Finally in San Miguel!

Everything has gone without hitches so far. I arrived in Leon, and was met by Lauren, Several of the kids, and Victor (He runs Casa Ayuda). Apparently his brother works for Immigration and they had planned to give him a description of me, and have me "fake detained". I would have gotten a kick out of it. The only real challenge right seems to be the language. It will come with time, but communication is hard when I know what I want to say, but not how to make it clear. In the next few weeks I will hopefully get a spanish class arranged, or at least someone who can give me lessons several times a week. I need the most practice speaking.

Several pieces of exciting news before I finish with the rest of this:

1. We got a dog! Her name is Nara- Mongolian for "sun beam". We adopted her from an organization here in San Miguel: Save a Mexican Mutt. She weighs 12-15 pounds, and is 2 years old (Minature Pincher/Chi mix). We picked her up last night, she was spayed, and just needs to get one more vaccination. She is incredibly calm! So relaxed- as she gets more used to us and the apartment more of her personality is coming out. Very exciting- and she can travel on an airplane easily. Also, she's crate trained!

2. I potentially have a job on the side- dog walking. I'm planning on starting with two clients, and as word speads pickup more. I think that this will work well to bring in some extra cash as I wait to get to several other leads. I'm doubting that I will find a placement in a school here- no-one is hiring teacher aides half-way through the school year- and there is the complication with the FM3 work permit.

Tuesday morning We went to the center and did a mini-tour and stopped by for bread and coffee. There is a big market in San Miguel on Tuesdays- I met Maricella- and she let us tag along with her there. From the market we took a taxi back to the apartment and rearranged it. We now have an office, and new arrangement for the place. Below are some photos of the apartment. (1) One of the bedrooms (2) Living room (3) Sunset from the roof!

Casa Ayuda is going to be interesting. Getting to know the kids so far has consisted of them asking me question after question. And me slowly responding to them in my broken spanish. Victor is a funny guy- actually both he and Alicia are- I love their sense of humor and have come to terms with the fact that 99% of the time everyone will be making fun of me. But, it happens- and I just laugh about it.