los primeros días.

alright, now that i finally have the time and the precarious internet to back me up i can finally update this thing.

i arrived here late saturday night, courtesy of a very sweet taxi driver who got a teense bit lost..

the family is absolutely wonderful. the mom and dad are sweet and funny. and the sisters (21 and 19) are quiet so far but seem incredibly nice. the brother (16) reminds me a lot of my sister, which is a good thing. and the baby son of one of the daughters, javi, is the absolute cutest thing i've ever seen. he knows my name already: "lirri" and is just adorable. reminds me a lot of my brother when he was little. except much more rambunctious, in a good way.

my roommate robin spent the first three months of the program with another girl, kristina, who was only here for winter quarter. she hadn't gone home yet, so both convinced me out with them for the evening. i dropped my stuff on in our liberally-sized bedroom and we left with robin's boyfriend to a bar in cholula (a part of town, i live in zavaleta), called bambuko's. i drank an ill-advised madonna (lots of pineapple and coconut) and ended up being louder than usual for the rest of my first evening. we left the bar and went to this taco stand called parado's. best. taco. i. have. ever. eaten. it was amazing, a suiza, and not even due to tipsiness.

the next day, sunday, we ran around the city to do some of kristina's favorite things. we went to the zocolo, the center of the city, beautiful colonial architecture and an insane amount of people. the three of us walked around an open air artesian and antique market and i managed to do some souvenir window shopping. already have a mental list of half the gifts i will be buying for people. afterwards we bought some frappes in a adorable, brightly-colored, and heavily-decorated cafe near the market--cafe milagro. i adore it. can't wait to go back.

we came back for a late lunch (my host mom cooks wonderful asada and chorizo, my favorites) and afterwards went to a shopping center and watched "alicia en el pais de las maravillosas" (the retitled movies here crack me up. i was so tired that my first 3-d movie gave me a headache, or maybe that was just the excesses of time burton... no se.

for kristina's last puebla dinner, robin's boyfriend drove us to a restaurant that specializes in posole. amazing. i ordered a tostadad "con todo"--those of my detractors will be amazed to know that i did not ask for it without beans. it was delicious anyway.

monday was the first day of class. it'll be alright. it's school. the teacher is cool, but rambles passionately, which has it's pluses and minuses. the campus of the ibero is beautiful, and only 1 15 minute walk away, which is wonderful! there is a pond and many fountains and ducks and birds wandering all over the place. the actual buildings remind me a lot of davis, though, which is interesting.

robin took me to a gym that's maybe three minutes from the house. not too expensive. it was a litle over 40 dollars (500 some pesos) for a monthly membership, but it's been so odd to already fall into a routine like working out within three days of moving to a new place.

last night (monday), we tried to go to a concert for this electro/techno/pop artist/producer named david guetta--el frances! the tickets ended up being obscenely expensive (550 pesos, when the day before they had been 400), so we went to parado's again (even better when not a teense tipsy) and then went to a house where two girls from our study program live. they had a balcony outside their room that overlooked the side of the stage. the actual middle of the stage was obscured by a giant tree, but we could hear wonderfully. robin and i didn't stay too late, only until 11, just bs-ing and watching lady gaga videos (telephone. i love it). apparently, guetta didn't take the stage until midnight, which we could hear from our house which is more than a mile away. crazy.

so, my first three (almost) days have been jam-packed and robin and i have been planning ahead for the next month already. we might go on a trip next week for semana de santa (a week off to make up for my missing spring break) to an undetermined location and are definitely going to spend a weekend in mexico city at the end of april, going to bellas artes, frida's house, and this:

http://www.vivelatino.com.mx/info_festival/vive_latino_2010%11_listado_de_bandas_por_dia/

my god! was it not my mexico fantasy that i would get to see calle 13?? and rodrigo and gabriela and empire of the sun are just amazing bonuses. i am soo excited.

but as for now, movie-watching (furia de los titanes next weekend!), e-mailing, reading and writing for class, birthday dinner planning (pizza, wine, and flan!) and a little bit of shopping.. it's already been one hell of an experience. this city, at this point, has presented itself to be just my speed.