Day One in Sunny Cuernavaca
I woke up feeling very cold on Saturday, something that I did not expect. It was a cold morning and I was glad to have a blanket (not something that I would have expected). Dee and I ate breakfast quickly so that we could get out the door on time, but I noticed that all the other clocks in the house were ten minutes slow so I was worried about being late. Everything was okay, but I hope this won´t be a problem in the future.
I will admit that I was extremely nervous about being tested in Spanish and wondered what I would do if I really bombed the tests (which I did). I was irritated with myself that I couldn´t remember how to conjugate in the different tenses, but things didn´t get really bad until the oral interview. It was so frustrating to understand what I was being asked, but not being able to answer back in more than simple, short phrases. I can see why testing for ESL students can be so disheartening. You understand all or most of what you are being asked, but responding is so hard! It gives me renewed sympathy for the students I have and will work with.
My interviewer was very nice, however, and said that she could tell that I understood more than I was responding. She said that she believed I would be speaking at my real level given a week or so. I hope she is right. I am going to be starting with the past tenses which will be good because I don´t remember them much and what I do recall is suspect because it might be the Latin forms of the same words.
I had another trial tying to call our Mexican mama to tell her that she didn´t need to pick us up. I was very nervous and it didn´t help that I had an audience of people, both native and English speakers, listening to every word I said. They probably could have cared less what I was saying, but it felt horrible. I was pretty sure that she understood me, but when I hung up I realized that I had forgotten to tell her we were taking a taxi home. Mentally hitting myself, we set out to go to the Mercado. And low and behold, there was our Mama in her car as we left. I felt awful! Did she not understand!?! Was I really that incompetent at speaking Spanish?!? Well, turns out she understood me fine, but wanted to give us a key to the house. You would think I would be relieved, but I wasn´t. I was just a bundle of nerves about speaking in Spanish for this entire day.
I mooched more money off of Melinda so that I could pay for the bus to get the Mercado. Buses are quite cheap here, like just about everything else, so it was only 5 pesos to ride (50 cents US). Things got a little crowded there for a while and although it turned out fine at the time I was wondering if I should have a better place to hide my camera and stuff. I was soon distracted by the crazy (to me) things that people will do down here. There is no line to stand behind to keep you from flying out of the front window, sometimes the doors of the bus shut and sometimes they don´t, and people will jump on or off the bus in terrifying ways. All in all, the bus ride was a learning experience, and we weren´t even to the Mercado yet!
The Mercado is a dizzying spectical with so many things to look at and so many people around that you hardly know where to look first. It was busy and I kept saying pardon and con permiso until Melinda told me to knock it off. No one else cared whether we bumped in passing so why should I. The group split up after establishing a meeting place and Melinda and I hesitantly entered the throngs. They really do have some cool things in the Mercado and we will probably have to go back to look at things fully. One stall would be selling spices, vegetables, and fruit another meat and fish while still others sold clothes or electronics or whatever you can think of. It was also interesting how many things were out in the open that would be shocking in the US. The mild stuff was the pirated Pirates of the Caribbean III (out only four days in Mexico but here it was on display!) while the more surprising were the skin magazines left out for all to see.
Mindy and I had fun buying an adorable dress for Paige (I hope it fits!) and a couple of small purses to keep small amounts of money in. By then it was about time for us to leave and go to our next stop. We got lost on our way to El Centro and ended up seeing three adorable little boys with a very, very young puppy (not more than a few days old). The poor little kids had to put up with crazy American women ohing and ahing over them and their pup, and we got some pictures. It was cute, but sad too. None of the merchants look like they are very well off and these boys looked poor too. Poverty is so much more apparent here than it is in the US.
Going to the Mercado was an interesting cultural experience. Lisa mentioned before we went that this was a tradition in Mexico going back to the Aztecs and I thought about Bernal Diaz’s description of the Aztec market as I walked up and down the narrow aisles. Were they this same mixture of nice and dilapidated stalls? I remember he was very impressed with the organization and variety of things that could be bought there using cocoa beans. I think that it is much the same today, but with pesos.
After the market we went to El Centro, the center of the old city so that we could see where we would meet the next day. The vendors in the Mercado were pretty reserved. Some would call out to you, but most knew that you would come to them without much prompting. The vendors near the Palacio were very different. We all became good at saying “No gracias” in a short amount of time, but that didn´t mean that they wouldn´t follow you all over. You want to help people make a living, but it´s hard to be very nice when they won´t leave you alone. The best you can do is say “no thanks” and then ignore them.
I was very excited to see the Palacio and can´t wait to see it tomorrow. Another good thing was that some of the return missionaries who are with us went around to ask about the LDS wards in the area and found out that there is one just down the street so several of us will be meeting there for church tomorrow then walking to the Palacio. After that Lisa showed us some helpful things like a money exchange place and the cathedral we were going to visit the next day. Then it was time to catch a taxi and go home. We had been warned by the girls living at the house with us about asking how much the ride would be before getting in, but Lisa explained it all again to us. Melinda and I practiced saying our neighborhood a few times (Tlaltenango!) along with “cuanto cuesto” before it was our turn to try. A quick deal for $30 pesos and we were on our way.
Thinking that the day was almost over I began to relax and just enjoy the scenery as much as I could (given the fact that this was my first taxi ride). I soon realized that I wouldn´t recognize our neighborhood when we got there and things were looking pretty unfamiliar when the taxi stopped at a house. Trying to remain calm, I´m sitting there telling Melinda “This isn´t the right street” while the driver is asking for his money and basically saying “here we are, get out”. She responds that it is okay and that she thinks this is the right street. I agree to leave after the taxi has turned around and bumped his front right fender in the process. I didn´t want him telling us we were responsible for the damage or anything so I gladly got out with Dee. Stepping out onto the street I was sure that we were in the wrong place. It was the right main street but our house is on a little off shoot of the street.
I´m looking around in despair while Melinda is saying “I think that is familiar” to my “No it isn´t!” I´m on the borderline of freaking out ( I am sorry to say) and just beginning to think “Oh crap, I am going to have to ask for directions!!” Thank goodness for Melinda´s Thatcher brass because I was ready to bawl at that point. She, knowing only a couple of words more than “por favor” and “gracia” ran after a girl and asked her about the street (thank goodness also for the address cards they gave us at UINTER!) I followed up and did my best to translate although I had gone basically mute. I was so beaten down by the day and my lack of conversational Spanish skills! Fortunately the girl could figure out what we wanted and I could understand her responses, but she didn´t know where our street was! She kept saying “This is Los Reyes Calzada” but that she didn´t know where it was. But, honestly, the average Mexican person on the street is so kind and helpful!! She found a couple of other ladies who did know the area, asked them, and told us where we needed to go. She even walked us there! We parted by exchanging names and the Mexican greeting of a kiss on the cheek (to which Mindy added a hug). Her name was Jessica and she was just the sweetest person to help us out.
I recognized the street as we walked down it and this time it was me saying that we were going the right way to Dee. We arrived home battered, but not beaten and were ready to enter the house with the key our mama had given us…except we coundn´t figure out how the door worked!! What a day! We ended up trying the doorbell, knocking on the door, and finally resorted to using the dreaded cell phone to call long distance to Mexico to ask Señora Gutierrez to please let us in the house. *sigh* And the key worked, by the way, we just didn´t know the tricks necessary to get the door to open!
We had told our mama when we called earlier that we would be home for comida at 3-3:30 and we walked in the door at 4PM. She was so nice though because she asked us if we had eaten and we sheepishly said no. She promptly started warming things up for us and I tried not to feel terrible again. Fortunately Brittany, another girl living with us at the house, arrived back a couple of minutes later and she hadn´t eaten either so I didn´t feel quite as bad any more. Plus poor Brittany, it turns out, is very sensitive to food and hasn´t liked much of what has been cooked at the house and at least Mindy and I ate something of everything (it was good!).
It was nice to have this alone time with our mama and Brittany, and we had a very interesting conversation as we ate. La Señora came to sit with us even though she had already eaten (such a nice hostess) and just chatted with us. Mindy had noticed as we drove around town that the walls around houses had broken glass and bottles cemented into them. Brittany noticed this too at our house and asked our mama about it. What followed was a very interesting conversation about Mexican laws and corrupt officials. Brittany and I are almost at the same level of comprehending Spanish, but she is better at speaking it and between the two of us (plus mama´s excellent use of cognates and hand gestures - the woman should teach Spanish honestly!) we managed understand what she was saying.
Basically, Mexican law states that if you are living on a piece of land for more than a year, that land belongs to you even if somebody else owns it! We were all shocked by this and La Señora went on to explain that dishonest people in cities will basically go around town looking for houses that are vacant to break into and claim as their own. If they can make a larger bribe to the police or town officials, the house is then theirs! This actually happened to an amigo of our mama while he was away, but fortunately he was rico and could pay more! This led to Brittany asking if anyone ever takes a vacation here and La Señora replied that everyone in Mexico either doesn´t take them, is rich enough to hire guards, or asks their family to come and stay in their house while they are gone. Even if the family has to go out for the day only, if they have good neighbors, their neighbors will watch the house for them and call them if anyone is messing with their property.
So different than the United States! We exclaimed this several times and our mama explained that the reason for these laws lay back with Emilio Zapata and Morelos and the revolution against the landholders in Mexico. Before these guys, almost all the land was held by hacendados, large plantation owners, who kept the people in basically quasislavery or serfdom. Zapata and Morelos broke up the haciendas and gave the land to the people along with laws about squatter’s rights. It was a fascinating conversation especially for four people of whom only one could speak real Spanish!
After dinner, Melinda and I retired to our room for a siesta, but ended up talking about our dinner conversation and Mexican history in general. Dee was a very good listener as I went on and on about Cortes and Malinche and Moctezuma, how the capital changed and the connections between the Aztecs and Mayas. We also chatted about Teotihuacan and what we would see there next week to the point that I was really regretting not bringing one of my Mexican history books (even though they are massive!). I may have to buy one here to refresh my memory.
We had a quiet dinner together and went to back to our rooms after that to write notes about the things we had seen and done to put in our diary then got ready for bed. Our conversation at dinner did a lot to rebuild my shattered confidence and I was resolved to try harder mañana.
It was an eventful and interesting day for us as you can no doubt tell. I will have to fill you in on Day Two later because I am getting really hungry (we skipped Comida today to stay at school and write this, just so you all know!) and I want to find a bank so I can get some money. I am tired of mooching off of Melinda, if you can believe it! ;) And the ac in this computer lab is spoty. I need to buy a fan or something!
Laters, Nan