Sunday, Feb. 14

This day we traveled to Cholula. Cholula was a beautiful Catholic church built on top of an Aztec pyramid that has now turned into a hill. On our way up we bough chapulines (crickets!) to snack on. They were not as good as cheetos, but interesting none the less. The church was pretty, but the story behind how the pyramid and the people who lived in its vicinity were taken over was rather gruesome... This kind of tainted it's beauty in my mind. After this we went back to our hotel, ate lunch and went to the bus station again to begin our final journey to Oaxaca!! The bus ride was about 4 hours through arid valleys. The terrain was gorgeous! The cacti (plural for cactus?) were as thick as pine trees are back home! For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was: it would really suck to trip and roll down these cliffs :/ ...so the bus was nice. We watched Transformers and College Road Trip in Spanish. When it finally got dark and we could see the city lights of Oaxaca, my nerves finally hit me. I didn't feel ready to meet my host family. I wasn't about to take off sprinting with my 100lbs of luggage, so I managed to get up the courage. Our families were waiting for us in the bus station with sheets of paper that had our names on them. I grabbed my luggage and searched for my name. The cutest woman with glimmering eyes and a bright smile was holding my name. Her warm presence stifled the horrible surge of nerves that hit me that moment (Thank goodness). Her name was Josefina, but we call her Jose. Mauricio, her son, was there to help heave my luggage out to their car. My first words in Spanish to them had to be, "It is VERY heavy". They attempted small talk in the car. I tried, but stumbled quite a bit on my words. I don't know that I have ever been so nervous. Jose showed me my room and every closet, shelf cupboard and crevice in it. She then proceeded to explain the TV remote like I had never seen one before (it was rather cute). I was then given a sandwich for dinner and was left to unpack my things. I fell asleep comforted by the fact that the bed I was going to sleep in for the next 4 months was very cozy.