Nuevos Lugares, Nuevas Caras

Hola from Cuernavaca :)
PRE-APOLOGY FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS BLOG
don't worry, soon I'll just be going to school (aka starting tomorrow at 8am) and won't have as much to say-- promise ;)

I am already in love with this city and the people here!! I want to write so much but I'll try to keep things concise! It's really weird to write in English when I've had to be in Spanish mode all day.

Well first off, my flight was great. It was only two and a half hours, and el aeropuerto in Mexico City was super easy to navigate through! The hard part was lugging around my 75+ lbs of luggage.. hahahah typical, Nicole. Flying into Mexico City was super gross though because of the pollution. Despite the nastiness in the air, I'm excited for the trip we are going to take there next weekend!

My host family is soooo nice! Mi mama Gina, who is super nice and funny and cooks good food :), stays at home with her daughter Gina who is 25 and has cerebral palsy.. at least I'm 90% sure that is what she said. Her daugther is in a wheel chair and is so sweet and is always smiling. Papa Guillermo works from 6am to 11pm each night or something crazy like that but I kind of forget what he told me tonight. He speaks very quickly and I don't always pick it up! They have one other son, Guillermo, who works in Mexico City during the week and comes home on the weekends. His girlfriend is always here too and they both are super nice and speak English! They have one other daughter, Diana, who is 16 and just got home from a trip today. She was the one with the internet password so my roommate, Courtney (who is also great!), and I were anxiously waiting her return! Gina's sister and her two sons were here for dinner tonight, too, and it was great food and a lot of fun!! Their whole family is huge, which is normal for Mexican families, and everyone is really close. I love it.

Today we went to the University where we will be studying and had an orientation, tour, and class placement. It's such a pretty campus!! After that we went to Tepotzlan. That article describes the mountain in the Northern part of the city to have a "sloping path." However, that is NOT the description I would use to describe the hour and a half, practically vertical sets of rocks and stairs we climbed up to get to the sacred pyramid of Tepoztecatl that one of the guys who had a handy-dandy altitude-finder in his pocket (forreals) and told us that we were at 6800 feet which I later found out meant that we climbed something like 2000ft. Hardest hike of my life so far but I'm glad I did it! We had fun and it was a great bonding experience for all of us. Seems like every time I travel I end up on some crazy upward slope at some point so at least I got it over with.I really like everyone on the trip so far.. haha. We have more coming tomorrow I think.

Also, like I said before, we start classes. Classes have no more than 5 students so we will each be getting a significant amount of attention! Besides the actual class part of the day we also have a chunk of day soley devoted to conversation. I'm actually pretty excited! The heat isn't so great but once the rains come it will cool down.. I'm just hoping they come before we leave! Also getting used to the meal times here are really difficult haha el desayuno is at 8am, la comida is between 2-4pm, and la cena is at 8 or 9pm.

Ok I was supposed to upload pictures but I am so exhausted and I think its like 12 in the morning here and I have to be up in six and a half hours. OHHH did I mention my host family has a pool!? Yupppp. Will be out there every day :)

Buenas noches mis amigos :) cuidado!