Starting Out

So I have been in Mexico for three weeks now...

Now that I think about it and look back, it really has gone by quickly. I can't beleive that I have been in another country for three weeks already. My program makes it seem longer at the same time. I can't wait for it to be over. One week left. I guess I should back the truck up for those who don't know...

I am in Mexico to learn Spanish. I plan on being here for about a year. In order to support myself, in the true way that any recent college graduate should, I am avoiding office work like the plague and decided that teaching English would be a good way to go about it. Sooo, not quite brace enough to come to Mexico not knowing a word of Spanish and risk finding a random teaching job on my own, I opted for the somewhat safer option--a TEFL program. So here I am at ITTO the Internationl Teacher Training Organization. It's what I have been living and breathing since I got to Guadalajara. The course is a lot like high school (which I hated)--many long hours sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher talk at you complete with homework, papers and tests. In the afternoons, we have teaching practices where we are observed teaching classes and graded on that too. I feel like I'm 15 again. I wasn't really a fan of that age. But oh well. Like I said, it will be over by next friday. Hopefully, I will have a job by then too.

Rode my first Mexican bus the other day. It cost about $0.40. I knew I shouldn't have expected much for that much money but damn. Basically, it's like riding around in this tin box driven by some person who seems to think it's a tank. The seats are made of tin as well, but you lucky enough to get some color with them. When you pay the driver, you hand him the money directly and he gives you change out of this wooden box full of coins layed in perfect sets of $1, $2, $5, and $10 pesos. It's all right there, out in the open. No little box where you drop your coins, no machine to swipe a card. just a little wooden box and some money. The driver also hands you a little slip of paper. I haven't figured out what it's for yet. You can't use it to transfer , you just get it. Speaking of transfering, let me just say, there is no rhyme or reason to the bus system. I don't know how people figure it out. Somehow, it seems, that everyone just knows. There don't seem to be specific bus stops, all you have to do is flag the bus down that you want and get on. And there is no way to find out where you can transfer buses either except by asking someone or the bus driver. Guadalajara is huge too. Spanish is soo necessary too. Good motivation for me I suppose. Oh yea, we rode the bus to a park out in the suburbs, if you can beleive such things exist in Guadalajara. I'm still not quite sure. It was the first time I had really worked out in nearly three weeks. Felt so good. the park was really nice. huge too. I am in the center part of the city and being here makes you forget that things exist besides buildings, exhaust, and cars.

Well, of course there is so much more to tell, but later. I intend for this to be my online journal of my thoughts and experiences of my travels particularly so my family and friends can keep up with me. It is open to whoever wishes to read it. I hope that you will post comments, suggestions, anecdotes, or whatever.