Routine hmmm? Well, I supposed I have a semi-structured
routine here. I definitely have to be more flexible with my time in Mexico,
both because there definitely IS such a thing as ‘Mexico Time’ and because some
weeks I do very different things than other weeks. I might spend four days one
week sitting in clinics with healers and attending classes on natural medicine,
or I might spend all week chasing down new healers to interview, waiting for
them to be ready, speaking with them, doing some reading, trying to find new
places to try to find healers, etc. I tend to do a lot of waiting for people,
both my informants and my friends. Traffic in this city really is crap, and
people just have very fluid ideas of what ‘now’ or ‘2:30’ means. ‘Ahorita’ is a
word here that means ‘in a bit’ and that can either mean ‘in two minutes’, or ‘in
two hours’ or even ‘never going to happen’. I’ve had all three meanings used on
me. It’s a bit frustrating, but it’s part of the culture and you just have to
go with the flow. Which slowly brings me back around to my ‘routine’.
Three things I tend to do on a regular basis that might be
called a routine are: work out almost every day, stream TV shows on my laptop,
and read celebrity gossip. I enjoy all three things for different, yet similar
reasons. I enjoy working out for my health, my mental wellbeing, and because it
is something that has been a part of my life for so long now that I can’t
imagine NOT being active pretty much every day, even if for just a short amount
of time. I get some good thinking done while I run and swim, and conversely I
can completely zone out and forget everything when I’m on an elliptical with a
Glamour magazine and friends re-runs (with Spanish subtitles) on the TV in
front of me at the gym.
Likewise, I really look forward to the point every evening
where I am physically and mentally incapable of working any longer. This is
usually around 8 pm (I don’t have set work hours, but start late and end late,
on average). Around this time I love to close my notebook, forget about
anthropology, and completely succumb to an episode or three of Doctor Who, How
I met Your Mother, Criminal Minds, etc. It is like a salve to my brain, and it
really helps me relax. Plus, I like TV. It’s entertaining and there is some
really smart, funny writing coming out of TV right now. I wish I could say that
after working all day I love to curl up with a good novel. But sadly, after
reading all anthro all the time for a year and a half, and writing my
fieldnotes everyday, the last thing I want to look at in the evening is more
words! Unless…
…they come courtesy of UsMagazine.com. I know, it’s horrible.
Our culture’s sick obsession with celebrities and their weight and their
children and their vacations. But I am dead serious when I say it is the best,
easiest way to shut off and dumb-sown after a long day of mental stimulation. Do
I really care what the Kardashians are doing? Not so much. But I could still
tell you exactly how Kanye proposed to Kim, and why Khloe is divorcing Lamar,
thanks to Us Weekly. It’s like the junk food of mental stimulation, and I’m not
afraid to say that I love it.
Perhaps once I’m not a student any longer I will return to
reading important things like the world news (I scan headlines now for the
most part) and great works of literature (I’ve been working on ‘The Kite Runner’
for a while). But for now, TV and gossip rags make the other, hard parts of
fieldwork more bearable. When I can’t get someone to commit to an interview,
when people get suspicious about WHY exactly I’m sitting in on their medical
consultation, when I show up to a clinic that googlemaps says is in one
location and it just. doesn’t. exist. It’s ok, because I know that when I get
home, there will be an episode of New Girl ready and waiting and probably some
new pictures of Kate Middleton in some fabulous Jenny Packham dress from some
glam event in London. Like I said before, it’s all about balance. J
Speaking of routines...
Kim x
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