My Quest in Querétaro: Great weekend, Chaotic Beginning of the Week.

It's been a while since I've written on this thing, almost a whole week! So I'll try to remember what all has happened within that time span. On Valentine's day night, I went to a party with some of the people that live near me and then once we got to the party, a ton of of other international friends were there too so I talked to a lot of different people. The funny part is how we got to the party. Antoinette, Alex and I were going to take a bus to the apartment place where the party was and once we all met up, we realized that none of us knew the address of the party or where it was! haha. It was quite funny, and then we couldn't get a wifi signal, and then the bus was not coming so we took a taxi. It was quite a ride explaining to the taxi driver where we thought the party was. Thankfully I google mapped it earlier to find the bus route so I knew which street it was, just nothing else. We were trying to explain this to the taxi driver and thankfully we found it, but then we didn't know the apartment number and in order to enter the apartment complex, you needed to tell the security which apartment you were going to, so then we tried calling different people who we thought were at the party and we finally got the address/apartment number. Then we went to OXXO which is like a little gas station type of store minus the gas station and got some drinks. I bought Indio, which was actually quite good. It's definitely an acquired taste though and has a kick to it, so I didn't even drink half of it.

Once we were at the party, we were all talking to different people and such, and then at like midnight or so, we all decided we were going to go to this club. Keep in mind that there has to be at least 30+ people at this party, so people were going in all different directions. I shared a cab with Nikki, Steve, and Judith, and once we got in the taxi, we realized, we didn't know the address to this club. And the taxi driver didn't know where it was either. I thought in my head "I can't believe this is happening AGAIN!" We then finally found it after Judith called someone else and we ended up at the London House. Then (this is the really funny part) we were going to enter, and they wouldn't let us in because Steve was wearing khaki shorts! Apparently, clubs and places like that have dress codes here. We laughed about that for the rest of the night and Matteo (the guy Judith called and also her roommate) came out to see if we had found it and if we were there and he thought it was hysterical that Steve couldn't enter. After the not being able to enter the club fiasco, Nikki, Judith, Steve and I decided, let's go get ice cream instead so we headed towards Mc Donalds and Mc Donalds was closed! We couldn't believe it! Mc Donalds never closes. Apparently the 24 hour thing isn't a thing for every place in Mexico like it is in the US. So then with our ice cream dreams crushed, we decided to go to Super Q which is like an OXXO and get some snacks. I got these little chocolate filled cream puff things and they were really good! Then Judith and I walked back to her apartment and Steve and Nikki took taxis back to their houses. Judith and I ended up talking for a while at her apartment (in Spanish of course, and it helps that she is chilean too) And then I ended up just staying there for the night because it was already like 2 or 3 am and I didn't want to pay for a taxi to get home and I didn't want to walk home. It was a great night over all and I'm glad that I went to my first party in Mexico!

I went to the movies on Saturday too with Steve, Nikki, and Brea. We saw the Lego movie in Spanish which was really cute, and then our friend Jamie came and we ate at Chili's. I don't think there are Chili's in Michigan, but there should be because it is really good! I got a spicy buffalo chicken salad and then split a brownie with ice cream with Nikki.

On Sunday I ate dinner with Anoinette at a little pizza place inside the mall which is like a 10 minute walk from our houses/colony where we live. It was really good, and then we went to the store and I bought some oreos because I didn't have anything sweet at home and I really just wanted some cookies. Then once I got home, I subscribed to netflix for my free month trial and watched The Vow while eating oreos. It was a good movie and the oreos were wonderful too!

On Monday I watched the Pursuit of Happyness and then yesterday I watched Back up Plan, and started watching episodes of the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.

Tuesday was a day unlike any other. It was so chaotic! I had 2 exams that day in my Psychology & Leadership class and in my Mexican Literature class. I think I did well on them! The layout of them was different though. Scantrons aren't a thing here that I know of! That is really crazy. So of course the exams had a lot of essays. - Mexican Lit was all essay. And Psychology was only part essay, part fill in the blank. I was also trying to figure out my whole package ordeal that my mom had sent me. There was an attempted delivery but then I couldn't find the package and didn't know where it was or if I needed to go someone and no one else from the international programs office really knew either because it was USPS and not UPS. I tried explaining it to the coordinators in the office like 5 different times that it is USPS, not UPS. Finally, I texted my friend Laci who goes to CMU and is also here with me and something similar happened to her and she had to go to a post office in El Centro to get her package. So I told my host mom all this and she said we could go on Wednesday. In my Mexican Identity class, I somehow got very confused and was like a page behind on the syllabus as far as assignments go and it ended up that I didn't turn in an assignment on time and I was just so confused because there aren't any dates on the syllabus, just homework that needs to be done and topics we are going to talk about. I talked to my professor after class and she said that we are on the second page of the syllabus, not the first page, and also that I could still do the assignment and turn it in! Thank goodness!!!! That is something I appreciate about some of the professors here, they are very lenient with international students, especially those whose native language isn't Spanish.

Then on Tuesday night I got sick. I had a sore throat through out the day but couldn't tell if I was just thirsty or if it was a cold. But that night, it was awful. I had never had that much pain in my throat, and then I couldn't sleep because I was scared about my package and hoping it was at that post office I needed to go to and I ended up having various dreams about this dumb post office package ordeal. Then it was morning and I felt really weak and sick and I thought, all I want is for Laura to have a nice LITTLE breakfast of like toast or something. And I love Laura dearly, but that morning she made these spicy looking enchilada things for breakfast. I could barely even look at them. I told her I didn't feel well and thank goodness she was a doctor, and she told me to drink some tea and take ibuprofen. I got better throughout the day thankfully. We went to el centro with abuelita and I got my package from the post office! I was so happy! And apparently it wasn't anything I did wrong to not receive the package. They said that they sent 2 notices to the security guards at the front of the school that take the mail/ packages and stuff, and the security guards are supposed to bring those notices to the international programs office and then we are supposed to be notified that we have mail. The security guards never gave the notices to the office. I was a bit upset, but now that I have my package, I'm wonderful.

Today was a good day too. I decided to not go to salsa class today because I don't want to overly exhaust myself with working out, and my tutor cancelled so I was back home after going to the gym by like 2 pm! Then I received an email from my professor from my mexican identity class and she said I did a wonderful job on my report that I did a while back that was like 6 pages long. That made me so happy that I got a good grade on this report because it took me such a long time to do and I worked really hard on it!

Now Laura is making me some lunch :) And I don't have any more homework to do for tomorrow so I think it will be a netflix day :)

Hasta Luego!