First week... check

Well, this was the fastest/slowest/craziest week of my entire life! I have officially been here for 8 days, and every day seems to have its own unique twist. We had all of our first classes at the university this week and I am OBSESSED with my professores! I have two classes at the Universidad de Autonoma de Queretaro (commonly referred to as the UAQ, 'wok'). It took me a week to figure out that the residents were just making the abreviation into a word. Both of my professores are amazing. They are so passionate about their subject and their country that it just makes you even more excited to learn about the culture. Veronica is my Spanish 100 teacher. She's a little latina fireball who knows everything there is to know about US pop culture. SO random! And our Language in Context professor is extremely knowledgable about the political aspects and historical aspects of Mexico, which will be so interesting to talk about.  Because the UAQ is far from my house, the 7 of us in class take the bus(camion, either 83 or 72 to be exact). Never have I ridden in a public transportation automobile, and let me tell you it's quite an experience. On Thursday after class we walked to the parada (bus stop), and got completely ignored by the driver of bus 83. We cracked up laughing. I guess that's what happens when you're 7 white kids standing on the corner in Mexico. It was great. Then we finally got on 72, but little did we know we had just signed up for the craziest ride of our lives. Homeboy would fit right in India. Give that man an autoricshaw and he's golden. He was HAULING down the street where construction was going on, and turned full speed ahead into the bus stop to pick up some others. Needless to say we have a fun time on those. It's like the Westmont shuttle crazy lady times 100,000,000.

We also went to our afternoon classes at this little cultural center run by the sweetest lady in the world! These classes I might add, are going to be a doozy. Civilizacion Mexicana is going to be quite a challenging course. We have to do all of our assingments in Spanish, obviously, but it is super overwhelming to think about tests on history in a language that I am still learning! But, it will be good for me. Then our art class is going to be awesome! The professora is an art renovator, who has worked on some neat ruins and stuff here in Mexico. Once we get to actually make art it will be AWESOME! A few of us worked on history homework in the park yesterday which was a brilliant idea. Doing it together made it much more understandable!

Then after homework time, we decided we'd embrace the culture and go to a dance festival. This ended up being a recital for a bunch of girls, that focused on belly dancing. Wow. I thought the dancing at West Coast was scandy? WRONG! It ended up being QUITE the cultural experience, although all the music seemed to be indian :), which of course I loved.  Then we walked around the centro and met up with the rest of the group, returned to our respective houses and hit the hay.

This morning we had an excursion to the third largest Monolith in the world, Bernal. It took an hour to drive there in our sweet yellow bus! The hike was so sweet! We found a place to climb up and take some amazing pictures!! It was definitely an adventure! Then afterwards, we ate at this local restaurant in the pueblo. And you will NEVER guess what we had?! GRASSHOPPERS! Yep, I kid you not. I have pictures to prove it. It was the weirdest thing I have ever eaten in my life, but it was such a funny experience! We also had Child en Nogada, which is a traditional dish that was super random and good. It is one of the girl's birthday today so we are all going over to our directors house to make her a cake, hang out together and look at pictures of today. I can't get over how amazing our group is. I am in love with how well we all get along and how we balance each other out! God completely put each one of us here for a reason and it is SO special to explore this new place together.

Continue to pray for my transition into living in another COMPLETELY different culture. Staying in someone's house who you don't know well and can't speak their language fluently is rather difficult. I'd venture to say it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Last night we weren't sure what time we'd be back because the dance festival started late (of course :), and so I had to text my senora and let her know this. It was like talking to your parents about extending your curfew, but not knowing the language well enough to get your point across without being too upfront. DIFICIL!! But I love my Senora, and she is so incredibly gracious with me that it makes it much easier!
Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers :)
Dios le bendiga