"Hell, everything's legal in Mexico. It's the American way!"

This is actually attempt number two at writing this post, as I managed to delete draft one as I was reaching the finishing line yesterday. As such, my writing may be less enthused than it was before, so I hope that you'll forgive me. Here's what I've been up to this week:


At 6am on Tuesday morning, my boyfriend tried to wake me up gently by whispering my name and turning on the bedroom light. He was greeted by the words, "Why are you being such a c**t?", followed by a string of complaints and demands for a cup of tea. Eventually, I did manage to drag myself out of bed for long enough to have a shower, get dressed, and finish packing before being bundled into the car by my impatient mother, where I curled up and went back to sleep.


We arrived at the airport and met up with the other 12 Southampton students who are spending their years abroad in Mexico. Most of them had already said goodbye to their parents and loved ones - the part I was dreading most - so mine took me for a cup of tea before biting the bullet. I said a slightly teary goodbye, instructing my boyfriend to work hard to get bonuses and buy me a good Christmas present, and made my way through security.

There's not much to say about the journey itself, other than, "It was long". Really. Bloody. Long.

In Mexico City, we were greeted by two reps from the Anglo-Mexican institute, a not-for-profit language academy which has taken three of our members under its wing for their years abroad. As we weren't really in the mood for doing anything, having been travelling for about 15 hours, we went straight to the hotel, where we paid a whopping £15 each for nice en suite rooms.


After spending the night trying to conquer jetlag, we went over to the Anglo institute for a little seminar about life in Mexico. We were given all sorts of handy tips, like: "Don't get run over by a bus, because they will run back over you to make sure that you're dead to avoid having to pay your medical expenses if you survive." Ideal. After a spot of lunch, we went to the Anthropological Museum, where we spent more time cooing over turtles and laughing at some teenage girls who went mad for a few of our male members than actually taking in any culture. Having said that, we did learn about an indigenous tribe who dedicated their art and architecture to fallic imagery, which was very educational.

Afterwards, we went to a bar, where I splurged £2 on two bottles of Sol. We also went to a restaurant, and I ordered a mole (mole-ay), which is a typical Mexican dish. Not knowing what to expect, I was a little surprised when a dish that closely resembled chocolate covered pancakes with cream and nuts on top arrived in front of me. In fact, I have a picture:

As it happens, this was one of the most disgusting things I have ever had the misfortune of eating. It tasted a lot like bitter chocolate mixed with cigarette ash and the souls of angry old women. With some chicken. Lesson learned!


On day three we took a tour bus around the city, sampling some top notch health & safety standards on an open top bus. I suffered many a near miss with tree branches along the way. We got tea on the top floor of a high rise opposite the Museum of Fine Arts, with a great view of what is a beautiful, if heavy polluted, city. After this, we went over to the city's cathedral which, as far as I'm concerned, serves as little more than a garish reminder of the realities of the Spanish conquest: the enslavement of indigenous people, and the attempted abolition of their culture. Happily, the fact that it is built on top of a lake means that the cathedral is sinking. So there.

On Friday, we went our separate ways, with some students staying in D.F and others going to cities around the country. I took a tiny plane to Colima during a thunderstorm, which was a bit of a hairy ride! But when I arrived I was greeted by the Toscanos - my new family. They are wonderful people: they buy real milk. Oh, and they have Tetley tea bags and Marmite. I love them for that. The weekend has largely been spent settling in and finding my bearings. I am disappointed in myself because my Spanish is completely awful at the moment. I can understand almost everything that people are saying (unless I start daydreaming and lose track of the conversation), but I can barely respond at all. It is very frustrating, but I can only hope that my confidence will grow and that being fully immersed in the language will help my oral skills, too. I am paying about £170 a month here, which is pretty much full board with an en suite room, so it's pretty great! Mexico is significantly cheaper than the UK, and I continue to be surprised every time I pay for anything and compare it with the cost of similar (and in many cases, the same) products in Britain. Going back to England will be a bit of a kick in the teeth for my bank account!


I'm sorry that this has been such a long post; congratulations if you are still with me! Not much more to say other than thanks for reading.