Mi Casa

SO. Mexico City was pretty much a holiday. I was hanging out with 30 other British people, taking photos of every vague landmark or interesting object and fumbling over my Spanish (like a true Brit, though of course slightly better than the average - it is my degree, after all).
On Thursday I headed into reality.

After 4 and a half hours of driving through the countryside, passing shanty towns, going over mountains and trying to avoid conversation with the annoying Chinese - Mexican sat across the aisle from me and who had barely understandable Spanish and an insistence on showing me all his photos of his travels by pretending to be interested in Dr Doolittle 3 (the film of choice for the journey). Every now and then, the coach would stop for no apparent reason and open its doors, then I'd hear shouts from the doorway advertising various mexican snacks (they're not allowed on the coach in case they're robbers). Anyway eventually I arrived, instantly being hit by the sweaty heat and humidity as i stepped off the airconditioned coach, and after hanging around for 15 minutes wondering whether I was going to be staying in the bus station overnight and having no working phone to contact anyone, Jessy and Mileyvi (teachers from the uni I'll be working at) turned up to take me to my new home.


My house is brown. Of all the colours to choose, why brown? Along this road there is purple, orange, yellow, blue, green, pink and...brown. I know I would be more fond of it if it was painted a good, bright, happy colour but to be honest, as houses go (inside), this is an okay one. We have a sofa, a tv with cable (Big Bang theory and Friends, NOT dubbed but subtitled - YES) and we have hot water (THANK GOODNESS. I really don't think I'd have been able to manage cold showers all year). However, over here you do have to put toilet paper in the bin - something I did not know for the first few days - sorry Mexico! I'm not really very fond of this, as well as the fact that we're supposed to brush our teeth using bottled water for the first bit of our stay - it's such a faff :( But I'm going to be daring soon and use tap water. What a rebel.

The landlady Kelly (a.k.a. Don Raquel) cooks breakfast and dinner for us during the week since we have nowhere to prepare food. I was worried about this at the start, being an awkward vegetarian and all, but it's actually been okay, except for the fact that she stays to chat to you whilst you eat your breakfast. Other people would think this was a lovely thing, but I am not a morning person so it's quite difficult for me to make conversation in Spanish when I just want to be left alone! There are 9 girls living here (apparently) though I only ever really see 6 of them, and 3 of them are still in school (around 6^th form age who live here during the week so they can get a better education than what's on offer in their small hometowns). I am also sharing a room. I was nervous about this before I came here, but Evelyn is really really nice. She's 18 and in her last year of school before uni (I think) and it's actually kindof nice because we have good chats in Spanish :) However, the girl in the room next door to our room is moving out next week as she wants to go on a diet and cook for herself so I will be moving in there to have my own space! Wooo.

My bed and Cat:)

So far living here has been nice. In the week when I get back from uni we often sit and watch the crazy Mexican telenovela together which is good fun - it really is ridiculous with the intense zooms accompanied by dramatic music when something a bit interesting happens, and it's good for me to practice speaking Spanish with them. My bed is reasonably comfy and I have a desk and wardrobe so am not living out of a suitcase which is also good. When the French assistant comes she'll be living here too so if she's nice hopefully that'll be an extra friend. The only problem is the food thing. We have a microwave but I don't yet have a plate to put in there - just a lonesome plastic bowl, a spoon and a fork, so figuring out what to make for lunch or dinner is a struggle. Wall Mart is on the list of things to do tomorrow. I will buy a knife and a plate. It's all good :)