Managed to find Starbucks, not the one five blocks from my house, but after thirty minutes wandering in the wrong direction I figure this one’s more than adequate. Go ahead, call me a hypocrite. Bashing franchises was well and good whilst in the comfort of my mother country, but after a three day communication hiatus I would have sold my soul for some wireless internet and caffeine.

I ordered iced tea. As I’m drinking a mango smoothie, I think something might have been lost in translation. No complaints though. I’m hot and this beverage, whatever it may be, is not.

My host family consists of a fifty-something woman and her ancient housekeeper. Both women have endured my attempts at Espanol with incredible patience. I still don’t know the housekeepers name, am thinking it’s LaLa but wonder if they were referring to the brand of milk instead of her name.

I’m starting to appreciate the complexity of language. It’s incredible the difference one letter can make. My host mom wants to learn English and, this sounds horrible, I am occasionally comforted by her mistakes. It took some time for her to understand the difference between bus and boss. I’ve been struggling with similar confusions, so I’m glad we can commiserate over picayune details.

On Monday my host mom celebrated her birthday. I’ve eaten an obscene amount of cake since then. For the past three days, cake (pastel) accompanied breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not that I mind, there’ve been two flavors that I’d never tried before. The first, and my favorite, was tres leches (three milks). Caramel, sweetened condensed milk, and cream divide the layers. Definitely one of the best desserts I’ve ever tried. The other cake was chocolate, only didn’t taste like it had cocoa at all. No matter, it was fabulous. Guadalajara has hundreds of pastelerias (gourmet bakery and confection shops) and people are always walking around toting cake boxes.

I live in the financial district, it’s kind of like suburbia in the city. Most of these people have nine to five jobs and familiar franchises sit on every corner. I only live a few miles from school so I can walk or take the bus if I’m feeling extra American....discovered this is code for lazy in several circles.

Tonight I get a new housemate, she’s American and arriving in an hour. Relaying the information contained in this sentence took ten minutes. I only understood when my host mom dragged me upstairs, pointed to the bed and said, “Chica nueva! Seis! Understand?” Entiendo. Finally.