Week one: complete. Status: alive.

Because of my tendency to write long posts, I'm going to try to limit this one to what I can write while finishing my tea.

Umm, yeah so I don't really remember what I've done with my past few days. I think Thursday was just more school and homework. Ok, now I remember, and yep, that's all I did. I spent the afternoon in the 'brary finishing a dumb assignment, but I was really proud of myself for staying even though I really wanted to go home and eat tacos or something.

I think the classes are going to be ok, but not any easier than those at USC. Just different. Oh, but yesterday I remembered that the grades I make here won't go into my USC GPA-- woot!

I dropped that Poverty and Development (Migration) class like a hot potato and picked up "Political Exterior of Mexico," which I'm pretty sure will count nicely towards my LASP major. The only thing is that it's from 6-9 PM Wednesdays, so those days I'll go at 10 AM for dance class, sit around and do homework todo el santo dia, go to the poly sci class, and take a taxi home. I think another girl that lives in my neighborhood is also in school till 9, so it'll be cheaper and safer. I'm really hoping this new class is decent, because the adding/dropping period just ended.

Yesterday I got my laptop registered into the Tec's campus-wide wireless network. Maybe I won't get homework done at school after all. It certainly won't be the same as being in the depths of the T-Coop (our loving nickname for USC's sketch library, which is 70s-tastic and has 5 creepy floors underground that are most conducive to getting things done.)

Last night we went to Wall Street again, which was sort of weird since it was hosted by the Tec Int'l Programs. All the staff that have been changing my classes all week and hearing my complaints about my ID card's saying "Janet Newton Devde" were there at the club with us. One of them actually took me and Eva home, so that was pretty awesome that we didn't have to pay for a taxi. And we took a bus there (50 cents) and there was no cover, so it was an excellent night for a cheapskate like me. I did pay for a pina colada. I know you're probably tired of hearing my excitement about alcohol, but darnit, I served those things at OTB for over a year, so I deserved to try one. The Japanese girls Mizouki and Sari (the girl that's staying with Zabel's mom) came too, but they left at 12 because their group went to Tequila this morning. Later, however, there was much dancing--techno (ick), salsa, and all the popular Spanish music that I feel less weird about liking here than I do at home. Fun was had by all.

Today Eva, Candice, and I are going shopping because we are running out of going-out shirts (haha) and we might go crazy if we stay cooped up in such small quarters. The malls here look just like US ones, but SO much fancier than the Haywood or Columbiana malls. And surely we will have some sort of bus adventure. I can finally get to and from school in a pretty stress-free fashion, so that's a plus in my life.

Oh, yesterday after class I took Mizouki and Sari home to help them get used to the buses (apparently busses isn't a word? whoops), and I was trying to explain how you have to push a button so the bus driver knows when to stop (no one remembered to tell me that part) in very slow, present tense Spanish. This girl a couple seats in front of us asked if we go to the Tec, and we made some lovely smalltalk. When we got off the bus, she told us where she lived, told us to come visit, and gave me her phone number in case we need help with anything. She's a first year student from Nayarit, the state on the coast just north of Jalisco (where GDL is). So I guess we will call her sometime and go get dinner or something! It's so weird how, when you're just walking on the street or riding on the bus, you pretty much look straight ahead and don't smile at anybody or anything, but when you do talk to someone, everybody is SO friendly. I don't really get how it works, but I guess I'm ok with it. I completely understand not smiling at guys you pass on the street, but it makes me sad that even the women don't really smile at each other.

I have to share this out of control Mexicanism (Latin Americanism?) that you may or may not have heard of: when you ask for directions, people are very quick to help, even if they can't actually point you to where you're trying to go. They make up very elaborate directions and are so nice and sure of themselves that you take their advice and usually end up even more lost than before. Apparently it's because they don't want to disappoint you by not being able to answer your question, but this is not logical to me. I am quite disappointed when I am freaking lost in a city I don't know, but I guess it's better for them because by that point I'm so far away, they don't have to see me being let down. The best option is to find a map, and the second best is to ask a bazillion people the same question and take an average of their answers.

The tea restrictions didn't work well; I just kind of forgot to drink it. 306 ladeez-- I thought of you this morning because I almost left said tea in the microwave. :)