hit retina) I just backed up and mumbled, "gracias?" When Kim came over and tried to translate for me the lady ambled off in the opposite direction.

I really have more empathy for people who are different back home. It feels strange to be stared or pointed at. Kim says she's used to it now, but I don't think I want to be. I'd rather resume my place in the background, so I'm going to find out if brunettes really do have more fun.