Living in Mexico-Week One

I have been living in Guanjuato for over a week now. I got a job at the Universidad de Guanajuato (above) and it start in ten days. There is so much paper work and hoops to jump through in order to get my FM3/working visa. I do not get paid until I get it, so this means I will be working without pay for a while. But when I finally get my visa I will recieve all of my back pay.

I flew out of Tijuana and at the airport they forgot to give Nicole and I our tourist visas. This is something that I need in order to get my FM3/working visa. When I tell people here that I did not recieve the tourist visa at the airport they are like, no way! Only in Mexico do they allow people into the country with no visa. At the airport in Leon I found out that I need to go to San Miguel Allende to the Immigration office to get my tourist visa.

My friend, Katie, who has been here for almost a year offered to go with me and help because I cannot speak Spanish. San Miguel is an hour to an hour and a half long bus ride. When we arrived at the immigration office they were closing and said come back tomorrow. Tomorrow/manana is a common phrase here in Mexico, so Nicole, Katie, and I got a hostel for the night and explored San Miguel. It is beautiful there. There are a ton of expats and really fancy stores and restaurants. The hostel we stayed at was super nice and comfortable. My only complaint happened late at night. There seemed to be no one at the hostel so we decided to get the dorm room. It was only 100 pesos each, this is like 8 bucks, and the three of us could share a room. We got back to the room around 10pm after having a fabulous dinner and we thought we were in the clear, no on was going to come to share the room with us yes! We got ready for bed and chatted for a while. I was finally drifting off to sleep around midnight when I sensed a person standing over me. Let me give the run down of the room. There were seven beds, one single and 3 bunk beds. Nicole was sleeping on the single bed with no bunk above it, and Katie and I were sleeping on two of the bottom bunks.

This meant that there was one full bunk bed, top and bottom with no one on it. Okay back to the scary women looming over me at midnight. Guess what bunk she decided to sleep on? The one directly above me. Who does that!? I was appauled. She made so much noise getting ready for bed and then spend the next 10 minutes shaking the whole bunk bed getting comfortable. I promptly switched to the free bunk bed, but it was so hard to get back to sleep because I just kept thinking about what an moron that women was!

Okay now back to the immgration office. We returned on Thursday and they helped me with my paperwork and said you have to come back tomorrow. Yikes manana again! We decided to go home and that I would return the next day by myself. I woke up early, had to miss my Spanish classes and returned to the Immigration office. I was pretty proud of myself doing it alone and it gave me time to think and watch Twilight in Spanish on the bus. At the Immigration office guess what they said after they filed my paperwork? You have to come back on Monday to pick up your visa and pay a multa...this mean a fine. Okay see you Monday! I am actually not that upset about having to return, the busses are luxury because people take them here so much. They have reclining seats, legrests, movies, and cookies. The only thing that sucks is having to pay for each trip and missing my Spanish classes. I was really enjoying my teachers and classmates last week and it will all change next week. Hopefully, I will like my new teachers or just end up with the same ones again.

All in all I am having a blast. I know it sounds like it's pretty annoying but it is just a different way of life here. The people are so nice and helpful. Everything is just a little bit slower...it's just going to take some getting used to.