this is me... re-entering
ah! i'm home! and alive. my viaje of 24 hours. adriana's papa drove me to the bus station and i dropped off my stuff. then i met up with edgar and we hung out with panda, julio and ivan in la divina. edgar and i went to have dinner with adriana at la embajada (but viet wasn't there). then we had our last drink back at la divina. i got to say my goodbyes to everyone but viet, guanabana, acker, sandra and erick. sadness!
i got on my bus at midnight, arrived in mexico city at 7am, took the metro by myself! to the airport and got there by 8:30! i'm pretty impressed too. then i slept from 9am till 3pm in various areas of the airport, on the ground, on various chairs. seriously. then i arrived home at midnight!
is this culture shock? i made eggs this morning and i didn't have limes and tomatoes and tortillas. i didn't wake up to the papas, adriana's hermano, the tv and radio in spanish. i don't have the perritos to play with. i've been giving them baths every morning because they're getting dirty. their eyes are opened and they are starting to walk with their hind legs now. they walk like they're a little drunk. edgarcita, la guerita, is so used to be playing with her that she doesn't cry like the other dogs. adriana's little cousins and neighbors aren't around to be running away from me haha. and the corner tienda's little girl isn't hanging off me, asking me where my mama is ("y tu mama? y tu mama? donde esta?") and calling me "tia." now, when i go into boston, my brother just told me that i will have to pay TWO DOLLARS to take the train. two dollar train ride instead of 20 cent Juarez ruta (bus) ride, 20 cent Mexico City metro ride, 35 cent Oaxaca camion (bus) ride. and everything here is super expensive and super disposable. and everyone here is cold and in their homes and won't be saying, "buenas tardes" to me.
for the past week, i've been sick and laying around and watching marathons of 'grey's anatomy' with terrible spanish subtitles until 5 in the morning with adriana. i've been drinking more beer and mezcal than water. i've had mezcal magico from la divina with adriana and anna, i've had mezcal feo from la divina and la tentacion where it ended up with both adriana and i being sick, and i've had mezcal de muerte from la casa de los perros on my last saturday where edgar kept handing me shots of mezcal and i kept saying, "mezcal es como agua." those last words, i ate in the end when i was sleeping in bar central and elefante while the boys kept trying to get me to dance and edgar had to get me actual agua.
i've been living in the desert for the past six months and i came back and it was 14 degrees last night. i don't speak english, chinese or spanish. i'm in boston.. quincy.. i have to go back to vassar in four days. four! i already have homework and an essay to do. ciudad juarez seems like it happened so long ago and i was just in oaxaca. at the bus stop, i asked edgar and adriana, "i have grown, no?" and edgar said that yes, he has noted that i have changed since when we first met two summers ago, since last winter, even that week six months ago and now. that's the important thing--that i've grown from being away. i haven't written about ciudad juarez and el paso and my experience in that way but the border taught me to be more independent (x number of international bridge crossing and ruta rides in the dark, which is against the rules by the way), flexible and patient (y number of minutes or hours waiting in line, waiting for rutas, dealing with Biblioteca, Cristina and my kids), smart and mature. anna and i were even saying that now, we can go to acdc by ourselves! wow! adriana and i joked of how every year, you think, this is as madura, as inteligente, as less awkward (haha), as you're going to get and then the next year, you realize you were wrong. so, maybe... it's not culture shock, it's being away and growing up and just growing.
i got on my bus at midnight, arrived in mexico city at 7am, took the metro by myself! to the airport and got there by 8:30! i'm pretty impressed too. then i slept from 9am till 3pm in various areas of the airport, on the ground, on various chairs. seriously. then i arrived home at midnight!
is this culture shock? i made eggs this morning and i didn't have limes and tomatoes and tortillas. i didn't wake up to the papas, adriana's hermano, the tv and radio in spanish. i don't have the perritos to play with. i've been giving them baths every morning because they're getting dirty. their eyes are opened and they are starting to walk with their hind legs now. they walk like they're a little drunk. edgarcita, la guerita, is so used to be playing with her that she doesn't cry like the other dogs. adriana's little cousins and neighbors aren't around to be running away from me haha. and the corner tienda's little girl isn't hanging off me, asking me where my mama is ("y tu mama? y tu mama? donde esta?") and calling me "tia." now, when i go into boston, my brother just told me that i will have to pay TWO DOLLARS to take the train. two dollar train ride instead of 20 cent Juarez ruta (bus) ride, 20 cent Mexico City metro ride, 35 cent Oaxaca camion (bus) ride. and everything here is super expensive and super disposable. and everyone here is cold and in their homes and won't be saying, "buenas tardes" to me.
for the past week, i've been sick and laying around and watching marathons of 'grey's anatomy' with terrible spanish subtitles until 5 in the morning with adriana. i've been drinking more beer and mezcal than water. i've had mezcal magico from la divina with adriana and anna, i've had mezcal feo from la divina and la tentacion where it ended up with both adriana and i being sick, and i've had mezcal de muerte from la casa de los perros on my last saturday where edgar kept handing me shots of mezcal and i kept saying, "mezcal es como agua." those last words, i ate in the end when i was sleeping in bar central and elefante while the boys kept trying to get me to dance and edgar had to get me actual agua.
i've been living in the desert for the past six months and i came back and it was 14 degrees last night. i don't speak english, chinese or spanish. i'm in boston.. quincy.. i have to go back to vassar in four days. four! i already have homework and an essay to do. ciudad juarez seems like it happened so long ago and i was just in oaxaca. at the bus stop, i asked edgar and adriana, "i have grown, no?" and edgar said that yes, he has noted that i have changed since when we first met two summers ago, since last winter, even that week six months ago and now. that's the important thing--that i've grown from being away. i haven't written about ciudad juarez and el paso and my experience in that way but the border taught me to be more independent (x number of international bridge crossing and ruta rides in the dark, which is against the rules by the way), flexible and patient (y number of minutes or hours waiting in line, waiting for rutas, dealing with Biblioteca, Cristina and my kids), smart and mature. anna and i were even saying that now, we can go to acdc by ourselves! wow! adriana and i joked of how every year, you think, this is as madura, as inteligente, as less awkward (haha), as you're going to get and then the next year, you realize you were wrong. so, maybe... it's not culture shock, it's being away and growing up and just growing.