Not much to say...

Dear friends and family,

I’m afraid this week’s entry may be a little drab. For some reason, there was a dearth of picture-taking this week. I also used up all the Mexico City excitement last week, and the rest of the week was basically normal. After changing my survey a bit, I restarted the interviewing process; all previous interviewees have to be revisited. So far I’ve done nearly 20. My goal is still to get 100 done by the end of the semester, and I think it will be possible. I’m not going to lie, interviewing total strangers is a mixed bag. For the most part, I really do enjoy meeting new people, but sometimes it is a little awkward. I think the good experiences outweigh the bad—I’m really quite amazed by their willingness to talk to me.

Matt finally got a nickname this week (the rancheros are all about nicknames, especially our family, I think). Now they’ve started calling him Moto (which is their nickname for another Mateo in the extended family), and they usually call me Cami (which derives from Camila, which derives from Emilia), or sometimes Milo. So Moto and Cami it is. I would nominate these villages for use in the witness protection program, since they’re difficult to find and get to, have no organized record of residents, and anyone who lives there long enough will almost inevitably get a nickname that may or may not resemble their given name (examples: Luz goes by Chalino, Erminia sometimes goes by Ermes, Luis is known as el Chiquis, etc…There’s no method to the madness).

Sorry not to have more excitement to report from this week. Stay tuned for next week’s installment, in which all four of us get to be some sort of obscure godparents at the baptisms of Giovani and Alina (babies in Martín and Martina’s household).