An Average Day

I start my day waking up at 7:00 to begin my morning routine. I take a shower, eat breakfast with my family and then get dressed and ready for work. I have been trying to get up a little earlier to get a run in before I go to work. I crave exercise because sitting in an office all day does not help out my health level very much. My attempts have been unsuccessful so far because of my level of sleepiness and the morning icy temperature. It is usually harder to get up when you have a warm bed and cold room.

I am outside waiting on the bus by 9:00. There is not an exact time period that the busses come. Sometimes I wait 30 seconds and sometimes it is 15 minutes. For my bus ride I put all of my stuff in one pocket and keep my hand in my pocket to deter people from taking my stuff. There is usually a lot of people on the bus when I first get on because it is “la hora de pica” (rush hour). Many people usually exit in about five stops and seats open up for me to sit down. I look forward to riding the bus every day because I listen to music off of my mp3 player that I brought from The United States. It is relaxing for me to listen to music in English. I ride the bus for about 40 minutes until we get to the Metro Station Chapultepec. Then I walk 15 minutes to work.

When I arrive at work everyone greets each other. I greet the women by giving a kiss on the cheek followed by a hug and the men are greeted with a form of a handshake. I work on the roof with five others that travel a lot to different parts of the city. They are all very friendly and immediately included me by talking to me and inviting me to parties. They are all very smart and many of them have international experiences too. Three of them can speak English and want practice in that too. It is easy to ask them for a translation of a word if I do not know. Lunch is at 2:00 and everyone always eats with someone. My host mom usually packs my lunch for work, but sometimes I decide to go out with people from work and we buy food at a restaurant.

I leave work at 6 pm. Then I walk back to the bus and wait to get on for my ride back home. The bus usually fills up at the end of the ride and I have to force my way off. I arrive at home at about 7:30 and am usually pretty hungry when I get home so I get a snack. At this time, I usually hang out with my host brothers or parents and we talk about our day. Dinner time is at 9:00 right before bedtime and a lot of times bread is standard for dinner. Then everyone goes to bed at about 10:00 except for my host father. He does not need much sleep.