School's out!

Friday was the last day of our six-week Spanish course in Mexico City. We had mixed feelings about its ending - on the one hand we will be sad to leave such a fun and exciting city, right at the time when we were starting to feel comfortable and make friends. But another part of us is glad that the studying is finally over! It was hard work turning up to class at 9am five days a week, and fitting in numerous homework exercises around our demanding social schedule.

But the best thing about learning a language is that life is your classroom, and the more often you get out and use your newly acquired skills, the more you will learn. I found it a bit awkward at first striking up conversations with people in the house, and strangers especially, when most times I wouldn't understand their response and have the right thing to say in return.

As the course progressed, I realised I was able to chat more comfortably and freely with people, and moved from inane conversations about the weather to more meaty subjects, such as what they are studying and how they are liking Mexico City.

I'm now able to understand the garbled sales pitches from hawkers in the metro as they extoll the benefits of their bootleg merchandise, and when I hear snippets of the news or radio advertising I at least know what they are talking about. Sometimes I can understand the mumbled slang of Chilangos - Mexican City residents - but still only snippets here and there.

All in all the course has been great preparation. We did quite a bit of grammar, but I wouldn't say there was too much of a focus on it. We did plenty of other stuff too - debates on topics such as the benefits of the internet, the role of advertising, the environment and Mexican history. There were also some useless topics such as the merits or otherwise of infomercials.

Next week there are three exams - a written one where I will have to write a short story, an oral exam where I will have to debate a topic with another student and finally a multiple choice reading and grammar exam. I'm feeling pretty relaxed about it seeing as it doesn't matter whether I pass or fail - I'm just here to improve my Spanish so I can communicate better, and I'm not trying to gain access to a higher level of study like some of my classmates. If you complete all eight levels of the course you receive a qualification to teach Spanish - I have just completed level four so there is still a way to go before fluency!

It will be sad to leave the city, and all the people we have met through the course at the uni and also in our student house. Hopefully we will be able to catch up with them when the exams are over on Wednesday, as we are heading south to Oaxaca on Friday morning.

On Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a long boozy lunch with Leigh, one of Adam's classmates with his girlfriend Laura and her parent's restaurant, which has just opened in the trendy neighbourhood of Condesa, not far from the city centre. Eating here really changed my idea of Mexican food. The menu uses traditional ingredients from the south-eastern states, which had well-developed cuisines before the Spanish arrived. Some of the ingredients featuring chapulines, or grasshoppers, which are finely ground and used as a delicious salty seasoning and mole - a thick brown sauce made the original way with several varieties of chili.

The food was delicately arranged on long slim platters, the flavours exquisitely balanced. For entree there was a trio of ceviche - raw fish marinated in citrus juice. One was served with watermelon, another with portobello mushroom. There was also soft pork meat encased in wafer-thin fried banana strips.

Adam had seared tuna with watermelon and eschallot for his main course, while I had a beautifully seasoned quail served with chopped peanuts and a spicy chapulines sauce. Dessert was a coffee, kahlua, mezcal and cream cocktail for Adam and for me,  banana ice-cream with this delicious crunchy crumble arranged on the plate like a sandy beach.

The meal was so different from other Mexican food we have tried, which tends to be very meat and cheese heavy, and almost invariably includes tortillas, even with breakfest dishes like scrambled eggs. This food was so delicately balanced and light that even after a three course lunch with cocktails we did not feel wiped out.

After lunch we hung around chatting, and were then invited up to the bar to taste some of the many varieties of Mezcal that the restaurant had on offer. Mezcal is like a cousin of tequila in that it also comes from a cactus, but it is derived from the maguey, while tequila comes from the agave plant. Mezcal is pretty strong - 48 per cent was the average, and if you shot it back all in one go you would be on the floor pretty soon.

This is probably why Mezcal is so misunderstood outside of Mexico. People try to shoot it like tequila and it totals them. Instead, you are supposed to sip it like whisky and chase it with lime or other citrus, salt and even freshly chopped tomato or tomato juice. Instead of wiping you out, it gently warms you - some varieties more so than others - and gives you this pleasant, happy feeling, rather than an out of control drunk feeling.

We sampled about five different kinds - apparently Mezcal tasting is becoming quite trendy, there are tasting saloons all over the city. I couldn't taste much difference between them, although one was quite sweet while others burnt my throat more. It's much easier to tell the difference between varieties of wine!