{Written on Monday, 6 of January}Today is the first day of classes. I just finished my first class of the day,intercultural communication in English which has about 16 people in it. The teacher is 33 and wants us to call her Rosalinda (not Mrs. or Professor so and so). Eventhough it's in english most of the students are Mexicans. In just a bit I'm headed off to mi clase de Espanol Avanzada 1. :) The first weekend was great! We finished registration yesterday, Sunday, night. Saturday was a long and yet great day! Here at Tec all the 1st year students are required to attend an off-campus orientation for the day at Rancho Tec, hosted by Residence Life.
We, the prefectos, after introductions of all themain staff for residence life, put on 2 really funny skits for the residents. I played the voice for Lorenita, a character precocupied with her boyfriend choking on a hot dog while she tries to get help from the super-hero prefecto. At Rancho Tec (a beautiful ranch off cam
pus that includes a lot of space, trees,pools, huts, butterflies, and mountains) we broke the residents off into teams of 10 per 2 prefectos. Omar and I led team 6 :) And with our teams we rotated to 7 different stations. Each station had a game and some piece of information integral to Residence Life: Laundry (which goes by the kilo here,not the load), Housekeeping (which is everyday), Maintence (you dial 1005 if you need help), Fire Saftey (they teach you how to use a fire extinguisher and you do), Internet and Tecnology (some sites are blocked in the residents halls but not on the campus, like YouTube), Student Programs (which is only led by 1 person with a few student helpers, but they put on a lot), etc. Because it is my first year, too, even though I was leading I found myself learning alongwith the other residents.
pus that includes a lot of space, trees,pools, huts, butterflies, and mountains) we broke the residents off into teams of 10 per 2 prefectos. Omar and I led team 6 :) And with our teams we rotated to 7 different stations. Each station had a game and some piece of information integral to Residence Life: Laundry (which goes by the kilo here,not the load), Housekeeping (which is everyday), Maintence (you dial 1005 if you need help), Fire Saftey (they teach you how to use a fire extinguisher and you do), Internet and Tecnology (some sites are blocked in the residents halls but not on the campus, like YouTube), Student Programs (which is only led by 1 person with a few student helpers, but they put on a lot), etc. Because it is my first year, too, even though I was leading I found myself learning alongwith the other residents. On the bus ride back to campus, they thought it was awesome that I, a person from the US, wanted to study in Mexico. One of the guys even said, "Why did you want to study in Mexico? No other Americans do because they think we're all little guys with big sombreros playing our guitars in the desert next to a cactus. So why did you come here?" I laughed loudly and then explained to him why.
Then
, Saturday night we all went out-----the whole campus (I'm not even kidding!). Mexican culture values relationships, dancing, fiestas, etc. So residence life had 3 huge buses to shuttle for free all the residents to CocoLoco's (one of the many local clubs downtown Monterrey aka Barrio Antiguo) and provided free entry passes for the prefectos. Needless to say, the place was packed! Even in front of the door to get in, there was a crowd of over 100 people waiting to get in. I guess we prefectos are really special here, cuz Melissa, the girl in charge of student programs told us to follow her, she was going to get us in. So we followed her through the crowd holding hands,sholders, whatever we could see, and she went around the back way and got us all in. We danced our hearts out to the pop tunes of reggeton, salsa, etc. until 5 en la manana!!! I didn´t even know that hour existed, but for everyone here they say that´s still early!
, Saturday night we all went out-----the whole campus (I'm not even kidding!). Mexican culture values relationships, dancing, fiestas, etc. So residence life had 3 huge buses to shuttle for free all the residents to CocoLoco's (one of the many local clubs downtown Monterrey aka Barrio Antiguo) and provided free entry passes for the prefectos. Needless to say, the place was packed! Even in front of the door to get in, there was a crowd of over 100 people waiting to get in. I guess we prefectos are really special here, cuz Melissa, the girl in charge of student programs told us to follow her, she was going to get us in. So we followed her through the crowd holding hands,sholders, whatever we could see, and she went around the back way and got us all in. We danced our hearts out to the pop tunes of reggeton, salsa, etc. until 5 en la manana!!! I didn´t even know that hour existed, but for everyone here they say that´s still early!The prefectos are very much like family here. They eat together, party together, and hang out together a lot. So instantaneously, I felt like I had become part of a family.Nevertheless, they have friends outside the prefecto circle too, which makes the family even funner to be with cuz they love everyone. :)
1 comment:
Sher, sounds like life as a prefecto suits you! Keep up the good newsy blogging and stay in touch with us Hokies.
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