Culture Shock

Buenos Dias!

With day 2 winding down, I thought it was time to write again. I have been having an awesome time and am very excited about the coming semester. Everyone here including the Mexican students, the international students, and the locals could not be any nicer and more helpful.

After a long but pleasantly uneventful trip I left behind the water works formerly known as my mother and arrived at my homestay families house at the ripe hour of 1:30 in the morning. Despite my tardiness my family welcomed me with open arms, including my new madre who was awoken by my arrival and came out for a kiss on the cheek (more on that to come). I considered writing a blogó about the trip but think it suffices to summarize it with 4 points:

1. Drivers in Mexico City are absolute lunatics, never seen so many close calls, honking horns, and evasive and illegal maneuvers.

2. Mexico City is really really big. Driving through it at night was very interesting because with the elevation changes and the number of people, you get rolling hills absolutely covered in lights with large black holes which are the mountains which rise up in the middle of the city. Very cool to fly over and very interesting to see from the ground.

3. Ana Maria y Alejandro Guajardo, my seat mates for the flight to Mexico City who happened to be dentists in Puebla are absolute angels. There is a very small chance I would have made it to my house from Mexico City without all their help.

4. The official photographer for the Portland Trail Blazers hates basketball and is going on a three week road trip with a Mexican "friend"with only the outfit he was wearing. In comparison to my baggage, this was nothing short of mind blowing.

With that said, I can now comment on what I have found most interesting so far, the differences between here and the US. Most of these are fairly unimportant in the long run and make me seem a bit naive, but I still think they are interesting when you first learn of it.

1. Cheek kisses, everyone does it and it can catch you off guard if you are not careful. I have found this to be a wonderful habit when greeting European co-eds and a bit more laborious when saying good bye to grandma.

2. The Mexican sewage can't handle toilet paper. This means...get ready for it....you throw away and don't flush. Enough said.

3. Perhaps my favorite difference so far has been the difference in what 4 dollars can buy you. For instance, in the US 4$ can buy you 3 socks or a cool pair of multi colored shoe laces at Finish Line or 1 battery. In Mexico, 4$ (50 pesos) can buy you admittance to a bar called Kurandera and unlimited drinks for the entire night (including water, lemonade, and diet cokes thank goodness!) Even more unbelievably the girls get the same deal but have no cover. Oh the injustice.



4. They speak spanish here. I guess I saw this one coming and it is one of the big reasons for choosing Puebla, but it is still quite a shock and quite humbling. Just when I start building some confidence by stringing together a couple sentences a native speaker start speaking at the speed of light and all is lost. My favorite phrases (with translations for those who only speak Swahili and English) are lo siento (means I am sorry, but when said with the proper pathetic facial expression and shoulder shrug actually means my Spanish stinks, please slow down), mas despacio (more slowly), and no entiendo (i don't understand). In addition, having to think in another language when you speak and listen all the time is exhausting and I occasionally need to seek out my Australian friends for a quickie in English.

5. I ate a cactus today.

6. Spanish is tough to understand, tack a Japanese accent on it and it becomes darn near impossible. They are so nice and smiley, but I can't understand a word the four exchange students from Kyoto are saying. When approached I defer to my favorite strategy, big smile and lots of nodding.

7. My host family is awesome. I am very glad to be staying here because of the glimpse into the Mexican culture it provides and the opportunity to practice spanish at any of the three meals (yummy) they provide every day and other times I spend at home. Not to mention Teo, the housekeeper is my girl and Cosmo the dog has a sweet mohawk (Thurstyn desperately needs this hair cut).

8. I hate ending on odd numbers.

Anyways, hope that was a bit of insight into the experience so far. Everything is going great and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Below is a picture I took on my way to campus this morning.