My new family

Family: On Saturday, I moved in with my new family.  I´ll share what I can about them but my info is a little spotty becuase while my spoken Spanish is improving, it´s still really difficult to understand what people are saying.

There are five people who live in the house.  Two sisters (Angela and unfortunately I didn´t catch the name of the other sister) live in the house along with two children and an older gentleman who I think is the uncle of the two sisters.  Angela is the one who cooks my food – as far as I can tell she doesn´t work outside of the house.  The unnamed sister is a nurse who would like to be an architect but can´t afford to go back to school.   The two children are a teenage girl who was introduced to me as Angela (but I´ve also heard her referred to as Maria) and a five year old boy (Sebastian).  Angela/Maria is the daughter of the unnamed sister.  I´ve heard both sisters refer to Sebastian as their son so I´m a bit confused by that.  The older Angela and her unnamed sister have 8 other brothers and sisters!  The house that Angela and her sister live in is the house they grew up in – in fact, Angela told me that this is the only house she´s ever lived in!

The teenage girl can speak some English so she often serves as the translator between me and the sisters though it often takes a few attempts before I understand what she´s trying to say.

I´m actually the first student they´ve hosted!  They have hosted travelers before. For example, they mentioned hosting a couple of girls from Korea in December.  Anyway, I really like the family….they´re very, very nice!   The only problem is that since I´m the only student, all the focus is on me.  As an introvert, I´m not comfortable with all this attention.  But it´s for the short term so I will manage.

random post

Getting bored: The past week or so, I´ve been really bored.  Guanajuato is a great city for a week or two but there´s really not that much to do here in the way of entertainment.  Seems like most of the entertainment centers around eating, drinking and just hanging out.  I`ve noticed the same in other Mexican cities.  I´m guessing there are a few reasons for this.  One is that Mexicans have less disposable income to spend on entertainment.  Second, since Mexicans tend to take the middle part of the day off for “dinner”, they work till fairly late at night and have less free time for entertainment.  I still haven´t decided how much longer I´m going to be here.  Probably 1-3 weeks.  Three weeks seems to work best in terms of getting to my next destination, but I´m not sure I can handle three more weeks here.  Oh, on Monday things will get better.  Wrestling returns to Guanajuato!!!

Moving back in with a family: Later today, I´m moving back in with a family.  Now that my Spanish has impoved, it should be a better experience.  I´m going to be living with a different family than my first week here.  I don´t know anything about the family except that they´re going to pick me up in front of the school around 6:30.

Volunteering:  This ended up not working out.  After my first time there, the volunteer coordinator told me to show up at 3:30 on Tuesday.  I showed up and she wasn´t there, none of the staff was expecting me and there were no kids there.   I finally heard from the volutneer coordinator a few days later.  She apologized for being out of touch but by that time I had decided it would be best to concentrate on learning Spanish right now and focus on volunteering when I get to my next destination.

Funny stuff

Funny stuff: Learning something new is always full of ups and downs.  This week in my conversation class, I said a couple of funny things.  The first was on Monday.  The teacher gave us pictures of different objects and we were supposed to describe them, say what they´re used for, etc.  One of my objects was a calculator.  As some of you know, I´ve always been good at math and computing sums in my head.  So I tried to say “I have a calculator in my brain” (tengo una calculadora en mi cerebro).  Except I substituted “cerveza” for “cerebro” and said “I have a calculator in my beer”.

Two days later, we were supposed to bring in two news articles to talk about in class.  One of the other students brought in two articles from The Onion, a satirical newspaper with made up stories.  One of the “stories” this student shared was about Congress giving two alpacas to every American as a way to stimulate the economy.  Naturally, I was concerned about where to put my alpacas.  So I tried to ask “Is there land for my alpacas?¨.  (¿Hay tierra para mis alpacas?)  Once again, I chose the wrong word…using “tarea” instead of “tierra” and asked “Is there homework for my alpacas”?  I´m sure this is only the beginning of funny statements….

The sneeze heard round the world

Sneeze: PBS is in town filming. I´m not sure exactly what for, if they´re filming just in Guanajuato or other parts of the country. Anyway, Friday there was a big performance at the Teatro Juarez, this old najestic theatre that was built in 1897 (or something like that). Anyway, by the time I heard about the performance, the tickets (free) were gone. But a few hours before the show started, someone gave me a ticket. Cool. So I decided to go. Being in the theatre and seeing a live performance was amazing even if I didn´t have the best seats (the 2nd or 3rd level balcony). Anway, right before the orchestra started playing, the MC yelled “roll cameras” and a few seconds later yours truly let out this huge sneeze. So if you ever catch the PBS special, listen for me!

Japanese Students: One of the off things is that there are a lot of Japanese students in Guanajuato, studying Spanish. I have no idea why. Americans coming to Mexico or other countries to learn Spanish makes sense. But Japanese peoplw??? I can´t figure out their interest in learning Spanish.

Grocery Stores: Mexican grocery stores don´t seem to have copied the Great American invention…the express lane. So the few times I`ve gone to the grocery store, I´ve had to stand in these long lines with my four or five items. The strange thing is that it´s common practice to tip the person who bags your groceries. I don´t know if that´s the only money the bagger gets or if they also get paid directly by the store. Regardless, it´s a little odd. In restaurants, you tip based on the quality of the service. How do you decide if someone´s done a quality job bagging your groceries???

Guanajuato: By the way, Guanajuato is basically known for three things:

• Silver mines. The silver mines date back to the early 1500s and some are still active. On Saturday, I toured a mine that dates to 1547. Very cool. I overheard someone say that Guanjuato produces 40% of the world´s silver.
• The birthplace of Diego Rivera, the famous Mexican painter and muralist.
• An annual Cerventes festival. Cervantes was a Spanish author who is best known for writing the Don Quixote novels in the 1600s. About 20 years ago, someone decided to open a Don Quixote museum in Guanajuato. The museus features paintings and other artwork about Don Quixote. And every year, there´s a huge festival with performers from all over the world. As far as I can tell, there´s no connection between Cervantes or Don Quixote and Guanajuato.  I doubt Cervantes ever heard of Guanajauto.  So why is the museum and festival here?  No idea.  Someone just decided to do it.

Do you like camels?

Camels: Last week, in my conversation class, the teacher had us talk about animals.  She was struggling to keep the conversation going and at one point (and no, I´m not making this up!), she turned to us and asked “Do you like camels?”.  Wow!  Now, there´s a topic I´ve never given a single thought to before.  So….how would you answer that question???  And remember, that your answer has to be in Spanish.

This is for Jo:  My dear cousin Jo Ellen asked me to write about Valentine´s day in Mexico.  We were supposed to discuss that topic in class yesterday but got sidetracked into an interesting conversation on the Mexican education system.  (more on that below).  Anyway, I don´t have much to report.  They definitely celebrate it here.  There were lots of people walking around with flowers, balloons, and gift bags.  I saw a few restaurants that were offering special meals.  I don´t think that cards are as popular here (no Hallmark!).  That´s about all I have.  Sorry Jo!

Mexican education:   This is what I learned in yesterday.  Mexican education is free until middle school.  If parents want their kids to go to high school, they have to pay for it.  The cost is about $120 per semester.  There are also private high schools which of course are more expensive.  About 85% of students at least start high school.  After high school, you can obviously go to college.  Similar to the US, there are both private and public colleges.  The public colleges are very inexpensive (about $120 per semester for tuition) but you have to pass an exam to get in.  The private universities don´t require an exam but are much more expensive.  Get this….they cost about $5,000-10,000 a semseter.  It´s hard for me to believe that many Mexicans can afford that.  Heck, most Americans couldn´t afford that.  And as far as I know, there´s no such thing as financial aid here so you´ve got to be able to pay the cost upfront.  The Mexican public universities will accept students from anywhere in the world as long as you can pass the exam (which I assume is in Spanish) and you pay the same cost (about $120) as a Mexican.  About 50% of Mexican start college and about 25% finish.  I was surprised that it was that high.

More on poverty:   According to one of my teachers, many of the beggars in Guanajuato are simply lazy and don´t want to work.  They actually own cars and when they´ve finished begging for the day, they go back home and put on nice clothes.  Hmmm….my teacher would know better than me but I´m skeptical.  Most of the beggars I´ve seen are elderly women.  And I´ve seen very few people actually give money to a beggar so it doesn´t seem like a worthwhile way to spend one´s day.  There are plenty of negative stereotypes about poor people in the US and I have a feeling my teacher may have been spreading one about poor people here.