things forgotten

I had forgotten how driving in Mexico can be like an unending game of chicken. This "system," if you could call it that, only works, I think, because everyone knows that there is some sort of rule. Of course, I haven't the foggiest idea what it is. Lines in the road? Red lights? Pedestrians? No problem. Such a clusterfuck is the traffic here sometimes.
Last night, after a long boring day of mostly pointless and boring "orientation" stuff, my host mom, Eli (short for Elizabeth) picked me up with her friend Sylvia. After a few close calls on the way back to her house, we went to the local wal-mart and got some snacks, and then had a little cocktail party. I never knew Grand Marnier tasted like it does. Some of Eli's friends came over, and we talked about a lot of things, but some highlights include the finer ways of eating octopus (whole, little ones, or in its own ink, grilled, perhaps?), lots of stuff about all their daughters, and trying to get a karaoke thing going on.
Soon we're done with the orientation stuff. I'm sure looking forward to real classes and knowing the city better. As a group, all the students in this program are getting to be tighter, and that's good. It's nice to have another Grinnellian here, too. Today we talked about all the insanity that happens in Grinnell while students from other schools listened, jaws dropping, imagining the madness.