Preparing for the long voyage ahead!

Today was a productive day!! I finished all of my homework, and even started a paper for my Spanish class that isn’t due until March 24th! I know that day will sneak up on me quick though, with being gone on our Chiapas trip and then Spring Break, so I thought I better get started! This afternoon I went to Gran Plaza with my mom! It’s a really nice mall near our home. We walked around, stopped in a few stores, and then went shopping at Mega, the grocery store, which is connected to the mall! We picked up some new (to me) fruits and vegetables to try, more Nutella :), a few things from the panadería (it wouldn’t be a trip to the grocery store without a stop there), and a variety of others things that I have grown to love. We talked about how I’ll miss the different products and brands that I’ve started to try while here – things that we just don’t have in the US! Tonight we watched a bit of the Oscar's - although it was very confusing for me as I caught parts of the English narration, yet was interrupted by the Spanish voiceover!

The two Canadian boys left this morning, and now three more will be coming tomorrow! They’re through the same program as these last two were! If it goes anything like last week, I don’t really have the opportunity to spend much time with them! They’re here mostly just to tour and see sights, so the boys were gone all day most of the week! I did get to eat a few meals with them, but they knew very little Spanish so we didn’t get too far! The funniest thing with them was probably our drives to school. My mom had to drive them to their school/drop-off site every morning, and since it’s near my school she offered to take me as well! Remember we have a very small car – and one of the Canadians, Nicholas, was a big kid – so watching the two of them cram in the back seat of the beetle with his long legs was an entertaining way to start the morning!

So back to school we go tomorrow! The week will surely fly by as we anticipate our trip to Chiapas. We will leave Friday at 5am, so Thursday night everyone will sleep at the Central House to make things easier! We’ll be in Chiapas until Tuesday night, we’re all looking forward to a fun trip, staying in hotels, seeing yet another new part of Mexico, and experiencing slightly cooler weather when we go to an elevated city. Chiapas is a trek – a 12 to 13 hour drive – so we’re working on making CDs to serenade our ride (or to accompany our voices, as many of us are preparing for a Central College choir concert, and others are preparing to plug their ears) and pick out movies to watch! For any of you that went to Galveston with me, yes, I will in fact be leading the group in a round of  “Down By The Bay”! We’re all hoping the driving conditions aren’t as bumpy as they were Friday for Campeche, or we may be buying a group supply of Dramamine! But you know what they say, getting there is half the adventure!