la "limpia" con el huevo and some thoughts about language

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¡hola chicos y chicas!

hope you are all enjoying your wednesdays. mine has been interesting so far.. in a good way. (believe it or not!).. this week has been going along pretty well, had to get through some stuff but its really forced me to count on the Lord. its a pretty amazing feeling to be comforted by someone so big and so strong, but at the same time so loving. i think, since being in mexico, i have felt God's presence more frequently than ever before in my life. i've spent a lot of time this week not going out and doing things, and instead catching up on sleep and reading a lot. now that i've done that, i feel like i'm ready to go out and take advantage of the last week and a half i have here in cuernavaca.

the first hour of español class today, our class went to a conferencia (lecture) about brujería tradicional (traditional witchcraft). it was not at all what i expected.. devil worshipping and such.. instead it was mostly about herbal healing, and witch doctory sorts of things. it went on pretty long, but it was interesting to learn about how indigenous rituals still are around today, and are used quite frequently in mexico. not so much with the majority of the people, but with some. anyway. the best moment was definitely when the professor talking (who confessed himself to be a "brujo" or one who practices the ancient herbal healing stuff) asked for a volunteer to receive a "limpia" (or, a cleansing, sort of). the limpia would be given with a raw egg, which he softly tapped all over the woman who volunteered's body. then he would crack the egg into a glass of water, and it would tell him of her ailments. i'm serious. however, things did not exactly go as planned. as soon as he had made his way up her leg, and reached her stomach, the egg broke all over her shirt and the floor. HAH! it was all we could do to not burst out laughing. i guess her.. ailment was too strong? the lady left quickly to clean herself up, and the brujo tried to explain that because the egg was processed, or something, not directly from a hen, or something, that's why it broke. ohhh witchcraft. anyway, it was interesting to see another way to look at the world, and the egg breaking was.. amazing. i guess the "limpia" wasn't that limpia after all!

tonight we are going to the cine (movie theater) to see a movie with some friends leslee made at starbucks the other night. hehe! oh leslee and her mexicanos. they can't get enough of my compañera de cuarto! 😊 then onward to get dinner with some friends. 😊

today i've been thinking alot about language. before coming to mexico, i never really thought of english as a language. it was just what came out of my mouth when i tried to communicate. its really interesting to be in a place where you have to carefully choose and conjugate each word you say. and to think about why and how different cultures all over the world speak different languages. i think it makes communication harder, but at the same time it makes it more deliberate. we could live in our own little worlds and ignore other cultures, but they are going through the same things we are!

also, i really like the spanish language sometimes. just the way certain things are translated into spanish fascinates me. my favorite phrase i have learned here is the phrase for "soulmate." in mexico, your soulmate is your "media naranja" which literally means the other half of your orange. how cute is that? ah, i love it. sometimes i love to just zone out while someone is speaking spanish and just listen to the way the words sound. i don't think english has that quality to it, but maybe i'll try the zoning out thing one time. if i do it to you, don't take it personally. 😉 english really is quite different though. its rules don't make sense. and also, the united states is a really dumb name for a country. why couldn't we be more creative?

hope you all have been having a wonderful week of summer, i can't wait to see you guys when i am home! please call, comment, email, facebook me whenever! i love you all!

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Comments

[Mom M]

oops!
I'm sure you wondered if I had read your entry. I did and then executed a typo. I knew you said 18 days, but my fingers decided to do something else. It sounds like your experience is getting better every day.