Lake Chapala

Things are definitely looking up on day three in my new country. The people here are just so nice, I haven't had even one negative encounter since we've been here. Yesterday, we went by our school, International Teachers Training Organization, and met the staff. Jose seems was very helpful and showed us all around the schools where we'll be taking classes and where we'll be student teaching. They said to get ready; they put us in front of a class to teach on day 2! Our students will range from 10 years old up to adults. I know the school will be very intense, but I think I'll be fine.


We left the school and went to this huge market filled with nothing but cell phone and laptop booths. Anything and everything you need for technology is in that huge bazaar. I got a Telcel nokia phone with 300 minutes for 350 pesos. (About $26 for a brand new phone AND minutes to use!) It's usually 1 peso per minute; however, if you call the states, it's MUCH more. My 300 Mexico minutes only lasted 6 minutes when I called home. So, the Telcel phone will just be for calling and texting my friends in Mexico and I'll have to get another for calling back home. I now know why everyone here has at least 2 and 3 cell phones.


After we got our phones, we grabbed dinner at one of the restaurants Frank recommended. It had wonderful grilled meats served with tortillas and beans. We stopped in for what we thought was ice cream after dinner. If I had practiced my Spanish more, I would have known that I had lemon flavored yogurt, not vanilla ice cream. I realized after that HUGE first bite that I was mistaken!


That night back at the hostel, we met more of our neighbors. Fiona is from London and also completed the ITTO course. She's teaching english now for big companies so that their businessmen can better communicate. It's a LOT more money than teaching in a school. She said the program was good, but keeps you very busy. She's nice, but really different. She's a wrestler! And dates a Mexican wrestler here. Let's just say I wanna stay on her good side :) We also met Danny, a Mexican who is in Guadalajara for culinary college. I said, "ooo if I pay you will you cook for me?" He said, "Oh, I just really love cooking. I will cook for you for fee!" Bingo. Just about then, Frank came in and invited us up to his "Penthouse Suite" as he calls it. His room has its own set of stairs, so he thinks he's special. He had two grad students from NY staying with him that night; Susie and Rae. The NY girls, Fiona, Frank, Jade and I sat around and talked for hours. Being from Ireland, Frank wasn't sure what the States were really like and we discussed everything from Universities to the Peace Corps. After a while, Fiona pointed out "Frank you are the man. One guy has 5 girls in his room!" His quick witted response? "Ah, Love, there's been many more than this before, trust me." hahaha


Today we had planned for Jade's friend Jaime to pick us up and show us around the city. He's a Guadalajara native but has lived in New York and London, so his English is impeccable. He was a little late because he got caught in the huge storm last night. It got so bad that we lost power til about 9 this morning. Poor Jaime's car was flooded halfway up the doors! Anyway, he took us out to Lake Chapala. It's a 30 mile long lake surrounded by beautiful mountains. It was breathtaking! We had lunch at a Racquet Club that boasted a fantastic view, amazing food, and beautiful, ancient Mayan-like architecture. After lunch, we dropped off Jade's parents, hung out at Jaime's house for a while, then went to the mall. Jaime's hilarious in is own right and we all had a superb day! I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me. Here's some pictures. (The internet is kinda slow here but I'm working on uploading entire albums) check out this link to more pictures of mine uploaded on webshots http://travel.webshots.com/album/573846700Gvyryp