School!

I was supposed to start school August 15. After a week of postponed classes, I thought I would be starting school on Monday, August 22. Much to my surprise, schools throughout the area were called off Sunday night  for Monday because of storms caused by a nearby tropical depression. So, finally, on Tuesday, August 23, I went to school.
Tuesday was one of those days where you step out of the car and can't believe they are really leaving you here, a lot like Kindergarten. I honestly did not want to get out of the car. But I did, only to walk inside at 7 and have an employee tell me that I didn't have to be there till 9. I called my mom, she picked me up, and I was able to relax for a little while longer. Then it came time for me to get out of the car again. And again, it took all I had to actually step out of the car, and walk into the school. Here I was, alone at my school, somewhere completely foreign and knowing everyone knows I'm foreign, and not knowing a single person. Luckily, the first person I saw was an exchange student from Australia. She and another student showed me where to go, and then I took a deep breath and walked into a classroom. I asked someone if I could sit at their desk, and started to breathe again when she said yes. Teachers and school directors introduced themselves and talked about their classes, the school, why Centro Universitario Hispano Mexicano is awesome. After what seemed like years of this, we were given a recess to eat breakfast, walk around, whatever. And then: the cafeteria. I thought walking into the school was hard. I have probably never eaten lunch alone at school. I was not about to start now! I asked a girl if I could sit by her, which could not have been more awkward, and then we sat in more or less silence. Finally that broadened into a group of four, still pretty silent. When we returned to the classroom, we were separated into Engineering and Communications/ Publicity classes. More talking followed, and then we were told we were going to "have some fun". Part of my Communications/ Publicity class involves photography, so we had to take pictures in teams of an older student wearing shiny wrapping paper. I'm not sure what the point of this was, and it mostly was just awkward. I guess it was meant to break the ice, but it's really hard to be creative in another language. Class was dismissed, I called my host mom, and in 10 minutes my host dad came to pick me up. He dropped me off with my mom to wait for my sister at her school. Her school was crazy! There were so many kids and so much traffic and they all wear uniforms, it was just unreal! My host sister's friends came and said hi to me, I guess they have been "dying to meet" the white, blond girl living with their friend. We came home, and I slept. After a while, I woke up, ate some cereal, and just chilled in my room with the air conditioning on for a while. School in another country is a whole lot to process.

Wednesday we left my house at 6:40, because I really did have to go to school at 7 this time. I'm used to getting up and getting ready around that time at home during the school year, but I also go to bed at 10 at the latest. One of the perks of getting up this early is seeing the sun begin to rise over the ocean. The majority of my drive to school is along the ocean, and I look out the window to see gigantic barges, smalll boats, and the sun rising with the most beautiful background. I could get used to this. My mom dropped me off at school, and I walked into my classroom. I sat next to the same girl I sat next to the day before, and just like all first days of school, we had to introduce ourselves to our new teacher. The big difference is we did this every time a new teacher entered, and the entire class was exactly the same, so we had to do the same thing with the same people. The students don't change rooms here, the teachers do. That means I am in the same classes with the same people everyday. Everyone was a lot more social today, and it was jsut generally less awkward. My classes were Expresion Oral y Escrito, Psicologia Social, Teorias de la Comunicacion, and Sistemas de Computo 1. They all went pretty well, and although I don't understand everything, I get probably 70 % of what the teachers say, when I'm not staring at the wall zoning out. My mom came to get me, I got a nieve (more on this later, it's delicious), and we went to pick up my sister, Nora, from her school. The rest of the day was really good and we went to a Zumba class in the middle of a plaza. That was one of the most amazing things ever, seeing around 75 people dancing all together! We had some dinner, and went to bed to relax before Day 3 of school.