Well.  Getting internet to work in Mexico has been a more difficult task than I previously anticipated.  I’m currently sitting in my room in the house of my Se�ora Mexicana, Isabel Merino.  Her niece (pardon if I butcher the spelling, which is very likely), Maipe lives here too, along with a dog called (again, I’m still not positive), Melle.  I think he’s named after a fruit, but I’m not totally certain what the fruit is either.

 

I have to admit, I had no idea it was going to be so hard to understand and to communicate with everyone here.  I just keep nodding and agreeing with my two hostesses, even though I’m understanding maybe 1/3 to � of what they’re actually saying.  It’s incredibly frustrating, and I’m fairly certain they think I’m an idiot for not getting the most basic things until they’ve repeated themselves three or four times.  I’m sure they’re as annoyed as I am that we’re almost totally unable to communicate except in the most basic ways, and even then if I forget the vocabulary for something, I just sit quietly and smile.  At least I wrote on my “informational sheet” that they received that I’m quiet at first.  Ha.

 

This afternoon I have to finish unpacking everything, and then there may (or may not, my Spanish is poor, remember?) some kind of group dinner.  Since we didn’t finish the group lunch till about 4pm, I’m kind of terrified of group dinner, even if it’s not till 9pm.  To be fair though, everything I’ve eaten so far has been delicious, and in a mostly reasonable quantity.  I know it won’t surprise my family that I’ve found that I like most of the food here, but it’s been mostly all wins so far.

 

I have decided that I desperately need to acquire a Spanish dictionary.  The idea of continuing in my current state of imbecile muteness isn’t really appealing.  Especially since I think my se�oras are such sweet people, and I’d rather they didn’t think I had the comprehension levels of a goat.  Ah well.  At least the dog likes me.

 

One odd thing I’ve noticed here is that the TV is at least 50% American shows, which I wasn’t expecting.  Most of them are subtitled too, rather than dubbed.  This is a good thing in that I’ll have stuff to watch in my free time (once some of that crops up), but bad in that I kind of thought it would be fun to watch some different Spanish TV, and so far all I’ve found are news and telenovelas.  But then, I’m pretty sure if I look a little harder I’ll find something.

 

This morning was spent doing a 2-hour walking tour of Puebla.  I could be wrong, but I think our tour guide was also unimpressed with our group’s comprehension of Spanish.  To be fair, I did catch a good bit of what he said, and he was kind enough to speak incredibly slowly when he wasn’t making jokes about our ignorance.  Sigh.  It’s very humbling to be completely unable to communicate, that’s for sure.

 

I’m going to include some pictures here if possible:

 

Well, time for my siesta before dinner!  Will update you all again as soon as new stuff happens!

 

Adios!

 

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Location: 11 Sur 5307, Prados Agua Azul, Puebla, Mexico