Day 4 - Registration

18 October 2011
Day 4
Registration

Initial Impressions: Crap it's early. I'm going to be late. Oh god this hill is going to kill me (while walking up it from my potential new house to school). Eeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii (me screeching in my head as I ride in the taxi).

Today I registered for classes (and almost died on the way back, but more on that later). Woke up at 6:45ish (oh fine, who's kidding, I was up at 7).  Took my shower and got ready to leave (key note to self: If I wash my hair and plan to blow dry it then I must get up at 6:45 for real).  I was out before they started serving breakfast :(  but managed to make it to campus by 8:02.  Got in line for the registration process where they question you, in line, in front of the world in Spanish.  (I guess that was the testing they warned us about).  Anyway I got the whole, "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" "Why did you come to CEPE?" "Where are you living?" questions but then she asked me something that I think was "How did I get my living situation?" to which I just blinked for about 30 seconds - I was lost there.  She nodded and gave me my number and told me where to go.  I started filling out the forms, online - Which by the way, the computer keyboards are freaking weird.  Buttons in random places, strange new combinations of buttons to push to make the @ symbol... fortunately I'm a genius [lmao] and I figured it out - and showed the two guys sitting next to me.  Turns out I tested in basic Spanish (well no surprise there).  They had me pick my class time - either 9 to 12 or 4 to 7.  I choose 9 to 12 because I would rather have a chance to walk home before it gets dark... then I got my "elective" options.  It was either pronunciation (ewwww) at 8 am (ewww * 100) or at 12 pm or two different types of dance, salsa, 2-4, or traditional, 12 - 2.  Personally, I'm feeling all, wtf? either I get to take a class for an hour where we pronounce things or we dance? Damn it, have you seen my two left feet and lack of rhythm? At this point the lack of food must have gotten to my brain because I'm 98.2% certain I registered for two dance classes *panic*, no lunch breaks, and have managed to go to class from 9-4 M-F... starting tomorrow. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about this... though I suppose that is a normal enough class schedule... I'm just used to my whole not awake before 10 am and back home by 3 and classes only on two of the 5 days thing that I've ruined myself on for the last few years.

So I have decided I am going to turn my new goals for these two months into 1. Learning Spanish for real (damnit!) 2. Gaining a semi-decent grasp of dance and 3. to just let it go - enjoy this and just see where it takes me. Lol. I'm in a foreign country with people from all over the world who I probably wont ever see again. May as well have fun with it. Look like a moron, seem confused (or be actually confused and seem like I know what I'm doing), dance like no one is watching - or more accurately, try to dance in the first place and not complain and desperately wish for my World of Warcraft where I can avoid all 'real' people.

Spelled wrong, as usual - I'm complicated.

After registration, Oh!! I got my id card - which by the way is a decent photo (WTF - I can never take a good photo except when it's on something temporary) but they spelled my name wrong :( and I go my text book, which I suppose I should look at, they told me I was all done and free to go, just to show up tomorrow at 9.  So I decided since it was early and I have nothing else planned yet to go try to find that house I was going to stay in. The hostel manager said she knows lots of student live in that area and she thinks it safe but I should drive around and different times of the say, morning, afternoon, night... (that wasn't very helpful as I don't have a car...  but good advice none the less).  I apparently have a better sense of direction than I thought, and I am quite surprised with myself for just choosing a direction and walking in it.  That's all I have done the entire time I am here, I just pick a direction (with a goal in mind) and wander around till I find it, which is for the most part, rather successful (minus that one night where I found the cheese museum... BUT I did get myself back home!).  So I start heading East on Universidad and find a Walmart (score!).  I remember when I was mapping the potential houses that there was a Walmart to the Northwest-ish of this house.  So I take a random right and wander around.  Just walk, and walk and walk (tired yet? I am).  Then tada! I magically found a street that I recognized leading to the neighborhood.  (I'm telling you, it's my genius :D )  So I walk along that street until I find 'my' house.  Check my phone and decide to time how long it will take to get to campus. (Intelligence, who knew).  I turn around and walk back to campus, but this time avoiding the long convoluted, perfectly normal Rachael route I took the first time.  I of course decide to walk through campus instead of next to it... adding about 6 minutes to my time, but overall I walked from my house to school in 21 minutes. That is perfectly do-able.  So tomorrow I am supposed to finalize and pay my landlady at 3, but I'm in school until 4 so now I am going to head to google translator (since I didn't bring a dictionary *face-> desk*) to figure out how to say, "May I meet you tomorrow at 5 pm to move in and pay? I have class until 4, so I can not make it at 3".

So since I've been here I've met some really awesome and friendly people.  That extended into the people I've met through CEPE.  I've meet the South American men that will be my house mates, I met a young guy from Sweden who has a Mexican girlfriend here who he is housing with, an older gentleman from Australia, and young guy from California, and my other, unmet housemate, from Japan.  The diversity at the school (obviously) is astounding, but I'm thrilled to see how many people there are and how friendly everyone is.  Nothing like registering at UNM or NMSU where they are only friendly during the introduction week and after that you are on your own.  The guy from Sweden already compared our class schedules and was excited to see that we both have Traditional Dance together (god I can't say dance classes with out cringing/snickering... I'm like that 12 year old boy who hated dance classes in school and was embarrassed, except I'm an almost 25 year old woman... my maturity level astounds me... *sigh*).

Oh, I supposed I should comment on my near death experience.  My taxi driver taking me home from UNAM got a bit lost, and my Spanish really needs to improve so I can tell them where to go.  I mean it's (points) right theeeerrrrrrreeeeeeeee.  Well he passed it, did a u-turn in the middle of the road (on coming traffic and all), passed it again, then decided to... Reverse.....for two blocks.... to get to the street.  I couldn't even look.  I sat there staring forward, because if I got rear-ended I didn't want to have neck and back problems for the rest of my life and trying not to tense up because that makes it 100 times worse, especially with out a seat belt on.  Yup. So I loved the crazy driving up until that point, the whole reversing for two blocks while I don't have a seat belt might be a bit more than I can  handle...

 Well that's been my adventure so far today.  It's still really early but I think I'll just do my homework for my classes at NMSU while I know I have the chance before school at CEPE starts tomorrow.