When I met you in the Summer

Days in Mexico: 210

The last weekend was the 'Bienvenido' (welcome) for all the exchange students in the district. As of July, my district in Mexico (4190) and the neighbouring district (4180) have now become district 4185. That means there are over 100 exchange students from about 25 countries in the district!

District 4185 exchange students 2014-2015

On Thursday, exchange students from the north of Veracruz state traveled to Veracruz city so they could catch the bus with the exchangers who lived in the city. We took the opportunity to all go out to the movies together in the afternoon so we could meet each. Not everyone could make it but 18 exchange students went and we had a really great time.

The Bienvenido was held in Cuernavaca which was an 7 hour bus trip away from Veracruz. So Friday morning at 6am, we set off on the long bus trip and stopped off at Cordoba and Orziba to pick up a couple of other exchangers.

Cuernavaca

I am the exchange student who has been in Mexico for the longest amount of time, so I felt comfortable talking to other people and making sure people weren't left out. I used Spanish to talk to Brazilians, Belgiums and French, and English to communicate with everyone else. 

So many people from lots of different countries

The Germans

My new friends from Turkey 

The Australian (me) 

My best friends from exchange: Hungary, Australia, Brazil, Finland and Belgium

In Cuernavaca we stayed at Beraka which is an 'Adventure Park.' For my friends reading from WA, it's kind of like Adventure World but smaller and with less people which means less queues. 

There were lots of rides to go on including a really tall water slide. Some people became airborne while riding on it! 

We did have to listen to talks about what to expect while being on exchange and the rules but most of the time we were free to socialise and do what we wanted to at the park. It would have been helpful to be given the same information when I arrive 7 months ago because it was accurate and I would have learnt a lot from it. 

I don't think it was specifically designed for weekend camps because there weren't any dorms and at night it rained a lot which wasn't great for the guys who had to sleep outside in tents. 

Camp was a really great experience none the less. I saw friendships form between people who don't share a common language and most people left wishing they had more time together. Luckily almost all of them still have 10 or 11 months left in Mexico.

Lots of people I have talked to assume that because I'm Australian, I am use to animals and insects everywhere, which is really not true. In Mexico there have been some really big insects that are a bit scary. In the past week I have seen 4 different moths that are bigger than my hand!

Scary giant moths