Things to get used to!

¡Hola a todos! Well, I made it! And I´m loving Oaxaca! After getting here at 10:30 Saturday night, I was surprised at how fast my Spanish came back to me. Exhausted as I was, I was actually able to carry a full on conversation with my new host sister. But ahhh ... the third day has arrived and today I my head was soo jumbled with spanish words to remember and verbs to conjugate, but nonetheless I still very excited. For some reason, I feel so comfortable here in Mexico. So where to begin, where to begin? I guess first I´ll describe the things I need to become more accustomed to. THE SUN! It is so hot here! I walk 10 minutes from my house to my school and I am just sweating like crazy! I´ve heard that a stereotype for Americans is that they sweat a lot... welp, I´m definitely confirming that one. So I´m hoping that after a few weeks that maybe it´ll get better. Second is the altitude ... it´s about 5,000 feet here. I haven´t gotten sick just yet but quite tired and I think I´ll wait a week before I attempt to go running here. Then of course my family. I live with a mother (Guelilia), a sister (Ana who is 31 years old), her husband (Luis), and then their two year old daughter, Camila (who is absolutely adorable ... but is going through a tantrum phase apparently). They are all very very nice, but as I was coming to Oaxaca I had this view that I´d be accepted into the family, help with the cooking and chores, and be considered an equal. So far that has shown not true ... I am completely treated as a guest. There´s a cleaning lady that comes to the house to clean, and Guelilia does all the cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. Also, since I am to have breakfast and lunch at the house, I am always eating alone. Guelilia serves me (never can I help no matter how much I insist) and then she sits and watches me eat! It´s kinda odd for me but my professors say it´s a custom here. I´m not even really allowed in the kitchen. She has to retrieve everything for me. But she is reeeally really nice and I definitely enjoy our conversations (not to mention the food!!) that we have during those times. And I´m really looking forward to getting to know Ana because she is so easy to talk with. Well, one last thing to talk about so I don´t write a novel... I met my "intercambio" today. It´s another student from a Oaxacan University who is learning English. She is really nice although I felt a little shy. We will get together every day for an hour and talk a half an hour in Spanish and a half an hour in English. It was actually really weird because as much as I have been struggling with speaking correct grammar and remembering Spanish words, I realized that I truly have only been speaking in Spanish since I´ve gotten here. It was so weird to speak in English!

Ok ok... so I think I´ll write more later. While I have free wireless on campus, my computer is apparently too old me and wireless card doesn´t work. Luckily internet is really cheap here ($1 per hour) but I´m not sure how I´m going to upload my pics, but I´ll try to get some up soon. oh and sorry for any mispellings or weird signs ... this keyboard is a little different. Hope everyone´s well, and I will write more interesting things next time!

P.S. We have to take a test on the very first day of class.... good news? I almost got a hundred percent! bad news (although I suppose goods news as well)? my class is soooooo hard! I´m learning about Chomsky´s theories about linguistics in Spanish and while I love my professor, I don´t think I´ve ever had someone speak so fast!!! Wish me luck!