waiting, driving, exploration and some thoughts on mexican culture

well, here i am -- back again. let's see. this last weekend, i went out a couple of times with my cousins. the club scene is not really my thing, but i gave it a try. we also had a little barbecue in the backyard on saturday, which is always fun. i went out with my cousin alberto in the evening and came back to find my other cousin charlie and about 12 of his friends just sitting around talking. eventually somebody pulled out a guitar and poof -- mexican singalong. i eventually went to bed, but i'm pretty sure those boys stayed out there all night. i woke up in the morning to boys lying around on various air mattresses.

sunday, i went back to the international church and the pastor's wife invited me over for lunch, so i was able to fellowship with other christians from the states (and one canadian), which was nice. i'm still not sure about the church. i'm curious to visit some spanish speaking churches. we'll see.

i started training this week. well, sort of. we still haven't officially begun training. the guy who is supposed to give the training is in guadalajara. he was supposed to be here monday of this week, but then he couldn't come until thursday. so for the last 3 days, we had a kind of pre-training with the director of the saltillo school (the guy who will be my boss). then today, we found out that he won't be coming until next week. monday is a holiday (dia de los muertos), so we will be starting training on tuesday. maybe. who knows? i am trying to adopt the mexican attitude that things will happen when they happen. it is difficult to discard the american mindset that things should happen according to a specific schedule. i think the sooner i can adopt this attitude, the better it will be for me in mexico. so we'll see. i do know the school is desperate for teachers and the director even told me that we could probably go ahead with the paperwork for my visa, which includes a pregnancy test to prove that i'm not pregnant. . .

this week, coco and roberto have gone up to texas to be with his mother (my great aunt beverly) while she has surgery. in the meantime, i have use of the truck. i have driven a little bit in mexico with coco, but yesterday was the first time i have driven in mexico alone. i was a little bit nervous, but i managed just fine. i drove to the school and back, and in the evening i drove to starbucks, which is just down the road. i managed to have a conversation in spanish with a boy who works there. i wasn't sure what time it closed, and it took me about 20 minutes to work up the courage to ask him and when i did, we had an entire 2 minute conversation. he asked me where i was from, how long i had been here and what i was doing here. and i managed to answer his questions without hesitation. i was quite proud of myself.

my cousins have told me that i need to try to think in spanish and to try not to translate literally. it's difficult to do both of those things, but the other day i found myself thinking of a caption for a picture in spanish! watching american tv with spanish subtitles is also helpful. at least a little bit.

having coco and roberto gone has actually been good for me. i've been forced to do some things for myself. things like driving and cooking. (ok i've only cooked once since they've been gone). the last couple of days i've been kind of lonely, missing dc and my friends. and i've spent alot of time at the house. i have felt a little paralyzed, not having a car and since i don't know the language (yet) and alot of the customs, i have been a little nervous about exploring. but today was a beautiful day and i finally forced myself to get out of the house. i started walking down the street thru our neighborhood and then i just kept going until i ended up in the old part of town. the architecture is definitely old mexico and i made it down the the saltillo cathedral. i had been here in august, but since moving here, i wasn't sure exactly where it was from the house, and now i am excited to know how to get there. going the other direction from the house is the very modern part of town, pretty similar to the states, so i was glad to find the old part of town. when i got there, i just sat down and watched some kids chasing pigeons. some girl taking a survey came up and asked me . . . something. knowing it would be fruitless, i told her that i only understood only a little bit of spanish. she hesitated and then smiled and said gracias. a guy on another bench started up a conversation with me and i did manage to talk to him a bit, but i didn't understand alot of what he said. i do think it's good for me to get out and force myself to speak spanish to people other than my cousins and even without them around. it forces me to try even if it's not that good. i can only get better from here, right? exploring the city and having a few conversations in spanish, short though they may be, has given me a bit more self-confidence about being here. i took some pictures on my walk and will try to post them a bit later. i almost got run over by cars about 3 different times on the way back. there aren't really crosswalks here. you just have to run across the street and try not to get hit. (i can guarantee you i will be getting an email from my grandmother as soon as she reads this.) ;)

i do think i have experienced some minor culture shock, mostly in the form of certain behaviors i see here. nothing that freaks me out, but things that surprise me. for example, the greetings here are kisses on the cheek between women and women and men, but never between two men. this doesn't bother me, but sometimes i forget that it's going to happen. and it's not just between people who know each other; it's when you first meet someone. that's what is always a bit weird to me. someone might show up at a party and they will go around and give everyone a little kiss on the cheek. i might not even get their name, but i will get a little kiss. and several times i've extended my hand to shake (as we do in the states) and suddenly someone is kissing my cheek. even the man who will be my boss at berlitz has done it to me, which actually really took me aback. for the states, that would be considered inappropriate and unprofessional, but here it's normal. and i just have to get used to it.

things are just more laid back here and my cousins think i'm a paranoid american. i put my seatbelt on in the back seat once and they were like, you don't have to do that here; this is mexico. i was like, but it's safer if you do, and i'm pretty sure they just rolled their eyes. i also saw a little boy lying across a board on the back of a pickup truck. i told my cousin charlie that in the states that would never be allowed and he was like, but here in mexico what can you do about it. i had an interesting conversation with my friend misty about this; she is living in nicaragua and has lived in several other countries. she made the point that americans feel so in control of everything and feel like we can change things, while people in other countries are used to not being in control so they just let things go as they are. i think this is an interesting subject. i love that in the united states if we see something that is wrong or dangerous, we take action. we do something to change it. it's a very american belief to feel like we can control our destiny. if something doesn't happen the way we think it should, we find out who to talk to to make it happen. and living in mexico i'm starting to understand that it doesn't really work the same way and people just accept that. it's more about survival here. that sounds so drastic. the part of mexico i am living in, the people are definitely doing more than surviving, but i think it's just kind of the mexican way. you just learn to deal with stuff the way it is. i've talked to several mexicans and i was kind of surprised to hear them say that they know mexico is corrupt and unsafe, etc., but they just learn how to live with it.

i got into an interesting conversation with my cousin charlie tonight -- subject of which shall remain vague; let's just say that it had to do with the roles of men and women. i strongly disagreed with his point of view and without being rude (i think), i told him so. at one point, i think he got mad at me and he said "you can't just come down here with your gringo ideas and expect to change everything; that's just the way it is!" and i guess he's sort of right. i can't try to change mexican society; i just have to learn how to live within it.

i do have to say, though, my cousin charlie is like having a little brother all over again. he's 21, and he loves to give me a hard time and vice versa. he likes to call me a gringa and make fun of me for being american. he's just lucky i'm a good sport. but he's also really sweet and serves as my translator whenever i need it (which is alot).

mexican bowling, border crossing, and my first bout of loneliness

last thursday, i went bowling with two of coco's nephews, only one of whom spoke any english. but he spoke more english that i expected him to, so between his english and my spanish, we were able to communicate well enough. bowling was fun, and i managed not to suck too badly, and i taught them the sarcastic way of saying "good try". these guys really really like to bowl, and i think they are in some kind of competitive league and they wanted me to join them every monday. i really don't know why, since my being on the team certainly is not going to help them. i get as many gutter balls as i do strikes. also, i like to go bowling about twice a year, not every week. so i made my excuses.

this weekend, i went to austin, texas with coco and her sister yolanda to go shopping and to visit yolanda's daughter ilinia who lives there. it was a bit weird to be going back to the states after only 2 weeks in mexico, but apparently, clothes are too expensive in mexico. everybody who can goes to texas to buy clothes.

crossing the border was an interesting experience. i was really nervous since this was my first time. i let coco do all the talking, until the u.s. border guard asked for my passport. he was kind of a jerk. he asked me all kinds of questions about what i was doing in mexico, where i lived in the states, where i worked. he seemed very suspicious, and maybe he thought it was odd that i was traveling with two mexican women. what i really wanted to say to him was "look, bub, i'm a friggin' american citizen and i have a valid passport, so why don't you let me into my own country????" but after all those questions, he let us pass and there was no need for my strong words. coco and yolanda said border guards are always like that. here is a picture i took from the bridge over the rio grande while we were waiting to cross.

the trip to austin was fun, although i spent too much money. and yolanda's daughter ilinia was very cool and speaks perfect english. she is in austin working for a spanish newspaper. i had never been to austin before and sadly, there wasn't time to avail ourselves of the cool music scene. hopefully, in the future there will be other trips for that purpose. we did visit the texas state house, which is a replica of the capitol building in dc. it was pretty, but it's certainly not the real thing. i'm sorry if that offends any texans out there. wait, no i'm not.

i drove the truck from austin to just before we reached the border in laredo, texas. this trip was my first time to drive a pick up truck, and i think i did pretty well. while i was driving it on the way up, coco commented that i drive fast. she said that she drives fast too, but not when she's in the united states. i told her that was smart, but thought it doesn't matter because i'm a u.s. citizen, so if i speed it's no big deal. it wasn't until we were in san antonio and i noticed a cop behind us that i remembered that i was a driving a truck with mexican plates. so i decided to slow down.

i did manage to get in some chick-fil-a and starbucks while we were there. there is a starbucks in saltillo, although i haven't been yet. i introduced coco to the pumpkin spice latte while we were in texas and she really liked it. though again, it was weird to be back in the states so soon after arriving. i felt like i hadn't really been gone long enough to miss things. maybe in a few more months, i'll want to go back for another visit.

crossing the border into mexico was much easier. they didn't even ask for my passport. the interesting thing i noticed was that the line to get into the u.s. was much much longer than the line to get into mexico.

i think i have come down from the high that is being in a foreign country. at this point, i've been doing alot of waiting. berlitz, the school i am supposed to be teaching for, does not seem to have their act together. when i was still in dc and trying to decide whether or not to move to mexico, they were practically begging me to come. however, before i can be officially hired with them, i have to take their training, which they keep telling me "oh we are almost 90% certain it's going to happen this week." last night, i think i was overcome with frustration (and a little bit of pms) and i started to cry in front of coco. i didn't come to mexico to hang out. i came to teach, and without trying to sound like a martyr, i gave up my apartment, friends, a good church -- my life in a beautiful city to come work for a company that is dragging it's feet. i think i was also missing my friends and feeling kind of lonely. i don't know very many people in saltillo yet -- mostly my cousins, who are great, but i can't just call up my friends in dc and hang out. so i think all of those things made me sad last night. coco was so sweet to me and said she understood and that even if i never got a job she was happy to have me in mexico. i am so grateful for her and my cousin roberto. coco is my mama mexicana.

today, however, i went down to the universidad del valle de mexico to take an english grammar test -- hopefully, i will also be teaching for them starting next semester. and as i was leaving the university, the director of berlitz called to let me know that the training is definitely happening next week (i'm not going to hold my breath, but this seems more definite than before). the lord is teaching me to be patient, even though i'm not very good at it.

here are some pictures from the trip to austin of me, coco, yolanda and ilinia.

ai yi yi!

ok, after i wrote very lengthy previous post, i realized that i had put in some incorrect information. i said that minimum wage in mexico is 50 pesos per day, which is true (although i just read on bloomberg.com that it's between 50 and 55 pesos per day depending on which zone you live in.) however, because i am still not good at calculating the exchange rate yet, i said that it was around 40 cents american. ok, so 50-55 pesos are roughly around 4 dollars american. still that's the minimum wage per day. it's still terrible.

anyway, i had to correct this or i wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight. carry on.

thoughts on mexican food, driving, and other stuff

sorry to those of you who would like me to post something every day. a) i'm lazy; b) at the present moment, i am not having an adventure per minute, so posting every day might be a little much and little boring right now.

i do have a few things to share though. i've been learning some interesting things about mexican culture, especially in the food area. one thing i've learned to appreciate are things covered in chili powder. mexicans eat pineapple dipped in chili powder. it's a unique taste. but it's more than just fruit. coco brought home a bag of watermelon flavored suckers coated in chili powder. at first, i almost couldn't handle the taste, but now i love them.

pizza is another example. last friday, we ordered a pizza from dominoes and daniela, my cousin charlie's girlfriend asked me if liked it with queso philadelphia (cream cheese). i told her i'd never had that before, but sure i'd try it. apparently, they love it here. the cream cheese is baked into the pizza. it was also interesting. i mean how can cheese on anything be a bad thing? they poured salsa on their pizza as well, though it's not the kind of salsa you're thinking of. it was more like a spicy sauce. that's the other thing -- any kind of sauce is called salsa, i.e. salsa de barbeque.

today we had hamburgers for lunch and coco grilled up some bacon (normal) and pieces of ham -- to go on the hamburgers. i've never had ham on hamburgers (and i opted for the bacon), but really if you think about it, ham and bacon are both from the same animal, so . . .

everything else i've had here is just delicious mexican food (i may come back from mexico packing an extra 50 pounds). they eat tortillas with everything. and refried beans. and salsa. oh and limes. coco buys limes by the pound (or kilo, i guess -- i still haven't tried to figure out the conversion from the english to metric system yet).

ok, i think that's it for the food.

i drove a few times on saturday with coco. she said that if i could drive in dc, i could probably drive in mexico, which is probably true. i'm just a little nervous still. i did pretty well, except a few times i thought we were at a four way stop, but it was only a two way stop. i asked roberto if they had four way stops in mexico, and he told me that mostly the person with the right of way is the person with the biggest car. speaking of cars, i found out an interesting fact yesterday. roberto had to go to mexico city and he took the suv. coco told me that he couldn't take the truck because there is a law in mexico city that if your license plate has certain numbers, you can't drive into mexico city on certain days of the week. this is to keep congestion and pollution down.

on saturday night, we went to a mexican fiesta for coco's sister-in-law's birthday. we drove out to a ranch that coco's father used to use to make bricks. it's not like a normal ranch with a house and animals. it's just kind of a place out in the country with a few buildings -- for making bricks, i guess. anyway, we had a party with good food and dancing. almost no one in her family speaks english, so i had to rely on charlie and daniela. daniela is so cute and alot of fun to hang out with. at first she was too shy to try to speak english, even though she can read, write and understand it. but this last week, she has been trying alot. i'm really proud of her.

sunday morning, coco took me to the international church. it was very small -- maybe 50 people. i was glad to be there, but it made me miss chbc alot. it's not quite the same. i will go back if i can. hopefully, i can develop some good friendships there and grow in christ.

last night, i taught my first class, even though i haven't been officially hired by this company yet. though i'm not really worried. they are desperate for teachers. i just have to go thru their training and then go thru the visa process. the class last night was good, although my two students showed up 20 minutes late, and it's only an hour class, so i only got 40 minutes with them. needless to say, i didn't get through everything. but i really enjoyed it. i'm anxious to start what i came down here to do. i do have an interview at a university this week -- on thursday. hopefully that will prove positive, since i think i may have to get jobs with several schools. i'm not sure this job at berlitz is going to be full time.

i am doing my best to pick up as much spanish as i can. though sometimes i find myself getting very frustrated. i love to talk. and when i start to think about all the words in the english language and all the ways there are to say things, i think "i will never be able to talk that fluently in spanish". however, i've only been here about 9 days, so i just need to be patient. coco tells me i am doing a good job.

finally, i've been trying to gain as much knowledge of mexican culture as i can. even the little things. they don't really recycle here, which is strange to me. and it hurts me every time i put something recyclable in the trash can. they do recycle coke cans, but that's about it. it is very interesting where i am living and what i see on tv -- it's hard to believe that mexico could be called a third world country. though i asked my cousin roberto if he thought mexico was still a third world country, and he said yes. apparently 55% of mexico's population live below the poverty line and the minimum wage is about 50 pesos per day, which is roughly 40 cents american. a day. crazy, right? i don't think i've really experienced or seen the poverty of mexico yet. saltillo seems to have alot of what you could want. the grocery stores, walmart, the mall -- they are all pretty similar to what you would see in the united states.

anyway, i guess this was a little longer than i intended, but i wanted to wait until i had alot to tell you. hope everyone is doing well. adios.

yesterday, i went with coco to walmart and to the mall. it really wasn't all that different from malls or walmarts in the states. i am still having to calculate the difference between dollars and pesos. currently, it's 13 pesos to the dollar. i needed a new purse and got one for only about 7 bucks, but i'm not sure how long it's going to last. i also needed some shampoo and conditioner. i made the mistake of buying a brand i recognized -- pantene 2 in 1, which turned out to be about 6 dollars. i would never pay that in the states. so i need to just go with some off brand and be a little more vigilant about calculating the exchange rate instead of just guessing.

we passed by a movie theatre in the mall, and i noticed that "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" was playing. only in mexico it's called "rain of hamburgers". i got a bit of a chuckle out of that.

in the evening, coco and robert had to go to a doctor's appointment, so i was at the house by myself. they've been having a lot of work done on the house lately, and robert told me a man would be stopping by to check on something and that i should tell him to come back later. well, a man did stop by. he wanted to look at the construction in the house. in my very terrible spanish, i told him to come back later. apparently, this man was coco's brother and of course he could have come in to look, but i had no idea. and if he told me in spanish, i must have missed it. i was a little bit embarrassed that i made him leave. he probably thinks robert and coco have some new maid from the states who won't let anyone in.

later in the evening, coco and i walked half an hour to this great little taco place. dinner here is around 9:00, except for my cousin robert, who according to his kids and wife, is on a gringo schedule, which means he eats dinner around 6:30. the weather here has been hot and then really nice in the evening, so it's good for walking. saltillo is not terribly conducive for walking, as we walked along some major roads right next to traffic, but it was good nonetheless.

tonight, i am going back to berlitz, not to teach this time, but to observe more classes. i guess there was a change of plans. the good news is that my psych test, which had been faxed to mexico city, came back and according the mexican government, i am not crazy. i think training begins next week. i am anxious to get started.

well, that's all for now. more later.

viva mexico!

well, here i am. i made it safely to mexico. i was definitely "that girl", dragging 3 suitcases plus a backpack thru customs, until a nice mexican man helped me move one of them thru the line.

my cousin robert and his wife coco were there to greet me at the airport in monterrey and then we drove 45 minutes to saltillo, where they live. we are surrounded by mountains, which is beautiful. i've never lived in the mountains before unless you count the ozarks, which compared to these mountains are really just hills. my other cousins were at the house waiting for me. i got a little bit of unpacking done and then we had a nice little barbeque outside in the courtyard. it was a great first evening. they are very patient with me, even if they do laugh at my bad spanish. (i did learn how to ask for someone to pass something at the table.) i am trying my best and learning as much as i can. coco and robert lived in the u.s. for a few years, and coco is still learning english, so she knows how it feels to be in a foreign country and not completely understand the language. she is so sweet and the perfect hostess.

yesterday, she drove me to the berlitz school, where i will more than likely be teaching english. i don't officially have the job yet, but the director is talking as though i will be working for him. i took two tests -- grammar and psychological, which included drawing pictures of a tree (which actually looked more like a volcano -- what does that say about me?). i returned later in the evening to teach a business english class so i could be observed by the director, but the student failed to show up, so i observed another class. i'll go back on thursday to teach so they can watch me.

so far, everything is great, except that i think maybe the altitude is affecting my allergies. or maybe my allergies are just acting up on their own.

anyway, that's all for now.

i'm at the little rock airport, waiting for my flight to dallas. by 3:30 pm (cst), i'll be in monterrey, mexico (barring any unforeseen weirdness). i can't believe it's really here. though it's not like i've been waiting forever, even though it seems like it. i just bought my ticket about 3 weeks ago. both of my bags were barely at the weight limit -- one was 50 pounds and the other 51, so i took out a spanish workbook and gave it to my dad. i feel like a pioneer who is throwing stuff out of the wagon on their way out west.

anyway, i'm feeling all kinds of emotional conglomerations -- fear, excitement, anticipation, etc. added to which, i now have a cold. however, when i left dc a little over a week ago, i read joshua 1:9, which is the promise i'm taking with me as i begin this journey. "have i not commanded thee? be strong and of a good courage. be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the lord thy god is with thee whithersoever thou goest". even as i am a little bit afraid, i know the lord is with me. he's going before me. whatever adventure is ahead of me, i know i'm not alone.

so that's it. i'll see you in mexico.

vaya con dios

i really should be scrounging around my mother's attic looking for my high school diploma. i certainly hope it's up there somewhere. i need it in order to get a work visa in mexico. you'd think a college diploma would trump a high school one, but i guess in mexico, it isn't so.

by now, i think most of you know that i'm moving to mexico. saltillo, coahuila, mexico to be exact. yes, it was a quick decision. but i think a good one. in august, i went with my grandmother to visit our mexican cousins. quick little family history: my grandmother was born in saltillo, mexico in 1929. her dad was an engineer and moved with his wife down there. their 2 eldest children were born in texas, but my grandmother was born in mexico because they wanted to own property. so she was born there and the property was put in her name. her brother stayed in mexico and raised 4 kids there. 2 of his sons still live there. they married mexican women and raised their own children. it's these cousins that we went to visit in august. i had never even met them before, but by the end of our visit, they suggested that i come and live with them. surely, i could easily get a job teaching english.

so a month and a half later, that's what i'm doing. i'm leaving on sunday. i got a job teaching english at a language school. do i speak spanish? poquito. but i'm excited to learn.

i spent alot of the last month scrambling -- trying to find someone to take my place in the apartment, figuring out what to do with my car. god really worked out so many of the details. and i am so grateful to marsha and laura, my amazing roommates in dc who were so great to just let me pick up and leave so quickly (after only living there for 2 months) and were so supportive.

i don't know what it is about me that keeps me moving. i can't seem to stay in the same place for long. i lived in dc/maryland for over five years, but i must have moved about 8 times in those 5 years. it's kind of odd because i'm not a person who naturally embraces change, but i've decided that as much as i dislike change, i dislike stagnation more. i've packed up my car more times than i can remember. and i guess that's ok. i don't have any debt, no kids, nothing really much to tie me down. i'm definitely going to miss dc -- it's an amazing city -- but i'm looking forward to the adventures that god has for me in mexico.

i guess i'd better go find my high school diploma. keep checking back to hear all of my adventures and the many social faux pas that are sure to come.

adios!