Guatemalan Adventures

I’ve just spent the last two weeks living and traveling in Guatemala. It was a tremendous experience…at times hilarious, challenging, eye-opening and so much more. The basic trip itinerary was:

Saturday March 31st: fly from Monterrey to Guatemala City via Mexico City and take a shuttle bus to Antigua
Sunday April 1st - Friday April 6th: live with a family in Antigua while having 4 hours a day of one-on-one Spanish classes
Saturday April 7th: fly to Tikal to see the Mayan archaeological site and stay overnight in the Jungle Lodge
Sunday April 8th: spend the night in Flores, an hour from Tikal
Monday April 9th: fly back to Guatemala City and spend the night
Tuesday April 10th - Friday April 13th: stay in Panajachal, on the shores of Lake Atitlan and do day trips to surrounding areas
Friday April 13th: return to Guatemala City
Saturday April 14th: fly back to Monterrey

Each day was filled with all sorts of adventures and I’ve got pictures to go along with many of them. I’ll try and give you some of the most memorable highlights…

Flight troubles:
We arrived at the Monterrey airport the appropriate two-hours before our international flight. I went up to the check-in counter first and was told that I didn’t actually have a seat on the flight (even though I had paid for it, had picked out a seat on-line, and had all my receipts and document to prove it). Strangely, Abby was called up the counter a few minutes later and she did have a seat. We had booked our flights on-line within minutes of each other so we were thoroughly confused, and a little panicked at what this might mean for the start of our trip. Fortunately, I was put first on the Waiting List, and made it on the flight, but had to wait until departure time to know this, so it was a couple stressful hours. Once on the plane, things went fairly smoothly… except that Abby’s bag didn’t arrive until Monday afternoon. At least she is a very prepared traveler and had put all her necessities into her carry-on (Guatemala and Mexico do not have the same limitations on carry-on items that the USA now has).

Antiguan Family:
Abby and I were assigned, by our Spanish school, to a local family. We would live and eat in their home for the week. The family actually consisted of 13 people (I think - I’m not actually positive about that number) living together. There were the grandparents, and then several of their children (4?), of whom two were married and had their spouses and children living the house as well. There were 3 different kitchens so each sub-grouping cooked their own meals, for the most part. In addition to the human members of the family, there was a dog, a parrot and a rabbit. All three animals seemed to have free-range of the house.

Semana Santa celebrations:
Antigua is known for its huge Easter celebrations that take place during Lent and continue until Easter Sunday. Easter week consists of daily (or twice-daily) processions around the city in which 90 men carry this tremendously heavy wooden platform on which a scene from the end of Jesus’ life is depicted. There is a band that follows the scene as well as guards and people carrying incense that precede it. The music that is played is fairly somber, but the overall atmosphere in the city is more celebratory. The city prepares for the procession by creating “carpets” (alfombras) made of colored sawdust on the streets. These alfombras take hours to prepare and then are walked upon by the men in the procession. I really don’t know that I can accurately describe these events, as I think they are something that you need to see to understand. I’ve put in some pictures to give you a little sense of what I was seeing all week long. The family we were living with were heavily involved with the entire week’s activities. They created an alfombra in front of their house and most of the men took part in the processions (which sometimes started at 4am!).






Volcan Pacaya:
On Good Friday, we went with a travel company to an active volcano 1.5 hours outside of Antigua. We hiked up the volcanic mountain and got close enough to see parts of the eruption. I guess my expectations were based on what I might have seen in the movies, so at first the small trickle of lava seemed a little disappointing. Thinking about what I was actually seeing, and realizing that I was climbing on igneous rock that had erupted not that long ago, changed my perspective. As we climbed up the last section, you could feel the heat on your skin. It was definitely the first time I’d ever climbed a volcano!




Mayan Ruins:
In order to get to see Tikal during our trip, we decided to take advantage of the hour-long flights from Guatemala City to Flores (1 hour from Tikal). Otherwise, we would have spent many many hours on a bumpy bus ride. Our flight left Guatemala City at 6:30, and this meant we had to leave Antigua at 4:30am - quite an early morning! Upon arriving at the Flores airport, we were greeted by someone from the Jungle Lodge Hotel where we would be staying. We took an hour-long shuttle bus to the hotel and got to quickly drop our bags off in our rooms before meeting for the group tour of Tikal. The ruins were definitely impressive. It is amazing to think that they could have gone undiscovered! Even now, apparently Mayan ruins continue to be uncovered. This was my first time seeing any of the Mayan ruins (there are other sites in Mexico and nearby Honduras) and I now know that my appreciation could be heightened with a better understanding of some of the history of the era.



Life in the Jungle:
From our hotel room (which was lovely and so luxurious especially after living in someone else’s home for the past week) we could hear howler monkeys. The sound that these animals make is not at all what I expected - it sounded more like a lion’s roar! We went on a “canopy tour” which meant flying through the jungle on zip-lines. While on the zip-line, I couldn’t really appreciate the lush vegetation, as I was moving too quickly and my heart may have been slightly racing. However, on the platforms between zip-lines (there were 8), you could look around.

Public Transportation - aka “The Chicken Bus”:
I managed to convince Abby that we needed to experience travel the way the Guatemalans do - on the colorful-school-bus-type buses that zip around the country. From our hotel near the airport, we took a cab to the downtown bus station (in Zona 1 - an area we were told we would not want to spend any longer in than we needed to). I’m not sure what comes to your mind when you think of a bus “station” but what we found was definitely not what I expected. As is common in many places, we were greeted by an armed guard and inside we found… well… nothing. No ticket booth, no schedules, no signs, no other passengers. There was a woman frying up tortillas - another common site in Mexican and Guatemala. The bus did arrive at the time we were told and several men performed, what seemed to be, routine maintenance. Abby and I got on the bus (still the only passengers) and were informed that we needed to lie down so that we couldn’t be seen from the windows, until we got out of the central part of the city. Why? We still aren’t quite sure… I think that the bus isn’t actually supposed to pick up passengers downtown, but it does, and then just gets the passengers to hide… Sketchy? Yes, but I did manage to find some humor in it. After about 10 minutes we were allowed to sit up and the bus continued its way out of the city, picking up passengers along the way.


We traveled on this type of bus several times throughout the second week. Each time there was some sort of an adventure, whether it was jumping on to a bus that was driving away, using the “emergency exit” at the back as an entrance, or being taken advantage of in terms of bus fare. Though I can’t prove it, I am pretty sure Abby and I were charged one fare for the trip from Pana to Guatemala City, while the others (Guatemaltecos) were charged another fare. I’m basing this on the fact that our trip one-way cost 20Quetzales and on the return trip we were charged 25Q and seemed to get a little smirk from some of the surrounding passengers. Not a big deal financially, but I was more frustrated at the thought behind it. We also encountered some cab drivers who clearly tried to over-charge us, but thankfully we had already been quoted an appropriate fare so we could use that as a bargaining tool.

You don’t get anywhere too quickly along the Guatemalan highways. The trip from Guatemala City to Panajachel is approximately 140km but takes more than 3 hours. The roads are very windy and narrow, and the old school buses aren’t meant to go top-speed. Nonetheless, the “chicken buses” (I’m still not entirely sure why they are called there) provide a great people-watching opportunity.

The Kids:
I am in LOVE with Guatemalan children. I wish I had pictures to show you, but we didn’t feel overly comfortable taking pictures of the children, or the adults, for that matter. These kids are just adorable, especially the girls in traditional dress. Many of the kids we saw, especially in the smaller towns, were helping their mothers at the market. Some of the kids, more often boys than girls, would occasionally approach us and ask for money. I can’t even fully describe my feelings about these children, but there was definitely something special there. I’d like to look in to the possibility of doing some sort of volunteer work in Guatemala in the future.

El Mercado (the market):
I didn’t anticipate that this was going to be a shopping trip… but the markets are quite amazing. Guatemala is known for its textiles and jade. I returned to Monterrey with both! In fact, I had to buy an extra bag to accommodate my purchases. Some of my purchases were rugs, placemats, a necklace and earring set, a table runner, headbands, wall hangings and more (not all for me, of course! Some will be gifts). My Mexican apartment is going to become much more colorful!





Espanol:
Of course, a large reason for this trip was to attend Spanish language school for a week. The language school I attended in November consisted of group classes; this school was private classes (for about the same cost!). Four hours a day of one-on-one is mentally exhausting! I can’t really measure my improvement, but I do know that I am becoming slightly more fluent… I can bargain with market vendors, argue with a cab driver, inquire about bus schedules, make hotel reservations - all in Spanish! It may not always be pretty - but it is functional.

I’m sure there is so much more I could tell you… In a nutshell, it was an amazing two weeks that exposed me to a totally different part of the world. Though it is relatively close to where I am living now, it is so different in so many ways. I’ll try and let some of the pictures do the talking, and if there is something more you want to know about it, let me know. ☺

At last... an update

I apologize. I haven't gotten anything up here in more than a month! It's been a busy couple of weeks (as usual), so I'll do my best to fill you in on what I've been up to.

I celebrated my 26th birthday by going out for dinner and then going bowling. There were about 15 of us and yes, bowling can be a lot of fun! I'm horrible at it, and didn't really improve throughout the night, but I definitely laughed a lot.


Sarah Fleming from home is here visiting now. She's going to be working at the school next year and took advantage of her Alt Prac to come and spend three weeks with me! Its been fun showing the city off to someone. The morning after Sarah's arrival, we both ran in a race that was happening on the Calzada near my house. Along with several other teachers, Sarah ran the 5k and I ran the 10k. I ran with another teacher who lived in my building and he helped me keep up my pace. I finished in just over 51 minutes and felt pretty good. Unfortunately, my quad and hip flexor have been hruting since shortly afterwards, so I've been taking some time away from running.

Last weekend Sarah and I headed to Puerta Vallarta. We headed out Friday evening, arriving in PV arund 11pm.

It was Benito Juarez day on Monday, so we had three days to enjoy the sun and sand. It was a great weekend. We visited a different beach each day (Los Muertos in PV, Playa Destiladero an hour north, and Yelapa, accessible only by boat).


I did some shopping (beautiful silver necklace with turquoise pendant and matching earrings), ate wonderful food, lay on the beach for way longer than I expected I would be able to, and... went PARASAILING! Yes... Slightly crazy and the first time I've ever done anything like it. Living by the mantra of a friend ("Say yes to everything"), Sarah convinced me to go parasailing. It was incredible and not scary at all!

Yes! That is me waaaaaaaay up in the sky over the bay near Yelapa.

Sarah has posted a much longer summary of the weekend on her blog.. The link to that page is on the left.

We returned to Monterrey on a very late flight Monday night/Tuesday morning arriving at the airport just after 1am. I was at school by 6:45am the same day. Yick. Strangely the tiredness is just catching up with me now (Friday). And, things are just going to get busier from here on in. I start my Master's program tomorrow and will be in class Saturday and Sunday from 8-4, and, this week, in addition to a day of teaching, I'll have class each afternoon from 4-7:30. I hope I make it. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel... Abby and I are flying to Guatemala Saturday morning for two weeks of adventures. I'll keep you updated!

We have just started Quarter 4 of the school year... I can't believe I have finished 3/4 of the year! I am actually getting a little bit sad thinking that I'm not going to have the same group of kids next year. I have been so lucky this year to get a lovely group of 21 8 year olds who keep me laughing, on my toes, and excited to come to school each day. For the past two weeks we've been doing a Robert Munsch author study. This unit was so fun to put together because I remember loving his books as a kid.. and my class is just eating it up! Most of them had never heard of any of his books until this year, and now they are practically fighting over reading them. Even my most reluctant readers are keen to read his books. I've got kids complaining when I tell them we need to stop our Independent Reading. Wow. An amazing feeling.

I'm happy and healthy down here.. Time is just zipping along. After I return from Semana Santa (trip to Guatemala), it will only be two months until I'm home for the summer.

Austin Half Marathon

This past weekend, I headed to Austin with 4 others to run in the Half Marathon that was happening on Sunday morning. We headed out from school on Friday afternoon, and arrived in Austin at almost 11pm. The drive is close to 7 hours! I did some outlet shopping on Saturday (had lots of success at Banana Republic!) and got to visit some of the stores I'd been hearing about from my new-found American friends (REI = American equivalent of MEC and Whole Foods, which yes, has arrived in Canada, but I had never been).

The race was at 7am on Sunday morning. Both the half marathon and the marathon started at the same time. There were 12,000 runners gathered by 6:30am, in the dark, with a temperature of about 40 degrees farenheit (not warm!). The half and full marathons followed the same course for the first 10 miles. Along the race course were many bands and tons of spectators. The race bibs that were printed with our numbers also had our names printed on them which meant that there were random people in the crowd yelling "Go Ginny!" which was a pleasant surprise when you didn't expect to have anyone cheering for you.

While I had been doing some training to prepare for this race, I really wasn't sure how it was going to. I'd been feeling pretty crappy for the past couple of weeks, with random colds and coughs. I'd also had some trouble with both my new and old pairs of running shoes (both were giving me blisters)... So, I didn't have huge expectations for the race. I was hoping to finish in just under 2 hours, which is something I had accomplished in the past.

At the race expo on Saturday, I found out that the course, being in the USA, was only going to have mile markers instead of kilometer markers. It took me a little while to get my head around this because I am used to pacing myself by the kilometer. I have a good idea of how fast I should be running each km, but I hadn't ever thought of running in terms of miles. I did a little math that night and figured that if I ran 9minute miles, I would finish in approximately 1hour 58 minutes, so that is what I set out to do.

I guess adrenaline and the crowd, and the gorgeous sun that came out gave me a little push because I finished in 1:54:14. I was soooo happy. I can't wait to get emailed the pictures of me crossing the finish line as I'm expecting to see a huge smile across my face. That race time meant I was 387 out of 3006 women, which made me quite proud.

Because the race was so early, we got to enjoy the rest of the day in Austin (had lunch at Whole Foods, played Shuffleboard, went to the Alama movie theatre, where you eat dinner while you are eating, and had the obligatory nap). Austin is definitely a city I can see spending some more time in. It has a very laid-back, unique feel to it. There are many independent stores/restaurants as well as local chains. The city has a river running through it with some great running paths. I was very impressed.

We had opted to take Monday off of work so that we wouldn't have to sit in the car for 7 hours after just running 21km. This was absolutely the right choice. My legs were quite sore on Monday, as well as Tuesday, but feel great today. I'm now trying to pick my next goal race.. There is an upcoming 10k in Monterrey, so perhaps I'll do that.

I'm waiting to get emailed some races pictures from the others who went with me... I'll try to post them when I get them.

Small Adventure Turns Big...

This weekend, while many other staff members have travelled south to Playa del Carmen, I decided I wanted to stay put in Monterrey. I'll be heading to Austin in two weeks for a half marathon and wanted to be sure I could get my last long run in and spend some time relaxing around the house.

Abby and I decided that we would take a day trip to the nearby city of Saltillo. Saltillo is the capital of Coahuila, the next state over. The drive is not far - it should take less than an hour. We set out early on Saturday morning and unfortunately were driving in an incredibly thick fog. Visibility was horrible. We could barely see the car in front of us.


Despite this. the drive didn't take much more than an hour and 15 minutes, and we made it to the Museo del Desierto (Desert Museum) just as it opened.

This is a pretty neat museum - with dinosaur fossils and all sorts of information about the vegetation and animals of the desert region. It was a challenge though - as all the information was in spanish. I managed to understand a surprising amount. I'll have to tell the kids in my class to visit this museum. We've been studying dinosaurs for the past month in second grade and most of them are pretty much obsessed. I took some pictures that I'll share with them.



After the museum, we parked downtown and went to the market. Saltillo is known for its "sarapes". These are basically the Mexican blankets that a lot of people think of as being a typical souvenir of Mexico. I bought myself a brightly colored striped one that I'll leave out in our living room as a little bit of warmth and a lot of color.

We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and I was impressed with how adventurous we were. I had a chicken soup (caldo de pollo, I think) and then there was pollo en una salsa de queso con arroz (chicken in a cheese sauce with rice). On the side there was avocado, and some lettuce and tomato. Though I ate everything else, I didn't trust the uncooked veggies, so I skipped out on my greens.

Shortly after, Abby and I decided we'd seen enough of Saltillo and would head back to Monterrey. It was only 2:30, so I was anticipating we would be back by 4:00 which still left quite a bit of the day in Monterrey. After maneuvering some one way streets, we eventually got to the highway and headed towards Monterrey.

Around 3:00 traffic slowed right down. In fact, we were essentially stopped. In one hour, we moved maybe 50 feet. People were getting out of their cars and trucks to try and figure out what was going on. We were at a junction on the highway and we could see that the lane from the other highway that joined ours was backed up for as far as we could see. I got out of the car and in broken spanish asked a man what was going on. He told me that a truck had fallen over and some pipe had broken and there was liquid all over the road. I asked how long he thought it would be until we moved, and he guessed 3 hours. Abby and I had already looked at the map to see if there were any sideroads we could take to get out of here, but there weren't any in the nearby area. I asked the man if he knew any other way to get to Monterrey. He said we could follow him to Monclava. A few others cars were going to do this, so I got back in the car with Abby and off we went.

Now, Monclava was 170km from where we were. It was also directly north and we needed to travel only 56km more to Monterrey (which was west). We decided we'd rather be moving than sitting on the highway for who knows how long, so we headed to Monclava. At Monclava there is a second highway that takes you south-west to Monterrey - an additional 170km. We ended up getting back to Monterrey around 8pm, exhausted, slightly frustrated and ready to be home. We convinced ourselves that we had chosen the better option, saying that we were sure those people were still stuck on the highway.

This morning I checked the news to find out what had happened. Well, it turns out we did make the better choice, even if we ended up driving 340km instead of 56. The crash had happened just before 3:00pm. The highway didn't get cleared until at least 11pm, though some reports were saying it took 15 hours to restore the highway to normal use. Yikes.

Well, at least we got to see a little more of Mexico, treat ourselves to an icecream sandwich at the Oxxo (like a 7-11) in Monclava, and get home only 12 hours after we'd left that morning.

Observations about Mexican life...

I’ll be the first to admit it – I haven’t been as regular about updating my blog lately as I would have liked. While I don’t have major stories to tell, I’ll fill you in on some of my recent observations about life in Mexico.

After two and a half weeks of HORRIBLE weather (horrible for Monterrey, not for Canada…), we’ve finally been enjoying a couple days of sunshine. This past Saturday I actually got a little burn on my nose while doing my long run. It is currently 24 degrees and still light out. This warmth and light helps me understand why in Mexico they don’t say “Buenas noches” (Good night) until at least 8:00. You start saying “Buenas tardes” (Good afternoon) around noon and don’t stop until quite late. In Canada, especially in the darkest days of winter, it feels like bedtime at 4:30… Here, with the light and the warmth, 5:00 seems like the middle of the afternoon. It’s lovely!

In Mexico it is the law that public schools close when it is less than 4 degrees Celsius. Fortunately (or unfortunately??) my school stays open because we have heaters (though their effectiveness is severely compromised by the lack of insulation and thin, thin windows). However, two weeks ago, there was a day when I had only 10 students (half my class) present because of the cold weather. I guess I can understand it – we wear our jackets and hats almost all day long INSIDE when it is cold like that… but still… it isn’t like it is necessarily warmer at their houses.

There are certain roles that the sexes play here… and one of those is that generally, men play quite a masculine, almost macho role. This transcends all the way down to my own kids where the boys will take an awful spill during a soccer game, but want no nurturing, or sympathy. Instead they simply get up and keep playing (no matter their pain). They definitely don’t want to show that they got hurt. It’s quite cute. You also see the boys walking around with arms over each other’s shoulders. This is extremely cute – especially when the boys are 6 or 7 years old.

I had my first set of tacos from a street-side taco restaurant. It wasn’t one of those carts that they can just set up anywhere, but a permanent restaurant that is completely open to the outside with a bar that you can sit at and see where they are cooking the food. This past weekend we did this crazy scavenger hunt around Monterrey for someone’s 30th birthday. One of the things you had to do, as a team of 4, was eat 30 tacos. So… we did. And they were quite good! So either health standards aren’t as bad as I’ve been imagining them to be, or my stomach has made some gradual adjustments to Mexican cooking. Hopefully any future experiences will be just as positive.

So it is now the time of the year when people teaching internationally have to figure out what they are doing next year. In fact, we actually had to re-sign our contracts before we went home in December. Recruiting fairs are happening now and some people from my school are headed to some pretty exciting places… One man to Paris, a couple to Chile, another guy to Singapore.. and a bunch are going to job fairs this weekend. It is crazy to think that it was at this point this year that I was heading to the Queen’s fair with no idea where I would end up. It is equally crazy that in less than a year from now I’ll have to make a decision about the next year…

I’m off… Would love to hear updates from home… see pictures of snow… my kids are fascinated by them!

Settling Back In...

I keep meaning to update my blog, but it has been a bit of a whirlwind since I arrived back in Monterrey a week and a half ago.

After my crazy travel day, I did make it to Monterrey on the Saturday. It was a stressful, exhausting day, as I kept missing flights and arriving at airports needing to book another flight to find out it would be leaving in a few minutes and sprinting through the airport to board the flight as the last few passengers got on. My bags, of course, were not as fast. They arrived in Monterrey on Sunday and were delivered to my house.

It's been nice to be getting back into a routine and establishing some regular patterns of activity. I am tutoring again this semester, on Mondays and Wednesdays. I have just started taking Spanish classes on Tuesday evenings. I'm keeping busy with school, but trying to spend a little less time there than i did last semester. I'm limiting myself to 2 hours each weekend, if I go in at all.

I had a great first weekend back. It was busy from the get-go with dinner out on Friday night for a friend's birthday. The next morning I went hiking with four others. We did "El Pinal" which is a hike that takes you up to a weather station. I had been eyeing that site since the beginning of the year, but had yet to make it. We started out almost at the bottom of Chipinque and headed up, with very few breaks. It took almost 4 fours from start to finish. My legs were still feeling it on Monday!

Saturday evening was a school New Year's party - a chance to ring in the new year with school friends. Laurie and I had some people over here before hand to order pizza and then headed up to the party. It was a good night, especially as it brought the elementary and high school staff together.





Thanks to Jamie and Erin, two Canadian teachers with satellite, I was able to see the 4 hour season premiere of 24. I'll have to make a choice next week, as the show will be on on Mondays, when I normally play ultimate. In so many ways, I much prefer watching 24 on the DVD - you don't have commercials and you don't have to wait a week for another episode... But I am really enjoying ultimate.

Another Travel Disaster...

It’s possible that some of you haven’t heard of my travel adventures each time I try to travel to or from Monterrey… Unfortunately Ottawa, our nation’s capital, doesn’t seem to have many flight options when it comes to going to Monterrey. This has resulted in my flight itinerary being: Ottawa to Chicago, Chicago to Dallas, and Dallas to Monterrey. I suppose that any time you have this many connections, there is room for trouble.

This summer, when flying down to Monterrey for the first time with my parents we experienced several travel disasters. That trip, we spent almost two hours sitting in a plane with little to no air-conditioning waiting to be re-routed to a new airstrip in Chicago (“the Windy City”) because of a change in wind. Because we sat on the plane for so long, upon take-off, the pilot realized that we no longer had enough gas to make it all the way to Dallas and would have to stop in Oklahoma City. Perfect. This meant we got to Dallas, missed our final connection, but luckily got the last few seats on the final flight to Monterrey that evening. Total time spent traveling that day: 13 hours.

When returning home for the Christmas Break, my school booked me on a flight that required me to leave school a half hour early to ensure I would make it to the Monterrey airport in time for my flight. I sped out of school and got to the airport only to find out that my flight to Dallas had been delayed due to “weather”. As soon as I heard that it was delayed, I know that this meant I was definitely at risk of missing my later connections… And all this was happening on one of the busiest travel days of the year. We left for Dallas 2 hours after the original time, where fortunately this same “weather” had delayed my second flight so I was able to make it to Chicago, but after my Ottawa flight would have left. We did make up some time on the Dallas-Chicago flight, so there was a glimmer of hope that I would make that final connection (it had also been delayed an hour). When we pulled into the airport they announced what gate I was to go to; however the plane took off 2 minutes before I got to the terminal. There were no later flights to Ottawa so I was stuck in Chicago overnight. The airline doesn’t provide you with a hotel when flights are delayed or cancelled due to weather. Fortunately I was able to get on the first flight to Ottawa the next morning. Other people were being told they wouldn’t arrive at their destination until Boxing Day. Total time spent traveling/in airports/and stuck in Chicago: 23 hours.

It is now January 6th and I should be well on my way back to Monterrey. However, a 2:30am phone call from American Airlines told me that my flight from Ottawa to Chicago was cancelled due to “weather” (and that is all the information they will give you). Despite trying to convince her that there was no “weather” that I could currently see, she insisted that the flight was cancelled and that it would NOT be re-scheduled for that day. I asked her what other options existed, telling her that I needed to get to Monterrey today. Apparently there were no other options and I would be re-scheduled for the same flight itinerary for the following day (Sunday – the day before classes). After getting off the phone, waking my parents to tell them that we didn’t need to head to the airport in an hour, I checked the Ottawa Airport website to see if other flights had been cancelled due to the notorious “weather”. Only three other flights had been cancelled so far – so I was a little confused. I tried to convince myself that it would be okay to be stuck in Ottawa (I could do a little bit of planning for the week ahead, perhaps get to see Sarah Fleming who was returning from her cruise today and have a good last dinner with my parents). Somewhat satisfied I fell asleep on the couch and woke up around 9:20am. I decided I would check the airport website again to see if the other flights had been cancelled. According to the website, my 6am flight to Chicago had been re-schedule to 11:20. (Thanks to the brilliant 1-800 lady who said this would not happen). I grabbed the phone and called the 1-800 number and asked if I could get on that flight and if I would be able to get through to Monterrey today. With a little convincing, she re-scheduled me (even though I would be arriving at the airport with less than 2 hours to go). My parents and I flew into action, putting everything in the car and zipping to the airport (thank goodness it is only 9 minute drive!).

So, now I’m sitting in the Ottawa Airport waiting for my flight. I’ve been re-scheduled on the connecting flights, and if all my flights stay on time, I should make it to Monterrey tonight Unfortunately, my travel record with this airline isn’t so great… so I’ll let you know.

Oooh! It is now 10:40pm. I’ve arrived and am at my house in Monterrey. The whole day was a travel disaster and I am without my bags – but that will have to come in another post. This might have been my shortest travel experience yet… But definitely one I hope not to repeat. Night!