Quick Summary #1

OK. Finally some free time to do some hardcore updating y'all on my life.

So we'll start with Thursday night, May 19th.

In pre-celebration of my birthday me, Dan, Cassie, Cruz, Alyssa, Tida, Thomas, Kara, Lauren and Kristen all went to Vinny T's for dinner. Tida and I split some salad concotion and penne alla vodka. Yum. Then a few of us went back to my place to chill out (and me finish packing) till it was almost midnight and time for me to head to a bar for my first legal drink. After much debate (and a suggestion from Thomas) we headed to Solas at the Lenox Hotel. When I gave the guy at the door my ID he said "Hey you're not 21 yet, you can't come in here" to which I replied "it's after midnight" and then he said "well Happy Fuckin' Birthday!!! go tell the bartender you just turned 21" and we went in. I got a beer and the bartender gave me a shot of Captains (for free I think.) So we sat and chatted with Thomas and Jess and Laura and 2 other guys I don't remember their names and once I was done with my beer, Dan and I left and walked home. It was only about 1-something at this point, but since we had to be at the airport at 530am, I just went to bed. Not your typical "fear of alcohol poisoning" 21st birthday celebration, but oh well.

So now we're at 5:00am Friday morning.

Dan said he would drive me, Thomas and Jess to Logan (because he loves me sooooo much) so we put my two huge suitcases in the Jeep and went to pick up the boys. So we get there, and Jess is wearing these ripped up ratty old pajama pants and we pretty much couldn't stop laughing because he was seriously intending to wear these pants to Mexico. (Please refer to "Mexico Pictures" for a visual here.) So we get to the airport, unload, say our goodbyes (I didn't cry but I did tear up a bit for a second there), go wait in line to check in and stuff. We met Ian, our previously unknown 4th traveler, and he turned out to be ridiculously cool. The line went pretty fast so that was good. Fast forward to 2pm (the flights and layover were uneventful, except for flying into Mexico City which was just awesome -- city as far as the eye could see. Please refer to "Mexico Pictures" for more visuals here.) Actually, no wait. Before we fast forward all the way to landing, let me interject with a quick rundown of the passengers on the flight:

• 4 Northeastern Students (pretty normal, excluding Jess...)
• various business men/women
• 3 women with babies (who didn't cry at all)
• 30+ Oklahoma State University students, plus 2 professors (who we deduced were heading to UDLA with us because they ALL were wearing black t-shirts emblazoned with "OSU Summer In Mexico" in red, green and white.)
• 1 crazy elderly Chinese man who paced up and down the aisle during the flight doing some ridiculous calisthenics.
• a few random students all headed to UDLA

So I think it's important that I say a little about the OSU kids. Actually, there were about 28 girls and maybe 2 or 3 guys. I'd like to fondly refer to these girls at the OklaHOma girls from now on because after overhearing their conversations during a 2.5 hour flight, it's been scientifically established that these girls are DUMB. (No offense.) But seriously, it was like they transplanted a whole crop of Valley girls in OklaHOma. Ian overheard 2 of them babbling about Mexico City: okHO #1 "Wow, Mexico City is So huge! There must be like thirty thousand people living here!" to which okHO #2 responds "No way, I heard its more like thirty billion." Dead serious.

Moving on...so we get into MC, get off the plane on the tarmac and onto these people mover things which were pretty cool. Got through customs pretty quickly with no issues, found our baggage, exchanged our dollars into pesos and went to look for the students in the green UDLA shirts like the program director told me to. Well there were no green shirts, but there were orange ones. So we found one of these "Animadores" as they are now referred to, and they showed us (and all the okHO kids) where to buy bus tickets to Puebla. So we take the bus, which was really nice, like way way nicer than Greyhound, and we watched 28 days dubbed in Spanish on the way, and I took some pretty pictures out the window (see "Mexico Pictures" for visual) and 2 hours later we were in Puebla. An Animadore got us a taxi to UDLA, and some Animadores there showed us to our dorms to check in. It was probably around 715 at this point. I had been in touch with Liz, the NU student doing her year of study abroad at UDLA, and we had plans to meet up at 8. So I pretty much dumped out all my clothes on the bed, changed into fresh clothes, touched up my makeup, and was back out the door. So me, Liz, Thomas, Jess and Ian went to eat at this "restaurant" called Bambukos just down the street a few blocks. Now this place is somewhere I'd never consider eating, but Liz said it was good and she's been here for a year so we took her word for it. We got some hamburgers and beer and it was pretty good. And then we just hung out for a few hours there and had some more drinks and talked. Then the plan was to go out to a club, but I had a headache and was exhausted from so much traveling, so I just went to bed and they went out.

So now we're at Saturday morning.

Since I didn't have an alarm clock, I turned my cell phone on and used that (I was roaming the entire time but no one called me). We could meet for breakfast at 8am if we wanted to, so I got up at 7 and went to take a shower. So I turn on the water and it's cold but I figure it would just warm up after a few minutes. No such luck. Freezing cold shower, great way to start your day. So I suffer through a military style ice water shower, get ready and go meet the boys for breakfast. I've decided that I do not like Mexican breakfast at all since all they serve us is some sort of crazy egg concoction and chilaquiles which are tortilla chips with some sort of sauce and cheese melted on it, sweet rolls and fruit salad consisting of watermelon with seeds, cantaloupe and papaya. I've decided that papaya tastes like sweaty armpits and I do not like it. So after breakfast we head over to the auditorium and get this presentation from the heads of different departments and the Animadores put on a skit to warn us of all the things we silly Americans shouldn't do. Then we have our oral interviews to determine our level of proficiency (intermediate for me) and sign up for Tues/Thurs workshops (I picked Photography and Cooking). Then we had a formal sit-down welcome lunch (the food was decent: onion soup, rice with chicken and red/green peppers, and some sort of chocolate cake for dessert) with a strolling mariachi band. It was entertaining, but we skipped out early to go hang out and have some beers. Then we met up with Liz again and went into the center of Cholula and got tacos al pastor (seasoned pork, cilantro, onions and pineapple - yum!) and walked around the market there for a bit before taking the bus back. Then we got ready and went out to some club I don't know how to say or spell the name. On the way to the club we stopped at every bar along the way and had a drink (3 total) and then we got to the club and since I'm a pretty noticeable gringa (I'm way taller than the Mexican girls) the bouncer let us in ahead of the line, which was cool. So I had a few Coronas there and then went home, the bouncer called me a taxi and the guy totally ripped me off but it was only the equivalent of a dollar and I just wanted to go to bed so I let it slide, plus my Spanish pretty much sucks and I'm not sure how far I would have gotten arguing...

So now we're at Sunday.

Woke up, showered in the freezing cold water again, got ready and went to breakfast. More sweaty armpit fruit and gross eggs. We could sign up for the weekend trips, but they didn't tell us ahead of time that we needed to bring cash to pay for it all right then so I couldn't, but they said we could sign up on Monday also so that was OK. They were offering tours of Puebla and Cholula on the public busses, but we decided not to go and took our own adventure to WalMart to pick up a few essentials. I was surprised to see that they don't offer even near the selection that US WalMarts offer, but nevertheless, I found almost everything that I was looking for (They stocked liquid Tide detergent and Bounce dryer sheets!!!! I was so excited) Took the bus back to UDLA, unpacked, tried to go swimming but the pool was closed so we all took siestas instead. Then we went and got dinner at this place down the street again, came back to my dorm and just hung out and chatted for a bit before dispersing and going to bed.

This brings us to Monday, and unfortunately I'm gonna stop here for now and go to bed cuz I'm beat! But I'll give you the Monday and Tuesday (and possibly Wednesday too) update ASAP, I promise.

Hope you all are well and miss me terribly! ps. Happy 21st Birthday Michelle Dudek if you read this!

-Sarah