A Little Bit of Rambling, A Little Bit of Life

So my family has been telling me that they want a blog post. I wasn't sure what to write about, because there is just so much! I would write on one topic, but then I get carried away and a post on food turns into a post on seatbelts. Better to just have a general update. I decided to just talk about everything that comes to mind, and I can't promise that all of it will be interesting to everyone. Feel free to read what you like, skip what you don't, and share what you love.

First, I'm going to talk about weather. I'll start by saying that it is hot, all the time. I'm not too great with celsius, so I don't know exactly how hot. The one day I checked the weather channel online, it was 90 degrees fahrenheit, but "felt like 100". That is not the sort of thing you want to ever read. Feels like 100? I thought it was a joke, or a typo, but unfortunately it was not. In my house, and most houses, we have air conditioning, but only in the bedrooms. Fans help, and if you're lucky there is a breeze, but really, I never could have imagined living somewhere where it is so hot we take at least two showers a day. Aunt Kathy, if you're reading this, I think I found an entire country who bathes as much as you do!

Second, there are bugs here, and lots of them. Itty bitty ants are always crawling around, but those are the least of my worries. I still hate spiders with a passion, but I managed to let a daddy long leg cross my path without freaking out. This is big stuff for me! The little salamanders still garner a little (okay a lot) of fear, but I do my best to just turn around and walk/ run somewhere else. I just try to ignore all of those little creatures. I have bug bites all over my legs, and I can only hope that they are from mosquitoes.

Next, time. This may not seem like the most fascinating aspect of my exchange, but it is definitely prevalent in my daily life. For comparison sake, let’s just say that arriving to an event between 10 minutes early and 10 minutes late is pretty typical. When it gets to be an hour in either direction, it starts to be a little rude.  In the U.S., I am pretty typical as far as timeliness goes. Although my mom may disagree, I tend to be on time. How many of you have heard, “To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is unacceptable.”? Well, I’m pretty sure no one in Mexico has heard this. It may be the opposite, in fact. Being early is almost unheard of, and being on time is extremely rare. “Late” practically does not exist in this society.  At first this was really difficult for me, as I would be ready to go somewhere, only to wait another hour or two. However, this concept is really kind of beautiful. We don't rush here, and quality time is a must. There is no agenda set in stone, and nothing is so important that it takes you away from your family. Now, I find myself enjoying this. Instead of checking my watch and rushing to the next activity, one of many on a never ending list, I spend lots of time with people who really matter.

Now I should probably talk about school. I'm technically studying "Communication and Publicity". My schedule :

Monday is Methods of Investigation, Social Psychology, Written and Oral Expression, and Computer class. Tuesday is Methods of Investigation, Drawing Techniques, and Written and Oral Expression. Wednesday is Written and Oral Expression, Social Psychology, Theory of Communication, and Computer class. Thursday is Written and Oral Expression, Drawing Techniques, and Theory of Communication. Friday is English. So, everyday is different, and every class is in a block of 2 hours, except Written and Oral Expression, which is only an hour. We have tons of breaks, at least between every class and sometimes the teachers just leave early. Monday and Wednesday I end around 2, and Tuesday and Thursday are around 12. I'm not really sure about Friday because I haven't gone to school on a Friday yet. I start everyday at 7 (which is so early in relation to when we go to sleep). My experience with the teachers has been pretty good. Some are really nice, and none have been standoffish or unfriendly. All in all, they treat me like all the other students, although I really don't have to do homework or pay attention in class. They know that my primary reason for being there is to learn more Spanish, and the content of the classes isn't as important. One thing that still confuses me is the conflict between the name of the class and the actual material. It seems like all my classes are really the same class with different names. This could just be my complete confusion as an exchange student, but I'm pretty sure I understand enough to know my teachers are all saying the same thing. I guess it's more about the application of the material than the material in my school, whereas I had a lot of classes in the US that had a lot to do with memorization. That is not to say my education in the US was worthless, quite the contrary. I have had many wonderful classes with incredible teachers- the kind who make you think, and challenge you to find meaning and application in what you learn in the classroom. The teachers and classes I loved were the ones that mattered outside the school building, that challenged my way of thinking or showed me how to use the information in my life. I did however also have classes where I had to memorize facts and figures for a test, knowing it would have absolutely no significance in four days, let alone four years. What I have experienced more in my school in Mexico is direct use for the information I am learning. This may be unique to my individual school, and these particular teachers, I really can't generalize for the entire country, or even just the entire city. I promise I will talk more about this as the year continues and I better understand what is going on!

Next, in my last post I said I would talk about nieves. A nieve is ice cream, but it is made with water and real fruit, instead of milk. Kind of like a sherbet. Flavors include guanabana, mango, tropicolada, limon (lime, not lemon), cacahuate (peanut), cappucino, chamoy, nanche, mamey, coco (coconut), chocolate, vainilla (vanilla), fresa (strawberry), and the list goes on. Nieves are sold everywhere, from a shop called Guerro Guerro, to carts that pass by on the street. This "food on a cart" aspect of the culture is really endearing, besides being very convenient! My personal favorite is guanabana. Wikipedia tells me that guanabana is called "soursop" in english. Never in my life have I seen or heard this word, but trust me when I say it's delicious! It evidently can only be grown in warm climates, any temperatures below 37 Fahrenheit will kill the plant, explaining why no one in Watertown even knows it exists. Nanche is also really good and completely new to me. The fruit is a small yellow ball, with a seed in the middle. More or less like a cherry in size, although not as soft, and tastes nothing like it. So, maybe not so much like a cherry. Also from the ever reliable Wikipedia, the nanche tree/ shrub only exists in tropical and subtropical climates. Next, mamey. I'm going to take this from WIkipedia too so there is a chance that none of this is true, but we're going to live on the wild side and use it anyways. Evidently it tastes like a combination of pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and maraschino cherries, with the texture of an avocado. Maybe it's just better if we say it tastes good, and it has the taste and texture of mamey. No surprise, it's also grown in Mexico, Central America, etc. However, Wikipedia does add that it can be grown in Southern Florida. Chamoy "refers to a variety of savory sauces and condiments in Mexican cousine made from pickled fruit". If that's not a little confusing, it is also described as having a flavor of salty, sweet, sour, and chile at the same time. The best way to explain the confusing combination of flavors is that it's just a part of Mexican food. Somehow every food has a million different flavors, none of which are exactly recognizable. It's really different than American food, but I am really lucky to have this firsthand experience with such a unique culture of which food is a huge part. If you wikipedia these fruits, there are pictures of each one, and tons more information!

My conclusion: Tomorrow I will have lived here 1 month (going from August 5th to September 5th) and that in itself is crazy. I am still adjusting to life, but missing my family has become more commonplace, and daily routines are starting to become "routine". Sometimes I'm a little overwhelmed, but that is not to say I'm not enjoying every moment. This is truly the experience of a lifetime, and I am so lucky to have this opportunity. I have been blessed with wonderful parents at home who support me in this, and an incredible family here in Mexico. If you ever get the chance to travel and live in someone's home, if even for just a week, please take that chance. You will learn so much about the culture, things that cannot be told. Besides that, you will see that this world is full of wonderful people. No matter where they come from, or what language they speak, they have a lot to share and they are more than willing. To every exchange student and their parents,  to every host family, to every kindhearted Rotarian- you are all amazing and I'm so proud to be a part of this. So, comment, tell me what you want to hear about, let me know how you are doing. Or just read, you don't have to take my word, in fact I hope you don't. I hope you are inspired, and instead of accepting what I say, you decide to go somewhere and find out for yourself exactly what possibilities the world holds.