1st Day of Orientation: Part 2

I take back everything I said about making friends! I think since orientation was early in the morning people were not social. After the break we had a few dry, but necessary presentations for immigration, email set up, and course registration. The group AMI, which does intercultural programs and sponsors the big brothers club, divided everyone into groups to do activities around campus. I met nice people from Australia, Korea, France, Canada, and Brazil in my group. Having the small groups helped and then the rest of the day was really nice. People were inviting and in a better mood than this morning and rightly so.

 My face Mexican flag face paint for the first group activity of taking individual pictures and group picture with the Mexican flag and sombreros.

My terrible ID picture. These things never turn out nicely.

The most exciting things about today are that my class schedule is awesome and that all the classes in the recreation center are free/included. So I can take any kind of rhythm class from salsa to tango, pilates and other group fitness, singing to piano/guitar lessons! Because I can only take a limited amount of credits at ITESM due to the conversion between semester and quarter credits, I will have plenty of time during the week to participate in classes at the recreation facility. Overall I am really excited to start classes so I can meet new people and better my Spanish. Later this afternoon Blanca and I spoke for a long time just in Spanish regarding my class schedule, so this language learning process may be easy after all. I feel sorry for the Australian girl Natasha I met who doesn't know ANYTHING in Spanish and her host family does not know ANYTHING in English. Her host mom just keeps talking at her and teaching her a few words here and there. I think Natasha will pick up the language after a while especially once we have been in the basic Spanish class for a while.

Anywho, Alma is picking me up shortly to go hang out with her friends so that will be nice.

Oh there are a few house rules from Blanca:
1. Visitors can only stay until 10pm
2. Visitors can not go on the second floor of the house even just in my room
3. I can stay out as long as I want, but just be quiet when I come in
4. Don't help wash the dishes if she is home, only when she is out can I help

I also found out today from the housing coordinator, Claudia, that my host family wanted a girl this year because for 20 years they've been doing this they had mostly boys stay with them and have not had great luck with that. I thought they asked for a girl because they have 2 sons and 2 grandsons and wanted the presence of a girl. I hope I don't get on their nerves and that they enjoy my stay with them as much I enjoy being here.

Hasta luego!
~AST

1st Day of Orientation

Yesterday I was on the go the entire day and I did not even sit/lay down on the bed until I went to sleep. What do you know, the bed was hard as a rock. I think it had a little more give than a rock. It took some getting used to, but interestingly enough I did not wake up with any pain or anything. When it gets warmer I will sleep on top of the thick blanket and that will add a little cushion, but for now it is too cold not to sleep under it. It is pretty cold in the morning and at night and the houses here do not have heat, thus I slept in my hoodie too :D. I think February it will get back to consistent warm weather.

I woke up at 7am to shower and prepare for the day. I have my own bathroom on the first floor. The hot water, of course, did not last too long, but I didn't completely freeze to death. Today is Jorge's (my host dad) day to cook. He had me help dice tomatoes, onions and tortilla which he fried together with eggs. He also fried beans to go with it. I asked if the dish had a name and he said no we are eating a no name dish, lol. I'm supposed to make up a name for it. I'm glad I got to help Jorge cook. Blanca will not let me help her cook or clean the kitchen if she's there. If she's not at home I can wash the dishes she said.

9am started orientation...it is like any other orientation except it was in Spanish and English. Some countries have a large presence like Austria, Colombia, Germany, a few from Argentina, and a few other large groups. There are only a few Americans, Canadians, and a couple people from Finland, Belgium, and a couple other countries. I feel so under accomplished because I only know English and very little Spanish, but to my credit I do know a little French and Arabic is my main language of study. After being with Blanca yesterday I have picked up a lot and I am already able to say basic, but whole sentences. Once classes start next Monday I think taking the Spanish as a foreign language will speed up the process of learning the basics.

Anyway, I think it is going to be difficult to make new friends right away because everyone is sticking either with people from their country/home university or by themselves. I met one person named Jorge from Colombia. He sat at the table with me for a couple minutes while we were using our laptops so that's a start. Once classes start, I get into activities on campus, and go on the trips and do the programs that the International Programs office hosts it will be smooth sailing from there. There only 5,000 students on campus so it will not be hard to get to know people.

Well I have 20minutes left until the end of break then it's back to Orientation.

Hasta luego!
~AST