I’m not entirely sure that I can sum up the past twenty days in a relatively-brief-yet-still-marginally-entertaining post, but I’ll give it a go and see what happens.
I can’t say that this little adventure really began in the most positive of lights. Not that it was dark and murky, nor even dimly-lit. It’s just that our flight left Toronto at six am, which essentially meant that we had to be at the airport by three. Which we were. Because I woke up at midnight.
I didn’t wake up so much as I was woken up. Terrifyingly.
Generally speaking, having your bedroom door thrown open and a person launching themselves onto your bed, where they proceed to bounce up and down like a three year old at five am on Christmas morning is not the serenest of ways in which one can be woken up. But what can I say? Brad was super excited and I was convinced that he wasn’t coming until 12:30, which in Murray time (certain zones of Murray time, anyway. Especially the one in which Brad generally resides) really means one or one thirty. This time he was early. Go figure.
The coronary didn’t kill me, but the waiting at the airport just about did.
Figuratively.
It turns out that whatever airline we were flying doesn’t open their check-in booths until four am.
Once we finally checked-in, the customs agent also just about did us in.
Literally.
Well, sort of literally. For a nanosecond, or a trillion, we felt as though he was going to. It turns out those American customs agents just don’t like it when people who are traveling together, but not part of the same family, attempt to access their little booths simultaneously. Thankfully he and Brad had the same haircut and the resulting sense of comradery allowed us to escape unscathed.
The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, right up to the point where one of the wheels on one of my suitcases broke (thereby forcing Brad to rig up a contraption to right this issue) and yet another customs agent asked me if I would prefer a body search or a body scan (as if that’s even a valid question).
We were the first to arrive and had managed to successfully collect and corral a few other new recruits at the Mexico City airport before our school representative arrived and, in turn corralled all of us, onto a comfy, Greyhound-esque bus bound for Querétaro.
That’s about it for tonight; I’ll carry on with the story of our first few weeks in a few days. Suffice it to say that, upon our arrival in Querétaro, we were pleasantly surprised with our apartment. Furthermore, the food is amazing, I have yet to get sick (although I’m fairly certain I’m only one of a pair who have managed, thus far, to avoid the event affectionately termed “the monster”), our Spanish is coming (albeit painfully slowly) and we are all settled into our classes (which began a week ago already!).
Needless to say, I’m missing everyone at home: friends (of both the two and four-legged variety), family and colleagues alike. Hopefully you are all happy and healthy!
More pictures, and stories, to come!
xxoo
