A Little Bit of Fun....

On Saturday night, Joe and I went to a party that was pretty close to our hotel.  It just so happens a girl he went to High School with has been living and teaching down here for the last 3 years.  It also just so happened to be both of their birthdays.... and St. Patty's Day. 

I was expecting there to be some English speaking people and the rest Spanish speaking.  This was not the case at all.  Everyone there spoke English.  They were mostly all teachers from an English speaking school.  While this doesn't help me in learning Spanish, it was nice to be able to communicate with everyone clearly.

The party was a great time.  There were so many cool, interesting people there from all walks of life; people from all over the US, Canada, England, Mexico, India, all ranging in age from 24-40. 

I spoke with this one gentlemen named Jim who has live in Mexico for the last 10 years.  He is originally from NYC.  We chatted for a while about sports and what not.  Which is the harder position to play; MLB pitcher or NFL QB??  I say QB.  He runs a sports program for under privileged kids here in Mexico.  We exchanged information and I am hopefully going to volunteer with his organization (if I have any time).  I really hope we can work something out.

This other girl I talked to was from Mexico but spoke very good English.  She is 27 and she was telling me about the culture here in Mexico.  She recently moved out of her parents house and they were not supportive at all.  Traditionally, a woman won't move out of her parents house until she is married.  She was explaining to me how her mom felt about the situation and that she is always trying to be very controlling.  However, with her brother, her parents let him get away with a lot more.  We learned about this type of treatment of women during our cultural class our first week.  Her and I chatted for a while.  She told me that even if she had no money to pay rent she would NEVER move back in with her parents.  She would rather live on the streets.  Being independent is very important to her.  I found it pretty fascinating.   

I spoke with a bunch of other people, everyone with a story of how and why they were in Mexico.  I love hearing people's stories.  It really makes me think about life.  It's not about getting from point A to point B, it's about the journey in between.  The highs, the lows, the dumb things you do that you learn from, all the experiences that make you who you are.  I think that is why I am in Mexico right now.  It's not every day you get the opportunity to live in another country and learn about the culture.  I enjoyed hearing about everyone I talked to last night.  It definitely has added to my experience thus far.