« You Can Call Me Al. | Main | In Mexico… »
January 19, 2007
Tales of the Witch Doctor, Marcela, Daniel, and Wendy
I’m sitting out on my patio right now, just reflecting on some of the things that have happened over the course of the week. It’s been a good week by all means and it’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for almost three full weeks now.
I feel finally like I’m getting into a routine—up at 6, bus stop at 6:30, class at 8 till 12. Then I catch a snack at the Plaza de las Fiestas from an elderly woman that makes hot empanadas and sells coke from glass bottles that look like the original kind from the early 1900’s. Lunch follows at 2:30 with a short siesta and/or studying and then I’m back off to class at 4 with my Rutgers program. Before class, we (Ben and I) stop at a little Panaderia for some snacks and only yesterday did the girl that works there ask if we were tourists. She thought I (I don’t know about Ben) was a Mexican.
Because one of my classes doesn’t start until this coming week, I’ve had a little bit of spare time to go strolling around and exploring. I walked down my neighborhood street about 6 blocks and entered into the Parque de las Americas (I think it was on Monday) and I got to take some really great pictures. The park has a concert shell and a school by day (which turns into a park for the public by night). While I was there, there was a kids show going on and they were singing the witch doctor song--- you know the one I’m talking about ? Oooh-eeh-ooh- ah-ah… (That one). I thought it was funny how some ideas are so cross-cultural, or rather, so international—like songs about witch doctors, for instance.
We also did some group exploring over the week—on Wed. we went with Marcela, our Rutgers conversation teacher to the heladeria in the centro for ice cream and conversation. Then, she took us to the Palacio Municipal to see the giant sized murals , each of which depict a different scene from Mexico’s history—Benito Juarez, Popul Vuh, Wars, Diego Rivera, Mayas, Aztecs, and more. It was a great opportunity to here from a Meridiano more about the history of the city and I enjoyed it… I forgot to take my camera though, so hopefully I will get back there soon to take some pictures. Actually, Cristina from our group was sick so she said she would go back with me….
Last night was a real night surprise… Over the week, I started to get more friendly in class and exchanged numbers with a bunch of mexicanos. I really feel its important to start branching out a bit—while the kids in the Rutgers group are all really nice, I feel like we’ve been spending our time speaking a lot of English and rightly so. Everybody in our group has a very different level of Spanish and it’s been hard to really keep strictly to Spanish when we go out. Anyway, this girl Wendy from one of my classes called me and asked if I wanted to hang out with her and her big group of friends in the Parque de las Americas down the street. I was really happy that she called and I got to meet new people from the UADY, some of whom (supposedly) live close to me…
After we walked around a bit, Molly (from Rutgers) called Ben and I. She asked if we wanted to join her and her new Mexicano friend Daniel at a bar. He also was a really cool kid; he studies engineering with Molly at the UADY Engineering Facultad and lives close to her.
So all in all, I can say that I’ve been really pleased this week. And my classes went relatively well, too. I have a lot of reading to do, and I’ve been doing it little by little—on the bus, outside—whenever I have some spare time.
Tomorrow, we’re going to Chicen Itza as a group & next weekend, I spoke to Eric, a kid I met from the Butler University program here in Merida about going to some beach… we’ll see what happens….
Oh and lastly, to all of you at UMICH that are studying abroad and are leaving this week, safe travels…
SCENES FROM EL PARQUE DE LAS AMERICAS, a park down the street from my house
Posted by jlsumich at January 19, 2007 12:47 PM