Bleeeaaaah
Well, this week has been pretty uneventful. I've been sick, classes have been interesting but forgettable, and I have eaten eggs for breakfast every single day. Alicia is trying to kill me.
I forgot to mention something about México D.F. See, in the Day Efe, there aren't any sidewalks. They've been covered by incredibly long continuous markets (which are a lot like cartoon backgrounds - after every hundred yards, you start seeing the exact same shit for sale). This forces pedestrians to walk in the street if they want to get anywhere. On one particular street, there are five lanes of traffic in one direction, but pedestrians had taken over one of them. I was walking on the outside edge this lane when all of a sudden, BAM! Something smacked my ass so hard that it gave me flashbacks to that one time I visited a dominatrix in Houston.
It was a car's sideview mirror. I got hit by a damn car in México. Fortunately, it was low-speed, and after two weeks of climbing hills in Cuernavaca, I've got buns of steel (still protected with layer of padding, courtesy of all those eggs). I felt fine after a couple of minutes. The driver was not so lucky; I saw his mirror dangling pitifully as he frantically drove off. Gringo = 1, Insane Mexican Drivers = Nada.
It's still hard to break into Mexican society. A lot of people get sort of a vacant look in their eyes when I tell them I'm a Poli Sci student; I've been thinking about saying I'm in sociology, or maybe Human Sexuality. Honestly, I have a hard enough time making new friends when I speak the same language they do; here, it's hard for me to get a non-American student to have a conversation with me, and I could use whatever edge I can get.
At the same time, I just want to stop worrying about it. The simple fact of the matter is, UNINTER's students are not significantly different from Iowa State's. They wear the same clothes, they listen to more American music than Mexican, they're vulnerable to the same kind of shallowness about appearance (if not more so - very few of these girls would dream about showing up for class in their pajamas, like Iowans are notorious for, and almost every single guy gels his hair 50s style), they probably come from wealthier families than the typical Cyclone, they're overly accustomed to international students; they just don't interest me all that much. The guys are much more interested in talking to the American girls, and the girls are much more interested in talking to guys who are not me (hm, yet another similarity with American women). I don't really feel the urge to push it. I'll just talk with random elderly people who don't have anything else to do, with cabbies, with Dutch people; with the people who live beyond the walls of the fortress-gardens.
It's not that the castle-dwellers aren't representative of some part of Mexican society; it's just the boring part.
Incidentlaly, when I get back, I'm joining some kind of ambassador program for foreign students. I never really realized how isolating it is, and how unsatisfying it is to speak only to your people. I'd encourage you all to do the same (no matter where you're reading this), but that's probably too much to hope for. Bastards.
As a final note: after taking a quick visual survey on the computer lab, I can confirm that Mexican guys seem to have the stupidest haircuts since America in the 1980s. It's like a freaking James Dean movie in here, man. Oh, shit. I just spotted U-Head. I should have guessed that there would be reefer madness in México.
I forgot to mention something about México D.F. See, in the Day Efe, there aren't any sidewalks. They've been covered by incredibly long continuous markets (which are a lot like cartoon backgrounds - after every hundred yards, you start seeing the exact same shit for sale). This forces pedestrians to walk in the street if they want to get anywhere. On one particular street, there are five lanes of traffic in one direction, but pedestrians had taken over one of them. I was walking on the outside edge this lane when all of a sudden, BAM! Something smacked my ass so hard that it gave me flashbacks to that one time I visited a dominatrix in Houston.
It was a car's sideview mirror. I got hit by a damn car in México. Fortunately, it was low-speed, and after two weeks of climbing hills in Cuernavaca, I've got buns of steel (still protected with layer of padding, courtesy of all those eggs). I felt fine after a couple of minutes. The driver was not so lucky; I saw his mirror dangling pitifully as he frantically drove off. Gringo = 1, Insane Mexican Drivers = Nada.
It's still hard to break into Mexican society. A lot of people get sort of a vacant look in their eyes when I tell them I'm a Poli Sci student; I've been thinking about saying I'm in sociology, or maybe Human Sexuality. Honestly, I have a hard enough time making new friends when I speak the same language they do; here, it's hard for me to get a non-American student to have a conversation with me, and I could use whatever edge I can get.
At the same time, I just want to stop worrying about it. The simple fact of the matter is, UNINTER's students are not significantly different from Iowa State's. They wear the same clothes, they listen to more American music than Mexican, they're vulnerable to the same kind of shallowness about appearance (if not more so - very few of these girls would dream about showing up for class in their pajamas, like Iowans are notorious for, and almost every single guy gels his hair 50s style), they probably come from wealthier families than the typical Cyclone, they're overly accustomed to international students; they just don't interest me all that much. The guys are much more interested in talking to the American girls, and the girls are much more interested in talking to guys who are not me (hm, yet another similarity with American women). I don't really feel the urge to push it. I'll just talk with random elderly people who don't have anything else to do, with cabbies, with Dutch people; with the people who live beyond the walls of the fortress-gardens.
It's not that the castle-dwellers aren't representative of some part of Mexican society; it's just the boring part.
Incidentlaly, when I get back, I'm joining some kind of ambassador program for foreign students. I never really realized how isolating it is, and how unsatisfying it is to speak only to your people. I'd encourage you all to do the same (no matter where you're reading this), but that's probably too much to hope for. Bastards.
As a final note: after taking a quick visual survey on the computer lab, I can confirm that Mexican guys seem to have the stupidest haircuts since America in the 1980s. It's like a freaking James Dean movie in here, man. Oh, shit. I just spotted U-Head. I should have guessed that there would be reefer madness in México.
posted by Cobblestopped at
11:23 AM
2 Comments:
Good for you to acknowledge that you will return home and help the international students! I was the same during my undergrad years - the international students were just "weird" (that sounds so horrible, but I was young and stupid) - but now that I see what it feels like to be the outsider, I am much quicker to be a friendly face. Traveling gives you more to share with them, at the same time. OK, now I'm just getting cheesy.
Ps...Dominatrix in Houston???
By
BlondebutBright, at 9/22/2005 2:55 PM
YOU SAW A FUCKING U-HEAD? My life is now complete.
By
Anonymous, at 9/25/2005 8:54 PM
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