It’s been a while since I wrote…things have been quite busy here. Shortly after my last journal entry, we were told that we had to move. Our hostess had a previous commitment with another traveler, telling her that she could stay in the room in which we were living. Instead of moving to different rooms throughout her house, we decided to find our own place to live. It was the time to do so. Being a family of 3, accustomed to our own living space, we were ready to have our own apartment after 3 months of living with another family. We had an excellent experience with our host family. We have close friends in Ricardo and Inelva and wouldn’t trade it for anything, but we are also very happy now in our own place. We live in a 2-bedroom apartment close to our school. Inelva and Severa continue to baby sit Adia and Inelva’s 3-year old grandson, Victor. Adia continues to learn more and more Spanish from them!

Remember in my last entry, I mentioned that I have a new nickname, ‘Chilero’? I was getting really proud of myself for being able to eat almost anything, which I did! ‘They’ (i.e. foreign travelers to Mexico) tell you to stay away from certain things like fruit that hasn’t been properly washed and food from street vendors, which I did for a while, but how could I resist those delicious street vender hot dogs that bring back memories of New York?! How does one live in a unique country and culture without indulging himself in the delicacies of that culture?! So, it didn’t take long before I started to indulge, and I never got sick! I ate hot dogs off the street, some of the hottest chile peppers Mexico has to offer, and anything else from cactus soup to grasshoppers (chapulines) to pig’s skin (chicharrón) in salsa (but I never drank the water). Like I said, I was quite proud of what I called my ‘stomach of steel’! Well, ‘they’ also tell you to expect to get sick when you travel to Mexico. ‘They’ say that, for foreigners, it’s not a question of ‘if?’, but ‘when?’. I was thinking that this little ‘rule of the tourist’ didn’t apply to me…until 2 weeks ago! I don’t know what it was, but it happened when we were in transition from the house to our apartment. During that time, we had to eat out a number of times and/or pick up food on the go. Needless to say, my diet wasn’t the healthiest in the world and mi estómago estaba inquieto, to say the very least…enough said!

However, we (Sarah was sick, too) healed up in time to take a weekend at the beach (see pictures in ´Photo Gallery´ under the category ´Huatulco´). Sarah, Adia, & I visited Huatulco, Mexico 2 weekends ago. Huatulco is on the southern shore of Mexico’s Pacific coast, and is a series of 9 natural bays bordered by beautiful rock formations and mountains. It is one of Mexico’s best-kept secrets because it is hard to access from outside of the country. The water is a beautiful clear blue and the sky is a stunning, brilliant blue. The weather is perfect…in the sun, the daily temperature was around 100 (but didn’t feel nearly that hot) and it was in the low to mid 80’s in the shade. We stayed at an amazing resort on the beach, and took an oceanic excursion. Highlights include observing giant sea turtles in the wild and snorkeling, not to mention many other beautiful sites of God’s creation. It was a much needed break for us as we practiced our Spanish a lot but didn’t have the daily grind of classes and homework. We have been back in Oaxaca for over a week and are energized to finish the last month of school.

¡Hasta la próxima!