I'm speaking Spanish again...

Hola de Cuernavaca, Mexico!

I will be living here for the next 4 weeks, attending class 6 hours a day during the week, and traveling a little to see some of the sites near here. I was only in the US for two weeks before I jumped (well...more like stumbled bleary eyed and yawning...) into another airport to head out of the country. But I'm thrilled to be using and practicing my Spanish again and only hope it continues to improve during my time down here. I am living with a host family....though I think I really only have a host mom at the house but a lot of extended family and sisters who are older and married. I have my own room with two twin beds, tv, ceiling fan, floor fan, bright lights, perfect sized red closet, and WIRELESS INTERNET (which I am picking up from some company or house somewhere near my house). I must say, I am quite content here. Though it is very different from San Jose and Costa Rica. And I think some small part of me prefers the life I had there just because I had so much family interaction....but at the same time my host mom seems amazing and the house is great and I am so lucky to have the opportunity to experience a whole different culture. I have two other Americans living at the house, but both of them are older women and Spanish teachers, which is GREAT because that means we will be practicing a lot of Spanish and they can help me out with vocabulary and stuff when I have questions. But the even more exciting part is that I feel like I can almost keep up with them using my Spanish, granted I probably have a few more conjugation errors here and there because I am still working on that but comprehension wise I'm good. So that makes me very happy about how much I improved in Costa Rica and it is nice I am living with them versus other students my age who would probably not know a lot of Spanish and be more likely to use English often.

Today I got up, had breakfast, read one of the articles for my paper due this week, and then went on a walk with Jill (the teacher/student from UNO who is living here too). We decided to go look for a supermarket so we could buy some snacks for during the day if we get hungry since we will be eating breakfast at 8 am and "lunch" (which is really lunch/dinner) at 3:30ish. We went to ask our mom if there was a supermarket close and she goes "ya...Wal-mart". Yes. Wal-mart. We walked 10 minutes from our house to a Wal-mart. Crazy. A super Wal-mart none the less. And there is also a Starbucks less than 5 minutes from the house as well. I think we are going to go there to study or work on homework at least a night or two. I would love to sit there and work and see how similar or different the atmosphere there is in comparsion to the Starbucks that I study at in the US. We bought a couple things at the Wal-mart and then walked home for lunch. The rest of the evening we sat around chatting and then I came upstairs to work on my paper. I decided to turn my computer on to listen to music and on the off chance that I could pick up a wireless signal. And just my luck....I had two wireless internet options pop up! So I am really excited about having internet. I just have to make sure to not get on my computer all the time but actually get work done at night. Haha. I'll be good about it though because I really don't have a choice. I am going to be super busy, but at the same time it is somewhat nice to get back to a regular class and homework type schedule....and even nicer that I can adjust back to it while in another country!

Sorry, no pictures tonight but I'll try to get some uploaded tomorrow or in a couple days. And if you are reading my blog, can you please please pretty please leave me a quick note/comment to let me know you are and who you are and what is going on in your life? I LOVE LOVE getting messages. The blog even sends me notes to my email saying someone left me a message. I keep finding out about people who enjoyed my Costa Rica blog, but NEVER said anything to me! Luckily you have four weeks to make up for it. Haha. Love you all!!

- Chao -