I am now in my third week of my "internship" living separate from all the other students with a 59 year old woman named Hortencia near a small town called Grecia. My internship is working in a bakery. I drive there with the owner, Yadira, 5 days a week, and "work" 4 or 5 hours. It's fine, not spectacular. The bakery is called Musmanni, it is a franchise, and so they receive all of their stuff frozen from San Jose and they just have to throw it in the oven. To mix things up, i sometimes work at the "libreria" (kind of like a hallmark store/copy center) next door, where the manager thinks I am the best worker in the world. Tomorrow and friday I'm actually helping Yadira and her sister, who runs a catering company make food for like 20 events they have this weekend. I might actually get to cook something and that's exciting!
It was super hard adjusting to the new environment, and Hortencia had to adjust too I think. My first week here I think I felt the most homesick I have felt this whole semester. In San Jose, I had more freedom, my mom never asked when i would be home or worried about me. Also, I felt really good about my Spanish in San Jose because I have had more classes than most and my 2 months in Mexico helped immensely. Also, my host family there has had experience with 11 other students, so they know how to communicate well with me. Here, i realize how far I have yet to go with my language and it's also frustrating because even just an hour away there are differences in how people use words to express things. I've really had to get rid of some pride since being here.
Tomorrow is thanksgiving, I am pretty sad I am missing it, but God is helping me to be content here. Tomorrow is also the three week mark before I reutrn to Iowa. I am so ready to go home, and it is so tempting to just emotionally and mentally check out from this whole experience, but I know I shouldnt do that.
Some cultural aspects that have been magnified here:
- lack of planning ahead. Sometimes Yadira will call the night before and say that she's not going to work tomorrow, or last weekend Hortencia and I went to Paquerra (on the coast) to visit her new granddaughter. We left the house without really knowing exactly where all the bus stations where or what time they left, and we didnt really have a plan for how we were going to get back either.
- obsession with american brands: practically every store in Grecia sells hollister and aeropostale clothes. Most of them are fake. When I walk down the street I can see from a mile away that someone is wearing a fake hollister shirt, but it's SO IMPORTANT to them. They will pay like $30 for a fake aeropostale t-shirt. I just really dont get it because those brands are not even that cool
-compulsive spending. On payday at the the musmanni, immediately after getting off work 2 of the employees went shopping at "la tienda de los chunches" or "the junk store" i went with them and they just bought some of the most random, ridiculous things, like light up snowmen to hang in the window. I also have seen this working in the libreria and going shopping with hortencia.
i just realized that all those things sound negative. I think that is human tendency, when things are different we view them as more negative. The truth is that there are many beautiful things about this culture, apart from the gorgeous landscape. The people are so loving and everyone wants to give me gifts. God is using me to bless Hortencia, (I say this with confidence becasue she told me so) because she doesnt like being alone in her house, and it also gives her more reason to visit her family so they can meet me/entertain me.
Hortencia is beckoning me to watch tv with her now, so I think i will leave my blog at that. Keep praying for me! I appreciate it so much.
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