Several events during the last few days

Several things have happened since Andre arrived (6 days ago already! )and my adventure with benefits has begun. Mostly good, one not so good.

For the first 3 days after Andre arrived, we stayed at an all inclusive hotel I had chosen. Our room was nice, clean, and bright with a nice breeze. We had access to free pina coladas, several other beverages, a buffet (I love buffets!!), a nice pool, and a nice part of the beach. All very good. Except that someone else had a key to our room, and used it to take my cell phone, and snoop around several times, likely for other loot. It was my old cell phone, which made it less bad than it could have been, but after that we didn't feel safe leaving anything of value there and had to bring our stuff with us any time we left the room. We told the hotel and filed a report but don't expect to see the phone again.

Now, we're staying in a guest house in the yard of a lady I met while volunteering. This is good cause the guest house is cute, clean and has a nice patio. Also, it only costs about $27 per night. We feel that our stuff is safe there and so far so good.

On Saturday, while volunteering for the SPCA, I fed a 2 week old kitten that had been found seperate from its mom. So coool!!! I even made it pee! (It appears that kittens this young don't know they have to pee, so you have to tickle their parts (penis in this case) to make them pee. The kitten is now with an adoptive family and is doing well. That's very good cause its chances of survival were/are 50/50 until it reached 4 weeks of age. Every day that goes by increases its chances a fair bit!

Yesterday, we took a bus to a town called Mezcales to visit a very small tequila distillery. It was very interesting and tasty! It's too long to explain how its done, I'll tell you in person if you want. We bought tequila and tequila based chocolate liqueur and almond liqueur (YUM!) Then we went to another town called Bucerias and drank and ate on the beach. It was very lovely! The sand was softer than in PV and the waves more friendly. Andre likes my bikinis so I wore one that day.

Today, we went on a zip line tour that was a lot of fun, partly cause we got to use several modes of transportation to get to the zip lines themselves. And because this is one of the freebees the timeshare people gave to me (ha!). We started off crossing the bay in a boat, then we took a jeep type vehicle up a mountain, then we switched to mules! The trip also included 2 rappels, which I like very much too!

Pictures: Mad making the kitten pee; the patio at our guest house; my bikini at Bucerias; and the blue agaves they grow to make tequila (the pineaple like things in the foreground are the ball that forms at the base of the plant after about 7 years of growth. They cook these balls, then mash and ferment the balls to get the sugar and make it turn to alcohol)

My "adventure with benefits" starts tomorrow!

Since the beginning of the plan, I've called this an "adventure", not a "vacation". This is because, to me, adventure means "whatever happens is OK", it's all about seeing what happens and enjoying it; and a vacation means relaxation, pleasure, fun, and a bit of decadence.

Until now, I've had some fun for sure. The last 5 weeks have been more relaxing and decadent than time at home would have been.

But my expectation was that I would do some work. And I did. I went to class and studied my Spanish, even when I didn't feel like it sometimes. I did research about painting, painting companies, and their web sites. I found a web builder program and used it to build the site for my new painting company, which will be called "Fresh Start" (unless someone gives me a good reason not to call it that). I also started to research and build the web site about "life milestones" that I've been talking about, and did my (back) exercises about every other day (OK, it was on the beach, but it still counts!) I even cooked for myself regularly and swept the floor.

But Andre arrives tomorrow! He'll be here with me for the last two weeks of my stay. I'm very anxious to see him! I don't know what he's been calling the next two weeks in his mind, but I've been calling them a vacation in my mind. That scares me a bit because of the expectation that comes with that. I can sometimes be a bit high strung about making sure I meet my expectations. That can take some of the fun out of having fun. So maybe, I think I've decided to call the next two weeks an "adventure with bebefits".

I'm not sure about where we'll be during the next two weeks, or how much internet access we'll have. I'd like to continue to blog, but my entries may not be as regular. Don't worry, that doesn't mean we've been kidnapped or anything like that. Maybe it'll just mean we're having some "benefits"!

PS It rained a lot today. So it was pretty domestic again. I practiced Spanish with the ladies at the school, ate some yummy roasted chicken and a frigging hot pepper (thanks for warning me, Miguel, after I ate that first bit!), and worked on the web site stuff.

Pictures: Some pretty flowers (bougainvilia I think), a bad picture of a neat big sculpture looking out from a bar/restaurant (notice the chairs and TV screens in the picture for scale); a lady walking up the hill with her cane (the hill is very steep and about 5 times the length of what you see in the picture, she was amazing!); and I found this "danger" sign on my walk the other day, I was brave and kept walking! (It looked like it was part of a kids toy or shoe)

I bet some people run with scissors here

I always find it interesting to notice how similar things are in different countries. For example, you can buy Nutella, frozen mixed veggies, and playtex bras here, just like at home. The traffic lights and bank machines work the same way. And at any construction site, only 3 out of 5 people are working at any point in time.

But, it sometimes surprises me to see just how different things can be. There are no hot dog stands, but there are tonnes of taco stands. There isn't just one big hospital here, in this city of about 100,000 residents (plus however many thousands of tourists), but I've seen at least four medium hospitals and dozens of general medicine and speciality clinics. But I think some of the funnest differences to notice are regarding personal safety.

You know how seatbelts, handrails, and helmets of all types are mandatory at home? And construction and city workers have to follow so many rules? Not here!

Whole families ride in the back of pick-up trucks. Many people drive their scooters and motorcycles without any helmets (though some carry them on their handle bars, just like kids at home put their winter tuques in their pockets after leaving home and mom can't see them anymore!) These were not huge surprises, many of us have seen these things in pictures of people in different countries.

But yesterday and today, I saw some of the most interesting differences in safety. I saw a man standing on top of a water tanker truck to water the city plants and grass. The thing is he stayed there once the truck continued to move! Today, there were two men sitting on top of the cab of the garbage truck! And check out the picture of the man who is demolishing a roof thing of a building. He's standing on the wire part that's been left after he bashed the concrete away. No fall arrest equipment there!

Other than seeing these things during a walk, today was very domestic. I've been preparing stuff to start my painting business, did some office work for the SPCA, and found some street meat for dinner.

Pictures: Men on a garbage truck; man bashing concrete; sign says: "you will get towed if you park here" but it doesn't say "watch out on the stairs (no handrail on the outside)"; and the watch repir guy at his "shop" on the bridge near my spanish school.

I got my money back!

What a day! I got my money back from the timeshare friggers!

CIBC Visa had reassured me several times that I had done everything I had to do, and they would get my money back for me via a "dispute". I was, in fact, reassured by that. But, I also wanted to make as much trouble as possible for the timeshare jerks, without getting into more trouble myself, of course! Also, I figured it would be nice to get this settled while I'm still here and able to take care of it in person.

So today I went to the Canadian Consulate here to file a report, and see what whey could do. They were nice. They took copies of my documents, and asked me to fill in a short form to record my request for help. They called Profeco, the Mexican consumer protection agency, and got them to agree to accelerate my case. (A few days ago, I emailed Profeco to follow up and ask Profeco to force the timeshare people to reimburse me. Profeco has a process for this, but its long.) I took the Canadian Consulate form to Profeco.

Then, based on the advice of the Canadian Consulate, I went back to the timeshare place to ask for my money in person. The nice lady said be nice but firm.

At the timeshare place, I started nicely. I told them they must have forgotten to reimburse me and I was there to remind them. They were somewhat receptive, but told me that Maria, the lady with the "power" to issue the reimbursement, was on the phone. I could see that she was and waited outside of her office, in an office area away from the sales room and other potential buyers.

When Maria was done on the phone she went out to the sales room. I didn't like that. I followed and stood near a door in the sales room, near an exit just in case.... Maria's assistant came and told me I couldn't wait there, I had to wait in the office. Yeah right, hide the angry customer. I agreed to go back into the office area. But after about 10 minutes, I told the assistant I was unhappy about waiting. She gave me a BS story about needing a week to give me the refund and needed to get permission from Mexico City. She also subtly threatened to make me wait all day.

I was pissed and went right back to the sales room with the assistant running after me. This time I stood my ground. I even went to the table where Maria was talking to the clients and told her I had been patient but wanted my money back, now. My heart was pounding!!

When Maria was done with the clients, we went back to the office. I was even more nervous there because I was away from the public. I could picture them calling security guards and physically taking me out. Then she frigging left to go to the bathroom. I was sure she wasn't coming back and had decided to leave if she didn't return very soon.

Amazingly, she came back and they started to process my refund!!!! I have the receipts but I'll only truly believe it when I see the refund on my VISA statment. Also, I'm thinking about cancelling that VISA when I get home just in case the timeshare folks have more tricks they wanna play. I feel very happy, but kindof on guard.

Photos: Some beautiful fabrics for making colourful wedding dresses (they often wear coloured dresses for weddings here, not just white); they sell all sorts of sewing machines - modern ones and old foot operated singers! A neat sculpture made of sand on the beach. The doorway to the Vaca Grill.

Happy Valentines!

Valentines day is a big deal here in PV, but it's not just for lovers.

In PV, maybe all of Mexico, Valentines day is called "Dia del amor y la amistad" - the day of love and friendship. And it's a big deal! Shops have been decorated in red for several days, the flower shops seem to be busting with flowers and helium balloons, and everyone in the whole city was downtown this evening! Many dressed up and/or dressed in red and carrying flowers and helium balloons.

Interestingly, coincidentally, I visited one of the most "historically" romantic sites in the city today. In 1963, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor had a public affair here while he was filming "Night of the Iguana". The story is a bit unclear to me. But one version says that they each had a house here, and they built a bridge over the street to make it easier to see each other. Barbara, a lady who has lived here for 30 years and seems to be an authority on the subject, said no, there was one house with two parts, connected by the bridge. One part was the living area, the other was the pool and party area. Either way, there is a bridge over the street. One of the houses is completely under renovation, and I could only see the outside wall of the other. Many houses here, and other parts of Mexico are like that. They look like nothing from the outside, even run down. But when you get inside some are amazing, complete with inner courtyards and pools!

Pictures: Somebody expressed their love in an interesting way. They painted love words all over their lover's car windows but didn't wash the car for them! The "Bubba Gump" restaurant dressed up the bench out front in honour of the occasion. (yes, you're supposed to sit on the bench, put your feet behind Forrest's shoes and get your picture taken. The bridge between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylors houses. And a neat statue on the "Malecon" - waterfront boardwalk.

PS Kevin Costner filmed "Revenge" here in 1990. I'm guessing the movie is a bit "fromage" but I'd like to see it anyway to see what I might recognize!

I'm slightly out of control!

I already told you that I bought a bikini right? The first one I've bought in 25 years. Well, ooops, I did it again! And I bought more watches too. Did I mention the watches I bought already?

I have now worn my bikini to the beach twice. I've done my exercises (sit ups, stretches, push-ups, etc) with it on, I've swam, and lounged on the beach. No one laughed, or pointed, or ran away screaming. I didn't lose any pieces or flash anyone by accident. It actually felt kindof neat. My tummy is even starting to be a bit tanned!

With that positive reinforcement in mind, and the knowledge that bikinis are plentyful and inexpensive here, I went and bought more; 3 more to be exact. It sounds very decadent. It is kindof decadent. But in all, the 3 cost me about $55 canadian. Not a crazy expense really. And what an incentive to maintain my weight! I might even ask Andre to take a picture when he gets here so I can show you. Yes, Andre is coming on Feb 18!!!

Today I bought 30 more broken watches from the watch repair man who works on the bridge near my school. This makes a total of 60 broken watches I've bought from him. (I will try to remember to take a picture of him on Friday. I'm somewhat uncomfortable about taking pictures of people here. I don't want them to feel like they are on display or something. But I did buy watches from him.) Why did I buy 60 broken watches? Sometime ago, I saw a picture frame in a magazine (?) that was made with watch faces and parts. It looked really neat. I'd like to make a frame like that, maybe for the mirror in the bathroom of the basement at home.

Other than that, the only interesting thing to report is that I've reached my saturation point with men who want to kiss me, touch me, or sleep with me. Of note are the construction worker who has interrupted my exercises at the beach twice to chat and then ask very personal questions about my sexual preferences. And there is Raphael a waiter I've chatted with a few times. Raphael is interesting and even somewhat charming. But today, he asked to kiss me. When I refused he asked me to kiss my had so he could then kiss it. When I refused that he wanted to taste my drink because it was likely to taste like my mouth (cause I was drinking the drink). No, no, no, no. I'm getting better at that word. He said he couldn't help himself, he was dreaming of me. I told him he could keep dreaming, I didn't mind that. Happily he thought it was funny. If I ever go back to his restaurant, it'll be with Andre!

Photos: The ever so charming Raphael. A guy who just lifted and balanced a heavy rock to make an Inukshuk type structure. He stretched his back after that one! Fireworks coming from the "Pirate" ship tourists can have dinner and drinks on every night. Some men replacing the old sidewalk with a new one with an inlaid stone pattern. Some parts of the city are a bit run down. But they seem to be on a mission to make it all nicer.

Mad to the rescue and in action!

Today was fairly quiet in many ways, but exciting in others. I helped two ladies in distress, and I stepped right out of my electronic comfort zone.

I haven't yet received the refund for my timeshare mess. Fortunately, both VISA and Profeco keep telling me to relax since I have the letter from Royal Holiday telling me that they cancelled the contract and will issue a refund. Visa said they would give Royal Holiday 30 days to issue the refund then begin a dispute, and Profeco said they would make them pay at a "hearing" if I email Profeco and give them an update. Either way, it should turn out OK for me.

But, I wanted to double check with Profeco about their process, in person. So I went back to their office this afternoon to do that. They were very kind and told me again I should email them. They explained why. Their process makes sense, so I'll follow their instructions.

But while I was there, I met 2 very upset ladies from Winnipeg who also made the timeshare mistake. They were at Profeco to ask them for a letter that tells their timeshare folks to cancel the contract and issue a refund, like I did. I chatted with the ladies, told them what I know, gave them advice, and helped them with a bit of English/Spanish translation. It felt nice to be able to reassure them at least a bit. Poor ladies, they're only here for 7 days and this will have gobbled up about 2 of those days! And get this, they were actually being hassled about the timeshare while sitting around their hotel pool, by their own hotel staff. That really sucks!!!!!

Then, it rained again. So I stayed in and worked on building the website for my painting business. I'm so proud of myself. I created a draft version using the Google Web site function, which is what Andre and I learned in a class we took this fall. But Google Web sites has very functions. So I actually spent the last 3 hours finding other website creation software, downloading it, and using it!!! This is very out of my comfort zone, but its exciting and it needs to get done. Yeah!!!

Pictures: Some pretty petals on teh sidewalk; a man scraping old paint of the outside wall of a shop, some kiddy costumes outside a cute store; and a pretty window on an abandoned building.

I went to meet the ladies

I met 2 ladies who also feel into the time sha

It was a dog day

I volunteered for the PV SPCA today. It was a nice experierence that enabled me to meet a whole bunch of new people.

During my second week here, I asked Alfredo if he knew of any organizations that might need volunteers. I thought that volunteering would help me feel like a part of the community, enable me to contribute to the community, and be a fun way to meet new people. He told me that the local SPCA has an adoption event every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm at the Los Mangos Library, and that I could volunteer there.

I went today, for the first time (for whatever reason, the event did not occur last Saturday). It was easy to get to, the library is in my neighbourhood, but in a part I had not explored yet.

The library itself is really nice. They have many types of activities there, including dance, drawing/art, and language classes, book sales, and the SPCA adoption event!

Today, there were 7 dogs for adoption and 4 cats. Three dogs and 3 cats were adopted, yeah! Before they come to the adoption event, each animal is examined by a vet, vaccined, de-wormed, de-flead (is that a word?) and neutered/spayed. When we arrived this morning at the library, 2 dogs were tied to the fence. People aren't supposed to drop off dogs at the adoption event, but I guess they sometimes do. They were so adorable a few people wanted to adopt these 2 dogs, but we couldn't let them because the vet has to do his thing. They will be available in 2 weeks.

Hanging out with the dogs today was pretty neat. But, it was also neat to meet some of the people that were there. Most of the volunteers were "expats" (Americans, Canadians, and 1 British lady) who are in PV for various amounts of time. Linette, from the UK, invited me to join her and her friends at the Vaca Grill next Friday. (You may recall that the ladies and I danced and drank there last week!). So that's neat, cause I'd like to go back and going alone is less interesting....The volunteer coordinator is Luz. She's the only Mexican volunteer. Turns out she lives on the same street as me and we met the other day when she was walking her dog. I remember cause the dog had a cute raincoat on! I also met Irene and her family. That was interesting because I had met Irene on a booze cruise/snorkelling trip here in PV 2 years ago. And I recognized her and remembered her name! (I remember her because I had taken photos of her on the booze cruise and emailed them to her.) It is a very small world, and PV is a fairly small city.

Pictures: Me and Canelo, a sweet dog that did not get adopted today. Two of the cats that were up for adoption, the all white one is with a new family now. Irene and her family on the booze cruise 2 years ago. Irene doin karaokee 2 years ago (The pole was only for stability, though she was kindof getting into it!)

Check this link out. I got it from a newslwetter for a small town called Sayulita, which is near PV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfq_A8nXMsQ

A quiet day with Spanish and food

Yesterday , it rained very hard again almost all day, so I focused on my Spanish most of the day, and met the ladies for "Art Walk" and dinner later on. The amount of rain that came down was very impressive, and a bit depressing. But, we made the best of it.

I had my first exchange with Sophia, a gynecologist from PV, who is learning English at the University of Guadalajara (UofG) where I'm taking my Spanish classes. The UofG twins students together who want to practice. Sophia is very nice, about 35 years old and calm. She's married to a Canadian from Vancouver. Practicing with her went well. We talked about who we are and why we are studying each other's language.

After that, I had my conversation class. The students are teh same as last time, George, Louise, and Beverly will join next week. But the teacher is different. Now, we have Cynthia, a very animated and pleasant teacher from Guadalajara. The class was good. One of teh things we talked about was Canada, including the number of provinces and territories, why there are provinces and territories, and the history of colonialism in Canada and north americal as a whole (remember, Mexico is part of north america). Cynthia said we should watch Apocalypto, the movie with Mel Gibson because it describes some of Mexico's history from the mayan point of view.

When class was done, I was starving and it was raining pretty hard. So I crossed teh street to a big indoor/outdoor market and found a table near the railing (overlooking the river and lots of nice trees) in a restaurant upstairs. I had one of my best meals here so far, a wonderful burrito!!! And chatted with my ever so cute waiter, Eric. He was pleasant, wanted to learn some English, and had a killer smile! I'm thinking I'd like to go back again for the burrito and Eric's charming company.

Then I got wet, grrrr. I had to meet Joan and Darcy at a local art gallery. It was only about 10 blocks from teh market, but it was impossible to keep my feet dry. The water in the streets was several inches deep in many areas. Fortunately, I had a good rain jacket, so my body stayed dry.

We walked around the art galleries and went into a few tourist thing stores, then went to dinner at a fairly nice place. We chatted like school girls, again, then came home. It was a nice calm day.

Pictures: You can buy Corona in a 1.2(?) litre bottle here, just like quarts in Quebec!. The day of the dead, Nov 1&2 is an important holiday so there are lots of squeleton art things everywhere. You can also buy cute little little sculptures made from pop cans on the beach.

It rained all night and all day

This is the dry season. It's not supposed to rain in PV from about October to June. But, there has been rain a few times in the evening during the last week, and it rained all last night and today. The forecast says rain for the next 2 days too!!

I didn't mind today. It was actually kind of nice. I had planned on working on the content for my painting business web site. The rain made it easy to stay indoors to do that. I actually made concrete progress and think I might be able to "build" the web site soon, using my newly acquired "Google web site" knowledge. Andre and I took a class with the city of Ottawa in the fall. It was very basic, but it should be enough to get me started.

Also, I kindof enjoyed walking in the rain and seeing how it accumlates in the streets here. There are no storm sewers. So it just runs downhill, more or less towards the ocean. That's why the sidewalks are so high in spots. It was pretty neat to see just how high it got in some places.

But rain for the next 2 days?! ben la! I sure am glad I brought my rain jacket. Too bad I didn't bring the one with the hood. I could look like a soggy rat for a while.

Pictures: cars in the puddles in the streets of PV (yes, the taxi splashed me a fir bit); the ceiling in my bedroom (built with clay tiles on wooden beams), and a chair in my bedroom and my closet doors with the nice fluffy pink towel alfredo gave me to use during my stay. If it keeps raining, I might see more of that ceiling and room...

Mad goes shopping

Except for the need to be assertive with the timeshare guy on the beach, it's been a pretty tame couple of days. The most exciting thing I did was go shopping. At the food market and the bikini shop!

The food market was small but interesting anyway. The market was in an open-ish somewhat broken building. There were a few fruit and veggy vendors, but the most interesting were the fish and meat vendors. There were coolers full of shrimp, and a kid rolling a case of barely dead dorado (aka mahi mahi) fish, and a cooler with a whole but dismembered chicken! All the vendors were patient and friendly when I asked to take their picture.

The bikini is a topic I'm somewhat uncomfortable with.....I've been swimming almost every day. And almost every day I've seen women in bikinis that maybe shouldn't be. But they are. They don't seem to care about their size or jiggle, and some look sexy just cause they seem so comfortable with themselves. So I've been thinking I could maybe do that too. It would be comfy to have the breeze blow across my belly, and maybe Andre would like it, even if I have to learn how to be comfortable about it. And they are very affordable here.

So yesterday I did it. I tried on about 10 bikinis, and bought one. It's black and white and fits me well enough, to wear here. I will reserve the right to "not" publish photos. It is possible that this is a case of "what happens in PV stays in PV"!! I'll let Andre be the judge.

Balancing compassion and self-preservation

This morning I practiced balancing compassion with self-preservation. It wasn't easy, but I'm glad I did it.

Since my arrival, this time share guy has been asking me to go to his timeshare presentation. The deal was that I would get $100 for my time and he gets a $50 comission. I didn't want to go because of my experience with the first one. It's a tonne of high pressure and all in all a bad way to spend time here. But on the whole, he's been pleasant to talk to, the $100 would be nice and I wanted to help him. He needs to make a living too. So yesterday I gave in and agreed to go this morning.

However, all night I dreaded the event. The pressure is gross and I'm obviously a potential target (a softy). So this morning, I talked to Alfredo. I wasn't going to cause I didn't want to be scolded. But I needed to talk it out and get an opinion. I'm glad I did.

I went to meet the guy where we had agreed. (I never tell any of the "guys on the beach" I meet where I live, I'm not that silly!) I fought his sob story with mine. I told him I couldn't go. I had been sick all night thinking about the high pressure of the timeshare presentation. And please don't ask me again to go. It worked. He coudn't argue with that and was gracious enough about it.

I'm proud because I know I have compassion, I really did want to help him if I could. But I'm also proud because I know that I can value my needs as much as someone elses. At least sometimes.

A picture of me, being happy, on teh beach in San Pancho.

Drinking with the ladies

Yesterday started off gently and ended in a fun drunken dance party!

Joan, a lady I met at the mosaic class here the last 2 years, and her friend Darcy, and I went to a very small town called San Pancho, about one hour from here. The goal was to visit Shelby, the mosaic class teacher, at the house she built in San Pancho, and to spend the day there.

It started very gently. Joan had arranged to have a car and driver take us there. The driver, Mike from Michigan, was nice enough and interesting on the way there. He grows blueberries and other fruit in Michigan in the summer and stays in PV in teh winter and works odd jobs driving people around.

Shelby's house is very nice. It has the most amazing sunny shower area with only screening for a roof and a lovely back yard with a pool. The backyard faces a corn field that is owned by a school and will likely never be developed into housing. We sat and chatted there for about 2 hours.Very relaxing!

Then we walked down main street, to a restaurant on the beach. San Pancho is pretty touristy, but also kind of hippy-ish. There is a cooperative that does recycling, and a community organic garden that grows veggies for the local school kids. And several artsy tourist thing shops.

I had yummy fish with garlic for lunch while my feet were in teh sand.

Then we got ready to come back. Only this time, Mike was pissy. He had originally told us he needed to be back by 6 pm. OK. Perfect. Now, he was mad cause he wanted to be back earlier. He speeded and weaved in and out of traffic all the way back, barely spoke, and was impatient when we were figuring out how to pay. I'm proud of myself. I didn't feel bad for Mike at all. He made $15/hour plus gas for two hours of driving and 5 hours of sitting on teh beach reading his book. You can be sure I'd never hire him again!! I'll take the bus, thank you.

But the best part was teh evening. We went back to teh hacienda where the mosaic class is and had a coupe of maragaritas. And laughed and talked like real girls. Then we went to the Vaca (cow) Grill a restaurant very close by. We drank a bit more, ate, and danced like fools to the live music. I was good though. I called Alfredo to tell him I'd be late so he wouldn't worry, and to invite him to join us, which he did. yeah!

Pictures: The pool and view from Shelby's back yard, some 5 week chihuahua puppies and a protective mother we saw in a store, Joan, Shelby, and Darcy shopping in San Pancho, and a man making a hamac (it takes about 4 hours he says).

What a neat action packed day!

What a neat day! So many little things happened.

The first neat thing is that I took a test to see what level of spanish I have so I can take a class next week. I'm very pleased to say that I'm a level 5. I think there are 10 levels in all. And really I don't care that much, but level 5 sounds pretty impressive to me, so I'm happy! After my course next week, I will actually receive 1 credit from the University of Guadalajara. Too cool!

After the test, I finally managed to buy 30 broken watches from the watch repairman who stands/works on the bridge near my school. Why you ask? I saw a picture of a picture frame that was decorated with watch faces and mechanisms. Andre really likes watches. So I thought he'd like this picture frame.

Then, I found a used clothing store! I bought a tank top and a slong sleeve top for $40 pesos, about $2.75 canadian. That even beats value village!

There was a funny. I went to Alfredo's office to see if he wanted to have lunch, I was near his office and gonna go to a taco stand he likes. When I asked for him at his office, I explained to his colleagues that I am his "companero de cama". I was proud to use my spanish until I realized I made a mistake. What I meant to say was that I am his room mate (companero de casa). What I actually said was that I was his "bed mate". We all had a good laugh!

Then I went to the beach to study, with a drink. I did study for a while. But then Tym started to chat with me. He owns a sunglass shop in Banff Alberta and is very interesting. So we chatted for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.

I came home.

Pictures: The "normal" beetle is Alfredo's car. The convertible in one of the variations that are here in PV. The interesting parking space belongs to a medical clinic that specializes in something radioactive. And the chicken lives down the street from me, almost across the street from the radioactive clinic!!