The Penny Black!
Day 64: Mexican Banking
This day was crazy! I had to find a Western Union to pick up money, but the adventure that followed made me so grateful that this was a Friday and not a week day because my patience was not very pleased with the strenuous activity of the day. Finding the Western Union was not difficult. There are multiple locations in El Centro. So I went into a bank where one was located and asked an employee where I could go to speak to someone about receiving a payment. They told me to take a number and wait. I took a number, something in the 50’s, and proceeded to sit down and wait my turn. The teller was helping someone in the 30’s so the wait wouldn’t be too long. I thought. Well I waited for about twenty minutes and the teller called someone in the mid-30’s. I looked from my ticket, to my watch, to the number on the big board, and promptly decided that sitting there for the next two hours would not be the best option for me, personally. So I walked around El Centro, used the bathroom, got some ice cream, and stopped by the pharmacy to pick up a few toiletries. I returned to the bank and saw that I still had about an hour wait left. At this point I considered seeking out other Western Union locations in the area. All of the nearby ones had even longer lines than the one I had been in. I did not expect the banks to have long lines today because it was March 6th, not the 1st or 15th, which are usually pay days. One of my professors and Oaxacan friends both told me that people in Mexico generally do not trust banks to keep their money. It is expected that banks will have long lines on the 1st and 15th of every month because people are waiting to withdraw their paychecks in cash from the banks. I have definitely noticed this on my trip here. Therefore I chose to not handle my business on the 1st or 15th. But,there were still long lines for reasons that I am uncertain of.
After returning to Western Union I only had about a 30 minute wait before my number was called. I was entertained by some kids running around and a game of Sudoku on my phone. There were also a bunch of employees with seemingly nothing to do talking, so I people watched as well. When it was my turn I went up to the teller to begin my transaction. Her held tilted and her eyebrows furrowed. I prepared to repeat myself, assuming that my poor Spanish skills had thrown her off, but she spoke before I could. The teller pointed to my right, at an office by the wall. She instructed me to go into the office, where my my types of transactions are conducted. She signaled one of the employees with seemingly nothing to do and they promptly led me to the office and began to assist me. I hadn’t needed to take a number. Or walk around buying ice cream and bars of soap. Or people watch the employees with seemingly nothing to do. I’m pretty sure my eye twitched in the moment just at the thought of spending two unnecessary hours wandering around a bank and convenience stores in the hot Oaxacan sun. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Farmington Hills, Chicago, or Oaxaca-waiting for bank tellers is definitely not on my list of hobbies.
But at the end of the day I got done what I needed. I returned to my home say and did a bit of work before heading out to dinner with some friends. At dinner we ordered this plate of nachos that was bigger than my face. They were delicious! I went to dinner with two other girls from my program and a friend from Oaxaca. We talked about his plans to spend six months studying abroad in America this coming year! He also told us about his job at the Museo de Filateria, which we visited the following day.
Day 65: Museo de Filatelia
El Museo de Filatelia is awesome. I had never thought much about stamp collecting, but this was quite an impressive introduction. We saw stamps from all over the world in a host of different languages. Some stamps were political cartoons, other comical, and others could be put together to tell a story. We also saw the Penny Black, which is the first stamp in the world. It was first used in Great Britain in 1840. The stamp’s image is a profile of Queen Victoria. Her image was chosen over all others because she was seen as an unarguably important and regarded figure.
In addition to stamps, the museum also holds letters from prominent figures and memorabilia from world-renowned events. For example, original letters from Frida Kahlo, with her lipstick-stained kiss mark, are in this museum, as are collections from World Series baseball games.
The museum also has a gift shop with tons of stationary (I love sending hand-written letters so I did a bit of damage in there…) and a seated garden area for relaxation and work. We saw our friend hard at work preparing materials to be put on display and he gave us a quick tour of some of his favorite items in the museum.
Day 66: Homework
homework day yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
73 Aventuras 