So, what's different this time round? I am a graduate, no longer with the pressures of having to improve my Spanish for final year, I can simply enjoy learning the language and this has made me a lot more relaxed when it comes to speaking. I am working as a English language assistant in a technical secondary school here in Guadalajara, it's been an amazing opportunity for me so far and the responsibility means I have partied a tiny bit less than last time I was here. Mexico is still the same country that continues to enthrall and amaze me and to be honest, I do not think I will ever tire of visiting and experiencing this fascinating culture.
It is quite strange because before coming to Mexico I never quite understood what it meant to 'leave your heart in x', and now I do. England is my home, and I do miss the beautiful Suffolk countryside and my family, I think that I will continue to have a bond with Mexico, a country that indeed does have it's problems and is no way perfect but it's also a country that is so multifaceted and layered that it would almost take a life time to fully discover all of it's depth and mystery.
For example, you only need to look at the diversity of it's landscape. Mexico is a huge, huge country, a fact I didn't fully comprehend until trying to plan trips! Take the north of the country, there, the states experience highs of over 40oC in the summer and freezing temperatures during the winter. Jalisco, where I live, is blessed with a temperate climate pretty much all year round, down south, you can experience jungles in Chiapas and then take the Yucatan peninsula, akin to the Caribbean, hurricanes and all.
The diversity of the culture is mirrored in exactly the same way, through the food, folklore, history. It's fascinating and it has well and truly captured my heart. I may not have expressed my love for this country as eloquently as many others have done before me, I do not claim to be an expert about the country or the culture, and I don't know what will happen when I return to England in July or when I will come back, but I am pretty certain I will come back, I think a part of me will be left here and I will also take a tiny bit of this incredible, amazing, enchanting country back home with me.
"I felt completely at home in Mexico - speaking Spanish to my cousins, running around Acapulco and stuffing my face with mole and homemade tortillas. Mexico opened my heart."Aimee Garcia
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