Wednesday was a pretty good day! We woke up and bummed around a little bit. I still didn't have phone service, meh. We got something to eat and then came back home, where I attempted to get in touch with the international customer service rep. Long story short--we came THISCLOSE to connecting with the network but ultimately we couldn't fix the problem. The CSR had said that it wasn't recommended to try to activate service while outside of the US, which I wish the initial people would have told us! Basically I just accepted the fact that I would not have cell phone service for the next week, until I got home. Which makes me very anxious--not that many people would be trying to get in touch with me, but what if? I'm 2000 miles away from home in a completely different country. It's scary to be cut off like that. Obviously I still had Facebook but still.
So I got in touch with a few key people (Mom, roommate, coworker) just to let them know that if they needed to get in touch with me for whatever reason, to message me through FB. And then I accepted that I had no phone! Ah well.
David ended up taking a little nap before we headed out to his weekly soccer game. He has a group of friends here who play soccer every Wednesday night (one girls' team and one guys' team). He didn't really play before, but lately he's started playing with the guys' team. Some of his other friends who don't play (Oscar, Alma, Gina) met up with us at David's house, and we all headed to the game together.
Unfortunately, the games didn't happen! The guys didn't have enough players, so they had to forfeit. And the team that was playing the girls had to forfeit as well. Soooo that was fun. Haha. It started raining a bit while we were sitting in the stands waiting for the girls' game to start, so me, David, Oscar, Alma and Gina went down and walked through the park to a sheltered picnic table to have a few beers. And then of course the girls never played anyway. So some of the players met up with us, and we walked over to a little convenience store across the street from the park, where they usually hang out after games. So we were sitting around, drinking, talking, listening to music...and then Oscar gets up and asks me to dance! Now, if you know me, you know I love to dance. And David and I are completely okay with each other dancing with other people. But I always get nervous when I'm dancing with someone new, because while I'm pretty good at dancing cumbia (for a white girl), I'm used to dancing with David. And sometimes if I'm dancing with someone else, I tend to mess up the steps a little bit here and there and then I feel stupid! Haha. Anyway, it ended up being totally fine. But it was also hilarious because we got up to dance....and out comes everyone's phones!! I was being recorded by like four people haha. I'm sure they were all posting it to Facebook like "Check out this gringa in the barrio....and she's dancing cumbia!" It was hilarious but it definitely made me feel even more self-conscious!
Of course that's something I notice a lot when I'm down here. In the city, it's not uncommon to see Americans, Europeans, Asians. But where David lives, in Iztapalapa? There's pretty much no reason for a white girl to be around here. So I get a LOT of double takes and stares. David loves it, because he loves to show me off, lol. But it's still something I'm trying to get used to. Because I know it's going to keep happening. I just have to accept it.
But at the same time, when people here get to know me, I think they get a little surprised. They always comment to David how down-to-earth and easygoing I am. They appreciate that *I* appreciate them, their neighborhoods, their culture. I'm not stuck up or feel like I'm superior to them. But it's because I'm not! There's nothing that makes me any better than any of the people I meet here. So I live in America, so I have a pretty nice house, so I make a good amount of money. It doesn't matter. When I'm here, I respect the people here because I am in THEIR home. I may not understand like 75% of what's going on, but I sit with them and listen to their conversations and try to participate whenever I can. If a guy asks me to dance, I'll dance with him. If David tells me to say something funny in Spanish, I'll say it. And I think they appreciate that I try! :-) (Oh, and sometimes I dance like a ridiculous white girl, they usually love that!)
So anyway. Of course I danced with David a couple times. Then another guy asked me to dance. He tried saying something to me at one point but I had to tell him I didn't really understand. Oops! That's another thing. I get nervous when David's not near me, because when people try to say things to me and I don't understand, he's not there to translate for me or help me understand! Haha. Pero oh well.
THEN. At one point we're sitting down. I was using my "new" phone to take pictures and videos during the evening. And I don't know what I did, but I threw out a hail mary and changed one of the network settings on my phone (the CSR had told me to choose a manual network, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to change it back to automatic like my old phone was).
AND THEN A TEXT MESSAGE CAME THROUGH! And another! And another!! My phone was working! I showed David and just started laughing with glee. I was sooo relieved. So yeah, that was definitely a great way to end the night!
We stayed a little while longer until the shops started closing up, and it was time to head home.
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