August in Mexico

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I've had four very fun, interesting, and busy months in Mexico now. I feel like I've definitely chosen the right part of the world to live in for 5 years; social, fun-loving, and generally loud. These words could probably be used to describe myself, or the people of Mexico, and thus I'm very happy to be here.

It is quickly apparent that family life is very important here; half of the contacts in most people's phones are members of their family. I often get asked; "do you miss your family?" The answer I give is that of course I do, but I find Skyping and Facebooking with them to be sufficient. When that is not the case, perhaps that will be the time I fly home for another visit. I think that'll take 5 years. Of course, one could put this cultural difference as partially being down to family dependency; in Mexico there's not much state provision, so many elderly people go on working well into their seventies. The alternative to this is to rely on their families for subsistence, which many of those with more well-off families do. Of course, in the UK, those who've reached retirement age receive a state pension. Although this is paid for by the taxes of those who are working (unless they're members of the Royal family or landed gentry that somehow still exists in 2016... They use trusts to avoid paying tax, which is utterly perfidious), the difference is that they're not dependent on one single family. This means that people like me can get away and travel without leaving our parents to destitution.

I have become even more comfortable with my host family, who have been very accommodating despite the fact that I've had extra classes and have hardly been at the house some weeks. I recently had a week off (and an unremarkable amount of money) and spent that relaxing in the house, studying grammar, and socialising with friends and family in Tehuacan. I also have plans for a couple of trips out of the city in the near future, as well as a three day trip to Guatamala in November. I mentioned money because I've just lived for 12 days on about 900 pesos, which equates to about £30. (I was paid more, but had a night out at the start of the period...). I try not to include to much wishful thinking or cliché in my writing, but I feel like I've had an exercise in financial restraint that has benefited me; I've spent the same in 12 days that I'd have spent in 5 days last month. In a non saving-money context, I've recently started walking to and fro from the school, which is about 4km each way. I feel healthier, and given that I've stopped going to the gym to save money, I'm happy that I'm keeping the weight off.

I've tried more local food, including chiles en nogadas; large chilli peppers stuffed with meat and vegetables, and topped with pomegranate and a nut sauce. I've been eating at food stalls in the street more often, which is cheaper. Little tortillas with meat and cactus leaves on, called memelitas, have become a favourite. There's also a delicious rice drink called atolè (no idea how it's spelt) that is cheap, nourishing, and sold everywhere from little street carts. I eat and drink things like these whilst marveling at the affordability of them; enough memelitas to fill me up usually cost just 40 pesos (£1:70, or so) and I eat more than the average Mexican. Scarily, I can actually eat fairly spicy food now, including most of the chilies that my host family eat. There are still some small, but deadly, ones that just taste like pain at the moment. Overall, I'm enjoying the feeling of spicy food on my tongue not feeling painful, and I also like the added flavour it brings to a meal. I visited the local market on a cultural tour of Tehuacan last weekend. There were crickets, worms, and other such buggy delicacies on offer. I enjoyed the flavour of both the crickets and worms, and bought a bag of the former to munch on whilst strolling around the market.

I've improved my Spanish conversationally, and grammatically too. I now feel comfortable in conversation, can talk reasonably in past, present, and future tenses, and I'm writing a basic diary in Spanish for further practice. I can only do the different tenses in the first person, however, and struggle to conjugate verbs in the numerous forms needed to talk in the third person. As such, I'm still a long way from expressing myself with the same fluency as English, but if I was to be dumped in a town where no one spoke English, and I had to assimilate, it would not be too difficult.

There have been a few trips around Tehuacan, and one to Teontepec. Teontepec was the most interesting, so let's talk about that one! A former student of mine asked if I'd like to visit his hometown, which is 30 minutes from Tehuacan, and was hosting a cultural festival that weekend. About 1000 people live there, and the first thing that struck me upon arriving was just relaxed everyone was. No one was glued to their phone, no one was walking faster than need be, and so on. The pace of life is simply slower there. I watched a baseball game with a group of amiable locals, and attempted not to balls up in Spanish as much as possible. Beer, pumpkin seeds, and pistachio nuts were the fodder for the afternoon. Next, we walked to the town center, listened to an orchestra playing Mexican music, and chuckled as a few little old ladies began to dance in front of the orchestra with so much rhythm that I slightly wanted to join in. We then went to my friend's grandma's house and ate Molè (traditional Mexican food consisting of a tangy sauce, and chicken or turkey) with a turkey leg. They then served up a drink called Pulquè; a translucent white drink made from fermented cactus sap. (I think!) I made conversation with his grandparents, and chuckled at the blithe comments of the drunk villagers who were extremely welcoming. The restaurant was a small affair, as one might expect, but it was roomy at the same time. I was offered extra pulquè or molè to take home if I wanted it, but refused because I'd already had so much free food and beer that I didn't feel comfortable taking more!

The drawbacks of life here are almost entirely synonymous with the drawbacks of life in the UK. That is to say that a lot of people don't see them as drawbacks at all. Ownership of cars has risen, so traffic in city centers is clogged. It's a society that's held by the perception that big business, big houses, big salaries, buying new electronics very often, spending more on clothes or products with brand names, and so on, are important aspects of life. As for me, without trying to sound supercilious, I couldn't think much less of most of these concepts. I like using public transport or walking to places, for example. I think if fewer people owned cars, then public transport would have to improve. I don't want to buy a house that has more space than I need; I'd like a tiny house in the future, once I know where I'm settling down. (Region-wise, as many tiny houses can be moved using a trailer.) The perception of birthdays and Christmas pervades the commercial society aspect I referred to; if you don't buy lots of birthday/Christmas presents or have a party for your birthday, people think you're strange. I personally see no significance in marking the day I left the womb. I also get nothing from Christmas, as I'm not religious. These things mean that I often have to explain myself, otherwise I'd have to pretend to enjoy days that offer no learning experience or that hold no significance for me. Anyone who's read my blog before probably knows what I think of capitalism and big business; they're things of the past, in my opinion, but they won't recede without first sucking as much wealth into the hands of the wealthy as possible. As such, I try to shop locally, tend not to buy big brands if I can help it, and rarely splurge on unnecessary items. I often wonder what would happen if more people did this, but I don't think I'm perfect at all. I have plenty of consumer habits that I'd like to change in the future, but it's a slow process for sure.



September promises to be a month in which I can put my head down to make further progress in Spanish, teach well, and hopefully have as much fun as I've spent the last 4 months having!!

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