We've been taking it easy for the last few days. Sunday we had a formal dinner, where dinner crew made sushi (all cooked fish-we get sick often enough without raw fish!), and had a massive picture-taking session. Then Monday everyone else presented their DRs in Spanish at the high school...except we got there and no one had told us that they had the day off for their version of Labor Day. We did have some of the fishermen show up, so we still had presentations. When we got back Vero gave a practice presentation of her conference talk, about the crab fishery in Magdalena Bay.
Then we had "disorientation," where Brady talked about reverse culture shock. I've been expecting it, and people raised a lot of concerns that I had thought of, and a lot that I hadn't. I realize that my friends back home all had interesting things happen in their lives without me, but I didn't think that people would have changed since I last saw them. Especially with other people who went abroad (like Sarah who went to Spain), the two of you may have changed in different directions and it may be weird. I'm also really going to miss some of the people I've met here. I'm thinking I'm going to miss Laura, Christina and Jenna the most. And Jenna and I have gotten fairly close, and we get along beautifully. It's going to be weird not having them around. And as for the Mexicans, it's soo hard to think I may not see them again. Especially Guadalupe, she's like a cool cousin or something, and a lot of time kind of acted as my guide to Mexico-language and culture.
Today we all went to the dunes for one last panga ride, and everyone, staff and students, spend the morning on the beach. It was nice and relaxing. Then we came back and packed. I think I've got everything in, but I'm almost positive my big bag's overweight. I just can't move stuff around, my smaller bag is packed to the gills. But Dad would be proud, I got everything in and just about the only thing I'm leaving is one towel and some shower stuff I didn't need.
Brady suggested we write a letter to ourselves that she'll mail us some time in the next year. It's crazy, there's so much I don't want to forget. I feel like I've changed here, and I think it's a good change and I don't want to forget everything. I was also thinking about how a lot of people are going to hear that I studied abroad in Mexico and think "oh man, she went to Cancun and partied for a semester." I also already know some people who think that it's not a real abroad experience because it's not sophisticated like Europe. But I think it's an even more important experience, because even though Europe definitely has a different culture from the US, it's in the same sphere of experience. Rural Mexico is a whole different ballgame, where the government is so corrupt you can't prosecute anyone, where some people have never heard of global warming, where fishermen die because they're diving using a hose for a breathing tube. I think it makes it more of a study abroad experience, and also more important because we live so close to Mexico but most of us know so little about it. It's going to be really hard to hear people talk badly about Mexicans, because I'll be thinking about Vero, or Poncho, or Gustavo.
