Here are some pics when the Garza Family and I went to the Marquesa and a Mexican National Park. So for some reason I thought the States had a corner on the Christmas tree (pine tree) market and mountains and foliage....haha. I guess it was because souther mexico and northern mexico are like dry and desert like. But yeah Mexico City and the area is actually really pretty. These old buildings are like nunnery places and hermit camps for the ones who either misbehaved and had to live like hermits or maybe they just wanted to punish themselves!

Pretty sick, I got to ride on a horse for like 20 minutes! It was nice, smelly, and slow, but maybe next time I get an opportunity I'll get one that likes to gallop ;)

Playing Catchup

It's been a while since I've posted, for which I apologize. I have been busy....some work and some play. I hope I can capture the highlights...

I think I can some it up with four main topics:
1) Hellen my novia is coming to Mexico to live by me for a couple months this summer!
2) I got Gastritis from the wonderfully awful street vendors' grease and spice
3) Tourist visit to San Miguel de Allende
4) Work/Church update

Hellen Rodriguez, who I started dating in Provo a couple of weeks before my move is coming down here! I know we're crazy but hey, we thought it made sense to figure things out between us while we still had an opportunity. I think it's going to be sweet! I'm trying to help her get a job so that she can make things work while she is here like English classes or something.

So my ghetto residence has no microwave, oven, or stove. It does have a small fridge (half size?) but for like 20 people that live in this gutted house turned apartments. So I eat out a lot, so sue me. The food is cheap and for a really good meal at lunch/afternoon time, it's like 3 or 4 bucks. The street food is even cheaper...BUT Dang that chile and those ghetto taco stands that serve greasy--way good tacos--for like 45 cents!!!! They bring you in on the good smells and flavor and leave you with out beans and rice so you have too much grease and spice for a gringo stomach! The nice thing is that a doctor appt. cost me 2 dollars. And the meds about 10 or so dollars.. Gastritis So, I don't really know what that means. But I really need to stop eating so much of the spice and heavy greasy foods. I just can't handle it I guess. So my intestine is inflamada and I'm not contagious or anything (which is great because I get to go to church tomorrow ;) I DON"T HAVE THE FLU! They gave me some antibiotics and some medicine for the pain. Man, it was painful for a day or so though. I'm talking stomach attacks! I hope it starts working soon. I have to eat light food for a day or two and lots of liquids. But apart from all that, I'm fine. I need to recuperate. (this was a couple of weeks ago and I'm pretty fine now, just need to be careful to eat more of a variety).

San Miguel de Allende Basically this is a really touristy/colonial town the size of Provo, UT or Chico, CA. It's really cool with lots of old colonial style buildings/churches and tons of culture. Lots of Americans come and live there for 4-6 months out of the year. Like 20,000 North Americans out of the 140,000 population. Anyway, it's really a cool place with lots of cultural dances and songs in the center. Super safe town that is very accustomed to the gringo.

The thing that impressed me the most out of the whole weekend was meeting and hanging out with a returned missionary named Vicky.

So I was there in San Miguel for the weekend and I wanted to make sure that I went to church...so I did and was going to meet up with the Familia Garza at 5 in the center of town. Church got out at 12 so I had the whole afternoon to kill and I was hungry. I was lucky enough to score dinner with a girl I met in Sunday School. She was so nice! I went to her house though, and she was like no te asustes--don't get scared, but we are humble, or poor people here.

I had never seen a situation quite like it. It really threw me for a loop. Here is this girl that is a returned missionary 28 years old and she lived in a very humble place with her 12 siblings and her parents. I couldn't believe all of the kindness and love I felt there though. She was actually a convert of 10 years and none of her family had followed her yet into the church. But it was just really impressive how much she loved and cared for her younger siblings.

Anyway, I'm way glad that I could go to church there that Sunday.

Work
So I've been learning about how valuable English is here in Mexico and being from the US. Mexico city really isn't that dangerous for conscious gringos. It's interesting because I've thought about doing sales or promotions of somekind because everybody wants to buy from the gringo. There are some really nice perks to being a little different here. Anyway, for example like if I were to go in and tell someone that a product/process is better than another, or persuade, people will likely give me more benefit of the doubt because I'm different and have been educated in another place. Or because they think I'm "smokin' hot"....one or the other.

It looks like I'll get to be part of a consulting gig, which I'm way excited for as soon as I get some paperwork done. I think it will be a great experience. I have not been really impressed with the Mexican salaries that I've heard about here though. Some people get paid very little for how educated they are.

Here are some questions that I've gotten so far:
Where do you live? What do you like most about Mexico? Does anything surprise you about living there? Are you enjoying the food? You've probably been asked this a million times but is there still a scare over the swine flu? Do you go to a singles ward down there?

I live very close to the down town area in a colonia called Nueva Santa Maria, Delegacion Azcapotzalco in Mexico City (Federal District, D.F.) I live in a really safe area (during the day, at night I don't go out after dark much unless I'm in a car or in a group)
Food is great, but as mentioned above, it can make you sick. Surprises? Not really, except that the metro (subway) seems a lot safer than I thought it would be. I think it's better than in NYC, in terms of feeling safe as well as in terms of functionality and price. 2 pesos per ride anywhere. Which is about 16 cents USD!
Swine flu? Not really. I've heard of like 8 people in the Stake get sick, no deaths there though. If I get sick, I'll go to the doctor. There are more cases in Chicago than there are in most states in Mexico. The problem with Mexico is that people don't go to the doctor if they are broke. The economy is sucking it up and people die because of the circumstances.
Singles Ward? There are none down here. I hope to be able to help bring some fresh ideas to the stake/area around here though like activities that would be good for YSA.

First Interview---Checkk!!

Today was awesome! I get a little too excited sometimes about things and then they turn out to be not quite as cool as I think at first, but hey, I'm an excitable person I guess and life has its ups and downs. I think that's what ADD is, being easily interested/excited and easily disinterested as well.

So I had lunch with an hermano today that does Consulting, oh my goodness it was great! He is a really sharp guy, about 35 years or so. Anyway he asked me about all of my experiences on my resume for like 20 minutes or so. I don't think I ever had anyone as interested in my experiences as much as he was.

Anyway, he was impressed! He actually offered me a pretty sweet job --consulting. He wants me to go to an important meeting with his socio (partner) a couple of hours away next week to help give a presentation about what kind of Strategic consulting that "we" do for small and medium size companies. There will be a lot of important government and business people there from what I understand and I think I get like 20 minutes to speak!

This could be huge, because he has a sweet "in" with the secretary of state over the economy in the state of Veracruz (another state like nevada) and the government will pay 50-70% of the consulting fees. Anyway, his consulting business appears to be taking off as the company will be recommended and the sales should be easy.

So I'm pretty excited about that. He seems to be very well connected here and his partner (also a member of the church) even more so. Anyway, I'm really interested in what he is doing and really think that I'll take him up on his offer.

I get to do some training with him on Saturday. La unica cosa que no se puede ahora es recibir pagos, hasta que ya vaya empezando el negocio. Pero cuando yo haga ventas y luego se crezca la compania y haya asesores (consultants) bajo mi mando (ojala), voy a tener un buen sueldo como base tambien. Basically that means in english: commission only for a while and then a nice fat base check when things take off along with healthy commissions. He'd like me to be a manager over like 10 consultants when this takes off. But one step at a time eh like some paperwork and getting to know the gig before I actually start for real!

Anyway, I need to keep a level head about this all. I also need to make sure that I remember to let my personality that I have in English, shine in Spanish as well. Sometimes I'm a little quieter or more shy in Spanish. But I do feel like I'm up for the challenge.

So this is is few days ago when I found myself working for pesos on the dollar---haha---I was working sorta for el Hermano Garza-----I hope to find something else quickly. It's not much but but, yeah no paso hambre para nada, y si tengo ahorros de anos de la codera! jaja (meaning I'm not starving and because I'm a cheapskate I have a little cash saved away so I'll be fine looking for a job for a little while. But it does make me want to get a job quickly.

It's interesting that a lot of people don't have good basic computer skills here. I think that I may be average or even below average there in the states, but here, I'm a lot quicker than many others.

So, I'm basically just helping him out because he's hooked me up with food and cheap rent. But it is really making me want to use my time more productively and really get down to finding a good job so that I don't have to keep helping.

Anyway, i just got like almost 40% of battery up again. It seems like it took forever! The problem is that I can't plug in one of the ghetto "two hole ones" because I have a 3 prong cord. If that makes sense. So I have good plug ins up the stairs to my room, but not any reception with the internet up there. Kinda ghetto, but I'll get an adapter....