There are so many cultural differences just bordering our own country. I am constantly wondering if I am doing anything rude on accident. A perfect example would be when I was getting ready in the morning and Raul, an employee of the hostel, greeted me.
As I am every morning that I wake up to and alarm, I was scatterbrained. His hand reached for mine and I politely put my hand in his thinking that we were shaking hands, but when he leaned forward for a kiss on the cheek, I immediately felt ignorant of Mexican customs.
It reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld does everything he can to avoid getting a kiss hello from anyone he doesn’t know very well. During one part, he nervously admitted to one woman that he wasn’t partial to the kiss-on-the-cheek greeting. Of course, like all episodes of Seinfeld, it got him into some trouble.
I'll just have to learn to get used to the “kiss hello”, but the incident opened my eyes. I realized that I am a guest in this country and I should respect it every way that I can.
I just hope that I can be very aware and observant of the locals while I’m here. That includes trying to speak Spanish to them. I think that learning the Mexican culture is not only interesting, but also respectful to all of those who live here. It also plays a major role in why I’m even here in the first place.
The lesson I learned today: read the book Kiss Bow or Shake Hands before visiting any foreign country. It’s a book explaining the do’s and don’ts in other countries. It may come in handy…especially for someone like Jerry Seinfeld.
For the duration of my stay in Mexico, I have felt that I can get by with my broken Spanish and a little help from my friends. Today I experienced what a true language barrier was really like.
This afternoon Amanda and I went into a fabric store to find some buttons, needles and thread for my broken messenger bag. I approached a counter where I saw a variety of buttons under glass. I decided on the buttons I wanted and waited patiently.
Asking for the buttons wasn’t the hard part. I had time to practice exactly what I was going to say.
“Quiero cuatro de los botones grandes por favor,” I kept saying in my head.
I picked everything out, the woman wrote me a receipt, said something to me that very well could have been gibberish and pointed behind me.
As soon as she saw my deer-in-headlights face, she knew that my Spanish wasn’t as good as I made it seem. She repeated herself slowly and pointed again. The store was so loud and busy that I just nodded and walked away. I didn’t want to keep anyone behind me waiting.
Amanda and I went to a counter where we saw customers handing employees receipts. We waited in line for about two minutes and then it was my turn. I smiled as I handed my receipt over and was quickly disappointed when she handed it back pointed in a different direction and said something that I could not understand.
As Amanda and I wondered through the maze of shelves, fabric and people, we finally found a counter with a register. Once I knew I was in the right place I felt my tense shoulder and neck muscles relax.
Ok so now I paid for my things…where do I pick up my stuff? We walked back to the first counter where we saw the woman helping me with another customer. I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to go back to the first spot. I circled around for a couple seconds and found a counter with bags or merchandise everywhere.
“I bet that’s where I get it,” I thought to myself, finally being able to put two and two together.
My journey in the fabric store was over. I picked up my buttons and was glad to finally step out of the stuffy and crowded fabric store into the fresh air again. Who knew it would take almost a half hour to buy buttons?
I have only been to Mexico once. I was only there for maybe 6 hours while I stopped there while on a cruise over winter break of last year. The day was alright, not horrible, but not particularly good either. I didn't really step back and learn to appreciate it.
The story of my Mexican journey begins at home. When I was little, my dad used to own a bar called The Sports Page. He said that he would get customers coming in all the time telling him about The Sports Page in Cozumel, Mexico. One guy even said to my dad that if he gave him a shirt to give to the bar in Mexico, he'll bring one back for him.
A few months later someone was walking into the bar with one of the bar's shirts on. Wait a second...There were never white shirts with red lettering on it before. As my dad creeped up closer he noticed that in tiny letters underneath the logo, it said Cozumel. They even stole the logo and my dad just laughed.
The Sports Page has always held a special place in my family's heart so when we heard that we were going to Cozumel my sister, my dad and I promised that we would go there together.
So fast forward. We are in Cozumel. I just stepped off the the little motor boat and I was so excited. Our plan was to go to the beach first, then head into town for some shopping and a drink at The Sports Page.
We were just about to go when my crazy aunt, Jill announces that a family was coming with us. This family had been in contact with us since the start of the cruise and the rest of us weren't too happy to find that my aunt had invited them.
So while we were at the beach, we had a pretty good time. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the water was crystal clear and just the right temperature. I wasn't going to let one family ruin something that I have been looking forward to for about a year.
The beach was fun. My family rented a couple wave runners, I played in the sand with my younger siblings and the best was yet to come. We were still waiting for that trip to The Sports Page.
"But we wanna stay at the beach all day!"
I cringed as I turned my head to see the mother of the family as she finished those words. How could someone that is joining us say what their plans were? Why did these people split a cab with us that was on its way back to pick us up? I was half tempted to just leave them at the beach to find their own transportation back to where our cruise was.
We simply told her that the taxi would be there soon to pick us up and that they were coming with or they were stuck. This moment was not going to be spoiled by outsiders.
So we are picked up and we finally go in to town. We would say to the vendors sitting outside of their store, "Sports Page?" and they would point us to the right direction. Wait a second. All we see is a bar called Sports Bar.
"Yeah, they changed the name about 5 years ago"
The woman we found that could explain to us in English had no idea why all of our faces showed nothing but disappointment. We had about 2 hours left to go shopping or explore downtown.
My 6 hour stay in Mexico wasn't all bad. I remember that all the people were very friendly. I think most of them were just to try to sell us something, but to me it was kind of cute. The last time I was in a marketplace like that, I was in the Bahamas and I was about twelve years old. I don't remember the people being so nice.
I look forward to going back to Mexico so I can see and appreciate how beautiful it really is and learn how to write about it. I won't let things that are small get to me like I did the first time. This picture is of my cousin and me at the beach in Cozumel.
