I have always been intrigued by pyramids and other historical ruins from both an educational and a spiritual aspect. Words couldn´t express the feelings I felt when I stood at the foot of the majestic Egyptian pyramids.  Now that I am in Mexico I am amazed by the Mayans and the Aztecs.  They built their pyramids to worship their gods not to hide their wealth or themselmes.  Are these ruins that much different than the majestic churches that have been built over the centuries?  They created places of worship, markets, and cities that have lasted for centuries.  Originally I had hoped to visit all the ruins in Mexico but then the more I researched the more ruins I found and to be honset there isn´t enough time or money to visit all of them.  This is one of the things I really admire about Mexico, their sense of history.  Yes, the Spanish did try to convert all of the indigenous people but many held on strong to their beliefs and if they did convert they combined a lot of their customs with christianity.  We just don´t have that in the US.  There are some native historical ruins scattered around the US, especially in the Southwest but nothing on this level.  

I could go on for hours on the travesty that was done to the native people in the Americas but instead I will focus on the beauty and the history that still exists here in Mexico.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I visited Teotihuacan near Mexico City with Tiara and her fiance (now husband) Pete.  These ruins are Aztec which were the indigenous people who lived in Central Mexico.  The photos above are of Mayan pyramids who lived in Southern Mexico (Quintana Roo, Yucatan y Chiapas) and Central America.  I believe the biggest Mayan pyramid is actually located in Guatemala.   To be honest at this point I don´t know a lot about either except that the Mayans have a longer history, there is some evidence to say that they have been around for 3000 years while the Aztecs were only around in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.  I hope to learn more about the Aztecs and the Mayans.

There are few ruins actually on the coasts, I am guessing because it would be hard to protect.  There were several ruins on the islands I visited but even those were located more in the center of the island vs the coast.  Tulum is so far the only exception but I think it is because it was built on more of a cliff.  This give more of a vantage point to see people as they approached via the ocean.  The ruins here though showed that this was more of a city than a place to worship.  It had plenty of temples but homes and offices too and since it was close to the ocean it would help with trade.  Researches found traces of materials from far away places.  Tulum was very interesting to visit because of its location, size and the wildlife.  There were animals all over the place!  Although there were many tour groups these ruins were more tranquila than the other because it was more spread out and didn´t have one main point of focus.

In true engineer form I have taken it upon myself to find the best beach in Mexico.  Of course in order to do that I have to collect data aka visit lots of beaches!  I started my data collection aka beach tour in Ixtapa last August for my birthday.  My dear friend and co-volunteer has a condo there and graciously opened her home up to us in August and again in December for Christmas.  Ixtapa is the beach resort area close to Zihuatanejo.  I really like this area because it seems to have a nice mix of Mexicans and foreigners but there are enough foreigners that the people speak pretty good English.  Of course this isn´t always a good thing because I want to practice my Spanish and they of course want to practice their English.  Ixtapa is mostly big fancy hotels and resorts with condos and houses sprinkled among them.  Zihuatanejo is more Mexican with smaller hotels, el centro, houses and boats for rent.  Many of my Mexican co-workers head to Zihuatanejo for quick weekend fishing and beach trips.   

Since my friend has had a condo there for almost 15 years she has many friends, Mexican and foreign, and knows the area very well.  What does impress me is that most the foreigners that live there year round, or a great deal of the year have been giving back to Mexico.  One couple started a school for the children that were hanging around the garbage dump, another couple teaches many of the vendors English, another couple volunteers at the hospital.  I think that is awesome…way to give back to a community that welcomed you into their lives! 

The trip to Ixtapa for my birthday was nice but not exactly relaxing since there were 11 of us.  In November I took my first real vacation..I went to Tulum via Cancun.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  There are no grand hotels here, mostly cabanas on the beach.  I got a killer deal for a a three night stay but everything else was very expensive.  It caters mostly to foreigners so the prices for just about everything is high.  Its also about an hour and a half from the Cancun airport so it necessary to plan for transportation ahead of time.  Tulum is home to some very cool Mayan ruins right on the beach.  In general it was a great trip but expensive.

My next trip was to Puerto Vallerta where I met Tiara for her bachalorette weekend.  Her requirements were simple…all inclusive where we can read all day!  Puerto Vallerta is another popular tourist place for Americans since it is so close (especially to CA).  Its mostly big hotels and resorts, with a lot of All Inclusives so it really doesn´t feel like a foreign country if you don´t leave the resort.  I have been to PV before and like its atmosphere, its affordable, and has great centro for shopping and clubbin if you feel like it. The hotel we stayed in had a great mix of foreigners and Mexicans.  The food was fantastic…real Mexican food (not Tex Mex) with other types of food served too!  Tiara and I finished at least book a day!  We had excellent massages which were extremely affordable (cheaper than most “resort” massages) and in general had a fantastic weekend, reading, relaxing and catching up.  Even though I had seen her two weeks earlier it was nice to have my friend all to myself…that´s the gift of real friendship…even with months apart it still feels like yesterday…

I was blessed to get three weeks off for the holidays so I spent one week in Ixtapa with my friend and her family and two weeks exploring Quintana Roo and the Yucatan.  I call it my beach and pyramid vacation.  I will write about the pyramids in another post…

First stop was Ixtapa.  My friend´s brother has a condo in the same place and he and his family were down from Detroit for the winter.  They were an awesome fun crazy family that reminded me of mine so I wasn´t sad over the holiday!  We had a great time getting massages, worshipping the sun, eating and drinking too much and talking about books! I even fulfilled a long time dream of parasailing!!  Its always something I have wanted to do but its been too expensive in other places.  I only paid 250 pesos! (less than $20)

The day after Christmas, I headed to Cancun!  I was pretty excited because I had never been to Cancun before and heard such great stories about it.  The next two weeks I was doing on a budget, I found some great hostels and was planning on visiting five different cities.  The hostel I stayed in in Cancun was near the ADO bus station but really far from the beach.  The day I went looking for the beach I was so overwelmed that I just turned around and spent the day at the hotel pool.  Luckily I had only planned on two nights in Cancun.  I really didn´t like Cancun, it was expensive and WAY TOO BIG!  I guess if you go to an all inclusive you will be fine but still it just seemed like too much to me…I was happy to begin my pyramid portion of the tour at that point.

After a couple of days in Valladolid and Chichen Itza I headed to Cozumel .  Cozumel is a ferry ride from Playa del Carmen.  I didn´t spend anytime there because it was pretty expensive but from what I did see it looked fun and the beach was gorgeous.  I met Lucy another PC volunteer in Cozumel because she wanted to become certified in diving and I wanted to spend time at the beach so it seemed like a great idea.  We stayed at an awesome hostel that had a marvelous pool!  The only problem was…the “beaches” were on the other side of the island and you need a scooter or car to get there.  I was in Cozumel for five days so I spent one of them touring the island, ruins and beaches.  The beaches on the other side of the island are undeveloped and absolutely gorgeous!  Nothing to be seen for miles but white sand and clear water.  The problem with Cozumel was again that it was expensive.  It caters again to foreigners off of the cruise ships (4 to 6 a day) and divers.  In hindsight I would have spent more time exploring the pyramids or I would have headed to Isla Mujeres sooner.  I met a lot of fun people there tho and had a great time hanging out at the hostel!

The last stop of this adventure was Isla Mujeres and probably my most favorite!  It is a ferry ride from Cancun but it seems a million miles away from the craziness there.  Its a fairly small island and the hostel I stayed in was right on the beach.  It was a great location and there were people from everywhere!  The hostel offered really affordable food and drinks which was nice too.  The beach was secluded enough that the only sound you heard was the roar of the ocean.  It really was paradise!  It was hard to go home…

I had hoped to continue my beach tour by visiting a beach each month but my pocketbook isnt in agreement.  I hope to hit a beach for a long weekend in March and then again in April for Holy week!  Stay tuned…

Starting with Thanksgiving the holidays were crazy busy for me, I was teaching and traveling a lot.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Its my favorite because it isn´t over commercialized, the only expectation people have is to eat too much and its a time for appreciating what you have.  I have a huge, crazy family and I have always enjoyed getting together for Thanksgiving.  When I was younger and living in Missouri or Kansas we would get together with my uncle´s family and have a HUGE dinner.  It was always fun because there were so many kids to play with.  We would play all day, eat then play all night.  As adults the families are a little more scattered but we still manage to have a full house and its just as fun.  More catching up, arguing, watching TV and goofying off tho…  In general good times…

This year, I couldn´t afford to go home for Thanksgiving so I brought Thanksgiving to Mexico.  We don´t get US holidays so I didn´t have time off but we had Thanksgiving dinner here at the office and the days before I taught all my students (adults and children) about the history of Thanksgiving, my families traditions, and why its important to me and Americans.  They were really interested in the food, what we did all day and of course Black Friday.  Mexicans knew about Black Friday but of course most don´t get to partake it in, I say most because many do especially those in border states.  Apparently Mexico was concerned about the money it was losing to American on Black Friday that they started a new tradition here.  The weekend before Thanksgiving is now called the Grand Fin, all the stores in Mexico had huge sales and tax incentives.  For example at Suburbia (my favorite clothing store) most of the clothes were on sale and they were giving you back the tax in cash. (In Mexico the price of something includes the tax, it isn´t added later).  I got some good stuff…

Thanksgiving day the other volunteer here hosted a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  I brought my famous cucumber and tomato salad of course and it was a hit!  I spoke about the importance of Thanksgiving, about being greatful for the things you have and then I thanked them for welcoming us into their family.  It was awesome!  They really have been extremely welcoming.  A good time was had by all!!

That weekend I had visitors!!  Tiara and her then fiance flew into Mexico for the holiday weekend.  That Saturday, they took the bus from Mexico City to Queretaro and we spent the day exploring Queretaro.  I really wanted them to see “real” Mexico, not the resorts and touristy stuff.  We visited our pyramid, el centro and my apartment.  There were so many other things I wanted to show them but unfortunately there just wasn´t much time.  We had to head back to Mexico City for the night.  The next day we went to Teotihuacan  to see the magnificant Aztec Pyramids and learn more about the famous agave cactus.  Who knew it was used for more than making tequila?  Apparently the Aztecs used it for paper, thread, soap, sugar, and medicine.  Amazing!!

The pryamids were amazing!  The two main ones are called the Sun and the Moon but the site is called “City of the Gods”.  The pictures above are only a taste of thier magnificance…  What´s nice about this site is you actually get to climb the pyramids, Pete and I were able to climb the Moon but Pete climbed the Sun solo…

After the pyramids we headed to the La Villa de Guadalupe where the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is kept.  The Basilica is also amazing, especially for me because I am Catholic have always been fasinated with the story of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady.  Juan Diego was even canionized during my lifetime (2002).  Thousands of Catholics make the pilgramage to this Basilica every year and the church itself can hold up to 40,000 people.  Seeing the shrine was breathtaking and emotional, I really felt the presence of God.

After the Basilica though it was time to head back.   We had dinner at their hotel and then literally ran to the bus since I lost track of time.  I went home to Queretaro because Tiara and Pete were leaving early the next morning.  It was great to share Mexico with them.  This was Pete´s first international trip and Tiara´s first trip to Mexico.  Tiara got to practice her Spanish and Pete handled Mexico like a pro!   Their presence helped me celebrate Thanksgiving in Mexico!!  Gracias amigos

In the US I am not a HUGE fan of Halloween.  I am really not all that creative so I don’t like figuring out what to wear and dressing up.  Here in Mexico, Halloween is becoming more popular with the kids but the adults are still unfamiliar with it so I decided to use it as a learning opportunity in my English classes.  One of my classes is on Monday which was the actual day of Halloween so we had class at 1:00 and then I invited my conversation class and my fellow PC volunteers to join me for a Halloween comida.  We watched and sang to Thriller, played games and had an interesting discussion about costumes and why Halloween is so popular in the US (especially for adults).  It was a lot of fun.

The week before in both of my Wednesday english classes we had a class on dia de los muertos.  I wanted to learn more about this famous holiday so I found some material in English and we discussed its origins and how each of my students celebrate this day.  In general dia de los muertos was originally an indigenous celebration where they celebrated thier loved ones that have passed.  They build and decorate alters with all of their loved ones favorite foods, drinks and things.  The believe that the dead return to the alters and need the energy. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_de_los_Muertos

When the Spanish conquered Mexico they tried to destroy this holiday but instead it was merged with Christianity and is now celebrated on Nov 1 and Nov 2.  Most of the traditions are still alive and practiced but christian symbols are added.

For most people though the day isn’t about alters, dressing up and partying, its about remembering your loved ones.  Most of the people I asked celebrated it differently depending on their family and state where they were from.  The biggest and most popular celebrations are in Michocan where the alters are huge!  Apparently parties are even held at the cemetary, they believe that they are partying with their relatives.  In general though it sounded like most of my friends just visited the cemetary or attended mass. 

Its a whole different story for the kids of mexico though.  For them they get to celebrate getting candy and dressing up for three days in a row!  As I mentioned Halloween was on a Monday so Tuesday the schools celebreated dia de los muertos with costume contests, games, dances and fun…then everyone adults and children have Wed Nov 2 off to celebrate as a family.

I assist at two different schools and I really enjoyed seeing all the little kids in costume, looking at their alters and watching them dance.  I also enjoyed passing out candy three days in a row while watching Ghostbusters   Thanfully they didn’t leave me with any leftovers!

Guadalajara hosted the 16th Pan American Games in October. These games are second only to the Olympics in attendance.  Over 40 countries from all over the Americas will participate in over 36 sports. The games have over 12,000 volunteers including several Peace Corps Volunteers.

I was lucky enough to attend the first weekend of games in Guadalajara as a spectator. My best friend’s son was competing in Tae Kwon Do for the US. This was a perfect opportunity to see my friend Tim, attend the games and visit Guadalajara. I found out that Tim and his son TJ would be in MX for the games while I was in PST and was excited to learn that we had volunteers in Guadalajara.

I met the Guadalajara Peace Corps volunteers to watch the opening ceremony which included our very own Kirk Allen walking with the St Lucia team.  The opening ceremony was beautiful and I think it represented Mexican culture, especially Jalisco, well.  It was a great way to start the games and get to know the Guadalajara volunteers better.

TJ´s matches weren´t till Monday so I was able to tour around Guadalajara with my friends over the weekend.  Every plaza in el Centro was decked out for the games and the atmosphere was incredible.  In the plazas you could find tickets, souvenirs, artisan markets or stages and along the sidewalks were La Katrina statues playing sports.  It was awesome how they combined the culture of La Katrina with the games.  My friends were intrigued by the statues and of course they took pictures by their favorite sports. 

At night the city was even more festive and we spent almost every night on Calle Chapulatec where they had blocked off the street.  There was definitely a party atmosphere with tons of restaurants, bars, merchants and at the end a huge stage where we danced until dawn.  Ok not really since it closed at 11pm but after walking all day and dancing all night it certainly felt like it was dawn.  On Sunday we listened to a Salsa/Cumbia band perform and while watching a group of dancers from Cuba.  The band was awesome, the dancers were amazing and the combination of the two was phenomenal.  We were all swinging our hips and tapping our toes but I don´t think anyone wanted to compete with that group.

The Tae Kwon Do competitions are broken down by weight classes and TJ, was in middleweight class (under 80kg).  Both men and women (67kg) middleweights competed on the same day, the lighter weights had competed the days before and the heavy weights were scheduled for the following day.  It was a single elimination competition with 15 competitors so one person gets a bi which in this case was top seeded Canada for the men and the US for the women.  Two fights would occur at the same time on different mats.  TJ just happened to fight Brazil at the same time Mexico was fighting Columbia and the atmosphere was on fire in the gymnasium.  The sold out gym was chanting and waving the Mexican bandanas they gave us upon entering.  I was afraid that the chanting and cheering for Mexico would distract TJ but he told us afterwards that it was really empowering and motivating even though he knew the crowd wasn´t cheering for him.  TJ beat Brazil and Mexico beat Columbia which led to the second round but first the women´s competition. 

The day before Irma Contreras won gold for Mexico so the pressure was on the middleweight.  Once again the crowd went wild for their athlete and it was infectious!  Mexico won their first match and progressed to the second round.

Unfortunately by this time the tension was rising.  They flashed to second round schedules on the board and it showed that the US would be fighting MX.  What rotten luck!  I was hoping that TJ wouldn´t encounter Mexico until the semifinals.  In the meantime Argentina was fighting Canada who was ranked #1 and to everyone´s surprise Argentina won by a Knock Out.  This doesn’t happen very often and the crowd was shocked.  The Canadian fighter was so out of it he couldn’t continue the match.  As you can imagine after this fight the crowd was psyched for the Mexico – US match.

 I don´t know much about Tae Kwon Do but I know that the match was insane!  Mexico came out strong and definitely overpowered TJ.  TJ had to adjust and fight more defensive than offensive.  At one point the score was 13 to 7 – Mexico but TJ didn´t quit and he didn´t fight dirty.  He kept up the defense and still managed to score more points.  Unfortunately, TJ lost to Mexico 20 to 13 (I think) but it was one of the highest scoring matches ever.

Mexico lost in the men´s semifinals but since they made it to the semifinals they received a bronze metal.  US and Canada duked it out in the woman´s finals but Canada took home the gold.  Apparently the women from US and Canada are long time rivalries and are really evenly matched.  I am sure we will see them again in the Olympics.

We were able to hang out with TJ during the break before the semifinals and it was heartbreaking.  He was disappointed in himself and his fight.  He kept repeating, ”I  hate losing…I hate losing”.  His coach and my friend Tim were encouraging though and I think  motivated him enough to where he was eventually saying, ”I like losing, I learn from it, it makes me stronger…”.  I was proud of his attitude and his determination to keep competing and becoming stronger.

Even though the trip ended on a sad note, I had a great time attending one of the biggest events in the world and cheering for my new country Mexico!  It was awesome to watch Mexico take pride in their country and athletes and share their culture.  I also found it interesting to be the one people turned to for translations for a change and I that was able to share my knowledge of Mexico with my friends.  Tim stated more than once that “We (Americans) aren´t really hearing the real story”.  I know that they learned a lot about Mexico and its people and I hope that the many other visitors who attended the games learn to love and appreciate Mexico as much as I do.  Viva Mexico!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grito_de_Dolores

You start to see signs of the upcoming celebration at the beginning of September.  The streets are decorated in red, green and white.  Flags start appearing everywhere.  Vendors are selling flags, Viva Mexico signs and clothes in mexican colors.  Everything looks festive and you can feel the pride of the nation as you walk around town. 

The real celebration as I mentioned starts with El Grito the night before on September 15th.  Every city and pueblo (small cities) starts the celebration with the Mayor of the city announcing its Independence!  Its a huge ceremony type event that ends with fireworks and everyone shouts Viva Mexico!!!  Its really quite emotional to be apart of because you can feel the pride and emotion of the people around you.

Of course after the fireworks die down the real party begins!  I was in a small pueblo but it had a HUGE stage and band.  We danced for hours with only a small break to drink tea (special apple cider like tea) with my friends family.  Apparently this is also part of the tradition and unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the tea.

The actual day of Independence I think is usually just used to recover from hangovers but I heard that in some pueblos there are parades and other activities.  Here in Queretaro the streets were closed off for food vendors and partying.  Queretaro is home to the original constitution signed after Independence so people here are especially proud of their role in Independence.  El Grito was actually proclaimed an hour from here in Dolores, Guanajuato.  Hopefully I can make it there one day.

I was lucky enough to attend my counterpart´s wedding in September.  This was my first wedding here in Mexico but not my first “Mexcian” wedding if that makes sense.  I have attended Mexican weddings in the US but I was interested in seeing if there were a lot of differences.

The location was absolutely beautiful!  It is now one of my top two locations (the other being a japanese garden wedding).  It was on a ranch in the hills of Santa Rosa a pueblo close to Queretaro.  Both the wedding ceremony and the reception were held outside but under two different tents.  The bride arrived in a gorgeous classic car and instead of bridemaids and groomsmen she had kids of her friends lead her in.  The wedding was interesting because originally I had thought…oh good a Christian wedding so it will be short…oh hell no!  The pastor preached and preached and preached some more.  Obviously I didn´t understand most of what he said but I do think he mentioned divorce a little too often.  Regardless it was a beautiful ceremony including the lasso!

Prior to the reception was the normal cocktail hour/picture taking event.  Several drinks were served including margaritas, mojitos, cervesa and agua fresca.  Sorry I am sure that doesn´t sound all that different or exciting but for me it was nice to see Mexico represented even in the drinks.  There was also a candy table with all types of Mexican dulces.  Obviously I avoided that table, I prefer to drink  my calories   Dinner was all mexican cuisine including chiles en nogada.  Chiles nogada is similar to chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles) but it has a sweet white sauce and is covered with pomegranate seeds.  This is a very popular dish especially in September because pomegranates are in season and Mexican Independence.  The colors of the dish represent the colors of the Mexican flag so it’s a very popular dish.  I like it but sometimes the sauce is way too sweet.

They had a small mariachi band of course serenade us through dinner and the original party but they were soon replaced by a DJ who played an eclectic mix of music.  What was different was that the DJ would pass out all kinds of props.  At one point we got tiara’s, balloons, lucha libre masks etc…  It was definately different and a lot of fun.  I pretty much danced the whole night which I didn’t think was all that strange until work the next Monday and everyone was saying Baile Baile Baile to me.  Which is Dance, Dance, Dance…I guess everyone got a kick out of watching an american dance and dance by herself most of the time.  I guess its really unusual for people to dance by themselves.  Oh well…I had fun

The wedding started really early 1:30 and was followed almost immediately by the reception so I thought the party would end early…boy was I wrong!  I left early at about 10:00 and headed to an after party!!

In general there weren’t too many differences that I noticed, it turns out the party props and candy table is normal for any party not just a wedding.  What I did find unusual and expensive was the number of party gifts they handed out.  There were chocolates, cookies, candies, alcohol and a ton of other gifts.  From what I understand friends and family donate and make a lot of the gifts (which were all marked A&J) but still…it seemed extreme but when in Rome (or Mexico)…

As usual I celebrated my birthday for a whole month!  I don´t really mean to but it always ends up that way…usually because I go away for my birthday and people want to help me celebrate before and afterwards.  Who am I to complain?

The month started out with fiesta en mi casa for another August birthday, followed by lunch with my Mexican family, happy hours  and a trip to the beach in Ixtapa for my official birthday.  After Ixtapa I had another fiesta en mi casa for the Virgos, lunch with my compañeros (Mariscos) and it ended with a Sushi lunch with Lucy!  My birthday also included packages from home…my cousin Hannah is sending one too and that will “officially” end my birthday month but as far as fiestas I am done. 

The fiestas were a big hit!  One guy said to me that I should have a birthday every month…well I don´t about that but I think I might have a party every month.  This weekend is Mexican Independence day and I think it calls for another fiesta! I don´t know tho…the last couple of weeks have really taken its toll on me so I might just rest and let someone else throw the party. 

Sorry there aren´t more pictures of the fiestas but I get carried away talking, drinking, and dancing that I forget to take pictures.  In general it was a great birthday month.  I am blessed to have such great friends and family.

In the past I would have jumped on a plane especially to be with my friend and her family.  I was extremely close to my friend and her family, I more or less lived with them for years. My heart broke when I heard that she lost her brother and the circumstances that surrounded the death.  I wanted to be there to support her, to support her mother who became a mother to me over those years, I wanted to cry and to grieve the tragedy of losing someone so young.  Even as I write this I am tearing up…I want to hug them until I stop crying.  Instead, I called my family…of course none of them answered their phones!!  Instead I left FB messages on all of their pages and I prayed for my friend, her brother, her family and my family. 

Death is never easy but a mother shouldn´t lose their kids and an older sister shouldn´t lose her younger brother.  I couldn´t help but think of my family and how much I love them all (even when they make me the craziest).   My birthday was last week (another blog to follow) and my mom sent me a care package including letters from her and two of my brothers.  The letters touched me to my soul…being the oldest I have tons of memories of good times with my little brothers and it was nice to know that they share some of those same memories.  I reflected that night on how much we have grown, how we all escaped and how we survived… (Sorry to be so cryptic but those of you who know me well understand).  We have most certainly been blessed!

I could probably rant forever about the news from HP but instead I will just shake my head (SMH).  HP was successful, HP had money in the bank, why the need for more?  Why the need to put several hundred people on the unemployment line?  Leo do you really need more millions?  Can you possibly spend all that money in one lifetime?  How can rich stockholders and CEOs not think about their employees and the lives of other people? Again, I am saddened by our economy…I wonder if I will even be able to find a job when I get back from the Peace Corps, I wonder if I will even want to go back to the US… I just makes me sad

Ok, so now that I am sad and depressed…let me cheer myself up again by telling you how life is in Mexico.  I am absolutely positively happy!  I have the best life…I have a job that pays little but pays the bills.  A job where they listen to my opinions, put them in action and supports me.  I am working with several people on their English which enables them to accomplish their goals.  I am 8hrs from a beach (bus), I am healthy and surrounded by people who care about me.  What more could you ask for?  Life is good!! 

I have a few things I need to work on though…I need more exercise, I need to work on improving my Spanish and I need to set up more English classes.  As they say here tho… poco y poco (little by little).

I returned to work but was still conjested and I had no energy what so ever.  Oh course this is when they actually have work for me to do…so I struggled to edit a paper. I made it to the weekend but I think I blew it by one fiesta too many.  I was still off Sunday and Monday but better.  Tuesday and Wed were good days but I woke up with a very sore throat on Thursday.  Luckily I got in to see the doctor early that day and got more meds, this time antibiotics.  I felt much better two days later but I didn´t try to do too much over the weekend. 

So as you can see I was sick for over 2 weeks which just isn´t normal for me unless its something serious.  This was just a stupid cold that should have just last a couple of days.  Oh well, it tells me to take things more serious here and to try to boost up my immune system.  Other than that there wasn´t much different than being sick in the US except I did find that the doctor did seem to have more time for me.  He listened to my bad Spanish (which is terrible when I am sick and my head hurts) but took the time to actually examine me.  Mind you, I am not in the dessert somewhere, Queretaro is a very big city so it has the latest technology and good doctors. 

Its kind of misleading to call this “Being sick in a foreign country” at times Mexico seems far from a “foreign” country.  I did hate being by myself while being sick though but that´s not much different than living alone in CA, having to make my own soup, take myself to the doctor etc…  I have decided to teach my friend Lucy how to make my soup though so she can make it the next time I am sick!  So I hope that puts an end to everyone´s worries about being sick in a foreign country.  It is different because there are different bugs running around but I am in capable hands.   I am sure its different in more remote places but I am good!