Back to School!

Everyone in the house is going to school today. Some new students arrived yesterday from Spain and Australia, and they are leaving early for their Master's courses in International Studies at CUCEA campus of the Universidad de Guadalajara (a short light train ride away). All the girls in this house are also going to school today. Uniforms pressed, lunches made. I smell the coffee being made at this very moment. The other day I went to Santa Cruz, a small town about an hour northwest of Guadalajara on the Ruta Tequila with Lorena, the host mom in my house, and her daughter Vanessa. After taking a year off of school (Im still not sure how that happened, but they told me she decided to stay with her father for the year; he lives in Santa Cruz), she is returning to her last year of secundaria. In Santa Cruz she and her mom met with an older aunt who works as a seamstress. It was important for Lorena to return to Santa Cruz to save money on uniforms (in fact before this she had been quite stressed out about the price of tuition -- they go to private school). When we went to the aunts house, she took out her measuring tape and took Vanessas measurements and there ensued a struggle over the hemline. Vanessa wanted it short; her mom said no. The aunt mediated the conflict, using four fingers above the knee to measure what she thought would be appropriate. Both daughter and mother agreed, then we moved on to dinner with Lorenas sister.