Real, Live, Mexicans!

Hola! (Or as Joel likes to pronounce it- Holla! Like holler, get it?)

I'm not sure who it was that said it, but I was explaining how I get to take an actual class with Mexican students to someone from home and they asked me, "real, live, Mexicans?" So, in honor of that, here is a post all about real, live, Mexicans!

Although I still haven't gotten used to the staring, heckling and harassing on the streets, most people here are genuinely very friendly and nice. The whole city has a relaxed and calm feeling to it, and the people are no different. I've gotten to meet a lot of different people though my host mom, Violetta. There are always people in and out of our house for yoga classes, and she has a group of friends who she is teaching how to be yoga instructors, so they're here often. I think sometimes I scare her students who haven't met me though, cause when they see me in the house or in the garden they always act really surprised and kind of giggle before they say hello.

I've gotten to meet Violetta's family several times too. She has them over once a week for lunch (which is the main meal) and if I don’t have class I eat and talk with them for a while. It can be kind of overwhelming though, since there are usually her daughter and her husband, two of her sons and their wives, and five of her grandkids running around. I've started to talk to her granddaughter more though- she's 17 and speaks English pretty well, so she speaks in English and I speak in Spanish. Its good practice for both of us.

Other than people around the house, I'm starting to meet people at school too. About a month ago, Beatriz, Joel and I started taking a normal class with Mexican students at the University. It’s kind of like a basic freshman writing class that you would take in the states. The information that we're learning isn't new or anything, like how to write a good essay, but its still pretty overwhelming. The teacher, Maestra Betty, is also our teacher for our private class with just the three of us, which is nice because she has a good idea of what we'll have trouble with and what we can or can't do. The problem is she's just as relaxed with this class as she is with us, so the students are kind of rowdy. We also have to work in groups a lot, and of course the three of us weren't allowed to be in a group together. But luckily on the first day, Stephanie, one of the girls came up to introduce herself to me and invited me to be in a group with her. Turns out she lived in Waukegan for 7 years and moved back to Merida after a couple years at a community college after getting an offer to teach English classes here. She speaks perfect English which is really helpful for when I get lost in class. The rest of our group is really nice too, and they're really good students which is a plus- Beatriz and Joel didn't get placed with the best groups so they're kind of frustrated and lost with what we're doing.

We just had two new international students join our class last week too- two sixteen year old boys that is. They're here with and exchange program and have been living in Merida for six months already. One is from Germany, and the other is from Portland, Oregon, and they both speak better English than I do. It’s a little embarrassing.

But as far as my speaking skills go, they really have gotten a lot better. I've gotten to the point where I can understand almost anything if they speak slow enough, and I can pretty much hold a basic conversation without a problem. I run into trouble, though, with vocabulary a lot- so many of the verbs have so many different meanings I'm not always sure what words to use or how to use them. A lot of the time I feel like I sound like a six year old because my vocabulary is so basic. On top of that, I think my English is taking a serious hit. You know it’s a problem when you can't think of a work in English, but can say it in Spanish without a problem. Maybe by the time I'm done here I'll be able to speak broken Spanish AND broken English. Perfect.

Besides school and home, I've also gotten to meet a lot of people at our service site, CEMADE, which honestly I'm not sure of the full acronym in Spanish, but it stands for the Marista Center for Economic Development. In our computer class alone we usually have a pretty good mix of adults and kids, and I have a lot of fun with them. The women in our class, most of who are pretty shy, are so nice and really patient with us, while the kids are so funny and add a lot of energy to what would otherwise be a really boring two hours. I definitely have favorites though. Three of the kids, Elias, Glendi and Teresita, who are all siblings ages 13, 11 and 9 (I think?) are so sweet. The younger two girls are so cute and try to help me with my Spanish a lot, while Elias, their older brother laughs at me most of the time when I try and talk to him, but he's such a sweet kid and its really cute to watch him look after his sisters.

A couple of the women bring their kids in with them for the class too, and its fun to see them interact. For the most part the kids have had a little bit more experience than their moms, so its funny when they try and show them how to do something. Its cute getting to see them together learning something new. They all seem so close with their families. We had them do a typing exercise a few weeks ago when we were teaching them Microsoft Word and had them write about themselves and their families (Rachel's brilliant idea), and everyone wrote about how much they love their families and how well they live.

Its really obvious that family life holds a much higher importance, in general, here. Even my host mom sees one of her kids almost every day, and her grandsons spend the evenings here at least twice a week. I think part of it is for economic reasons, because people can't really move out of their families house unless their married due to the cost, but they just seem to enjoy their time together more. In our computer class there is a group of people who are all related in one way or another- two of them are sisters, one is their sister-in-law, two are their kids and another is their sister-in-law's sister, and all of them work together and help each other out- and it seems like they really have a good time doing it. Just one of those cultural differences I guess, but its kind of nice to see.

Coming up next: 2012- is the world really going to end? And CARNAVAL- not as crazy as you think it would be.