¡Hola a todos de México! I made it here to Guadalajara on Saturday. Unfortunately, my suitcase was not as lucky. It got left in Las Vegas, but they did deliver it to my house yesterday. I'm living with a Mexican host mother and I have a roommate, Molly, who is from San Francisco and is in the same program as I am. Then there are three Germans, two guys and a girl, and an Italian guy who all go to a different language school. Apparently my host mom, Imelda, houses students all the time in order to earn her living (she is divorced), so right now it's a full house. It was very surprising when I first met her--she spoke (nearly) perfect English! Also, I was astonished at her house. It seems really nice, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. It's not a very big place, but everything in it is really nice. She has a fully stocked wet bar and she told us that she would be giving us a party Tuesday night to welcome us and also to say goodbye to the Italian guy who is leaving later this week. Imelda seems really fun and she really wants us to feel comfortable while we are here. She is always offering us food and drinks ("Are you sure you don't need a beer before bed?") and has been speaking only English with us. She said it is so that we can get used to her and get comfortable; in a few days she will start speaking only Spanish. I can't wait--that's why I came here!

The weather has been really nice since I've been here--warm and humid during the day and cooling off just a bit at night. Of course there is no air conditioning, so it's a bit too hot at night. There's also no wind, so even if we open the window, it won't help much. It hasn't rained at all here, which is surprising because I was told it rains every afternoon during the rainy season (June through October). Molly arrived here a week ago and she said it rained almost every day last week. I guess it's something to look forward to!

The food here has been so good! I thought it would be so greasy and boring, like beans and rice every day or something, but Imelda cooks with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Her neighbor has an avacado tree, so we get those for free. I went to the market yesterday and got a mango. It was so fresh and juicy and so much cheaper than in the US! Actually pretty much everything is cheaper to buy here, which is nice, but a big temptation as well. We saw Diesel jeans yesterday for only 300 pesos ($30USD). I hope I don't come home with too much cheap stuff purchased here! Anyway, I'm still getting used to the way they eat here. We have a small breakfast, then we have to wait until 2 or 3 to have lunch, which is a HUGE meal. Today we had Mexican rice, bread (soooo good!), small tacos, and salad with tomatoes and avacados. Dinner is a smaller meal eaten around 8 or 9 (simple quesadillas yesterday). And there are no snacks! If we want them, we have to buy them ourselves.

We had our program orientation and placement test today. I think I did pretty well on the written, but the oral part killed me. We just had to have a conversation with one of the teachers, and I was so nervous! That's one thing I hope to improve while here--having the confidence to speak up in Spanish. We have to go in to the school at 8 am tomorrow to find out the results of our tests and see when our classes will be. Most of them start at 8:00, which won't be too fun, especially if we go out at night. We haven't yet, but I'm sure we'll be making our way to the bars and "discotecas" soon. I really want to salsa dance.

Right now I'm at the Plaza del Sol, which is an open shopping mall about 10 minutes walking from my home. We stepped into this copier/mailing place that said they had internet. We asked if we had to pay and they said no, so it seems kind of too good to be true. There is also free internet at the school, so I'll probably be there a lot.

Well, I've written a lot, but a lot has happened in the last couple days, and I haven't even written about all of it! I'll save some for another day!