Aventura Uno

Day 1: August 5, 2014

Well, I did it. I really made it to Mexico!!!! I am currently sitting on a bright green couch in my new little family’s house. I live with a young brother and sister (who are 21 and 16) and my new American compañera de cuatro (roommate). If I had known this morning that this is where I would be tonight, I think I would have been a little less stressed out. It was a little bit of a crazy day. 

I woke up at 3 am to catch a flight in Portland at 6 to Dallas/Fort Worth. On the plane, I sat next to a young man named Ali (name changed-but still, I didn’t find out his name till 3 hours later when we landed. Obviously I get the most important things out of the way first..). Ali was going to Georgia to re-enlist in the army. He and I became pretty fast friends. He had an amazing story. Ali told me that he was born in Afghanistan and that his dad had been a journalist for the only English newspaper in Afghanistan and had been writing some details about the Taliban that they didn’t appreciate. Ali’s family soon found out through some pretty secretive procedures that his dad was on the hit list....near the top. Their family applied for citizenship in several other countries and two years later, Ali and his immediate family moved to the United States when he was 16 years old. Crazy. You would never have known this man had seen so much pain.  He smiled easily and laughed during our counversation but he grew pretty serious as we moved to religion and we talked about the purpose of life and I encouraged him to pray about it as we talked about the existence of God and things. We talked for about 2 hours and the time on the plane flew by. It was a great experience. I made it through my next flight to Querétaro and with my terrible Spanish in hand my adventure began. I arrived at the airport and met up with a Mexican student from the Tech (short for Tecnológico de Monterrey) to pick up those of us coming to school there. The three of us piled in a van and were dropped off at the Tech. The van driver asked for my name and I told him and he either didn’t believe that was my name or had never heard it before because he kept asking what it was. Haha.

 I never did get in contact with my family (mistake number 1) and my only train of thought once I got off that van was just to make it to my host family’s house. I grabbed the nearest taxi cab driver and showed him (in my terrible Spanish) where I wanted to go and made him take me there (mistake number 2). He kept asking me what my name was. I really don't think they've ever heard my name before. I only had American dollars (mistake number 3) and overpaid him by 6 dollars because he didn’t have change for my American money. I knocked at the door of my family and no one answered. I soon realized that no one was home so I sat on the steps of the house and called the number I had for my host mother. A sweet Mexican woman answered, (not my host mother) and she told me that my host mother would be at work until 6. So I told her, in my terrible Spanish, that I would wait the 45 minutes until she got home. I sat talking with my real mom on the phone for about 10 minutes until the young man that I now know lives here drove up and told me that he and his sister and my new roommate were looking for me over at the school. He drove me back over to the school where I met them and we all drove back to their home. Embarrassing. And a waste of ten dollars. BUT…I had the Mexican taxi experience. And had a momentary feeling of being alone and lost in a foreign country where no one could understand me (hopefully the only time that will ever happen. But not likely.) I apologized all over the place and they laughed and took us back and made us a delicious soup and pescado (fish), arroz (rice) with lettuce and a tomato and a tortilla. It was lovely. I’ve been getting sooo much practice in my Spanish because neither sibling speak English very well and thankfully, they are very patient with my Spanish!! I have my own beautiful little room and desk and closet. My roommate and I share a little bathroom. Their home is small and lovely and humble. I don’t think they can say my name either, but I love them already. Tomorrow, I hear, is supposed to be even crazier. We have orientation with the school from 9am- 4pm. And we're taking the bus. Plane, bus, taxi, and van all in two days. Can't wait. :)
PS-here's just a couple pictures from today. I promise I'll take more soon! It's BEAUTIFUL here.

I look tired because I'm way tired. Can't wait to not be tired. But also so so happy to be here. :)

My cute little room! With TILE! So brilliant.