El Perdido

Today on my way to my volunteer gig at CutOut Fest, I saw a tiny puppy frozen in the middle of a busy intersection. Two cars passed by him and one was headed straight for him when I put my hand out to make them stop and scooped him up. Everyone who had been standing by watching suddenly disappeared and there was only one older man left. I asked him where the pup had come from and he had no idea. He said he was from Tijuana and couldn't take the pup so I brought him to the CutOut Fest office with me. He glued himself against my chest and trembled. He's been a big hit around here and luckily they all knew what to do with a lost pup so hopefully we can find him a home. I would love to take him, but I don't know if my stipend could really cover the cost of vaccinations and transporting a dog internationally. But isn't he the cutest?

Warning: Conserve your water!!

I just put on a clay face mask and when it was time to wash it off, no water would come out of the tap. I don't really get why, I know that water doesn't always come through the pipes into homes at all hours of the day here in Mexico, but for that reason the family has a water tank in the patio (if you've seen the photos of my house, it's disguised as a pretty water fountain). The tank is full but the tap is empty. I had to use a glass of drinking water to wash off my face (the tap water is not potable here and water is delivered to homes each week). This leads me to my warning to all my U.S. American friends: conserve your water!
Querétaro is going through a major population boom, they say about 70 new families move here every day. The city was rated has having the second highest standard of living in the entire country, it's very safe, and has a strong economy. Angela, the mom around here, has said she is certain Querétaro will be facing a water shortage in the next few years and plans to build another tank. I have always been extremely concerned about wasting water, ever since I saw this cartoon on Sesame Street of a fish's pond being drained as the kid next door left the tap running while he brushed his teeth. Today's face mask incident inspired me to bring my crusade to all of ya'll's attention. Many countries in the world do not have ready access to water the way we do in the U.S. and we will not always have an abundance of fresh, clean, potable water flowing from out taps. Please do what you can to conserve this precious resource. There will be a day when the tap doesn't run all day, every day in the U.S.

**I wrote this blog post last night but couldn't upload it because we also lost internet. Carlos Slim may be the richest man in the world but his internet is extremely lacking.**

When I kind of went to Cervantino

This past weekend I went to visit Guanajuato and check out the International Cervantino Festival. I had heard such great things about it, mostly things like "it is the coolest!", "you're going to Cervantino? You're so lucky, it's amazing!", "Cervantino is the greatest!" and so I packed my bag on Friday and hauled it to school with my on Saturday with the intention of being on the last bus to Guanajuato at 6pm. I arrived at the ticket counter and proclaimed my need for one ticket, please! But guess what! I wasn't the only one planning to go to Guanajuato that night as the bus was sold out. I booked a seat for the next morning and dragged my bag home.

I arrived in Guanajuato at 10:30 a.m. the next morning and the kind taxi driver took me on a little detour to show off some of the most beautiful buildings his city has. Alia told me to get dropped off in a little plaza where she met me and brought me to breakfast with 6 or 7 other Fulbrighters. It was such a nice surprise to see so many friendly faces. Two had to leave that morning and the others were going to Dolores Hidalgo, a little town with great historic importance nearby. I was eager to see this Cervantino and stayed behind with Alia, who is living there, to check out the scene. 

You know when you get this huge, blown out of proportion expectations and then you go, "oh, what was everybody so excited about?" That kind of sums up my Cervantino experience. It didn't help that I arrived on a Sunday and hadn't done my homework to figure out what events to go to. Basically my trip was a nice visit to Guanajuato and there just so happened to be Cervantino posters all around. Sunday Alia walked me around town and I picked up a beautiful ceramic frog and lizard I had been eyeing to decorate my classroom with next year, but at a lower price than I'd seen anywhere in Querétaro. We had a lovely dinner with the other Fulbrighters before they took the midnight bus back to Mexico City and were in bed at a reasonable hour so Alia would be ready for work the next day. 

On Monday I wandered around by myself and came across an enchanting looking cafe and was drawn in by a piece of art that reminded me of a wave.

I ordered the seasonal fruit plate and a delicious sounding mocha. Looking through the shelves, I came across a book of poetry by José Martí and thought my day was off to a brilliant start. My breakfast arrived and I was a bit dumbfounded by the thimble of "coffee" and plate full of cantaloupe and apple. Frankly, it was probably the worst breakfast I had ever had. The coffee was itty bitty and half of it was the grinds and the cantaloupe was just plain awful. At least I had found the book, after just a few pages I was loving Martí's writing. I went to pay and discovered that the little pencil note on the inside cover that said "consulta" meant it was only to be read in the shop... total fail. I went next door and ordered another coffee and some molletes (french bread with beans and cheese on top) and started over. 

Next I went to the Universidad de Guanajuato to see the exhibit of Diego Rivera's drawings. So romantic sounding, isn't it? Seeing sketches and drawings of one of Mexico's most famous artists at the beautiful, European style university! Oh but wait, "pencil sketches? Aren't those just practice drawings?" you may have asked yourself. Why yes, yes they are. Far from the masterpieces they would later become, the sketches were.... boring.

To the mummy museum! Guanajuato is known for it's Museo de Momias and I would not, could not, miss it. The city is built amongst steep hills, which creates beautiful views of the nearly neon and sherbet colored buildings. It also makes any walk into a hike. I followed the signs for the museum until they led me to a steep staircase. I started to climb and paused. "Is that a hand? Maybe it's a fake hand and I'm at the museum." I thought as I saw an eery figure dangling outside a window tapping against the side of the building.

I stared, not knowing weather it was real or fake. I saw the face that belonged to the hand and still couldn't determine what I was looking at. Finally, I continued to climb the steps and realized it was indeed a real human being. I pointed up the staircase and asked "¿el museo?" he nodded his head yes and I moved past his window. When I finally made it to the top, I was faced with a cemetery. It seemed quite appropriate considering where I was going.

 The Mummy Museum was around the bend and when I arrived, I realized how weird it was of me to go it alone in a hall full of mummified bodies. A few of them had little stories that went along with the body, but most of them were simply on display.

 I met a family from Santa Rosa, just north of San Francisco, who were there visiting family. We were in the extra creepy room with the skeleton that looked like a vampire and the mummy in a coffin full of metal stakes that pierced through his body. 

I headed back down the hill to meet up with Alia and wasn't paying attention as I walked down the stores. I heard a loud voice shout from directly above me and I screamed and ducked and covered. It was the man with the hand who I had spoken to on my way up. I burst out laughing and sputtered in Spanish "I've just come from the mummies! You scared me!" He laughed and I continued giggle to myself as I headed back into town.

That night, Alia and I attempted to go to one of the Cervantino events, a free performance of a band from Uruguay with multi-media effects! We sat in the cement-seated stadium and did our best to watch and listen, but the music was mediocre and the "multi-media effects" were weird videos that weren't very interesting either. We left early and went back to Alia's house and watched a movie on Netflix.

Guanajuato really is a charming city and I was happy to have the opportunity to visit. I was a bit let down I didn't get the full effect of the Cervantino, but what can you do? Such is the risk of high expectations.

11 Awesome Things About Mexico

One of the program directors posted this on the Mexico Fulbright Facebook page. The US media loves sensational, violent, and tragic stories and so that's the picture it paints of Mexico. There is so much more going on in this country that we ever hear about back home. Here are just 11 of many reasons why Mexico is great.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/11-awesome-things-about-m_n_3361229.html

Things that are new

I've been in my new home for a week and I could not be happier with the move! That isn't to say I suddenly have friends and a happening social life, yesterday I didn't even leave the house! But it was Sunday and there was something so nice about not really wanting to leave the house. I Skyped with my parents (I miss you!!) and ate lunch with the whole Ramirez Fellowes family (the folks who are sharing their home with me). I watched old Mexican movies starring María Félix and Pedro Infante. I talked about how much governments let us down (i.e. by shutting down! And in the case of Mexico, not having a way to process crude oil so having to sell it to companies outside the country and then buy it back as gas), the prospects of the solar energy business in Mexico (who has 100,000 pesos we can borrow??) and how we can reduce water waste.
Other nice things that happened this week were: going to lunch with the two Ramirez Fellowes sons and one of their friends on Friday and being teased about the English misuse of the words lemon and lime. Lima is Spanish for lemon and limón is Spanish for lime. And after a few weeks of "assisting" in an advanced grammar class where I was really something between a student and an observer, I spoke with my mentor about doing something else and began teaching my very own English class this past Saturday. It's intimidating. I am in charge of preparing them to pass an expensive and mandatory exam and I don't have a curriculum to follow so I'll be creating it on my own. But I'm also excited and there is another English teacher who seems to be confident in my abilities and willing to guide and support me. And today I bit the bullet and ordered a new computer. This old gal apparently has some hard drive damage, perhaps from the time I spilled coffee on her...... and will be returning to the USA a bit earlier than expected.

I feel like I'm in a space of anticipation. The heavy homesickness seems to be behind me, I'm happy and comfortable in my new home, and I feel like I have a good balance of challenging work to do. I'm not exactly where I hope to be, though. I still have a constant sense of subtle discomfort and a lingering shyness, but it feels like I'm on the edge of breaking through it and finding that sense of ease and belonging that I so much look forward to.

Mi nuevo hogar

I moved! JP, the first and only friend I've made (so far!), found me the most wonderful place to live! His friend from college, Andres, lives with his family in a part of the city that I constantly visit and each time I think "I would love to live in this area". Andres' family has been renting out rooms to foreigners for years and they have a room available! I met with Angela, the Canadian mom, and Isauro, the Mexican dad, on Friday and moved in on Sunday. Their eldest son, Alexis, and his fiance, Fer, also live here along with a Turkish student, Burga. They are very warm (obvio) and have a lovely home.

My bedroom window.

View from the entrance.

Dining room.

Kitchen.

I'm in love with the chairs!

The library.

Living room.

Fire place in the sitting/family room.

Sitting room? Family room?

Poco a poco

After writing that last blog post about feeling homesick, I felt a bit better. Just getting it out there and recognizing it helps. And then my parents and I made a Skype date and just having a time in which I knew I'd get to see their faces and talk to them helped, too. And then I spilled coffee in my bag. The bag that was also holding my computer. And my screen suddenly went black. Oh the horror! My lifeline, my connection to all that is familiar! I brought the old gal over to the Centro de Tecnología and choked back tears as I explained what happened to the kind tech guy, Carlos. He told me to come back in 24-hours and I sulked my way back home. Lucy kindly let me borrow her computer so I could talk to my parents and oh how I moped! Nothing like the parents letting you just stew in your self-imposed misery. They were every so sweet and promised me a care package (which I'm sure will arrive any day now, right Mom and Dad?) and I felt a little lighter.
I returned to Carlos will hope-filled eyes to learn that the pieza madre (it's kind of funny trying to communicate about technology here. I have no clue what the pieza madre is in English but it all sounds so much more dramatic in Spanish, the mother piece! Dun! dun! dun!) got the worst of the coffee spill and my computer was in a grave state. I returned two more times before she was finally dry. Carlos pulled the ole "we couldn't save her...... just kidding!" and showed me how she turned on again and toted how he had cleaned the fan so now she wouldn't get so hot so fast. I took her home and lived in denial for about a day, assuring myself she was equally as slow as she was before. But alas, my nearly 6-year old computer may be at the end of her life because apparently playing a YouTube video or moving between Firefox and Microsoft Word are now causes for spazzing and freezing. Oh the spinning rainbow of doom.....

With a broken computer, a conflict with a coworker, and feeling a bit lonely, it felt like the few steps I had made out of homesickness had been erased. But then, something wonderful happened! Allie came to visit. Allie is another Fulbrighter who lives in Pachuca and got a ride with her friend Javi and his cousin Victor and Victor's girlfriend Irma. They are all incredibly warm and sweet. I adore Allie because she has a vivacious and gregarious approach to life and it's simply infectious. Hanging out with Javi, Victor and Irma also reminded me that yes, I do indeed know Spanish, as we talked about US race relations, if D is a vitamin or hormone, and Mexican slang. It's like they collectively hit my reset button. I finally bought myself a yoga mat, painted my nails yellow, and rededicated myself to worrying less about my correctness and just communicating as much as I can in Spanish. And get this! Irma's best friend is moving to Querétaro and they're going to put us in touch. And obviously we'll las mejores amigas.

I'm still looking for a new place to live and feeling a bit hopeless in that department. Although, I went into CutOut Fest today and two people said they have friends with open rooms here in the center. And last night Robert and I started our Spanish class and our teacher was impressed and excited about our level of Spanish. Jamai comes to visit at the end of the month and I'm starting to plan out some trips for us that I'm really excited about. Poco a poco, I'm moving through this stage of living abroad and looking forward to making it to the other side.