Homesickness; Differences part 2

I felt the crushing blow of homesickness for the first time in a very long time or the first time ever. I think I've had homesickness before, but it wasn't like this. Carrick described two big dangers right around the time of the first week, one was homesickness and the other was a huge freak out filled with regret at the decision to go abroad. I haven't had a freak out but I did have a "Maybe this wasn't the best idea" moment. That moment has passed along with the homesickness, and now I'm back to knowing that coming here was the right thing to do. My familia here has helped with me becoming refreshed to the idea of living abroad and learning Spanish the face-to-brick-wall method unlike anything else here. There have been other signs that point to me doing the right thing, but mi familia is absolutely incredible.

Yesterday was our first group excursion into the great Mexican unknown, and it was absolutely brilliant. We went to the Piedra del Bernal and had a blast (there are pictures on my facebook for those interested in seeing what's up). The trip was only tainted by two things, one: The entire group insisted on speaking almost entirely English, and two: the homesickness. I think the reason that it really hit me yesterday was because I was away from my new family, so I didn't have that comfort and security to fall back on. It's incredibly strange and awesome how much my familia here reminds me of my family in the states. Mi mama definitely has characteristics of my mum, mi papa definitely has characteristics of my dad, and mi hermana definitely has characteristics of my sister. It's actually the connection between mi hermana here that I feel is the strongest and most beneficial, and I know that that in part is because of how much I felt I already knew her and could trust her. I'm extremely lucky that she is half as amazing as the original (love you DeeDee).

Now the other signs that have pointed to me being here are generally very small and kinda forgettable after any amount of time, but I know they are there when they happen. I will give two examples that have happened recently enough that I can remember them vividly. The are also a bit more salient than the others so I doubt that I'll forget them. First off is that last night I had a dream in which I spoke Spanish. I've had these dreams before, but usually when I wake up I realize that what I said was actually incorrect, or that a lot of it was actually just gibberish I was pretending was Spanish. Last night in my dream I had a clear decently formed sentence. It wasn't perfect, but neither is my Spanish when I'm awake by any stretch. The other sign, that's a bit less abstract, was today in the market when I spoke to a man and explained that my friend and I were exchange students from the United States and were studying at the University here in response to his question where were we from (which my friend missed because of background noise). The man looked at me a little bit taken aback and told me that my Spanish was very good. Man, I'm still glowing from that one.

Switching gears here a bit. The trip to La Piedra del Bernal was absolutely amazing. La Piedra is translated as 'the rock', and that is exactly what it is. It is one absolutely huge rock, not many little rocks making a pile or mountain, it is one solid rock. This one solid rock is actually the third largest in the world, and yesterday me and my friends got to climb it. The climb was exhausting at first, but once I got a bit more used to the thin air it was an absolute blast. The other people I was climbing with (we separated to the front of the pack) were also athletic and we just blasted to the top. The tour guide estimated that the trek would take an hour, but we did it in no more than thirty minutes. It was the middle of the day and sweat was just pouring down my face, it was absolutely incredible. I wanna do that every day. And the view from the top was absolutely stunning. It was just an amazing addition to a ridiculously fun hike/climb.

Today I had my own little excursion with a buddy. We basically just finished walking through La Mercado de Cruz which is basically Saturday Market on steroids/crack. The place was HUGE and completely packed. Long narrow isles ran between little booths packed with merchandise and people. The food there often looked either really disgusting or really delicious, but I wasn't brave/stupid enough to try any of it. My friend, however, seems to be practicing to take over for that guy on the show "bizarre foods" when he keels over from a strange mix of bacterial infections and parasites. We went to a little restaurant (not nearly as dangerous as the booths of food) of sea food. Fortunately I hate sea food so I wasn't tempted into trying anything except a delicious grape soda that came in a bottle. He, on the other hand, had a ice cream Sunday cup filled with, I believe, raw shrimp covered in some sort of sweet red sauce. He loved it, but I'm just hoping that he makes it through the night. (No he doesn't feel sick from it, but it's only a matter of time.)

Differences part 2:

-Bus stops here aren't generally marked, you just have to know which corners to stand on.

-Buses don't stop unless you wave them down, and sometimes they won't even stop then.

-Buses open their doors and seem to expect you to get on/off long before they've actually stopped.

-There are only a few pedestrian lights in the whole city, people just walk with the green light.

-A few of the walk signals they do have are animated. It is a little outline of a man walking, and there is a count down beside it. As the count down get lower, the man starts walking faster until the last few seconds when he is straight up running.

-People sell everything from cow testicles by the kilogram to pirated video games for pretty much whichever console you wanted.

-People seem to just keep driving after fender-benders.

Again, I know that I had more, but I tend to forget them the minute I put fingers to keyboard. I'll keep this differences thing going whenever I get/remember new ones.

Love you all very much, please keep/start posting comments, I love to read them.

-Connor

P.S. if you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments and I'll try my best to answer them.