Second Sunday Funday

getting ready to fly over the city

We ventured out on our own today. Took a ride in a lift, almost like a ski lift, over part of the city, so we could have a better view of the cement roofs. Kidding. Well. Not really. There is a lot of cement, but we could see the mountains off in the distance, with the cartels and their little drug tents, and it was really breathtaking.

The lift started at the library and ended...at a what I thought was going to be a coffee shop, but I serioulsy almost traipsed into a church service.

We left there after taking in some of the views, and walked back through the town, back to our apartment. I needed to write down our address so we could take a taxi to the nicer Soriana, and back.













Grocery shopping in Mexico is an EVENT. There are clowns in the stores, giving out samples of meat, bread, cheese.....and juggling. There are several different people with megaphones stationed throughout the store, yelling out the deals and specials, mixed in with Mexican music, pulsating, pounding, through the overhead speakers. It is nerve wracking, but they have a very large wine selection to help out with that. Jolene, Caden and I walked up and down the aisles, looking for random things we need for the house. Toilet brush. Trash bags. Plungers. Ziplock baggies. A pan for baking. A plastic bowel for Caden's cereal (the school provided us with a set of silverware, some glasses, some plates and glass bowels, but he desperately needed a plastic bowel for his froot loops). I needed to get a good kitchen knife. We got some more groceries. Got Caden a little toy helicopter and a soccer ball. (He now has a total of 4 toys, which he quickly told Jolene, when she told him to put the DS up and go play.) I still need to get a mat for the outside and rug for the inside door, to try to alleviate some of the dust and grime we traipse in with, on our shoes. Can not, for the life of me, find any lamps. Going to try Home Depot sometime this week, although they will probably be stupid expensive. (However, the school is going to reimburse me for them, as I will leave them with the school when we move on.) In the apartment, there are just lightbulbs hanging down from the ceiling, and the walls are completely bare, so it makes for a not-so-homey environment. I'd love to get some things to make the place seem a little more like home, but holy cheezus, everything is so expensive. I'd also love to get a little printer and scanner,  so I can get some work done from home, and not have to stay up at the school for too long, after work.

yes please.

Anyway, we three made it out in one piece and went out to the parking lot to try to hail a taxi. We wrote the address down and the taxi driver was obviously flustered, as he didn't know where it was and we couldn't explain it. Thank God for kind Mexicans. FOUR people ended up helping us. None of them spoke English, but they managed to help the taxi driver figure out our address, and we made it home. The taxi driver was sweet, and kind.


I just have to say....most of the Mexicans I have encountered here have been lovely. It irritates me that I'm so damn paranoid that I'm going to get kidnapped and raped, when so far, the hospitality I've been met with here has far exceeded the "southern hospitality” I came from. I'm not saying that I'm going to be less vigilant, or less careful, but I'm going to definitely try to be less nervous.


Viva la Mexico.