Expectations

As you all may or may not know, I’m headed to Monterrey, México for the semester. I’ll be studying at the Universidad de Monterrey, living in an apartment (which I haven’t leased yet) with roommates ( that I haven’t met yet) and taking classes ( that I haven’t been able to sign up for yet). I’ve been doing paperwork and research about programs since August, so I’m pretty excited to finally be leaving. It hit me hard that I won’t be in Athens next semester this past week when I had to say bye to people like Burgis, Jones, Lyndsay, Becky, and Choo Choo’s, but it just recently hit me that what goes along with not being in Athens is actually being in Monterrey. Here are some expectations that I have:

1. Food – I’ve been wrestling with the concept of “don’t drink the water” as it pretains to Mexico. I don’t think I will be able to avoid everything that has been touched by water for five months, so I have made the executive decision to go all out when I arrive and let montezuma ruin my life for a little bit. I predict that this will suck. Once I get past that little hiccup though, i’m sure the food is going to be exactly like the menú at taco bell. Ok I’m kidding. The mexican food is going to be awesome, but I am extremely worried about the availability of cheap chinese food. I’ll keep you updated on this.

2. Class – My classes will be in spanish, so I see myself following along adequately with the lectures and discussions, hearing something slightly wrong, raising my hand to comment about it, then telling the professor that his or her cow is going to be sick when I meant to say that water bottles require more water to produce than is actually in them, only to be answered by him or her saying, “that’s nice, but we’re talking about the mexican war for independence.” I really do foresee that I will have things that I want to say that I will not share because I won’t be able to translate the thought or just straight don’t want to embarrass myself.

3. Social Life – I fancy myself a pretty outgoing, funny person…In english. Not only will I have to translate my life into spanish, but I will also have to remove any pop culture/obscure movie references, which (experiment and try this at home while talking to someone) is like, hard. I see this resulting in many awkward silences and “eh…ehm…no entiendo”s. I’m banking on the fact that the population thinks I’m cool because I’m taller than 5’10”.

4. Assimilation – being taller than 5’10”, the national maximum height for mexican citizens, I don’t know how well I will blend in. This, however, has its advantages, as I will be able to view concerts with ease, get gatos out of trees, and ride all of the rides at Six Flags, mexico. I plan to tan a bit, and do my best to grow a mustache, which will result in my looking like David Mullen the week before spring break, but with a bad mustache.

5. Escapes Back to Things American – Depending on how I deal with the shock of lifestyle change, I could see myself doing a number of things to stay in touch with my inner Amurrrica. My first thought would be to watch the Daytona 500 in a public place on ESPN360, screaming “Go four car” wildly while wearing jorts and my favorite cutoff (already packed them). Other things will include McDonalds, Budwieser, and perhaps a trip to the great state of Texas, where the only thing bigger than its’ land area is its’ ego. Sorry Texans.

I fly (for essentially, the first time) out on the 6th, and will be in Mexico until May 31st. I’ll miss everyone (sans Daniel Lewis), and it’d make my day to see that anyone reads this. Happy New Year, Go Dawgs, Love and Respect, Salutations, Long Live America, -Randall