All Things Mexican & Lessons Learned

All Things Mexican:
*Telenovelas- Ay, ay, ay!
*Chiles go with everything...and tortillas and salsa and cream
*Little boys who fall asleep on some lady they don't know on the bus
*Every bus (but one so far) has a mini shrine of their Catholic faith inside
*Yellow flower crosses on doors and taxis for the day of San Miguel
*Throwing used toilet paper in the garbage, don't forget or you'll be sorry
*A man playing worship on his guitar with strength on the bus and expecting pesos from everyonem then some kid playing dirty American rap Eminem style afterwards
*Tropical birds and their amazing sounds
*How people are always obliged to move from their bus seat for a child or elderly person
*Getting pooped on by a bird in the centro (reminiscent of my days in Tepic when a ginormous tree creature pooed half its body weight all over me on a jungle boat ride)*Extraordinarily large spiders with webs of crazy proportion
*Lizards living in your house and not minding cause they eat the bugs
*Line drying all your clothes cause who owns a dryer?
*Family is of huge importance
   
Lessons Learned:
*Don't speak English loudly on the bus
*People stand sideways on the bus for a reason...much better to brace oneself when the bus frequently jerks to a start or stop
*Dress in layers because the mornings are cool, the afternoons are hot, and the classrooms are freezing
*Always turn on the light in the pool before entering the water
*Just because someone is "reading" a book in English doesn't mean they can speak it
*Bring hand sanitizer all places just in case
*Maintain a substantial amount of bus change with you at all times so you don't have to give them 10X's more than they need...bus drivers get cranky sometimes!
*People are more than happy to help if you ask and sometimes if you don't (my bus went a different way the other day and I thought I was on a road to Guatemala and some sweet lady looked at the address I was going and helped me off at the appropriate stop, offering her cell phone so I could call the home I was going to. I think she thought I was an idiot, but I was not worried and just wanted to wait out the bus ride until I recognized things. Hmm.)
*Carry a stick or rock or rolled up newspaper on your walks through the streets...a dog bit me this morning and I scared the poo out of it (but it didn't poop on me, ha!) when I yelled, "Noooo! Bad dog!"

**Just for fun...one of my teachers told some silly things to me when I explained that my self-label is "Mexitalian" cause I am half-Mexican and half-Italian (ish). He said there are "Ice cubes" who are Icelandish/Cuban and "Jalapenos" who are Filipino/Polish. Haha!**