Feeling Foreign

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Besides learning Spanish and getting credits for school, part of the reason I decided to partake in this study abroad oppurtunity was to experience the culture. One of the downsides to this particular program is that with so many other American students on the trip, it's really easy to just fade into the background, stick close with your english-speaking comrades and never really experience the culture at all. Since I've gotten here every excursion, orientation session, welcome party, bar, restaurant or club we've gone to have all been in the presence of at least 10, if not all 50+, other American students. It's really hard to experience culture when you put yourself in this little isolationist enclave. Local people tend to stare, laugh and point, instead of actually come up and talk to you. In situations like that you don't have to speak spanish because nobody around you is, and anything you need to speak spanish for will be quickly handled for you by the few in the group that have a skill level far higher than that of my own.

That being said, my roommate and I opted for a change of scenery last night. While the other Americans went back to take over the same bars they've been dominating for the last week, we went out to a 'Mexican club' with our 17 year old host sister. The first part of the night we had our host mom drive us to another neighboorhood and drop us off at a friend of our sisters house. I was excited at first, but my first futile attempts at conversation proved that my spanish is still nowhere near where it needs to be to carry on a decent conversation. It was the first time on this trip I've really even noticed much less struggled with the language and cultural barrier. It was frustrating not to be able to communicate the way i wanted to and so fluently can in english. After picking up what felt like 35 of someone's cousins (another thing learned about mexican culture...they take their extended family very seriously) we finally made it to the club. it was way different than the bars and clubs we'd been frequenting with the Americans. Nicer, actually, and far more expensive than the 75 cent beer bucket specials we'd been encountering all week. It had a lighted runway for the entrance, huge movie screens playing 80's rock videos and a lighted dance floor.

The club itself was pretty fun. Although the Mexicans mix drinks with chili pepper, which made me less than enthusiastic about ordering anything else after the first one. (even beer bottles and coke glasses are rimmed with chilli pepper and sugar...) The music was fun, and the language barrier, while still intense seemed to slowly get less taxing throughout the night. We opted for an early exit though after chili powder drinks and the realization that we had class at 7 am. The worst part was the pouring rain and crabby taxi driver that tried to overcharge us by about 100 pesos or 10 bucks for our ride home. We finally settled on a 7 dollar (70 peso) cab ride (which is still about 2 dollars more than we should have had to pay) and attempted to walk down cobblestone streeets in high heels (which I failed at misreably might i add)

Anyway in other news...I got my class schedule worked out for the most part and made sure I'll be recieving credit for getting up this early every morning. and I'm headed to Acapulco at 2:45 today which I'm super excited for!!!!

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Photos

El Groupo
A pretty large majority of the mexicans and americans we hung out with at "El Classico"

Roomies!
My roommate, house sister and I

Silly Faces
The only other American at the club and I make gorgeous faces for the camera

Hernanas
My Mexican house sister (in the white shirt) and her friends that we went out with