We have arrived!

After arriving at the Ottawa airport at 10:30am on Thursday morning, we eventually made it to our hotel in Monterrey around 2am. It wasn't supposed to take that long... but things get a little slowed down when your airplane airconditionning breaks down, and Chicago gets a little windy and decides to change all of the departing airstrips, and your plane starts to run out of gas and results in an unplanned stop in Oklahoma City. You'll be happy to now that all of MY bags arrived safely (all 5), but the one bag that happened to get lost was that belonging to my father. Fortunately, it did show up at our hotel the next morning.

We had a chance to make a quick stop at my school yesterday to drop off my bags so we could travel around a little more easily. It looks like a pretty great place - very organized and professional. It is in a very nice part of town, and we drove by my apartment (I don't get the keys until next week) and it looks like it will work out perfectly.

This city is amazing. It actually is surrounded by mountains (though the view isn't always crystal clear) and there is a huge nature park (Chipinque) a few minutes drive from downtown. We went up there yesterday and had a pretty neat view of the city. There were butterflies all over the place - nothing like in Canada.

Today we went to Grutas de Garcia- some very old caves about 45 minutes outside of the city. They are inside one of the big mountains, and were very impressive. Though we didn't get much from the Spanish tour, a nice Mexican took us under his wing and filled us in on the important details.

A few observations about life in Monterrey (and Mexico)
-the drivers are crazy! My heart rate goes up the minute we get in the car. Luckily, my father can compete with the best of them so everything has been fine so far.
-Mexican salsa is NOT like salsa in Canada. I may not have much of a tolerance for spicy things, but this stuff is crazy! I've tried it twice and I think I am going to take a little break.
-everyone (when not driving a car) is very friendly and helpful; people don't even mind me trying out my very broken spanish

I will write more later but for now we are off for afternoon naps (we're trying to fit right in here) before we visit the Museum of Mexican History and go out for dinner.) And hopefully next week, when I get my computer I will get some photos up!
xoxo
Ginny

Mexican Fiesta!

Last night we had our Mexican Fiesta - a chance for a number of family and friends to come together for some Mexican inspired food, drink, music.. and to my surprise - a pinata! It didn't rain, and everyone got to admire the flagstone patio my dad has been working on. It was great to see everyone before I get on a plane with my parents on Thursday for the official move to Mexico.

Today I said good-bye to Jessie and Jenn who had been keeping me sane for the past few days.. and now I'm in the homestretch. 4 sleeps left until I'm there. 4 days left to put things in bags (I don't travel light), run around and cross the last few things off my list, and visit a few more people.

I'll get some pictures up of the week my parents and I spend in and around Monterrey - and hopefully that will be enough to entice some visitors to come south!

17 days left in Canada!

Yikes. The countdown is definitely on. In two and a half weeks I'll be sitting on a plane heading down to Monterrey, Mexico where I'm supposed to be spending the next 2 years of my life! Some days that doesn't seem so crazy; other days I think I must have been insane to commit to this.

I figured I would finally join the "blogging scene" and set up some sort of way to communicate with friends and family without clogging your inboxes with stories that you may not be interested in at all. This way, I'll give you the website and you can check it at your leisure.

No promies as to how often this will be updated... But I have good intentions. :)