On Vacation

Vacation for me started on July 2. Well, finally I get to leave the big city behind and can now hide myself in a small village, population 400. I make a firm promise to not:

Watch TV (the devil's tabernacle)

Surf the Internets (oh my, my karma will suffer if I am Plurkless for a whole month!!!! However, I do not know if I can do without Facebook for a whole month and five days. For me, Facebook is like an accident. You know you shouldn't, but you do anyway)

And firmly resolve to:

Go for long walks early in the morning

Eat only what resembles the food source (potato chips look like a potato if you stack them together, so get off my case)

Work on school stuff three hours a week, no less no more

Read the 10 books I am going to lug around for the next 36 days.

Speak French when in Nimes (considering that when I went to Perpinyan it took me half and hour and 3 cups of espresso to remember how to say, "the check" in French...)

Not try to impose my wants needs and desires on my travel companions (although what I want to do is definitely much more interesting than what they want to do!)

Not miss Mass on Sunday because I'm on vacation (He never takes a vacation)

So, I'll be back on September 1 and you can be sure that the computer will be on even before I unpack my bags.


Pax Christi

September

Back home and no time to miss anyone. School starts in about two weeks and I have a month worth of work to do. This is the part I hate so much about vacation. 

Since September 11 is a holiday here (nothing to do with the tragedy in NYC)and we get a long weekend, we are going away. This will me our last taste of summer and possibly the last time we go to the beach this year. I don't particularly like going... Too much sun and sand, but Julian loves it so much, that I'd be a "bad" mom if I didn't put up with is for him.

We'll be going to Sant Martí d'Empúries in the Costa Brava. It's a quaint little sea side village. There is nothing left of the VI century village that stood, but its replacement maintains all the medieval charm. The attraction (for non-beach goers) is the Romanesque style church and what is left of the village walls,

The church is small but impressive. The early Christian white marble altar is unique as is the main altar decorated with horseshoes and is dated at around the 10th century. My favorite is the  baptismal font. It brings joy to my heart to know that thousands and thousands of babies have been baptized there since the 12th century.

Sunny So. Cal

I'm home again. I've been here a week and it feels like I never left. Family is always like that, they make transitions simple.

What has been harder to deal with is all the day-to-day craziness. Things that I simply can not understand with my acquired European frame of mind.

Example 1:

Having to justify medical care for all children. Yes, they do better in school. Yes, they are more likely to have better health as adults. Better reason: they are human beings, they should have access to the most basic necessities.

Example 2:

If a non-US citizen marries a US citizen, they must return to their country of origin for an "unspecified" period of time. A German (no job, no education)woman married to a guy from Irvine is back in the US in a few weeks. A Mexican guy (PhD student, working at the university) married to a Chicana has been in Mexico for almost two years. Hmmmmmm, makes you think.

Example 3:

The whole immigration craziness. 'Nuff said.

But other than that, the OC is a nice place to visit...

Going Home

The upcoming trip to see my family is taking up most of my time. Non-existent time. End of trimester is always a tricky time for me. What is taking up most of my time is not the usual preparation. That's the easy part. One change of clothes, my favorite shoes, Barça t-shirts to give away. Mom's favorite bread sticks and assorted gift items for my sisters. No, that's not the problem.
The problem is the linguistic border that must be crossed in order to retain my dignity. Yes, being laughed at (not a blaring in your face haha. More of a snicker under the breath, but it's there. They love me too much to let out a big whooping laugh) is not one of my passions.
So words such as coche, conducir, coger(especially this one) must be put into a draw in my cluttered brain and I must drag out carro, manejar, agarrar. It's not that they don't understand the words, but they are just not used. This of course is just the tip of the linguistic iceberg. They here me, they somewhat understand me, but they know that their daughter/sister is not the same. She can't be. She's found new places to be displaced in. She's found new ways of being different.
I so envy my little sister. She doesn't question being Mexican, she does not question being American. She just is. Her big sister can't be either anymore.
Reading this, there may be tinge of regret mixed in with these words. There probably is. It doesn't bother me, got used to the constant flux of things in my life. Just going back to a universe where things have been the same for a long time and there's a bit of envy on my part. Just want my worlds to stop moving so I can enjoy them for a while.