Minority

I now know how it feels to be the minority! AHHHH. I know I'm technically already a minority since I'm a woman. And yeah, I'm Mormon which makes me a minority too. But even in the states it's not always so noticeable (that I'm Mormon... hopefully it's noticeable that I'm a woman). Here, everybody stares. Now I know how black people in Utah feel. Or Muslims. Or all sorts of people. It's not fun being stared at all the time. I know that everyone is watching my every move (like when I fall on the bus) and every word I say (like when I say the wrong word in Spanish). It's so embarrassing, but it's just something I have to deal with.

Nevertheless, I'm having fun. It's hot here. 100 degrees today and super sticky and humid. I have two roommates, one is Rebeca and the other is a mosquito. It's great, hahaha!


I love you guys!

You Will Be Proud of Me, Mom

Eating Beans...

Well, yesterday I ate beans. Yes, beans, you heard correctly. I ate the food that looks like june bugs. I am in Mexico after all. I will admit that they were refried beans, so they didn´t look like june bugs any more. They tasted good, although I knew I was eating mushed up june bugs.

Bugs!

Secondly (this is not something to be proud of, just a funny story), there was a live cockroach in class today. My teacher picked it up and when he walked toward me with it I ran out of class screaming. The Mexicans get a kick out of me and my roommates. My conversation class this morning was dificult. Since there´s only 6 of us in the class (and only 2 today), I got picked on a lot. And I could only understand less than half of what the teacher said. He talks SOOOO fast! And when I say, "Habla muy ràpido" then he slows down for a minute and speeds back up. He´s nice though. He laughs at how little I understand.

 I`m a freak show here...

The Mexicans here stare A LOT. More than Utahins, which says a lot. When we are waiting at the bus stop and a guy on a motorcycle goes by, he usually stares and stares until I think he´s about to crash. The guys in the cars not only stare, but they honk too. I just wave and try not to smile (since I learned not to smile at foreign men while I was in Europe). But I always smile anyway, I can´t help it. They are so funny. It´s like they´ve never seen a white person before! We are the freak show of Merida. When we`re on the bus and there´s no room to sit down we just sand and hold the bars. The driver of the bus stop and goes a lot so when we fall over nobody laughs except for us. I think they`re very serious.

School at 7 AM!

Yes, classes on Tuesdays and Fridays start at 7 AM. But breakfast is at 5:30 AM so I wake up early every day.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of classes. I´ve been so scared, but it´s not too bad so far. I like it. I just got out of class (there is only 5 people in my class and the teacher is a native to Merida so I hope I`ll learn fast).

Did I say already that there is 4 of us in the house. Two per room. Well I`m here at school with Alyssa and we realized that our other two roommates (the two in the advanced Spanish class) left. And Alyssa and I are both directionally challenged. So we are stuck at school... too afraid to get on the bus alone. We found our teacher but he has another class to teach. *sigh* I`m in Mexico... speaking a language I can only half understand. Sometimes not even half. Well, I´m gonna try to get home now.

P.S. I love you family. And I miss you mucho!

Estoy en México!!!

I'm here. In México. It's humid. I feel sticky. Anyway, I just got back from the supermercado. So, I got in yesterday and the sister of the mother of the family I'm staying with picked us up. The family is out of town till Friday. School starts tomorrow. 7 AM.


I'm tall here. Like the tallest person in the whole city besides my roommate who is an inch taller than me. The little  man at the grocery store called us giants. Ha. I like  this place so far.

GROWING UP

^ That's what I'm doing. Growing up. I thought I was grown up when I turned 12 and started bleeding once a month. But then I turned 16 and started driving. I realized 12 was nothing and I hadn't grown up until then, when I got my own car. Then I thought I was grown up when I graduated from high school. Then, when I moved away from home and went to college, I knew I'd grown up. But now I know... I will never ever grow up.

I'm leaving for my study abroad to Mexico on Tuesday. I'm soooooo scared! I know I will sound like an idiot and embarrass myself and speak ugly Spanish. Ugh. If you want to hear my embarrassing stories then keep yourself posted, I will write about them here.

I'm growing up. Not quite there yet, but I'm trying.

End of the school year, BAD managers, lovely weather

FINALS

I have my last final tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Well, technically it's this morning, since it's 1:30 right now. My final tomorrow is for History of the English Language. I'm not ready for it, but I don't know how to study. I suck at studying. I also suck at taking tests... no matter how much I study. It's so annoying. My roommate might not even understand what's going on in one of her classes and still get at least a B on the test. Me, on the other hand, I might study for a whole day, totally understand what's going on in class, and still get a D. It's evil.

WEATHER

The good news is that the weather is nice. No more snow! Ha, funny story. My friend Madison was SO excited to come to BYU and live in the snow. A week after the snow started, she asked me, "what was I thinking?" I tried to warn her.


MANAGERS

So, since I don't wanna explain the whole story ('cause it makes me SO mad), I'm just gonna copy and paste the email that I wrote to BYU. But I will change the people's names to protect privacy.

To Whom it May Concern,

     My name is Lauren Mugar and I live at ___________. I have been dealing with an issue here for the past few months that cannot seem to be reslved. Because of the fact that I couldn't resolve this issue with the manager (she refused to talk to me about it) and I couldn't resolve it with the cleaning check lady (since she won't return my calls), I called Joe, the representative for the owner and told him what the problem is. He asked me to write it out in an email and send it to him. This is the letter I sent him (which will explain the problem):

 

 

 

Joe,

            My name is Lauren Mugar and I live in apartment __ at ____________. I talked to you on the phone today and explained my problem to you, but you asked me to email you. I appreciate your time to help me resolve this issue which I have been trying to resolve for about two months now. I signed up to clean the bathroom for cleaning checks a couple months ago. I was not home when the cleaning check lady came over, but when I came home I saw that I had failed because my roommate, Sarah, was in the shower. Sarah felt bad that I was charged $5 so she told me that she would clean the shower for the re-check the next day. The reason it was necessary for the tub to be re-cleaned is because the bottom of the tub, as I told you on the phone, gets dirty very easily. Even if it is bleached and cleaned, as soon as some dirty feet touch the wet tub, there are brown spots until it is cleaned again. I invite you to come over and would welcome you into the apartment to see for yourself or to ask my roommates.

            So the cleaning check lady wrote on the paper that she would be back the next day at 11a.m. at the earliest. She showed up at 10:15, which didn’t even give my roommate or me the chance to re-clean the tub. So I then was charged $25 more. I understand that there are people who do not do a very good job of cleaning. And so I see the hesitancy in addressing my complaint, but it also needs to be understood that this apartment is old and the tub probably hasn’t been waxed in a very long time, which is probably why it gets dirty so easily. I do not doubt that the tub would have been cleaned by 11a.m. I trust my roommate’s word and if for some reason she didn’t, then I would have done it myself. Like I said, though, neither of us had the chance.

            Something I suggested to Helga is that we be given a specified time range for cleaning checks—an hour of time or so in which the cleaning check will occur. This is how cleaning checks have been organized at my previous apartment complexes. I don’t believe that Helga even made a note of my suggestion. Instead she was very defensive in a situation where I was only asking for her help and offering a suggestion that would be appreciated by many, if not all, of the residents here. I am not the only one with this complaint, but many have made it clear that we cannot be expected to stop our lives for a day for cleaning checks. In the past, if there was something not clean enough, the cleaning check lady has said that she would move on to the next apartment and has asked us to come and find her when we re-cleaned it, so that she could pass it. I appreciate that kindness, as do all of my roommates. She has done that when nobody was in the shower or blocking her from seeing the area that needs to be checked. Because of the fact that I had absolutely no control over the situation, she should have been considerate enough to do that this time so that I would not be charged for something completely out of my hands.

            Because of the fact that you said you trust your employees to make good decisions, I truly appreciate the time you are giving me to hear my side of the story. But I do want to tell you that Helga has done some things that I think are completely unprofessional, immature, and rude. I do not want to blame her. I know nothing of her background and for all I know, she may not have any management experience, but I do believe that my situation was dealt with badly. When I came to her office with this complaint, she kindly took away the $25 fee. I assume she did so because she understood that it was not my fault. She asked that I talk with the cleaning check lady about the $5 fee. I called her multiple times and left a message, but she never called me back. Maybe she was too busy, or maybe she knew that what she had done was wrong. So I went back to the office. I told Helga of my situation and how I could not get a hold of the cleaning check lady to work out this problem. So again, I tried to see if it could be resolved with the managers. She got really defensive and told me it wasn’t her fault and that I should stop arguing with her. Of course it’s not her fault! She’s not the one who did the cleaning check or who charged me. I was not blaming her nor was I arguing with her, but she is the manager, so who else am I supposed to go to with my a problem like this? I was simply telling her how I believed that the situation was unfair and needed to be resolved. She asked me why my roommate was showering during cleaning checks. Well, because, like I mentioned, we are not given even an approximate time of when cleaning checks will occur. We are not going to wake up at 6a.m. just to take a shower. I didn’t yell or get angry, but she actually kicked me out of her office. This is why I am contacting you, because I do not feel welcomed going back to her. When I told my roommate about my frustration and asked her what I should do, she told me that she once went to the office to tell the manager that the hot water went out and Helga asked her why she was showering at 4 in the afternoon. What kind of question is that? Is it any of her business when we shower? Her job is not to ask us rude and irrelevant questions, but to answer our questions and to help us deal with the problems which occur.

            Honestly, I am tired of dealing with this problem that should have been resolved months ago. It’s only $5 and I don’t understand why it needed to be taken to this level. Time is money and I have spent so much time trying to resolve this issue that it is worth so much more than $5 now. I would really appreciate your help since I cannot communicate with Helga anymore. I would love to just pay the $5 and get this off my hands, but I feel strongly that this issue needs to be resolved so that other people in the future do not have to deal with something as frustrating as this.

Thank you,

Lauren Mugar

 

 

 Joe emailed me back saying that he would meet with Helga and talk about the issue. Today, I got a letter from Helga. My scanner is not working so I can't scan it, but I will type up what it says. I can bring the letter into the BYU Off-campus Housing office tomorrow if that would be helpful.

 

 

The letter says:

Lauren Mugar,

     Due to the hostile nature of your friend we want you to be aware that we have contacted BYU Off-Campus housing and made them aware of the situation we are i. They (BYU) wanted us to let you know that threats of any sort are grounds for eviction and that eviction foes come with penalties. This means that you could be evicted but still be required to pay the remainder of your contract obligations.

     Your contract requires you to pay cleaning fees assessed to you and the $25 cleaning fee was waived for you, and the $5 re-check fee was left in place. This was backward from what should have been done in the situation; you should have been charged the $25 for cleaning and hasd the 4% re-check fee waived. The management team has discussed this item and the charges will stand as they are. We believe you are acting irresponsibly. Joe has included $5.00 from his own wallet to end this issue.

     If you would like to talk about this issue we can set up a time that we can all meet. That includes Helga the on site-manager, Jow the owner's representative, and yourself. Or we can use the BYU mediation system and meet with a BYU officer present.

 

Helga, Manager

manager@bcprovo.com

801 374 5533

                 and $5 was taped here.

 

     First, I just want to say that I'm sorry for this long email. I called Joe but he hasn't called me back and I don't feel comfortable talking to Helga. Honestly, I don't believe speaking to either one of them will help anyway since neither of them are seeing my logic.

     I will start with the beginning of this letter and move down in order.

- First, I have no idea who is being referred to by my hostile friend... a roommate? Me? Cleaning check lady? Helga? None of those answers make sense, but I'm not sure what she is talking about.

- Second, the letter talks about threats and how I can be evicted. I'm not sure why this is brought up... maybe just to warn me not to make any threats, but I have not made a single threat and I never plan on doing so.

- Third, I understand what my contract requires, and I will pay the $5, but the reason I have not simply paid the money and dropped the topic is because I believe this issue should be resolved so that other people do not have to deal with a dishonest debt such as this.

- Fourth, "Joe has included $5.00 from his own wallet to end this issue." This makes me feel as if he is totally blowing off this whole situation. I do not want or need $5. The reason I do not want to pay the $5 is not because I don't have enough money to pay it. It is because I feel that the money was charged to me unfairly. I will pay the 5 dollars, but I do want this situation to be resolved so that future residents do not have to deal with a dishonest system and managers who seem to be unwilling to understand.

- From this letter, it seems that Joe didn't even read my letter. I feel that I made the issue clear in my letter (which was not that I needed $5).

 

 

I am really frustrated with this whole situation and I honestly just want to pay the money and get it off my hands. The problem, though, is that I really feel that it should be resolved because it seems wrong to me to just pay to get it off my hands (that is exactly what it seems Joe has done to me--just given me the money so he doesn't have to deal with it).

I would very much appreciate some help in this matter. Thank you so very much.

Lauren

THEN

BYU sent me an email back saying,  "It sounds to me that your monetary issues have been resolved."

Holy crap! This was NEVER about monetary issues. I might be a college student, but trust me, I have $5.



GOING HOME

I'm happy to be moving out tomorrow and going home. Although, I won't get to be with my family for very long. I'm sad about that. I will only be home for a week before I leave for Mexico for my study abroad. I'm so nervous and only a little bit excited. I'm more excited for it to be over so I can come home and be home for the summer.

Venting... bath tubs, apartment managers, and lies.

Sometimes it feels so good to vent about your frustrations. Other times, you don't even want to think about them.