In the beginning...

After much anticipation I am finally in Mexico. My plane left Kansas City at 7:00 AM so we woke up bright and early (3:30!) to get there on time. We avoided overweight charges on one of my bags by taking some books out but the other one there was no hope for, it was enormous. Probably no surprise but I had a few problems navigating my way through immigration & customs in Mexico City. I lost half of my immigration slip somewhere between the plane and the counter and had to move to the side to fill a new one out. Then I heaved my two enormous and heavy bags off the baggage claim belt only to drop them and my carry ons right before going through customs. After a few failed attempts though I successfully made it to the other side. When I reached Veracruz City I must have looked somewhat sketchy because the security officer asked to see my baggage receipts to make sure they were really mine. Octavio thought it was funny because I was the only person they stopped.

We spent a few days in Veracruz City and explored a little bit. We went to the aquarium and a wax museum. We went to breakfast the first day there & I ordered what I thought was coffee with milk. It was, but the part I missed was the milk was straight from the cow. Not quite the same as the milk you get out of the carton at the store...

The last night there we went to a cookout with Octavio's aunt & uncle who live in Veracruz City. It was fun and the food was good but I got attacked by mosquitoes. I'm like one big bug bite. Now we're in Xalapa getting settled. Octavio's been living in our apartment for a month by himself and there are little tell-tale signs around that a boy has been living here alone-like the fact that there is no mirror anywhere in the place! Our apartment is pretty empty except for the things my host family lent us like the bed, table, and refrigerator. Octavio waited until I got here to buy everything else so I could help pick them out. So that's what we're doing today, hopefully buying a couch, chairs so we can eat at our table, and some sort of drawers so I can finish unpacking. And curtains so the sun doesn't wake us up everyday at 6:30!