Neighborhood Initiation

Required:
-ability to drink copious amounts of chelas (beers) and/or tequila until last man standing/sun comes up/need to go to work.
-ability to participate in the discussion (ENTIRELY in Spanish).
-ability to play AND understand jokes (ENTIRELY in Spanish).
-ability to dance to local music without making an ass of one’s self (ok, I do not think I passed this test).

Result: many laughs with my new neighbors, the learning of new Spanish vocabulary (including slang and typical local expressions), a massive tequila hangover, sore feet (and not just my dance partner) AND………………insert drum roll here………………………a sense of community and BELONGING.

Here is how the intitiation came to be. I arrive home from a dinner party at my friend’s house around midnight. A full party is in effect on the street in front of my house with tables, booming stereo, tequila and the works. When I get out of the car, they ask me politely if we would like to join them and if not, is the music and festivities too loud???? They explain that it is the birthday of the senora that runs the shop across from my house. Again, they say that they would really like me to come and they hope we can join them.

My girlfriends politely decline as they need to leave and wake up early for their work. I also need to do some work in the morning but realize this is an important opportunity to get to know my neighbors. I think and analyze and think some more when finally I decide that I HAVE TO go. Unlike my other neighborhood, I feel like an outsider, perhaps because I am one of the only foreigners in the neighborhood. Or perhaps it is because I am a single woman living alone with a bunch of animals. Here, this is NOT typical and I get asked almost on a daily basis where my husband or boyfriend is and why I have so many animals. To add to my “strangeness” factor, I walk with BOTH my dogs daily AND with them both on a leash. Again, not typical in this or most neighborhoods. Admittedly, in my neighborhood, I will see a few locals walking their pets on a leash but this is certainly not the norm. Or perhaps I am seriously overanalyzing this and I do not feel accepted solely because they have not had the chance to get to KNOW ME!!! After 20 minutes or so of internal debate, I decide to go.

I show up to immediate warmth and generosity and eventually find myself dancing in the middle of the street and learning slang, jokes and the idiosyncrasies of the extended family/neighbors in the fiesta. After many cervezas and tequilas, I manage to extract myself from the fiesta at 5:30am! The party continues without me (even though the senora who is the center of the party has to open her store at 7am) but they have left me with an invitation to join them the next afternoon for homemade ceviche. And I must tell you that the ceviche was DELICIOUS and the best I have ever had here. For those of you unfamiliar with ceviche, it is a citrus-marinated seafood dish. Both regular fish and shellfish are used (raw) and they use fresh lime juice to "cook" or pickle the fish and seafood without any heat.

I am so happy that I had this opportunity. It was wonderful to get to know some of these people a little more and I discovered they are LOVELY, real people who are simply wary of newcomers to begin with.

All in all, a FANTASTIC night. I finally feel more connected to this neighborhood and the people that live here.

A year older....wiser?

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for their birthday wishes over the weekend. They definitely brought a smile to my face. I have been having a really tough time lately so reading all your messages and talking to you guys really helped lift my spirits. Also, sorry if I have not responded promptly to your e-mail messages as I have been having MAJOR computer issues and my laptop has been gone with the repair guy more than it has been with me the last few weeks.

My friend D and I had a joint birthday party at a local hostel here on the weekend. She knows the owner (and he is a fellow Canadian from Alberta) and he said we could have the party there. It is a great spot - there is a pool, a palapa and a kitchen area that we could use. My friend D made one of my favorite comfort foods - perogies. She and Cynthia were up until 4am one night making dozens and dozens of perogies. They were sooooooooo good. A big thanks to D and Cynthia.

Listening to some tunes from one of the musician's from Bora's pub.


Many countries were represented at the party - Mexico, Canada, US, France, England and Holland




The other birthday girl with friend Paco


Cynthia and Diego cooking up some perogies. Hmmmmmmm....


Talia and Derek dancing

Thanks to everyone for coming!


Party end time - this is AM Camelia!


We had ordered pizza earlier in the night from Sam's Pizzeria. The owners are friends of ours and they make the most amazing pizza - Derek is another Albertan and Talia is from here. For those of you from Manzanillo, try their pizza, it is fantastic! They are located in Santiago next to the cemetary if you want to eat there or alternatively, they deliver!

Quick cat update. I dropped off the one kitten to it's new owner last week. It was surprisingly emotional........YES, I actually cried. It is hard to believe how attached I am to the little munchkins. And to think I was not a cat person! Also, one of the kittens ended up at the veteranarian for 3 days as she was vomiting and not eating after the spay surgery. I picked her up the other day and she is doing much better. She is just on some antibiotic medication and I have to clean her incision every day. For those of you who know me, this is NOT an easy task for me.

More good news.......we have found another home for one of the kittens. My friend Sandra told me that that she has convinced one of our friends to take one and he will take it by the end of next week.

There have been some amazing sunsets lately. Here is one from my friend Michelle's house in La Punta

And then there were five....

I found a home for one of the kittens! So, my extended family of animals will be reduced to 5 after tonight. I definitely have mixed emotions....I am relieved to have found one of them a home but at the same time am sad as I have become quite attached to the little ones (and I am not even a cat person). The longer I have the kittens, the harder it will be to say goodbye. They have a way of finding a way into your heart.

Yesterday, I brought them all in to be spayed/neutered. I promised the family that was adopting the kitten, that I would have it fixed beforehand. I decided to bring all of them in at the same time as the veteranarian, Dr Gaby, assured me it was fine for them to have the surgery this young. I picked them up last night and here are a few of them recovering.

The one on the right took forever to wake up


Jade decided she needed to keep an eye on them also


So, it turns out I have 3 females and one male. Ironically, the one I have become attached to and will likely adopt, is the male who I have been calling Princess (she or rather HE whines all the time). And the family that wishes to adopt prefer a male. I am not sure what to do - I am hoping to convince them to take a female, especially since they have been spayed.

My furniture arrived safe and sound and I am very happy with it. It certainly has been a challenge keeping the cats off of it.

I am also waiting for the gardener to come by to help me work on the yard. I have taken some "before" pictures so you can see the jungle itself. We have ALOT of work to do!

Not sure what is going on with this gigantic rock pile. Any ideas on what I can do with this? Or should we just junk it?






There is an iguana on the top of the wall - it is black and grey so is hard to make out




So, what do you think? It has huge potential, I think. There is a lime tree out there that I will definitely keep. As for the others, not sure. Any suggestions?

Hongos - part 2

If you recall from a previous post, I mentioned all the animals ended up with hongos - aka ringworm (it is a common fungal infection especially in hot and humid climates). Apparently, the cats transmitted this to the dogs - Jade was covered in them and Jackson ended up with only 2 spots. Well, I guess it should not come as a surprise that I ended up with them also! Grrrr....I discovered this spot on my body last week that was perfectly round and looks like someone put out a cigar on my arm. My friend took one look at it and told me I had "hongos". She knew this because she recently contracted them from some puppies she adopted off the street. I later confirmed this with a doctor. So, I have about 10 spots all over my body and am currently undergoing treatment. Ha - just have to use topical medicine but the itching is driving me crazy. Living in a zoo with 6 animals has it's consequences! For those of you unfamiliar with ringworm, don't worry, there are no actual worms involved. The name comes from the fact that, originally, people believed that the infection came from a worm. Although it was later concluded that it did not, the name has stuck.

As for the cats, I still have all 4 of them. A few people have expressed interest but still have not done anything about it - even with my constant pestering. I really hope they will be adopted soon as they are very mischevious and love to climb on things and knock things over (like my friend's TV and my modem).

On a more positive note, my new furniture arrives on Saturday from Colima! I am very excited and will take photos.

Oh, and guess what I found in my backyard yesterday.....a TARANTULA. It was big and scary and you will just have to take my word for it as I was not sticking around to take a photo!

One year, can you believe it?

Yesterday marked one year exactly from when I arrived in Mexico to live permanently with my ex-boyfriend. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I arrived in the Guadalajara airport full of hope and love, nervousness, apprehension and excitement for what was to come. I remember waiting for Jackson to arrive in the baggage area and cried tears of relief when he made his grand entrance and was safe and sound. I remember seeing my ex in the airport and the flood of emotions.

It is truly hard for me to believe I have been living here in Mexico one year. I never could have imagined all the things that have happened since I arrived. It certainly did not play out as I had planned. But I must say that I have learned so many things about myself. It has been a year of self discovery and I feel like I have emerged on the other end as a stronger and more resilient person.

I really believe that if it were not for my ex-boyfriend, I would not have had the courage to come down here and live on my own. Only now, can I look at that experience as a positive one - what I mean to say is that the end result was positive. I am here in this amazing country because of him. Naturally, it took me a long time to see the positive in that whole experience! After living in this country alone without a partner, I realize that I am capable of more than I imagined. Sometimes, I lose sight of this and have moments of crippling insecurity and lack of confidence. But thanks to all my dear friends and family here in Manzanillo and in Canada, US and Australia, I manage to pick myself up again with their help. So, a big thank you to all my friends and family for encouraging me, supporting me, listening to me and loving me. I am forever grateful and without you, I cannot imagine where I would be. Also, a big thanks to my friends and family that came down to visit and support me when I needed it the most. Camelia, Alex, Tara, Barb, John, David, along with my family. I also want to thank my new friends - readers of this blog from far and wide that I have not yet met who have written lovely words of support and encouragement. All of you have been a source of strength.

Taking stock of this year, I have gained many wonderful things in my life and for this, I am grateful. My friend Winter (the one I call "Mommy Dearest") and I had lunch yesterday afternoon and she gave me the most amazing gift. She gave me a beautiful ring that fit my finger perfectly. She told me that everytime I look at it, I am supposed to remind myself that I am good enough just as I am and am worthy of love. I was speechless when she gave it to me.....I was very touched and feel very fortunate to have her in my life. She is very much is like a mother to me - she is always supportive and will always tell me what I need to hear, regardless of whether I want to hear it! Isn't that what Mom's are for?

I went through a few of my archived photos from the year that I have not yet published. So many memories! I feel very grateful to be here and look forward to the next year of adventures.

What???? Do I have something on my nose?


The view from a meditation course I took here in La Audencia. It does not get much better than this!


Mom, I really love it here (even if I do have a new sister)


I love this view of the bay from my friend's Mike and Rob's condo

Finally some progress

Ok, so many of you have been asking about my progress on the house....questions like - am I getting settled, do I have furniture, can I send more pics of the house and yard, etc. The answer is no, I am not even close to being settled as I only have furniture in my bedrooms and kitchen. And the reason I have not sent pictures of my back yard is because when I look at the yard, all I can here is the theme song to "Welcome to the Jungle". It is overgrown and needs some serious work as there are grass and weeds over a foot high. One of my friends went through the yard a few weeks ago with a machete and got it under control but it is now crazy once again with recent rain. The previous tenant did not really use the back yard nor look after it. As a result, there is alot of work to do. I have contacted a friend of mine here and am going to enlist the help of her gardener since I not only have the tools to work on it, I really have the opposite of a green thumb.

So what has been my problem on getting settled exactly? Apprehension, procrastination, feeling incredibly overwhelmed, where do I start, what is my vision, etc. Then, I envitably think to myself.....ok, look at your list where you have prioritized everything and start on just ONE thing. Simple right??? Ok, then, YOU come here and do it.

Do not lose hope on me yet - I accomplished an UNBELIEVABLE amount of things on my list today. Yes, it is true, I am not a complete lost cause. One of my girlfriends phoned me to let me know she was going to Colima (a city one hour away with many other shopping options). So off we went to places like Home Depot, Liverpool (large department store), Sam's Club (similar to Costco) among others. By the way, there was a huge sale EVERYWHERE we went...anywhere from 25% to 50% discount! Love it!

Colima is a beautiful city full of lovely "jardins" like this one


We got an early start and at the end of the evening, managed to arrive back in Manzanillo with her large Ford Truck filled to the brim inside and out with our purchases. Note to all my friends - I put in a record shopping day........in fact, I think there has never been a longer day of shopping EVER in my life. My friend Kris and I started the day out at 10am and finished unloading all my stuff and opened a bottle of wine around 11pm. Good news.........I FINALLY purchased living room furniture! This is a huge step considering all that is in my living room at the moment are dog beds, dog and cat dishes and various toys for the animals.

I am very excited about the living room furniture - it will be delivered to my home in a few weeks (at no extra cost)! I cannot even imagine having something comfy to sit on...... well, other than a dog bed anyway. But a sofa, loveseat and oversized chair will definitely be a step up, don't you think?

In addition to my living room furniture purchase, I purchased many other items for my casa like:

-ceiling fans Note: I had already purchased 3 for the house but that is clearly not enough in this crazy heat and humidity. When I moved into this house, there were not any fans whatsover, just bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling
-sheets for the guest room (yes, you can now come visit and not have to "camp out" or sleep with me!)
-storage items and organizers

It feels really really good to finally have some major items crossed off my list.

And some more good news....I talked to my immigration lawyer today and my FM-3 visa application has been accepted for processing. I should have it in a few weeks just in time for my birthday!

Jade vs the iguana

The battle continues between the large black iguana and Jade. The other day, I went into the yard and to my horror, discovered Jade had the large black/grey iguana in her mouth and was shaking it violently. This is one of the iguanas in my back yard that she loves to chase and torment - a few weeks ago, the poor thing dropped it's tail while Jade was in pursuit. Unfortunately for the iguana, it was not able to get away this time. I chased Jade around the yard shouting the "drop it" command. Eventually, she did just that and I quickly brought her into the house to give the iguana a chance to flee (if it was still alive).

Once I had Jade inside the house, I went over to inspect the poor thing. It had a large chunk out of it's back where Jade had it held in her mouth. It was still alive but was very still. Eventually, it slithered off and I have not seen it since.

Here is the poor thing after I managed to get Jade to drop it. You can see that it's tail is just a stump - before with it's full tail, it would have been over a foot and a half longer.


As for the cats, it appears as though I am turning into the crazy cat lady! I still have all 4 of them and have not been able to find homes yet for them. I have a few leads but nothing concrete has happened yet. What started out as a temporary situation has turned into much more than that. I am starting to get a little nervous.

They are now in the playful and mischievous stage and like to climb and jump on everything. Today, I noticed that one of them was playing with something green - it was another baby iguana in the house. I tried to get the iguana out of the cats mouth and it hissed at me and scratched me all over my hands. I finally managed to rescue the iguana and set it free outside. Poor iguanas, they are no match for the animals in my house!