Arrived!

After twelve hours of travel, I have safely arrived in Colima. I didn't get to take any pictures, but they will come.

I survived my three flights, but navigating the Mexico City Airport was certainly a challenge.

Walk down a conveyor belt straight to customs. Grab your checked luggage from the pile on the ground. Deposit luggage on a still conveyer belt for domestic travel. Board the air tran to terminal two. This air tran requires a boarding pass for domestic travel that the US won't print. Beg for pity. Get pass printed and enter customs again. Realize that gate is boarding five planes at once, and the buses to them are announced in fast Spanish over a loudspeaker.

Oh, and there aren't many signs, so most of this is done by asking strangers in broken Spanish.

But all is well. I got on that plane to Colima with the 14 other passengers, and its propeller spun away.

Colima is beautiful. From overhead, it is a rich green with dense forest lining the rivers. The airport is very small and open, surrounded by palms with a clay-shingled roof.

Everything is green. Even the air smells green. I love it.

We drive into the city. I see a college-aged boy, riding on the back of a long-haired, elderly man, and I decide that this is, indeed, a grand place to spend the next few months. Colima's streets are lined with palm trees. There are a lot of college-aged people around, and a lot of gorgeous floral street art. It seems extremely safe.

The program director Nick described the student house as "ugly and currently covered with graffiti."  Yes, that is true. I like it, though. We have a little courtyard with a hammock, and the ugly, graffiti-covered walls give us privacy. Oh, and it's all girls here!

Air conditioning isn't really a thing here. It's kind of like New Orleans but way more humid. It's works, though, because the shower doesn't have hot water. It's really all okay, though, because we have fans and keep the windows open.

Most of the group was at the volcano today, but one girl, a Latin American literature student at Universidad de Colima, is here. She's really cool, and we grabbed dinner. She doesn't speak English, so I got to practice my Spanish a good bit. She also has two adorable little dogs that live here. Unfortunately she will be moving out soon.