And she learns her first word...

 During our first few days, all of the native spanish speakers were eager to share words and phrases with us that we wouldn't necessarily learn in Spanish class. Some are specifically Mexican words, some are words used only among young adults, etc. To be honest, I don't really remember most of them now. I probably should have written them down. But there was one word. One word that would stand alone. One word to rule them all. Little did I know at the time what this word would come to mean to me. The word is:

Desmadre.

The word was described to us as complete chaos, disorder, and confusion. Apparently, while it is an appropriate word in Spanish, it has an English equivalent, which I would say now but I would rather my blog not contain Mexplicit lyrics. The word, broken down, is "des-madre", or something like "without the mother." The idea is that mothers bring organization and order to chaos, and without them, all would be left in ruin. Maybe that's a little dramatic, but it sure makes sense in my world with my shopping/packing skills without Mama. I have heard some professors say it and it seems pretty common.  However, I said it today with my host-mother and found out that it really isn't that proper...Well, whomever uses it, we sure have during the past few days. As in, our top 5 most used words would be modified to look closer to something like this:

1- the
2- of
3- to
4- desmadre
5-and

Why? Our first week of classes/regsitration would prove to be described with this beautifully simple yet all-encompassing word. I'm going to try to keep this as short as it can be.

Everything started off smoothly. We went through a very organized registration process set up for international students. In fact, many of us were pre-registered for classes and had very little to change. Almost everyone got what they wanted and everyone got what they needed. However, later that day, we met with the internship coordinator who organizes our rotations in the hospital. We were handed our schedules for rotations. Most people had Tuesday and Thursday mornings open for the hospital, but half of us had to go on Mondays and Wednesdays. This started a slew class changes, a little bit of anger, and some panic.

My long story short-I had to change two of my classes. They told me to switch into a different history class so I proceeded to make sure the class was approved through Notre Dame, and then went to change it. When I got there, it was full so I went to the department head but they could not do anything about it. Then I tried to get another history class approved but that was going to be a dead end. The conclusion to all of this is traveling twice a week to another university in downtown Puebla to take a Theology class that can count for my major.

What made this a desmadre is that it all had to happen within the three-day add/drop period that UDLAP has, and I was making much of these negotiations in Spanish. I felt nowhere near ready for that one.
To add to this, Monday a big group of us went to a class at the medical school we are taking called Family and Community Medicine. The nine of us all tromp into the class and sit in the front row. The professor had already been talking and everyone else was seated. As we sat down there were very obvious mumbles and snickers. Finally one of the ND girls stepped up and asked which class we were in. Sexology. Not quite what we were looking for, but I think it could have been interesting...Anyways, at that moment, the secretary came in, told us all to come outside and told us that the class had been changed to 4pm instead of 6pm and that we had missed it. No one informed the rest of UDLAP so again, desmadre, and many people had to switch up class schedules.

I won't bore you with more details about these days and really, everything pretty much turned out alright in the end. Also, because my schedule was in shambles, I had to travel to UPAEP, the other university, on Monday to meet with the Theology professor, Padre de Simone, and I was able to attend his Mass that morning. So there you go. God has a pretty sweet way of making things work out and providing me with opportunities and environments to keep my eyes on Him. And now I'm getting that Theology class I wanted! It's titled Dialogues between Science and Religion...so sort of fitting for me. Also, Padre de Simone offered to give me outside readings to explore a little bit more in particular the development of the Catholic culture in Mexico, so I look forward to that.
My other classes:

Physics- Taught in English in Mexico by a professor from Poland. So far, not too shabby. I left my first science lab on Friday feeling somewhat successful.

Psychology of Medicine- this will be pretty interesting, but I have a 20 minute individual presentation   that is actually coming up soon. Hopefully I can speak Spanish by then...

Translation-I think this will be my hardest and most favorite class. We translate texts from English to Spanish and vice versa. It is difficult because in translation, you have to understand the meaning and  idea of the text and not translate word for word. We have to research how native speakers of the language we are translating into would say it naturally. According to our teacher, we have to "be a Sherlock Holmes of words."

Medical Internship- Starts the first week of September!

I have to mention, that while the whole thing was, well, a desmadre, there were so many wonderfully accommodating people helping me out. Big shout-outs to Lisette, our on-site coordinator, and my advisor at ND, Padre de Simone, and the coordinator at UPAEP who really were all bending over backwards for me and the other students. Not that they will ever see this, but I just want ya'll to know, they rock.

I'm excited to get into a school routine, if that makes any sort of nerdy sense at all. On Wednesday, after all of the ups and downs and insanity of the beginning of the week, to be honest, all I wanted to do was sit down and do homework. And thankfully, I had no other choice.

Mexpandable Waistlines-

Nalleli, being the sweet roommate that she is, came with a house-warming present for me. Well, actually, she gave me several presents in one evening. When I protested saying, "Nalleli, muchos regalos!"(clearly I can form full sentences in Spanish already) she replied that if you have a friend in Mexico, you give them presents! Good diplomacy. Well, looks like I have some shopping to do. Anyways, one of the more scrumptious gifts was a massive jar of carmel-colored substance call Cajeta. Cajeta is the word used in Mexico for Dulce de Leche. Sure enough, this jar of goodness is made with sheeps milk, sugar, and a type of sherry. There are also bits of nuts in it but I'm not sure what they are as they aren't under the ingredients (It seems there is less concern over nut allergies). It is mostly associated with the town of Celaya, Guanajuato (a state in Mexico). Nalleli says you can put it on hot cakes or warm it up with milk to make a delicious hot drink. So far, I've just put it on some pan dulce and while it was sticky, it slid down my throat with joy. Well actually, yesterday, I just sat at my desk spooning it into my mouth. 

Luckily I have all semester to finish it...