U.S. Trip

I had a great 8 day trip to the U.S., but it went by too fast. My mother spent most days with me and I got to visit a lot of my family. It was nice to be in Healdsburg, and especially in my house again. It shocked me how homey and safe it felt. I really relaxed there spending time with my family, the cats, and even my fish.

I arrived two days before my mother's birthday. It was perfect timing, especially because her birthday fell on a Friday so my dad was also home. We decided to get her baby chicks for her birthday and my dad found week old chicks. She now has six gold-laced Wyendotts, her favorite type of chicken. I spent hours holding them in the bathroom while they were living temporarily in the bathtub filled with wood shavings. They are going to be the tamest chickens around.

My mother and grandmother took me shopping and bought me everything I could need or want. I got a suitcase full of food (suitcase included), shoes, clothes, and books. It felt and looked like Christmas when I got back to Mexico and covered the living room in all the treats I brought back. I tried to bring a few bags of dog treats for Cholula, but Mexican customs confiscated them for "destruction" because they contained meat. I brought Jose burritos from Healdsburg's best taqueria, and got them through by lying and saying they only had rice and beans (but really there was pastor).

I finally met my cousins' cat, finished knitting a scarf I started before I left, spent significant time with just my mother for the first time in about six years, and visited family everyday.

My dad took me to our family ranch. It was more beautiful than I remembered and just gorgeous. It was a sunny day and everything is bright green from the new spring grass. Jose and I have hoped to live there someday for a few years now, and going up there just made me realize even more how much I would love for that to happen. It is one of the most relaxing, beautiful, and natural places I have ever been and living there would be better than anywhere else I can think of.

I went to Gratitude Cafe in Healdsburg with my aunts for raw, vegan, gluten-free food. I was skeptical at first, but it was such amazing food. I have even been bragging about it in Mexico. Such. Good. Food. It was so different than the food I eat in Mexico and it tasted so real and fresh. The food was almost as good as spending time with my aunts, and that it saying a whole lot. If you can find a Gratitude Cafe I highly recommend getting over the skepticism I'm assuming you have (because, let's be honest, it sounds weird) and try it. I can honestly say I learned something on the trip- do not judge raw, vegan, gluten-free food before tasting it. Even chocolate hazelnut pie made with seaweed can be delicious.

It was especially nice to see Jose's family. We haven't stayed in contact with his family as well as we have with mine so there was a lot to catch up on. I talked to Jose's mother about Mexico City because she lived here as a teenager. There was a lot to catch up on from both sides, and it was great to spend a few long evenings talking with them. We even started the passport application for Jose's sister so she can spend some time with us here.

The trip was really great- relaxing and busy at the same time. It was amazing to be home again and see Healdsburg. It is definitely as beautiful as I remember it. The first few days back in Mexico were hard, though. I had a feeling before I left Healdsburg that I might be hard to adjust to my life in Mexico again and I was right. I was suddenly in my apartment, which is nice by doesn't mean nearly as much to me as my childhood home, without all my family and my hometown. I am now back to normal here in Coyoacan. I'm enjoying living here and appreciating the time I had with my family, instead of just missing them like I was before. Overall, things are even better and I'm definitely happy.

-Emma

A visit home

On Monday I found out my Mexican visa had expired on Sunday. Jose and I had a meeting with an attorney who told us about the different visa options for me. They were all expensive, took a lot of work, and didn't have any benefits. We have decided that I will leave Mexico every six months when my visa expires and come back in and get another tourist visa, so for the next three years I will just be a tourist. I can get a 6 month tourist visa when I come back from the U.S., or we can take a trip to Guatemala or Belize. Keeping a tourist visa instead of the long-term visas will save enough money to pay for 2 trips to the United States per year for 2 years. Plus, it will be better for our case when we start Jose's U.S. immigration again, because we will be able to show that I was never interested or able to start a permanent life in Mexico, causing me hardship.

So, today I am flying back to San Francisco in a last minute trip. We found out on Monday that my visa had expired, bought tickets yesterday, and I'm leaving this afternoon. I'll be in California for 7 full days. I'll be in Shasta with my family for two days and then be home in Healdsburg for the rest of the time, finally seeing my family again after 6 months.

I am excited to visit, but it is also hard because when we left the United States I thought the next time I went back it would be triumphantly with Jose entering legally. Now it is me going and leaving him, and it reminds us again how wrong everything went in Ciudad Juarez.

I'm sure I'll have a great trip. I think it is also going to be weird to speak to everyone in English in public again. I'm really interested to see what differences I notice after being gone and getting used to Mexico. There are some things that I like better about Mexico, and I'm excited to compare them to the United States while I'm there.

-Emma

Couch Shopping

Our first major purchase for the apartment was a couch. I was set on an L-shaped couch because, honestly, I think the comfort that comes from the L puts all regular couches to shame.

We found a couch while my parents were still here, and went back to buy it. I had read a bad review online saying that the store says they will deliver purchases within 2 weeks but often don’t for more than a month. I didn’t believe it since people tend to use the internet to rant, but sure enough we got to the store and a customer was angry because after a month they still hadn’t seen their furniture. We were already at the register, but we ran out of that store as fast as possible.

We had spent time before checking out all the major department stores, but everything was either way to expensive or way to ugly. We had no idea where to find a couch, so Jose asked a man selling magazines on the street where we could find couches and he sent us to the perfect place.

A great thing about Mexico is that there are streets dedicated to selling just one thing. The shoe street, the camera street, the paper street. The magazine seller told us to walk until the end of the wedding dress street (oh how I wished I wasn’t yet married then) and we would find the couch street. Sure enough, suddenly every store was jam packed with couches.

The first stores were total rip offs. We realized that the farther we walked down the street, the cheaper the couches got and the shadier the area got. Before we knew it, salesmen were taking us across streets and around corners from one store to another. We went up homemade stairs, walked through second stories made of plywood that bowed and creaked, and ducked our heads under extremely low ceilings.

We spent a few hours looking at different stores and couches. Many couches were close to what we wanted, but not enough to buy. Many were the dark brown couch I was looking for, but they were all too expensive. Finally, we found an L-shaped green couch with lots of pillows. It is nothing like what I had in mind, but I love it. It looks great in our floral wallpaper living room and it gives us a comfortable place to watch movies. It is bigger and cheaper than the first couch we backed out of buying. It was even delivered just a few hours later.

Our shopping experience left us exhausted and hoping we’d never have to shop like that again. Being escorted from one store to the next, looking at hundreds of couches in such a short time, and talking with relentless salesmen was more than we could handle at once. It was overwhelming and kind of miserable, but it was a very Mexican way to shop, and at least we got a good couch out of it.

-Emma

Swedish lessons

Our life here really is taking off. Jose, Anna, and I had our very first Swedish lesson! Its been a dream for us to learn Swedish and try to reclaim some of our lost family heritage. The closest Swedish lessons I have found to Healdsburg are in San Francisco and ridiculously expensive, so we thought it might be a dream we couldn't fullfill. Then, suddenly, in the most surprising of places, we found Swedish lessons in Mexico City!

Our teacher is a blonde Swedish woman who has lived in Mexico since 2004. She speaks Spanish, English, and Swedish. We are learning Swedish in Spanish, which is a really interesting experience because we are all working on our Spanish simultaneously. For now it works, but we might need to switch to English when we get to more complex Swedish.

We have class 2 hours a week in a Starbucks in Polanco, a nice area of Mexico City. It takes about an hour each way to get there, but we only use one metro line and then board a bus that drops us off in front of the Starbucks. It takes awhile to get there, but it is exceptionally direct and fast considering how big Mexico City is.

The first class was really fun and laid back. We learned numbers, family relationships, and the basic I speak.../I am from.. sort of thing. We have been practicing throughout the day with flashcards and quizzing each other. Jose already has the numbers down perfectly. Jose and I have taken our Swedish to the park and studied while Cholula ran around. We went to a cafe this morning and made family trees with our relationship to each person in Swedish. By the second class we are determined to know everything from the first class like the back of our hand.

We are going to study hard, and learn everything we can from the teacher and with our own materials and research. Hopefully we can visit Sweden sometime in the next few years and return to our great-grandparents' homeland speaking the language. It will be our own "Return to Sweden!"

We are really excited about starting a new language and having something to focus on and improve. In addition to Swedish, Anna and I are taking an Economics class online from a California community college. If Swedish is considered a college class too, that's like having 7 units and that is pretty decent. Already I feel more productive and fulfilled. I'm not losing out on opportunities now, I'm actually learning things I couldn't have in the United States and I'm making improvements to my life that will always help me.

-Emma

Parks

Coyoacan is filled with beautiful parks. We have three just a few blocks from us, plus the plaza in the center about 10 minutes away. For the last two days Jose and I have taken Cholula to a park for an hour or two. It is a lot of fun for us and her.

Dogs aren't required to keep their leashes on in the parks. Cholula is surprisingly good without her leash. She runs ahead of us a few feet while we are walking and turns around every 30 seconds or so to make sure we are still behind her. She is so happy to be in the dirt and without her leash that she prances the whole time. There are many other dogs in the parks who she gets to meet and play with also.

Our favorite park is one that we visited with my parents (pictures on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8010106&id=1205137632&l=34f60a8b6c). It has bench-lined paths running through gardens filled with a huge variety of trees, plants, and grass. Each area is a little bit different, either with shade or sun, and open grassy areas or plant filled forest. Jose and I like to sit on a bench and read and talk while Cholula explores the gardens and other dogs.

Visiting the parks is quickly turning into my favorite part of the day. I'm sure that we are going to continue with it, which will be good for Cholula and us. The parks are relaxing, beautiful, and filled with people to meet.

I love Coyoacan!

-Emma

Living in Coyoacan

We are officialy residents of Coyoacan after spending our first night in the apartment. Anna and Jose and I have our bedrooms set up and our clothes put away in our closets (how we missed closets). The entire apartment has floral and stripped cream colored wall paper that we have quickly become attached to. Big windows in each room provide natural light all day long. The kitchen is much smaller than the kitchen in Chimalhuacan, but it has cabinets so there is a lot more storage. I am happy to trade the old kitchen for the new.

The apartment has two baclonies, one off the kitchen and one off of the two main bedrooms. Although its small, we have spent a lot of time on the bedroom balcony already, and Cholula hangs out there checking out the other dogs in the complex.

Our living room and the guest room are still totally empty. This apartment is so much bigger than the last that what felt like a lot of stuff in Chimalhuacan looks like nothing now. We are going to try to find a couch and dining table for the living room soon, and we would like to set up the guest room for anyone who wants to visit.

We have met Edna, the building manager, and Alicia, our downstairs neighbor, who are both shocked by how young we are and treat us like grandmothers. Alicia has a poodle (one of the five poodles I have already seen at the complex) who Cholula met yesterday. We also met the maintence man, Alfredo, who cleans our building and takes our trash for us. Everyone has been friendly and welcoming.

We walked around the center last night, and it was really busy because it was a Saturday night. It was almost all couples and groups of friends strolling with coffee and churros. Anna hadn`t seen Coyoacan on a weekend night before, and she was surprised by how much it changed. I think it will be nice for us to have the center to go to on weekends and have a little more excitment.

I am shocked by how different I feel after just one night in Coyoacan. I feel more like myself than I have since October and I am already enjoying life more. I can walk comfortably down our street and admire how beautiful everything is. I can get the food I want and I have hot water for the shower and a sink in my kitchen. It was a really good choice to move, and I am incedibly excited to learn what this life is really going to turn into. I haven`t been excited about the future for awhile, but I am truly excited now.

-Emma

New Apartment

Note: This post was written at the beginning of my parent's visit and should have been posted last week.
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After a month in our Chimalhuacan apartment, we decided to move. It had just gotten too hard to live in Chimalhuacan and in our apartment in particular. It was obvious that life in Chimalhuacan wasn’t going to be what we had expected.

When my parents and Anna arrived in Chimalhuacan, it was obvious that it wasn’t what they had expected either. They all looked shocked, and a little disgusted, by the area. Jose and I weren’t surprised that they weren’t thrilled by it, because we too had been slightly disgusted when we first arrived. We had gotten used to the area, though, and I, although definitely not Jose, had started to enjoy it. My parents described it as a slum, and no one thought we should continue to live there.

I like that I feel safe in Chimalhuacan, and after just a month, I already feel like part of the community. I wave and say “hi” to the woman who sells juice up the street, we are surrounded by Jose’s family members, and I know vendors at the market, pharmacy, computer store, vet’s office, and the corner store. While it is anything but pretty or luxurious, I liked the feeling of being a part of the area.

After talking with my parents, we decided to start looking for an apartment. Instantly I knew I wanted to live in Coyoacan, my favorite place in Mexico City so far, and I’m pretty positive it always will be. The center of Coyoacan, where I want to live, is a 10 minute bus ride from the metro station. Since it is out of the way, there is no traffic and very few people during the day and weekdays. On weekend nights, it’s a popular place to go for coffee and filled churros. Coffee and churros attracts couples and people looking for a relaxing evening chatting with their friends, so I’ll be able to avoid the late-night partiers and noise. Coyoacan (which means “place of the coyote” in the Aztec language Nahuatl) was a town outside of Mexico City until the 1940’s. It was swallowed by the city, but it was able to keep much of its small town charm. The streets are cobblestone, lined with trees, quiet, and surrounded by old buildings. There are multiple gorgeous parks where we can take Cholula to throw a ball and have picnics. In Coyoacan, we will avoid the noise, fast pace, dirtiness, and danger of living in many other parts of Mexico City. It really will be like living in a town, but we will be just a few short minutes away from the heart of busy Mexico City.

We walked through Coyoacan for hours one day, trying to find an apartment. We called apartment after apartment, and they were either too expensive, didn’t allow pets, or were on a street we didn’t like. At the end of the day, we viewed a 2 bedroom apartment with a balcony that allowed dogs. We liked it, and decided that we wanted it. When Jose called the next day, we found out we needed a cosigner who owned property in the Federal District to get it. Jose tried to explain that we have money sent to us each month from the United States, and that we would have enough to pay the rent. The property manager said she would think about it, and call us if she wanted to give us an interview. No surprise, we never heard from her. It was extremely disappointing. It sounded like we were never going to be able to get a nice apartment in the Federal District.

The next morning, everyone promised me an apartment, pulled me out of my gloom, and we got to Coyoacan early. We started walking again, looking for “For Rent” signs. A sign in a café said we could get information about an apartment for rent there, and Jose went in to ask. That one didn’t allow dogs, but Jose talked to the café owner who owned the apartment. He told Jose about the cosigner policies in Mexico City, and recommended that we offer to pay the entire year of rent upfront. The next apartment we found, we called about and got to view it five minutes later. We offered to pay all the rent upfront, and were promised that the apartment was ours if we paid.

A few hours after seeing the apartment, we decided it was the one. Jose called the manager, and we have an appointment to sign the contract and pay the rent on January 28th. We will soon be the renters of a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 balcony apartment in Coyoacan. There is also an extra room we are going to use as a guest room/office, so we will have room for whoever wants to visit!

We are really excited about the apartment, living in Coyoacan, and being closer to all the great things Mexico City offers. With Anna living with us, a new apartment in a great place, and lots of things to do, I’m sure we’ll be feeling lucky to live here before we know it.

-Emma