1st Day in Mexico

What an exhausting experience so far!! Yesterday was perhaps one of the longest days of my life (although not too bad overall). I had to wake up at 2:30 am to leave for the airport by 3 am. That’s right!! 2:30 in the morning…not a whole lot later than when I normally wake up!!! Not to mention there was a distinct lack of sleep during the time that I was actually trying to sleep. I was excessively nervous the night before…butterflies in my stomach, tossing and turning. A generous estimate of the amount of sleep that I actually got is probably around 2 and a half hours or so. Yet somehow I managed to survive until we went to bed at 10 (central time…so 11 eastern). Nathan took me to the airport in Detroit (about an hour and a half drive from where we live) and stayed with me until I got in line for security. It was the most depressing part of my day….saying goodbye to him was heartbreaking. But I know that we’ll make it through this distance and be stronger for it. I’m sure that there will be many days ahead when thoughts of marrying him and our future together are all that keep me going in this foreign environment.

The first plane ride was rather boring to be honest. I had a window seat and both of the girls in my row were younger (although quiet). I tried my hardest to sleep…but I just couln’t get comfortable (you were right Nathan!! I needed one of those neck pillows!). After a rather uneventful 2 hour and 40 minute flight I arrived in Dallas. I don’t know what I was expecting…but the enormity of the Dallas airport was a little overwhelming. I had to take a sky train thingy to gt to the right gate. I ate some chicken tenders and went to sit down for the 3 and a half hour layover. After awhile of sitting around I saw 2 girls around my age walk by and lo and behold one of them had CIC written on a piece of tape on her luggage. I went up and introduced myself to them and we all sat down and started talking. More and more people from the group kept arriving and we all kept ourselves occupied by chatting. We had our passports verified and filled out our immigration forms before boarding the flight. The plane from Dallas to Leon, Mexico was significantly smaller than I was expecting.  I did end up sitting next to a girl from my program which was nice, but not unexpected since we took up nearly the entire plane. This flight seemed to take a little longer even though it was actually shorter and we even arrived early. I think that it’s because I was starting to get nervous again. Not to mention the fact that small planes just don’t fly as smoothly as large ones! As we neared our destination…the ride got bumpier and bumpier due to the mountains. I got to experience that lovely sensation of having your stomach go up to your throat a couple of times. Who needs roller coasters when you can fly in a small plane!

Finally we were there!! We climbed down the stairs and onto the tarmac and we had officially arrived in Mexico. Of course we weren’t really officially there yet since we hadn’t gone through customs yet! We went through the first customs stop where took your papers and stamped your passport. Then we went to the baggage pick-up for international travelers and it was a chaotic mess of CICers getting their stuff. Seeing the amount that a lot of girs packed made me feel a lot better. I had only packed one checked bag and two carry-ons…and nothing exceeded the 50 lb weight limit. The 43 lb suitcase was quite enough for me to handle! I can’t imagine having two that size. Next up was customs. They x-rayed all of our bags and then you went up to talk to someone. They had me press a red button and then a red light came on so they had to go through my bags. Yay for being unlucky on the random baggage check front! Haha. It wasn’t really a big deal though…the lady who went through my luggage was nice and we talked about how I was studying abroad. I don’t think she looked very closely…just opened the bags and looked  inside pretty much. Then we all met up again on the other side of customs and waited for everyone. Then it was into large vans to head from Leon to Guanajuato.

Our van was the last from our wave of arrivals to get there and I quickly found my luggage again. There was a lady calling out names and introducing students to their host parent(s). My host father and his son were there to pick me up. Then it was into the car and on our way to the house since my roommate had arrived a couple hours earlier. It was a slightly awkward car ride…but not too bad since they kept pointing out places of interest. The streets in Guanajuato are a mess…seriously, they are twisty and since the city is built in the valley of a mountain they have almost no rhyme or reason as to where they are. It took quite awhile to get to the house. Finally we arrived at the house! I met the rest of the family my “new mom: and my new little sister In total there are four people in the family: the mom (Edith), the dad (Alfredo), a son who is 9 years old (Fernando), and a daughter who is 7 years old (Alejandra). They are a wonderful family, very nice and welcoming. Plus the kids are a wonderful distraction. They are very amusing and a good source for conversation. Jessica (my roommate) and I share a bedroom, the two kids share a room, and of course the parents have their own room. The house is very nice. It’s located pretty high up in relation to the center of the city and has a WONDERFUL view of Guanajuato. So far my only complaint about our house is that I have a SUPER flat pillow. And if that’s my only complaint, then I think that I’m doing pretty good. Tomorrow we are going to the “mega” store and I’m hoping to be able to buy another pillow.  

The family had already eaten lunch (they call it la comida), which is the biggest meal of the day in Mexico, so when I got there they had food waiting for me to eat. It was fish tacos, which were actually pretty tasty! It was a little strange to be the only one eating when everyone was sitting around the table…but we were all talking and it wasn’t too bad. After that we rested for about an hour in our room and then it was time to see the city.

My roommate and I in downtown Guanajuato

We walked around the city for 2 or 3 hours and saw some of the sites. The central plaza is absolutely gorgeous and the city is beyond picturesque. The kids wanted to eat pizza so we had Dominos for dinner. Haha…yep, on my first day in Mexico I ate Dominos pizza! Then we all climbed into a cab and went home. By then it was 9 pm and we just took showers and went to sleep for the night. I was sooooo exhausted by that point in time. However, I had a really hard time sleeping because of that tiny pillow that I mentioned before.

Well, that aut describes my first day in Mexico. I’ll try to update as often as possible…but internet access is rather limited so far.