Getting There!
My dad and I spent the previous night at my Aunt Jean’s house so we didn’t have to wake up at 4 in the morning in order to drive to Chicago. I arrived at the airport around 7:30 for my 9:00 A.M. flight. I passed through security and made my way to the terminal where my first plane was to take off… to New York. I don’t know why it ended up this way but my flying schedule was from Chicago to New York then back down to Texas and then straight through to Querétaro. You got to love airlines! I boarded my first plane and before we took off, I was sound asleep. I woke up just in time for the pilot to announce that we were starting to make our descent into New York. I am glad that I woke up then because I was able to snap some pictures (from my phone) of the Statue of Liberty and the city itself. I have never been to New York, so it was pretty cool having a window side view for the flight in. Once I touched down in New York, I made my way to my next gate where I had to pass through security again. I wasn’t expecting to have to do this again, so while I was in O’Hare Airport, I bought a 32 ounce bottle of water for $4 that I forgot I had until security opened my bag and found it. He let me know that I would have to throw it away so I decided that I wasn’t wasting $4, so I opened it and tried to chug it down, but when it was about half empty I conceded the fight and threw the rest in the garbage. The plane ride to Dallas was a 3.5 hour flight so I decided to pay the $6.99 and use their TV that was built into the back of the seat to watch a couple movies. When we touched down in Dallas my nerves started really getting to me; either that or the large chai tea that I just chugged down. I was less than hours away from living in Mexico, with no one I know, for the next 6 weeks. I decided now would be a good time to do some last minute review of Spanish before I was put to the test. I spent this flight reading over the packet of information that the TEC had sent me and reviewing my Spanish composition book that I decided to bring along. After an hour and a half flight, it was finally time. Stepping off the airplane around 8:30 in the cool Mexican night I was trembling with nerves, anxiety, and excitement. I headed towards the inside of the airport with the other 50 people I shared the flight with. Here I waited in line for about 20 minutes to pass through the immigration line. I made my way through immigration with no problems and headed into the lobby of the airport. I then went over to the bus service and asked the people there if they would be able to take me somewhat close to the house I needed to go to, but they directed me to the cab service. I then asked the taxi service how much it would cost to get me to the house and they responded with $20. Coming from Peoria where I usually spend $10 to travel 10 minutes, I was ecstatic with how cheap it was. I hopped in the cab and said hi to the taxi driver (Miguel) and proceeded to ask him if he spoke any English and like I suspected he said no. I went on to tell him I spoke a little Spanish and we were able to hold an off and on conversation for the entire 40 minute drive. On this drive I also found out that in Mexico, Querétaro at the least, traffic laws didn’t exist. I don’t know which was the scariest, the excessive speeding, the unorganized sharing of lanes, or the disregard to stop signs and stop lights. I know if my mom would have been riding in the passenger seat, her hands would have been over her eyes the entire ride. I somehow safely arrived at my final destination, my home for the next 45 days, a little house in the neighborhood of Puerta Real. The neighborhood is quite nice; it consists of 12 gated in communities and each community has a security guard that operates the gate into each sub division. The taxi pulled up to the house and I waved goodbye to Miguel and I started walking towards the house. I was promptly greeted by Carla (my host mom), Alejandra (my host sister), Hugo (my host dad), and Brent (my host brother from Purdue). We said our hellos and conversed about whom we were and the usual small talk. Still recovering from the flight, holding a full Spanish conversation proved to be quite difficult. Carla brought me some leftovers for dinner; it was spaghetti with bacon and some watermelon. As I was finishing dinner, Carla’s sister, Claudia came over with her two kids to say hello. After a while we decided that it was time to go to sleep and as soon as my head touched the pillow I was out for the count.
