Universal and Downtown Cuernavaca

I have pictures of Universal, my language school!! Its sooo beautiful. Its basically like studying in a garden. Everything in Cuernavaca is a garden. Even your house is a garden...and thats probably because nothing here has ever been weeded. But its still beautiful! My school is on a slope...a hill, really. Lessons are at the top, tennis courts and swimming pool is at the bottom and we have an amazing view. I didn't have my large camera today but I will take better pictures of the view soon - promise.

School starts are 8 in the morning every morning, 4 days a week (no school on Friday). It begins with three hours of Spanish, followed by Spanish literature for the first quarter and Spanish history for the 2nd quarter. School gets out at 1 pm. Lunch is served at our homes at 2:30 and then some nights we return to the school for an extra class at 4.

We have 3 field trips that will last an entire weekend. One is to Guadalajara, one is to Pueblo (Luis!), and the other to Oaxaca (Luis!!). Apparently the rumor in Oaxaca is that the mosquitoes that bite you in the day carry Malaria and the ones that bite you at night have Wes Nile Virus...or Dangi fever....or something obsurdly scary. I'm not sure I'm down with that.

Today we toured downtown Cuernavaca. It's very small but very busy and apparently we came just as a strike was going on with the teachers. I guess the government is wanted to charge kids to go to public school and everyone is very angry. Ramiro (our director) told us his daughter isn't in school right now because of the chaos. Other than that, we visited the Palace of Cortes and the Cathedral de Cuernavaca. There are too many pictures to post here, so I will upload them to photobucket and you can go there to see them.

Tonight I'm going to get a local cell phone so hopefully I will be able to call a few of you...but I'm not sure how expensive that will be yet...so fingers crossed.

I'm sorry this blog is so short and vague. Today was especially rough. The post you guys left were great, but I had to run to the bathroom at school to cry after reading them and when I returned everyone was staring at me because my eyes were red and puffy. I've seriously been on the verge of tears all day. And its not that things are going wrong. Everything has gone very smooth and there's nothing to complain about. But its just so overwhelming and I feel like no one else here is going through what I'm going through. I feel weak and that makes me more ashamed, so its really just a tragic cycle. And I couldn't even write that paragraph without crying. I just want to quit and go home...but I know that the thought of coming home a failure far outweighs what I need to endure here.

I'm just constantly afraid. Afraid of being mugged, afraid of getting lost, afraid of offending someone, afraid of being alone. Its so much pressure and so overwhelming, I'm at a breaking point. I can't even eat, my stomach is too upset. And I had to explain to my host mom today that her food was good but that I couldn't eat it because I can barely keep it down. And then I cried in front of her and Alfonso. It was so embarrassing. But she's kind and she understands.

Just keep me in your prayers...that this all will pass. And I'm usually online between 7-10 my time (5-8 for Portlanders) so get online and say hi. It would help alot.