Bienvenido a Mexico

Today my host mom walked me to school. Well, to El Centro de Estudios Para Extranjeros (CEPE) where I’ll be taking classes with about thirty other students. She stopped every few minutes to explain the directions and point out helpful landmarks. When we got to CEPE the other people in my program were waiting with Cassandra on the steps outside. Tere and Cassandra greeted each other warmly and then my host mom left me with my new compañeros.

There are only two other people in my program, Nikita and Elan. I think there are so few people because when I was deciding which study abroad program I wanted Swine Flu was just getting started in Mexico, so that probably scared off a lot of people. During our little orientation session Cassandra said this program has had twenty or so people in it before, but not this year.

We talked a lot about Guadalajara; navigating the bus system, finding good places to eat, etc. We also talked about the excursions we’re going on. Among the one’s I was excited about (Agua Caliente, whale watching in Puerto Vallarta, cooking lessons) we’re also going to go to a real football (soccer) game in a few weeks. Apparently, Nikita and Elan are only going to be here for 10 weeks, so Cassandra said I could request whatever excursions I wanted in the last 5 weeks when it will be just me in the program.

After leaving the café where we had our orientation we walked around the neighborhood and Cassandra pointed out good cafés and restaurants on our twisted route back to CEPE. My host brother, Manuel, was waiting there to walk me back to the house. He’s 20 years old and studying construction (I think) in college. We stopped at a farmacia on our way back so that I could buy shampoo and all that stuff. When we got back to the house I gave Tere the presents I brought for her and her family. They especially got a kick out of the toy I brought for Duke (a colorful ball made of thick rubber bands).

Around 3 Tere invited me to go to Zapopan, a town nearby, to visit her other daughter. Well, it turned out to be a regular family gathering with her daughter, her daughter’s husband and kid, and the husband’s parents. It was so cute how all the grandparents doted on the little boy, Poncho, calling him my heart, my love, my life, and various other terms of endearment. I couldn’t understand most of what was going on (and we were there for four hours) but I did have some really good food. Spaghetti with a light cheese sauce, meat in a spicy chile verde, guava juice, and sweet potatoes soaked in syrup and milk.

Now we’re back at the house and a new girl has arrived. Of course her name is Katie so it’s going to be a little confusing. She’s also going to CEPE but her program doesn’t sound as good as mine, so I had to explain to her that we have to go to school at 9 tomorrow and take some placement tests. Katie had a really bad traveling experience and she seemed really defeated so I tried to cheer her up. Hopefully she’ll feel better tomorrow after meeting everyone in the house and getting a good night’s sleep.

¡Hasta mañana!

PS: I bought Takis Fuego today! (Colleen knows what that means)