Roller-coaster week

So this week has been full of ups and downs. It started out with a pretty interesting morning of trying to find a tennis court at 7:30 AM on a Sunday. But all the courts we went to (about 30 in all) were full! The people of Monterrey apparently love their tennis! We wound up going to Parque Chipinque to hike, instead. It was a really nice park and had a completely different atmosphere than the city. The trail was surrounded by pine trees, and the morning mist made it a very relaxing, mystical hike. Unfortunately, I didn´t have my camera!

Monday night after work I had my first guitar lesson! I got to learn the basic notes, a simple song, and got lots of homework. I've been trying to practice every day for a little bit, and I am slowly picking up more easy songs (like Mary had a little lamb). Next week, chords!

One of the big disappointments of the week was the complete falling-apart of our housing search. For the first month at our sites, we live with host families again to integrate with the community, and then most volunteers move out afterwards. We wanted to move to this pueblito outside of the city that had a great sense of community. We had found a great apartment complex and had been going through the Peace Corps checklist to make sure that it would be safe to live in. Well, the contract review revealed a lease that was basically illegal according to Méxican law! We even tried negotiating with the landlord´s lawyer. No go. So, I skipped out of work on Friday afternoon and went looking for houses. Again. And I did the same thing on Saturday. Hopefully the alternatives will work out...

On a slightly brighter note, I stopped by the cafe in the pueblito in the early evening on Friday. It's a very relaxing, zen-like cafe that, honestly, we're amazed even exists. So we try to provide a bit of economic stimulus whenever we can. On Friday nights there is someone who teaches Japanese to whoever wants to learn, so I'm hoping that will be something else I can pick up here. The owner asked me if we could start up an English conversation club on a different weeknight--gladly! Just another reason that I want to finally move there...