Monthly Archives: May 2015

I’m going to prelude this blog post by saying I’m feeling a million things at once. Sadness, excitement, fear, fatigue etc. etc. I will sum up my feelings by naming them multi-moon. Also, there are many photos of my own face here. So yeah. ENJOY

Rewind to ten months ago, when I was getting ready to head to Mexico— a country I knew little about (although everyone seemed to have an opinion about it). I was kind of scared.  I waved goodbye to my mom at the airport after enjoying my final bubble tea I would have for a while, and wondered if it would be difficult to adapt to this new environment I was heading into: Everyone speaking spanish. No bubble tea. That’s about as much as I knew. I literally had no idea what to expect, and knew nobody. I was an adventure-woman, heading head first into a sea of unknown! Wow!

But right from the time I was greeted at the Mexico City airport by a Japanese/Mexican family who were friends of friends to this point of getting ready to head to the airport tonight (HOLY.SHIT.) it has flown by. Literally fastest 10 months of my life. How am I going to leave the life that I’ve built here?

I’m having these moments of looking around and thinking to myself, “man, I am going to miss this”. Whether it’s just walking back to my apartment from school, or discussing slang with Mexicans over pulque. The other day I saw a pretty common Mexican sight: a bored looking guy on his phone, selling tamales on the side of the road with his bike-cart-contraption. It was simple, and the dude looked pretty bored but  I kind of choked up. Even when I go out I just think “there are so many Mexican around me right now. I’m going to miss being surrounded by Mexicans”.

At the same time though, I feel a slight readyness to go home. Even as I type those words, I get a knot in my stomach. I think wait, am I ready to go home? I think it’s better explained as a weird sense of fatigue. Being here for a set amount of time, and with Mexico being a country with so much to do and see, I always feel this constant need to go go go. To travel to the famous places I haven’t been yet, to go out and have a night out, to spend as much time soaking everything up. I love it, I love it so but oof, I feel like I might be crashing.It’s really been a wonderful year of go go gooooooooo, and now I guess some rest is needed (for just A LITTLE mom!)

Nonetheless, once I get home I know it’s going to be the things that don’t exist at home yet are common and normal here that I’m going to miss a lot. To be honest…I’m scared. I’m scared because I’ve had so much fun this year, and I don’t know if that’s going to happen again. When something is good, I want it to last forever (typical youngest child). But that’s not how life works is it? We got to keep moving, and to keep finding out happiness. It’s that cheesy line of:

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened

It’s so cheesy, but it’s so true. I’m grateful to have experienced such a rich and fascinating culture, and to have met so many people from all over the world. Everyday was like this new adventure, with something awesome to be discovered around the corner. That’s the most exciting thing ever don’t you think? 

So anyways, I guess this is goodbye for now Mexico. You opened your arms to me and I’ll never forget all the amazing experiences I had with you. You’ve made me more curious about the world, and I feel more prepared to take on the world after living here with you. I’m going to miss you and your bright, colourful, full-of-life attitude.

Love forever,

Saki

 

 

As my time here comes to a close, last week I took a final trip with my Danish friend Camilla. Guanajuato is a beautiful town located only two hours away, and we spent one night there. The town is unique because it is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. What makes the place unique is that it was a city first build on the mining boom without any city planning at all. So, there are absolutely no straight streets, and many small mysterious and charming alleyways, curving streets, and hidden side streets that lead to nowhere. The city is also known for it’s arts! Every fall, the city hosts the Cervantino Festival—a couple weekends of lots of arts and theatre and drama. Very nice. They also have a high student population, so we ran into a lot of hip young coffee shops and stores.  Here are the photos 🙂

As somebody who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there is little exposure to Mexican culture in comparison to southern parts of the United States, before I came to Mexico I knew nothing about Lady Guadalupe. Like, I didn’t even know that she existed. Well, I soon found out that  she is one of the most iconic figures in Mexico. She is a large part of the culture here, since according to Wikipedia (sorry ubc profs), 80% of the country actually identifies as Catholic.

Kind of quick of history about her: So basically according the the Catholics,  on December 9, 1531, an Indigenous dude named  Juan Diego (let’s be real that wasn’t his actual name that was a spanish name) saw a vision of  the Lady G on the Hill of Tepeyac (today a suburb of Mexico City). She spoke to him in Nahuatl (the language of the Aztec empire), and identified herself as the Virgin Mary. And then, she was like

“Son, build a church for me! Or in my honour or something like this…ANYWAYS, so Juan’s like yeah for sheezy lady, and runs to tell the archbishop of Mexico City what was up. The archbishop has his doubts (fair enough archbishop, people be crazy) so tells Juan to go ask the lady for a miracle to prove herself. But anyways, she does prove herself. She first heals Juan’s uncle, and then convinces Juan to go get a bunch of flowers from the top of this Hill of Tepeyac, which was normally this barren desert area, especially in December. And I bet you can guess what happened. HE FINDS SOME FLORES. So then the Lady G puts the flowers in Juan’s cloak and Juan runs back to the archbishop and dumps the flowers infront of the guy. Boom. Also, on the fabric of the cloak there was was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. They build the church where she appeared, and today is  the most visited Catholic pilgrimage sight in the world! And! you can see Juan’s cloak in the basilica still!

But there has been a lot of scholarly debate as how possible this really is, or if it actually happened. Conveniently enough, the Lady Guadalupe, with her darker skin and speaking the local language of the time was a great tool of colonization. The Spanish had destroyed the temple of the mother goddess Tonantzin where this Lady G Church was built, and converted Natives would still address the Lady G as Tonantzin. But nonetheless, she still is a huge part of the imagery of Mexican culture here.

I kind of like it. You can find her image, her statue, or shrines to her everywhere you go. On the street, in houses, in schools. I’ve even seen a gigantic version of her on the side of the mountain in the Sierra Gorda even. On the street, you see people pass by her at randomly made shrines and cross themselves. Also people in their cars will cross themselves.

Over the course of my time here, I have become slightly obsessed with her and I can’t really figure out why. Obsessed like, I take pictures of her wherever I see her, I have her as my background picture on my cellphone, and my friends bought me a Lady Guadalupe CD as a gift. What?

SO WHY DID I CONSIDER GETTING A TATTOO OF HER ON MY BODY FOREVER?! (chill mom, I didn’t, finally). I don’t know. She’s so reliably mexican maybe? Because she’s literally everywhere, and she’s still very important. So on one hand, I think she’s beautiful, and I could stare at photos of her in churches for a long time. But…but…knowing her history? Knowing how she has been used, and is being used? Who knows. Inconclusive conclusion.

 

One of the things I will miss most about Querétaro is walking around the downtown area at night. It’s beautiful with all it’s old buildings, twinkling lights, nighttime mass, and how there’s always something going on in the multiple plazas that dot the downtown. If you don’t like the entertainment, there’s people watching, as Mexicans love to relax and hangout in the public areas in the evenings and on the weekend.

Here’s a video that showcases nightfall in the city 🙂

 

So I cried at school yesterday. It was kind of embarrassing. But generally, it’s always just funny looking back on times when you cry at school, it feels so dramatic.

So why was I crying? I was mad. Okay and slightly disappointed if we’re being honest. I was mad at Tec. I was mad at Tec because they have this stupid reputation to uphold. And because it’s such an obvious place for Mexico’s elite and rich (the tuition here is almost double that of UBC). I could go on with examples but I’ve thought about this bitterness I have against rich students here –because a lot of them are still really great people! Is it unfair to judge a person just based on the fact that they’re wealthy? Yes. But again, discussion for another blog post.

Last week, I was asked to write a speech (in spanish!) for the closing ceremony of the international students. I went to the ceremony last semester and it’s like this formal kind of boring event where they give completion diplomas and stuff like that.

Anyways, the speech. I was told specifically by admin to “not include any negative experiences you’ve had here, only the good things”. To be honest I thought that was a bunch of bullshit because that wouldn’t be my actual experience here. I was told they really wanted me to do it (not because of my spanish skills mind you haha—). However, they had some other options of people just in case. Eh. I was going to write and give a great fucking speech.

So I worked really hard on the speech. My literature/spanish prof helped me translate it. A speech that mentioned some amazing things I love about Mexico, but also some other stuff: Ayotzinapa, Tlatelolco 68′, and how I didn’t like being whistled at and called chinita (little chinese girl) on the street. Oh yeah and one small joke about Tec….

And guess what! After I sent in my speech I was told….nope. They gave it to some other french dude. A dude with a nice positive speech about Mexico (my prof read it).

So why am I pissed? It’s just a speech Saki. They told you at the beginning they might give it to someone else if they didn’t like it. Let me tell you why I’m pissed:

A) Tec is a university, and an institution of ‘higher’ learning that should encourage critical thinking, new ideas, and open discussions. Rather, they cut me off because I wasn’t all rainbows and bricks of gold coming out of my butt.

B) I wanted Tec to hear that there are those of us who are interested in real Mexican issues.

C) It’s important, especially as foreigners, to see past just the beautiful beaches and getting drunk on tequila. It’s important hear names like Ayotzinapa, and Tlatelolco, and to incorporate that into your idea as Mexico as well.  I wanted people, especially foreigners, to hear the names—Say that it’s just important to know about these things is as important to rid the image of Mexico as being just violence and corruption.

D)  I wanted people to know that as visitors we are privileged. That as students in Tec we are privileged. And also that if you have a penis in this country, your life here is a lot easier than that of a woman.

E) I  just wanted to give some real talk.  or I WANTED TO HEAR SOME FUCKING REAL TALK IN A RICH PRIVATE INSTITUTION THAT FEEDS US WITH TEC PROPAGANDA.

F) Also I put a lot of work into that speech, and I was really excited to give it in spanish. To practice and you know, kill it!

Obviously, me talking for five minutes infront of a crowd, while also trying to make them laugh, would not have accomplished these things. But I’d like to think it was a start. Now it’s just another white dude going on about the wonderful amazing time we had in Mexico.

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