Leaving on a jet plane...

As my group of 7 set off for Puebla, we made it out of the two feet of snow in Delaware and to Houston where thunderstorms and a botched attempt by Continental to get us out meant we had to spend the night in a Houston hotel. Great times. It was actually a good time to get to know everyone on the trip and at this point, I was no longer nervous about my spanish skills, but just ready to be there. And, because we flew in during the day we were able to see the whole city of Puebla and Cholula with the huge volcano and mountain range in the background and it was beautiful. By the time we made it to UDLA (the university we are studying at) it was noon on Tuesday, and we were running on about two hours of sleep. We had orientation, and a brief tour of the campus. About 8,000 students go to school here so it's about half the size of UD but has everything American universities have - students centers, coffee shops, gyms, lots of greens, etc. Despite being more tired than I think I have ever been, the 70 degree weather and perfect blue skies made me feel better.

The biggest shock was, as expected, the language. Right off the bat, it was all spanish all the time and while I have found that I understand (for the most part) what people are saying, responding adequately will definitely take some practice. The nice things are that they don't really have a heavy accent, and since all my classes are in Spanish, and my host family only speaks Spanish, I have plenty of practice time. I have a feeling after a week or two, my spanish will be so much better as right now I am more trying to remember everything I have learned and it's coming back bit by bit.

Irma, my host mom, is awesome. After picking me up at UDLA, she took one look at me and told me to to sleep as long as I wanted. After taking the best nap of my life, I unpacked my stuff, met my host dad Alejandro for about two minutes, and went back to sleep. Looking back, I didn't even eat because I was so exhausted, which I hope Irma doesn't get used to because clearly I can seriously eat. I am really excited to go back after class today and spend a lot more time with them and find out more about their lives. I also found out that I have to take the bus to school, but 4 of us do so we can go together which is nice. Irma offered me her bike, but considering I am such a klutz and they drive crazy around here, I probably won't follow up on that. I can just see myself hitting a curb like an idiot.

I had spanish class this morning, and I am the only one of the seven not taking a geography/anthropology class so I have a two hour block to myself. It's a bit intimidating because I don't really know my way around campus or how a lot of things work but my game plan is to figure out how to get a locker at the gym and go running during my break or eat at the cafeteria and I guess homework eventually. Today, I opted for coffee and blogging at the open air cafe and I keep laughing because the music will switch from like really intense Mexican music to Taylor Swift, Miley, and Kings of Leon.

While I am still nervous about a lot of things, especially my communication skills, I am just so excited to learn about the culture and make new friends and explore what Mexico has to offer. I think while this might be the weirdest semester of my life, it will never fail to be entertaining.