so here i am! i'm in mexico, on the udla campus, i just ate fajitas for dinner (coincidentally, while watching the bearcats game on a big screen tv - random, i know!), and i made it through customs and airport security without any problems (whew).

i'm currently locked out of my room. because my key doesn't work. it's a really nice room - i managed to get myself in once! - but the key i was given is a card, like in a hotel, and it definitely only works every 91 times i try it. i managed to explain to the man at the front desk in my building - en espanol! - that my key didn't work and i needed a new one, but the new one doesn't work either, on the front door or my actual bedroom door. hmmm. tomorrow morning after i go to a welcome session, i'm going to have to get it all sorted out and move in, i hope. i'm living in cain-murray, by the way, in case anyone who's been here before is wondering...

it should be noted that when you walk out the front door of my suite and down a small path, if you look to the left, you see the beautiful UDLA campus, and if you look to the right, the first thing you see is the soccer stadium and past that is popocatepetl, a very very large volcano! - which, by the way, has been spewing ash into the sky and making the air smell ever so slightly like sulfer all afternoon and evening. it's basically amazing.

we drove through mountains and some other volcanoes to get to puebla from mexico city today. it was a pretty drive, but i definitely fell asleep.

the food is marvelous, but my first meal here was definitely burger king in the airport. in mexico's defense, however, it tasted better than i remember.

my spanish is so-so. we shall see how this goes...

i enjoy this place so far. there's so much to look at, i don't think i'll ever get bored. especially since there are peacocks on campus.