Four Month Assessment
I hopped on that plane four months and one day ago.
It feels like I've been here a week. It feels like this week has been a holiday - a holiday which is about to end when I hop on a plane this coming Friday for what is technically a nine day holiday during which I will pack up my apartment in Toronto in order to stay here longer but which feels very much like a pulsing treacherous black hole of rationality from which I may never return.
In four months, I have:
* climbed the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan (the Sun Pyramid - the bigger one - was peaked last year during my first visit to the country).
* eaten more street food than anyone with a bit of common sense would recommend.
* polished my Spanish from that of a 18 month old to that of a three year old.
* ...a three year old who knows some awfully bad words.
* gotten myself embroiled in three different relationships with three different men: one in which I ran away from in a matter of days, one in which I ran away from in a matter of weeks, and one in which we both know we will both run away from some time in the definite future.
* fallen madly and deeply in adolescent puppy love with a luchadore (a Mexican wrestler) named Black Warrior who entertains himself between bouts by tossing the league's mascot - a little person dressed as a Smurf-blue monkeyman - at the audience.
* gone from a self-conscious, blundering TEFL teacher to the teacher with the highest feedback scores in the school.
* realized I don't hugely want to be a TEFL teacher anymore, but, as it turns out, actually DO need a career-type job to be happy.
* learned that white can be right and very very wrong all at the same time (there's a post on that in the works, I promise).
* discovered the joy of lime juice and chile on almost every kind of fruit you can imagine (no, seriously... it's AMAZING).
* started surveying Aztec archaeological sites with a jaded eye.
* gotten the idea that international relations, likely within the realm of communications and public affairs, would be a very satisfying future direction for me, and have already been in contact with the Embassy regarding alleged possibilities.
* learned why we pronounce "learned" as /lernd/ and "asked" as /askt/.
* been unable to drop my periodic bouts of self-victimization, although I grow increasingly frustrated with them.
* been invited to write for Inside Mexico, an English language magazine published here in the city, although the deadline for my first article is about to pass and I am having no luck finding the owner of a "dream house" for sale who will call me back for an interview.
* known many many moments of perfect happiness, several moments of sorrow, a handful of moments of fear, and barely any moments of boredom.
Four Month Assessment: Extremely positive, but requiring forward momentum (and some sucking it up) in order to remain positive for the future.
I am sorry for neglecting my blog. Blame it on not spending much time in front of the computer (compared to in Canada, Pavel, compared to in Canada) and being too mentally tired (I go to bed before 9 more than a couple times a week) to form complete sentences. But I do have several post that I scrawled by hand in my notebook whilst munching on cucumber/lime/chile or watermelon/lime/chile, and I will - I will - type them up soon. No, seriously. I will. I WILL! Stop laughing! I'm serious!
I miss you all.
It feels like I've been here a week. It feels like this week has been a holiday - a holiday which is about to end when I hop on a plane this coming Friday for what is technically a nine day holiday during which I will pack up my apartment in Toronto in order to stay here longer but which feels very much like a pulsing treacherous black hole of rationality from which I may never return.
In four months, I have:
* climbed the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan (the Sun Pyramid - the bigger one - was peaked last year during my first visit to the country).
* eaten more street food than anyone with a bit of common sense would recommend.
* polished my Spanish from that of a 18 month old to that of a three year old.
* ...a three year old who knows some awfully bad words.
* gotten myself embroiled in three different relationships with three different men: one in which I ran away from in a matter of days, one in which I ran away from in a matter of weeks, and one in which we both know we will both run away from some time in the definite future.
* fallen madly and deeply in adolescent puppy love with a luchadore (a Mexican wrestler) named Black Warrior who entertains himself between bouts by tossing the league's mascot - a little person dressed as a Smurf-blue monkeyman - at the audience.
* gone from a self-conscious, blundering TEFL teacher to the teacher with the highest feedback scores in the school.
* realized I don't hugely want to be a TEFL teacher anymore, but, as it turns out, actually DO need a career-type job to be happy.
* learned that white can be right and very very wrong all at the same time (there's a post on that in the works, I promise).
* discovered the joy of lime juice and chile on almost every kind of fruit you can imagine (no, seriously... it's AMAZING).
* started surveying Aztec archaeological sites with a jaded eye.
* gotten the idea that international relations, likely within the realm of communications and public affairs, would be a very satisfying future direction for me, and have already been in contact with the Embassy regarding alleged possibilities.
* learned why we pronounce "learned" as /lernd/ and "asked" as /askt/.
* been unable to drop my periodic bouts of self-victimization, although I grow increasingly frustrated with them.
* been invited to write for Inside Mexico, an English language magazine published here in the city, although the deadline for my first article is about to pass and I am having no luck finding the owner of a "dream house" for sale who will call me back for an interview.
* known many many moments of perfect happiness, several moments of sorrow, a handful of moments of fear, and barely any moments of boredom.
Four Month Assessment: Extremely positive, but requiring forward momentum (and some sucking it up) in order to remain positive for the future.
I am sorry for neglecting my blog. Blame it on not spending much time in front of the computer (compared to in Canada, Pavel, compared to in Canada) and being too mentally tired (I go to bed before 9 more than a couple times a week) to form complete sentences. But I do have several post that I scrawled by hand in my notebook whilst munching on cucumber/lime/chile or watermelon/lime/chile, and I will - I will - type them up soon. No, seriously. I will. I WILL! Stop laughing! I'm serious!
I miss you all.
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