Made it

This is the first real entry of my Mexico blog, but I'll just go ahead and say it's my second. I'll start with the pre-game. Thank you so much all who came to Shari's night, it was truly wonderful to see you all and I'm sure that when I get back we can do something painfully similar to ring in the new (academic) year. Special thanks goes to my ride to the airport, Alexis, who not only wanted me gone enough to let me go, but so much that she actually took me to the air port herself.

Now for the travels. I woke up around three the morning after shari's (which had me going to bed around one) and got ready to go, which mostly consisted of stressing over things I may have forgotten but couldn't think of. Left the house around four with my driver who was actually both crazy enough and kind enough to get up that early after also being at shari's. Arrived at the airport to find that there was a huge line for the bag check-in. Now this seems a little silly that they even bother having an online check-in for baggage. I get that if you don't have a bag to check and you tell them you're coming it is way faster to get through line... but if you have a bag and you tell them, you still have to wait in line to check it. I don't see the point. So got through the wicked long line and rushed to security, because everyone knows that's the slow part, and got through in about five minutes tops. Met up with some other Queretaro people and just sorta waited until the plane arrived. I slept on my flight to San Francisco, the my flight to Mexico city (after being awake for the two hour lay over in San Francisco), and the bus ride from Mexico City to Queretaro. After the plane landed in Mexico City we decided to eat in preparation for the two hour (actually three hour) bus ride to Queretaro. That was fairly uneventful (except for the horchata I threw away after buying because I forgot I can't have the water here...) and we proceeded on to buy our tickets for the bus. I looked at the amounts on the board and calculated the amount I would give and the change I should expect. After receiving my ticket and change, I looked at it for awhile (to make sure I wasn't missing something with the unfamiliar money) and turned back to the guy in broken spanish and said something along the lines of “possible accident, twenty more”. He looked at me blankly for a second “400 for 256, *holds up change* twenty”. The man pulled out twenty pesos (about two dollars) and handed it to me unapologetically turning quickly to the next customers. My friends looked at me with shock “did he just try to cheat you?” “Probably an accident” I responded despite the fact that my brothers words of advice about not letting people mess you over, even in a small way, was exactly what had me turning back. A two dollar honest mistake would not have been worth the embarrassing misuse of Spanish. We arrived at the bus station in Queretaro, after a long ride through some really nice areas as well as some others that kinda looked like those commercials with that Christian guy who wants you to support shoeless children's education, and had to figure out how to get a taxi to the part of town with the hotels. Getting the taxis was surprisingly easy, and the driver was very nice. The whole experience would have been outstanding but for the questionable driving, the fact that rules of the road are really more like vague ideas, and complete lack of seatbelts (my brother's other piece of advice that I had to ignore, not through any choice of my own). Fortunately the scary driving gave me inspiration to talk to the driver (perhaps he would have less motivation to kill us all) and later look out the side window for distraction when the driver seemed completely uninterested in conversing or possible was too confused by me terrible Spanish and thick accent. Through the window I saw other drivers doing their own crazy seatbeltless things, lots of people on motorcycles (helmets optional), and a couple of prostitutes. The driver dropped us off at the Hotel and helped us with our bags, so I tipped him, as much for the custom as for the not killing us. The night was fairly uneventful and consisted of three of us looking for a hotel room because the hostel we had was really far away (we went to the hotel because we were supposed to meet our resident director there, but we arrived later than planned so she was not). After getting a hotel we wondered a bit and then headed back to some sleep. Upon waking up I decided to take a shower and realized that hot water was really not an option. So, one freezing cold shower and bruised elbows due to the tiny bathroom and therefore hazards of toweling off, I exited the bathroom, packed up my stuff, and we began to wander in search of the rest of the group. Everything up until after breakfast went very smoothly, and I decided that instead of hailing a cab and getting a ride to my host families house, that I should walk to get to know the town. So I walked. My map at the ready and asking directions from people whenever I got lost (a surprisingly large number of times) I slowly made my way to the correct part of town. My biggest problem came when I walked down a small street expecting the road I needed to be in the right, however, there was only a huge wall with razor wire on top. The map didn't bother to explain that the road didn't actually run through there, it was just pretending and what I actually needed to do was walk an additional mile past that to get to the other side of the secure community in which my family lives. All in all the walk took me a little over an hour (it was far, hot, my bags were heavy and the altitude here is over 6,000 feet), so you can imagine the surprise my host mother experienced when she found out that I had walked all the way from the center of town. I waited for the security guard to get off the phone with Senora Rodriguez, after he finished (the conversation that lead up to him believing I was supposed to be there was fairly comical) he told me that he spoke a little English. He then asked my what I thought of the country, I responded with an enthusiastic and earnest “Muy bonita!” He looked at me flatly and said, “yes Americans come here for a short time and love it, but to live here is bad”. I sort of shifted the weight on my feet uncomfortably and gave a forced nod of pity and agreement when actually trying to not show how much I felt it unfair to be the bad guy all of the sudden. He continued to rant about how much he did not like his work and how America's big problem is that we have too much work (after actually laughing at me when I told him I was in Queretaro to learn Spanish). Fortunately Senora Rodriguez called back and I was no longer to wait but to walk down the road and meet her. I gratefully speed off down the road.

So here I am at the house that will be mi casa for the next three months. I'm skipping over a bit because it was just more or me awkwardly trying to speak this beautiful language with the three incredibly kind and patient people who will be keeping me company and taking care of me, and now it is time for bed. I get to wake up at around 6:00 or maybe 6:30 for the next six weeks. Wish me luck.

I love you all very much, and despite the fact that it is the first day and I am incredibly excited to be here, I have already begun to miss you. I will see everyone when I get back and until then I hope my blogs are enough. If you need more feel free to facebook or email me, but don't expect a speedy response.

-Connor