Changes

So I've been in Guadalajara for just about 2 weeks now and I'm enjoying my time here. I'm staying with the family of one my friends from the University of Richmond. They are unbelievably nice and they treat me as if I were there own son. Every morning, Susana, the mother, prepares me a "licuado de platano" which is basically a banana milkshake. She throws some vitamins in there along with some nuts just to add more flavor and make sure that I get the necessary nourishment. Aside from Susana, the family consists of the father, Ruben who is a college professor at the nearby ITESO University and from what I've heard, he's an incredible professor. He's very quiet and seems to go about his own business every day and doesn't really make much conversation, aside from the one occasion last weekend at a family gathering when he drank a bit too much and became very involved in a few typical family dinner table arguments. Then there's Claudia, who the parents refer to as "Claus," which sounds a lot like Santa Clause to me. She's 27 years old who could fool anyone into thinking that she's 20, mainly because she has a very childish voice but also because she's very energetic. The combination of this excessive energy and voice pitch makes for an interesting character that resembles a 20 year old. She's very nice and treats me as if I were her brother. She likes to come to me and talk to me about her boy problems. Why? I guess that's just what sisters do. She's still single but very interested in this one fellow who's name is "Chava," or at least that's what she calls him. From what I've gathered, she works in some sort of construction company that sells the large earth-moving vehicles such as "Caterpillar." Then there's the son, Ruben, or as Susana calls him, "Rubencito," which helps to clarify which Ruben she's talking about as the father is named Ruben as well (although she refers to him as "gordo" which is a funny side-note. I'd been told that Mexicans and Spanish speakers in general use terms that are typically considered negative as terms of endearment which is just a confusing cultural phenomenon for me.) Rubencito is quite a bit like his father in the fact that he rarely makes conversation and rarely makes his presence known at any time ever. He's probably about 32, lives at home obviously, and he recently graduated from medical school and works in the nearby hospital. He's a self-admitted boring person and I can't really argue too much with that. He seems to be a very nice guy, but just very introverted. Even during family gatherings during the last two weekends, he never even left his room to say hi to anyone. Whenever he does leave his room or I see him, I ask him a few questions just to be friendly and he responds very nicely. He's just an odd ball. Then there's Darma the dog who is getting old and rather portly. She seems to love me because I give her attention and I like to pet her. That's my family.

The first couple of days after I arrived, I started to get a very runny nose and was congested all the time. I finally admitted to Susana after several denials that I had gotten a cold. It took several days to get over, but I think I finally made it through. Susana claims, and I agree, that my cold was caused by the drastic temperature changes during the day as well as the altitude. Here, it's very cold during the mornings and nights, and during the days it's very warm. It probably averages about 80 degrees F during the day and about 40 degrees F during the night. Also, it's very dry here and I'm used to living in the very humid climate in Maryland. '

One last thing that I wanted to note is how one person can make a difference in someone's opinion of a culture or a people. For example, I was on the bus the other day, and it was very crowded, and I was standing with my friend toward the back of the bus when a man got on the bus in the back door because the front door was too crowded. Everyone is supposed to pay at the front of the bus when they first get on, and this man who jumped on the back passed us his money so that we could make sure it gets to the front to buy his ticket. This may not sound that weird, but I think in many many places, someone would just jump on the back of the bus and not worry about paying. The bus driver has no way of catching you really. It's so crowded and he doesn't really have the time or the motivation to go on a witch hunt through the bus to find the guy who jumped on. I thought this was rather strange and so did my friend Olivier from Belgium. In addition, he passed a rather large bill to the front and expected the change to make it back after being passed along the hands of about 10 people. Each ticket costs $4.50 pesos and the bill he passed was $20 or $50 pesos. Making it even more unbelievable for me is the fact that this bus that I take to get to school passes through a pretty rough neighborhood, so one would suppose that this man who passed the money to the front wasn't from a well-to-do family. My point is that this one man made an impression on me as a representative of the Mexican culture and people, as being honest and morally guided. That's all for now.

DoDo the Gringo

First day flight frustrations

So today is the beginning of my adventure that is a semester abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico. The date is January 3rd, 2008 on a sunny and beautiful day here at BWI airport where I am camped out for several hours until my flight. So why am I camped out in the airport for several hours on a sunny day in which there is no possibility of weather delay? It's because there were "mechanical problems" with the plane so they had to cancel. What I heard through the grapevine is that these mechanical problems were caused by the baggage loading dream team that broke some part of the plane while loading the plane with great care. After they canceled my filght, I had to go and book another flight that took about 2 hours in total. Finally after having to go back and forth through security, making sure that my bags make it to Guadalajara with me, and dealing with flamboyant and very fresh clerk at the Delta desk, I'm sitting at my gate trying to take some deep breaths and relax after a stressful morning. I've come to the realization that I'm going to be in Guadalajara before day's end (at least I hope) and the adventure will not be greatly impacted by the delay. After all, my semester is 5-6 months long and this is only 1 day out of that time. So for the time being, I'm sitting at my gate and playing chess, free cell, listening to music, and chatting it up with my very small but important list of buddies on my msn messenger list.

Last night I began my frantic packing process fairly late, which is very typical for me. I had most of my clothes laid out to pack, but then you realize you have to charge your batteries for your camera, and then you realize that you don't know where your memory cards are for your camera, and then you realize that you need to back up the music on your music library just in case, and then you realize that you haven't checked your email or facebook or talked with any of your friends recently and it turns into a several hour process of searching for marginally significant items and just not doing anything important at all until you realize how late it is and you begin to finally start to place items in your bag. That was my experience last night. Once I actually started putting my clothes and other items in my bag, I was done in about 15 minutes. That's just my style I suppose.

But getting away from the past, let's talk more about Mexico which is the purpose for writing this blog. Once I get to Guadalajara, I'm not really sure what to expect. My friend from Guadalajara's parents agreed to allow me to stay at their place until I can find a place of my own in the city which I anticipate being quite the production. I don't really know anyone who will be there, so it will be hard to make contacts at first. And ideally, I would like to live with at least one other person. I like to think "the more the merrier." That's they way things worked out in my last experience abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As much as I hate it, I feel like it's almost impossible to not make this semester abroad in Mexico a running comparison to the semester I had in Argentina. In order to have the best experience possible and not take things for granted, I think I have to try avoid comparisons and just live it as a unique experience from any other.

I suppose that I don't really have anything more to say of importance. I'm sure I'll have some more things to post. I hope that this blog doesn't become overlooked as I have several other writing obligations or agreements with either myself or my university that may tie me down. Anyways, until next time!