Oh America

I guess I am naive. I forgot that strange men on the street are the same anywhere in the world....Bloomington may be an exception. Today I was walking in downtown Indy thinking how strange yet nice it was that no one was staring, honking or whistling at me when I made eye contact with two strange men. First they just talked about me to one another. Then they told me I looked nice. I said thank you. Then they asked if I wanted some Absolute. I politely declined.

Men are creepy. But funny!

Today I did a LOT of laundry so I have lots of clothes to wear. I also met up with two friends and chatted for awhile. Oh the summer is so interesting. I don't have to do anything else so maybe I will search for job prospects for when school starts or something more exciteng....like practice the salsa in the mirror in my room which was my other activity for the day...for about 2 hours. Yeah, I'm pretty dedicated.

I'm Home...Everyone Relax

Hey everyone,

I made it!
The last day in Cuernavaca was spent walking around the zocalo (after a VERY long night of partying with my Mexican friend and two other Americanos). At 4:00pm we said goodbye to Amaranta and Adam really captured the moment when he said as we were watching her walk away with her cute little backpack and hat, "There goes the coolest person in Mexico." I wanted to cry.

Amaranta had a big impact on me. There ARE feminists in Mexico and I need not assume things about every person in Mexico and say that stuff is just "cultural."

Anyway, after that Priscilla and I went home and slept. When the dentist came home at 9:00 Pris freaked out (cuz he's scary) and turned off the light, hopped into bed and pretended to be sleeping with her jeans on! Freako...

The next day, July 7th, we began our journey home at 9:30 am when we got a taxi. Ok, I still had trouble with spanish after 6 weeks and it was funny when he asked where we were going and I said "The United States." At which point he laughed and said he didn't have a passport for that and didn't think his car would take us there anyway. You see, I thought he already knew we were going to the bus stop and was just making conversation about our final destination. Oh well. Of course Priscilla laughed like a silly cow like when I yelled "BAJA" on the bus even though we were about to stop anyway.

Then, we got to the bus terminal and one of our members left his passport at home and they sent it IN A TAXI ALONE to the bus terminal. Miraculously, he was able to recieve it and jump on the bus as we were pulling out. That's a milagro.

Everything went great and after they searched through my dirty laundry for bombs and found none I was ready to go!

One hour and fifteen minutes later we were ready to land when the captain came on and said that due to the storm over Houston, we would have to wait around in Corpus Christy for awhile. Oh we waited....awhile...
We waited for five hours on that plane and couldn't get off because we were an international flight. The funny thing is, even though we were all very ready to leave, we stayed calm and generally laughed at the situation----that's what six weeks in a country where there are no cash machines, no one takes credit cards, there is no such thing as change for a 500 peso bill (~$50), women can't walk or ride in a taxi alone and the lights turn off for nearly every thunder storm, will do.

Then, we finally left and went through customs in Houston where I addressed the officer like an idiot, "hola buenas noches." idiota. then, she asked me if I had alcohol and I confessed because she had a gun. However, I worked that out by putting it in a friends bag and did the thing I knew I would do. I left it there and now it's in Fort Wayne. Pat James, that's your gift---a very fine bottle of Mexican Mexcal and by golly I will get it back.

We finally got home at 3:30am where my cutsie mom and boyfriend were waiting. It was great! Gosh he's a looker. Um.. so is she.
.....

3 days later I'm back at IU! woo hoo I love this place. Not only did the construction workers say nothing to me, one of them was a woman! (not that I really minded when they whistled at mein Mexico)Amazing. Also, Chris never locks his door. Amazing! Also, I asked 4 different questions at the grocery store because I could. I can communicate with people in the grocery store. Then, I baked a chicken and listened to Mos Def and John Lee Hooker. yummmy.

Okok, I'm going back to Indy this afternoon and we are going to take old state road 37 which should be beautiful. Tina, I can't post pictures here cuz I'm at school but I will try when I get back home.

I WAS robbed

OKOK so sorry for the confusion. I am now going to tell the story from beginning to end.

Ok, I was in a bar with three other gals and a guy came up who was ¨friends¨with the girl in the picture if you will scroll down a little to my original entry about how I was robbed (he´s also in the picture). She only knew him from talking to him in another bar on another night so we were a little wary anyway.

Ok, then we went to another bar to dance a little and we put our purses literally two feet away from us on a table underneath my jacket. That guy just sat there the whole time not dancing----this is not a normal mexican man thing to do but he´s Colombian so we didn´t really think so much of it. Then, he left.

Then, we left. Then, I picked up my purse to leave and noticed that it was left unzipped, something I don´t do. So... I searched and searched but couldn´t find my wallet but my camara was still there.

Then, I called my mom (um...it was 3:30 am but I knew I should try to get that card canceled asap and boy is she ever on the ball with stuff!).

Then, we went home. The funny thing is we got a ride with these two guys (and don´t freak out that they´re strangers because it´s the exact same thing as getting in the car with the taxi driver-except the boys we were with were obviously upper class and less likely to kidnapp us--also I told them that if they tried anything malo I would cut their throats.....maybe that´s why they never called us....:) ha ha). Anyway, when we got to the house they told us they were sixteen! Can you believe it! Then I wasn´t afraid at all....I just kept thinking god, they were 13 when I was 17!! ha ha that´s hilarious. Liz Harman would think that was the funnist thing ever...
( I wanted to put a picture up but the computer doesn´t want to)

Then, the next day I told everyone I was robbed and everyone felt sorry for me. Then, I was telling Chris on the phone that I was robbed and someone who worked with the foreign kids (that´s us) passed me and told me that the bar found a wallet in the bathroom. I ws sooo embarrased as you know and I told everyone the ¨truth.¨

THEN, I went to the bar to get it and the owner or waiter or whoever that guy was told me that they found it outside of the men´s bathroom window. And there you have it. That guy went into the bathroom with my wallet, took the cash (about $40) and threw it out of the window. Now I have all my stuff back (including my canceled debit card) but I have almost no money.

It´s okay though because I have experience counting pennies on trips----remember the Grand Canyon anyone????????

Umm... I wasn´t ROBBED or pick pocketed

Nope no I wasn´t. Turns out in this ¨scary Mexican town¨ I´m in the bar people call your school if you leave your wallet in the bathroom like an idiot. That´s just really embarassing. So sorry to everyone I either blamed or bothered in this incident. Especially you, mom! Now you can relax right?--- because not only did no one steal from me, the bar went way out of their way to make sure I get my stupid wallet back. We´ll see what´s left in it but....hey. Now I don´t have to replace my driver´s liscence hopefully. Gosh I feel really dumb but I knew I had to tell the truth even though it hurts. ouch.

I was robbed, but everything´s fine

I swear I´m careful, but I was robbed. Here´s the email I wrote to my lovely mom who helped me at 3:30 am when I called and asked her to cancel my debit card.

I´m definitely not letting this ruin my trip because it´s real hard to feel sorry for yourself when you see children desperately trying to sell a rose at 1:30am. I just hope that in fact it was someone like that who robbed me and not the able-bodied Colombian man but who knows, right? Also, although this has been an interesting practice in problem-solving I don´t blame myself at all because I know I was the victim here and to blame myself is wrong. I did (almost) everything in my power, short of turning super-paranoid, to keep my belongings safe and I refuse to feel down on myself for something someone else chose to do to me. I know that I need to be safe and I was in my mind so now I´m just thanking God that I wasn´t hurt and my camara wasn´t stolen. It´s funny, when soemthing bad happens like this for some reason I just think about the good in it even though I´m not by nature a super-dee-duper positive person. Remeber when my car stereo was stolen? At first I just felt violated that that could happen on my own street but then I just kept thinking how glad I was that the window wasn´t broken!
Anyway, the only thing I´m actually worried about now is you being worried about me. PLEASE DON´T. I´m very safe and I have lots of friends and a caring teacher so sleep and eat and be merry.

And here´s the guy we´re pretty sure robbed me.

One of the most beautiful saturday´s ever!

On Saturday we went to a park called Las Estacas and it is one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been. It´s central theme is a spring-fed river--so it´s really really cold. First we jumped in where the spring comes out of this cave looking thing from underwater (by the way, the water´s so clear you can see EVERYTHING including all the fish swimming around which kind of freaked me out but i think ultimately helped my semi-phobia).

Then we swam a long distance and played on a giant water trampoline.
Then we had lunch.
Then we floated down the river for awhile on inner tubes-Lori, you would have LOVED it.
Then we went home.
the first picture is of a bunch of friends from left to right:
Marcos, Adam, me, Louis, Charee, Scott and Sean. The person taking the picture is another Amy and she was there too but obviously we don´t get to see her.
The second picture is just a little creek with some beautiful water lilies. Pretty, eh?