I Accepted Something From A Mexican Man

Ignore the weird spacing of the pictures and random spots in the text.  It's not my fault.  I can't get it to work right and I'm sick of trying to fix it.

I need to tell you about the fair, but along with that story comes like five others and it spans across like two and a half weeks and it’s just confusing, even for me, and I’m the one who lived it.  So please be patient and just try to understand this post to the best of your ability.  And be aware, it will probably be ridiculously long.  In fact, I think I’ll split it up.  So consider this part one.

On Sunday, May 15, we went to the grandparents’ house.  That is where I first met the entire extended familia.  It was cool because I remember thinking, “This is what my family is doing at home right now {it was a third Sunday} and I’m doing the same thing, only it’s with this family.”  And let me tell you, it was a blast.  We played a lovely game called Avión, meaning airplane, a.k.a. hopscotch.  Remember that game?  You probably played it like twice in second grade and then got bored?  Well, it’s actually fun when you play it with this family.  EVERYBODY joins in and it is a legitimate competition.  Everyone cheers for everyone else, and it was just so fun! 

Me

Elvira

Miguel

                              

Roberto

Then we played a game called Doctor.  You all hold hands and then get really tangled up and then the doctor has to come and untangle everyone without us letting go of our hands.  That was super fun.  And guess what.  I was even the doctor once and I succeeded, speaking English and everything.

Miguel, Elvira, Saul, Roberto, y Abuelo

Then they brought out a little container with a bunch of little pieces of paper in it, and on each piece of paper was written the title of a movie.  So you would pick one out and then act it out and everyone had to guess what movie you were acting.  Then we did something similar, but on each piece of paper was written some random word and it was a race to see who could think of a song with that word in it.  And if you thought of one you had to run up to the front and touch the wall first and then sing it for everyone.  That was quite hilarious.

Roberto, Daniel (Sesa's Padre), Evelia, y Diego

And it was awesome because I could even play these games without knowing Spanish!  The movies are easy because it involves no talking, and acting is the same in every language.  The song one worked because they would just tell me what the word was in English if I didn’t already know, and I could sing songs I knew.  It was cool.

Then we did races with puzzles.  It was me and Diego against Miguel and Roberto and we totally dominated both times.  It was awesome.  We also played memory, which was fun.

Diego, always dancing, and always asking me to take pictures of him.

After that there was kind of a break in the game playing.  I was just sitting on a chair, and I looked up to see Roberto telling me to “Come here.”  So I got up, grabbed my camera, and followed him.  This is what I saw:

It’s an ice cream car!  It’s not like the ice cream trucks in America that sell you pre-packaged ice cream on a stick.  No, this little car sold legitimate ice cream.  You could have it in a cone or in a little waffle bowl and you could have as many scoops as you wanted, in as many flavors as you wanted.  It was awesome.  Then Roberto said to me, “Cuál quieres?”

Oh no.  I had a little freak out session in my head because guess what.  At training in March, we spent like 30 minutes talking about how we CANNOT ACCEPT ANYTHING FROM ANY MEXICAN MAN EVER EVER EVER.  NEVER.  Seriously.  Because apparently in Mexico, if a girl accepts something from a guy, it means commitment, no matter what it is.  No matter what it is, people.  They said, “Even if it’s just an ice cream cone, just say no and walk away.”  I was like, “Really?  Why would they be offering you an ice cream cone?  Whatev, I just won’t accept anything and all will be well.”

So there I was, standing next to Roberto as he offers me an ice cream cone of all things.  Apparently those trainers weren’t kidding.

About a billion things went through my head in the next two seconds, and then I said, “Chocolate.”

And then I had another little freak out session inside myself because guess what.  I had just accepted something from a Mexican man.  But I was like, “No, this doesn’t count.  He’s in the fam.  Plus Elvira just came out so maybe she’s the one who is actually buying it and thus it’s from her.  Ya.  That’s definitely what’s happening.”

And then I got over it and ate my ice cream and it was divine.

Ice cream

Cones

Heaven in a Waffle Bowl

Then we were pretty much done at the grandparents’ house.  We went home for a couple hours until it was time for the fair.  Before we left, Elvira said to me, “Do you want to bring your camera?  I said, “Mmm no, I’m good.”

I should have brought it.  Because this fair was crazy.

First thing was the roller coaster.  There was this dragon roller coaster that we watched for a few minutes, and I was shocked at what I saw.  Number one, there was a guy smoking on it.  He was smoking while riding a roller coaster.  It was awesome.  Number two, the seat belt things were not really necessary.  It was just this little metal bar that didn’t secure in place or anything.  You just put it over the two of you and pretend like it would hold you in if the roller coaster went upside down.  Numero tres, ANYONE can ride it.  There were little two years olds getting on.  It was crazy.  So we watched it for a while and then Elvira and I got on.  This is where I first regretted not bringing my camera.  We chose our seat, put our little metal bar over our lap, and waited for the ride to begin.  Begin it did, but guess what.  This time all the seats were full, so it was a little heavy.  So it started going, but it got stuck before it even left the station.  So we slowly rolled backward, back to the starting position, and tried again.  This time the guy running the thing actually pushed the roller coaster.  But it got stuck again.  We slowly rolled back once more to our starting position.  Then another worker dude ran up from down below somewhere and together the two pushed as hard as they could to get us going.  And we made it!

So we were riding along, going around and around and after like five or six times, we were rounding the top part, when we got stuck again.  But this was completely out of the starting dock.  So this worker guy climbed the bars and got on the track to get to us.  And the original worker walked along the track to meet him at our car.  Then they pushed pushed pushed until we got going yet again.  As soon as we got going, the two workers quickly climbed down the bars so they wouldn’t get run over.  And then we just kept going around and around like nothing ever happened!  Isn’t that awesome?! 

I got stuck on a roller coaster, and instead of shutting it all down and taking hours to correct the problem, like they would do at Lagoon or something, these people just walk along the track of the roller coaster and push us.  I loved it, I tell you.

After the roller coaster, we met up with the rest of the extended familia, and went over to the trampoline.  I find it semi-sad, semi-awesome that they have actual trampolines at events like these.  Because here in Tehuacan, nobody has a yard, and thus nobody has a tramp.  So people pay money to jump on them at fairs and things.  That’s just weird in and of itself:  The fact that they actually pay to jump on a tramp for 20 minutes with 15 other children, when I have one in my backyard that I can jump on whenever I want.  But also, like I said, there are like 15 other kids on it!  I swear, Mexican kids are just tougher than American kids, because they never cry.  You should have seen what was going on on that trampoline.  There were kids ALL OVER THE PLACE and they were jumping on top of each other and tackling each other, and add 3 huge bouncy balls to the mix, you would assume crying would ensue.  But it doesn’t.  I saw things happen that looked so painful, but no one ever cried.  Because if they cried, they would have to get off, and when you are having your 20 minutes on the trampoline of your dreams, you just can’t waste it by crying, you know?  So no one gets hurt.  If you put 15 kids and 3 balls on one trampoline in America, you would have at least 3 broken bones, 7 crying kids, one and a half popped balls, and several angry parents.  Mexico is magical, I tell you.

Then there were the fireworks.  Oh my gosh, listen to this.  There was this guy, and on his back was a little contraption thing.  It was like the top half of a hollow horse piñata (so it had no legs) and on top of the horses back was the frame of a cube and at each of the bottom corners of the cube was a wheel and on the wheels were fireworks.  So when the fireworks would spew off, it would cause the wheels to spin.  So the wheels were constantly spinning as fire shot off them in all directions, and all this was on some guy’s back.  And this guy was running up and down the street, chasing children.  So he would run one direction and all the kids would scream and run away, while a herd of other kids were running behind him.  Then he would turn around and those kids would scream as he chased them down the street.  It was so funny!  Then there was this giant framework thing, like the cube on the man’s back, only a jillion times bigger, and it stood by itself in the street.  They lit it at the bottom and one firework would go off for a while which would ignite the next one and that would ignite the next one, and so on.  It was really quite clever and awesome looking and I was wondering, “Why don’t we have these in America?”  And then I discovered why.  Number one, it really wasn’t very safe, but nothing here is, so that’s not a prob.  Number two, there was a lot of smoke.  Like, really, a lot.  So much that my body couldn’t hold in the coughing.  It kind of gagged me, along with the rest of the people there.  We’ll probably all get cancer now, but whatever, it was worth it.

Post firework show, we headed over to the bumper cars.  Roberto asked if I wanted to go on them.  I said yes.  What I didn’t realize is that he meant with him.  Because next he asked who is going to drive (me or him).   I was like, Oh great, that ice cream was from him after all.  Te he, that was a joke.

Aaaanyway, so Roberto and I get in one car and Miguel and Elvira get in another.  We were driving along and all of a sudden I see Miguel and Elvira jump out of their car and sprint over to the exit.  So the guy stops the ride and talks to them.  Then they get in a different car, and the ride resumes.  I asked them about it after, and apparently their car started sparking down by the pedal that makes it go.  They didn’t want to catch on fire, so they jumped out mid-ride and ran for their lives.  How awesome is that?

After the bumper cars was the tilt-a-whirl.  This is when I knew for sure that the ice cream cone was a mistake.  I was standing there amidst the fam, trying to understand Diego’s random dancing/spanishness when I hear my name being called.  So I look up to see Roberto getting on the ride and asking if I want to come.  I kind of just stared at him blankly, even though it was clear what he wanted.  So Elvira said, “You go on the ride?”  And I’m like, “Ya do you want to come with me?”  And she was like, “No you go with him.”

Grrr.

So except for the fact that Roberto and I were the only ones on the ride while the rest of the fam waited below, it was freaking awesome and freaking fun.  First of all, it went forever!  These rides never end and I just love it.  But the best part of this tilt-a-whirl, is that there is a worker walking around on the spinny part the whole time the ride is going, and he’s pushing and pulling all the seats so you spin even more! For about the fiftieth time that night, I thought to myself, “This would never happen in Utah.  This is awesome.”

Last was the ferris wheel.  I know what you are thinking.  And guess what.

You are right.

Grrr.

So the whole fam walks over to the ferris wheel, but I didn’t really know what was going on at this point.  I sat down on the curb next to Miguel and we were playing with some garbage in the street or something, when I heard my name yet again.  I look up to see Roberto getting on the ride and asking me if I want to come.  And of course the words of the trainers are playing in my head, “YOU CANNOT ACCEPT ANYTHING FROM ANY MEXICAN MAN EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER.”  So I’m thinking no no no no this is bad. 

I say, “Oh, no thanks, I’m fine.”

Elvira says, “Come on, last one.”

And then the entire family starts chanting my name.  That’s just what they do.  When they want someone to do something, they start chanting their name until they do it.  They did it to me at the grandparents earlier that evening, and they were doing it to me at the ferris wheel. 

How could I reject a cheering crowd?!

I couldn’t.

So I stood up and said, “Oh alright.”

And then I went around and around on the ferris wheel with Roberto on my left, and the whole family on the curb below just watching us.  And you know what?  Despite how that sounds, it was actually really fun. 

Here I am, nearly a month later, to tell you that even though I accepted four things from him that night, it did not mean commitment, and all is well.  So don’t worry.

P.S.  While riding on the afore mentioned ferris wheel, I saw the moon, and I thought of America and my home and my friends and my family and my non-Mexican life.  That’s what looking at the moon in a foreign country does to me apparently.  So anyway, if any of you looked at the moon on the evening of Sunday, May 15^th?  Just know that we BOTH saw it, but from a billion miles apart.  
Awesome, no?