It's October and it's snowing in Pennsylvania?! Puebla weather tends to be pretty consistent and we continue to have sunny days and sometimes chilly nights. The rainy season is almost over and then the colder nights will come. So much for my attempt to write more frequently! I was doing well there for a while, then I lost it!
Right after the last time I wrote in September I went to an ultimate tournament in Guadalajara and due to Mexican Independence Day I had an extra day to spend touring the city. Before I came to Mexico I had absolutely no interest in visiting Guadalajara and had a mental image of a big ugly industrial city, but I was way off. I only had 12 hours to explore the city, and it was nowhere near enough time. Turns out Guadalajara is a beautful colonial city with lots of little suburbs worth touring. I was in heaven in one of them because of the number of artesinians that I found there. It was great. After my 12 hours, I took an all night bus directly back to Puebla to work the next day. I think having played in a tournament that weekend helped me sleep, because it ended it being a very enjoyable bus ride - if that's possible for 9 hours on a bus! It was actually quite luxurious. Only three seats across, and I'm not sure how many back. But I was solo on my side of the aisle and felt like I was flying first class with all the space.
The day I got back to Puebla was the eve of Independence day, so we spent the day with the kids decorating the house, cooking pozole and chalupas, and celebrating Mexican independence in general!
After Guadalajara, the next excitement came in a weekend beach retreat to Chachalacas, Veracruz with Janizar (my ultimate team). One of my teammates has a beach house there, so we went to regroup after an ugly performance in Guadalajara. Lots of fun was had by all! I continued the team love by making a trip to the DF the week after to practice with my team. Oh, funny story on this one. Usually when I go to Mexico City, my friend Lety is my travel planner, she finds me a place to stay, picks me up from the bus station, feeds me tacos and quesadillas, and basically takes good care of me. Well, that weekend she had a lot to do so I was trying to give her a break. I organized with other teammates and had it planned out that I would stay with a friend (Alex) and that Lety wouldn't have to worry about me. I talked to Alex before I left Puebla and all was good to go. When I arrived at the bus station I called Alex again, but a friend from a different ultimate team answered the phone and told me that he and Alex were in the hospital. I totally didn't believe him, because it seemed like a joke that Alex was capable of. Turns out that yes, they were in the hospital. So Alex called Lety, and once again Lety and our friend Mariano had to come for me. We went to eat tacos while we were waiting for Alex to get out of the hospital. Finally, when we met up with Alex, we got the full story. Turns out, Alex was at his apartment having a few beers with friends, when his female roommate starting heating up some hot wax to wax who knows what. Anyway, for some reason the boys thought it would be hilarious to give it a try. So the waxed up Alex's back (he's a hairy guy). Well when the ripped the wax off the pain was apparently so great that he threw his head back and then forward in pain. Unfortunately his beer bottle was in front of him. He cracked his forehead on the beer bottle and ended up with who knows how many stitches from the gash it left. Sooooooooo...Lety didn't get the break from taking care of me that I was hoping to give her that weekend!
The next weekend, a friend that I met in Cuernavaca at Spanish school came back to Mexico to visit, so we did a 3 day tour of Puebla, Cuernavaca, and the DF.
I guess I have lots of good excuses for not writing! It appears that I've been very busy! With all this traveling and fun you probably think that I haven't had time to work, but that's not true at all. I'm still working hard. Probably harder now because my time is running out and I still have lots of promises to fulfill! I'm working now on writing up a manual of all the activities I've been doing with my groups of kids. This was part of my contract with Juconi, so I'm doing my best to get it all done. Things in Casa continue to be up and down, but I'm trying to spend all the quality time that I can with the kids before the next two months fly by me.
Hope all is well north of the border!
