Coming Home

"There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:"

Well I was going to do a little journaling about my return to Oaxaca, Mexico after a year and a half in the US, but then I thought to myself that others might want to read this as well, thus here we go, my first blog.

It is so great to be back in Mexico again: From the food, to the friends and family, to the relaxed way of life, to the futbol, to the mountains, to the weather, to the food again, and on into oblivion as each aspect of life here seems more vibrant after having been away from it for so long.

It's been great to see people I haven't seen in forever, but also to see a side of myself that I haven't seen in forever. It seems as if to a certain extent, there are parts of who I am that will never be seen except in this city, my home. I guess to a certain extent this happens with all of us, we all have environments in which we act in a certain way especially if that environment is one in which you are completely comfortable.

Mexico is both exactly how I left it, but also extremely different than I remember. After being gone for so long you forget about some of the inconveniences of life here, but you also forget about many of the hidden gems of life in a different country. For example, the heat. It's so hot here compared to my winter at Wheaton. On the plus side tho, the heat means I can jump in my pool any time of day and it is refreshing and cool but never cold. Another thing I forgot about is how many people stare at me simply because I am not latino and look very different. Or else maybe I just continually have leaves in my hair, and people are really only looking at me because I look like an idiot. Another thing is how much dust and dirt there is everywhere. Although now that it has rained a few times, that is a lot better. Its interesting that other aspects of general uncleanliness don't seem to disturb me as much as just the dirt. Like the fact that there is tons of graffiti everywhere is slightly comforting, and the moths and junebugs flying around my room at night give a comforting hum, while the termites and ants are kind of fun to squish, and the cockroaches are the funnest of all to kill.

Also advertisements. I got on the plane in Chicago and it was a flight operated by Mexicana, one of the primary Mexican airlines, so obviously their in-flight magazines were in Spanish and tuned towards Mexican readers. Well as I looked through it I came across ad after ad which I looked at and commented to myself, "Hmm, thats a really attractive ad", or "Wow, this looks really nice", or "I want that." Either way it seemed abnormal because usually in the US I find advertisements either stupid or just funny, very rarely do they look like they are promoting a product in a way that hits me as attractive and compelling. What this means, I have no clue; perhaps it just reveals the different advertisement strategies used by different cultures. Perhaps it shows that because of my childhood in Mexico I am predisposed to being attracted to Ads tuned towards Mexicans. I don't know. Either way tho, it certainly was interesting.

Well, thats enough of my thoughts for now, I am off to explore one of the mountains around Oaxaca Valley to see if I can camp out there some night.