04 January 2007

Ginger heads have no soul

Wow, living in Mexico City is so completely frustrating. Everything is different here. No one uses a vacuum, so finding one at any store (even Walmart) is impossible. We went to 4 stores today and came up fruitless. Everyone is curious about the weda pelirroja and they all assume that I don't speak a word of Spanish. Today in Vips (the Mexican Denny's), after ordering my own food...in Spanish...the waitress came back over and asked "no hablas ni una palabra de español, verdad?"...surprised I responded "Yo? Si....Claro que si!!"

We bought cleaning supplies for the house today, gross. In place of vacuums, people use brooms and a towel that they wrap around the end of a stick in order to use as a mop....I can't stand this way of cleaning. Mops make me feel sick to the stomach; they stink and they just redistribute the dirt from the bucket of water you soak them in....it's like taking a bath, you're just marinading yourself in your own filth! When we were checking out at Walmart (hell for us UCSC kids...but honestly, I don't know where to buy anything here yet, so it's going to have to suffice until I get better oriented), I paid with my Washington Mutual card. The cashier stared at it, showed it to the bagger and said "Mira, es una tarjeta de Washington" -- Look, it's a card from Washington...that cashier's ignorance of the US made my day.

Our firt major purchase....a stove/oven. It's really small and really cute. There are four burners and a tiny oven. Sadly, we don't have gas yet, so it's useless. We built a closet and stained it a dark mapley type color. It's turning out nicely. For some reason, the people here get paint on everything....there's paint on the windows, in the sinks, on the tiled floors, on the toilet seats....I tried removing it with Thinner and it doesn't work. The walls aren't straight, the doors are made of metal, and you have to use a key to unlock AND lock it. (sorry for this next comment, boys)....The tampon section in the stores is SMALL and a pack of 8 costs as much as a pack of 18 in the US...women here don't use them.

We don't have internet or cable or phone and so getting online is going to be a challenge for the next couple of months (unless Toño gets a job) but luckily the internet cafes are CHEAP...around 15 pesos (about $1.20) per hour!!! As soon as we aren't running around like chickens with our heads chopped off to fix up the house, I'll be able to update more often.

I'm reading an anthology now that Steph gave me. It's a compilation of short stories inspired by Mexico. It starts in the 1800s and ends in the present....There were so many parts that made me laugh because it's exactly the same....I'll publish an excerpt next time.

Thank you all for the amazing comments. It's so good to hear from you all. I miss you.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I just wanted to say that I'm reading your entries, even if I'm not posting comments, and enjoying every single one of them! Sorry to hear that you can't find a vacuum cleaner anywhere! oy. I should visit you one day! I haven't been to Mexico.. well, except for TJ, but that hardly counts.

appalachian_music said...

Meija, Change the colors so there is more contrast and reading will be easier.

shortnbitter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
shortnbitter said...

AMG ASHLEY; Today was tutor training day. I AM SO FULL OF RAGE!!!!!!!! Just like your entry. You so funny when you describe the cashier's ignorance n such. 16 dollars an hour beetches!!!!!!!

yo what is translation for this part of urblog:
no hablas ni una palabra de español, verdad?" ("u dont speak a word of spanish, yeah?")...surprised I responded "Yo? Si....Claro que si!!"
(i dunno the last part) but i feel that if i did it would be funny ?

OMG TAMPONS ? EWWWWWWWWW GIRL STUFF GROSS!!!!!!! Lol wow how old do u think i am; i dont need a vagina to understand rage at outrageous tampon prices.

Anyway it sounds like ur havin lotsa fun and challenging times getting use to Mexico, like everything bein' new n such. I can imagine the day when it's all totally familiar to u and u wont think of Vip has the Mexi Denny's n things liek that. Then I truly will be lost reading ur blogs XD;;

btw mark is the professor im tutoring for for writing20. I talked to him about u and he was all like "yeah ashley had good perspectives n crap" and i was like "werd." i asked him if he checked ur blog and he said he heard u mention it but hadnt checked it out yet; who knows maybe ur ex-professor gonna blog-troll u!!!!!

What knd of music do u listen to ashley ? if u like rock i foudn this new UK band called "the rasmus" u should check them out sometime on myspace or something in an internet cafe or w/e

btw its not ginger heads that have no souls, just u. xP

peaceout

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