First Day of School

Hot. Heat. No A/C anywhere.

I'm having fun and feeling happy about being here.  It's tiring being out of my element but it's a nice change.

Today, I went to my first day of class.  Two hours from 9-11 and then two more hours with a different teacher from 11:30-1:30.  In my class level, I am the only student this week so I get four hours straight of one-on-one learning.  I've reviewed a lot of things I already knew but forgot and then learned some more things.  Today, it felt like we did about my entire first semester and part of my second semester of college Spanish classes all in four hours.  It was exhausting and I had to take a nap after lunch.

Meals today: (Senora Gutierrez is a very good cook.)
-Breakfast: eggs, real tasting (unprocessed) bacon and salad with coffee. (Yes, salad for breakfast)
-Lunch: Chicken with very spicy sauce on the side, salad, rice, and watermelon with "soda" (water/juice that had stuff in it you had to chew.  (The texture of putting chia seeds in water for a few minutes.)
-Dinner: will be cereal with milk.  (Yup, breakfast for dinner.)

After my nap I went back to the school to get my suitcase and Wouter (the owner) showed me where an ATM is.  I got out 2,000 pesos which is about 160 dollars.  I enjoy, of course, that everything here is cheaper and not marked up like in touristy areas.

I'm still too scared to explore by myself.  It's not that it's that unsafe in Tlaquepaque to go walking around; the problem is that I am seriously directionally challenged and get lost way too easily.  However, I did go find a cafe and buy a soda and a strawberry shake to cool down with and people watch.  The people are for the most part very friendly and say hello a lot.

Things I noticed/learned:
-This family has a little poodle and I don't know where it goes to the bathroom? (They also have 3 birds.)
-Nobody believes in A/C. (Even the locals think it's been very hot here and are complaining a lot so it must actually be very hot and is not just me.)
-Americans refrigerate a lot more items than Mexicans. (For example, an entire pallet of eggs, water for drinking, salsa, half eaten food....)
-There are no formal bus stops in Tlaquepaque and you can just stand on almost any corner and wave one down.  They go by about every 5 minutes it seems and cost 6-11 pesos (.50 to .85 cents)
-Senora Gutierrez has been hosting students for 6 or 7 years.
-The restaurants are required to make ice using purified water. (Still not OK to drink the water, though.)

Well, I guess I'm going to put this sticky sunscreen I sprayed all over myself to use and go to the park and watch people. Adios!