April 10, 2008 Loving Merida once again!
Other reflections on "community", it is the utmost in convenience to be sitting here at the guest house with a MacBook on my lap taking care of computer stuff. But I miss spending time in the internet cafe and learning all sorts of Spanish vocabulary since all of the computer interfaces there are in Spanish. (My Mac defaults to English.)
New cultural experience: The guest house wi-fi modem wasn't working properly yesterday and I got to spend time on the phone with Telmex Technical Support diagnosing the problem. I hung in there for a bit, and then finally asked if English were an option. Fortunately, they hooked me up with an English speaking Tech who was very adept. We needed to pick a new channel for the modem because the Mac's frequency was conflicting with the previous channel. "Internet" and "Ethernet" sure sound a like in heavily accented English. But all was well in the end.
Other cultural moment, seeing the proud young bag boy at the supermarket in his bright white T-shirt that had come from the United States (or some English speaking country). Next to him was his proud and professional coworker, a cashier who looked grandmother-ly. Neither one of them had the slightest clue that the kid's T-shirt was covered in words that were so profane and disgusting that I will not write them here. It was classic. I did translate the situation to Spanish for Miriam when we got home and she had an appropriate laugh.
And, if you ever happen to pick up a Free People catalog (I don't) here's a little tale. It turns out that the Free People people did a big photo shoot in Merida and borrowed Enrique's 1949 Dodge for the glamour girls. See the little sticker in the back window? It says Ski Vermont and came from the Lambersons.
Unfortunately, a film crew also borrowed the Dodge for a movie they were shooting in Campeche. The Dodge came back without its sticker. We've loaded Enrique up with a Bolton Valley sticker as a replacement.
OK, I just did battle with the blog software since I hadn't used it in a while and the program had been purchased by Google in the meantime. I've spent the past hour trying to log in.
But more importantly, Miles and Jill are content at school and Ruth is out running errands with Miriam. They are getting ready to feed an afterschool playdate that was Alli's idea. (For new readers: Miriam is our hostess, her brother Enrique owns the guest house, and Alli is Miriam's daughter. Miles and Jill go to school with Alli.)
We arrived 2 days ago after a long day of travel. We left our house at 5:30 in the morning and arrived in Merida at 8 p.m. Vermont time. We had the misfortune of sitting on the runway in Philly for over an hour waiting to take off.
The bus rides from Cancun airport into Cancun, and then Cancun on to Merida were a reminder of what I love about public transportation: lots of community, incredibly efficient use of resources, and no need to think once we're rolling down the road. True to form however, Mexican buses remain the graveyard for bizarre Hollywood films. We were treated to something with Hillary Duff in it, and before that it was some neo-western set in suburban L.A. where the modern day cowboy turns from heart-throb to murderer. Huh?
If I'm lucky, here is a picture of M.i.l.e.s and R.u.t.h on the bus, taken from their laps with a MacBook:
Other reflections on "community", it is the utmost in convenience to be sitting here at the guest house with a MacBook on my lap taking care of computer stuff. But I miss spending time in the internet cafe and learning all sorts of Spanish vocabulary since all of the computer interfaces there are in Spanish. (My Mac defaults to English.)
New cultural experience: The guest house wi-fi modem wasn't working properly yesterday and I got to spend time on the phone with Telmex Technical Support diagnosing the problem. I hung in there for a bit, and then finally asked if English were an option. Fortunately, they hooked me up with an English speaking Tech who was very adept. We needed to pick a new channel for the modem because the Mac's frequency was conflicting with the previous channel. "Internet" and "Ethernet" sure sound a like in heavily accented English. But all was well in the end.
Other cultural moment, seeing the proud young bag boy at the supermarket in his bright white T-shirt that had come from the United States (or some English speaking country). Next to him was his proud and professional coworker, a cashier who looked grandmother-ly. Neither one of them had the slightest clue that the kid's T-shirt was covered in words that were so profane and disgusting that I will not write them here. It was classic. I did translate the situation to Spanish for Miriam when we got home and she had an appropriate laugh.
And, if you ever happen to pick up a Free People catalog (I don't) here's a little tale. It turns out that the Free People people did a big photo shoot in Merida and borrowed Enrique's 1949 Dodge for the glamour girls. See the little sticker in the back window? It says Ski Vermont and came from the Lambersons.
Unfortunately, a film crew also borrowed the Dodge for a movie they were shooting in Campeche. The Dodge came back without its sticker. We've loaded Enrique up with a Bolton Valley sticker as a replacement.
posted by The Lambersons at 12:20 PM
1 Comments:
Paul this is Shelby from Vermont. I finally took the time to actually click in to your blog. WOW. I'm so very impressed with you and your family. What a phenomenal experience for all. All the best from Sunny (for the moment) Vermont.
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