Dia Uno

The  The first day of this trip was a travel day. The morning was incredibly smooth, or felt that way, with it taking only 10 minutes to check my bags, get new boarding passes and go through security. It took longer to find the Aeromexico counter hidden in the far back end of Terminal 3 than the whole rest of the process. While going through security, there was one tiny hiccup when they checked my boarding pass, with the security person asking if I'd already gone through. I said 'no,' she then shrugged her shoulders and sent me through.

Limes and grapefruits growing outside my window. Smells heavenly.

I didn't think much of it but noticed when I went to board the plane that I had been moved well up to the front of the plane from my seat back in row 20 but I settled in. Then a man came and told me I was sitting in his seat, 6C, but that was on my boarding pass as well. So a fair bit of confusion ensued. I got a call from the airline on my cell asking if I had boarded, then someone came looking for me. It was all a bit hearstopping. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong but for a minute there I was Manuel and I was sitting in 6C. Obviously it turns out I was not Manuel, but no one actually knew who he was or why I ended up with his boarding pass, and the other dude in 6C got relocated across the aisle in 6D and we got the flying party started.

Flying on Aeromexico was like the old days. The plane wasn't old or anything but there was only the drop down screens, they actually fed you a decentish hot meal, and you could get alcohol at no charge — even on my short hop from Mexico City to Oaxaca.  In case you're wondering, travellers, the Mexico City airport has crap WiFi and not such great cell coverage either. So I'm looking forward to spending eight hours there in a few weeks.

Arrived in Oaxaca, on a somewhat delayed flight, and had a super-tiny panic about not being met by my host family at the airport, but all was fine and the lovely Marianna and her mother Eunice picked me up and put my Spanish to the test as soon as we were in the car!

I've travelled a fair bit and find that arriving places at night, for the most part, is really disconcerting. Unless it's somewhere like New York or some other city that makes sense to me (don't ask what that means exactly but my sister-in-law who arrived in the darkest night to Iquitos, Peru with me knows exactly what I mean) I get very discombobulated.  And although I am staying with a family, the communication on this first night were not that great and I was not feeling brave enough to hit the dark streets to find a bite to eat. So I just unpacked in my big room with teeny tine ensuite bathroom and kicked back and relaxed. I needed to rest up for my first day of Spanish class and I'm glad I did.