Well, look what the cold brought in....

Currently the yahoo weather says it is 74 degrees, but I don´t believe it. Could it be that I have just adapted to such hot weather that 74 degrees feels cold to me? What kind of person wears a corderoy jacket and suede boots for just 74 degrees!!???

A cold front has come to Tuxtla and is here to stay a few days, meaning that temperatures yesterday got as low as 50 degrees! Y´know, this is not so cold, but when it is this temperature in the US we have heaters and hot water. I was simply not equipped for it. I had to take freezing cold showers in 50 degree weather, and with my one measely blanket and multiple layers of clothing I curled up in a ball all night. Tuxtlecos (people from here) are not used to this weather, me included, and everyone is busting out the sweaters as if it were Christmas and drinking hot chocolate and coffee.

The cold came in at 4 AM with thunder unaccompanied by rain and so loud that it was incomprehensible to my half-sleeping mind. Some of the thunder lasted, I swear to you, 7 seconds and shook the house, inspired car alarms and howling dogs everywhere, and had me quite convinced that I was amidst the beginnings of the apocalypse. One of my students, shocked, said he got up and put his tshirt over his mirror in an effort to repel the thunder (apparently there is a superstition here that mirrors attract thunder and lightning).

Anyway, the cold has come and with it has brought for me happy and nostalgic thoughts of autumn, halloween, pumpkin deserts, and just the overall excitement surrounding the three months of the United States marathon of holidays: halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, and new years. With this nostalgia I have been experiencing a lot of culture shock and confusion. I´m in a rather serious relationship with a boy who happens to be from mexico, and to continue together might mean that I stay here, which is fun and an adventure for me.

On the other hand, this makes me think of what traditions and customs are important to me, and if I really want to live in another country, or if I am just here for a visit. I have found myself more than other times negatively comparing everything to the US; ¨you can´t take your dog to public parks, thats absurd!¨ ¨Public transportation is so much better in the US, shopping in the malls is so much better in the US, the schools are so much better in the US, parks and libraries are so much better in the US, healthy food is so much more available in the US¨....and I am aware with each that they are ethnocentric thoughts, and that everyone living in another country has them naturally, but it makes it difficult to live happily in the moment, enjoying what I have here right now. Of course, I hardly say anything aloud and I constantly tell myself I am being judgemental and pessimistic, but that doesn´t make the little buggers go away.

I find myself comparing halloween here to halloween there; of course it´s better in the US, that´s where it´s from. Of COURSE fall is better in the US; it doesn´t exist here. Of COURSE Christmas is better in the US; the entire idea we have of the perfect Christmas was created by hollywood and television, was it not? When I asked Edwin if he missed how they celebrate Christmas in Mexico when he spent his in Kentucky, he said, ´no way! I was happy! I was celebrating Christmas how it should be- how it is in the movies, with cold and snow.' We spent time talking about how most of the world has a hot climate and doesnt celebrate Christmas even, let alone thanksgiving, halloween, and many other holidays that have always been part of my life.

Still that doesn´t make me miss them any less.

I want to spend more time focusing on what is interesting and better here and spend less time thinking about what I´m missing at home, but that´s always easier to do in retrospect, I think.

Ahh, thanks for listening, that´s been on my mind too much.