I have arrived

I finally made it into Mérida last night around 9:30/10 here.  We were immediately hit with the hot weather upon landing.  The temperature has been in the high 90s during the day and a little cooler at night.  Its hot, but I'm not complaining.  It's a nice change from Ohio.

After arriving in Mérida, I met my new Mama - Doña Margarita - a nice señora of about 80 years. She lives alone is a middle class home that is right next door to her daughter's house.  Her daughter, also Margarita, is very nice a well and I can already tell that the two spend a lot of their time together.  I think I'm going to like living with them.  As for my house, it is much larger than the house I stayed in last year.  I feel weird not staying with the same family as last year but I hope that I see them soon! 

Today I had my cita (appt.) for my internship.  I will be working for a magazine called Gente Bien.  I was a little nervous, to say the least, but my boss seems like a really nice guy.  Today he told me a little more about the magazine, which is a free, socially-oriented magazine that they produce every other week.  The magazine reaches about 10,000 people each edition.  It is part of a larger network of Gente Bien magazines that are all throughout Mexico with a few branches in the U.S. and Costa Rica.  I found out that the Yucatan's branch is the smallest of the Gente Bien branches.  And I would be willing to bet that it's office is the smallest as well.  It is a quaint 14' x 14' office with several desks.  It wasn't anything like I expected, but I'm happy to be working there.  I'm excited to get to know more about the magazine and find out more about what I will be working on.  So far I have been assigned to do two pages, so I hope I can figure it out!  I guess there will be more on that subject later.

As for the other people at the magazine, they all seem nice.  I found out that most of the employees are students at local Universities who work for the magazine part time.  I think that I'll like working with them a lot.  However, I'm not so sure what they think of me!  I'm afraid that I was so nervous for my first day and overwhelmed by the whole trip that I forgot how to speak spanish!  And when it came time to leaving for lunch, they asked where I lived so they could help me find a way home.  And wouldn't you know it, I had no idea what my address was!  I'm sure that came off well!  But I sort of knew how to get there, so one of the guys drove me home and we eventually found it.  However, I still have no idea how I'm going to get there tomorrow.  I guess I will find a way there, - as they say in mexico - si dios quiere.

My Lesson of the Day:

Don't leave home if you don't know where home is!