A Wet Day in Cuernavaca

Today was less exciting than usual. I had a delicious omelet for breakfast with salsa and toast. My literatura class seems to be my most difficult class, definitely more difficult than I expected. It might get easier, but the first story we're reading is difficult for me to comprehend. I have enough trouble reading in English, I find reading in Spanish to be even more difficult. My conversation class is much easier and we talk about topics that I find interesting and relevant to my life. I had my first Mexican Coke and I also checked the ingredients and no corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup in sight, lol. Fue muy rico y dulce. Me gusto mucho.

Well, for our cultural class, we did Salsa dancing. A lot of people in my class are new to the dance. For the salsa lesson, we just did some basic steps. We then had a Meringue lesson where we did combinations. We didn't have enough boys in the class, so I decided to dance the boy part so I would be able to teach Nick the dance moves when I go back home. It actually was easier than I thought it would be. This one part was really confusing, but I got it eventually. After class we went back for lunch. We had sopa de crema, las albondigas (meatballs), and tortillas. It was really good as Lila's food always is. Real Mexican food is so much better than TexMex. This afternoon was really slow because my roommate and I stayed here doing and avoiding homework, lol. We both have difficult homework we need to do. We had our first tropical rain today, OH! I finished taking pictures of the house today, so I put them all into the above slideshow (I also added a couple of Benji :-]). Anyways, so it started raining, and that didn't go so well because rain's a little difficult to photograph, so I took my t-shirt off, leaving my tank top, and I went outside and just walked around and soaked up the rain. I did soak up the rain, I was pretty wet, lol. So I came back inside and warmed up and everything. My roommate made us mochas with Hershey's chocolate and Mexican coffee which was really good and kept us up pretty late. For dinner, I had quesadillas, which were pretty good. The rest of the evening was spent doing homework and downloading Nigerian music, lol. My roommate told me about all types of music she loves, so I watched videos and Youtube and downloaded some. I also got my school ID today and the picture actually turned out nice. I like my ID. It also has my address on it, which is helpful, lol. The picture is of me soaked in rain water, and my roommate in the background, lol.

The Second Day of Classes

Today wasn't as eventful as yesterday. For breakfast, though, Lila made a really interesting dish for me. It was ham and cheese fried between to tortillas with salsa. It was actually really good, I'll have to remember that one. Well, I had classes today, and in my conversation class we had a packet so we could talk about suenos, dreams. We also work on pronunciation in that class, and today, my teacher FORCED me to drop my Spanish accent and I had to pronounce my "c" like an "s" instead of a "th" which was harder than I thought it would be because I would see the letters and want to pronounce it like a "th" but my teacher wants me to speak like a Mexican, so she made me drop my accent. To please her, I'm trying to practice changing my accent and so now I do sort of a mixture. I say the "th" less and less but still once in a while, I say it. So, for lunch, we had sopa y pescado con salsa. I don't usually like fish, but this was really good. And, of course, ate it with a tortilla. Oh! And the tortilla cozy is called a tortillario. My mom wants some, lol. So, after lunch, my roommate and I went upstairs and I took a nap. We then went to the supermarket. We actually wanted to go to Wal*Mart because there some things we needed that we thought we could really only get at a department store, turns out we're right. But, there are like two streets and one goes to the Wal*Mart and the other goes to the Sam's Club. (Yes, there is a Wal*Mart, Sam's Club, and even a Costco and Home Depot.) Apparently we took the street that goes to the Sam's Club but right next to the Sam's Club is a supermarket, so we went there and my roommate and I bought a few things we needed and a few things we didn't need like galletas y dulces, lol. In total, I only spent $960 pesos (which is about $9.60 in American dollars) Considering what I bought, that's not a lot. And the above picture is of me outside the supermarket. So, we walked back and on our way, a handsome guy who looked about 26 or so started flirting with my roommate. We were almost home! It was funny because she's married and I'm pretty sure older than he is. He was polite, more polite than the men who kept cat-calling us as we walked and he totally respected Oyinna and politely left us alone when she told him she had a husband, which is refreshing. For dinner, since Lila had class after 5, her housekeeper cooked me tacos. For cultural class today, we cooked tacos, but I wasn't feeling well so I didn't last too long. Oyinna said they were good. By the way, I just counted the number of mosquito bites I received over the past two days, mostly yesterday, and I have seven on my left leg and ten on my right. 17 total. Not the happiest camper, lol. Well, the tacos here are not like in america. The tacos we made in cooking class and that I had for dinner were boiled potatoes mashed together and spread onto corn tortillas. The tortillas were then rolled up and fried and served with salsa y queso on top. I didn't have cheese this evening but there was cheese earlier. My roommate and I ate by ourselves and spent a quiet evening at home. There wasn't so much lightening today as there was yesterday or the day before but there was a little. As always, I can hear the birds and crickets from my open window.

El Primer Dia de Clases

Today was my first day of classes. The campus is so beautiful! Very large, spacious, in a villa style. Almost all the classes are outside, both of mine are. My class schedule changes every week, I get a new teacher and class "room" (I use quotations because most of the classes are at tables scattered throughout campus) I have a grammar class that's about 2:30 hrs long, a conversation class that's about 1:40 minutes long, and a cultural class that's about 50 minutes long. In my grammar class this week, we're reading about different Latin American writers. Today we learned about Manuel Gutierrez Najera and read his poem "Desde Entonces." In my grammar class, there are three students including myself. My conversations class is me, another student, and our teacher. All we do is talk. Today we talked about social justice and film. When speaking with most of the other students outside the classroom, they mostly speak English or like, a combination, so it's nice to have at least a few hours a day where we just talk in Spanish. For our cultural class, we made "Pulseras". The picture is of my bracelet. I got a little confused. The knot is supposed to wrap around the bracelet but because of the way I tied it, it goes in like a zig zag, lol. Oh, well. Well, Lila picked Oyinna and I up at school when classes were over. At home, we had lunch which was a soup, I unfortunately can't remember the name. It was a Mexican dish I can't really describe the broth. It wasn't really spicy but I think it had oil in it. The color was orange and it had chopped noodles, so i could use a spoon to eat the noodles. We also ate croissants, salad, fresh vegetables again, and corn tortillas. OMG!!! There's this really cool thing, I'll ask Lila what' it's called tomorrow, but it's like (my mom called it a tortilla cozy) it's two insulated pot holders sew halfway together and you put the tortillas inside to keep them warm. It was so cool! Of course, when I told my mother of these wonders she wanted one, lol. Well, after lunch, my roommate and I were still quite tired so we took a nap. Afterwards, us three ladies went to Cuernavaca Plaza which is like a shopping mall. There were many really nice stores and everything. We went to buy a sim card for my roommate's phone but she ended up not needing it, so we went to un restaurante for drinks. The name of the restaurant is Sanborns and apparently it's a chain that's all over Mexico. My roommate had 2 Margaritas (it was happy hour so it was 2-for-1), my host had tequila and Coke, and I had a Pina Colada. That's the life! Drinking Pina Coladas in the evening in tropical Mexico. We were there for like two hours talking about our families and Lila told us a lot about the city of Cuernavaca. It was such a relaxing evening. We met one of her friends who bought us drinks. We didn't want any, but my host got another Tequila that she didn't want, and my roommate and I got coffee. He tried talking to me in English but I kept talking to him in Spanish. One thing I notice about the culture, is there doesn't seem to be much rules about traffic aside from obeying lights and signs. I don't think my host has used her blinker yet. People drive fast, I don't believe I've seen a speed limit sign yet, lol. And pedestrians don't have the right of way so a person must be careful when crossing the street. I'm not trying to speak negatively of Mexican drivers, it's just interesting to see because traffic laws in the USA are very strict so it's interesting to see a culture where traffic laws are, like, not, lol. It's interesting. I'm really enjoying my time here. Me gusta mi escuela, la comida, mi companero, mi madre, la ciudad y la cultura.

New Arrival

I just arrived at my new home for six weeks. My host mother is named Lila. A driver picked my roommate and I up from the airport in Mexico City to here. The drive was a little over an hour and so beautiful. The area is so green. As we drove to Cuernavaca, we climbed hills and hills surrounded by trees. We could look out and see the vast forest with Mexico City nestled in the valley. Along the road to Cuernavaca, we saw little stands selling fruit and roasting corn. There were little restaurants too that instead of being in buildings were underneath tarps with plastic chairs and tables. We saw lots of corn farms, and my roommate, Oyinna, and I want to try Mexican corn because we both love corn. As we drove along, I read the signs to see if I could understand. Most of them I could figure out if I didn't already know. Well, we arrived at our new, temporary home where our hostess greeted us warmly, as did her dog Benji, lol. Lila showed us to our room and served us dinner which was really good. Fresh vegetables and seasoned carne. Muy delicioso. :-) The house is gorgeous. The building itself isn't necessarily big, probably a little smaller than my parent's house, but the outdoors is enormous. She has two terraces and the lawn wraps around the house with plenty of room for running around and enjoying maybe some soccer or something. When the lighting's better I'll take pictures and post a virtual tour. The temperature is moderate with a little humidity. Haven't seen much of the sun, mostly clouds. It is rainy season so probably will rain. Sun would be nice, though, lol. I can hear the thunder, and I turned the lights off so I can see the light from the lightening. I'm definitely in the tropics. This reminds me of when I was in Puerto Rico with my dad and we sat on the balcony and watched the lightening and listened to the thunder over San Juan. I am definitely in the tropics, haha. I can also hear birds and crickets. This is such a nice area, I'm quite lucky and grateful to live here.

Well, tomorrow is my first day of classes. I have no idea what to expect so I'm really nervous. I hope I'm challenged enough or not too much, depending, lol. So far my Spanish has gotten me pretty far. I made it through immigration and customs, and I've been able to communicate with my driver and hostess; hold conversations with them. I just have a weird feeling that something's going to go wrong, and I have no idea what it is and I'm probably just paranoid but I have a weird feeling that SOMETHING will go wrong.

On a more positive note, I brought my hostess Ghiradelli chocolate and she was so happy when I gave it to her.

Pre-Departure Assessment

All week I've been so anxious about the trip. I remember when I first decided to go to Mexico, I kept saying, "Yes! I'll be staying with a host family, I'll only speak Spanish, I'll eat Mexican food all the time, I'll be gone for six weeks all by myself." Now, instead of commencing that with a "Yes!", I've been saying those same things but commencing the speech with an, "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" whilst removing my hair from my scalp. Actually, more like biting nails, headphone cords, and pens but you get the idea. I don't know why I'm so worried. I know everything will be fine, but I just don't know what to expect. What if I can't get along with my host? What if I have trouble with classes? What if I don't get along with my roommate? What if...I suppose there's not much use in "what if"s. All I'll really miss in the US are my friends and family. I'm going to be so busy, I won't have much time to call my family and Nick. I don't know how often I'll go on Facebook. I don't really want to get on. I kinda want to disconnect from other people for a bit. Maybe I'll go on Facebook once in a while. I won't have much access to the internet unless I go to an internet cafe. I'll have friends down there, and I'll have homework. Ah! I don't know. I know everything will be just fine. I just - am really nervous. Some things I am excited about are Coke made of cane sugar instead of corn syrup (bleck!), the weather, the food, the classes, and the excursions. :-) I don't want to bring Molly in case something happens to her, and she's a little big/bulky and I don't want anything to happen to her, so I think I'll take my little pig Nosey to sorta help me with my transition.

I have seven goals I hope to accomplish while in Mexico.

1. Be able to speak Spanish almost fluently
2. Be able to write in Spanish
3. Learn to pray in Spanish
   
4. Learn to cook at least one real Mexican dish
5. Learn more about the Mexican people and culture
6. Become closer to God and his people
   
7. Have a better understanding of my place/purpose in this world

I'm going to keep a journal everyday while I'm away. I will try to write my journal in Spanish. We'll see how that goes, lol. I did that when I was in Spain (except for the Spanish part, I journaled in English), and I was quite detailed. In fact, I started my Mexico journal already. :-) It's just one page and in English, but still. I was so proud of myself! I have a binder all organized where I'll keep all my documents, my journal, and school notes and other various papers. This blog entry actually made me feel better; I was really nervous a while ago, but now I feel better. I think what helped with feeling better is listing my goals and hopes for Mexico instead of sitting around worrying about everything. I'm sure as I approach my flight, I will feel even more nervous.

Today was busy. I ran around running errands and packed. I bought a new computer that's really awesome and perfect for me. I couldn't sleep last night because I was still really anxious. For positive and negative reasons. I'm more excited now than nervous. It's surreal to think how soon I'm leaving and that I'm actually leaving in just a few hours. I know everything will go well, I'll have a great time, and I'll learn a lot and it'll be a great experience, but I just, I have no idea what's going to happen or what to expect. I guess we'll see.