4 days... get excited!!!
I am tired of papers, projects and computers. I am over school for the year, and yet I still have 3 papers (3-5 pgs and 1 that is 8-10pgs) , 2 projects, and a presentation left. "And frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" (Gone With the Wind). BUT there is only 4 more days until a great day in the year... :D I know I am a super nerd for being so excited but so it is...I am going out to dinner with some friends and family on Thursday and on Cinco de Mayo will be yet another day to celebrate! yay! You just gotta love birthdays. I feel as though I am split into 3 equal parts right now... part of me wants to come home, another part wants to stay out here, and the last part wants to go back to Mexico. I'm not really sure what to expect when I go home... I know it will be different and whatnot but I don't think I really know how to express what I have experienced. Someone once told me "time changes when your whole life does" and how true it is. It doesn't seem like just 4 months of living on the border. My time in Mexico flew by and some nights I wish I could just wake up hearing spanish and mi mama waking me up for a hot breakfast with my liquado de platano. It is something that I want to talk about to everyone and anyone who is interested. And I make an emphasis on interested... there is nothing worse than talking to someone about an experience because they asked only out of politeness... I feel like I don't matter when that happens, so please if you don't want to know don't ask. But this goes the other way too.. if you are interested ask questions and lots of them!! :) I have learned a lot this semester about so much stuff... the world and how it looks so different in a differnt part of the world as well a lot about me and what I can handle myself and how I really want to see the world and how other countries and communities view the world. So here I sit, listening to Cat Stevens, procrastinating writting papers and thinking about where to go in the next chapter of this book I call my life... !Hasta luego amigos!
So it's been a while....
A lot has gone on in the 3 weeks that I haven't posted... sorry for all of you avid readers there was no new information. I will give a brief synopsis of what is going on in my life and what has happened... The first week in April, I went up to spend the week with one of my favorites of all time, my best friend Stacy. I had to discribe her in spanish to my family and they consider her part of my family, which is really sweet. Anyways: I was up in Bellingham for 5 days where I hung out, made some dinner, took a tour of bellingham and Western Washington University, went to an Elementary Edu Music Class and did a dance to GhostBusters, played some games and went across yet another border into Canada to go dancing. (side note: when we drove up to the border ALL of the inspectors, yes I said ALL, are sitting in ONE booth chewing the fat. Now, coming from the US-Mexico border this was a sight! It was so much easier crossing that border than it ever would be crossing the Mexican-US border. It was very interesting and really neat to cross the two borders of our country and see the difference.) I had a blast and I found it hard to come back. After being gone for so long 5 days just wasn't enough and I have made up my mind to move back after I graduate next year and go to Grad. School at WSU, a place I have always wanted to go... hopefully! But we still have a few years... I came home on the weekend and spent the time with my cousin, Nora, Bill and Mike who live here in Tucson. We bought 2 bunnies!!! Trick and Buttons, both boys and the cutest of cute. It was a nice time to relax after a fun week. Monday morning, I was part of the demonstration march against the Anti-Immigration provisions that are going on in DC. We made signs, yelled out the chants, and walked for a couple hours with about 15000 people along side. It was AMAZING! It was so cool to see so many people united. They closed down the schools and so many kids were up against their fence talking, taking pictures, and wanting to come out. Some teachers were on the roof watching all of us go by. It was such a humbling and amazing experience I have ever had in my life. After Seattle I went back to my family in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. It was hard to come back just because I really wanted more time with my friends and I ended up getting sick a little bit with migranes due to not drinking enough water. Fortunately, I got better quickly and soon got back into the hang of things. The two weeks that were in Nogales went by so quickly, as did this whole semester! The week we returned was Holy Week and a week that NO ONE works from Thursday through Sunday or goes to school for the entire week. It was a difficult thing to handle with classes and being jellous of my sister who had no school but as usual it went by quickly. Thursday I went to Church with my family, and not being Catholic and understanding some Spanish it was more difficult for me to understand what was going on. Thankfully, Lauren (a catholic and really good at spanish) was there to help me out. Friday, NO ONE has ANYTHING. We got out of class, which was CULTURE OF THE BORDER to go actually experience the culture by walking from Downtown Nogales to the Church watching the demonstration of Jesus dying on the cross, they call it "vera crucis". It was pritty cool. Some guy did ask if I was European but he was just werid. That night my family went over to a friends house who cooked us this awesome fish that the son had caught in AZ. The family was so nice and loved to talk, so I just listened for most of the night. There was that one awkward moment when they tried to set me up with their son b/c niehter of us had a boyfriend/girlfriend. I told them I was focusing on my school and they responded with, he is a school teacher. He was cute and can cook a mean fish but that was just awkward and looking back it is just plan funny. Saturday, we went to Lake Patagonia in AZ for the day. It was a nice time to relax and get away from the craziness of the semester ending. I went on a hike, swam in FREEZING water, played some frisbee... it was a great time. Mass was at 9pm and was the Easter Message and Sunday was a day that my family went with my brother-in-laws family out to the country and had a BBQ with carne asada, sabollos, chile, radishes, pollo, muchas muchas cosas!! It was so good! We played a game of soccer and baseball and just hung out talking. I had such a good time! No dying eggs or Easter Bunny here... Good Friday has more of an emphasis that Easter Sunday does. I'm not really sure why, I think it is b/c they look at the crucifix and his death more but I really have no idea. The week after Holy Week, my sister still had no school and I was just getting up, taking a shower, eatting breakfast, going to school, classes, tutoring, come home, eat dinner, homework.... blah blah blah.. .the same stuff as usual. Thursday was our good-bye dinner. It was a really good time. We had dancing ( I learned the Cumbia!!) singing, lots of food, pictures, laughter and UNDERSTANDING!!! yay!! After the party some went out to paint the town red on their last night in Mexico, but I really wanted to spend it with my family. I had just started to communicate with them and understand and actually hold a conversation without a lot of "como?s and mande?s" which was exciting. And I had some gifts that I wanted to give them. And they had each written letters to me and the awesome thing is, I understood them. Which is a nice circle from the first letter which gave me anxiety to these 5 letters that made me not want to leave. I really want to go back as soon as I can....maybe with family. Who knows... We leave for our last travel seminar tomorrow afternoon. We go for a week to a different part of the border then back in Tucson for 2 weeks then I am off. I turn 21 in less than 2 weeks!! yay!! I can't wait!! Part of me does want to be home, I can see myself getting to the end and I just want the end to come but it will come soon enough. Haley left today. :( She has a lot to do for her Sr. Project on May 2. I am really excited to go see it, it is about Women on the Border and How They Have Affected Change. She did some awesome interviews so I am excited to see the final presentation. I have also come to realize that I don't want to be part of the "white society" that I have identified with for so much of my life and that I actually want to embrase my Latina side in me. I've started talking with my dad in spanish and as I was in Mexico I went by my middle name, Alina, and I really like it. I want it to stick. It def. is a work in progress but who isn't? Well, I need to get some sleep but hope you enjoyed this very long synopsis of my life the past few weeks... I know it is just so exciting! Until Next Time...
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Early Bird Oh, if you're a bird, be an early birdAnd catch the worm for your breakfast plate. If you're a bird, be an early early bird- But if you're a worm, sleep late. Hug O' WarI will not play at tug o' war I'd rather play at hug o' war Where everyone hugs Instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles And rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, And everyone grins, And everyone cuddles, And everyone wins.
