Week 5.5: Los chicos en México son románticos...

For anyone who has known me for the past 5 years, you know that I have this incredible knack for attracting creepers. For example, my senior year in high school, I had 4 creepers. One from a college class I was taking at the Community College, 2 from the city pool that I worked at, and the other went to school with me. Oh, that was a fun year :)

If I have a superpower in life, it's attracting creepy guys. The Creeper Magnet. Has a little ring to it, huh? ;) I wouldn't make much of a superhero though...

But really, just replace the dogs with creepy guys, and that's me:

It's actually quite miracle that Adam became my boyfriend, because not only is he not a creeper, but he's also really, really amazing! And I've been lucky since coming to Mexico, because now I have a boyfriend as a great excuse for the boys who've bothered me here. It's fantastic!

Anyway, I've been told that I attract creepers because I'm too nice. I feel rude if I blow someone off when they talk to me, ignore them, or don't smile. I like to talk and smile! Little did I know that was actually a weakness... 

But when creepers are even slightly forward, I get super uncomfortable, and my way of dealing with the situation is to avoid them and hope they just go away. And it's actually worked in the past! I feel so bad turning guys down, and it's pretty much impossible for me to tell them that I feel uncomfortable with what they're doing. So avoidance has been my method for the past 5 years, and although it's slow and, now I realize, slightly cruel, it's worked.

I really don't need them doing this around me:

So the whole purpose I'm telling you this is to give you a little background about a situation that's arisen this past weekend.

About 3 weeks ago, the 4 of us girls made friends with one of the members of the Church here, Daniel. He's a nice guy and super smart, and he'd take us out to do things, which was super nice cuz he has a car! But every time I'd get on Facebook he'd send me a message on chat, which was a little weird/annoying, but I wasn't usually doing anything and I wanted to be nice, so I'd reply and talk to him.

Starting about two weeks ago, he got really persistent. He'd always ask us to do things, he'd show up out of the blue to our school to take us home, and still send the constant messages. Also, when we went to see a movie as our whole group he tagged along, and asked to sit next to me. During the movie he leaned over and whispered to me, took popcorn out of my hand, and had his arm touching mine the entire time. It was pretty awkward in the moment and I thought it was weird, but whatever. 

I know I probably should've said something, but when I know a guy likes me, it makes me REALLY, unimaginably uncomfortable. So I chose not to think much of it. I wasn't sure if Daniel was being just really friendly cuz that was just his personality. Daniel also already knew that I had a boyfriend who I love very, very much, so I didn't want to assume anything (being the dumb girl that I am). Anyway, after getting thoroughly frustrated with Daniel on Saturday, I asked my friend Emilio for help. 

I figured Emilio would be a good choice to ask advice from, since he knows the culture here, and he's also he's protective of us girls in the program. So Emilio came over on Sunday and I told him the whole situation. While Emilio was over, Daniel had posted some lyrics on Facebook. It was something about a new love and caressing or whatnot. Anyway, Emilio told me it was the perfect opportunity to talk about Adam again to fend him off! 

So he had me write the following (but in Spanish):
"I liked your post on Facebook. It made me remember my boyfriend who I love a lot. Thanks FRIEND."

A little straightforward for me, but what the heck! If it'd work, I was all for it!
A half hour later, Daniel replied that he was glad I liked it, because he posted it for me. 

Uh, what? 

Emilio then took my laptop and starting writing for me, saying:

"Thanks for your sincerity, but we can only be friends."

NEVER in my life would I say something like that. NEVER EVER EVER. Oh gosh. I feel awful just thinking about it! It's too bold! Ahhhh!

And Daniel's response?
"I know." 

Well jeez, why was he being so persistent then? 

At this point, Emilio had left me on my own to drown. So, still being a dumb girl, I wanted to truly find out Daniel's intentions, since he said he knew we could only be friends, so maybe he was just being overly-friendly. It could very well just be a part of the culture!

I asked him why he had posted those lyrics for me, and he replied something along the lines of:
"Because I've known you sufficiently to know that you would see it and like it, and still that being sincere, I was hoping that you would be slower in realizing. The great thing is that every word of those lyrics was directed to you."

I wouldn't have realized what he was trying to do if it wasn't for Emilio! I wouldn't have been in that situation if Emilio hadn't opened up the dungeon of doom! Gaaaaah.

I asked him if he knew I had a boyfriend (which I knew he did), and he replied that yes, he knew, but it didn't matter to him, because "me gustas y te quiero."*
*Cultural note: As described by Emilio, "te quiero" is the equivalent of 80% love, whereas "te amo" is 100% love.

Sooo Daniel confessed to me after hardly knowing him for 2 weeks. We've probably spent 5 days in total doing something, and it was always in a group. Don't ask me how he thinks it's even possible to like me so much after such a short time.

It's one of those moments where you can't stop laughing, but then you realize how much it really sucks and then you want to start crying.

So I turned off chat for him, and I decided to avoid him, hoping the problem would go away. Talking with him only made things worse, so you bet that I'll never take that route again with creepers. EVER. 

Emilio advised me stay away from Daniel for the rest of the trip, but for some reason, I was only freaked out for that day. Don't get me wrong, what he did was creepy. But I was thinking about it, and figured he probably did something like that to all the other girls who come here on exchange programs. 

So I asked a girl who came to the program last summer, and she said he confessed his love to basically every girl. Kate and I talked to our mamá mexicana about it, and she said what he did was completely normal. The people here are super open and romantic, so we had no reason to be afraid.

We also found out the reason why he'd come pick us up from school is because he drives past the university around that time anyway to go to work (which is like a 30 second drive from our house). He likes picking us up too, so he doesn't have to drive to work alone. So, in the end, he was just being really nice.

So I felt really bad that I didn't think of that being a possibility.

So there you have it.

I decided that it's okay if I hang out with Daniel (in a group of course!), because he's just lonely and really likes to talk. I still know to be cautious around Daniel though. I'm not THAT much of a dumb girl :) 

Moral of the story: Mexican culture and American culture are two very different things. What seems creepy in the United States is acceptable here. And also, a person's intentions can be a lot different than what they appear to be. Don't judge!

... To be honest, I really didn't do much these last couple days, so I'm glad I had that long story to fill up the space! Hahaha.

Just a gross thing that happened Tuesday morning...
Tuesdays and Thursdays Kelsey and I don't have class til 11:30, but Kate and Gabi have class at 9:15, so we just go to school with them. While we wait for the 2 hours until our class, we'll usually go into a classroom with air conditioning and work on homework, or surf on the internet.

While Lonnie (the other girl in our 11:30 class) was walking out of the classroom, she pointed out something on the ground that someone HAD to have stepped on on their way in, because there was brown guts smeared all over the floor.
And this was the beast:

That is a mangled spider. WITH FUR. That has a worm/centipede thing as company. And it was BIG. If it was alive, it'd probably be as big as the palm of my hand. EW. EW EW.

Okay, onto Wednesday! Kate and I decided to go with Daniel to Centro to go souvenir shopping and walk around. 

I didn't really buy anything... Just something for a friend. Which is bad, since I only have two more weeks. I need to buy more presents!!

Anyway, while we were walking around, the sky looked super cool!

Once it got to 7:30, we needed to head over to the theater because we were going to watch a show of Yucatecan dance. It was super cool and adorable! I don't know how they danced so long without fainting!

Afterward, we went to Los Trompos to eat dinner (at about 10:30! haha). We were all going to order tacos al pastor, but the directors found out it was cheaper just to buy us all 3 kilos of meat and have all the tortillas we wanted.

So we had 3 of these HUGE trays of meat spread out along the tables. And it was so good! I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back to the United States and I can't eat all this delicious food anymore... 
:'(

I'm sure I'll survive though! Hehehe.

746 Days Left! :)