Week 1 in Queretaro

Hi everyone! I decided to start blogging to sort of help sort out my thoughts and of course let my friends & family know how I'm doing :-).

So for starters, as many of you know, I'm on foreign exchange in Queretaro, Mexico; attending Tecnologico de Monterrey - QRO (a.k.a "El Tec"). I've taken a break from Mathematics at New Mexico Tech (Lord knows I miss those 10-12 hour mathematical analysis tests *twirling my finger in the air* "whoopie," LOL - Amy knows exactly what I'm talkin' bout! HAHA) to work on my Spanish minor here in Queretaro. I arrived almost a week ago and have been enjoying the sights, making friends, and warming up to a new cuture. Classes start on Tuesday, which I hope will be fun and taught in such a way to actually help with my conversational spanish. So far, I've been getting most of my education from my friend Mariela (fr. Chile), on nouns and how to approach people in Spanish. She's been a ton of help, but I hope to depend less on her and more on full immersion with the classroom setting and of course myself. Besides, I feel bad because she didn't come here to spend her time answering all of my questions; and ya'll know me...I can play 20 questions in 20 seconds! LOL

Most everyone that knows me, knows my mother is from Sonora, Mexico and both my parent's first language was Spanish...why my siblings and I speak little to no Spanish? I have no idea; we were always spoken to in English, while the only time Spanish was used in the house was for my parents to converse about us or our gifts, and of course, us kiddos wouldn't know what they were discussing.

Anyhow, so enough "background"...Week 1 has been pretty cool so far. I've met some cool people, 5 in particular I feel I'll be really close to during the course of the exchange. On Wednesday, Mariela and I walked over to Soriana (kinda like a Mexican WalMart) to get items we needed for our dorm rooms. Well, after paying for our goods, we realized that there was no feasable way for us to carry ALL of those groceries back to the dorm...soooo, we decided to "borrow" the [bright orange] shopping cart...as we cross the parking lot, a taxi driver drives by us on the road shaking his finger at us like "no no no." Then, once we hit the road, we hear this repetitious whistling...low and behold, we turn around to find a security guard chasing after us, blowing his whistle profusely to get us to stop! It was hilarious. Mariela worked her magic and convinced him that we weren't thieves and that we'd return the cart once we were done with it. So he let us "push on." Then we get to the security gate at the school and the guard there makes a fuss as well, but once again, Mariela's magical powers convinced him to let us pass with the cart. Ok so, all that was fine and dandy...until we get to the bumpy ass brick sidewalks of the campus, and the cart starts clanking and bouncing like if we were walking through campus banging pots and pans...it was definitely a case of "disturbing the peace" because people looked at us like we were idiots! Haha, but heck, it was a good laugh. We made it to our dorm and back to Soriana with the cart and also with trust that we weren't thieves....

The following days were pretty laid back, just orientation stuff. We had a Welcome Party Friday night with Tango dancers, Mariachis, and this BEAUTIFUL boy who was not only easy on the eyes, but easy on the ears as well. Oh lordy! When he started singing with those Mariachies, I think I got a little excited (hehe). Anyhow, he's one of our "Primos" (the group of students here at El Tec that are leading the International Program for us). So, enough about "the boy"...a group of us went out to a couple bars on "Cinco de Mayo Street" in "El Centro" (a.k.a Downtown). Dude, one bar wanted to charge me over $12 for a Redbull con Vodka! But we went to a different bar that was much more reasonable. It was a pretty fun night, until the cab ride home. I swear, I never thought I'd appreciate traffic laws in the states until I had to ride in a Taxi here. It's nuts! Plus, the motion sickness was intense. However, all in all, I'd say the night was worth it. I had a blast.

On Saturday, a few of us went to "La Plaza de Armas" to do some sight-seeing. It was really neat. The colonial part of town is very European Spanish...it's absolutely gorgeous! We ate at a nice little restaurant, and the food was delicious (and very affordable). I drank a pina colada at a local bar while listening to live music. It was a relaxing day downtown, and I hope to do more of it while I'm here.