I can hardly believe it's only my second day here in Mexico! Already, I feel as though i've been here for way longer than that. I'm suprised at how easy it was to switch to speaking Spanish and hope that it continues to come this easy. I think part of what has made it easy is that my family is constantly telling me that I speak spanish so well and it makes me want to try to speak all the more although I'm pretty sure that I still have a long way to go!
Last night, Silvia and Carlos (my host parents) took me to "Plazas de las Fiestas" which is a shopping center close to our house. We just walked around and they showed me where I could get pretty much anything I wanted or needed...including the best orange juice I have ever had in my life. We ended up running into some other students from the program who were there with their families so we stopped by to say hi. After saying goodbye, we headed off to buy a cell phone. As we were walking around, my dad asked me what some of my favorite things to eat were and so I started naming off some things I liked(for those of you wondering tacos al pastor was at the top of my list :). When I told him I loved arroz con leche, he insisted that we stop by a little store where they sold it and get some....they are going to spoil me like crazy, I can already tell!
We then retured home where my mom made me supper and then my parents headed off to catch the last mass of the night. From what I have been told, pretty much everyone here goes to mass at some point on Sundays. In some ways it makes me kind of sad because it seems like people do it more out of obligation than something  they really want to do. I ended up staying home because my host brother came to visit and wanted to get to know me so we talked for a while. He is really nice and is married with one son who is 3 years old. I'm excited to get to know their family better. After talking for a while, he left and then I read a little and went to bed because I was super tired.
This morning I woke up at 6 to shower and have a quiet time. Our orientation starts at 8 every morning and it takes about 45 minutes or so to get whrere we are going so it's going to be an early start for me for a while! I'm hoping that my classes will start later because its pretty much impossible to get to bead beofore 11but we'll see.
When we arrived at the school, a few students were already there so I talked for a while with them. Then our moms said goodbye and we all got our pictures taken for our student cards. We then went to a park close to our school where we waited for the tour bus. It was quite a long wait but a good time to get to know the other people on the program. I was really happy to find out that others wanted to speak only in Spanish too and that we were able to communicate without using English :)
The tour of the city was amazing. Merida is a gorgeous city and I loved getting to know more about its history. After the tour, My parents picked me up and showed me the bus route to take back to our house. I then ate lunch while my mom told me all about her family. I absolutly love talking to her and it was fun to get to know her a little better.
After lunch, we had about an hour siesta which I used to catch up on my journaling and then we headed to another part of the school close to our house to officially began our orientation. Afterwards, I walked home alone without getting lost which I was pretty happy about because its easy to get lost here. But..
I arrived at my house around 6 and tried to open the door (my family had just given me keys to the house so that I can get in when they aren't home) but it wouldn't open. I tried a few more times and it still wouldn't open so I decided to try ringing the doorbell to see if anyone was home. No one answered so I sat down to wait for someone to arrive...I got a ton of funny looks from the neighbors who were probably wondering what this gringa was doing. Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up waiting for about and hour and a half before my host mom's sister showed up and showed me that all I had to do was push on the door while opening it with the key. Yep, I felt pretty stupid at that moment! What a great first impression :). After finally getting into the house, I just chilled with my family, ate some super and now I'm getting ready t head to bed because I have to get up early tomorrow. Hope you are all doing well and know that I miss you! :)