Last night Pilates class was tough, and there was a record number of students there – a husband, wife and 2 kids, two young girls, a middle-aged woman, a young grandma and her 3ish year old granddaughter and my new friend (although she may not yet know it), Enny – I had to ask her name on the way home. We walk home together, which is nice since it’s at 9:00 p.m. Well, the instructor showed up about 20 minutes late and approached me and apologized to me for arriving late. I assume she knows about the cultural assumptions about those from the U.S. how we’re basically very anal when it comes to time and live by the clock, always thinking about what we have to do next. After class, I came home and received a phone call from Kelly – I was so excited to have contact with “the outside world.” Before I fell asleep, I watched Desperate Housewives – and the dubbing is almost as entertaining as the show. Actually, it’s pretty distracting since the voices don’t seem to match the characters too well. Next, I watched Sex in the City, also dubbed and the voices definitely don’t match the characters – too old and too serious.
As frustrating as so many situations are, I love this program. Even though I’ve been in Mexico for less than 3 weeks – I already feel more immersed in the culture and community than ever before in all of my experiences. Every time before this that I have traveled to or studied abroad I have done so as part of a program. During those programs I hung out with others from the program. While we spoke Spanish, we were all still from the U.S. and that is the stark difference this time – besides Andi, there is no one from the program to hang out with on a regular basis, nor am I interacting with anyone from the U.S. This has immeasurable benefits and one small drawback, I hang out with me, myself and I most of the time and am just hoping I don’t get sick of myself because then I don’t know where I’d go. I’m trying to keep busy and meet people – exercise class, eating and working outside of the home. Who am I kidding? I eat out because I can’t stand to cook.
