Insomnia and spiders

You're probably wondering how I've managed to publish more posts in one week here than a month or two on my normal blog. It's because I can't sleep here. I hate nights. I have such a hard time falling and staying asleep in places I don't feel 100% safe. Sometimes I have this problem back at home, but I'm not staying up worrying about one of us being kidnapped, the noises in the house, what in the world I'm going to do everyday for the next three weeks, what could be on the floor when I get up to go to the bathroom, keeping the bugs away from Zoe...

Speaking of bugs, they are everywhere! Ugh! At first I was just a bit freaked out. Now I'm a nice mix of paranoid, mad and annoyed. The ants have joined the fun too. Not that spiders, cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes all over the place aren't enough. Especially at night when it's like feeding time. Thank goodness I haven't encountered any scorpions, but I did see a black widow on our walk to Chapala.

Anyhow, I will spare you from the growing collection of pictures I've taken of these pests, but they are everywhere! Especially this one kind of teeny, hairy spider - they're jumpers. I feel like I'm playing a game with them when I try to kill them. They hop around like little frogs. And they are always crawling in Zoe's diaper stack - it's so annoying. I'm OCD about shaking things out. And I always look where I'm about to sit. I'm pretty much on constant patrol. Poor Zoe is probably already traumatized from me shrieking and leaping at her from across the room whenever she sticks her hands under the couch or behind a piece of furniture. I know I need to relax a bit, but I promise you, if you were here, you'd be a on your guard too.

While I was standing in the shower this morning I counted seven spiders, and I was only facing one direction.

Somehow Jed seems to go throughout each day completely unaware of the bugs.

. . .

So now Jed and Zoe are asleep and I'm awake waiting for the Nytol I took to kick in. Nytol is the strongest thing they'd give me at the Farmacia (I guess other sleeping aids can be considered recreational drugs) and I'm really wishing I would have brought somethings with me that is worth taking. Bummer. I thought you could get anything in Mexico.

Our walk to Chapala

Today we took a walk to Chapala to get a guitar for Jed. It was quite a walk - we both have blisters. We don't know how far it was, but we were walking, and pushing Z in her stroller, for close to two hours at a pretty good pace. We took a bus back, which was like riding a roller coaster!

I took a few pictures on our way:

A little house on the hill.



You can't really tell from this picture, but there are these really cool, tall cactuses growing on the side of this cliff.



If you order pizza for delivery from Domino's in Mexico...



This picture doesn't do this guy justice, but he was two inches long. We found him waiting for us when we got home. Jed wouldn't let me kill it because it wasn't in the house. Can somebody tell me one good thing a cockroach does?



The fruits of our labor...

Cute

Zoe loves glasses of any kind. Here she is playing with my sunglasses. She's such a cutie! She's always making us laugh!





Then, of course, Elmo gets a turn.

What a helper!

Yesterday Zoe found a washcloth and helped Socorro, the maid, clean.

Photo shoot at the taco stand

Last night we stopped by the taco stand down the street from us for dinner. I had my camera with me so I could take a picture of the cobblestone streets. I don't usually take it with me since nothing screams tourist like a camera, but there weren't many people around - at first.

I was looking through some of the pictures I'd taken while I was sitting at the table at the taco stand, when out of nowhere this cute little kid appeared above my shoulder. He got really excited (I have no idea what he was saying) and pointed at the digital screen on my camera. So I took a picture of him (the first picture below) and he started jumping up and down and laughing. Then he grabbed a few of his friends and had me take pictures of them. It turned into a full blown photo shoot. The boys would pose, I would take a picture and they would run over to me and go crazy looking at it. It was so much fun! Here are some of the pictures I took:

The boy's little sister. Isn't she beautiful!

Our tacos - so good!!!

Things I love about Ajijic

Here are ten things that I love about Mexico so far:

1. Mexican food is tasty!!!
   
   
   
2. The people are so friendly! Especially the expatriates who really go out of their way to help you out. Our next door neighbors, friends of the owner of the house we're staying in, have had us over to their home a few times already, taken us shopping, given us a tour of the city, given us great tips and told us to call or come over whenever for whatever. Just today they brought us some Mexican bacon. It's supposed to be fantastic.
   
3. It's beautiful!
   
   
   
4. The weather is always perfect.
   
5. Diet Dr. Pepper tastes a lot better in Mexico. Or maybe because I'm in Mexico.
6. The resident lizard. He's always hanging out on top of this desk.


7. The Mexican people get very excited and friendly when Jed speaks Spanish with them (I hardly know any Spanish), and they love helping us learn more. They are very sweet and love Zoe. They always say she is so bonita!
8. Every Wednesday is the open market. It's so much fun!
9. Mexican food is so tasty!
   
10. You can get anything on the streets. People walk or drive around selling baked goods, gas, knife sharpening services, water, tacos (yummy!) etc. Jed was thrilled when we ran into the knife sharpening guy. He had him come over to our house. Sounds a little creepy, but it worked out fine.

Adjusting to Ajijic

We've been in Ajijic, Mexico for two days now. Right now I'm really glad we won't be here longer than three weeks. I think the coast will be easier. Although the first several months I lived in Chicago I thought I'd died and gone to hell, and now I love it. I've learned to adjust and bloom where I'm planted much better since then. We'll see. I'm still glad we're here, but I'm sure I'll feel a lot better once I get used to it here. Here are ten things that will take some getting used to (I'll add some pictures to this list soon):

1. Whatever is making me sick. I'd only been in Mexico for a day when I started having problems. I wasn't expecting it this early on because all I ate the first day was a muffin from Starbucks at the Guadalajara airport, tea and toast at our Canadian neighbors house, then American packaged food for lunch, and food from a nice restaurant for dinner. I'm guessing dinner was the problem.
2. The roads and most sidewalks are cobblestone. An infant could get brain damage from a stroller ride pretty quickly. Luckily Zoe is bigger and thinks it hilarious.
   
3. The bad water. I knew about this before, but I didn't realize how inconvenient it would be. We use filtered water out of a jug (like people have in offices in the states), but filling up a glass of water to take upstairs to brush my teeth with is already getting old. Poor Zoe gets car wash style showers instead of fun baths because I can't get her to stop drinking bath water.
4. Bugs. In one day I've killed almost three dozens spiders (I had nightmares about them last night), a few mosquitoes, one very large cockroach and a variety of bugs that were already dead when I found them. I know some bugs are good, but killing them makes me feel better at this point.
   
5. The maid. I am a bit concerned about her housing keeping abilities. When we got here the house smelled like cats and everything seemed dirty. I'm not really sure what she does besides water the garden and wipe down some furniture. She was here for three hours yesterday and except smelling a strange chemical and seeing water all over patio/garden, I can't tell a single difference. The owner of the house recommends we don't have the maid do dishes because Mexican maids will only use cold water. I've also heard not to let maids do laundry because they don't always use detergent. When I asked the maid if she cooks, she laughed and said, "a mi casa." Dang! Now I have to do everything myself! :)
   
6. The cost of food and household products. Yesterday we spent 920.89 pesos (almost $100) for a few bags of the basics. Maybe we shopped at the wrong store, but I was pretty surprised at how much things cost.
7. Cleaning fruits and veggies. I'm lazy enough as it is in the kitchen. Taking time to wash: apply a special fruit and vegetable cleaner, scrub, let the cleaner sit and then rinse and dry, is absolutely annoying. But supposedly the fruits and veggies are a lot better for you.
8. Not having much for Zoe to play with. I brought some books, paper and crayons, and a few toys, but that doesn't keep her attention for very long.
   
9. I don't really feel that safe here. Jed is convinced that it's a lot safer here than in Chicago, but I'm not.
10. I can't speak Spanish. Although, I can understand more than I thought I could.

I wonder how I'll feel about these things in a few weeks.

San Francisco

Saturday we all went to San Francisco. The weather was perfect! We went to the piers and ate clam chowder in bread bowls.

Alcatraz

Me and Jed at the K-dock.

Jed and Zoe checking out the sea lions at the K-dock.

Zoe found a life size Elmo on at Pier 39. She was in heaven, until we had to leave.

And, of course, a stop at Citizen Cakes! Yum!