First few weeks in Guadalajara

I've been in Mexico a few weeks now and have decided there are so many strange and interesting occurences that it was time to start recording them. I am here in my room watching some kind of Mexican movie and recounting the day, or more or less, the past week.

Today we got our visas registered and in Mexico this is an all day affair. The IMBA class met downtown and from there we broke up into groups and had to go one place to get our paperwork typed, another place for our photos (mine looked like I just got arrested and everyone was making fun of it) and then the bank to pay the visa fees and then finally to the government office to wait in line for a few hours to have someone stamp the paperwork and make it official. The bureacracy in Mexico is crazy and it really seems they invent jobs for people just to employ them.

I was complaining about the pollution when I arrived to Mexico and it is pretty terrible in the city, but I am getting used to things ( I must add here that unlike the city, the campus is beautiful and clean!). I was actually hoping this would never happen. Who wants to get used to pollution? I am not a city girl by any means, but I am adapting to life here, at least until I return to the States. There are definitely some high points to living here in Guadalajara, like the enormous selection of nice shoes! The bus system has been somewhat hard to navigate, since there really aren't any scheduled times and it can take a while to figure things out. Today, I met up with some of the IMBA ladies and wives of IMBAers in the program for a girls' afternoon and I got on the bus to go home and for some reason, the bus decided to head back downtown instead of going towards my condo. A few weeks ago, I would have panicked but now find that I just shrug the shoulders and say to myself "guess I'm getting home later than expected". However, I still don't feel 100% safe yet. On Monday, some 40-year-old dude followed me in his car to my bus stop and kept asking if I would practice English with him and said he wouldn't leave until I agreed. I told him I didn't speak much English since I was from France and only spoke French and Spanish but somehow I don't think that he bought that with my American accent.

We have class every day from 10am-4pm but because of the 20 minute walk to the bus stop and the 20 + minute ride to school, I usually leave the condo by 8:30am. I hang out in the library on the computer after class and by the time I get home, it's usually around 7pm or later. It seems like I am never home. We seem to be having problems with flies in the condo (they must be coming from the farm that backs up to our condo) and when I get home, I drop my stuff in the living room and have an all-out battle with the flies in the kitchen and living room. I don't mind spiders but flies make my skin crawl and I bought some killer spray and go nuts with it every night until the last fly is dead. My roommates probably think I'm nuts.

I have three Mexican roommates who all go to the Tec de Monterrey, where I am studying business language training. All are extremely nice and easy to get along with, which is always a plus! We will be having a party tomorrow night and I am a little horrified because my Spanish is pretty bad at this point and I am sure there will be bumpy moments. I have invited some of the IMBAers to come over and get to know more Mexicans from the Tec. But first, I think a haircut is in order pronto, after looking at that horrifying mugshot I had taken earlier today. It will be a busy weekend. I have heard that Mexican fiestas typically last long into the night, and the school is taking us on a trip to an Indian village Saturday and we have to be there at 8:30am.