Family Visit!

My parents and sister have arrived for a visit. Anna is going to stay for six months, and my parents are staying until the end of January. My mom has wanted to visit since November, but it hasn’t worked out time after time. She even postponed the January trip, because she had a work meeting that she thought she couldn’t miss. She ended up managing to postpone the meeting and visit us with my dad and Anna for two weeks.

They arrived on Saturday the 16th at 5:00 am. Jose and I got up at 5 and took the bus and metro to the airport, where we met them at 6:30 am. We took a taxi from the airport to our apartment. We stayed there for a few hours to unpack, play with Cholula, see the apartment, and nap. Anna took a nap with Cholula cuddling her for about an hour, and it was definitely a great way for her to be welcomed to Mexico. I think Cholula will always have a special place in her heart after that.

After everyone napped, we walked to the post office to pick up the flour my mom had ordered a few weeks before. My family was shocked by the poverty in Chimalhuacan. I had told them about the dirt roads and stray dogs, but it was still a shock to really see. Anna said she pictured country dirt roads and stray dogs in the country , where both are normal, but she got here and saw dirt roads in a city, and packs of stray dogs running through the city dirt roads. While we were walking, I kept thinking "please don't let us walk by any dead dogs on the street." Luckily we didn't, and it was only the poverty that shocked them.

They brought down two big suitcases filled with things for Jose and I. We only thought we were going to be here for about three months, and that we were going to be in hot beach weather. Instead, we have been here for almost six months and the last three months have been cold. Our clothing selection was extremely limited, and it was like Christmas finally came when we opened the suitcases and saw all our clothes.

My grandmother bought us a camera to replace the one we lost, and my parents brought it down so we can now take pictures during the trip. My mom brought our favorite BBQ sauce, milk chocolate, CDs, and lots of other treats and things we had been missing.

Our plan is to stay in Mexico City for a few days, fly to Cancun to visit the Mayan Riviera, fly to Puebla and visit the town of Cholula, and then go back to Mexico City for a day or two before my parents leave.

-Emma