En Méxcio

Hello world! I’m finally in Mexico. Let’s take it from the beginning.

Ghuuuuuuh

I left Norway on the 25^th. I was a lot calmer at the airport than I had expected to be, the nerves didn’t start coming until I was sitting on the plane, waiting for take-off.

Travelin' the world

I was sitting next to another AFS-student. She didn’t know much about her family, like me, and was very anxious to meet them. The flight to Amsterdam was pretty fast, and in Amsterdam we didn’t have much time between flights. The AFS-students were on their own, but it wasn’t a problem. We found our flight and got ready for the second flight. The seats weren’t very comfortable, and we had little space for our things, well, I didn’t. The seat next to me was empty.

My means of transport

Arriving in Mexico was quite something. Seeing everything written in Spanish blew my mind. At the airport we had to wait for quite a while. First for the rest of the AFS-students, then the bus. When it finally arrived we had a two or three hour bus ride to enjoy. I didn’t think it was that bad, because I managed somehow to sleep through it. Most of the rest of us hated it.

It was pretty nice

The place for the AFS orientation was quite nice. The outside are was really pretty, and most of the buildings looked good. Except for the dorm where the guys had to sleep. The bathrooms were a little below public bathroom standards, and the showers weren’t great either, but it wasn’t much of a problem. I remember being extremely hungry and tired when I arrived, so I grabbed some food and hurried of to bed. Saturday was quite something. For breakfast we were served cakes, fruit and pancakes. I liked the fruit and pancakes, but the cakes seemed a little out of place, not being desert. Yesterday I learned that these cakes are what they call pan, which translates to bread. I should be fat by the end of the week.

The cantina

After breakfast we listened to the volunteers speak for some hours, and we got cash for transportation! Me gustan dineros. In the evening we had to prepare a little presentation for the “Talent-show”. We were divided into groups by country, but had no idea what to do. Singing the national anthem just wasn’t original enough. The first idea I liked was acting out a little children’s story I’ve always considered Norwegian, but one of the more enlightened of our group pointed out that the play actually was German. Therefore we decided to act out a good ol’ piece of folklore, namely Da Askeladden kappaat med trollet, or as you’d say in English, Ashlad and the porridge-eating competition. A guy in our group who claims he’s from the best side of Oslo got to play Askeladden, the main character. He was quite hilarious when we were rehearsing, but held back a little under the performance. I don’t think our presentation was too bad though. After the “Talent-show”-thingie there was a party. That’s right… not a PAAARTEEY, but a parteey. Oh, yeah, and I danced. That’s right! You might not understand what the big deal is unless you’re a teenager from Norway, but it really is quite something. All thanks to the nice C from Canada. After the party poor C was locked out of her room, and we didn’t get help until 2 am, and at that point I left her to the AFS-volunteers. I’ve got no idea whether she got a bed to sleep in or not that night. Aren’t I nice?

Parteeey

Sunday was meeting-the-family-day. I said goodbye to Runar, three other nice Norwegian girls and all the people I knew I could safely communicate with. Toluca was the next stop. What I had in mind was riding the bus for some hours and then getting dumped into my family’s lap, but instead there was a welcoming-show in Toluca for the AFS-students going there, which included another presentation. Saturday’s presentation had been fine, as we were 10 people in our group, now I was completely on my own. I eventually decided what I wanted to do. I was going to perform for all the parents of all the exchange-students, and I knew that what they needed was a couple of good Norwegian words in their vocabularies. So after a great dance performance by some Mexican kids(it really was good), I got on stage and made them repeat my six words. And I did the entire thing in Spanish, probably leaving my host-family with the impression that I knew more Spanish than I do. Afterwards I was introduced to my family, on stage of course. And then we ate. At this point my family was getting a good idea of how limited my sense of communication really was.

Then we drove of to Tonatico. The nature on the way from Mexico City to my town was really nice, lots and lots of green which I didn’t expect. Tonatico is a little town by Mexican standards, housing approximately 18, 000 inhabitants. It looks quite poor, and I guess it is as well.

Tonatico from the roof of our house

We rolled up to the house and I got out of the car, while my little brother filmed me. The gestured towards the door and I went inside. Then they showed me around, while Manuel filmed me. Later, I asked them to explain the rules, and as far as I understand it’s mainly “be home by 10”. 10. That’s a little too strict isn’t it? Also I have to shower every day. Nooooo, not the shower!! As I got into bed I realized how exhausted I was because of not understanding anything I was being told. This really is difficult, but it doesn’t exhaust me as much now.

Tonatico in the evening

The next day was school. I left with Juan at 10, and I got to see Ixtapa (the closest town to Tonatico, which also is a little bigger and less poor), and Lolitas job. When I got to school there was a ceremony, though I’m not sure what for. I did of course have to stand in front of all the students for the length of it, and at the end I was introduced to them, which was major embarrassing. My class seemed glad that I was starting to them, as they erupted into cheers when I entered the classroom. They do that a lot though. They previous night I had had a feeling of things being very difficult before falling asleep. I didn’t feel that way at all when I sat down with my class. They are really nice, and during the first recess a bunch of guys came over and talked to me. My favorite classmates are currently Fernando and Cesar, or however you write it (it’s pronounced Ceasar). Everyone seems to have nicknames in my class, and I was given one quickly. “Babys”, because I’m new. Fernando’s is Pimpón and Cesar’s is Stuart.

Stuart and Pimpón

I thought my first day of school was very successful, a girl called me guapo (pretty for you non-Españoles…tas…idos) and I got two rose pedals, one having “Hi baby” written in it. After school I went to Ixtapa with Pimpón and Stuart, we played table-soccer for a while and then bought ice-cream.

My classroom

Yesterday I played soccer with the guys of my class. I’m a notorious asshat when it comes to soccer, and I proved that in the beginning when we were just kicking the ball to each other, but then we started running around, brutally forcing the ball from each other, and I did well by tripping one of the bigger guys and kicking the ball far away. The school consists of multiple buildings, so each classroom is separated by an outside area. It is very difficult, as I don’t understand anything. I have 45 hours each weak (my old classmates better be gasping at this), and like 11 different subjects. I only have notebooks, and lots of homework. I better be friggin’ smart when I get home.

Today wasn’t very special, well, every day is extremely exceptional, but this one wasn’t as different as my two previous and I don’t mind that. There’s so much I’ll have to get used to. The tap water is yellow, so it looks like no-one ever flushes the toilet, and I’m showering and brushing my teeth with that water. The pillows are all bulky; it feels like they are full of hard sponges. I’m gonna get fat. Also, I think I’ll have to cut my hair, which I really don’t want to, now that I’ve gotten so used to my long hair. But I guess there’s no reason for me to refuse to look normal, if the hair I’ve got now is weird. Still, I’ve noticed that all the billboards have western boys with long hair on them, so I don’t get why it isn’t cool.

I don’t have that much time to write, because it just feels weird sitting here, isolating myself. I’ve been writing this over three days. I’m going to wind it up there, but more to come.

A last post

The last two days have been a whirlwind of emotions. I’ve mainly been passing time, watching TV, playing guitar and chatting. It’s weird how well mindless humor like “the Simpsons” works when you’re uncertain of your mood. I sound like I’m emo. Alright then, this will be my first slightly suspicious, emotionally charged post, showing off my sensitive side (which of course you ladies love).

I’m truly confused at the moment, I know I’m a little scared about leaving, but I can’t place the main reason. Though it's probably the result of multiple factors; I’m leaving my friends and family, my language and culture; I’m going to live with a family I’ve never met, and I’ll have to adapt to a new way of life; I KNOW there’s SOMETHING I haven’t packed. I shouldn’t be concerned about the packing. Anything I forget I can probably get ahold of in Mexico. Like a passport. Knowing this doesn’t do anything to calm the back of my awareness.

Packing at an early stage

I’ve packed 20 kilos of stuff so far, with a limit of 30 I’m doing pretty good. Friends, I miss you already, hope you leave some comments for me to read when I get to Mexico.

Yesterday I went to see a play. I’ve always thought of the theater as slightly dull, but this has definitely changed my opinion. It was hilarious. We saw Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”. Brilliant actors. Today I’m going to a fancy restaurant, can’t wait for my last supper. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

I doubt my Catholic family would approve of this picture

As of writing this message, fourteen and a half hours remain with my family. That’s nothing, I’ve slept longer. Yet, at this moment, I’m surprisingly calm about it. I didn’t sleep much last night though, just before going to bed I decided I should start writing my thoughts down. It was great though, writing whatever came into my mind cancelled it out, complete tranquility. My dork-instincts immediately told me it was like a pensieve. I know, I should go out more. Also, it made me think about the song Little Acorns by the White Stripes. Jack White sings “The problems in hand are lighter than at heart”.

Lastly, the very talented and nice Hallvard Skauge has been generous enough as to draw a caricature of me. Blogger.com doesn’t allow profile pictures bigger than 50 kilobytes, so I thought it’d only be fair to post a larger version. Thanks again for the picture.

Oso David con un sombrero

See you on the other side.

An English Introduction

Well, well. I guess this is the official launch of my blog inglés. Up until now my blog has been entirely in Norwegian. Except for that little description on top of my page, but that barely counts.

The reason I've chosen to desert my roots and embrace my western heritage is because I have family who is simply dying to know all the juicy details of my everyday life. Seriously, though. It's because I know other people than my friends and family in Norway who could have interest in what my AFS-experience will be like. Another reason is that I'd like to help anyone considering taking a year abroad by sharing my experiences through my exchange. I imagine a blog like this would have aided me in taking the decision to live with a family in another country for a year, though it was something I have wanted to for some years now. And then of course, I want to keep in contact with my friends, and I’ve never gotten into mass-emailing.

Let me introduce myself. I am Bjørn David. I am currently 16 years old, and live just outside the capital of Norway. I am an exchange student, and I will be leaving for Mexico on the 25th of august. I've been asked many times why I chose Mexico as my exchange country, and I don't believe I have ever given a satisfying answer. The truth is I'm not sure.

When picking a country, there were three choices that tempted me. First I thought about Japan. I love Japan, and I haven't even been there. There is something about the atmosphere around ancient Japan that really captures me. I believe it's partly through Asian film that I have this interest in the country. I know little of the country itself. I know little of the country's culture and politics, and it's because these things aren't to me, like they are to just about everyone else, the things I think about when I hear the name "Japan", that I like the country so much. Then again, I might only have considered Japan because I think Samurai are unbelievably cool. I didn't choose Japan however, because it is things like culture and politics that would affect my experience. Japan seems like a very difficult country to get used, and it was a challenge I didn't feel ready for.

Japan is the 30^th densest country in the world, according to wikipedia

Egypt was the second country I considered. My mom suggested this, and it was a good suggestion. Learning Arabic would have been amazing. And it is a very unique country. We also took going to an international school into consideration with Egypt. Something did however dissuade me from doing it.

Finally, my friend Runar and I decided we’d pick Mexico. Eventually we had come to look only at Spanish-speaking countries. The obvious country to go to would be Spain, and at first we did intend to go there, but we wanted to travel through AFS and they didn’t send to Spain. Therefore we had to go to Latin-America, but we had no idea what country would be best. Then one day we decided Mexico, and that’s that. When I get back, I hope answering the question will be a lot easier.

The family I will be staying at lives in a small town called Tonatico. It is southwest of Mexico City. About two hours by car I’ve heard. Tonatico seems similar to the town I’ve lived in for the most of my life up until this summer. It has 18, 000 inhabitants (which in fact is 6 times more than the town I used to live in), and is apparently quite conservative.

You might be staring at the roof of my future home

In my family there is a mother and father, and I’ll have a brother and sister. The sister is my age, her name is Erika. Manuel, my brother, is 12. I haven’t quite understood what my father works with, but it seems as if he’s a principal, maybe at the school I’ll be going to. His name is Juan Alberto. My mother, Dolores, works at the kindergarten, educating children from the ages 3-5. This will probably be of the most use to me the first couple of weeks. The family is Catholic, and apparently attends church very often. This will need some taking used to. I’m not a very religious person, though I’m not 100% atheist either. I don’t belong to any religion, but I feel it is mainly because I haven’t found one I believe in. Statements like these are what I usually disagree with myself on. As you might understand, I’m quite confused about religion. More importantly, my family has a parrot. His name is Andy. Andy is a great name for a parrot. It’s too late to be writing any more, but at least I’ve written my first post in English. Go me!

La familia Ruiz!

Å herre gud! Greit, jeg tar dette fra starten av. Jeg bor nå på Nesodden, Oslo. Vel, dette har jeg diskutert mange ganger med Runar. Nesodden ligger egentlig i Akershus, men stedet tells også som en region i Oslo, og det høres mye bedre ut å si at du bor i Oslo. På en måte. Flyttingen gikk temmelig bra, alt vi hadde i huset vårt i Seljord ble trøkket inn i en ganske stor lastebil og sent hit. Lenge var huset vårt bare et stort rot, men nå begynner ting å ordne seg. Huset vårt er hvitt, sånn ser det ut:

Der bor jeg

Rommet mitt har skrått tak og vindu. Senga mi er veldig lav. Det er en japansk seng, som er tilpasset europeere i lengde vel og merke. Sånn ser det ut.

Der sover jeg

Vi har omtrent like mye plass her som vi hadde i Seljord, og det er jo bra. Dersom du vil se mer er du nok nødt til å besøke meg. Ja, jeg savner folk jeg kjenner.

Jeg har også kjøpt meg et kamera, og dermed er min karriere som verdens mest betydningsfulle fotograf i gang.

Ikke engang norsklæreren min kan analysere dette

Men tilbake til starten av dette innlegget. Jeg startet med en litt snedig ”Å herre gud!”. Det første en legger merke til er at det har gått litt fort i svingene mens jeg har skrevet dette, for det mangler et komma. Grunnen til det er at jeg nettopp har chattet med mine fremtidige søsken i hele en time og førti minutter! Av dette, en time uten hjelp fra annet enn en ordbok! Jeg er ganske gira. Og ganske stolt. Her er et utdrag:

Erika/Manuel: el de la foto eres tu verdad?

Meg: Si

Erika/Manuel: muestranos mas fotos

Meg: Muestranos?

Meg: No comprendo

Erika/Manuel: Enseñanos

Meg: en ingles?

Erika/Manuel: queremos ver mas fotos tuyas

Meg: ah!

Det stemmer, jeg har fått familie! De bor et sted som heter Tonatico. Nord for Mexico City. Familien heter Ruiz. Faren min jobber på en skole, og heter Juan Alberto. Moren min heter Ormidas Dolores. Hun jobber i en barnehage. Jeg har en søster på min alder. Hun heter, som du kanskje har gjettet, Erika. Broren min er 12(som min ekte søster), og heter Manuel. Manuel Jesus. Til slutt har de en papegøye som heter Andy. Andy! Det kunne jo ikke blitt bedre. Forventningene mine tilfredstilles.

Skolen jeg skal gå på har 400 elever, et bibliotek, noe jeg ikke forstod hva var og et datarom. Det virket som om jeg kunne ta en del fag der, som trigonometri, etikk og sosiologi. Jeg spurte om det var mye lekser og svaret var ”nei, men vi skal hjelpe deg”. Midt i blinken! Broren min er visstnok ganske god i fotball. En gutt på 12 som er god i fotball har jeg uten tvil mye å lære av. Selv tror jeg jeg var på rundt 12 år gammel og veldig dårlig når jeg sluttet å spille. Søsteren min spiller basket, det har det ikke vært så mye av i Bø!

Nå er det august. Det er en ganske syk tanke… det er denne måneden jeg reiser. Jeg føler at jeg har mye å gjøre forberedelsesmessig, men klarer ikke helt å sette fingeren på hva. Jeg er ferdig med jobben, så fremover er det bare ferie å se. Dette blir mitt siste innlegg på norsk. Sorry Even, men her prioriteres det! Jeg setter fortsatt pris på kommentarer på norsk.

Avsluttende vil jeg brife med et bilde jeg faktisk er litt stolt av! Du klarer sikkert ikke å gjette hva det er.

Bubblar

Adios!

PS. Du kan trykke på bildene for å forstørre dem.