A beautiful day!

This morning my sweet husband volunteered to watched Zoe so I could go the the Art Expo in Chapala, which I'd really been looking forward to.



Laureano Martinez Guzman and Marina Castro Lopez create these beautiful Catrinas. Here I am with Laureano. I fell in love with these Catrinas and I wanted to get a few of them, but they are expensive and very fragile, so I only got one. It is a woman in a fitted red and black dress with a big hat and flowers. They wrapped it up and put it in a box so I can get it back to the states in one piece (hopefully), so I will post a picture of it when I finally get it home and unwrap it. She will definitely be on display next Halloween.



The pictures don't show how amazing the Catrinas are, but below are a couple other Catrinas that I loved. I love the full skirts on their dresses. I didn't get the one with the cream skirt because the animals on her have a lot of tiny parts that I'm sure would be in tiny pieces if I tried to take her home. I loved the one in the black dress, but I couldn't do the gun thing. I hope to add some Catrinas like these to my collection eventually.





Our next door neighbors, Barbara and Brian, have been so good do us during our stay. Barbara collects beautiful ceramic balls that are made by an artist from Jalisco (the state we are in). When I first saw them at her house (she has baskets full of them), I decided I would get some for my parents, who I think would appreciate the artistry. Barbara knows the artist well, and had him reserve some for me. Unfortunately, I was only able to get one due to limited suitcase space and the fragility of the ball, but the artist gave me a great deal and autographed it for me. Thanks Barbara! I will post a picture of it after I've given it to my parents (it too is packed up for travel). Here I am with Barbara.



This is Martin Ibarra, the ceramic maestro.



I had a chance to walk up and down the pier on Lake Chapala while I was at the expo. The sun felt so good!

What to do?

Zoe has been such a joy and such a challenge for me here in Mexico. She has done great with all of the changes and new boundaries, but every day brings the same question, "what are we going to do all day?" Jed works most of the day and there is not much for me and Zoe to do here in Ajijic by ourselves, which has been really hard for us - especially me. I'm so used to being busy and keeping Zoe busy all day, and having to do the same few things over and over is hard!



Today the missionaries stopped by and Zoe got so excited that she ran laps around the room while they were here. We miss our friends, we miss our stuff, and we miss the city.

Most of the people we told about this trip assumed we are taking an extended vacation. I can promise that this not a vacation. It's actually been very hard for me. I have decent and bad days. Mostly I feel pretty helpless here. Overall it's been an enlightening experience, but right now I'd like to vacation in Chicago. :) Althought I've had a handful of great experiences, I'm pretty sure I won't ever move to Ajijic. Maybe I will live somewhere else in Mexico, but I will a) never do it with a toddler, and b) take Spanish lessons and stay long enough to become fluent. Living somewhere when you can't speak the language is just stupid. I'm starting to mess up when I speak English, and my head is swimming with Spanish words that I've heard so many times, but I can't remember what they mean!

Another thing that is hard for me is feeling safe. I'm a bit confused about the what the situation is here in Ajijic, which doesn't help my insecurity. Most people that I've talked to say it's safe, but every time I read the newspaper or the monthly lakeside review for the English speakers, I find articles like, "Travel Safety Tips for Women" and "The Fear of Rape Must be Primal". Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy now?

One of the article talks about Mexico having a "macho culture" and understanding the general roles and behavioral codes for women. Fine, I understand I am not in America, but I get whistled at and called to when I go out by myself and I don't like it. And that creepy look, yep, I get that too. I think it's because I'm probably 1 of 2 American women under the age of 55 in the city, and the other one (I met her at brunch the other day) is already dating a native.

I don't consider myself completely gutless or naive - I've lived in Chicago and have had experiences and could tell stories that would make my mother cry, but this is different. I don't know, I just don't like it. And I don't feel safe here.

On a more brighter note, the weather could not be any more perfect!

. . .

Some of my upcoming posts will include:

- pictures of the house we are staying in (as requested)
- pictures of me (as requested)
- pictures of the market
- some great video footage of Zoe doing aerobics with me

Hugs and kisses to all of you...I miss you!

Fiestas de la Virgen del Rosario (with video)

All of the fireworks and cannons discussed in one of my previous posts, and shown on Jed's video, were in celebration of the Virgin del Rosario. Along with all the cannons, fireworks, and Mexican marching bands playing all day, there was a parade, a lighting ceremony, carnival like festivities and a concert.

Here are some pictures from the parade.













Virgin del Rosario...





After the parade past by, the street was flooded with people who followed it around the town.



After all of the people came the fireworks guys - very noisy!



We walked over to the plaza where the festivities would take place when the parade ended, also where we found these guys chillin'.



After the plaza we went to dinner. Zoe is just like me, all she needs is a pina colada (virgin) to be happy!



From dinner we headed back to the plaza where we ate fresh sugar cane, flan, and boiled peanuts (in the shell). Zoe made a little friend named Alexandra who is so adorable. Alexandra's mom and I chased them around the plaza for almost two hours. The girls were so cute! But they wouldn't hold still long enough for us to get a good picture. These pictures make it look like it was Friday night smack down, but they were really just playing.





Here's Alexandra. We couldn't get her to smile, but she has the most beautiful smile with huge dimples!



Here's some video footage of the night...

Imminent victory!

I am humming a happy tune. Today the pest control people came and sprayed the place! Hallelujah! I can't help but smile each time I pass by a spider with it's legs curled in, motionless and dead. Especially since right after the pest people walked out of the door I found another black widow. Oh, don't worry, Jed tracked them down and had them come back to spray it. I shouldn't gloat too much since there are still plenty of live spiders around and other than the ant I just found in the toilet that I can only guess walked itself into and couldn't get out, I have yet to see any other dead insects. I just flicked a big ant off of the arm of my chair. I wonder how far a bug has to go flying through the air and fall to die?

Too bad it's taken this long get the place sprayed. I've gotten so accustomed to them that I don't usually kill them unless they are poisonous or directly in my path, and then sometimes I just kill them with my hands. Which is caused by being numb and lazy, or by instinct - either way it's not pretty.

You know, I haven't seen as many cockroaches in the house as I have outside, but they seem to be dying everywhere. I always see them on the sidewalks, lying on their backs, kicking like crazy until they just stop - dead. Maybe it's the season (bless mother nature) or maybe they get flipped onto their backs and after enough kicking decide to just kick the bucket. Who knows? But they are dead!

But I will continue to pray that we will not get get harmed by insects, or anything else, on this trip!!!

I promise that my next post will not be about bugs, and will have lots of pictures!