So, I flew from Minneapolis to Dallas to Mexico city yesterday, and it was a long time to be on planes, but not as long as Scotland. Here's a picture of Mexico from the plane!<--------------- So I got off the plane in Mexico city, got through customs, and realized I'd missed the group bus to Cuernavaca because my plane was an hour and a half late. I called the number of one of the people from the school and she told me to withdraw some pesos and take the bus. This freaked me out a bit as I was suddenly thrown into a world where only one in ten people speaks English and I needed to communicate a lot to get money and get on the right bus. I went to an ATM and got out some money (I really had no idea how much as I didn't know the exchange rate. Yet another example of poor planning for this trip. I was so much more prepared for Scotland!), and then started walking towards the buses when I came upon a nice man named Charlie holding a U of M sign for the school! How lucky was I! So I found Charlie and then we went and found a few other latecomers and piled into a minivan type thing for our hour and a half ride to Cuernavaca. Along the way we saw fields and fields of oats which had been grown and harvested by hand and stood in old fashioned "shocks." Needless to say, besides the mountains, these were the thing I was most excited to see. Unfortunately we were driving so fast this is the best picture I could get.
---------->So we finally got to the school, but it was dark so I couldn't see much, other than the fact that it's mostly made up of outdoor gardens. Say hello to outdoor class almost every day! We quickly got split into our host family groups and I was driven to the house of Maria Louisa Vences, who is my host mother. Or actually, she's more like a host grandmother. She's the matriarch of a HUGE clan of kids who have other kids and there are always nieces and nephews and cousin running around that I have to remember. Maria Louisa's grown up daughter, Magdalena, is basically in
charge of us, and she's really nice. I arrived and met two of the three other girls who are staying here, Greta and Jackie (the third girl, Janessa, arrived this morning after a night in the airport), and had a big dinner which was really good. Maria Louisa and Magdalena even made me extra veggies as they know I don't eat meat. They're very nice about it and are always offering me fruit! So along with Maria Louisa, Magdelena, and the grandfather (who is very quiet, and who's name I forget), there is also a HUGE talking parrot and a wienerdog named Chisto (short for some word in Spanish that means "sausage"). <--------- So, that's my host family. I'll try to get a picture of them together later, but for now you'll just have to deal with some pictures of my room! First, here is my bed which has an AWESOME wool blanket. Next is our sort of living room which is sort of like a half-covered courtyard. The ceiling is open in places and last night you could see the moon while sitting inside! Way cool. 
<----- Room
So last night was gross and I was homesick, but this morning I got up and had pancakes with the other girls and the family and Magdalena took us to the school on the bus. First of all, check out the HUGE cross in this bus.
Secondly, I'm putting up a few pictures of the school, just so you can see how awesome it is. Yeah. See that table there in the trees? That's a classroom.So after we did some orientation we came back for the big meal of the day at 2, and then Janessa, Greta, Jackie and I went out and explored the Zocalo, which is the town square, and I bought a really cool small handmade book make out of handmade paper for about a dollar. It's really pretty, and says "Cuernavaca" on it. I'll probably have a picture of it later.
But for now I'll stop uploading pics and go get some work done! I've got classes starting tomorrow, and I want to know what's going on!
Hasta luego, amigos!
