SHOPPING
This afternoon I went shopping in the Artisan’s Market but on the way I stopped in the vegetable market and then wandered around, taking spatial videos, a large area with many food counters. These videos were made by holding the iPhone low against my stomach and trying to keep the phone level so that people watching the video wouldn’t feel they were sliding sidewise. I was trying to be unobtrusive, not holding the camera high so that it would be clear that I was videotaping people. As you can tell from people’s reactions, no one paid much attention at all to me. But since I couldn’t see the screen as I was filming I was never quite sure what I was filming. This is not a work of art, it is simply a way for me to remember these markets and for other people to get a sense of what a Mexican market looks like. If you have a Vision Pro you will have the feeling through 3D of being immersed in the market. You will see some North Americans here but most of the people are ordinary Mexicans shopping or eating out inexpensively.
RANDOM SPATIAL VIDEOS OF WANDERING THROUGH THE MARKET
https://share.icloud.com/photos/097vKVPjS0LN8YelxlRVeG3zA
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0505Fp7nEHzC9tWz9gj27AwzQ
https://share.icloud.com/photos/05dxmHgIq7IkDKlt3oSIG1tyQ
https://share.icloud.com/photos/061YMH2_yWGqosuBZv4IyT0Eg
After this general market I continued on to the Artisan Market. The Artisan Market is aimed at tourists looking for traditional Mexican handicrafts. They are cheaply made by hand and very colorful. The hard thing is deciding what to buy from this great variety and then deciding how much to pay in pesos which means learning how to bargain without making a fool of yourself by paying too much or offering a stupidly low price. The exchange rate is about 20 pesos to the dollar, which should make figuring out the price in dollars easy, but I am still confused. I have difficulty figuring out what an 11,000 peso rug is in dollars and even when I finally figure that out have no idea what a 4×6 foot rug should normally cost in Mexico, or even what it should cost in the United States. I feel like a clueless innocent abroad, an ugly American. So the choice of a rug or anything else I buy is hopelessly complicated. How to get it home is another problem.
I did meet a couple from LA, the man speaking Spanish, who were shopping in a stall where they said they had shopped many times before, buying things to resell in their shop in Los Angeles. They claimed that the this one woman’s shop had the best stuff and that she is completely honest. So I am going to buy something there. But I walked away empty handed with only a week to go during which I can make the plunge, with no idea how to do it, and buy something that appeals to me to put on the wall or the floor as a link back to this time in San Miguel de Allende.
ARTISAN MARKET VIDEO
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0ae5MZXUBv2mYQfGbpyP5_bLQ
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 