So I’ve been in Mexico for a few days now, but it still feels somewhat surreal. Traveling to Mexico was not as big of a deal as I thought it would have been. We had a little trouble finding the Amigos Internacionales from the university who were supposed to meet us at the gate, but we found them before we bought our bus tickets to go to Puebla.
The bus dropped us off at a station from where we then had to take a cab to get to UDLAP. The cab driver dropped us each off at our dorms, which were in all different spots of course. I went into the reception area of the dorm and they asked me for my student ID number, which of course I didn’t have. Luckily they were able to look up my name and give it to me. My RA, Pepe, showed me where my suite was and then helped me and some other international students go to the International Office to find out what was on the agenda for Orientation Week.
After that, some other Valpo students and I went hunting for someplace to eat. We stumbled upon this little restaurant that sold “oriental tacos,” which are just like tacos in the United States except the tortilla is a little thicker. The people at the restaurants probably thought we were idiots because we tried to order a “for here” order at the “to go” register. But they were nice and told us to sit down and brought us menus. So it all worked out. After that we wondered around campus, which was completely deserted for an hour or so and then went around and saw each other’s suites. No one else had moved in yet because classes still didn’t start for a week, so we had the suites all to ourselves.
For our first few days here, we had orientation type events. It felt like freshmen year all over again. I met so many people and probably forgot their names like two minutes later. There are people from all over the world here, which has been really interesting. The only problem is that everyone speaks English. Most of the international students from Europe and from other places abroad find it easier to speak English than Spanish. So it is going to be very easy to use English instead of Spanish, which is rather frustrating considering I’m here to improve my Spanish speaking abilities. I’ve been trying to make an effort. Hopefully that will persist. I found out today that my roommate doesn’t speak English, so hopefully that will help me out a bit.
On Tuesday a bunch of the International students and some of the Amigos Internacionales went out to a Karaoke bar. It was a fun place, but the drinks were kind of watered down. We went out every night after that, which made me feel burned out by the end of the week. The Mexicans told us that students at UDLAP usually go out every night of the week with the exception of Sunday. I know that I won’t be able to keep up with them, especially because I want to maintain a high GPA this semester.
We took a tour of Cholula and Puebla during this week as well. The pyramid in Cholula was pretty awesome. When the amigos told us that we were going to see the pyramid, I immediately thought of the pyramids in Egypt. So it was quite a surprise when the bus dropped us off at the pyramid and it looked like there was nothing there except a hill. We went into a tiny museum that showed a miniature model of the entire pyramid. It looked a lot cooler from this view. The pyramid was built on three levels. We had the opportunity to climb this giant staircase that led to one level. It didn’t look like it would be that hard, but it was very easy to get dizzy very quickly. They amigos told us to walk up and down the stairs in a zigzag formation to avoid the dizziness. It seemed to help a bit. At the top of the pyramid was a church that had been built by the Spanish. It was highly ornate and there were statues and paintings everywhere. It was a little strange for me to be snapping pictures while I was there though because they were people worshipping within the space. It just didn’t feel right to be treating this sacred space like a tourist attraction.
The following day we went on a tour of the center of Puebla. We toured more churches that were decorated in the Baroque style. The architecture and the decoration within the church clearly showed a European influence. Our tour guide, who is an UDLAP history student, told us that when we walked through the door of the large cathedral, our sins would be forgiven. Several students on the tour walked through the door a bunch of times just to make absolutely sure that all of their sins wouldbe absolved. Haha. By Saturday, all of the planned orientation eventswere over.After meeting
up with some other Valpo students and some new friends we made from Austrailia, we ran into one of the amigos internacionales, Pedro, and he took us on an impromptu tour of Cholula, which was rather helpful. We foundout about a lot more bars, clubs, and restaurants that we didn’t know existed. There was this one place that the Mexicans call “Container City.” It’s basically a bunch of shops, bars, and nightclubs that are housed in these old giant storage containers. Apparently it’s a very hipster-ish place. I’m not really sure if I’m hipster enough to be there, but I’ll probably end up making a trip over there at some point.
On Sunday we made another impromtu trip to the pyramid in Cholula. We got a little lazy and decided to take a bus back to campus. At first public transportation was a bit scary, but all you have to do is ask the bus driver if they stop at the place you are headed to. After that, we met up with some other people and went to a place called Rok Pub to watch the Packers game. I’m not really that into football, but it was stillfun chatting with all the people who came with.
Classes are already starting this coming week, and I’m a bit nervous about them. I’m sure they’ll be fine and I’m just having those before school jeeters. Hopefully the rest of this semester will be as fun as this first week has been!
