Never in my life have I had the opportunity to realize how often I say “sorry”.  Many times I’ve bumped into someone in passing, or cut someone off when walking in a crowded mall (visiting crowded malls seems to be a favourite pastime here…not my cup of tea, but I’m “doing as the Romans do” for now) and my instinct was to say “sorry” and because I know they won’t know “sorry” I don’t say anything, but then I feel awful and I vow to make it my mission to figure out how to say “I’m sorry” in Spanish.  Now how Canadian is THAT?!  I realize that I say “sorry” to the camarista for leaving the room a mess; “sorry” for being in the room when she comes to clean it;  “sorry” to the server for taking ‘too’ long to hand over my pesos that I’m digging through my pockets to retrieve; “sorry” to the laundry service lady who has to clean the many clothes a family of five produces over just a few days; “sorry that we’re ‘late’ for dinner”, sorry, sorry, sorry…

Just today I took a taxi to the school to pick up the kids.  Been feeling under the weather and couldn’t face the prospect of the exclusively uphill, 30 minute walk to the school I’ve been doing every day this week to meet them at the end of the day.  Walking home is all down hill, but still the kids moan about it so I thought I’d give them a break today too!   After all, it’s Friday and we made it through our first week of routine life in Mexico, relatively unscathed!!  The driver was very nice but no matter how nice, if he only speaks Spanish and I really only speak English, at some point giving directions for where I wish to go is going to be a problem.  Thankfully, he recognized our impasse and turned on Google Translate – he spoke into the microphone in Spanish and the robot girl in the phone spoke his words back to me in English.  Then he’d pass the phone to me and I’d say my piece in English and she’d translate what I said into Spanish for him.  Kind of a brilliant solution, I think. Of course, normally there isn’t such heightened awareness in a conversation; it’s usually such an organic, automatic kind of process if you’re both speaking the same language.  Today, however, I was very aware of what I was saying as I knew my words were going to come out the other end translated – my confidence that there would be direct translation for everything I wanted to say was low, so I was choosing my words carefully, keeping them plain, with no flowery descriptors or adjectives (I’ve noticed that I use a lot of imagery and expressions when I talk that usually illicit very blank eyes and confused faces here – hey! maybe they do at home too, you guys are all just so Canadian and too kind to mention it!!:).  I was most distressed to hear the robot girl repeat “Lo Siento” numerous times.  I was sorry for not knowing which side of the mountain-of-a-driveway we should be on to pick up the kids.  I was sorry we were early.  I was sorry the line-up of cars was not moving faster.  I was even sorry that he took the wrong road and I was having trouble explaining how to get back.  Come on now, this is ridiculous.  I’m paying for this service, he has a job.  You know what that nice driver did?  He got robot girl in the phone to say, “Don’t worry.  RELAX. This is no problem.”  My dose of wisdom for the day. Really must stop apologizing for the mistakes and inconveniences of everyday living.  I suppose, since I don’t in any way actually feel relaxed at this time in our adventure, I’ll need to ‘fake it til I make it.’

And yet, I’ve never really understood ‘why’ we are so apologetic as Canadians in general until now, and I’m not sure I need to be apologizing for being that way (ha! ha!:)  Isn’t it reflective of a wish for people to be comfortable and happy?   Doesn’t it reflect a desire to show understanding and empathy for the situation?  That we recognize we’ve invaded someone’s personal space?  And aren’t we lucky in Canada to enjoy the luxury of more than adequate space?  And now that we are living in a part of the world where space is not something one is necessarily entitled to, don’t we appreciate our Canadian reality more?  And as much as my instinct is to not rock the boat, I have noticed myself becoming much more assertive in expressing our needs as a family, because we are truly on our own and our voices are what is going to make things happen.  And maybe it’s possible that our kind Canadian manners and friendly ways are helping us to successfully navigate and negotiate our way through these early days of endless problem-solving opportunities!  I recently read a quote (that I can’t for the life of me find again, but I’m not apologizing for that!) that goes something like, “When travelling, you learn as much about the country you’ve come from as you do about the new one you’re in” – that’s the gist of it, and I know that more than ever, we are defining ourselves in terms of our Canadian values.  It is in the fore of our minds as we are asked daily “where are you from?” and we do our best to “represent”! 🙂  When others are as interested in our culture as we are in theirs, there is an opportunity for education and for a broadening of perception to happen.  On more than one occasion we’ve had to bring awareness to the belief that we live in igloos! (can you BELIEVE that?!).

On our walk home after school earlier in the week Mansell was sharing and squirming over a “stereotype” about Canadians that he wasn’t previously aware of – apparently Canadians are considered SMART – all the kids think Canadians are geniuses at school, which is making Mansell sweat a little, but might not be the worst peer pressure out there! Maybe not necessary to dispel that vast generalization!!  Aaron and I were thrilled with that one and hopeful it translates into awesome marks come June!