Comencemos

Let's begin, shall we? It's about time, I know, but who knew starting a blog would be such a daunting endeavor...I blame it on the blog title, which stood as a total roadblock for me. I was set on being extremely witty and original, but found that the forcing made it worse. Here were some of the options:

Mexcreted Musings
Mexcursions
147 Days in Mexile
Mexistential Musings
Mexothermic Reactions-haha science..
Mexocytosis - as in musings being released from the cell of my head/montezumas revenge. lots of releasing themes
The Blog of Mexodus


Clearly I got stuck on an idea...but one wouldn't believe how many words start with 'ex', making it actually a pretty Mexasperating but Mexellent game! I decided to go with this chosen title because, frankly, by brain and articulation skills are pretty disorganized, varied, and random. And the Mexpansion  Pack because, well, I'm in Mexico (in case that hasn't been clear), I muse about many things but this blog will mostly entail my experiences here, and also, The Sims really needs an expansion pack all about Mexico; think about the possibilities!
Anyways...

This semester I am studying abroad in Puebla, Mexico at La Universidad de Las Americas Puebla (UDLAP). Myself and sixteen other Notre Dame students have just embarked on an adventure that I know will be fun, challenging, and full of growth. Coming here was quite the decision to make, to be honest, and it kept coming back with more and more reasons to say no. All along though, I knew I had to come or I would always wonder what I missed out on south of the border. And now that I have arrived, and all things considered, I am glad that I am here.

We arrived Monday evening after a long day of travel. Thankfully, I met up with another ND student, John, in Arizona so we were able to fly to Mexico City and figure out the bus and taxi to UDLAP together. I did get stopped and questioned by the immigration police though. She asked where I was going, why, if I knew the customs law on bringing money into Mexico, and how much money I had on me. She made me sweat. It turned out fine, but apparently I have a suspicious looking face.
When we got here, four of us almost immediately left for food, found a Taqueria down the street and had our first tacos y cervezas. Delicious! Later on that evening I met a couple of my suite-mates and my roommate, Nalleli. I had to have them all write down their names in my journal because it was hard for me to understand some of them. She does not speak much english at all, but is very patient with me. Nalleli plays soccer for the Aztecas (UDLAP's mascot) and we decided that I'll have to be here cheerleader at the games. I did always want to be a cheerleader...Anyways, Nalleli is awesome and I feel very blessed to have her as a roommate. She is gone for the weekend and I already miss her!

Nalleli and I

Orientation and international student information was to follow the next few days, but for that evening I had to find out some of the more important stuff. Could I brush my teeth with the tap water? (Yes.) Could I flush toilet paper down the toilet? (No.) How do I say, "Help! I'm trapped in the bathroom stall!" in Spanish? (I eventually did it on my own. Maybe I should still figure that our for future reference.) And then I got a raging bloody nose in the middle of the night. Having a fully moistened nose is the only think I miss about the Texas humidity from this summer.

The next couple of days consisted of getting to know the campus and some other international students. There is a group of UDLAP students called Amigos Internacionales that have really been taking care of us and running the show. They helped us register for stuff, and gave us tours of UDLAP, Cholula, and Puebla (more to follow on that). The information sessions have all been in Spanish, so we have really been plunged into the language learning immediately. I could understand most of the first session, when the presenters weren't speaking too fast. Conversations I have had with various Mexican students have been hit and miss. I have walked away from a couple just smacking my forehead with my hand and thinking how ridiculous I must have sounded.

UDLAP is beautiful. It is almost like a tropical oasis. It's a closed campus with countless types of trees, flowers, and shrubbery. Statues line the walkways and shade-covered benches are everywhere. There is a pretty big garden with trees and flowers everywhere. It's perfect for walking around or taking a run and ending up at the meditation garden which is very secluded, quite, and peaceful. The weather is pretty much perfect. It is a bit cool in the morning but eventually gets to 75 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze. The evenings get cooler and without fail, so far, it rains pretty hard in the late afternoon/evening. But no humidity! I'm getting the feeling I'll probably be outside a lot this semester. However, the buildings are all beautiful and I especially look forward to making use of the library. It has some pink walls, purple furniture, and paintings everywhere. Quite festive compared to the ND library brown. My favorite part though, is that it smells exactly like Hesburgh library. If I close my eyes, I can actually imagine being there. The smell of old books may be added to my top list of scents.

Part of the Garden

One of the many interesting and original statues

The dorms are called Colegios and are basically groups of apartment style buildings with a suite set up. I live in Cain Murray and there are three other dorms. They are pretty nice and have a courtyard with different outdoor activities and lawn chairs in the middle.

Mi Colegio Cain Murray

Our pretty little courtyard with a mini soccer field

More on a couple of our initial adventures is to follow is subsequent posts, but first I would like to introduce what is surely to be my favorite part of this blog. Some of you many know my slight passion for food. When I was growing up, I would always remember vacations, sister's swim meets, brother's baseball tournaments,  and pretty much any event by what food we had there. So by golly I'm ready to make some Mexican memories. This portion of the blog will document a new culinary experience each time. I title it:

Mexpandable Waistlines-

I'm going to start off with something simple but crucial. Tacos. From the first night on I think I have had at least one taco every day. The first night, as I mentioned before, we went out to tacos and boy was it a good welcome to Mexico. We all opened the menu and were met with so many different choices that were completely unfamiliar to us. Who knew there are so many more food types than are shown in that one colorful and labeled picture in the second year spanish book? From that, I definitely knew "tacos con bistec y queso" and ordered that. Then I had a jumbled conversation with the waiter who returned to ask if meat from the rib of the cow instead of somewhere else (never quite caught that) was okay. I would have never known the difference, but maybe by the time I leave I will have the delicacy of each cut of meat down. Tacos traditionally come with corn tortillas (maize) which are delicious, but so far I prefer flour tortillas (harina). There are so many different types. We've gone to about three different places for tacos and UDLAP put on a Noche de Tacos for us. One type I will introduce for now is Tacos Árabes which is really popular in Puebla. It has a flour tortilla and pork from the loin or the leg and certain spices like oregano, thyme, and garlic. Delicious.