I got here!

Thurs. Feb. 7, 2008 10:00 PM (from hotel room)

Happy Chinese New Year! Yep, and today I arrived in Guanajuato. I woke up at 5 AM so that I could have plenty of time for my 8:00 flight. I hadn't been extremely anxious beforehand, but once I got on the plane I suddenly got hit with a wave of really bad nausea and homesickness.... hopefully that will go away in a few days.

I did have a tiny adventure once I got to the Guanajuato airport. My connecting flight was about two hours delayed, and I hadn't been able to call the program organizers. So when I arrived in Mexico, I couldn't find the guy who was supposed to pick me up! I stood around for a while and then limped around the airport with my HUGE (seriously, it's BIG) duffle bag. Finally, I decided to take a taxi there. Of course I was a total foreigner and tried to just grab one from the curb. Nope. You have to go Inside, and then Pre-pay for you taxi at the airport. The ride to Guanajuato from the airport was about 30 minutes, and my taxi driver lady was talking on the phone most of the time. When we got onto the highway, I noticed that the woman started accelerating, and the speedometer was rising past 140. I started getting nervous and clinging onto the side of the car and I was finally about to beg her to slow down.... then I realized that the speed here is probably measured in kilometers. I felt rather silly after that.

So far, I haven't seen much of the city, but what I have seen is quite beautiful. The landscape is very different from Michigan, it is hilly and there are practically no trees, which makes everything really open. In some places you can see for miles and miles.Today and tomorrow we are staying in a hotel, which is a lovely, historical place. There is no heat though, and the night is quite cold! In fact, I don't think there's any ventilation at all in this place.

There are actually only 13 students in the program. I guess I'll refrain from judging everybody else just yet, but I didn't really strike up a friendship with anyone so far.