Birthdays and Sidewalk Chalk

I turned 21 today, and while this is an important birthday in the US, here it doesn't care quite as much significance. I didn't do anything exciting for my birthday. Yesterday my friend Jessica and I went back to San Miguel de Allende. There was supposed to be a festival that involved running angry bulls through the streets, but we found out once we got there that this part of the festival had been canceled due to complaints from the town residents. We were pretty disappointed, but we spent the day shopping at the artisan shops and market and ate some of the most amazing food I've had here so far. We also found a beautiful park and spent some time watching a basketball tournament there. It was a good day, but we were pretty tired when we got back.

There hasn't been much birthday fuss today. The youth kids at church found out that it was my birthday thanks to the other CIEE kids that go to church with me and they all sang for me. I went back to the house for lunch, chilaquiles verdes, and rested for a little while. I got bored so I decided to go down to the Jardin and checkout the sidewalk artists that were decorating the sidewalks in the downtown area. It was incredible! For me, sidewalk art means hopscotch, but these people were amazing artists! I included below some photos of their work:

This one was my favorite.


This artist was still working while his assistant provided shade.


Another artist still working. I can't imagine how sore her knees and back had to have been after working all day.


I thought this piece of art was especially colorful.

I like this one because the man on the side looks like he is actually kneeling on the sidewalk when in reality he is part of the work.

After wandering around for a while, I sat down to people watch. This is always an entertaining activity. The children are always so cute and funny, the teenagers always have a significant other hanging on their arm, and the adults are frantically trying to keep track of their children and all their belongings. As I was sitting there a man came up and sat down on the other half of the bench. He began making necklaces out of unique stones and wire strips. We began chatting and he showed me how he made these necklaces and even let me help pick out the stones for each one. He was a very interesting person. He is from Guanajuato but he spent several years traveling in Europe and Africa. He asked me about my time in Guanajuato and about the different things that I have done. The conversation turned to religion, and he told me about how he disapproves of the machismo aspect catholicism has to it. He asked me how Christianity was different from catholicism. It was an interesting conversation even though I'm not sure I understand all of it.

My birthday was different this year. Not in a bad way, just different. Overall the weekend was good. I found some really neat souveniers and was able to see a unique style of art that I have never before seen. I had 25 youth kids sing "Feliz Cumpleanos" and I had an in-depth conversation with a complete stranger. Not bad for one weekend.