You know you're in Mexico when...

So first weekend in Mexico, and all I wanted to do was sleep. The journey here knackered me and then was suffering a bit from jet lag for the first few days.
Saturday some of us went into la D.F to wander around. However, everyone we asked couldn't tell us how to get to La Condesa which I think is where we wanted to go (I was just tagging along at this point too tired to care where we were going). So, we ended up getting off at the wrong bus stop and walking around for like 2 hours. Was nice though to see part of the city even if everything was shut!
Don't think I mentioned in the previous post but when I came in to land it was night and all you could see were the lights of the city going on forever. It's HUGE! Also, there were all these random dark patches on the ground that I though were water, but as we descended further realised they were just massive hills everywhere!
Anyways, Sun had a nice lie in, then went to the supermarket to pick up some food. We just buy all the food together and then split the cost, so everyone can eat whatevers in the house. It's nice, as it's much easier considering we don't have much storage space! Speaking of, the landlady here is so nice and helpful. We mentioned that they might want to consider buying another fridge in the future as it's kinda small for 8 people, and the same day she went out and bought one! As well as a few other little things for the kitchen we'd mentioned.
Monday was the first day at Tec (uni) of our orientation week. Was a really long day as we were there from 9-6 having talks / activities. Got to meet the other international students. Would never have guessed before I came but they are literally all french! There are 80 international students here and over 50 are French! Suppose it's good for me to try and remember my A-Level french, but so far all I have really learnt is various ways to swear and rude phrases. Was so tired by the end of the day just wanted to go home and sleep, but the group for international students at Tec (Amikoo) had arranged for all the exchange students to go out to a Tacqueria for dinner. Was like 30mins away so went by bus*. Was such a mexican evening, with all are tacos (which were awesome, apparently there are a whole bunch of different types of tacos, so naturally my plan is to try them all!), a mariachi band throughout the evening, and of course the compulsory tequila shots. I'm not a fan of tequila but I think it might be growing on me (possibly through neccessity and/or repitition).
Tues again was an early start but thankfully a much shorter day! We had to all do a spanish test first thing that morning, in order to place us for spanish classes. Although the colombians / other spanish speakers had to do it too which seemed kinda odd! Anyways, we were done by lunch time so we went in the afternoon to go and buy phones / sim cards. Also got food for a BBQ and whilst there discovered alcohol / wine was on 3 for 2 so naturally had to top-up.

Weds ...... no more tequila ever!!
We went through like 2 litres of tequila, and for someone who doesn't like it, that's an awful lot. Not to mention we polished off most of our beer collection.
Also had to attend another talk at Tec, where we signed an agreement re: student behaviour. 'You know you're in Mexico when your school has random drug tests!'
Thurs / Fri were free days and a chance to change courses if you wanted. Since I have to get everything signed off by exeter I just picked random things and hoped for the best. Most importantly though, made sure I had nothing on fridays.
Fri there was a salsa class in the afternoon for the international students, you may or not know, i can't dance to save my life, but luckily for me, neither could most of the exchange students! We were then supposed to go to a salsa club in the evening, organised by Amikoo. We went for pre-drinks at one of the other student houses for a few hours before all bundling into taxis. See *. Except it was even worse, driver was going so quick and speeding over the bumps. He didn't see one of them and I'm still in shock that the car didn't just break on the spot! Unfortuntely, when we arrived at the club (I was in a taxi with two of the guys from my house - Jakob and Xavier), Jakob had forgotten his ID. So after much unsuccessful pleading, it was back in another taxi for a nauseous 20 min ride back home. There were 2 others who couldnt get in either, so the 5 of us got into one taxi. Went for possibly the dryest, worst tacos i've ever had and for drinks at the other peoples house, when i'd realised i'd left my phone in the taxi. Luckily had a really nice driver who offered to bring it to the house the next day, for a small something of course. But so much more convenient than having to buy un nuevo!
Saturday was a chillout day and then we went shopping in the afternoon to this mahoosive centro comercial, where they had literally every store. Was very expensive though, some shops more than at home!
Sunday we went on an Amikoo trip to La Marquesa which is like 40 mins or so away. Though by time the bus arrived and it drudged its way there took more like two hours. Another example of mexican timing - often it seems everything is just 5 mins away perpetually! We'd gone prepared for a warm day at the park so when we arrived and it was freezing and raining, it wasn't quite what we'd had in mind! The activities on offer for the day were horse riding, paintballing and quad biking. I don't really like horses and the quad biking was just round a small track and looked kinda slow. Everyone was up for paintballing until he said you didnt get any protection or anything. Just a gun and mask?! Eventually, we found out it was in fact possible to rent overalls, which we all opted for. Paintballing here is called 'gotcha'! Which i think is a much better name :)
Anyways, was an interesting experience as everyones masks fogged up as soon as we started so was kinda of point in a general direction and shoot! Turned out as quite a long day and classes started the next day so I sent myself straight to bed when we got back in preperation for my 10 1/2 hours of class on monday! wooo

*Side note, the drivers here are appaling. There are no lanes anywhere and people always look like they're going to crash into each other. Also, there are all these random speed bumps all over the place, and the cars all speed up in between them. The whole terrible driving thing made a whole lot more sense when someone explained to us that they don't have to take a driving test here. You just go and apply for your license!

Always with the rushing!

Thought would be easier to split the post into pre/post arrival in Mexico.
So needless to say the whole 'I'm going to document the time leading up to my year abroad' was quickly abandoned.
But I did manage to sort flights, accomodation and visa all in good time. Although I have no idea where the past two months went, time just seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was time to go.
Unsurprisingly, I didn't even attempt to sort my stuff out until the last minute. But even I didn't think I'd be stupid enough to try and sort/pack everything the night before but of course I did. It then turned out I needed a few things so hit the shops up first thing in the morning before we left for the airport. After, throwing everything in the car, spent the first 20mins of the journey panicking about what important thing I'd left behind, but turns out did a pretty good job and seemed to have everything.
I also took every advantage of the hand luggage allowance with a giant duffle bag which had my tennis racket sticking out of it, my rucksack and then what jumpers/jackets hadn't fit in the hold bags. By the time I'd finished rearranging my bags / collecting money, ended up saying a very quick bye to the family as needed to get through security.
I had a connection in Toronto, so was like 7 hours there, 2 hour connection, then another 5 hours to Mexico City. Flight was absolutely packed, no free seats at all. I found myself across the aisle from an interesting family with 2 kids who provided amusement when my tv wasn't working. My favourites were:
-   'Mommy why is this apple so squishy?'
-   'That's a plum sweetie'
And the little boy going:
-   'I know what you guys sing at school, O England (to tune of O Canada)
Although the mom provided her fair share of entertainment too when she asked another kid if we had tooth fairies in England. She also spent the first 20mins of the flight very loudly complaining that the internet had lied to her about the film selection on-board as she didn't have Lord of the Rings which she was so looking forward to seeing, until finally discovering it under the letter L!
Got my first taste of 'mexican timing' when my connection was still stated as on-time even though 5mins before it was due to leave we still hadn't even started boarding!
Arrived in Mexico City at 11.30pm, and was pretty quick going through security etc. Then my lift was waiting when I got into arrivals hall (the landlady and her daughter picked me up). I'm actually living in Estado de Mexico which is north of Mexico City so was about a 40min drive. By time I arrived at house after like 18hours of travelling, all I wanted to do was sleep! I was introduced to my new housemates and then allowed to go to sleep.
My room is quite small but it's great cause it has so much storage space, which I was seriously lacking in Exeter. And the house is really nice. There's 4 rooms and 2 bathrooms on each floor. Then the ground floor is a big open living / kitchen space. We've got a little garden outside aswell which is nice. There's 8 of us in the house; 4 french guys, a german guy, a colombian girl and a girl from Brazil, so we've got quite the mix of languages in the house!

Better late than never

So, am moving to mexico next year to study abroad and thought I'd keep another blog of my trip. When it occured to me I never actually finished the last one!
Needless to say I finished my trip and returned home (Last week or so in Ecuador then 2 weeks in Trinidad chilling with the family)
Coming up on two years now since my gap year so quick summary:
Started uni at Exeter (studying Economics and Finance with International Study) - massively long title I know, just wait till they add with proficiency in Spanish to it
Started playing rugby - loving it - this year we won the university championships which we got to play at Twickenham - very cool
Passed first year with good enough grade to be allowed to go abroad next year!
Went interrailing with some friends around eastern europe last summer for a month - very fun trip - got to do some more bungee jumping aswell!
So now am coming up to the end of my second year at uni, how time flies, and once my exams are all over in two weeks , I've got two months to get my act together (Flights' accomodation, visa, etc) and hopefully I'll manage to sort it with a bit more time to spare than the last attempt!
Possibly just procrastinating, but thought I'd document the run up to the year abroad aswell, hence the return to a blog I kinda abandoned almost two years ago!

If all your friends threw themselves off a bridge, would you?

LOST ENTRY

So, sorry for the relapse in not updating, told you I wasn't good at this! ;)
Anyways so last Friday we did manage to see Harry potter, and was pretty good as the end of an era, but we noticed one or two discrepancies between it and the book weren't so keen on! ;) also thought we'd pig out, so between me, becca an nik we had two massive things of popcorn, two big bags of chocolate, a chocolate bar, a box of chocolate coated orange peel and our own drinks. Not to mention we'd just given in to chicken macs about 20 mins earlier- something they should bring over methinks! ;)
Then Monday morning headed off to banos for the weekend. Saw pretty funny Spanish film on the way there that kept me entertained! Unfortuntely was tippig it down when we got there which so went to find a hostel then more importantly some food! Found this awesome place where we totally pigged out for like $5! got pancakes with banana an chcoclate, cheese toasties(or grilled cheese to my American friends!) smoothies, juice etc :) due to the rain though, canyonig(waterfall propelling) was out for te day so we went rafting instead. We were squished into a minivan with a group of ecuadorias and off we went! Pulled up by the river and was like ummm so where exactly are we supposed to change? Guides were just like wherever, so we all hid behind a car ;) rafting was pretty cool though we don't think our guide liked us too much and felt sorry for the one ecuadorian who got stuck in the gringo boat! Got some pretty big rapids in some parts :) though had same problem for changing at the end but had a pile of dirt to hide behind this time! Anyways, got back and totally pigged out for dinner, I say we but mean me and nik. Becca and Daniela were a little more sensible in quantity choice! But got these massive pizzas for $6, then we went for ice-cream, wasn't gonna have any but then I saw soursop and changed my mind ;) shoulda called it quits then but we couldn't resist the chocolate fountain! Then spent the evening trying to walk it off and playing pool in the hostel. Were up early next morning for canyoning at 8. Ended up with the same group of ecuadorians ...

no idea how this was going to finish, struggle to remember last week let alone two years ago!

What Are the Chances

Was in Mariscal on Monday in the artesan market when i bumped into one of the girls who´d been in my group on the trek up to Machu Pichu! Seriously random!
Also, first let me say i really don´t like clowns, so when we were coming back from Mindo the other weekend and a drunken clown targeted the gringos on the bus, wasn´t impressed. Other than the drunk factor was memorable by lack of teeth and his peculiar attempts at english. Anyways, on way back from english today couldn´t believe it when guess who got on the bus! Out of all the buses in Quito, what are the chances he´d pick ours, again?!

Harry Potter, Shoes and Drinking

Sooo, turns out Harry Potter is a  whole lot more popular here than anticipated. The 3d showing wasn´t just sold out at midnight, but all day both in Spanish and English. Then when we tried to buy tickets for the 2d showing, couldn´t get them either. So overall a bit of a let down that we didnt make it to see Harry Potter, but no fear still gonna see it at some point, and probs will make it into the pirate dvd stores in a week so.... ;)
Also, finally go me some new trainers last week as my old ones are almost worn through on the sole and are split down the side! However, turns out what big feet mean is that its really hard to buy shoes! First time tried i just got laughed at and they didnt believe we were looking for shoes for me. They only had ones which looked like clown shoes on my feet! Eventually gave in to some ones that werent bad and more importantly fitted my feet.
Anyways, Thursday was my day to make the birthday cake for Emy. However, things went a little wrong from the start when i bought effectively sugared whipped cream from the supermarket instead of icing. Then when i got home, i put everything inside then went across the road to top-up my phone, only to return and realise i left my keys on the kitchen counter! So had to hang around a while outside till Mary came home! Also, due to expensive nature of cake ingredients here (more so than at home!) i gave in and for the first time ever bought a box mixture. So wasn´t sure how it was gonna turn out at all. But Elise (another volunteer) came over to help, and we decided that a nice bottle of rum would make it easier ;) Think there was something wrong with me though as rum smelt a little odd to me, but as long as i didn´t smell it before drinking, alls good! Cakes were cooking well though in testing the first one i ate a small hueco in the middle! ;) Hadn´t made it back to the supermarket so went ahead with using the cream for icing. Wanted to make the cake in the form of Maka Paka who´s Emy´s favourite cartoon character and is a greyish/brown colour. Unfortunately when trying to put a few drops of red food dye in, the lid fell off, and the whole thing fell in, turning the cream a pretty vivid shade of pink. So from that moment on it was going to be a Maka Paka rosada! As to begin with only had one cake tin and then couldn´t open the oven till that cake was done, was too late to decorate the cake by then so just put everything away for next day. Friday evening I spent decorating the cake which didn´t turn out too disastrously considering lack of normal cake making materials. Also, froze to death helping Edwin and friend collect and bring chairs to the house for the Baptism. Took a while to convince his friend that chocolate not cigarettes was what i wanted to warm up though!
Anyways, saturday morning was a more sorting stuff out, but then had some free time to go for my run and go down to the supermaxi. Felt a little bit underdressed considering they were wearing suits and dresses when we went to the church but when we got there I was better than some others who´d come in jeans. Church was quite cool looking inside as was decorated like a ship, i would assume ark? Also dunno if i´ve mentioned this but people here just love to honk their horns for no apparent reason. So as Grandad was driving us to the church, every like 20m he´d honk twice despite no-one being around? Anyways, Amy was pretty unco-operative and kept screaming and turning her head away when they tried to put the water on her, which was pretty funny tbh. Plus the priest kept going on about how important baptism is and what bad parents people are if they deprive their child or something like that, but seemed a litttle redundant considering we were there for a baptism?
Got back to the house about 6 or so, with all the guests but dinner wasn´t going to be ready for quite a while so i offed to get me a snack of salchipapas! Also, was a little awkward as seemed a room full of either couples of old people who all knew each other. So I played with all the little kids for a while to ease the boredom. Now let me put this out there that Ecuadorian parties are something else. The evening basically consisted on toma toma/ baile baile! At one point Edwin had me taking the shots round as he said he couldn´t do it as they kept giving drinks to him. So, I´d go round with the tray and everyone wants you to take a drink with them, so I´d come back with like 5 empty ones of my own, then have to go round again as i hadn´t had enbough for everyone the first time! They also thought it was hilarious to get me to dance, mostly cause i´d already said i suck at it. But i think i provided a fair amount of entertainment with my attempts ;) Not really sure when they went to bed, Mary said she sent people home a bit after 4, but I gave in at 3.30 at fell asleep, apparently with my light still on. Next morning no-one got up till 11 and there was a ton of empty rum bottles on the kitchen table. Made myself a nice breakfast though of leftover rice, cake, and some yoghurt.
Effectively took the rest of the day to clear up, and we all got a couple hours napping time aswell cause Edwin´s parents took Emy for the day. Then about 6.30ish got my new housemate Ross, surprise surprise also from the states, but he seems really nice and he speaks good spanish. Though Edwin was calling him arroz to begin with ;) Due to my not so great state, decided i couldn´t face the 10 hour bus ride to the beach so i ended up giving that a miss!
Monday was chilled and didn´t get up till 10.30. Then gave Ross a quick tour of the area, and in the afternoon we went into Mariscal and the artesan market there. Also picked up a few films on the way home. Watched Prince of Persia on Mon which wasn´t too bad then The Eagle yesterday, which was the biggest bromance ever. Wasn´t what i was expecting at all!
Then yesterday managed to not hear an alarm clock by my head for over two hours and only woke up at 9(when im supposed to be at the office) as Mary knocked on the door! Almost did the same today as overslept but Edwin knocked earlier around 8.20 so wasn´t late this time!
Our structure attempt for english seemed to be working but got told yesterday that they´re cutting teaching english and kinda combining it with the markets program to create a sorta summer school session for the market kids. Then this morning i went to actual summer school program as they were short a person to teach maths. I was told someone had already planned out the lessons so i just had to go through it with the kids, but their ability was seriously uinderestimated, not to mention within the age groups there was such a variety in ability which made it really hard to do anything. Had to totally abandon the plan and adlib. But think i have a better idea now of what they know and can hopefully sort something for next week. I think the other issue is that Americans have lower standards for Maths according to what they´re taught in school. But that´s just a thought ;)
Will tell you my plan for this weekend, though i change things all the time so you never know! On friday finally hoping to get to see the new Harry Potter considering was a bit of a fail last week! Then Saturday hhead to Baños until early Monday morning where we´re gonna head to Quilotoa where we can do a 4/5 hour hike (depending on sunlgiht) upto and around a crater with the cool lake inside. Then depending on money situation might to a downhill biking trip next thursday on Cotopaxi. Then next weekend is just Mitad del mundo, Otavalo again and some time in old town as haven´t actually done that yet! Then fly out of Quito 6am Monday 1st August!! Can´t believe where the times gone, I mean only got less than 2 weeks left till i leave!

A Weekend of Awesome Eating

So this weekend like 15 of us went to this place called Mindo which isnt that far out of Quito only 2 hours or so. It´s a tiny little town and could easily walk the whole thing in 20mins! Anyways, after getting settled into the hostal we went to this place called Chocolarte for lunch where they have these amazing chocolate brownies. Also had a cheese toastie and a banana milkshake to go with it. Then we had to rush back as we were late for getting picked upt o go ziplining. There were either 12/13 lines and was really cool views. Plus you got to go upside down, or they´d bounce the line up and down with you on it or you could go with a guide and do like superman or something!
After this we were going to go on a coffee tour that lonely planet recommended as having the best coffee in Ecuador. However, surprise surprise LP was wrong again and the coffee place was actually shut down. So we ended up back at the same place we had lunch for a demonstration on how he makes some of his chocolate, we got to help peel and grind the cocoa and then were served a fondue with a massive fruit bowl and biscuits :) Was seriously good! Then decided to wash that down at the juice bar next door, I had passion fruit juice. Spent a while chilling in the hostal before it was time for dinner. There was another chocolate place next door that did cocoa/caramel beer, so we gave that a try and wasn´t too bad though don´t think i´d have the cocoa one again! Dinner was massive pizzas that were sooo good. And after a small walk to ease the digestion  we just hung out at the hostal for the night.
Next morning, started with breakfast at a new place, so eggs, bread, milk, juice ad a banana milkshake. Seem to currently be eating a lot of eggs and think they´re growing on me! ;) Also, wandering around town, me and Elise, found these Quad bikes you could rent out for $10 an hour. So we were totally set to do that only to be shot down by the fact you had to have either your driving license or original passport. I lost my license and we all only take copies of our passports with us on trips! So there went that idea. Instead some of us went tubing. They had all these rubber tubes tied together to make a giant one and then down the river we went. It was unbelievably cold to begin with but after a minute or two you kinda numbed out and it was just really fun. Our guide was like a sppiderman, leaping from rocks to push us around and jumping from side to side!
Anyways, after a nice warm shower we still had a while left before the bus home so there was only 1 thing to do..... eat lunch! ;) Me, Nik and Alex ended up at a little more expensive place as we couldn´t get over how good the food smelled! I had a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. Then for desert the others came back and we had these awesome warm chocolate brownies with ice-cream!
On top of all the food, ended up spending more money as it was such a great place to get some more gifts aswell! lol
Luckily, when i got home there was spaguetti waiting for me and then i got pizza the next day for breakfast so my family had obviously got the memo about my weekend of eating! Then to round it all off we did a pot luck at the volunteer house, by we I mean those who live there plus me. Anyways, ended up with soooo much good food. Amy made this amazing spicy pasta, Megan did an egg dish with veggies and potatoes, Jon made the most amazing potato annd cheese tacos, I did some cheesy garlic bread and Nik made guacamole! The others had also got cake and ice-cream for desert though after dinner we had to wat a couple hours before we could eat anything else! And that rounded off the weekend of awesome eating! :)
Yesterday, Me and Nik spent the morning planning the english lessons annd trying to give it some form of structure. Anyways, we had the most successful lesson in the afternoon to date so think it was worth it. We had full attention for 99% of the time which is basically unheard of, and they actually participated in the activities aswell! whoop
Also, helped Danny do the posters to promote the summer lessons which start next week; I get to teach maths (which i have been missing! ;)
So, today off wiith couple others to buy our tickets for the Harry Potter premiere tomorrow, theres like 15/20 of us going to see it at midnight, in english! :) excited!!!!