I'm in Mexico!

So I'm in Tehuacan and there are no signs of swine flu, except the occasional mexican walking around with a face mask on. Everyone keeps saying that the city is pretty small and easy to navigate, but after 4 days of trying to learn the streets, I still don't really get it. Here are a few highlights:

My host family is great. My mom, Norma, wants me to call her "madre", and already has said that she doesn't want me to leave in August. She's really funny. The dad's name is Douglas, just like my real father, but he lives in a different city, Puebla, and has only been there a couple times. My host sister, Zaire (not like the country, but like Zeye-ray), takes English classes, so between her English and my Spanish, we communicate really well and have a good time. And I have a 10-year-old brother...I think his name is Stuart, or Estuard. He's cute, but says he doesn't like me because I'm going to be leaving so soon. They are so generous to me and ready to do whatever I want to feel comfortable. The hardest thing so far has been convincing them that I don't need to eat a huge meal three times a day.

Though the family is great, that is really the only redeeming quality for the house I live in. There are other houses in the neighborhood that are brightly colored, cute Mexican looking houses, with gates and clean yards. Mine is gray and run down, way back in a corner, with a bunch of junk in the yard. I share my room with bags and boxes full of junk that they keep saying they are going to sell. I'm kind of afraid to see what is under and behind it all, though. My bed must be comfortable, because I sleep really well, surprisingly. There is a bathroom with a broken toilet and a broken shower and a million and a half spiders and one dead cockroach. Bucket showers are actually enjoyable. They boil some water for me in a big pot and fill the rest up with normal water, which isn't that cold. The toilet, though, is kind of gross. I noticed that they cleaned it yesterday, and I think Norma was trying to tell me that she got it fixed (after I told her that my Dad wanted to pay for them to have it fixed), but I'm pretty sure it still doesn't work. So we do our business, then pour water in the bowl. The more you pour, the faster the dirty water disappears. Outside the bathroom, and across from my room, there is a dirty little sink and a tiny mirror. Next to the sink, there is this really scary doll, also covered in dirt, with creepy eyes. It's pretty weird. I've been afraid to look in the kitchen...and for good reason.

since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis



e.e. cummings