Vinimos, conocimos y perdimos

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What a day!!

Can I just say that I am so glad to have finally landed in Mexico. it was quite the shit show of a day, shall we start?

Me being myself, i knew what I wanted to pack, however, I didn't pack until 2 days before I left. That meant that I was going to spend the night before my flight packing until the wee hours (or until my eyes started closing) and then wake up early the morning of my flight and finish packing all of my 'last minute' items. Lets do some math; my flight was at 8:20, I had to be there 2 hours before that time so that brought us to 6:20; it takes approx. 20 minutes to get to the airport which brings us to 6; then I have to shower and get myself ready plus make sure I have packed all that I need and all my last minute items. Because of that I set my alarm clock to a not-so-bright and early 3:45am. 3:45 came and went, finally 5:45 came and I had a wake up call from my mom. If it wasn't for her, I definitely would have missed my flight and lost my mind more than I already had!

After briefly losing my mind, I took some rescue remedy and made our way to the airport. I got through security fine (thanks, Nexus!) and customs was okay. At first I thought I was in trouble because they pulled me aside and was checking all of my ID and everything, only to find out that when I renewed my passport, I had to update my Nexus information as well! After all of that, I found the rest of my group waiting together in our terminal, and I took a seat to get to know who I would be essentially living with for the next 2 weeks.

The flight to Houston was 3 and a half hours long, I was so tired but I couldn't sleep at all. I rested my eyes for 30 minutes total before leaving the plane. First of all, Houston airport is giant!!! So giant, they have a mini skytrain to take passengers between the terminals. We had 6 and a half hours to go before we boarded our flight; I'm not sure how, but we managed to kill all those hours in that airport. the worst part? No free wifi. First world problems? Yes. However, in all fairness I needed it to get my schoolwork done!!

It was kind of funny, they had a entire terminal section dedicated to flights only going to cities in Mexico. It was also kind of cool, because I loved being surrounded by spanish speaking people already!

The flight to Puebla was only 1 hour and 50 minutes, not too bad, The plane however was ridiculously small and uncomfortable; we weren't even allowed to take our carry-ons onto the plane with us. Yup. It was a grand ole time. Oddly enough I managed to sleep most of the flight. Thankfully too! When we first took off, about 2 minutes after, we dipped down in such a way that wasn't regular turbulence, rather, a dip that made you feel as if the plane was falling out of the sky!! I freaked out a little. Just a moment, then I returned to my -now shook up- self and decided it would be a good idea to sleep! and a good idea it was. When I woke up we were in flying over Puebla, it was super dark so the pictures I took look extremely amatuer. Apart from that it was raining, on top of which there was lightning. Ready for the cherry on top? We were flying right through it... actually on top of it, but still, flying in a metal plane over lightning is NOT fun. We landed without dying, and I was too busy trying to sprint to the door to avoid the heavy rain to kiss the ground.

Next up: immigration. I have never had problems with immigration in Mexico, they're nice, and doing there job; plus I've never had anything to hide. This time around all was good until I had to fill out my declaration form...... Lets travel back in time...... Before getting on the flight in Houston I bought some dried mango from one of the many starbucks thinking I would have time to eat it on the plane before I got there. Somehow I managed to forget that I wouldn't be able to bring on my carryon and I didn't think to take the mango out to take with me on the plane beforehand. Reeeeal smart. Fast forward to Mexican immigration, I see the declaration form and immediately my brain reminds me that, oh hey, fun fact, guess what you have in your carry on?!?!?!?! FRUIT!!! I was not impressed and on the verge of tears. I don't do well with authority and doing something illegal. So I'm here freaking out asking everyone what I should do, even asking my professor what I should do. She said it should be okay because I had bought it packaged, never opened, and it was bought in an airport, but that ultimately it was my decision what to do because it was my declaration form and therefore my butt on the line. One of the other girls in my group saw a garbage can specifically for items that are prohibited from being brought into the country. HOLY!!! Can I just say God sent?!?! I felt rather sketchy taking the mango out of my bag and throwing it out of the garbage, but that's okay because I could finally check off that "NO" for not having any food, etc, with me. Woohoo!! The officer asked if I spoke Spanish and then proceeded to speak to me in above average speed. I pressed that daunting button and got green which meant they didn't have to rummage through my belongings and I was free to go!

The next however many minutes it took to get to our hotel were the most uncomfortable. There was 4 of us squished into the back and there was this sharp metal edge digging into my leg, which only dug in further with each giant bump we went over. And there were a lot. Finally we arrived to the hotel, where we picked up our luggage from the back of the bus and found out who our roommate was. Oh, and there are stairs. It's nothing to complain about but when they're a little on the narrow side and you have to haul your luggage up it, yeah, it's a little annoying. After we dropped of our things, I asked the teacher if we could find an Oxxo (it's like Mac's in Canada) so that we could grab something to eat. She said of course, so we assembled our team aka everyone and hit the dimly lit road in search of food.

We found the Oxxo and after spending 15 minutes in there I bought a juice and a mini bottle of nail polish remover -my nail polish was starting to look really bad and it was one of the many things I forgot. My roommate and I established back in the hotel before we left that we both spoke Spanish -she's from Colombia - so without any luck in finding food for both of us, I asked her if she wanted to keep walking to find actual food and not just candy. She said of course! So while the rest of the group went back to the hotel, we kept walking around the corner and ended up finding one of the only places open at this time (almost midnight) it looked and smelled amazing so we said OK! after sitting down at the bar and placing our orders (as per what the owner had recommended) we chatted with the bartender and one of the other patrons at the restaurant. Everyone, as expected, was super nice and just overall amazing. It was funny though, at one point in the night a young man came over and asked to get a picture with me, at first I thought he was asking me if I could take a picture of him and the lady he was dining with; of course I said yes to that, only to find out moments later that, no, he was really asking to take a picture of me with the lady. After a long day of travelling, I'm sure that picture turned out extremely well *note the sarcasm*

We kept on eating and chatting throughout the night; the highlight for me however was when the bartender said that the band El Recodo (banda music) was just a few tables over in the back. I of course went almost full out fan-girl but then had to reel it back in a bit when I realized, I wouldn't even know what to say if I did meet them. After much deliberation and shyness, I took the bartenders offer to ask them if I could take a picture with them. I got a picture with 1 of them, but I'm so okay with that!! Before meeting them, we were informed of ANOTHER famous singer in the restaurant; Margarita 'the God of Cumbia'. I was too shy to go up and meet her, mainly because I had never heard of her and a million embarrassing situations were running through my head because of that, so Laura, my roommate, went and met her -coming back with a signed CD and all!

After a long night we began to make our way to the hotel. Here's where the problem started...

See, at first, we didn't realize that the Oxxo we had gone to before had 2 entrances/exits, so instead of the hotel being up the street from the restaurant, it was really up the street and around the corner! Neither of us knew the hotel's address, and the people that we had asked had no clue where our hotel was when we gave them the name. By some miracle Laura found a folded up paper that had the hotel's address on it, so the next couple we asked actually walked us to the hotel!

At last we found the hotel, made our way to our room and crawled into our uncomfortable (think slightly spongy wood...) beds and passed out.

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