Things I will miss:
- Nearby San Cristobal, with its indigenous culture, variety in international and Mexican cuisine, colorful buildings, and always fun market.
- Cheap (2.50-4.50 USD) movies
- MY STUDENTS!! I found out that a colleague is staying next year and teaching second grade, and I’m going overboard filling her in on them as a group, giving tips, and otherwise being glad to know whose hands they’ll be in!
- The friends I’ve made among the staff
- The weather. Sometimes the heat was almost unbearable, but I cannot STAND cold Northeast winters, and not having temperatures below 60 that I can remember was amazing.
- Cheap, delicious food! Yes, you sometimes have to watch out for sketchiness in order to avoid parasites and GI infections (I had one of the latter and possibly one of the former), but I could eat and drink mole, agua de avena, jamaica, fried plantains, Juan and Yayci’s quesadillas and tescalate, and taquitos forever. Or at least for one savory year. (One of my favorite candies is pictured here: Glorias, made from goat's milk caramel!)
- Tons of natural light! And very little rain.
- Tuxtla. I’ve had my fill of this hot, crowded city in the jungle.
- Movie-goers who answer their cell phones and have full conversations and who laugh during the emotional parts of the film. I swear, some people have the emotional maturity of seventh graders as adults.
- Disorganization and resistance to change at school. I’d actually think of coming back (to take my kids for third grade!) if the school were more organized.
- THE MEN. I cannot wait until I don’t feel like a steak on legs. If I ever complain about blending in/being a Plain Jane/not getting attention again, just send me back here and I will instantly remember why no attention is better than being whistled/shouted/hissed at!
- Living in a society with a strong class system. I mean, we’re not talking about a caste system or anything, but coming from a society that prides itself on social mobility and equality and not discrimination, living in such a class system has been challenging. I’ve come to resent wealth. I feel like at home we should help out more too, but sometimes we feel that sending our money to charities might not go where it should. That’s a crappy excuse, but here all you have to do is go out on garbage night and you’ll see someone impoverished picking through bags of trash hoping to find things to recycle (and be paid for) or reuse him or herself.
With this class deal comes nepotism, and with nepotism often comes incompetence because, hey, a lot of people don’t have their jobs because they’re qualified for them, but because they or their family knows someone. My place of employment has its fair share of connections-based hiring, as well. - NOISE! I am almost certain that my hearing has worsened from living here. I kept saying, “Huh? HUH?” to Alex when she was here visiting because she speaks at an American-normal volume, and I am accustomed to cacophonous Mexico. I wish I had taken a hearing test before I came so that I could compare it to one I’d like to have after living here. Between loudspeakers (even at work), screaming children (even at work, albeit not in my classroom or you’re in trouble), chains signaling gas delivery, whistles and mouth noises to get people’s attention, honking cabs and combis, and blaring movie surround-sound, I know I’ve done some auditory damage in these eleven months.
- Knocking. Many people knock here like they have a right to come in your house! They knock, knock, and knock some more until you give in or hide. Come on, logic says if the person doesn’t answer, they’re not there, or they don’t want to answer, so you’re doing no good and potentially just annoying them if you keep on knocking!
- Disregard for the environment. There is litter everywhere, little or no recycling, and I once watched an eco-tourism guide throw a beer bottle into the Rio Grijalva. ‘Nough said.
No comments:
Post a Comment