Today we are moving in with our host families and out of the home we have been living in for the last 8 weeks. I am nervous but also extremely excited. I have been looking forward to this for a while.
I will be living with a woman named Maria Guadalupe in her 50s. She is an accountant and lives really really close to CEMAL, so I am not going very far away unlike some students who are over a half hour bus ride from CEMAL. It is just Maria and I living together. I have not met her yet but we will be meeting our families at 5 PM for a convivio and awkward get to know you games. Then we will have a light dinner of tamales :) Then I will walk down the street with her to her house and I will live with her for 6 weeks. I don't know what to expect at all other than that I will not have internet access which is going to be pretty weird - but not bad at all. I am glad that I will not be spending over 3 hours a day on tastespotting.com looking up recipes - I need to break the obsession hahaha. So I won't be posting as often or be on facebook or my email as often as I would be if I had internet. I can always just come over to CEMAL and use the computers and U.S. phone line.
So last night I went to a place called Los Arcos. It is a restaurant/bar that is mostly outside, located on the main Zocalo. We went around 9 PM because we knew there was going to be live music and people get up and dance among the tables and the beers are 2 for 1. The restaurant was really busy when we got there, almost every table was full, and this is not a small place. We were sitting really close to the band. I ordered a "Cafe Moka." It was pretty much a little coffee, a lot of milk, and a chunk of Mexican chocolate thrown in. It was quite delicious. I want to bring my mom and Rick here at night because I know they want to go dancing and this was perfect because we were home by 11 PM but it was still really fun and lively and everyone was having a great time.
So something else happened to one of my roommates which I have to share even though I know this might freak some of you guys out. One of my roommates got home last night around 2:30 in the morning and came in to our room. I was awake because I had to go to the bathroom. She had been in a car with a guy she knew who drove her home from a club they were at. They were sitting in his car right outside of the gate to CEMAL. Two guys with guns came and told them to get out of the car. She said that she didn't really know what was going on but the guy she was with just told her to get out of the car quietly and walk away as quickly as possible. That is exactly what they did and his car was stolen by these two guys with guns! Wow, that scares me a bit, but it could happen in any city really. The poverty levels in Mexico are so high that crime is on the rise as a result of a lack of opportunities and jobs. I guess that's all I have to say about that but don't get scared, I just thought it was a crazy story.
