Taking The Long Way: Getting to Know Xalapa

My first few days in Xalapa (after my fainting episode) were long & tiring, but very enjoyable nonetheless. We took a couple tours of the city and had a very basic orientation to the school. My school is just a building on the street, seperate from the main campus of La Universidad Veracruzana. My school is called Escuela para Estudiantes Extranjeros. That's me, an estudiante extranjera, or foreign student. I've slowly been getting to know the city better. My house is about 15 minutes away from the school walking so every afternoon & evening after classes I walk home. The first time I really got lost was today, after a week of being here! I'm starting to recognize buildings & intersections though. I've passed some funny things on my walk home. There is a pizza place called Rhapsodia Bohemiana Pizza. In my head they play lots of Queen songs, especially Bohemian Rhapsody of course. There's also a place called Submarino Amarillo, basically a direct translation of the Yellow Sub in Lawrence. There's also a jeep parked in the driveway of one of the houses with an Oklahoma Sooners license place and as two grown men were saying goodbye in a doorway I heard one say to the other "see you later alligator" with a heavy spanish accent. It made my day.

My classes are all going well. All in Spanish, of course, but all going well. In my pronunciation class we made animal noises the first day. I tried to roll my R's and failed miserably. My teacher assured me I'd learn how by the end of the semester. I sure hope so because that is goal #3 for me in coming to Mexico. Right underneath improving my Spanish (obviously) and learning how to Salsa dance. Which, as I learned at the Salsa club we went to Friday night, I need some serious practice with. Hopefully I'll be starting classes with some other girls in my program soon to get a jump start on this goal of mine.

Saturday I went to a nearby volcano to hike with some other people in my program. It was so nice on the trail & the view of the city was beautiful. We found random offshoots of the main trail & made our way through the thick forest climbing over fallen logs & plants. There was a viewing tower part of the way up where you could see the whole city and beyond. One of the boys in my program tried to sit on the edge, which was maybe 6 inches wide. The people on the ground looked like tiny specs. I freaked out & told him not to sit there because he would fall. He simply looked at me and said, "You don't even know me!" Like we all hadn't been spending 24 hours a day together for the past week. And like that would make a difference anyway, I wouldn't want to see anyone fall to their death, even if I hadn't ever met them! Even he thought it was a pretty funny thing to say after he thought about it. It was so hot and sunny out that by the time I got home I was exhausted. We have to turn the water heater on before showering in order for the water to be warm but I didn't even bother. I just took a cold shower & collapsed on my bed.

^ starting out at the base of the volcano ^

^ at the top of the viewing tower where Eric tried to sit on the tiny ledge ^

^ the view of Xalapa from the top ^

^ part of the forest we hiked through. I'm not sure what this sign was referring to because we all made it out ok! ^

The next day I went with my host family to a town in the mountains called Naolinco. It's claim to fame is shoes. Almost every store in the town is a zapateria, or shoe store, and all the shoes are made of leather. The drive there was breathtaking though, we drove about 45 minutes or so through the mountains to get there & I had the distinct feeling that we were driving into the clouds. Everything was so green! Apparently, a lot of movies are filmed there, like Apocolypse. On the way back we stopped at a place that overlooked a valley & it was hands down one of the most beautiful things I've seen. To the right were waterfalls, in the distance was a mountain range, and in the valleys were little towns. And everywhere else was green. green, green, green. I was exhausted once again from a long week of transitioning & getting to know a new city, along with all the walking & hiking that I decided to take what was supposed to be a quick, refreshing nap but ended up sleeping for four hours! I woke up with just enough time to do my homework & eat dinner (at 10:00 pm, which is the normal hour here)