Dia de Preparation

Today was such a LONG day! I got up early and ate breakfast, which was watermelon and eggs with ham. Good stuff. I am really not eating a lot here. I eat what they give me and go on with my day. Some odd reason I can wait until a 2 or 3pm lunch, and then a 9pm dinner. Crazy crazy! I got up early to be ready for the tour of downtown Guadalajara. I got to the bus and it didn’t leave for at least 15 minutes. As soon as I got there I remembered that I didn’t grab my camera! If I knew they weren’t gonna leave right a way I could have ran home. It was a good tour though. We waited for about 30 minutes for the guide to arrive. There were so many pigeons in the court yard! I was so afraid to be pooped on! The first place we went was city hall. They built this building only 50 years ago, but they built it so it would look like it was built by the Tapatios (the natives of Guadalajara).It looks ancient. The paintings it had up on the wall were so cool. There were five paintings that described the history of Guadalajara and how they fought for their freedom. Nice paintings. Then we went to the Cathedral. This place was huge! It was built in 1550. It had three doors to enter; one was for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Ghost. The one for the Father wasn’t open. They also had three chapels. All were open and the one for the father was the normal size. The other ones were little for when a person wanted to connect specifically to the Son or the Holy Ghost. They had everything up about Paul. This year is the year of Paul, they are celebrating his life this year. Then we went underground where the bodies of some famous Cardinals lay. Then we went to the Governor’s Palace. This place had a HUGE mural of the Nazi oppression and how it effected even the Mexicans. It was amazing! The painter, Jose Clemente Orozco was half blind, and had only one hand. And according to the rules, he was only allowed to paint two hours at a time. It took him 7 months to finish it. The motto was “If he could do this with one hand, imagine what we can do with two.” Then we went to the market. It was crazy all the different stuff. People were following you around to get you to go buy from them. I only asked one question and that was the price of boots. They are about 2000 pesos for authentic, less for the fakes, of course. Everyone else ate at the market, but I just drank a Coke. When we got back I quick and ate and boarded the bus to go to Wal Mart. The WalMart was the exact same. It had the same set up, the employees knew about as much as those in the States and the prices were low. The only difference was that most of the lines were open to take people. The cool thing I’ve noticed about Mexico is that everyone seems to have a job, everyone does something. People will sacrifice digital cable to have a house keeper just so they can give another person a job. It’s a good thing. Oh, another similar thing, I saw a lot of people standing around, just the same. And it was packed for a Saturday. I also noticed while I was there Sears, Sam’s Club, Costco, Carl’s Jr., Burger King, 7 Eleven, and Blockbuster. Amazing how American (or similar) things are! When I got back home I rushed over to the school and searched and searched for a plug in, but the school hardly has any outside! I finally found one and sat my tooshie down. Another came shortly after and noticed there wasn’t an available plug in, so he unplugged the drink machine! It was there I sat as I talked to my parents, Onna, and Kyle. Man did my butt hurt when I got up! On my way home I stopped at the gas station and then continued home. I live off of a very busy street, so I am never worried until I turn onto my block walk to my house on a well lit, but not too busy, street. Tonight I ran in to someone whom I’ve seen before and talked to him. Turns out he is a security guard for TelMex, the telephone company here. The office is right there on that street. So not only is the other street very busy, but once I get to my side street I have a security guard who can see me all the way home. How cool is that! I got home and I watched the Cardinals pound on the Panthers! I am excited for church tomorrow. We are also going to Tlaquepaque tomorrow. It’s supposedly a huge market place with a good bit of souvenirs.

The Tercera

I would have to say that today may have been the best day so far. I think partly because it’s another day closer to actually starting school. I got up and ate breakfast—cantelope and papaya with 3 half-quesadillas. It was some pretty good stuff. It’s amazing how little I eat but how long it takes me throughout the day. After breakfast I went to the school for orientation with all the rest of the international students. There were about 100 of us this time. A good portion was from Korea or Japan, which really surprised me. It was cool, nonetheless. We watched a video about the university and how great it is supposed to be. We then went on a tour. Here is where the day went weird. There were only about 6 of us that were either Mexican or already had taken the exam. I was one of them. We went on a mini tour of the campus and then went to get our ID cards. I get up and my name isn’t even on the list. Stinks. They had no idea what I was supposed to do. After everyone else had their ID cards we waited for all the students to finish the exams. I sat and texted Kyle and Onna. It was nice to be able to text again. Well from there we went on a tour of the rest of the campus. The school is split in to two sides, the academic side and the athletic side. A street actually splits the two. They don’t want one thing going to the other side of either. The work out gym is so nice! I think I’ll spend some time there. Then we went to the pool. It was HUGE! It was a swimming laps pool, and you have to wear a speedo, but I can see myself swimming too. Then we went to the soccer and football field. They both looked so nice! The school teams and professional Jalisco teams play there. It seats either 3,000 or 30,000 I missed that part. But he did say that the Chivas stadium in Guadalajara can seat 90,000, or three times the school stadium. Then the tour was done. Wow. I still didn’t have an ID or my class schedule. I went to get my ID with a paper saying I was really a student but the line was so long, so I waited for a while, but eventually just headed home. I then texted Jill on my Mexico cell phone and she let me know about my schedule. Start Monday about 9am I think. I’m pretty excited for that. Then I went and ate lunch. I had carrot and zucchini soup and then a thin slice of meat. It was pretty good. Tasted a lot like A-1, so maybe it was drenched in it. After that I went shopping again, and tried to set up WiFi at my house. I am close. I might just need to buy a router and then I’d be able to get online from home. That would be so nice! I eventually made it to school and sat in the same seat for multiple hours surfing the web and chatting it up with Onna for over an hour. It was nice to talk to her for so long! Afterwards I talked to my parents and then began the walk home. It amazes me how busy the street is at 9pm at night! It is comparable to a freeway, only it has lights, luckily. When I got home I watched an episode of the Office. The second episode was MUCH better than the first. Afterwards I watched Los Simpson (no joke, The Simpsons in Spanish—weird!) and went to bed. What a nice day.

Dia Two

Well the second day was a good one too. I woke up after a rough night to the sound of my name being yelled. Breakfast was ready. I overslept my alarm! Breakfast was eggs and tortillas. Good stuff. I then got ready for the day and rushed to the Universidad. I was excited to get my WiFi all set up. I did! I then went to the library, found a plug in (they are definetly not as easy to find as in the US. Probably like finding them in airports, you have to really search!) I camped out for the next few hours in that spot and chatted with my dad and Onna and Christian. It was SO NICE to finally talk to Onna! I didn’t get to yesterday and things just didn’t feel right. We didn’t talk long, just long enough to hear each other. I didn’t talk much though, I was in the library. After that I rushed home and had lunch. Corn soup (mush) and some potatoes. They were smothered in red sauce though and tasted just fine. I then relaxed for five minutes before heading to meet with Jill and the other GLS student. The other student is Abby, from Tennessee. It was fun to chat with people. We got new cell phones and just went over some rules. No drinking is allowed. How sad. There goes my chance to binge! (yeah right). Then we took a taxi to dinner. We ate at a very nice restaurant (Bizzells like). I wish I took a picture of the place but hate seeming like such a tourist. I will do better, promise. I had a steak there. It had a lot of fat on it, but still good. We then walked Abby to her house and took a taxi back to the Universidad. I sat my toosh on a bench and called and talked to my mom, Onna, and Kyle. Things are starting to be a little better since I can kind of get my schedule down and will hopefully be able to make many calls home! I think I am gonna look in to the price to add internet. How nice would that be?! I’d love internet in the house. Oh yeah, next week I will have a roommate for about a month, then have maybe another month without one, and then another month with one. This is probably better than a mission in that if I get sick of him I can just walk away or go out on my own. It’ll be tough without the freedom of which TV station I watch! After my phone calls I walked home and found the BCS game and watched that. Goooo Sooners! (Dang it...)

Just pictures.

Getting off the plane on stairs.



Entrance Gate.

I think this was the first President of the school.

The school dorms and courtyard.

Library.

International Center/Main Building.


Applebees.

Starbucks.

McDonalds.


My room.

Bathroom.

Beds.

My "Pool house"

My house.

Day Uno

I woke up on the plane and there were about twenty minutes left until we were to land. My throat was killing me! We were on a huge airplane, but when we landed we walked out on stairs, boarded buses, and drove to customs. The lines were so long! After finally making it through I quickly found my baggage and exited and was picked up by Jill, the Global Learning (GLS) supervisor in Mexico. She drove me around a bit and then took me to my house. It is such a nice place. The lady lives in a nice area and I am literally right across from the school. It is a quick 10 minute walk to get on campus because there are only two entrances. When I first got there I laid down and was then called for breakfast. We had eggs, beans, and ham. It was nice. After I took a nap and then a shower. I then embarked to the school. It was scary to be off on my own. I got to the school, got online, and stayed there for a while chatting with my dad and responding to emails. Bad news? The school for some reason blocks Facebook because it doesn´t want us to participate in any acts of hatred. I figured, oh okay, well let me check Myspace. Myspace worked! That exclamation point is not a happy one. It is a "how can Myspace work and Facebook not??" exclamation mark. Oh well. Then I returned home for lunch. Lunch was soup and a thin piece of beef. After talking a bit more with the lady, her maid, and her son, I went back to the school. Actually the next thing was that the maid, Maria, is also a member of the church! I was so happy because now I would have at least someone close by. I then walked to Starbucks because every Starbucks has WiFi, right? Wrong! This one wanted $10 for the day. I said no way Jose. I went shopping at the local supermarket. I spent $200! Okay, close your jaw, the peso sign is the same as the dollar sign, so 200 pesos is only about $15 US dollars. I got a towel, a loufa, some body wash, shampoo, some hand soap, and a bottle of water. I thought that I did pretty good! Now here I am again, in the library. For some reason I can´t find any WiFi anywhere on campus. I'll get that taken care of so I can post pictures ASAP. Tonight on the agenda we have unpacking, ironing, maybe start the Office, read a little, bed on time. This no internet at home thing will really push me to bed on time! Oh yes, I have cable, too. No room mate so far. We shall see how long that lasts.

LAX is the worst!!!

Last night I had a scare on the plane. The whole day I was nervous about the adventure I was about to embark on and then my sister Tiffany dropped me off at the PHX airport. Great. I got in and had plenty of time. I go to the US Air kiosks and I slide my card and they have NO reservation for me! I begin to worry. I tried it again, still nothing. I go to talk to someone and he can find nothing. I am really beginning to worry. I pull out my iTouch and read my itinerary again and it clearly says that I am heading to Mexico, but (there´s always a but) I am only flying to LAX on US Air and then Delta to Guadalajara. Great, they found me. I am on my way. I land in LAX and the terminal we landed in had nothing. No computers or anything. I walked around looking for them only to discover that, darn, I accidentally left the terminal. I am told that I need to go to a completely different terminal and that I should wait for the bus outside. As I walk out it was like I was paparazzi. Everyone rushed me, "sir, sir, can I help you?" I kept walking and was followed by one gentleman. I quickly told him tht I had to catch the bus that was right there, he backed off. The bus left before I got there and I was worried he would come back, but he didn´t. I then get to my new terminal, terminal 5, and head back through security. Something isn´t right though. My ticket has nothing on it telling me which gate or anything. The computers have no info on my flight. I went to the gate that the man told me to go to and all it had was a flight to New York. I began to worry. The computers listed another Guadalajara flight at 11am the next day, so it wasn´t that 1am was too far away. I asked the Delta help desk and they reprinted my ticket and off I went. I sat there for the longest time. Luckily it took me TWO hours to reach my new gate (luckily I had the longest layover known to man). I still had 3 hours to wait for my plane. I was so happy to board my plane. I went to sleep right away.

#1 of the new ones... (what??)

Okay, so it's been about a month. How sad is that? Well in the last month a lot has gone on and it's been hard to update my blog. Right about the time of my last post I was getting ready for finals. Well, they have come and gone. I aced one and did okay on the other. My mom told me not to argue about the C grade I got in English because of the situation. Well, I didn't. I hope it doesn't hurt to bad. I said goodbye to my place of business. I love working there. It was so hard to leave AGAIN! I really enjoy what I do there and the people I work with. I hope to return when I get back from Mexico. Oh, duh! I proposed to Onna! She reluctantly said yes. Actually it was a lot of fun. We went to the beach to do our Christmas exchange and when all the gifts were exchanged I pulled one more out-a Spanish/English dictionary, sort of in commemoration to my leaving to Mexico. We took it and set it down. I told her to look up a word that starts with 'E' and she struggled to remove the bow from the book. I grabbed the book from her and tore it off myself and gave it back to her. As she flipped the pages she noticed that something was askew in the book, some pages were torn. And amidst the cut out pages laid a nice 3 stone diamond ring. She looked twice and then to me. She asked me what it was. I then asked her to marry me. While she was opening it I smoothly got on one knee in preparation. She hit me, and cried, and then said yes. It was a nice outing. We mini golfed later that day. Well, about a week after that it was time to say goodbye to her for the 5 months that followed. We hugged, she cried. I was sad too, don't get me wrong, just don't cry that often. I left her house and boarded a plane the next day to Arizona. I wasted my days away in Arizona playing Xbox. I did do pretty darn good in football though. I hung out with a few friends but my dad said I was pretty mopey. About a week before I was to leave for Mexico my parents went on a "secret errand" and brought back my fiance!


I was so happy! The next week was much more active than the prior. We went to movies, hung out, did lunches. I just enjoyed having her around. We did a lot of wedding planning too! We picked out some invitations, looked at dresses, and colors. We decided on these (more or less)...


But, of course, that came with another chance to say goodbye. This time she had to walk away, and it wasn't easy. Similar to the last, it was hard. We hugged, she cried. I was sad too, don't get me wrong, just don't cry that often (direct quote). This time, though, I felt more empty as I left and drove back to Maricopa. It was a crazy day in anticipation for my flight that night. I am every emotion mixed in to one.