Arrival

Hey all, I arrived safely in Mexico on Saturday and have decided to start my blog!

My first flight was at 7:05AM from Orlando, so I decided to stay in Orlando overnight. My parents were nice enough to drive me and stay with me to say good bye, and we had a quick snack at TGI Fridays before I went to bed at midnight. On Saturday, I woke up bright and early at 5AM (boo to early mornings) at the hotel so I could check in to my flight. The first flight arrived in Dallas after about 2.5 hours, and I had to hurry to catch my next flight, which was to leave in only 30 min.! On my way to the terminal I saw a currency exchange counter, so I quickly exchanged about $50USD into Pesos, then hopped onto the plane, which was already almost done with boarding.

After another 2.5 hour flight, I arrived in Mexico City. As the plane landed, I noticed two things: the smog and how huge the city is. It was picturesque despite the smog, given the mountain ranges. The airport was nicer than I expected, although it was a little confusing to navigate to customs and knowing where to go after claining my bags. I was a little flustered when I asked a security guard where to go, and he could immediately tell I was American. At any rate, I found where I had to go, and I was relieved that right outside of the customs was a person from Cuauhnahuac (the institute I am studying at) holding a sign with my name on it. He helped me with my bags, we went straight to his car, and off we went to Cuernavaca. I couldn't help but smile along the drive, happy to be in Mexico and trying to really understand that I was in Mexico and that I would be staying here for another 6 months. The drive was nice, but I was surprised to see that vendors would sell their items right in the middle of the highway, regardless of traffic! I started falling asleep, but when the driver told me I was in Cuernavaca, I became alert. We passed along the institute, and then went right to my host family, which was all of a 1 min. drive.

I was greeted by Sra. Guadarrama, my host mom, and she showed me to my room (pictured). It is slightly separated from the rest of the house by a small courtyard with a pool, which is nice. There are 2 beds, but right now only I am occupying the room (we'll see how long that lasts for). After I unpacked for a little bit, I had lunch at around 3pm. In Mexico, as my host mom explained, lunch is the main meal of the day and is always around 2:30 or 3pm, while dinner is very light around 7:30-10pm. There was another girl who I met named Elbi, who I think helps around the house, as well as my host parents' 35-year old son, Arturo, who owns a business nearby. I felt a little bit weird that I was the only one eating as my host mom and Elbi watched me, but I was able to chat with my host mom some, and she seems very nice. My host mom gave me a map of the city and explained the main bus routes to me, then basically left me to myself.

After this point, I began to feel somewhat isolated and thought that I was not going to enjoy my stay too much. I'm glad that I had learned some about culture shock and knew that this was normal. I made a few phone calls home (for now I have the international cell plan) which helped, and then decided I would go for a walk. The city as I saw it was not quite what I had pictured, and had less of an urban look than I had thought it would, with few tall buildings. Considering this, I was surprised to see so many car dealerships, but I later discovered that there are many people (around 1 million, more than the number I had read), however, and there is a lot of traffic. I was happy to see some "comfort" places that I could find in the US, like Pizza Hut, KFC, Radioshack, and Office Depot, and I picked up a few items at Office Depot.

After the walk, I came back for dinner, expecting to eat with my host family. I met Dr. Guadarrama, my host father, but once again I ate alone at the dinner table. This time, though, Dr. Guadarrama was eating, but not at the same table - he chose a different one in the kitchen, while Sra. Guadarrama watched me eat again. I still felt a bit strange about this setup, but thought that maybe the family will treat me more like a border and be somewhat stand-offish. After dinner, I came back to my room, did some writing and drawing, then went off to bed.