Un año aqui

Monday was exactly one year to the day I first arrived in Mexico. A year is enough time to get to know a place fairly well, although I'd say I'm still scarcely more than a tourist here. The language barrier makes a big difference. Not understanding cultural nuances, barely scratching the surface of understanding, leaves one to float around in a dream of personal interpretation of expereince. Nevertheless, I've come to accept that I'll only every be an obvious outsider (although I did rather want to be a spy at one time). This does not make me feel dejected, as some may think; no, to the contrary, outsiders have many advantages which locals cannot really understand until they themselves plunge headlong into being an outsider elsewhere. The entire time I was in New York I was most certainly not 'at home', but that is a city of outsiders, so one does not feel so foriegn. Mexico on the otherhand is a nation of homebodies, with many people living at home unitl their late 20's. Here I am most certainly out of place, but that allows me to observe somewhat objectively the peculiarities of my temporary home.