Random Thoughts

I've been meaning to post for the past few weeks to let everyone know what I have been up to...I keep having random thoughts pop up that I want to share with everyone but they were never quite enough to justify a post. But it is a hot Friday afternoon and I have nothing to do until later, so here are just a few of those thoughts.

1) Studying abroad can be such an emotional roller coaster, it is exhausting. Some days, this is my favorite place in the world. Spanish rolls of my tongue and I'm never going to leave Mexico. Then the next day, I can have a completely different attitude. I'm so homesick that it physically hurts. I can't focus on what people are saying to me at all. The past few weeks have been mainly low (personal drama, family emergencies, missing birthdays back in Oregon, the cold that WON'T go away)...but I'm starting to get myself out of that rut.

2) I just read an article about how students who have studied abroad tend to do better in school after their experience than before, which was really interesting. First of all, when you go to school in a foreign country, the systems they have in place are completely different. You're going in blind, and have to figure everything out (in your second language...). By the time you get back home, you're so used to having to work five times as hard for something that the familiar is a piece of cake. If you can figure out the way they organize their books at the library in Valenciana (something that still alludes me...), you can pretty much handle anything the university system back home can possibly throw at you.

3) My tastes in food have changed so drastically since I have gotten here. Now I gobble up my papaya with my breakfast in the morning. I looooove micheladas (beer mixed with tomato juice, chile, lime, and some other stuff...also the variations with juice are yummy), salsa verde (the spicier the better), light dinners (washed down with a glass of milk, which I couldn't even drink when I first got here). Just a few examples.

4) Semana Santa. Our spring break is in April (Easter week and the week before). 2 weeks! I am going to the beach. Not sure which one, or with who, but it will happen. My host mom says I should go to Ixtapa. My friends want to take me to Puerto Vallarta or Acapulco. I want to go back to Chiapas and check out Boca del Cielo. Also I have an offer for Puerto Escondido. We shall see what happens. All I need is some quality beach time and I'm good.