First Days

I've been in Mexico for a week now but it feels like a lot longer! After my 7 hour layover in Mexico City I was ready for my traveling to be over & to get settled into my new home but I had to live out of my suitcases for 2 more days while we stayed in Veracruz City. I arrived late at night, just in time to meet everyone & then collapse on my bed. The next morning when we walked outside for breakfast & saw the ocean in front of us, I knew I wouldn't regret trading a semester in Kansas for this semester in Mexico. After consuming 3 huge plates of fresh fruit for breakfast outside on the hotels patio in the perfect weather I was completely sure I had made the right choice in coming to Mexico! We wandered around on the beach & everyone got to know each other before we set out to see the city. We visited the Fort de San Juan Ulua & went to a tiny town called Antigua to see the first church built in North America. Or the entire Western Hemisphere? I've forgotten the details but loved the church. I don't know why I love visiting churches so much but each one is different & this one was especially neat because it was tiny & colorful & just so cute. While in Antigua, we also saw the house that Hernan Cortez lived in. Then we all piled into the vans & began to finally make our way to Xalapa.

Our host families came to meet us once we arrived in Xalapa. That's probably what I was the most nervous for because I'm shy enough when I first meet people, let alone when I have to try & speak another language to them & live in their house for 4 months. I completely lucked out though because my family is wonderful. I live with a woman and her 25 year old daughter. My host mother is a lawyer & was at one time a forensic doctor. She's going back to school this year for teaching I think, I'm not 100% sure though, the exact reason kind of got lost in translation. Like many other things so far! The daughter is also a lawyer & speaks great English, a fact I didn't discover until a few days later. The first night was eventful to be sure. It had been a long day, I was still getting over my nerves of meeting my family, and I was dealing with the altitude change of the mountains of Xalapa. We were standing in the kitchen getting to know each other when all of a sudden I felt very dizzy. It wasn't anything horrible though so I thought it would just pass. I was wrong. I fainted right there in the kitchen, for the first time in my life, within an hour of meeting my family. I came to crouched on the ground with my host sisters arms supporting me & her mother yelling things in Spanish. All I could understand is that they were thoroughly freaked out & wanted to call the program directer, Cristo. Two seconds after I fainted I was completely fine again. I sat down, had some water, and breathed. My family however, took a much longer time recovering. They made a huge (and tasty!) sandwhich for me & assured me multiple times if I needed to go to the hospital it was only two seconds away. I, personally, thought the whole ordeal was pretty funny but decided it wasn't the time to laugh about it because my host mom (the at-one-time doctor) slapped a blood pressure cuff on my arm & announced my blood pressure was a little high. I finally convinced them I didn't need to go to the hospital & I'd be fine but they didn't fully believe me. Up until a few days ago they continued to ask me how I felt & if everything was ok. What a great first impression to make!