Visitors!

Thanks for all the words of encouragement! This week I got to fight the blues when I hosted my first guest. Scott, one of the volunteers from the central part of México, is a big hiker, and he came up for a week to enjoy the hiking in the mountains around Monterrey. On Sunday, my counterpart went with us to Parque Chipinque, but we took a different trail than I took last time. This time we went to a point called El Pinal...loosely translated in my bad Spanish to the Piney Spot. El Pinal is the little wooden structure at the top of this mountain. Yes, we actually made it that far!

This is the view of the city from El Pinal.

The haze and smog kind of wreaked havoc with the view. But, as the sign says, from here, you can see...nothing!

I have also started hanging out on my terrace at night to get out of the heat. Homes here tend to trap heat and literally turn into ovens, especially the second floors. Before he left, Scott surprised me with some house plants for my terrace as house-warming presents! Right now they are pretty small, but with the constant sunshine and some TLC, in two years I might have a full-fledged jungle upstairs. The jungle will compliment the turkey, roosters, and roof dogs that I can see from the terrace.

On the sad news front, our English Club was very short lived. When I stopped by our cafe on Tuesday with Scott, I saw a sign that the owner was selling everything in the cafe! She had not been getting much business, so last Friday she and her husband decided to shut down! Needless to say, just that morning I had sent out an e-mail to everyone in my center, inviting them to the club. Oops...

As a point of comparison between the US and México, here is a basket of groceries that I bought at the local convenience store. Basically enough as snacks for a couple of days: a loaf a wheat bread, a pineapple, a half-kilo of eggs (8), some nopales (cactus leaves), carrots, tomatoes, bananas, and juice, for a grand total of...88 pesos! Which is roughly $6.75. An order of 5 tacos from the local joint costs 35 pesos, so less than $3 for a very satisfying main entree.

Tomorrow I head off to Matacanes with a fellow volunteer and some people from his office. Everyone says that it is an amazing experience (think cliff jumping, rappelling, swimming, hiking, caving, etc., for 10 hours), and I'm getting pretty excited! Pics and stories next week.

House of Blues

So here is my very manly pink and red house. La casa rosa! I have an extra guest room with an actual bed and a second full bathroom, so anyone who feels like visiting the norteños, there is space! I finally got everything except Internet installed yesterday, so the house now feels livable. Just very empty...maybe I need a puppy or something...



Yesterday I also started feeling the new-location blues (hence the my house feels empty comment). I can only stand puttering around the house for so long, then I need to do something. Especially when the entire house is an oven. I think part of the feeling is the normal Peace Corps experience, but I actually think a lot of it is just the challenge of moving to a new location and having to start over (just amplified). I had the same experience after college, moving to a new town and new job. It took me about a year and a half, two years before I finally called my city home. I had to find activities I was interested in, make new friendships, etc. So, I figure that by the time I leave, I´ll finally feel like I belong! I know the PCV experience always starts out this way, and others in my group are going through the same things, but boy, it is a downer...

Puppies

Ok, house pictures will have to wait. I am still working on Internet access at the house, and I forgot to take pictures before coming to my Internet hotspot. Still, today is a big day, since everything big that I bought this week is supposed to get delivered...sofa's, table / chairs, etc. I will finally have a chair in my house!! It's the little things in life here that make it so exciting...

But, as promised, here are some puppy pictures from last weekend.



And for whatever reason, this guy loved getting himself stuck under this side-table.

Weekend Trips

So last weekend some fellow volunteers and I went to San Miguel de Allende after our workshops. We stayed in the most amazing Bed & Breakfast. My room actually came with its own private terrace, which was a great place to just hang out, relax, and enjoy the great view of the city. The staff was all very friendly, the service was amazing, and I just loved the overall experience. I think running a B&B like that would be quite a fun job, since you have the opportunity to meet world-travelers and provide a unique, personalized experience. I hope I have the chance to go back! This is San Miguel at daybreak.



While in San Miguel, this time I manged to make it to the hot springs with my amigos. Everyone we talked to recommended La Gruta. It is famous for having a grotto, with a tunnel linking the grotto to the outdoor pool. It was a bit hot in there, but otherwise the water was great! They actually had a set of rules, and you could get kicked out for "antisocial" behavior.



In San Miguel, I also had some great Chile En Nogado, kind of like chille relleno, but the chiles were stuffed with a mix of nuts, meats, and fruits.



I then went to Guanajuato with one of the guys, since I will have a hard time visiting the city again (being so far North really hurts the travel opportunities). However, there are so many things to see in the city that I have to go back!! The view from the Monument de Pipila was great. The city is in a bowl, and essentially has different layers to it. As they built the city, they used old mining tunnels as roads, lowered the streets, and otherwise built around the natural features. As a result, the city is really a 3D maze! Doors of buildings literally lead into the open air!



And, after another week of PC workshops in QRO, a couple of us went to San Luis Potosi, a couple hours northwest of QRO. One of the volunteers there had 7 very cute puppies, and I have some great pictures that I will have to post next time (I am hanging out in the local food court with no cable for my camera). I just received all the keys to my house today and spent a good half of my settling in allowance today buying basics (trash cans, cleaning supplies, etc....definitely surprised how quickly it added up), so I will post pictures next time! The next week will be filled with cleaning and more economic stimulating.

PC Training

Well, after a quick trip out of the country, I came back on Tuesday just in time to take care of some Peace Corps business. Right after I stepped off the plane, I made my way to my future house and signed the lease--I finally have a place to stay! No pictures yet, but I promise some after I get back to site. It's a very cool place with a terrace all around the second floor and painted in a very manly red and pink color scheme. After the lease was signed, a couple of people from work helped me move all of my luggage and a bed from my host family to my new house. Some basic construction and cleanup continues while I am out of site, but hopefully everything is ready when I return.

Wednesday we left site to take yet another 10-hour bus ride down to Querétaro for some Peace Corps workshops. I think that makes the 5th long bus-ride for me, although I know some people who have taken 16 or 18 hour bus rides to go on vacation. I´m not sure how they do it... This time we took ETN, which is the luxury bus line in México. It was the same sized tour bus, but there were only 24 seats! Each seat was very spacious, like a first-class airline seat, and everyone had their own headset to listen to music or the movies. While the movies weren´t blockbusters, it was very nice to not have the music blared over the speaker system for everyone to hear.

Thursday and Friday were filled with PC workshops with representatives from our sponsoring agencies (CONACYT offices), some universities, and professional associations. The subject was technology transfer, and different experiences and perspectives were offered. I thought it was a pretty good networking event, since the various centers rarely communicate about projects or ideas, and the various counterparts talked quite a bit amongst themselves.