Saturday, September 13, 2003
We spent today at a place called “Las Estacas.” It’s a spring-fed river about an hour away from our language school. We went with most of the students from the school, and the place was beautiful. They say that it is the place where some of the original tarzan movie was made. The water was cold, but we had a great time. It was good to get away for a while and just have some fun. When we got home, we watched the Scorpion King movie with the family. Tomorrow (Sunday) we are planning on going to an English speaking church. It starts at 8:30 am. We’re also supposed to get the Miami Dolphins game on TV here tomorrow, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Language school is going well. We’re doing a lot of studying and learning. We have off of school on Tuesday for Mexican Independence Day. On Monday night, there many big parties celebrating Mexico’s Independence. At 11 pm, the President goes out to the square in Mexico City and shouts, “Viva Mexico!” I’m looking forward to being a part of the celebration here in Cuernavaca.
We just finished our first week at Cuauhnahuac, and boy are our brains tired. We’ve been studying a lot, and have come a long way in one week. There’s just still so much to learn. There’s only about 20 students in the school right now, so we have plenty of one on one interaction with teachers (too much). Apart from school, we’ve really just stayed at home most of the time, playing “uno” with the family we are staying with. We did get to go to our friends’ church on Sunday. We rode the bus for about an hour then took a taxi to the church. It was pretty cool to see them again, though. We plan on going there again tomorrow. Last week we had barbacoa, something sort of like barbeque. It was for a party for a little girl who turned 3 that day. They eat barbacoa on special days, and it is made of all sorts of different kinds of meat. Sometimes it’s beef, sometimes it’s not. We’re not sure what it was we had on Sunday, but it was really good.
The last two Saturdays we have gone to downtown Cuernavaca to eat at our favorite churro place in the central part of town. It’s got a good view of all the activities that are going on there, and the churros are only 4 pesos (40 cents). A bus ride downtown only costs us 3.50 pesos (35 cents) each, so it’s a pretty inexpensive trip. Oh, last Saturday we caught a movie for 17 pesos each ($1.50), and it was in English with Spanish subtitles. There movies are a little behind those in the US, but we saw the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Please keep praying for us as we are cramming our little heads full of Spanish. It’s really intense, but we are having a lot of fun while we learn.
Pics of the week: One of the daughters in the house where we live, the cathedral in downtown Cuernavaca, and the view out of the back of the house. If you look hard at the middle of the last picture, you can see Popocatapetl, one of the two volcanos near us. Don’t worry, we think it’s dormant. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Week 1 – The week in review Thursday: We drove to Orlando to get our visas from the Consulate office there, but we had plenty of problems. They said that we needed some paperwork that we didn’t have with us, so we had to get them faxed to us in Orlando. When we finally received all of the paperwork, the office was closed, so we would have to wait until Friday to turn in the papers. Good thing Janell’s grandmother lives in Kissimmee, so we could stay with her. Friday: We went back to teh Consulate office, only to be told that the visa was going to cost us a lot more than what our lawyer in Mexico had told us. We called her to try to get it straightened out, and, after many hours, she got it all straight for us. Unfortunately, we would have to wait until Monday to actually pick up the visas. That wasn’t good because we had to go home and finish packing for the move.
Saturday – We spent the morning packing our 6 suitcases, and in the evening we had dinner with Janell’s family. It was the beginning of a week of goodbyes as we have left many of the people who are most special to us. Saturday was difficult as we visited family for the last time until we return from Mexico.
Sunday: Our church had a “commissioning” service” for us. Since our church is practically our family, this day was also difficult. We said goodbye to many of the students with whom we have worked for the last five years. Since my family was there, it was also a time to say goodbye to them. We had dinner with Janell’s dad and sisters in the evening and decided to drive to Orlando so we wouldn’t have such a long drive on Monday. Monday: A day of many goodbye’s. We went to see more family and say even more goodbye’s. Then we had dinner with our pastor and good friends from church. We finished packing our six suitcases, two carry-on bags, and two personal bags each. Tuesday: We drove to West Palm Beach to stay close to the Miami airport. We didn’t want to have to drive such a long way on the same day as our flight to Mexico. We rented a car and drove from Tampa airport. When we arrived in West Palm Beach, we got to eat at Friendly’s, one of Janell’s favorite restaurants.
Wednesday: This was it…the big day for us to move. We drove to Miami airport with all of our luggage and checked all that we needed to. There were no problems in the airport at all, and we were able to accomplish everything exactly as we expected. Our plane was only half full, so we had plenty of overhead space and plenty of room for everything. It was pretty smooth, and we had no problems with immigration or customs. We were finally in Mexico! Our friends picked us up from the airport, and we drove through the worst traffic jam we have ever been in, but we made it to the house where we were staying. Thursday: We drove through bad traffic again (Mexico City), and arrived at the bus station in order to go to Cuernavaca for language school. The family that we are staying with met us there, and we have been here since.
Friday: Orientation at the language school went great. Thank God that we have been in Mexico before and know a little about how things work down here. We can already tell that we are learning lots of Spanish. We went to Plaza Cuernavaca, a mall, to look for some clothes because we left one of Janell’s bags in Mexico City. Good thing there is a market here on Monday where we can buy some clothes for cheap. We’ll see what next week brings.
Cuernavaca: We made it to Cuernavaca, Mexico, just fine. I’m sitting in an internet cafe about 3 blocks from the place we are staying, and we are really excited. Today we took an exam to see what class we should be in for class when we start on Monday. I think it went really well. We are staying with the Hernandez family. They have 2 daughters, Jessica and Yeritzia. Unfortunately, we left one of our bags that we were supposed to bring to Cuernavaca in Mexico City. It was the one with all of Janell�s clothes in it. That�s okay, though, because on Monday, our family is going to take us to a market where we can buy all sorts of clothes fairly inexpensively. If anyone really is reading this, I�d love to hear it. Thanks.
We’re going to Miami: Tomorrow is the big day. We leave for Miami tomorrow morning at 10:30. We are renting a car in Tampa, then we drive to West Palm Beach. We’ll stay the night there, and on Wednesday, we fly out of Miami airport non-stop to Mexico City. We have a friend picking us up, and on Thursday we go to Cuernavaca (an hour south) for langauge school, which starts on Monday. It’s so hard to believe it’s here already. We’ve almost finished packing, but there’s still some work to be done, so I better get going on that.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
