On my way

Disclaimer; Because of the nature of my trip and the country in which we will be residing, I have opted out of taking my SLR camera. Although it pains me, I am forced to use a camera phone. Any photos herein posted are taken using an iphone 4 and are only a preliminary example of my soon to be developed iphonology skillz, which I’m told is a real and true study.

Well, here we are. June 11, delta flight 1634… delayed due to some generator issue. So, I’m going to take this opportunity to recap on the last few days.

Turbulence

It’s been a crazy week of moving and packing, and moving and packing, shows and pho. We have been living out of suitcases for close to two weeks. I spent this last week studying for finals and my last one was on Thursday for my Modern China class.

Friday night my friends put together a send-off shindig for me. Josh and Mel were so gracious to host the occasion, and I must say I was not disappointed. Hot Dogs, Burgers, Grilled Veggies; hugs and sobby ‘I love you’s’ it was pretty wonderful. The best part was sitting around the campfire until 4 in the morning pounding on instruments and singing altogether.

Awards are as follows:

‘most enthusiastic singer’ is tied between Mel and Macy.

Jordon receives ‘most played instruments’ of course.

Alex wins ‘radical inprov song about Heidi leaving for mexico.'

Pancho gets ‘mvp’

Justin receives ‘we couldn’t have done it without you'

(certificates will be delayed, and may not come at all, but they are printed in my forever memory)

Favoritism is not my thing, and I really love everyone that came. For realz, you made me teary eyed.

Saturday was a very busy day; finishing last minute purchases and getting accounts squared away while I’m gone. I managed to get a pedicure, which never happens, but I figured in the land of the sun it is a necessity.

It seems they are getting the plane up and running, which means we might make it to our next flight. This whole trip feels like some strange out of body experience. So many times this week I have just sat and cried, staring at my luggage, in disbelief. I have worked so hard for this moment, and here I am, on my way.

La Cucaracha

Today is June 11. Yesterday was such a long day. Our plane was delayed and that made flying into Mexico City a little difficult because we were running to catch our flight in Utah. Pero, todo fue bien. We made it, not without a few grumpy children, however.

The aeropuerto en Mexico City is completely different than I expected. Every turn they are checking your bags or taking your picture. On the bus to Cuernavaca, the driver walked around with a video camera and took video of our faces. I misunderstood when he came to me thinking that he was asking me if I had lost a camera. I responded with “No, Gracias, no es mio.”

Finally around 7 pm we made it to Cuernavaca, tired, and hot and then had to do orientation for our school and meet our new parents (well for five weeks anyway)

Our ‘parents’ are actually grandparents. We live on an estate in Cuernavaca that has a huge main house, another family house, and a guest house. Kendra, the boys and I stay in the quaint guesthouse. We have two stories, two bathrooms, a living room and kitchenette.

Cockroaches are gross. On our first night we saw our first cockroach in our house, and ran away leaving it to roam downstairs somewhere.

Our family is huge here, there are so many people I cant remember all their names! We chatted for a while then tried to go to sleep, which was an endeavor in itself. This place is definitely a challenge, but I know it will pay off.

El primer dia en la escuela

Imagine waking up in a country in which you don’t speak the language and your crazy mother expects you to spend your summer vacation attending school in that country, where you are the only blonde hair, blue eyed kid. Yeah. Parker was pretty upset at me. All the way to school he looked as if he was going to explode in tears. However, I walked around the school with him and met his teachers. All the kids in the school wanted to meet him and talk to him, and all the girls made eyes at him. Noah had a good day, he has made friends with the boy, Emiliano, who lives with us.

Today was also my first day in Kukulcan, my school in Cuernavaca. The campus is amazing. It is located in a large mansion and has many buildings and two pools. Half of the day is spent in grammar classes and the other half is conversation and then cultural classes. Today we walked to buy our prepaid cell phones. They cost about 300 pesos and have minutes attached. There is a store here called Mega, and it is like a Target, I felt right at home… minus the security guard with the shotgun. And then returned to sing and dance to Spanish songs.

I still cant believe I’m in Mexico, everything really is very different. The houses are these amazing estates with multiple houses, and yet none are visible. Everything is hidden behind walls. Walls with graffiti. The streets are narrow and the roads have no rules. Pedestrians have no rights and in many cases the cars try and run them over. Door bells are actually doorbells that hang from the inside of the house and you pull on a string.

I had my first experience on a real Cuernavacan autobus tonight, I just returned from downtown. They are hot and crowded, but they are much cheaper than taxi.

We are getting ready to go out to el Centro, the Zocalo of Cuernavaca, which I’m excited about because I’m told the buildings and archetectura are very beautiful.

Hasta luego.