El Agua Fria y Mi Nueva Amiga

Hola amigos,
I'm in Guanajuato and just finished lunch about 30 minutes ago (they eat lunch from 2-4p). I guess I'll start with getting to Guanajuato. After being delayed for an hour at the airport in Columbus, I flew into Midway. I had four hours to still get to O'hare, but it proved to be extremely stressful. I packed too much to take the subway or the "L", and a taxi was going to cost me around $65, so, I ended up going with a guy who is a junior in high school that I chatted with while waiting in Columbus. He had met a middle-aged woman and her mother on the plane where they offered him a ride to a bus station to get to O'hare. So, he invited me and our journey began. I rode the shuttle from the woman's hotel to her hotel where she drove us a block away to a bus stop. We were pulling in when the bus was leaving, so we got a quick dinner and then finally got on the bus and made it to O'hare, only to find out that my flight was delayed until 3:45 (it was supposed to take off at 2:30). At around 3:15, they delayed our flight until 5:00p and switched gates. At 4:30, they delayed my flight again to 5:15. I was finally in the air and was told that we had to make a stop in Monterrey. So. . . we stopped in Monterrey and then finally made it to Guanajuato at around 10:30p. My family was one of the last to arrive to the airport so I was getting worried that they wouldn't come and get me. BUT, they did and they were so kind!
After being on the road for 20mins, we arrived in Guanajuato. The streets here barely fit a small car and they go straight up and straight down with 90 degree turns everywhere. We drove through a few tunnels underneath the city as well. They are AMAZING! We pulled up to where there house was. I couldn't see anything but a at least 10ft tall wall with a metal solid gate. I actually thought that this was the door to their house, but it turned out to be the door to their property. They opened the door and inside was a beautiful garden and patio with their house sitting behind it. They have a beautiful three story home equipped with everything: wireless internet, a 50-inch plasma television, extremely modern kitchen, beautifully tiled huge bathroom and hardwood floors.
I woke up this morning to take a shower, but John beat me to it. He came back and said that the water was like 34 degrees Fahrenheit. I thought that maybe he just didn't wait long enough for the hot water, but my shower was breathtakingly freezing as well. We learned later that they use gas to power the water heater and that the gas must have ran out last night. So after our showers, they switched the gas line over to a new tank and we have hot water. The Señora asked me how my shower was; I said (in Spanish of course) "I'm still living!" She has an awesome sense of humor. Last night John and I told her that we were vegetarians (because our program director failed to). She didn't believe us at first, and then she said (in Spanish): "No chicken? No fish? What do you eat? I am so worried now, what will I feed you. What do you live on back home?" Needless to say though, she made an awesome lunch today! We had some kind of pasta soup thing and tacos, but definitely not the American version. They were still really good though. Everything here is very fresh, she doesn't use boxed mixes to cook, and our lemonade was freshly squeezed. She won't let us help her either.
I'm living with the Cervantes family. They have two sons (I believe 21 and 25 years old) who attend the Universidad de Guanajuato and a daughter who is 14/15. To my surprise, there are two students from Texas staying here as well, but they are on another program. I don't remember their names. This afternoon, Carlos (their 21 yr. old son) showed us around the city. It is absolutely gorgeous!!! (PS: they do have a maid that comes three days a week).
I don't know why, but I am surprised that I can understand everyone here. I'm learning a ton of new vocabulary words as well. It is amazing to be communicating with everyone in Spanish. I went to order some food at around 12p and started ordering in English. The man just looked at me like what in the world is this guy saying. I caught myself about 5 words into it and repeated myself in Spanish. It's going to take a while to quit speaking English out of habit.
I made a little friend here, Sol (pronounced like "Soul"), she is above. She is our assistant-director's daughter. She spent the three hours in O'hare with us. She's amazing: she speaks French and Spanish and she's only 3 yrs old. She doesn't know English though. I found this out quickly at the airport because she kept hanging around me and I would ask her a question and she would just look at me. I then started talking to her in Spanish and she understood everything. She's adorable! Her mom was quite embarassed at the airport when she began to pretend to breast-feed her stuffed animal named Lolita. In case you can't tell, she isn't camera shy at all.