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El primer día—Llegamos

The first day—we arrive

As all who are familiar with my habits and moods may know, I am a morning person. There is nothing that thrills me more than getting a very few hours of sleep and then waking up before the Sun herself. On these joyous morning occasions, I am as cheerful as a lark welcoming the flowery, colourful springtime.

And for those who don’t know me so well, all of that previous is dripping with sarcasm. When I am tired, I can be a grouch….just ask my mom. Ok, actually, please don’t. Just take my word for it, without examples.

Gettin' ready to get on the plane

So Dad and I got up around 4:30 and left around 5 for the airport. We flew to Atlanta, blah-blah, then to Mexico. I got through all of The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris, and made some more progress on At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald—two highly recommendable books, I must say. We arrived, met up with a couple who are here in Tc. for these two semanas (weeks), ate a bit, and got on the bus for three hours. (I wish to mention briefly here that it smelled a bit sewerish and was hot and I was by then quite sleepy after only about two hours of sleep the night before and from having been up for around ten hours after that so uncomfortable circumstances were temporarily taking away the joy of being back in Mexico. But after arriving and eating some delicious tacos I felt mucho mejor (much better).)

Hooray, bus!!

Around 8:30 some of the young people arrived for what D. had called a “party for Emily”. I was excited that people I didn’t even know were throwing some sort of party in my honour. P, and a bit later C, came to get me, and we went out to the car and met up with their respective brothers, L and J (don’t you love this alphabet soup of names? I’m reminding myself of FDR…Dad said I oughter be vague since this is, after all, the world wide interweb) We went to some restaurant, got coffees and teas and played cards (I must say it is a bit difficult to remember the rules to Blackjack when they are being said in Spanish…<<¿Cuánto vale ésta?>> <Necesitas 21>…< ¿once…doce…trece…y uno o once? ¿Este uno o once? Bueno...Sí, ya termino...>>) We played some other game that I didn’t understand at first, which involved making all the pairs you could with the seven you were initially given (Oh, Joy...I had none), and then drawing cards from each other around the circle to try and make pairs, avoid the Joker, and see who ran out of cards first...and second...and third...and last (guess where I was...in English, it begins with the letter L). After we had been there a while, we came back towards the houses, first driving around the town a bit. They showed me the parque, discussed whether different establishments were restaurantes, barres, clubs, or what have you, and so on. We got back, and turns out C and J’s house (did I mention that they are siblings, as are the other two to each other?) is right by D’s? So we played ping pong for a little while, and then I decided to acostarme (go to bed). I guess I was in bed by midnight, and I woke up around nine this morning feeling much refreshed.

Opening the Wardrobe....I mean....gettin' onto the roof

After breakfast, which involved cereal with MANGO chunks (to my family, let me just say that I’m sticking my tongue out at all of you haha) on top, a banana from D’s tree(s?), several cups of coffee, and stories of Mexico, Hawai’i, Indonesia, and different things involving living in these places and differences between cultures, especially as far as clashes go. J and B talked about how on Hawai’i there tends to be a big clash between the gringos and the others, who are from the Philipines, Japan, and Hawai’i, mostly.

After I finished writing all that previous, we went to church, which is right next to D’s house. I met a few people, and after some songs the kids were let out and this girl I had met, who had helped Dad with Spanish last time, invited me out with her to Sunday school. I went ahead and went with her. They talked through some things like “do you know how to share the Gospel with your friends?” and the difference between santificacion y justificacion (sanctification and justification). As it happens, We’ve talked a bit at D-group about the difference between those two. The guy leading it had gotten volunteers to go through each of these (the separation of us from God and bringing together by the cross was laid out on the white board in one of those little diagrams), and at the end they were asking me how much I had understood. I said, <bastante>, “enough”, and then he asked if I could describe the difference. I don’t think he expected me to say yes, and be willing to, but I did, and was. So I said something like <justificacion es el momento en que estamos justificado, salvado por Dios, y santificacion es el proceso en la vida en que llegamos a ser mas y mas como Él>, which is something like “justification is the moment in which we are justified, saved by God, and sanctification is the process throughout our lives of becoming more and more like Him.”

A view from the roof (there are mountains all around, this one being the closest, from what I've gathered)

After that stuff there was fruit with sweet milk stuff (mmmm, que delicioso!! Jyummy!!) for the celebration of the día de las madres, Mother’s Day, and people hung around for a while. I met a few other people, including P and D, and C was there as well. They brainstormed things we could do and show me while I’m here these dos semanas, el cine, nadando, museos (two weeks, cinema, swimming, museums), and then eventually I headed back to D’s house with her and J and B. Now I’m sitting on her lovely front porch enjoying the breeze, distant roosters, muchachos coming into the gate to play, and, of course, the wireless internet. ¡Qué padre!

the porch

So, in closing, I’m thrilled to be here, disfrutando el pais otravez (enjoying the country again), and making lots of friends (and family—hah! I’m already on summer break, you noobs) jealous. (:

Adios!!

View of behind the house, from the roof