March 27th, Arrival in Mexico City

I'm using motorola's unsecured internet connection so I thought I would send you all a note. I arrived in Mex City at noon Thursday and trucked around the airport looking for a place to get pesos. I ended up exchanging money I took out here for pesos so everything worked out. I was greeted by Marcelo, Bertilde, Betty, and Dalia when I first got to Lazaro's sister-in-law's (Bertilde). The house is lovely and everyone is very sweet and patient with me as I'm attempting to break out of my shell and just speak spanish.

At 3, I napped for three hours, and when I woke I had dinner. I met Mixanto and the three of them and myself went to rent movies. sidenote: Spiderman 3 is too long.
Around 10 30pm, Bertilde remembered that I wanted to get tacos and insisted we go to eat some. I wasn't hungry but why would I turn down tacos. The tacos..were wonderful. Their family goes to the same taco place about 5 minutes from the house.

When we arrived back home around midnight, Bertilde was in the kitchen and I sat down with her. She asked how I liked the food, and in response I told her Mexican tacos are the perfection. She began telling me about eating different food in Canada and practicing French. I forgot she spoke French, so in an attempt to just talk to her in a language we both understood, I told her I spoke French. (This is the language I studied in Middle and High School.) Bertilde and I spoke for another hour, in French, about travelling, Tecolutla, Canada, France, how glorious the ocean is, things I was interested in studying, where I wanted to go to school, and then looking at maps. This was wonderful because for the first time here I felt like I could communicate and bond rather than just get by.

During the first trip to Mexico in February, the people we were surrounded by really radiated kindness so not being able to speak the language wasn't dictating how I felt about the community. Even though there was a mutual understanding that through words, we weren't going to be able to truly understand each other, I felt like I was missing out on the jokes and warmth that language brings. Speaking with Bertilde in French was probably not the best way to learn Spanish, but it is another language and something I had never enjoyed using until this evening. I connected to another person using a language other than English and it was amazing. I was out of my comfort zone, letting the passion to connect often override my nervousness about speaking incorrectly. French today, Spanish tomorrow.

Everyone is so genuinely kind to me, I'm planning another day to stay with them. Betty, Dalia, and I are going to a showing of photography by Gregory Colbert later today (Friday, 28th) in the city. His pictures are incredible. I'll be heading to Tecolutla Saturday afternoon, so I'm predicting an evening arrival-not too late. Other than the bit of frustration at the airport, the day has been wonderful.