I swore I would leave. I did. I regret it, but at the same time I don't. It happened so quickly to be able to process it internally. Going to a country I knew nothing about, in a cold and gray capital city , with the goal of studying a language that's not even related to any field I am interested in. Well, maybe History of course but I'd lean more to Greek and Roman History and I would only be focused on pre-Ottoman History (and, to be honest, for ethno-religious reasons). But then I think, me, myself, was born in one of the cradles of civilization, too. I was born in the "New World", in the Mesoamerican region. Perhaps in order to love [lo ajeno] alien things I must first appreciate and understand what's my own. Very few Mexicans think about this. In general, I [me atrevería a decir] would say that most Mexicans are only educated through governamental propaganda when talking about the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations. This is awfully sad but true. The government and ironically the post-viceroyal government, has been so busy trying to eliminate indigenous peoples and languages and has done it so effectively that, from the 60% of population that spoke indigenous langages in 1810 (the year the War of Independence started), now only 6% does. This is one of the very few things the Mexican state has done correctly and effectively since its foundation in 1821, and of course it is a nuisance. I sometimes wonder, why should I be proud to be Mexican? What's the exact reason? Most things that are part of our culture are either pre-columbian or Spanish, or a mixture of both (which took place during the viceroyal era, not after independence) not "Mexican" per se. Even Mexican is not a comprehensive world since the "real" Mexico is only the central area of Mexico and that's it. So I must be proud of narcos and a state that obliterated indigenous peoples even more than the European settlers? The incongruences of this country are so hard to understand, but I have no alternative. I will be considered [initially wrote "considerated"] Mexican because that's what my passport says. So, legally, I will be Mexican until the day I acquire another citizenship and enter another country with the Mexican passport.

Going back to what I was talking about, and since the Mexican state killed all possibility of me learning the regional language naturally, I will have to do it the same way I learnt [is "learnt" or "learned" more common in the Californian accent? I switching from a poor attempt of trans-Atlantic accent to a Californian one] English. Reading grammar and doing some kind of exercises. And here goes a clarification of a huge misconception: "White" people also used to speak indigenous languages. Actually, it was more common for a direct descendant of the Spanish to speak the local language than an indigenous person speaking Spanish, which was only the administrative language of the bureaucratic state system. My great-grandmother was fluent in Maya and she was one of them. But since she grew up when the post-revolutionary Mexican state had already started massive Spanish language campaigns all over the country so she didn't teach it to my grandmother. One of the stories my grandmother tells is that when her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother didn't want her to understand, they would speak in Maya themselves so she wouldn't know what they were talking about. This is, of course, a over-simplified story, since one of the main reasons for the "white" people to learn indigenous languages was to communicate with their service personnel. But, still, at least they knew, now the government doesn't even care.

I'm tired so in the next chapter I'll write why this is called the "Turkish Adventure", although the initial lines have already given a preamble. Thanks for all of your corrections!