Oooo la gripe

I have to admit. I spent two days stressing out about the swine flu or "la gripe porcina". I read everything I could, I informed my roommate, she laughed as I launched into explanations I had read in the NY Times and the Economist. People began arriving in Spain infected with the flu, and mask-covered pedestrians started sprouting up everywhere on my walks home. A bit unnerving when people are dying in México.

Another principal worry of mine was my friend Margarita and her family, who had returned to México City in January after spending a year working in Seattle. She had sent me a new email in March with their new phone number in the DF house but I had yet to get a hold of them. Increasingly worried, I called them the other day and Diana, her 15 year old daughter picked up. This is a synopsis of the conversation:

Diana: Hello
Maya: Diana!!!!
Diana: Hi Maya, how are you? (Apparently my gringa accent gives me away)
Maya: Oh my gosh, are you ok? Is everyone ok?
Diana: Yeah we are fine.
Maya: Are you sure, everyone is fine??
Diana: Yeah, we are fine, what's up?
Maya: Ummm, I was worried!
Diana: Why?
Maya: The swine flu!
Diana: The what?
Maya: The SWINE FLU!
Diana: Oh, that.

Apparently they weren't really too worried about it, even though everything was shut down, and according to them the subway was practically empty and everyone was walking around in masks. As Mariana, my roommate from Venezuela, put it, "Maya, que nosotros latinos estamos acostumbrados a movidas. Esta gripe no es nada para nosotros." Translation: "We latinos are used to crazy things going down. This flu isn't anything." So I have stopped worrying, and if the flu hits Madrid "a saco" I will deal with it then. No hay que flipar.