First Impressions of Guanajuato

31 de Julio, 2008
Guanajuato, which is the capital of the state of Guanajuato, is the city where I am living. I live in a Callejon, which are what make up the city and are basically tiny alleys with stairs, because the city is extremely hilly and callejons make up most of the city surrounding el centro. I live in a bright yellow house at the top of a hill so I am getting a good work out every time I go to school or downtown at night which is only a 5-minute walk. My host parents are both retired from working for the government but we carry good conversations about the government and other social issues because they worked with natural resources and water. My senora, Lupita, makes me 3 meals a day and prepares way too much food but buys me organic soymilk. Haha. I usually have pancakes for breakfast with fresh fruit and juice followed by a huge 3-course meal at 3 then a very small meal at 9pm, which is usually quesadillas or cereal, but I am too full to eat from the lunch.
A lot of the people in my program are from the Midwest, which is interesting but makes language barriers more fun. Haha. Great. Beyond this, one of my first impressions in the beginning of the program was one that scared the crap out of me. So, coming to a city was a little hard for me considering I don’t usually lock doors, well forget that, and anyways, I can’t even carry a purse at night. A week into the program, another American girl that was in the summer program who was living with me had a knife held to her and her whole bag was taken. I was like great, what am I doing here? Well, now I know to not carry anything of value with me and although I live 5 minutes from el Centro, at night, I always have to take a taxi home which takes a lot longer. Oh well…Our leaders just keep telling us our life is worth more than 35 pesos which is how much a ride in a taxi is home.