In case you were wondering, here "¡Qué padre!" is slang for "cool." But it's funny to me, because it literally means, "What father!" But I guess "cool" doesn't make much sense either if you think about it... something that I like is low in temperature?? In any case, I'd say that Mexico is pretty cool so far (but definitely NOT in temperature). The only thing I don't like is that it's about 90 degrees during the day, but only gets down to about 60 (maybe) at night.
I came into Guadalajara last Thursday to move in with my host family. It's an older woman and her daughter that live here, but there's also 2 Mexican students that study at the university here, and another girl in my program from Canada. Homestays are definitely the way to go; I've learned so much already in the house! We talk a lot, especially at meals, and watch TV shows (Mexican soap operas anyone?) which is interesting. They don't laugh too much at my strange Spanish, and answer all of our questions, so they're pretty great.
Meal times are kind of weird though. Breakfast is 8:00, which is great. But lunch isn't until 3:00, and dinner is at 9:00! I have to eat a snack in the morning because 3:00 is just so far away, but Señora makes awesome food! The bus is a little different too. It doesn't actually stop anywhere unless someone asks, so to catch it you have to wave it down. It's usually pretty crowded, but it only costs 3 pesos (about $0.25) per trip, so it's a great way for us to get around town. And in Mexican culture (and others), people often great eachother with a kiss on the cheek. Freaked me out once or twice, but it's all good. Now I laugh every time because I remember when we watched Spanish videos with Mr. Seratt and he would say, "Poor guy, he missed again!" whenever a guy and girl would greet each other with a kiss on the cheek.
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| Sarah and I at a park, the "Bosque" near our house. |
Sarah (the Canadian student) is great to have around because I have someone to help me a bit who speaks English (and her Spanish is better than mine), and we can go exploring together. We've wandered around the colonia, visited the city center, and other random places.
Our neighborhood, Providencia, is pretty nice too. It's relatively quiet, close-ish to the university, and it has everything you need right there. A five minute walk from the house gets us to the grocery store, pharmacy, ATMs, the bus stop, and a bunch of other shops and restaurants (Starbucks, DQ...).
We also found a small church Sunday night that's an English fellowship. It was definitely different than I'm used to, but it was cool to find a group of Christian believers in the city that wasn't too far away. Hopefully we'll be able to go every week!
Classes started on Monday at the university (UAG). I'm in level 4, which is exactly where I wanted to be, and I have 2 hours of grammar and 2 of conversation. I really like the way they have it organized, because it really is great practice for students like me. We learn some technical stuff, and of course have to use Spanish all the time to ask questions and explain things in class. Then we get to have a lot of really good conversation about various topics like education, social events, and customs. This is even more interesting because there are Korean students in my conversation class, so we have a lot of different perspectives. I never would have thought that my trip to Mexico would include learning about culture in Korea and Canada in addition to Mexico!
Sarah and I have also joined the Latin Rhythm dance class. We were learning Samba this week! It was really fun; the other students were very welcoming and helpful, and we're learning some more Spanish by listening to the instructions in class.
Now for the photos: I'm using Facebook to post my pictures, so you should be able to view them here even if you don't have a Facebook.
Thanks all for reading, and I'll try to be better about writing more often :) Have a great day!
Keep us posted.
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