One thing that I like about this OLE program is that it houses students with local families so that the students might get the authentic experience of the life and culture of Mexico. Living in the US, the knowledge we might have about Mexican people and Mexican culture is not usually accurate, since we only gain such knowledge through our little encounter with the Mexicans living in the US. Living with an ordinary family day in and day out really gives us a better knowledge about them.
The family with which I am staying is a typical family: there is a grandmother who stays home and takes care of everything in the house, from cooking to cleaning to making sure the little kids say their prayers before eating. The mother is a teacher, and the father is, as I gather from my limited listening skill, a specialist in nutrition. The food we eat is, therefore, very healthy. We usually have a bowl of fruits mixed with yogurt and granola, some bread and milk in the morning. The main meal of the day is at 3 PM, when everyone has already gotten home from school or work. The grandmother intentionally cuts down grease on all the different food we eat. There are always soups and vegetables in every meal, and I rarely see the kids having too much sweet in their eating or drinking. The little snack late at night, around 8 PM, is usually some bread or tortilla. The grandmother and I usually have a cup of milk or light coffee only.
Not only their diet but also their lifestyle is healthy. One thing about this family that is more valuable than anything else in the US is their time together in the family. With the grandmother staying home all the time while the parents work every day and the kids go to school from 8 -1, they spend a lot of time with each other, whether it is for eating, sitting around talking, watching TV, going to places and what not. The kids are not isolated in their own rooms or their own corners but are always around parents and grandmother and uncle, talking, joking around. There is that openness, sincerity, confidence in humility, warmth and respect in those kids that could be sometimes considered a luxury in the reality of youth in the US.
I am forced to live healthy, too. My daily routines include an hour walk to and from school and around the city. I am not eating late at night just because there is no junk food in the house. Water is the usual drink. There is no Internet in the house, which sometimes I feel inconvenient, but for the most part it only makes me go to bed earlier, or have more time to take a long nap in the afternoon. You can’t beat that.
It may be because of the heat while there is not usually air-condition in the homes here, people go downtown a lot. On any given afternoon, there are many people sitting around in the parks. There are small cafes and small restaurants along the streets to get a drink or a snack/meal, then just to sit on the sidewalk and enjoy some hired musicians playing their instruments. Two or three restaurants next to each other usually hire musicians of different instruments, and they are very good at taking turn playing their own instruments. So if the musician of the first restaurant plays his guitar, the violinist and the keyboard player of the next two restaurants rest. After the guitarist finishes, the violinist would begin while the other two listen. Afterward, the keyboard player would begin his piece. Then back to the first musician. If you happen to sit in the restaurant in the middle, you can enjoy all three instruments taking turn playing.
I am lucky enough to be in Querétaro when Mexico is preparing to celebrate their bi-centennial anniversary. There are several free entertainments in downtown at this time. I was in a garden in front of a beautiful church one Wednesday afternoon, and I heard music in the center of the garden. With much of my excitement, I found out there was a public dance. There was a man who was playing keyboard. Apparently he was very good at it. He played all sorts of (danceable) music while the people just … danced. They danced bolero, rumba, salsa, rock-and-roll, or whatever they call of their traditional dance. There were older people and younger people. They just danced and other people just sat around and enjoyed the view.
Another time, on a Sunday night. It was as late as 9 or 10 PM, but the streets in downtown were still filled with people young and old. It was the Feast of San Antonio. Some of us seminarians gathered in front of the Temple of San Antonio for the religious service. Outside the temple, there were at least 20 vendors that sold different kinds of food and drinks, deserts and snacks, as well as souvenirs. There was a brass band across the street playing very upbeat music. I just couldn’t believe it. It was 10 PM and people didn’t seem to end their celebration any time soon, although the following day would be a normal working day for adults and school day for kids. Everyone was just enjoying themselves and having a good time. I wasn’t confident enough to eat at those vendors yet, but I was enjoying myself with the whole experience, too. People really know how to enjoy life here. I wonder if they have any stress-related problems here.
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