Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México.

I arrived in Mazatlán, México two days ago at around 3pm. Our flight was delayed a little at LA. Yes, I was in Los Angeles! I took a photo of the HOLLYWOOD sign as we flew into the airport, but it was too far away, so it didn´t really work.

My family is very nice. Jorge (pronounced Hore-hey) is the name of both my 'father' and 'little brother,' which can be quite confusing, but at the moment I just call them Jorge grande y Jorge poqueño (big and little). Luckily for me Jorge grande speaks pretty good English, because I speak no Spanish. Although that will hopefully change very soon. I actually have my first Spanish lesson today, so that should be good.

Tomorrow I start school at the Universided de Techmilenio, Mazatlán,which looks pretty nice. Greg, the other Australian exchange student, and I are the first International students at the school and neither of us speak Spanish, so it should be interesting... and hard.

Already I have made a few friends... well sort of. They are exchanges students from various parts of the globe, who stick together because, aparently, the Méxican girls are too snobby at their schools. I hope that isn´t the case at my school.

Mazatlán is a very nice looking place. There are parts that are very, very run down, as is the case in any Méxican city, but even in those places everyone looks happy... As in everywhere you go everyone is smiling. In a way its pretty strange because everyone is SO friendly. Especially when you introduce yourself like this: 'Buenos días. Me llama Niki y soy de Australiana. No habla Español.' They all find it amusing that I can´t speak their language and a lot of people think I´m very strange for coming to a Spanish speaking country when I have not learnt Spanish before. I don´t think they understand that not many people choose to study a language in Australia and that for us the best way to learn it is by going to a Spanish speaking country.

Once I have sorted out the problem of USB converters and other technological problems I will post some photos of my house, family and the city.

On the 7th February I am going on a trip around Baja California to see the whales mating... It goes for about 5 days and everyone says it is awesome. Then in April/May I travel through the 'Ruta Maya,' which is basically a 17 day trip around México. Everyone says its very expensive, but I worked out that it is pretty damn cheap in Australian dollars... just like pretty much everything else here. Its good.

Anyway... I don´t really have anything else to say. Plus, it is lunch time y tengo muy hambre.