Day: January 1, 2015

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New Faces

A little thing I’ve been doing since I got to Isla is giving printing services to a lovely couple who are teaching English to students in the Colonia (‘slum’). It’s just a few pages a week and helps them out a bit. I got an order from them last night, printed it this morning, and took it over to their place this afternoon.

They had friends visiting who have built a house in the Colonia part of town! Gringos can’t own land in communities along the water, so the land is held in their attorney’s name and they get a 99-year free lease that allows them to do whatever they want with the property, including selling it. They have been building a house and say they have all the services, including garbage pickup and at home deliveries of bread, water, and produce. I’ll have to go out there at some point to check out their place!

Not wanting to intrude, I had planned to just be in and out, but we all got talking and I finally got worn down enough to accept a beer. 🙂 Other topics covered included geocaching, something many people have told me I should look into, and buses in Maz. I’m really tempted to try the bus to go to my cousin tomorrow as it’s a 10th of the cost of taking a pulmonía, but I’m going to be on a tight schedule so I’ll probably save that for another day.

I’m always glad to meet other Gringos who prefer to live in Mexico than in expat communities as I get a lot of information about living here cheaply. For example, I was told that I really must try the weekend chicken lady’s offerings… 😀

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Dead Silence on Isla

I went to bed around midnight to the sound of loud, but not obnoxious, partying. I was so tired I didn’t even need earplugs!

Next thing I knew, it was 9:30. I can’t remember the last time I slept straight through for that many hours! I know I’ve bee feeling run down, but didn’t think I was that sleep deprived!

Isla is eerily quiet this morning. We’ve had quiet mornings, but not like this when even the roosters are sleeping in!

I’m taking today off to take care of chores, watch movies, do a puzzle, read, and go for a walk. My state contract begins on or about Tuesday next week and will keep me busy full time with decent income till I get home, so a day or two to breathe (I do have work for the weekend) is well earned.

I try not to make a big deal over an arbitrary change in numbers, but I can’t help remember where I was this day 15 years ago, at the dawn of not just a new year, not just a new century, but a new millennium.I was on the cusp of making the first major change in my life’s direction (leaving university to go to trade school), the first step to asserting the person I wanted to be rather than the person I was told I should be.

That bright young thing of 20 would have still be in utter disbelief to know of all the places she would see in the next decade and a half, much less that she would be ringing in 2015 from Mexico.