First post from Mexico :)

London, 12:30, 04.08.2010

And here I am, sitting in front of gate B37 of Heathrow London Airport, with my laptop on my lap (did not manage to connect to the internet, so am writing on Word) and a gorgeous baguette. London is expensive haha had 1 baguette, 1 smoothie and some water for lunch, almost 10€! It’s raining, makes me think of the typical Dutch weather. Had a perfect flight, about 2 hours.

Yesterday morning woke up around 10.00 for the finishing touches of my luggage and to say goodbye to my grandma, uncle, aunty and nephews that are in Lagos at the moment. Also said goodbye to my sister (tears...) and her sweet Alonso. One hour later, got in the car with my parents, they took me to Lisbon J Almost forgot to say goodbye to Quiba, my 11 year old dog, which I might never see again… But then gave her a huge hug too.

As soon as we arrived at Lisbon, passed by Uni to get my Learning Agreement, but tough luck, there was no one there to give it to me. Then, went to the zoo, to have drink with Vera. Was great to see her before I leave, she only goes to Istanbul mid September. Lucky her, I looove Istanbul!

After, me and my parents went home, my apartment in Lisbon, to finish my packing. And went out for dinner in a great Brazilian Restaurant. Tried to sleep a bit, until 6.30 to wake up and get to Lisbon’s airport. A lot of tears and then went to do my check in to London. Luckily no excessive weight!

And now, my flight to the other side of the world will depart within one hour. It will take about 11hours and as I’ve never been in one of those mega airplanes like the one that is standing in front of me, I’m quite excited! On my way from terminal 3 to 5, I came with a girl from California, she was on her way to Poland, was really nice to talk to some1 who’s also travelling on her own!

I’ll arrive at Mexico city at about 19.10, local time, but it will be 01.10 in Portugal, so I expect I just wanna sleep, but let’s see. I will (I hope) be picked up by someone from ITAM, and he’ll take me to the apartment I’ll be staying at this semester. Well, gotta go and board. Talk to ya guys later! X x x

Mexico City, 14:45, 05.08.2010

I feel totally broken and tired, must be because of the rare and bad air here, but also all the emotions and jetlag. Yesterday the flight from London to Mexico City, after waiting one hour is the plain for the storm to pass by, was perfect. I entered the plain and already felt tears in my eyes, I was really leaving to the transatlantic. The plain was huge; it even had a 1^st floor! When I found my seat I put my luggage in the place and set down. Directly the girl next to me asked me where I was from and what I was going to do in Mexico and so on. Well, it seemed to be a great coincidence, in fact we were 5 girls in a row, traveling on their own from Europe to Mexico. Linda, from Italy, going to study at UNAM and do a “practica”; Carmen, from Denmark, going to study at ITAM, just like me, we’re even taking some subjects together; Alexia from Guatemala who came back from one year au-pair in Germany, and was gonna take another flight to Guatemala; another girl, don’t even remember her name, Mexican, coming back from one year studying in Germany, she had about 8 of those baby Jack Daniels and other strong drinks that were being offered in the plain, so she was quite drunk :p so, surrounded by girls in similar situations as mine, I had no time to cry or to be afraid of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. We had a great flight, almost no turbulence and, with one touch screen per person with about 20 different films, tv channels and radio channels, nice food, extra socks, blanket and pillow, 11 hours passed by faster than I expected. Though, it was quite exhausting because I spent all the time speaking Spanish and I still have to concentrate a lot…

Arrival at Juares, Mexico D.F: checked my visa and passport, everything OK, my luggage was also there, so I was happy. Felipe and Angel, also from my buddy team were awaiting me. Poor them, I was quite late. Also Carlo, from New York was there, he also arrived that day, but his buddy did not pick him up, so he came with us. 1^st impression about the streets of Mexico City, very old cars, VW beetles, here they are called “bocho”, even as taxi, love it! But also a lot of big and expensive cars like Hummers. The traffic was a big chaos and shops were still open (at 23h00!), people walking on the streets and huge New York style advertisements. We went in Felipe’s car (very nice, nothing to do with my lovely Golf2) and after about 1,5 hours, we arrived at Ivan´s. It’s a nice neighborhood, a lot of trees and green, seems very calm and quite. The apartments is OK, but I’ll have to pimp up my room, it’s too white. Everybody has been very nice to me and very worried. Feels good. It was about midnight when they left and I just felt like sleeping, in Portugal it already was 6 in the morning. Luckily I did sleep a bit, had some nice tropical fruits for breakfast and went to buy a Mexican cell phone. I felt so isolated, had no internet because Ivan forgot to pay it (I’ll only post this tomorrow) and my Portuguese cell phone has got no network at all (fuck vodafone’s roaming!). Bought a cell phone for 30euros with 20euros in calls, good deal. On the street you can find many little stands and kiosks where they sell the most diverse things, a lot of tacos, great smell! Now I’m home alone, Ivan went to ITAM to get his timetable. I finally managed to get in contact with my parents, I really needed to talk to them a bit J Tonight I might go out for dinner and go to bed early. Tomorrow is the information session at ITAM, I’m looking forward to meet the other exchange students and see the uni! Hasta mañana!