It gets better

So- Christmas Day was hard. It kind of came out of no where. I mean, I was expecting it to be hard, but the 24th went so well/fun/easy that I was expecting Christmas Day to be the same. But it just wasn´t.

For one thing, there were some unforseen "Host Family Conflicts" that I´m just going to attribute to that fact that they miss their real son right now as much as I miss my family. I really don´t think it was my fault, and I´m not going to go into detail here, but it made Christmas morning less than enjoyable for everyone. So that made me feel really sad. You know when you are in a bad mood and you just feeling like moping around in self-pity? I think being in another country on Christmas makes it WAY worse. As exchange students, we just don´t have the option of being angsty. (ROTARY SMILE)

It´s like on Christmas Eve I had my perky "I am a cultural amabassador and I love EVERYTHING new you can throw at me" face on, but by Christmas Day I just felt really, really, icky.

So this is how I felt as we piled into the car to go to "Grandma´s House". Not great. But as we were driving, my host dad was just like: "HOLY &%#! THERE´S A RAINBOW!!" And I was like: "What? It´s not even raining." It wasn´t raining. It hadn´t rained all day. The sky was blue. NOT rainbow wheather. But there it was!

This was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It streched across the entire sky, ending in a puffy white cloud. It had six distinct shades. It looked like something out of an overly cartoony "Noah´s Ark" children´s book. Really, I couldn´t make this stuff up. I just sat there thinking: "This is SO exchange".

It´s the biggest cliche out there, but this is always how it happens. You feel overwhelmed by cultural differences but then you watch "iCarly" with your host siblings and realize that there are some things everyone finds funny. You feel apathetic and stupid, but then you learn some new words and are engaged and excited again. You get sick from the water, but then you eat some papaya and feel fine again. And sometimes, you think you are having the worst day of your life, and a literal rainbow appears. Welcome to Exchange.










IN OTHER NEWS: Today some family is visiting from Jalapas. My 6 year old cousin told me that I talk like a "Vaquera": a cow-herder. Now, I could take this to mean that I have bad grammar, a funny accent, and use weird "country" vocabulary. But she didn´t say I sounded "gringa". I can live with cow-herder.Score.

Fruit Punch

This whole "Advent Calendar" idea really fell through. I´m sorry. The posadas have gotten crazy: They are alwyas really late. Fun, but 7 consecutive nights returning home really late and I´m not sure how perky I´m going to be at the one I have tonight....

Yesterday was our family posada, we went in with my uncle. It was hosted at his house, but we were in charge of most of the food. My host mom and I spent the morning making tortas de cochinita (Think Mexican pulled pork sandwiches) and fruit punch.

They pronounce it like "PONE-chay" and at first I was thinking: "Oh, that´s such a cute way to pronounce ´punch´" Now I think maybe we are trying to say ponche. This beverage is a big deal. I always drink it at posadas, but I´ve never made it before. Ponche is the spiced-cider of Tabasco. It can be as complicated as you like. We started with these fruits (This is a small fraction of how many we used):

But everytime my host mom thought of another fruit it became "important for the recipe". I think it´s honestly just whatever fruit you can get access to, as much as you are able to fit into the pots that you own. As I joke, I found a can of peaches in the back of our cupboard: "Hey: do we need to use these too?" ...."YES! Those are an important part of the recipe!" Ok.... But it was acually really fun. So you hack up all of the fruit into pieces, not super dainty and put them in a pot of water to boil. We used: apple, pear, pineapple, guayaba,  tangerine, those little orange things that I can´t remember the name of, a can of fruit coctail, and a can of peaches. Wow. Then you add the jamaica.

Jamaica is a red flower. We use it to make a beverage of the same name. You can drink jamaica hot or cold, with sugar or without. It has a kind of strong flavor, but I really like it. I will miss jamaica. ANYWAY, you add of a bunch of jamaica to the pots too. Then my mom took some sugar cane and just started cutting into pieces about the length of my fingers. Then we took a sticks of cinnamon and just crumbled them up a bit and threw them in. Like I said, not a dainty recipe. When we finished prep-work we had two large pots full. It looks like this:

Pretty, right? After a day of simmering it´s a light brown shade and it´s impossible to tell the fruit apart, but it smells AMAZING. This was simmering all day long and the house smelled like cinnamon-tropical-fruit goodness. It tastes good too. At first the texture weirded me out: lots of mushy, brown, fruit pieces, but now I can appreciate it. It would be very easy to make a Christmas Party out of this (Bring your own fruit) I think.

We also made a ridiculous ammountof meat. Six kilos of meat. SIX KILOS. Check it out:

I could mu head in there two times, it takes up half the stove. Lots o´Meat.

Happy December 18th!

Light Music.

I hope you listened to that whole song.It´s my favorite song in Spanish. Tonight I went to another posada where they whipped out the karaoke machine and in a matter of minutes I found myself singing this (badly) in front of a group of very supportive and moderately drunk adults. Good times. I think karaoke should be right up there with dreaming in your new language. Big milestone. :) I am exhasted tonight. Better post tomorrow.

Less of a sore thumb.

My hair isn´t blonde.

Is this ok?

YES!

After spending a good part of yesterday in a pharmacy digging through bins of ridiculously cheap (20 pesos!!!) shorts, I impulsively bought a box of hair dye. This pharmacy is on a "semi-sketchy" side of town in the middle of a fruit and veggie market, and while they have impressive sales on shorts and intimate apparel, the hair-dye section is not exactly expansive. So, of my three options (platinum blonde, jet black, and a moderate looking brown shade), I went with the "Macadamia Cafe" ...it worked.

My friend helped me dye it yesterday. She asked me several times if I regretted it, but... I really don´t! New hair is fun! I have never had too much of my identity wrapped up in being blonde and this is an easy change.

Having blonde hair is like walking around with a giant hat that screams: "HOLA SOY EXTRANJERA!!!!" 

All. 

 Day.

Long. 

I just got really sick of it. I still don´t look Mexican, but this actually has already helped quite a bit. Today when walking from my bus stop to the park  no one yelled anything at me. Not anything! It was amazing.

For a while, I got really excited about the idea that someone sitting behind me on the bus might think I was Mexican. Then I was like: "Since when do I care so much about the opinions of strangers?" I´m not really sure. It does feel out of character for me to change myself because of social norms and the opinions of people I´ve never met. I mean, I could get really deep with all of this and link it to my frustrations with cultural differences, maybe this is an attempt to fit in physically since I have such a different cultural mindset, blahblah whatever. But that´s just making way too big a deal out of this.I´d rather say: It´s hair, it grows back, and being impulsive is good sometimes :) Happy December 14th!

Important News...

I know who my next host family is! Normally this is something that kids find out a little earlier (I am going to switch in January) but I´m just happy to know! I will be living with my Aunt Viki! I love her! This is such happy news! I went on a big trip to Central México with her in October, but I literally spend some time every other day at their house because they live with my host Grandma. I think of her as my "fun aunt" and am very excited to live with her and her children.

My cousins are Virginita (11) and Bernardo (13)- I really enjoy spending time with them too. They are great kids and Virginita was my first friend here in México :) I love my current host family, but I´m not sad to switch because I will still probably see them every day, they have also told me many times that if anything doesn´t work out, I am always welcome in their home. The odds of staying in the same extended family were pretty good as about 80% of my club here are blood-relatives. Still- I think it is great that I will be able to experience another home, while still maintaining a relationship with one family. Also- my aunt lives by my favorite running park in the city.

I can´t imagine a more omfortable and natural host family swap and am very excited to get this news! Happy December 12th!

La Posada

All through December here, there are these parties called "posadas". Actually, from December 1-15 it is considered a "Pre-posada", after that until Christmas it´s the real deal. Posada means "Inn". The ones I´ve gone to so far vary greatly, from quiet sit down dinners to loud "entire-extended-family" style dances. There is really only one thing they have in common: singing the Posada. What is the Posada? It´s a call and response song where half of the people go outside onto the street to sing Joseph´s part, the other half stay in and are the inn-keeper. I always go out.

I am going to translate the song for you here in a minute, but before I do, I would like to share a Bible verse. Yes, a Bible verse. Before we delve into the drama and emotion that is THE posada, I´d like to draw atention to how understated this event is in scripture:

Luke 2:6-7 (NIV) (6) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

That´s it. All it says is that there wasn´t room for them in the inn. This is the only time this is mentioned in the entire Bible. Bear that in mind. If I were saying this outloud, I would clear my throat dramatically at this point:

The First Petition

Joseph: In the name of heaven, we ask that you let us enter the inn, since my beloved wife cannot move!
Inn-keeper: This is not an inn! Pass along, I don´t have to open, not for some villian. 


Joseph: Don´t be inhumane, have the charity that God in heaven rewards!
Inn-keeper: Go already and don´t bother me. If I get angry I will beat you!

The Second Petition


Joseph: We come from Nazareth, I am a carpenter named Joseph.
Inn-keeper: I don´t care what your name is. Let me sleep, I already told you that we are not going to open.

Joseph: I ask for your inn, your beloved home, the Queen of Heaven needs it just for one night!
Inn-keeper: Well, since a queen is asking: How is it that during the night she is walking so alone?

The Third Petition


Joseph: My wife is Mary, she is the Queen of Heaven and is going to be the mother of the Divine Word!
Inn-keeper: Are you Joseph?
Joseph: YES!
Inn-keeper: And your wife is Mary?
Joseph: YES!
Inn-keeper: Then welcome pilgrims! I didn´t recognize you.

Joseph: May God pay you for your charity Sir, and fill your sky with happiness!
Inn-keeper: Blessed is the house that this day can shelter the pure virgen, the beautiful Mary.

At the Doors´Opening


All: Enter Pilgrim-Saints, Pilgrims! Receive this mansion! Although the dwelling is poor we give it with all our hearts!

We sing with great happiness! Happiness with everything considered: Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Yes Mary, we come today to honor.



That inn-keeper sure had a change of heart after Joseph whipped out the whole: "My wife is the queen of heaven" thing, right? He went from "Imma BEAT you!" to "Blessed is the house that can shelter pure, beautiful, Mary" and all within two stanzas!


I´m not Catholic, so I don´t feel that I am in a position to poke fun at any of this. I will say that AWANA (see below) would have been EPIC if instead of NIV we used a Mexican interperatation of the scriptures. Can you imagine what they could do with some of the really dramatic scripture lessons? This was an inconvenience briefly mentioned in one verse. We could probably spend hours doing dramatic call and responses with any one of the parables, and I´m surprised they don´t have operas about those Old Testament battles.

But really, this is a fun, multi-generational tradition. Everyone holds birthday candles while we sing and afterwards we eat and dance and it´s a good time. I´ve already been to several of these and am invited to four more before next Saturday. If I don´t have this song memorized by the time New Years rolls around it will be an act of willful defiance. Happy December 11th!


A note for those of you unfamiliar with AWANA: A.W.A.N.A. stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. (2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth). It is a club I was a part of from the time I was 3 until I was 14. We memorize a lot of Bible verses, have studies, complete challenges, play games, fun stuff. You work your way through these books, and by the time I was done I had memorized something like 550 verses and learned quite a bit of biblical triva to boot. :) My favorite social studies teacher had daily trivia quizzes in class and consistently referred to me as "Bible Girl". But all kidding aside, I really feel passionate about this program and think it does great work.

The Tree of Christmas.

This is a picture of some friends in the climbing tree. We all just called it "The Climbing Tree". That tree was an entertainment staple during my time at Conserve. It´s literally perfect: You can climb really high without feeling scared because the branches are all spaced so close together. It´s also right next to Big Donahue Lake- beautiful. I love that tree. There are not so many pine trees like that down here.

We´ve got a lot of unfamiliar tropical flowery-looking trees, but I´m honestly terrified of climbing them due to the large populations of lizards, snakes, and biting insects I´ve encountered. I realize I haven´t yet shared my "Mysterious Tropical Insect Bite" story, that´s for another day. Anyway, back to trees. I say that they are unfamiliar, because anytime I ask about the name of a tree, my friends and family tell me: palma. If I ask what kind of palma, I usually just end up feeling really annoying, regardless of their response. I guess I could do some, you know research, if it really bothered me. So for now, we´ll just say that a combination of personal laziness and cultural lack of interest in tree species has left me not-in-the-know.

Basically, the only thing I can tell is that there are not any coniferous trees living in Tabasco. Or so I thought. It turns out natural Christmas trees are all the rage. Every super market has a corner of its parking lot turned into a tree-pen of sorts. The first time I saw this, I literally ran into said tree pen and stood there for about 10 minutes just sniffing the air. It smelled like home. It´s the little things, right?

My family has a tree now, and so does my Grandma, so I´m getting plenty of quality "tree-time" (And yes, sometimes I still just stand there sniffing it). But there is one thing that has put a bit of a damper of my enjoyment. They don´t water their trees here. They nail them into wooden "X" shaped supports like Charlie Brown´s tree had. In my family back home, or tree sits in a big pot of water that we change really frequently ("Give the tree a nice, big, drink now") Of course, in my family we have also been known to give our trees names, but that´s beside the point....

I feel very sad for our tree here. It´s pretty right now, but I can already see it whithering. We got it late (late being around November 24th) so that, in the words of my host mother: "It won´t turn brown until a couple days after Christmas". I have a feeling that a brown tree in the house could be a bit of a downer, yes.

So- those were some thoughts on "Arboles de Navidad". In other news, today is my fourmonthiversary here in México! Go team! Happy December 10th!

Can we pretend today is the ninth?

Ok, I know it´s not, but I didn´t get home last night untill almost 4 am, and I didn´t feel especially bloggy. However, something VERY VERY exciting happened Dec. 9th.....I got a package from my family! There were so many good things in there!

Running Clothes!

Super Elaine-friendly Wall Decs!

At this point in the photo-shoot, my camera died (Not died-died, just need batteries), but I figured that since I don´t want to do THREE posts tomorrow, it would be better for me to just to a foto-skimpy post today. I also got a really pretty ring that says: "Life is about the journey, not the destination" on the inside, A copy of the book Ruthless Trust, a new skirt, a pretty shirt with flowers, a UW Christmas ornament that sings "On Wisconsin", and a bunch of other really cool things that I´m not going to write because they are presents for my host family.

I got to open this wonderful package with Mama and Erica and Elyssa over skype. It almost felt like we were together.....so fun. After skype-ing I had a predictable emotional breakdown, but now feel fine again. I really miss my family right now. It´s hard to express it, but it´s like I can physically feel the missing of people I love back home. This is definitely the worst it´s been since early August. 

But still, it was a very happy December 9th! (There should be another post here in about a half hour) 

This piñata does not resemble Summer Wheatley....

A couple of weeks ago, my Danish friend Marie came home to find this sitting on the floor in her room. Make the biggest circle you can with your arms. Open that up by about two feet. Now you have the size of the giant, unexplained paper-maché object that appeared in her bedroom. She had no explanation for why this thing was there: her birthday is in July, and mid November seems early for Christmas traditions. The way she tells it, there was a following conversation that went something like this:

Marie: Mamá, did you know that there is a GIANT PIÑATA in my room?

Mamá: Of course- I put it there!

Marie: But why?

Mamá: What do you mean?

Marie: Why did you put a GIANT PIÑATA in my room?

Mamá: Don´t you like piñatas?

Marie: Well, yes I like piñatas, but....

Mamá: There you go- enjoy it!

At this moment in time, the piñata is still sitting in the exact same spot. My friend has spent weeks tip-toeing around this thing as she gets dressed in the morning. You can sit on her bed and look at it. The natural thing to do would be to invite some people over and break it-right? But I don´t know: what if December 19th is national "Break-That-Piñata-Your-Mother-Gave-You" Day? Is she supposed to save it? Then again, what if host-mom feels offended because she didn´t invite friends over to break it? How exactly does one enjoy a Christmas piñata?

To make the situation slightly more awkward, she recently discovered the piñata is filled, not with candy, but clappy hand toys. Yes. These things.

At this point I would like to open the floor to any and all suggestions on how to enjoy a large piñata filled with clappy hand toys. Points for creativity. Gold star if you´d like to buy some. 

But all kidding aside, this situation is really representative of what it´s like to spend a major holiday away from home. You´re going along just fine, and then suddenly your room is invaded by a paper-mache globe wielding unfamiliar cultural expectations. You can get stressed, or you can laugh. Everyone does a little of both, and somehow it works out. 

I´ve spent the last 15 Christmasses enjoying familiar traditions, delicious foods, singing sentimental songs, and spending time with my loving family. I love that. I´m really glad that I will be able to go back to that. At the same time, it´s good for me to loosen up and change the way I think about this time of year. I realize that I´ve had such rigid expectations for what constitutes this season, it´s good to learn new traditions. Because really, learning to be happy while things are new and unpredictable is a skill, and a useful one at that. 

I think every now and then, it´s good to have a clappy-hand-piñata show up in your room. Happy December 8th!

Subject Change!

I am posting something decidedly not-Christmasy today, lest I run out of interesting Christmas topics too soon and spend December 23rd writing about ants or lizards or something again. Also, I´ve been meaning to post about Ana for a while, so here we go.

 This is a picture with Ana. She is my friend, and a cool kid. This particular foto is us being impressed with a pineapple-upside-down cake containing enough gluten to entirely destroy her. 

I met Ana during my time at Conserve School, and we became pretty good friends. She lives on the East Coast and has a tendency to go gallavanting on international adventures, so we didn´t get to see each other during the summer (check the blog to read what she was up to). However, during the past four months she has become one of my chief emotional supports, and possibly the person who understands what this is like more than anyone. Why is this? Ana is living in Peru.

The reason for her being there is REALLY cool. She is not an exchange student, but is volunteering in a small village, living near a dorm where middle-school-age indigenous girls who live too far away from school to travel every day, come to live and study during the week. She explains all of it much better here. You should seriously read that whole page- it´s really good. 

The challenges we have and things we enjoy doing are really different day-to-day. Our lives aren´t really similar at all (besides the Spanish, or Costellano for her), but somehow after talking I feel like she knows exactly what I´m going through. I´m really blessed to have that.

So, in conclusion: Ana Komar is my friend. Today is December 6th. Tomorrow I think I will post about Christmas trees. Happy Tuesday!

Keeping It P.C.

This is a foto from my family´s nativity scene. I will talk about nativity scenes in general later, today I am going to focus on one particular character. Because, you see, it seems to be a widely accepted fact here in México (or at least Villahermosa) that among a cast of blindingly white angles, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, one of the three wisemen is of African descent. When they stand in a line he is always in the middle. In every public and private nativity scene I´ve come across, there is this one king whose skin tone is considerably darker than everyone else. 

I´m going to explain now: I think it´s about time we stop pretending that everyone at the stable was white. Really: It´s ok to say that Mary didn´t have golden ringlets. Racial diversity is cool, and I think we should reflect that in nativity scenes too. The "problem" if you will, that I have is not with the idea of a non-caucasian wise-man, but rather the manner in which it is presented down here. 

I´m hoping it´s a coincidence that he is the only figurine in my host family´s scene that doesn´t light up. I´m also trying to ignore the fact that in front of my brothers´school, the doctor´s office, and the bank every figure is full of lights during the night, except the king in the middle who is only outlined in lights....it actually makes me cringe a little. I´m not really sure why it seems offensive, it just seems like one of those things you shouldn´t do. ("One of those things you shouldn´t do" is a cultural baggage "Red-Flag" phrase, in case you´re interested)

Beacuse really- who am I to be offended? They must not mean badly. This is one of those things that if you asked people about, they would probably say they didn´t notice, or that it doesn´t matter. No one is try to be insensitive (I hope) to African-Mexicans, it´s just one of those things that stands out to me because I am a foreigner. Also coming from the U.S. I think we are more concerned with being P.C. in the states than any other country, but more on that later.

I guess I don´t have much of a point with this post. Just one of those little things that reminds me I´m really not Mexican. Also: all of the wise men should be light-up. 

The Weather Outside: Not-So-Frightful

Ok- so I´m cheating a little bit. I took this foto in Playa del Carmen: it just seemed like a good one to use when talking about weather. After spending months enduring first extreme heat and humidity, then living through a tropical "rainy season", I wasn´t sure what to expect from December. Well, I mean NOT SNOW, but beyond that I had no idea. Turns out, December here is heaven.

Actually starting almost two weeks ago, the temperature has stayed between 70-80 degrees every day. We have WIND, which is sort of unprecedented, and sometimes there are clouds in the sky to block the sun. If my friends from Wisconsin can imagine that "Indian Summer" feel we get if we´re lucky for a few days in September, that´s what it´s like.

 You may be asking: since when does 80 degrees feels cool and refreshing? Come visit sometime in August.

Anyway, while I´m really enjoying it, this is giving that "There is no Christmas" part of my brain more to work with. It´s weird, because I can see the decorations and know on a thinking level that it´s December, but at the same time it´s a lot easier to imagine everything from back home is frozen and nothing important is going to happen without me. Is exchange giving me a narcisistic complex? Time will tell.

For now: Happy December 4th! (And enjoy your freezing temperatures and bare-trees)

Watertonians Unite!

Today´s post is probably only interesting to two people: my mother, and Mrs. Wagner (Taylor´s mother). Taylor is a friend of mine who is also an outbound from Watertown Rotary Club, we are the first in over 20 years. Somehow we ended up in the same country, living in states next door to each other, cool- right? Today, through a mix of her district´s "Gran Viaje", my family´s availability to drive, and a long stream of text messages eventually leading us to a KFC on the outskirts of town, my host-dad and I managed to find them and I got to chat for an hour. I think we packed more into that hour-long conversation than I had thought possible! It really was great to see her, and I think we are planning to do more in-depth-type visits in the somewhat near future (< That´s us being hopeful, but not having a plan or being allowed to travel alone. When I talked to my host dad, his response was: "You never know what can happen in this life" Non-commital, but also not shutting me down entirely, VERY Mexican :) ). If you want to staulk her blog (I do) its: www.taywagner.blogspot.com, check it out!

So that´s all for now. Hopefully our mothers can see that we are smiling in the sunshine, safe in México, and all is well. Happy December 3rd! 

Snow of Paper

Yesterday I taught my little brother how to make paper snowflakes. Being in the land of "papel picado" I wasn´t expecting anyone to be overly impressed, but he actually loved it and we had a lot of fun! Due to my family´s seemingly neverending supply of colored paper, most of the snowflakes we made don´t exactly look "wintery"....then again this is México. I think if it snowed, it probably WOULD come down  in greens, pinks, and oranges. Happy December 2nd!

It´s that time of year....

They tell me that Christmas is the hardest part of exchange. In this case, the ever-ambiguous "they" is my copy of The Exchange Student Survival Guide. It hasn´t failed me yet, and so I´m expecting this next month to be fun, but challenging. I´ve already survived the weirdest Thanksgiving of my life: 14 hours on a bus with the most substantial meal being a gas-station-ham-sandwich and no contact whatsoever with my family back home. Christmas will have to try really hard to be stranger than Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, I´m trying to emotionally prepare myself for the fact that this month will not be in the tradition of past Decembers. I think I can handle it, but we´ll see….

The purpose of this blog is to introduce you to my “advent calendar” idea. While I can´t promise cheap chocolates or witty limericks, I AM going to try to post every day leading up to Christmas. Yes, EVERY DAY. These posts will be short. They might just be a photo. They might explain a difference between an Anderson and a Rodríguez-Salomón family Christmas. They might be me whining. They might not even be related to Christmas at all. I´m not really sure, but it should be entertaining.

I am actually going to start today with a photo that doesn´t seem related to Christmas at all:

Those are all people from my country! Crazy! Getting to chill with a bunch of Americans (There were some that didn´t make it into the picture), was a super cool early Christmas present. It was so surreal to be surrounded, if only for a short time, by people who are learning to relate to this culture from the same point of view as me. I don´t know if that sentence made sense, but basically: We made friends very quickly.

In other news, tomorrow I am going to a Preposada. That means a pre-pre-Christmas dinner. Mexicans might be late to school, but every house on my street had its Christmas lights out before Thanksgiving. My friends started asking me if I felt the “Spirit of Christmas” around mid-November. People are STOKED. I am really looking forward to learning their new traditions, sharing familiar ones, and hopefully letting you all in on it too: Time to kick off December!