Author Archives: Ayat Sexton

Arrival Home!

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Sorry for taking so long to post this last blog assignment! Things have been super busy since I got back. Well. Once we got to Texas I already debated getting on a flight that just so happened to be going back to Mexico….Courtney, Josh, and Sarah wouldn’t let me though 🙁 I was excited to come back and see my family and friends but at the same time I didn’t want to come back to reality! I made so many friends there in Querétaro and had just started getting really close with quite a few of them that made it so hard to say goodbye. I’m already planning a trip back this Winter Break….haha we’ll see if that’s possible though.

So I went straight to Taco Bell the second I left the airport…which is ironic because you would think I want real Mexican food since I was there for a while…but I missed the American version of Mexican food…maybe cause I knew I wouldn’t get sick? Who knows. I can eat cheese again!! Which makes me happier than it should. I was also glad to escape from the heat for a while!

I definitely miss Querétaro…like…a lot. I would totally go back and live there for the rest of summer but I have another adventure coming up…I’m visiting my family back in Kuwait for about a month so maybe that will keep my mind off Mexico. Or maybe it won’t. I still keep in touch with my host parents and the friends I made. I skype with those friends to keep up my Spanish and then in return I help them with their English!

 

Take me back please…?

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Week 5/Pre-Departure

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It’s week 5 already?! No! I’m so not ready to leave! At all! We went to the Karaoke place again this last week with some new friends we made! People-our age- are usually super friendly! I love how open they are to meeting new people! However, if I’m walking with a Mexican guy, and a Mexican girl passes by us, I notice they tend to shove me…push me…a little more violently than I expected. I know the reasoning behind it but its a little bit funny to me. I got to play soccer with my amigo that I made here! I went to his game and afterwards him & I played a little bit! It was fun! We had our finals already and they weren’t what I was expecting. For our oral class we gave a 10 minute conversation about topics covered in class. My topic was similarities between here and Kuwait. But we couldn’t have any notes, only pictures. Also, our final was in a restaurant! At 7 p.m. last night actually! After we finished he told us our grades for the class. I got an A+! Woohoo! I’m not sure about my other classes yet though…we haven’t heard back yet. I love having this ESOL class here because it fits so well with the culture here and we can witness stuff we discuss in class firsthand. Guess what else we got to do! Go to Walmart! We were way beyond excited because we found some delicious cheddar cheese! And we saw Mac N’ Cheese! We were almost in tears, we were so happy. Our friend looked at us weird for freaking out about things we really missed from the States! We each have a list of things we want the second we get back. But there are also so many things I will miss from here! The pictures are above cause I couldn’t arrange them the way I wanted. But yeah,,,so Mexican hot chocolate is delicious! And pan dulce….so good! Also the Oreo Frappe! Ohmygoodness. Why doesn’t this exist anywhere else? So yes obviously I will miss the food! All the buildings here are so beautiful and I will miss looking at them…which sounds weird but…they’re cool! The little markets are so cute and I love walking around and talking to people! i will definitely miss my new friends here! I feel like I’ve made so many friends super quickly and now it’s sad that I have to say goodbye to them since we got so close so fast! And my family too…oh my family. They are so cute and I might cry right now just thinking about saying goodbye to them…I’m so upset! I don’t want to leave here at all. I’m sure my real family wouldn’t mind at all if I just stayed for the rest of summer, right? I’ll definitely be back here though. You can count on it. Te Quiero Queretaro (I love you Queretaro) 🙂

 

Week #4

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I cannot believe it’s week 4 already!! We went to a Karaoke place and sang in spanish and some english songs too! We went to a real fútbol game! Soccer! It was so much fun and so cool to experience! Especially for less than $20! A couple of my new friends here invited me to a BBQ where I got to meet more new people and learn to dance and learn some spanish songs! Definitely got to practice my spanish too! The food looked delicious but I didn’t eat anything since I ate beforehand. We went to a water park! It wasn’t what I was expecting but it was still fun! Public transportation is not fun at all! I hope I never have to ride the bus again….classes are getting more and more interesting and I swear they are getting shorter too! Everything is starting to pile up! Studying for finals and writing final papers and it’s getting a bit stressful. Only a week left until I come home though! It’s so weird! I feel like I just got here! I’m ready to leave but at the same time I definitely want to stay here longer…

Week #3

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Let’s talk about our trip to D.F! The capital of Mexico! Boy oh boy was that fun. I was on high-alert the whole trip because there are SO many people everywhere. It takes a little over 3 hours to get there on the bus we took. The whole weekend we visited museums and walked around a lot. I more or less enjoyed the trip! Just got a bit claustrophobic at certain points. I missed my Mexican family a lot…and we were only 3 hours away so I’m not sure what I’ll do when I have to come back to the states 🙁

One of my Mexican friends here invited me to hang out after school one monday so I said I could go! I had no idea we were leaving the state of Queretaro….we took a 2 hour road trip to Guanajuato…on a Monday…and I didn’t get home until about 9. It was really fun though! We talked in Spanish the whole day too so I got plenty of practice! This week is my first week switching into 300 level Spanish so we’ll see how well I can do! 200 level was pretty easy for me so I was pretty bored most of the time….

Week #2

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Oh my goodness! I’ve been so busy I totally spaced writing in this blog! I keep a journal though so I’ve been keeping track of everything I’ve been doing! I absolutely love my family here and I don’t even want to think about leaving soon. Let’s see….we’ve had a bunch of activities going on after school. We went to cooking class but that wasn’t at all what we were expecting because it was at the same restaurant where almost everyone got sick from the food. I did get sick. Went to the doctor when I thought I wasn’t feeling well and he said he thought I had appendicitis or maybe some ovarian cysts. I freaked out. I had to go get blood drawn for the first time in my life…in Mexico. But I’m fine! No appendicitis as far as my blood test goes! A couple days later I actually got sick from food poisoning so I just slept all day. I’ve met quite a few people here through my ESOL class and I’ve been hanging out with some of them and helping them with english! I’ll explain in Spanish and talk in Spanish and they’ll reply in English! It’s actually really fun for me to teach them even though it’s difficult! They’ve been telling me that I don’t even need Spanish classes because I speak so well and understand a lot which is good to hear! I don’t exactly agree because there are still a lot that I don’t know. We’ll see how the rest of this trip goes! I’m having fun though!

Week #1!

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Oh man…I can’t believe it’s already been a week! Kind of feels like we’ve been here so much longer! Meeting my host family was fun! They’re all really nice and super friendly. Very talkative but I don’t mind it! The first day I met my host mom she took me to church and already tried to convert me so that kind of threw me off guard. But we got all that straightened out! i’m already using vocabulary that I just recently learned which is a good sign, right? Hah but I really like it here! I’m used to a lot of things others aren’t because things are almost exactly the same as Kuwait! My señora is already ending phone calls with “te quiero mija” (i love you, daughter) which is adorable and makes me want to cry everytime she says it. The food is good! School is actually really fun and we’ve already make a couple friends around campus. We’re definitely not used to the whole guys whistling at us and approaching us and yelling things at us. Every time we think we are, something else happens. It’s been raining the last 2 days which isn’t what we were expecting! It’s supposed to continue for the next week but I hope it doesn’t! But yeah, overall I’m enjoying my time making new friends and learning as much as I can! 🙂

Arrival

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Ohmygoodness. Arrival was very…interesting. We got to the airport around 8 and they airport wasn’t abnormal…I don’t know why I expected it to be different. We went through security and they chose to check me. We walked around and found the bus station but it didn’t leave until 9:30 I think. The bus was very fancy but I made myself stay up so I would go to bed when we got to the hotel. However, we didn’t get to the hotel until about 2 a.m. Anyways, we definitely went right to bed when we got here and woke up kind of early the next day! Had some delicious breakfast! And we’re off to an adventure! 🙂

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Pre-departure

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I have been waiting for this trip for so LONG and now it’s right around the corner! I can’t wait for all the things I’ll get to do and people I’ll get to meet! I’m so excited! I’m also really nervous about switching to the whole Spanish thing 24/7. However, I’ve done it before with Arabic in Kuwait…but I also already know Arabic. Anyways. I think that Arab and Mexican cultures are very similar so I might fit right in, but we’ll see about that. I expect a lot of green everywhere, like grass and trees and bushes. Some flowers too maybe! The food is going to be delicious…I hope…cause I LOVE mexican food!

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