Before I say anything else, I have to update you on the dogs: Saturday evening, as we were walking into the house in the front, Kimo burst THROUGH the glass door from the backyard. In his excitement to get to us, he completely ignored the fact that the door was CLOSED. Glass absolutely everywhere, and a cut paw. Kimo, NO. This is all I say when I play with these dogs, over and over.
It’s Steve’s and my second anniversary today. Missing.
We toured the city of Puebla yesterday. Like no place else I’ve ever seen, but is that really saying much? We saw a bunch of boring historical stuff—churches, a fort, etc.—and the old downtown, where vendors are selling everything from Spongebob balloons to pickled onions.
So far, some of my impressions of the differences in Mexico versus in Los Estados Unidos (U.S.) are these:
Here, families are enormous, and everyone is as proud of one family member as of another—as in the know about a cousin’s child as about one’s own. Spanish words for family members demonstrate this, too.
Public services are, of course, poor. You can’t flush toilet paper or so much as rinse your toothbrush in the water from the tap, and the roads are a little scrappy.
There are a lot of people working at jobs we would perhaps consider unnecessary. For example, in every public parking lot and on a lot of the streets, men with whistles motion and tweet to help drivers back out of spaces, and then you tip them, and in the grocery store, women walk around trying to convince you to buy specific products that the store sells.
Things are painted in bright colors.
In other news, Spanish classes began today for us. Truly FUN and I like the dynamic between the other three classmates in my level and me, and our teachers are great. All together, there are 22 of us on the trip, and we have a great group. We have become fast friends.
Saturday we went to the local Wal-Mart. I’m told Wal-Mart owns half of Mexico. They were playing Diana Ross in the store. Right now I’m in an Internet cafe, where we’re being treated to a CD of Madonna live.
See photos here.