A la Casa.

Hey friends :D

I am so so contenta to be back in a Spanish-speaking country and writing on a blog about it. Yay Spain. Yay México. Yay world.

So here's the deal: Haverford's CPGC (Center for Peace and Global Citizenship) funds a few internships every year for Bi-Co students to come to la Casa de los Amigos in Mexico City. The Casa is a Quaker center for Peace and International Understanding, and they do tons and tons of awesome things. They do really tangible social justice work through their Peace programs, which include Migration, Economic Justice, Environment Something, and Hospitality. There is a such a Quaker values vibe here, it's incredible. We just finished a delicious potluck din din, which they do every Sunday. The people who work here are amazing, and I already feel super

comfortable. Also, the BMC girls doing the internship with me are great.

I just interrupted this entry to hang out with them for two hours, in fact. Linet and Molly, just finished their sophomore and junior years, respectively. Hilarious and awesome and this is going to be the best sum sum. We have a week of orientation now, so I'll understand a little more about what the Casa is and what I'll be doing here soon. Mostly I just love it though. I can't wait to not be exhausted so that I can start being friends with all these people, and then eventually ask them about their spirituality/Quakerism. Mexico is so exciting anyway, and Professor Krippner is going to teach us so much interesting history, but then to top it all off there are reflection on the Quaker peace testimony lining the hallway on our floor. Yay yay yay yay yay.

What else? Logistics: customs was way easier than I thought. Flights were relatively quick and easy. Jim Dale is and always will be my hero. Met up with Professor Krippner while boarding in Houston, he seems super cool. Also, let’s talk about how I’ve never seen anything like Mexico City before, I was so struck by the imagery as we flew over the place. Just huge mountains absolutely blanketed by civilization. Small crops of skyscrapers shoot up every once and a while, and the landscape is just completely infested with buildings. I’m using weird adjectives like “infested” because there was just some sort of different quality about the place that I perceived as we were in our final descent over the city. Things looked, if this makes any sense, more three-D than usual. Maybe it’s because things are cramped together, and more colorful than in other cities that I’ve flown over? The roofs all seemed to be brick red, and things were shiny. And I just love those mountains. There seems to be something about Spanish-speaking places and mountains for me… I don’t know… after a tough semester, enough things feel familiar here (reminiscent of Spain that is) that it just feels like I’m supposed to be here. Yeah, there’s a that good stuff like family and school in the States. But even though I know this will be a different kind of experience, and Mexico is obviously unique and wonderful and challenging in its own ways, but I’ve just had these moments today where it feels like I never left, and all the pain and joy of the past semester was just a dream… The pain in particular… God that was awful.

And OH YEAH, I felt so happy and at home when I got to the Houston airport and suddenly there was Spanish all around me. I still marvel at this apparent superpower of mine, and at how it makes me feel to be able to understand things in another language. Totally surreal, and I don't know how it happened. Going to Granada was such a seemingly random decision, and it's impacted me so profoundly, I like still don't even understand it.

Anyway, getting sleepy now. I'm still trying to figure out the best mode of keeping in touch/keeping everyone updated. I was pretty psyched about all the Facebook traffic this trip seems to have generated. Damn - go to Mexico and suddenly I am super interesting. Slash I just feel really loved, all the time actually, and I'm really grateful for that love coming from all sides. Thanks, friends. So yeah - might stick with super detailed FB updates, might stick with this, supposed to keep a journ journ for the CPGC, too. We shall see.

Linet's listening to music with her eye mask one. One lamp on, big light off, fan on, all our stuff unpacked. I/we have plans for decorating our room. I already feel the need for a quote board *TAG Quaker House*. I am super stoked about this adventure, and the people I get to take it with. As Mom would say, hallelujah. 

*Wrote this last night (29/5), but couldn't post it until today.