What a bright and sunny day :) Hate to rub it in. Looking at the week's forecast we have all sun with temperatures of 91, 93, 91, 97, 99, 97. YIKES!! My parents sent me a few pictures of all the snow at home, and my host mom and I sat here laughing. Today I reflected on the idea that I actually forget not everyone is experiencing summer weather. I catch myself at random times throughout the day! Then I sometimes forget I'm in a different country. No, not everyone walks past fruit vendors and tropical flowers on their way to school. No, not everyone is listening to Spanish all day long and eating Yucatecan specalities. No, not everyone gets to go to a traditional Mexican market for a field trip (tomorrow with my Spanish class :)). And no, not everyone gets to discuss how to make tortilla chips using the sun's heat with their host mom at dinner. I have a good deal here!
You know you're in paradise when the biggest stressor of my day was figuring out what I was going to do with all my free time! I finished my homework between classes, so after lunch the day was mine! I explored my neighborhood a little, went to our ice cream place with Katelynn (we decided we're going to make it a Monday tradition, in hopes that the workers will get to know us. Everyone wants to be a regular somewhere... Why not an ice cream shop?), and then spent the rest of the evening at home! A great time just hanging out with my mom while she was cooking and talking about everything from the plays she was in during high school to the different regional fruits they have here!
Tonight our (okay, really they're Patricia's... but I act like I'm just one of the family now) host students from Canada arrived. Didn't get to talk with them much because they're tired after a long day of traveling. Patricia had it right that they're young, and from Canada... but there some misunderstanding, because they're not girls like she had been told. Poor guys, I don't think they understood a thing my mom was telling them when she showed them around! After she showed them to their room, she shut their door, came into my room and we both started laughing a little... this could be a fun and interesting week!
My cultural comment for the day: Car washes. I don't know what the craze is all about, but people love to get car washes here. There are a few in the area and they are always packed!! There's one I walk by on the way to school. I usually walk by around 8:15, and I'm guessing the place opens at 8:30. All I know is it's not a rare occasion to have a line of 6+ cars waiting in the street to pull in and have their car washed! This is unusual to me. They don't have the salt and slush from winter all over their cars? Granted in the States we get car washes in the Summer - but still, these different businesses are bustling with activity! Just a little observation I had!
In our Mexican culture class today we talked about health care. An interesting topic in any country, but I learned a lot about Mexico I didn't know before! Take a look at a few pieces of my new knowledge! 1) If one person in a family is formally employed, they can bring their WHOLE family under their insurance (including parents, grandparents, siblings). 2) The government is allowing families in certain regions to receive health care if their children stay in school beyond the mandatory years. 3) 2% of the population has private insurance 4) Diabetes is a HUGE issue here... Mexico is the 3rd highest consumer of soft drinks. Corn metabolizes into sugar as well, which makes up a large part of the Mexican diet.
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