We feel very safe, and comfortable, in our hotel. It was obvious from the moment we stepped in the room that it was the right choice. I can't think of how we would be at Ruben's house now. We really need our privacy and comfort.
Our hotel is three buildings from the consulate, on the same security-filled block. Security guards walk up and down the block. We don't walk more than 15 feet before we pass a guard with a huge gun. I can't believe its true, but I have actually gotten used to having huge guns just feet from me. Sometimes they are even pointed up a little too high, and I can see right in the barrel. How much has changed since I left the United States!
Our hotel is fenced in with many additional security guard, also with very large guns. The hotel has free transportation to major places in the city, including the DHL office where applicants pick up their immigration decisions. Last night at about 11, I had a headache and needed medicine, so we asked the security guards if there was somewhere close we could go. Of course, we were not going to walk around in the dark, even in this safe part, so we didn't expect to find any medicine. But, as soon as the security guard heard we don't have a car, he called over another security guard, took our order, and the guard was literally running to the nearest pharmacy. A few minutes later, Advil and a toothbrush we delivered to us in the lobby. We were so impressed, we gave a 60 peso tip for a 30 peso purchase, but the guard assured us that they will get whatever we need 24 hours a day. Since we will be here for another four days at least, that tip and the consequential eager availability may be very helpful.
How slow time is passing, waiting to learn what is going on. But, we continue to hope!
-Emma
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Another trip to the Consulate
We still don't have any news. Jose spent 7 hours at the consulate yesterday, and another 4 hours today, just to be told to come back. He has spent very little time talking to the immigration officials. Almost all his waiting time has been spent sitting outside in the 48 degree weather, yesterday without even a sweater.
Unfortunately, the Consulate doesn't interview on Friday, and Monday is a Mexican holiday, so Jose can't go back until Tuesday. Hopefully on Tuesday they will actually tell him something.
We are staying in a hotel right next to the consulate, because Ruben's house didn't work out as well this time. His daughter is home for two weeks, and in the room we used last time, so we had to sleep on a futon in the living room. They also didn't give us food, and we wouldn't go out, so we were hungry too much of the time. When we got back from the consulate yesterday, they had removed the futon so we couldn't go to sleep, even though we were exhausted. About a half hour after we got back to his house, we decided we needed some privacy, and went to the hotel. It was definitely a good choice, because we have a heater, wireless internet, and lots of American TV channels.
Although we are worried, we are comfortable. In the hotel, we can't even tell we are in Juarez.
We continue to hope for good news.
-Emma
Unfortunately, the Consulate doesn't interview on Friday, and Monday is a Mexican holiday, so Jose can't go back until Tuesday. Hopefully on Tuesday they will actually tell him something.
We are staying in a hotel right next to the consulate, because Ruben's house didn't work out as well this time. His daughter is home for two weeks, and in the room we used last time, so we had to sleep on a futon in the living room. They also didn't give us food, and we wouldn't go out, so we were hungry too much of the time. When we got back from the consulate yesterday, they had removed the futon so we couldn't go to sleep, even though we were exhausted. About a half hour after we got back to his house, we decided we needed some privacy, and went to the hotel. It was definitely a good choice, because we have a heater, wireless internet, and lots of American TV channels.
Although we are worried, we are comfortable. In the hotel, we can't even tell we are in Juarez.
We continue to hope for good news.
-Emma
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Appointment News
For some reason, Jose has to return to the consulate tomorrow morning. We do not know what is going on. Hopefully it turns out to be okay, but it could be a problem.
Sorry for not posting earlier, we had a hard time getting comfortable with this unexpected turn of events. We will post again tomorrow.
We will continue to hope.
-Emma
Sorry for not posting earlier, we had a hard time getting comfortable with this unexpected turn of events. We will post again tomorrow.
We will continue to hope.
-Emma
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Appointment Tomorrow
Obviously, I slacked in the past few days, and did not fulfill my dedicated blogger requirements. I am sure that in the days leading up to the appointment, you would have liked to know how things were going. For leaving you in the dark, I apologize.
To be honest, we haven't been doing much. We got back from our hectic trip to La Manzanilla on Saturday afternoon, and then left for Juarez Tuesday afternoon. We mostly waited and wondered. Thank goodness we have Jose's wonderful family and our fantastic dog to keep us company, or I think we might have gone crazy with impatience. Cholula has entertained us and brought lots of innocent joy to the last two weeks. She, as well as Jose's family, are great support systems.
The wait for the appointment is almost over. We are excited about that, but of course, the minute the appointment is over, we are again waiting for the decision. Because this appointment is much more simple than the first, we are not as nervous, but it getting so close to the big decision.
Unfortunately, we have heard that fewer people have been approved in the last few weeks. Hopefully everything will turn out as we hope, but I can honestly say that if it doesn't, we both can see that we could survive here. It isn't home, but we can have a life no matter what happens. When we first came, we thought we wouldn't make it if we had to stay in Mexico, but that isn't true. It feels so much better to know that we can handle whatever happens.
Everything happens for a reason, right?
-Emma
To be honest, we haven't been doing much. We got back from our hectic trip to La Manzanilla on Saturday afternoon, and then left for Juarez Tuesday afternoon. We mostly waited and wondered. Thank goodness we have Jose's wonderful family and our fantastic dog to keep us company, or I think we might have gone crazy with impatience. Cholula has entertained us and brought lots of innocent joy to the last two weeks. She, as well as Jose's family, are great support systems.
The wait for the appointment is almost over. We are excited about that, but of course, the minute the appointment is over, we are again waiting for the decision. Because this appointment is much more simple than the first, we are not as nervous, but it getting so close to the big decision.
Unfortunately, we have heard that fewer people have been approved in the last few weeks. Hopefully everything will turn out as we hope, but I can honestly say that if it doesn't, we both can see that we could survive here. It isn't home, but we can have a life no matter what happens. When we first came, we thought we wouldn't make it if we had to stay in Mexico, but that isn't true. It feels so much better to know that we can handle whatever happens.
Everything happens for a reason, right?
-Emma
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mexico City, Part 1
We were in Mexico City from Monday to Thursday of this week. We stayed with Jose's great aunt on the outskirt of the city. It still has a lot of people and buildings, but it is calm and more comfortable than the busy parts of the actual city. Jose's aunt, Irene, lives with her husband, two daughters (both in their 20's), and their two big dogs. Her eldest daughter, Maribel, and her husband, Sergio, whose wedding we went to a few weeks ago, live next door and have their dentist office at her parent's house. They spend many hours each day at the house, and we are becoming good friends with them. We are extremely happy and comfortable at Irene's house. We will be staying with them again from Saturday, when we get back from Tecoman and La Manzanilla, until we leave on Tuesday. Its going to be hard to leave the family and not see them for a long time.
We arrived at the Mexico City bus station late in the afternoon on Monday. Irene and her husband picked us up and drove us to their house. We went on a walk around the neighborhood with Irene. It is known as a poor area, and it is pretty apparent. Most of the streets are dirt, there is garbage everywhere, and usually about six stray dogs per block. Now that I have a dog, it is much harder for me to see so many dogs without homes. Jose even walked by a dead dog. All the dogs we have seen are friendly and well behaved. I always thought of stay dogs as aggressive and mean, but these ones aren't. When we took Cholula out for a walk, they would all sniff her, but they were always gentle.
On Tuesday, we took a microbus, one of the small, rickety local buses to the subway station. We took the subway to Chapultepec, to visit the National Museum of Anthropology. It was very interesting to ride the subway, especially when it got really full, but everything went well and we got there and back safely. We even saw the one stranger we talked to at Maribel and Sergio's wedding. When we got off the subway, we had to take another microbus to the Chapultepec park. It was clean, quiet, and mostly all forest. We spent more than 6 hours in the museum. Our favorite part was the top floor, that has an exhibition for each of the major modern day indigenous groups. One was even Jose's group, the Purepecha. It said that the Tarascans, as the Purepecha were known before, were very warlike. Today, people from Michoacan, the Purepecha area, are known for being hotheaded, and it must be in part from the Tarascans. The downstairs was artifacts from the ancient civilizations. We saw some great things, but most of it was very similar to what we saw in each site's museum. It got a little repetitious. We were disappointed to find that many of the pieces didn't have any information. I had wanted to see the museum for the last 2 years, and it was definitely worth the wait.
On Wednesday, we went to the historic downtown and saw plaza called the Zocalo. There is a lot to do there, including about 5 museums that we hope to visit. There was an international bookfare happening in the Zocalo, which we were excited about, but we didn't find anything worth buying. Unfortunately, our day was cut short by a massive protest about electricity. The National Museum of Art, our first stop, is next door to the senate house. The senate recently laid off 40,000 workers that worked with the city's electricity, while raising prices for all residents, so there are very few happy people. The protesters filled the streets, and blocked off the museum. We made it into the museum only half and hour before the museum had to be closed for the day. We saw some amazing art at the museum. It was definitely worth the trip into the city. I even got to see some paintings by Dr. Atl, who may be my all-time favorite artist. When we left the museum, we had to leave by a back door, to avoid the protest. It had gotten pretty hectic outside, and there were police officers with shields and all kind of protection lining every street, so we decided to go home.
On Thursday, we again went to the Zocalo. But, again, we had problems that cut our day short. The microbus we took into the city refused to take us all the way to the subway station, because there was too much traffic and the driver just wanted to turn around. So we had to walk through congested intersections to find the subway, and then all through the station to get to the correct platform. We were in foul moods by the time we were at the ticket booth, but we had already spent almost 2 hours getting to the subway, so we decided we had to keep going. We finally got to the Zocalo, and visited the National Palace, the White House of Mexico. We saw beautiful Diego Rivera murals, some important room, a garden, and admired the building. Our moods still hadn't gotten much better, I think partly because we were dreading the bus ride coming up in the evening, so we got some food and went back to the house. It was nice to spend time with the family and Cholula before we had to leave, anyways.
On Saturday morning we will be back in Mexico City for 4 more days. We we see as many of the remaining places we want to visit as we can fit in, which will definitely include Teotihuacan for the pyramids.
-Emma
We arrived at the Mexico City bus station late in the afternoon on Monday. Irene and her husband picked us up and drove us to their house. We went on a walk around the neighborhood with Irene. It is known as a poor area, and it is pretty apparent. Most of the streets are dirt, there is garbage everywhere, and usually about six stray dogs per block. Now that I have a dog, it is much harder for me to see so many dogs without homes. Jose even walked by a dead dog. All the dogs we have seen are friendly and well behaved. I always thought of stay dogs as aggressive and mean, but these ones aren't. When we took Cholula out for a walk, they would all sniff her, but they were always gentle.
On Tuesday, we took a microbus, one of the small, rickety local buses to the subway station. We took the subway to Chapultepec, to visit the National Museum of Anthropology. It was very interesting to ride the subway, especially when it got really full, but everything went well and we got there and back safely. We even saw the one stranger we talked to at Maribel and Sergio's wedding. When we got off the subway, we had to take another microbus to the Chapultepec park. It was clean, quiet, and mostly all forest. We spent more than 6 hours in the museum. Our favorite part was the top floor, that has an exhibition for each of the major modern day indigenous groups. One was even Jose's group, the Purepecha. It said that the Tarascans, as the Purepecha were known before, were very warlike. Today, people from Michoacan, the Purepecha area, are known for being hotheaded, and it must be in part from the Tarascans. The downstairs was artifacts from the ancient civilizations. We saw some great things, but most of it was very similar to what we saw in each site's museum. It got a little repetitious. We were disappointed to find that many of the pieces didn't have any information. I had wanted to see the museum for the last 2 years, and it was definitely worth the wait.
On Wednesday, we went to the historic downtown and saw plaza called the Zocalo. There is a lot to do there, including about 5 museums that we hope to visit. There was an international bookfare happening in the Zocalo, which we were excited about, but we didn't find anything worth buying. Unfortunately, our day was cut short by a massive protest about electricity. The National Museum of Art, our first stop, is next door to the senate house. The senate recently laid off 40,000 workers that worked with the city's electricity, while raising prices for all residents, so there are very few happy people. The protesters filled the streets, and blocked off the museum. We made it into the museum only half and hour before the museum had to be closed for the day. We saw some amazing art at the museum. It was definitely worth the trip into the city. I even got to see some paintings by Dr. Atl, who may be my all-time favorite artist. When we left the museum, we had to leave by a back door, to avoid the protest. It had gotten pretty hectic outside, and there were police officers with shields and all kind of protection lining every street, so we decided to go home.
On Thursday, we again went to the Zocalo. But, again, we had problems that cut our day short. The microbus we took into the city refused to take us all the way to the subway station, because there was too much traffic and the driver just wanted to turn around. So we had to walk through congested intersections to find the subway, and then all through the station to get to the correct platform. We were in foul moods by the time we were at the ticket booth, but we had already spent almost 2 hours getting to the subway, so we decided we had to keep going. We finally got to the Zocalo, and visited the National Palace, the White House of Mexico. We saw beautiful Diego Rivera murals, some important room, a garden, and admired the building. Our moods still hadn't gotten much better, I think partly because we were dreading the bus ride coming up in the evening, so we got some food and went back to the house. It was nice to spend time with the family and Cholula before we had to leave, anyways.
On Saturday morning we will be back in Mexico City for 4 more days. We we see as many of the remaining places we want to visit as we can fit in, which will definitely include Teotihuacan for the pyramids.
-Emma
Second Appointment Update
My appointment is in less than a week. We are going to leave Mexico City on Tuesday evening and arrive in Ciudad Juarez at 8:30 pm. Ruben, who we stayed with before, is going to pick us up and we will again stay with his family.
The next morning, on Wednesday at 9:00, I have my appointment. It isn't an actual interview like the first appointment. This time I am only going to drop of the packet the attorney prepared, and collect my DHL tracking number, so we know when to pick up the Consulate's decision. My appointment is on Wednesday, and the decision is ready three to five days after, so we will probably find out between Monday and Wednesday of the following week. The attorney said that if I am allowed to go home, I have to fill out another paper to be sent my visa, so we may not be able to go home the same day. Still, we will be extremely happy if we are allowed to go home anytime in the near future.
The packet from the attorney contains all of the evidence we have to show that I need to return quickly, and my pardon asking forgiveness for entering the United States legally. The packet is huge, and the attorney says that we have a lot of good evidence. Hopefully good things will come of that!
We have gotten over our culture shock, which lasted throughout September and into October, but it still doesn't mean we want to stay here. We are able to actually enjoy many of the things we do here now, but we couldn't enjoy thirteen to fifteen more months.
The appointment will be here before we know it, and while we are very nervous, Emma insists that she can feel we will be going home soon. I hope she has good gut instinct.
-Jose
The next morning, on Wednesday at 9:00, I have my appointment. It isn't an actual interview like the first appointment. This time I am only going to drop of the packet the attorney prepared, and collect my DHL tracking number, so we know when to pick up the Consulate's decision. My appointment is on Wednesday, and the decision is ready three to five days after, so we will probably find out between Monday and Wednesday of the following week. The attorney said that if I am allowed to go home, I have to fill out another paper to be sent my visa, so we may not be able to go home the same day. Still, we will be extremely happy if we are allowed to go home anytime in the near future.
The packet from the attorney contains all of the evidence we have to show that I need to return quickly, and my pardon asking forgiveness for entering the United States legally. The packet is huge, and the attorney says that we have a lot of good evidence. Hopefully good things will come of that!
We have gotten over our culture shock, which lasted throughout September and into October, but it still doesn't mean we want to stay here. We are able to actually enjoy many of the things we do here now, but we couldn't enjoy thirteen to fifteen more months.
The appointment will be here before we know it, and while we are very nervous, Emma insists that she can feel we will be going home soon. I hope she has good gut instinct.
-Jose
Sunday, October 18, 2009
To Mexico City
Tomorrow morning, we are leaving Cholula, Puebla to go to Mexico City. We will stay with Jose's great aunt, and visit museums, parks, and other interesting attractions in the city. On Thursday, we will leave Cholula the dog in Mexico City for 2 nights. We will go to Tecoman, Colima for the day to visit Jose's father's uncle and son, who will be the first Mederos family members we have met. We will also have a short visit with Lucio, Jose's great uncle who we visited in September.
In the afternoon, we will leave Tecoman for La Manzanilla. We will arrive in Melaque, the nearby town, at about 6 pm, run to La Manzanilla and gather the things we had left there, and get back on a bus to Mexico City at 8 pm.
On Saturday morning, we will be back in Mexico City with Jose's aunt and Cholula, to wait for Tuesday, when we leave for Ciudad Juarez.
10 days until Jose's appointment!
-Emma
In the afternoon, we will leave Tecoman for La Manzanilla. We will arrive in Melaque, the nearby town, at about 6 pm, run to La Manzanilla and gather the things we had left there, and get back on a bus to Mexico City at 8 pm.
On Saturday morning, we will be back in Mexico City with Jose's aunt and Cholula, to wait for Tuesday, when we leave for Ciudad Juarez.
10 days until Jose's appointment!
-Emma
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