Who´da thunk that I´d be in 2 countries with the "ñ" key in one year?
keyboards. SO confusing.
how has everyone been? it´s weird that it´s only been a few days since i´ve been gone (Since U Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson), but by this point it´s actually been more than a few days, almost a week i suppose. i also suppose that you´ll be wanting to know how mexico has been treating me, and to that i say MUY BIEN, GRACIAS. ehhh.
we arrived here either saturday or sunday; i think saturday, but one can never be sure when flying over night/through the day whether you arrive on the day you left or the next day. adding to this confusion was the fact that we left at 2am, a time that i´m used to being awake, but not driving to the airport and running around to try and make a flight. so yes, that solidifies in my mind that we arrived on saturday. saturday. once we arrived, we drove from mexico city to cuernavaca, which was probably a 3 or so hour drive in our bus. whatever, i´ve gotten really used to driving around a lot and have found it an activity very worthy of my time. we arrived at cuauhnáhuuac (the language school, pronounced "kwanAHwok") in the evening and got picked up by our families. i´m staying with dan and nicky, and our mother is adorable. docile, but adorable. her name is gema, a name she shares with her daughter, and she ahs a son jaime, who is never home, and most definitely a 'mo. la sra. gema is a doll, and she makes us the ill meals. our house is THE BOMB, and as we stepped into it, we realized that not only was it a complete mystery, but one that we would solve no matter what. the house is really hard to explain, but let me try. while most people in our group live in a gated community right around the corner of the school, we live in the opposite direction, most definitely in the barrio. i personally love the fact that we´re in the poorer part of town, as it adds more character and we get a nice 7-minute walk to school every morning. the house itself doubles as a daycare, so that equals many mexicanitos running around as we exite the house every morning. this is the best way to describe it: as you walk in the main door, you enter the daycare, which is a big room with two roms off to the left. on your right right as you walk in, you can see stairs going up to a second floor, which is more daycare, and a thrid floor, which is where her parents live. ontop of that is a fenced off part that appears to be a roof-deck. so as you walk through the ground floor, you step up into the living room/kitchen of her house. it´s all very open, and feels as though you´re still outside even though you´re not. you then go up the stairs on the left and realize that this part of the house resembles a town house, with stairs going up and little mini-floors with rooms jutting off the side. the bathroom comes on the first platform, then on the second are mine, dan, nicky and la sra.´s rooms (dan and i in one room, nicky in the other). sra. gema´s room has a balcony which looks back into the house. so picture a balcony in her room that looks into the cavity where there are no stairs. i know, it´s confusing. on the third floor are gema and jaime´s old rooms, which are uninteresting. then you go up a mini flight of stairs and see the true gem of the house: the roof. the roof is not a deck, or anything special, just a roof. but it looks out onto the entirety of the city, a sight most beautiful at night when all the lights are a-glimmering.
the weather here is always perfect, not too hot, and definitely not too cold. it resembles a late spring/early summer in boston, a time which i find most enjoyable. there are definitely it´s major hot spots, but that´s what the shade, or even the pool, is for. the school is absolutely beautiful, full of little rooms for classrooms all surrounding a main building and a swimming pool (gorgeous as well). school day consists of: grammar from 8-11:30, with 10 minute breaks every half hour or so and then a long break after; conversation from 11:30-1ish maybe? time is weird here. then after that we either have a lecture or an elective, of which are both boring but good for drawing/playing su doku/doing homework. the cafeteria here might be my favorite part. quesadillas or tortas (grilled sandwiches) every day with chicken, cheese, avacado, tomato, lettuce, sour cream, and salsa. anna´s will never be the same. plus, along with everything else in this country, it´s a little less than half the price of what it would be in america. i still haven´t gotten used to speniding the equivalent of 2 dollars for a full lunch, or 45 cents for public transportation. i feel like one of those geezers who tells stories of speniding a dime at the picture show, but...it happens.
because i won´t bore you too much (if you´ve lasted this long, cheers!), i´ll just summarize highlights so far:
- climbing this crazy mountain and eating lunch on the pyramid ruin at the top.
- spending grammar class with my feet in the pool.
- coming home an hour earlier than dan and nicky one night and talking with mom and sis for a while.
- going out to the zocalo (downtown) everynight and riding the bus back.
- lying on the roof before dinner and talking about evolution/planets/the universe (no, we weren´t stoned, we were high on life and on the rooftop and on mexico and on cuernavaca and on it being really warm outside at night.
- hanging out in the plaza at taxco and making fun of dan for buying the douchey-est hat ever.
- long bus rides reading david sedaris and playing su doku.
UM, YEAH.
ok, whoa, i feel lame/obnoxious, but this entry is probably more for my own memory´s sake than it is for all y´all.
much love,
see you on the 25th,
-sam
how has everyone been? it´s weird that it´s only been a few days since i´ve been gone (Since U Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson), but by this point it´s actually been more than a few days, almost a week i suppose. i also suppose that you´ll be wanting to know how mexico has been treating me, and to that i say MUY BIEN, GRACIAS. ehhh.
we arrived here either saturday or sunday; i think saturday, but one can never be sure when flying over night/through the day whether you arrive on the day you left or the next day. adding to this confusion was the fact that we left at 2am, a time that i´m used to being awake, but not driving to the airport and running around to try and make a flight. so yes, that solidifies in my mind that we arrived on saturday. saturday. once we arrived, we drove from mexico city to cuernavaca, which was probably a 3 or so hour drive in our bus. whatever, i´ve gotten really used to driving around a lot and have found it an activity very worthy of my time. we arrived at cuauhnáhuuac (the language school, pronounced "kwanAHwok") in the evening and got picked up by our families. i´m staying with dan and nicky, and our mother is adorable. docile, but adorable. her name is gema, a name she shares with her daughter, and she ahs a son jaime, who is never home, and most definitely a 'mo. la sra. gema is a doll, and she makes us the ill meals. our house is THE BOMB, and as we stepped into it, we realized that not only was it a complete mystery, but one that we would solve no matter what. the house is really hard to explain, but let me try. while most people in our group live in a gated community right around the corner of the school, we live in the opposite direction, most definitely in the barrio. i personally love the fact that we´re in the poorer part of town, as it adds more character and we get a nice 7-minute walk to school every morning. the house itself doubles as a daycare, so that equals many mexicanitos running around as we exite the house every morning. this is the best way to describe it: as you walk in the main door, you enter the daycare, which is a big room with two roms off to the left. on your right right as you walk in, you can see stairs going up to a second floor, which is more daycare, and a thrid floor, which is where her parents live. ontop of that is a fenced off part that appears to be a roof-deck. so as you walk through the ground floor, you step up into the living room/kitchen of her house. it´s all very open, and feels as though you´re still outside even though you´re not. you then go up the stairs on the left and realize that this part of the house resembles a town house, with stairs going up and little mini-floors with rooms jutting off the side. the bathroom comes on the first platform, then on the second are mine, dan, nicky and la sra.´s rooms (dan and i in one room, nicky in the other). sra. gema´s room has a balcony which looks back into the house. so picture a balcony in her room that looks into the cavity where there are no stairs. i know, it´s confusing. on the third floor are gema and jaime´s old rooms, which are uninteresting. then you go up a mini flight of stairs and see the true gem of the house: the roof. the roof is not a deck, or anything special, just a roof. but it looks out onto the entirety of the city, a sight most beautiful at night when all the lights are a-glimmering.
the weather here is always perfect, not too hot, and definitely not too cold. it resembles a late spring/early summer in boston, a time which i find most enjoyable. there are definitely it´s major hot spots, but that´s what the shade, or even the pool, is for. the school is absolutely beautiful, full of little rooms for classrooms all surrounding a main building and a swimming pool (gorgeous as well). school day consists of: grammar from 8-11:30, with 10 minute breaks every half hour or so and then a long break after; conversation from 11:30-1ish maybe? time is weird here. then after that we either have a lecture or an elective, of which are both boring but good for drawing/playing su doku/doing homework. the cafeteria here might be my favorite part. quesadillas or tortas (grilled sandwiches) every day with chicken, cheese, avacado, tomato, lettuce, sour cream, and salsa. anna´s will never be the same. plus, along with everything else in this country, it´s a little less than half the price of what it would be in america. i still haven´t gotten used to speniding the equivalent of 2 dollars for a full lunch, or 45 cents for public transportation. i feel like one of those geezers who tells stories of speniding a dime at the picture show, but...it happens.
because i won´t bore you too much (if you´ve lasted this long, cheers!), i´ll just summarize highlights so far:
- climbing this crazy mountain and eating lunch on the pyramid ruin at the top.
- spending grammar class with my feet in the pool.
- coming home an hour earlier than dan and nicky one night and talking with mom and sis for a while.
- going out to the zocalo (downtown) everynight and riding the bus back.
- lying on the roof before dinner and talking about evolution/planets/the universe (no, we weren´t stoned, we were high on life and on the rooftop and on mexico and on cuernavaca and on it being really warm outside at night.
- hanging out in the plaza at taxco and making fun of dan for buying the douchey-est hat ever.
- long bus rides reading david sedaris and playing su doku.
UM, YEAH.
ok, whoa, i feel lame/obnoxious, but this entry is probably more for my own memory´s sake than it is for all y´all.
much love,
see you on the 25th,
-sam