(Coming to Cuernavaca, and Mama Salgado's House)
So after packing like mad Thursday night (thank goodness Alaska Airlines allows two 50lb checked bags for free for flights to Mexico City), my dad and I crashed at my uncles' place in SF. We then woke up before the sun, ate and drove off to the airport where I met up with several of my classmates (Adrian, Judith, Andrea, and Selina). We got to fly on the Disney 50th anniversary plane to LA before switching to another plane to head to Mexico City :-) On the way we met up with the rest of our classmates, Claire (in LA) and Sandra (in Mexico). I slept most of the way, though I did write in my journal a bit. (By the way, the sandwich definitely helped Uncle Lance, even though they fed us on the second leg).
After waiting a while at el Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México aka Benito Juarez International Airport for our private bus (we shared with a group from Union College in New York, who were also going to study at la Universidad Internacional aka Uninter in Cuernavaca). After an hour and a half long bus ride to Cuernavaca (we got caught in rush hour out of Mexico City, bleh) we arrived at Uninter and were picked up by our host families. My roommate Adrian and I live far enough away that it's best to drive to and from campus at night so we were driven home. I'm sure several of you know that they drive rather crazy in Mexico and Cuernavaca is no exception.
This was the first sign that told me that we'd arrived in Cuernavaca. A quick primer: The city of Cuernavaca has a population of about 600,000 and is about 50 miles south of Mexico City. It's the capital of the state of Morelos. It's wonderful weather year-round (due to its location within the Tropic of Cancer) garners it the nickname "La Ciudad de Eterna Primavera" aka "The City of Eternal Spring" Throughout its history several celebrities have come here to enjoy the weather or for health reasons. Profe (our professor and program director Professor Ramirez) says he saw Sylvester Stallone in Cuernavaca once.
Anyway back to my experience. The home I'm staying at is quite nice. Adrian and I live upstairs in one of 3 bedrooms there, we have our own bathroom because the other two rooms are occupied by 4 girls from CSU Stanislaus: Melissa, Dionne, Devine, and Suzanne (no idea about spelling). We all get along real well. The bathroom is different from the U.S. in that the shower, sink, and toilet are literally all in one room or stall.Mama Salgado has been hosting Uninter students including SMC students for the last 8-10 years and many of them have left picture frames with pictures of themselves with Mama. My friends Kate and Isabel who lived there last year seem to be quite the photo lovers as I saw 4 or 5 frames with pictures of them. Mama Salgado herself is extremely warm, and caring. Despite visiting the U.S. every month (I think that's what she said) for 35 years, the only English she's cared to learn is "Hi," which is great because it forces us to practice our Spanish at home. In a pinch though we all turn to Adrian because he's fluent.
Mama Salgado has 4 grown children (2 sons, 2 daughters), 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. She seems quite young to have great grandkids, both in appearance and in spirit. We mostly see her son Victor who's probably in his late 20s or early 30s, who drives us to school. He's going to try to configure my computer to connect to his wireless network at the house so let's all keep our fingers crossed. He speaks some English and is a lot of fun to talk to along with his buddy Luis. From what I gather they live in Europe most of the year but come visit Cuernavaca where they're both from for several months as well.
Well this has been a long post and I didn't even get to our excursion to Tenochtitlan. Next time, k?
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