csheila’s blog

Madre Mia I have been here in Xalapa, Mexico for six weeks now and with the way my world has been turned upside down, it feels like 6 months!  (But in a good way).  I can’t tell you how weird it is to be writing so much English at one time seeing as how I truly never speak it here as I am only with Mexicans all the time outside of classes.  I apologize in advance for my spelling errors- Spanish has made my English worse haha. 

My trip began on February 3rd when I fly by myself into Mexico City with two big bags on wheels and a heavy duffle with my laptop (hidden of course).  Now picture that for a moment: Blond American girl with lots of luggage alone in Mexico City, one of the most dangerous capitals in the world.  Ok, but fortunately I am smart and I knew how to make myself not look alone and to not trust anybody (including people in official uniform).  I got into a taxi from the airport to the Bus station and realized that I had forgotten to look up what a normal taxi price would be for such a short 15 minute ride.  “Crap!” I thought to myself when the taximan said that he wanted 500 pesos (about $40 U.S. dollars) and I didn’t know if that was correct or not- I doubted it but I had nothing to go on so I paid about half of it and said that I didn’t have any more cash.  After I got out in the bus station and checked my luggage for the 5 hour bus ride to Xalapa I was waiting around for a couple hours in the first class bus section (safer) and I asked someone what that taxi ride should have cost, and the response: $50 pesos.  Ah!  Welcome to Mexico, Sheila.  My first lesson was to always do my homework and know what things cost.  I am blatantly American and therefore, every price in the street for any product or service climbs high simply because they can. 

I had a Mexican friend Ana, who was my cultural assistant last year when I came with a class, who has been a lifesaver and certainly one of my most trusted friends here in Xalapa.  Ana and her adorable mom picked me up at the Xalapa bus station after that very long day in planes and over-charging taxis and the 5 hour bus ride and fed me a spicy Mexican dinner late that night.  The next morning Ana and I got up and started going through the newspaper ads to look for a room or apartment to rent for me to make my home sweet home for the next five months.  She made all of the calls so that the  rent prices would not jump again when the landlords hear my American accent on the phone.  As Ana made call after call, I remember thinking to myself, “I wonder if I will always feel this dependent on people no matter how well I learn the language.”  Fortunately since then I have learned that my confidence and knowledge of the way things work here are far more influential than my American accent every could be which is a wonderful lesson about life.

Ok so to make some long and numerous stories short, my second day here Ana and I found my new home with a room outside of a Mexican family’s home.  I have an independent entrance to my room but I share the bathroom with the whole family which is a LOT of people seeing as how everyone is always here in the grandma’s home to eat every meal (3 generations).  I have learned that everyone’s uncles and aunts live around the corner and that everyone pretty much just comes over to eat at Grandma’s for the big meals of the day: Lunch which is at 3:00 in the afternoon and dinner which is at 9-10:00pm. 

My first week eating every meal filled with jalapenos and chilis did not go over well with my stomach.  I had expected this to some degree due to the drastic change of diet but I did not know how bad it would get.  I could hardly walk due to the sharp pains of my stomach that worsened every time I ate or drank ANYTHING.  After a few days Ana took me to her uncle who is a doctor around the corner who has his own clinic in his home (everyone has their own business attached to their homes).  I must say that if it had not been the uncle of Ana, I might have left because the place was nothing like a doctor’s office that I am accustomed to: papers and medicines EVERYWHERE, a dusty patient’s bed (the English word for that has escaped me…?) and a computer that looked like it was from the movie Back to the Future.  However, the guy knew what he was doing and got me some medicines that cost practically nothing in U.S. dollars and I was better within a few days and eating whatever.

At the same time that all of that was happening I was also without access to my bank account.  I had tried to withdraw money from three different banks with my Mastercard and 3 times it was just outright rejected and twice the machines ate my card and I had to wait until the next day to go back to the banks and retrieve my card.  This involved many hours of waiting and talking to several managers of banks and calling my bank in the U.S. and in the end I decided to open a Mexican bank account and wire money over to this.  This turned out to be the best and relatively easy (just lots of waiting in lines) because now I can travel anywehere in Mexico and even in South America and I will always have this account with an international Spanish-speaking bank and it doesn’t charge me international transaction fees to use the card.   But I must admit, my first two weeks here while waiting for all those official changes were difficult as I was sick and having to borrow my first month’s rent from Ana and her mom and couldn’t buy anything because I had no access to my money.  I think that is everyone’s worst nightmare traveling abroad but I SURVIVED and learned who my friends were and that good people ARE in this world to help. 

Ok so in my first 6 weeks, I have started classes in the main Mexican university with other Mexican students taking a couple International Marketing courses and an International Business Administration course.  I LOVE THEM.  Hardly any homework except group projects, awesome professors, laid-back schedules and classes get cancelled for Carnivals and Festivals and for Gasoline Exportation Day (rough translation).  I also take classes in the Foreigners School, but I don’t actually spend a lot of my time there because everyone is American and they speak English all the time.  I just kind slip in and out quietly to go to classes and get out.  No offense to my fellow Americans but I’m just not here to party American-style, speak English, and stick out like a tourist for 5 months. 

I met some of my best friends here the first week of classes in the main university when I went shopping with my friend Zyanya who introduced me to all of her friends.  Since then I have gone with that whole group to the biggest Carnaval of the country in Veracruz, I have gone to the gym with them a few times, we go running together, we have gone to the movies, and we’re going to the beach, we do sleepovers and group projects together…basically I live with these people.  I even introduced them to the concept of peanut butter and jelly (which they love) and we have made chocolate chip cookies together on numerous occasions, once even selling them in our school- sold them all!  I have also gone with some other friends to climb a huge mountain that I think is about 3-4 miles high called Cofre- hard long day.  I have eaten hot dogs with the spiciest chilis of my life along with mayo, bacon, ketchup, jalapenos, onions, and cheese (very very yummy all together).  I have joined a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ here in Xalapa called la Vida Estudiantil with whom I feel comfortable to share my faith and worship God together.  I have also gone out to a club and to some great house parties with salsa dancing and merengue and some types of dancing that is just typical of Mexico. 

I would say that in my 6 few weeks here, I have already experienced a lot more than the average study-abroad student.  How did I do it? I broke off from the Americans and sought out opportunites to go with people.  I took people up on their offers to take me shopping or to give me rides (if I trusted and knew them) and opened up without a care to the world about my Spanish or accent.  I speak up in class knowing that I will not speak perfectly like my native classmates…and you know what, it’s beautiful.  How many times had I seen foreign students in my classes at BGSU speak up with questions and I thought to myself: “That person is brave because everyone turns to look at the person with the accent and yet he speaks with confidence.  I wonder what his worldview is like…”  And now I am that person.  Beautiful.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.