How I know I've been here for a while...

W.I.L.T.

I was in a Cranberries mood today. Do I have to justify it?

Sometimes when I'm listening to my ipod I like to pretend I'm watching a real life movie, and the soundtrack is whatever is playing. Go ahead and laugh. So the bus ride home tonight was entertaining, like a cool montage panning past Mexicans going about their daily post-work tasks (women getting their hair did, 4 men in sombreros talking about who-knows-what, families sitting on their stoops, dogs wandering in and out of internet cafes, individuals closing up their hamburgesa or torta stands, parents arriving home from work to kids etc.) with the Cranberries playing in the background. Awesome.

T.I.H.

No, not a typo. In this blogpost, the H stands for home. That's right, I am beginning to feel home here. Here are supporting ideas/moments:

1. getting into a heated argument with a cabbie over the cost of a ride

2. on the flip side, being able to wager easily for a favorable taxi price

3. having a heart to heart with the woman who works as caretaker of the property where I rent. We are past the awkward "hola"s and "hasta luego"s. I finally worked up the courage to break the ice and ask her where she lives and if she has a family. We ended talking for about 30 minutes about her son who is struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction and giving her so much grief.

4. recognizing neighbors, especially the ones across the street. They are a family and live on top of the corner store they own. They all take turns working shifts during the day, and I make purchases there frequently. We have entered the friendly-neighbor-phase. I chat with them, have learned most of their names, and always acknowledge them with a "bueno(a)s dias/tardes/noches" when I walk past them sitting on the stoop. They even helped me open a bottle of wine once.

5. feeling inclined to turn down invites. Since I am in a new place/home, I found myself accepting each invitation that came my way in the beginning, whether to make friends or to elude loneliness. I now feel perfectly comfortable saying "no" to some people.

6. having to jump through hoops to buy a plane ticket to Campeche (on the Gulf Coast of Mexico next to the Yucatan Peninsula) and finally succeeding. Everything in Mexico takes multiple attempts, so I successfully made a big Mexican purchase and feel more Mexican because of it. (Grammar aficionados, I know I repeated "Mexico" now 5 times in this paragraph, but T.I.M.!) One of the attempts even involved a trip to Mexico City. Ah well. (6 times)

7. Basketball! I've played twice, with one of my students. Anyone who knows my family knows that basketball is a custom of sorts, a christening for new places.

8. coincidences: I've been told they mean I'm on the right path in life.

a.) Today my "personal trainer" (I just joined a gym and I go after the morning rush when it's empty, so the owner has been taking me through personal workouts) and I had a conversation about how history is a story written by the victors, the vencedores. I told him about my Christopher Columbus beef, and he even used the word mentira (lie) when talking about the history curriculums used in schools. Sounds like a certain lesson plan from last week, no? My trainer must have read Zinn in Spanish.

b.) I ran into Laura, my gringa friend, and Jorge, a good Mexican friend, by accident at a cafe last week. In a new city, it's a great feeling to run into someone you know without planning it.

(shoutout to Mrs. Hughes, 7th grade, for teaching me how to outline)

9. being told that I am "different, or something" by a fellow UTEZ English teacher, upon long-windedly and excitedly telling him all about my Columbus lesson plan when I walked into the office to get a whiteboard marker in the middle of class.

10. (and I'll stop here) knowing where the best tortillas in the neighborhood can be bought, and which ones (the ones I had been buying) are "feas" (not good).

W.I.A.

I haven't posted a picture yet, so I'll leave you with this. Ceviche.


And this, just because the puppy is adorable. (Disclaimer, not my picture, belongs to a friend named Jaime, was taken in Coyoacan, the charming part of Mexico City where Frida and Diego lived)


p.s. I went to a lucha libre last weekend. If you don't know what it is, I highly suggest a google image or even youtube search.