Mi primer dia

My first day in Cuernavaca...

     Today couldn't have gone any smoother than it did. I said good bye to mom and dad at O'Hare at about 4 a.m. this morning and walked right to my terminal. Before I knew it I was in North Carolina boarding my connecting flight to Mexico City. At this point I was getting a little nervous because I could already tell that things were getting less and less "American".

    God must have been listening to my prayers because he seated me right next to another college student who was traveling with her mother for a business trip. Her mom was Mexican and her father, Chilean, which meant she was fluent in spanish (I also found out she was fluent in Portuguese, French, and of course English). We talked about school, spanish, and she gave me a few pointers about Mexico. After a 3 hour plane ride (which I slept most of) I woke up to look out my window and see the coast of Mexico followed by mountains peaking through the clouds, winding rivers, cities, farmland, towns, etc. I could definitely tell that I was no longer in Wisconsin, or the U.S. for that matter. Before I got off the plane, I exchanged e-mails with my new friend, Maria, and got a business card from her mother who said to call or stop by at any time if I ever needed anything. 

   I ended up following Maria y su madre to the baggage claim, customs, and they even waited with me until I found my driver, Javier. We went our separate ways and I followed Javier to his silver volkswagen, and off we were. 

  Driving through Mexico city was crazy! I saw 3 people piled onto a tiny yamaha motorcycle(all in winter coats- it was 90 degrees when i got here) , people hitchhiking on the freeway, a mexican army convoy, people almost getting hit on the freeway trying to sell snacks to people in their cars, and everything else in between. Oh and of course plenty or McDonalds. The drive to Cuernavaca didn't take as long as I thought, but I also didn't think I would be going over 100 miles per hours the whole way there. Oh well!

   I arrived at my host family's home and was greeted by my host mother, Maria, who told me to call her "Coco" and her little white dog. She welcomed me with a big kiss on the cheek and helped me carry my things up 3 flights of stairs to where I would be staying. Not soon after, were were sitting in her kitchen with freshly made juice that she called 'agua'. We talked for a while, I went to unpack, and was called down to eat around 3:30. Her son-in-law and niece- who is 10 and extremely adorable- joined us and from what I understood,  they join Coco for lunch every day, which will be fun. We sat down, watched Harry Potter in Spanish, and had a veggie soup, rice dish, salad, and a tuna and cheese pie. It was all delicious!

  She wouldn't let me help clean up so I went back to unpacking, took a cold shower, managed to almost flood the shower, and here I am now sitting at the kitchen table.

   Tomorrow I have my orientation at the Universidad Internacional, where I will be studying. It includes a tour of the university, placement testing, and a tour of Cuernavaca. There's also another student living at my house for her last week abroad that I will meet tomorrow. Well, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get some sleep since I got about a total of 3 hours in the last 24 hours. Talk to you soon, miss you already!- Just kidding! Coco just came into my room at 9:30pm and asked if i wanted to have dinner with her... guess sleep will have to wait!

view from the top of the stairs by my bedroom 2 stories below. Pretty fountain and plants, but don't quite understand the huge stuffed bear sitting in the chair?

cool picture on her wall

My humble abode. I get the whole room to myself and my own bathroom :)