1st post from Mexico

I have started this post several times but because of shady internet, here I go again.

I am about to complete my first week in site! Its hard to believe that I have been in Mexico almost 3 weeks already. I arrived to the Queretaro airport in Mexico late Monday night (Aug 30th). My flight was delayed from Chicago to Dallas and my flight to Mexico was boarding the minute we touched the ground in Dallas. I made the connecting flight to Mexico but my luggage didn't :( So I was in Mexico for 2 days with out my bags, but they eventually showed up and got dropped off at my host families house.

Training was for 10 days as compared to normal service which is 3 months. Peace Corps headquarters here in Mexico is in Queretaro, Querretarto which is where our training was held. It is an absolutely lovely city. It has an old world charm in the city center, with tons of tree lined plazas filled with families, parks, amazing cathedrals. Within the city is every modern convenience one could imagine- including a COSTCO. It was really nice to walk through the winding cobblestone streets and smell fresh baked pastries from bakery windows as I went to training in the morning. Or when I would walk with my host mother in the evening watching the the fountains dance in front of cathedrals, clowns make jokes about politics, and when she would take me to whole in the wall restaurants to get the best tamales or a cup of atole. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera cable so I can't upload any of the pictures I took yet, but my lovely mom is saving the day and mailing it to me, so hopefully soon.

My host family was great during training. My room & bathroom were nice, big, clean. I only had a few ants to battle with. They were very willing to teach me so many things about Mexico. We cooked together and talked for hours on end each day. My host parents were around their 60s, grandparents with 3 grown children. Their granddaughter spent a lot of time at the house too. We became very close so it was difficult to say goodbye.

Training was from about 8am to 6pm everyday, so it was pretty intense. There were 3 of us in total training to be PC response volunteers in TEFL. My other two fellow volunteers are retired professionals with impressive resumes who had previously served in Peace Corps in Peru, Africa, and India. The are both really nice knowledgeable guys.

The swearing in ceremony was held at the peace corps office. The American ambassador is too high profile here to come to the ceremony but the office staff made it quite lovely.

My counterparts packed up my suitcases after the ceremony and we headed out to site: San Juan del Rio, Queretaro.

More to come later about my first week in site......