Back in Puebla!

So now that I am all caught up on last semester, I can finally start to write about this semester!

So far, being back in Puebla has been really great. I got into Mexico on January 3, and spent a week going through the orientation with the new group. There are three people, including myself, who stayed from last semester, and 12 new people. Even though we did almost exactly the same thing on this orientation as we did on my orientation in August, it was really nice to get to know the new group a little bit before we got to Puebla. I also had a good time revisiting the anthropology museum, climbing the pyramids again, and going back to the basilica of the Virgen of Guadalupe. Also, not everything was exactly the same. For example, this was the first time I saw the zocalo of Mexico City on an average day- all the other times I've been to the zocalo it has been jam packed with protesters and Obredor supporters! Also, Rouwenna and I took sunday off from the orientation and did some of our own exploring. We went to the museum of modern art with a friend of Rouwenna's friends who lives in Mexico City, and then he took us to a part of Mexico City called Coyocan. They had their own small zocalo, full of people out enjoying their sunday evening. There were these amazing drummers and lots of people dancing to their beat. We got some tortas (which is what they call sandwiches on the certain circular rolls here) and some hot chocolate and just had a great time people watching and taking in the sights.

The next day, we came back to Puebla. The first few days were a little weird for me, as I was trying to readjust to life in Mexico and also to the fact that a lot of the people I used to spend my time with weren't here anymore. But now that I've been back for two weeks, I feel like I am at home again. The new people in the group are all really cool, and I've had a lot of funhanging out with them. We went dancing last saturday night and last night we went out to a bar with live music. Thursday night we went to a party at a fellow exchange student's house. He's from Germany and on a different program, so he rents a room at a house with six other Mexican students. They were all really nice and it was fun to meet some more mexican students outside the classroom. I've also been spending a decent amount of time just chilling out with Israel.

And of course, I am getting back into the swing of going to classes, doing reading and writing papers. I am pretty happy with my classes though. In CU, the more campus-like campus, I am taking Latin America: Politics, Economy, and Society and International Organizations in the International relations department, and "Neoevolucionism and Marxism" in anthropology. I am also taking a history class about the Mayans in the centro, the campus in the center of town. I am really excited because the only class I have with people from the program is the Latin America class. I'm the only american in all my other classes so I will be forced to really pay attention and interact with the other students. I am also really excited because, although my mondays, tuesdays and wednesday are really busy, I only have one class on thursday and no classes on fridays! My schedule, combined with the fact that we have a lot of days off this semester, means there should be lots of traveling going on!