Adios Final/ First Welcomes

Hello everyone!
First, I want to thank everyone for their patient anticipation for my last newsletter. I have struggled to put into words what I want to put on this last newsletter and now it is VERY late.

I have now been home for four months!!! So I will give you a life update from the last time you heard from me:

1. I left my community in Puebla on July 2nd. For a week before I left, the Germans, CIPAAC and my host family did sad heartfelt goodbyes. The Germans and I prepared a photo journal of our time (most photos take by myself because I like to take them!) and letters to the next volunteers. For my last Friday night in Puebla, the Germans, a Mexican CIPAAC volunteer, and I went out for dinner, and a little night life. But the bars closed at 11:00pm! This is because there is a in Mexico that all establishments that serve alcohol must close 48 hours before their elections and they may not sell any alcohol until after the elections. The presidential elections happen every 6 years and always on the first of July, even when it is on a Sunday like this year. (Pictured below is: Nora, Lara, Luise (aka Luigi) and me at the church on top of the hill in Cholula, before we went out for my last Mole meal.)
   
2. For several days, the Mexico cohort was together in Mexico City to process the year, spend time together, and to prepare for the transition back to the United States. We talked about how we would respond to friends family and strangers that would ask us about our year and experience in Mexico. The most common question is still after four months is, "Did you feel safe?" and the answer is "Yes." This final time together was emotionally and physically both draining and life giving. Those days were to prepare us to fulfill our final mission to go back to the United States and share what we learned about accompaniment and service to our community here. (Picture: We had the opportunity to get out of the Lutheran Center (the place we were staying) and explore parts of the the city not all of us had seen yet. We went to Xochimilco (pronounced: so-chee-mill-co) for lunch in the markets, a little shopping, and a ride in the canals. In the picture below is a view of the canal. There are hundreds of boats out at a time. There are boats with entire parties of people, sometimes there would be two or more boats would be tied together so that people on them could use both to walk around on. There are others that are smaller that have men and women that are cooking and selling food. There are others also that have nicknacks that you can buy. It is truly like a Mexican street but on the river!)
   

   
3. I got home July 6th. I started the journey at 6am all by myself at the airport with all my stuff. (I tell you this because it was stressful with two large bags that I just could not get under the weight limit to save my life! Eventually the attendant behind the counter was so annoyed that she just let me go with a bag just a tiny bit over weight.) On the first flight I was pretty relaxed, and mostly tired from being awake the whole night before with my cohort in Mexico. The second flight I made friends with the folks sitting around me, particularly poor man that sat in the window seat next to me. Throughout the flight we talked about policies in the United States that had changed, the things I missed about the United States, what I would miss from Mexico, my favorite foods, all the tough and easy questions. I pitied the man sitting next to me because you have not seen excitement until you've seen a Minnesotan that has not seen a lake in nearly a year see a lake from the sky! I was leaning over the aisle and the man in the window seats to get a good look at them! You can see below the photo I took of the sight. Most people on the flight were flying into MSP were coming home from a nice vacation, so this sight of the lakes were a sight that they dreaded, but not me! I will forever remember this moment and the feeling of home with those big blue pits below. 
   
4. A couple of weeks after being home my brother and sister-in-law welcomed into the world their first child and my first niece! I had the pleasure of meeting this bundle of joy just a few hours after she was born. Her name is Remmington. I am so proud to be her Aunt (though my sister keeps telling me that she is the only aunt... She is 5 years old, so she will learn.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. I had the great privilege to spend a little time to be home and to get re-acclimated to being in America again and speaking in English! There was a lot of Spanish coming out of my mouth that month. During that month, in between spending time with family and friends, I was filling out job applications and going on job interviews. After several "No's" from Guardian ad Litem positions, I was fortunate to be accepted at my old high school as a full time Para. I am now working as a SpED Para for Anoka High School and I am really enjoying it. The work is similar to the work that I was doing in Mexico, working with persons with different abilities and assisting them in their daily routines, but there are also a lot different to this position that keeps me all the more interested. I primarily work with one student at Anoka that has a hearing impairment. I would with her for two class periods as her captioner. As her captioner, I attempt to type out everything that is said in the class. The things I type go directly to her Ipad through the program that we use. This way she is able to participate in her high school as much as possible. Her classmates are fascinated by what gets typed out and often like to challenge me by saying ridiculous things that I don't necessarily have to type, but do because I feel like it adds to her relationship with her classmates. (Pictured below is myself and several other YAGM alum (Left to right: Karleigh, Brittany, Amanda and me) at an even for the Lutheran Social Services' Gala. They wanted more young folks in the room, so there was an open invitation to attend for free for YAGM and other young adults involved in the church. We had a good time talking about our experiences in our countries of service and the transitions that we were and are still going through.) 
   
6. Now going forward, my job at Anoka is not the place I want to be forever, but it is the right place for me right now. While on the border, my cohort had the experience of witnessing my passion for case law and got me to realize it too. So, I am currently studying for the LSAT and plan to take it in January. I hope to start law school and pursuing that passion next fall. 

Thank you, as always, for all of your support! If I have not seen you in person since I have gotten home, please reach out! I have lots of stories and pictures to share. 

May Newletter

Hello Friends and Family,

I have been experiencing many frustrations and internet problems while using Mailchimp, so I have decided that I will eliminate this frustration by using my blog to send my newsletter. I invite you to take a look at some of my other blogs as well. If you have any questions about my year or about my blog or comments (constructive and positive are the most well received) I welcome these as well, or if you would like to email me with a hello that is also welcomed.

I always start my newsletter with my favorite mountains. Popo and Itza. This is a view from a church in Cholula that my Dad and I went to his first day in Cholula.

These last few months have been an absolute blur. Since my last newsletter my father visited me, I celebrated my 23rd birthday, I took a trip with my friends and fellow CIPAAC volunteers to Queretaro, I fufilled my dream of seeing Oaxaca, and just recently visited a friend and fellow YAGMexico in Cuetzalan, Puebla. Next week the YAGMexico cohort will be going to Cuernavaca for our second to last retreat. Thats right you read that right, second to LAST. I cannot believe how fast time has gone and yet also look forward to the surprises that are bound to occur in the remaining two months.

Most of my family at our house for comida to celebrate my birthday. Left to right: Danny, Tía Ale, me, Papá Juan, Mamá Janeth.

Because of the pending retreat and looming departure date, I have been thinking a lot about where I see God, beauty, lessons, etc., however you choose to interpret the world. I interpret beauty, lessons, wonder etc. as synonomous with God.

First and foremost, I see love within my family. I am blessed to have a mama, papa, two brothers, an aunt (tia) that lives with us, two aunts that do not live with us, a grandma, and three uncles (all don't live with us). My host family is much larger than this in reality, but these are the people that I have seen the most and I have built a relationship with. These relationships will be with me forever and have made me feel loved throughout my time here. My host parents have been married for 18 years! And were together for six years before they were married. They love each other very much and you can feel it when you are around them. They are not the couple to show much public displays of affection, but they will hold hands with each other and give the occational kiss. Within my host brothers, they are starting to grow out of saying they love each other, but they show it by including each other in activities, and picking on each other. With me my host parents show me their love with their patience. They have a lot of it at times for my lack of communication in Spanish, or when I don't know a key cultural norm that I am bending or broke. My host brothers show their love for me the same way I show my own blood brother, picking on and the occasional punch.

These other goofy humans are another family I have here in Mexico, the Germans, they are part of my CIPAAC family. 

I see and experience wonder in the new and old experiences in Mexico. I have the incredible pleasure to live in a place that I can see some of the most important mountains in Mexico. I know that there are other YAGMexico that have beautiful views, and mountains. I saw some last weekend when I went to Cuetzalan to visit one of my cohort. But I am in love with Popo and Itza. There is a legend associated with them. In the legend they were two young natives that were in love but Popocatepelt had to leave to go to war with the promise that when he retrurned he would marry Itzaccihuatl. But while the army was away another man was jealous of the love between Itza and Popo and told her that Popo had died on the battlefield. Izta died of a broken heart. When Popo returned he was angered by her death and carried her body to the top of a mountain and laid her there. Now he sits next to her still burning with anger. (If you would like to read the full story please follow this link: The Legend of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl) It is for their story and for what they represent to me, home, that makes them so special to me. when I am away for any reason, I know I am close to being home again when I see those mountains. It's like the first sign pointing in the direction of Anoka when I would drive home from college.

Another amazing rock formation in Mexico. This was shown to me on a Bays tour in Huatulco, Oaxaca.

I wonder in the way every Mexican I know well, knows the lyrics to songs that are very very old. Mariachi songs, or rancho songs, as soon as they are put on they are singing along. Just the other day the family was sitting at the table for comida and a song that everyone knew came on and everyone at the table started to sing or hum along.

Magic is Real

Mexico finally had our day light savings and I have decided that Day Light Savings is magic. For the last 4 monthes, being home before sun down has been like Cinderella racing to get home in time. I was constantly worried how I would get home when I was planning to stay out after the sun set, this was the subject of many disagreements with my host family because I wanted to be out longer. I had to give up a dance class because it started too late and I was walking to my home from the bus stop when it was really dark. Even coming home from work, I was walking home in the dark. Now after the time change I have regained a level of freedom that I have very much missed.

It is amazing how fast that all chances with just a little change of the time. It's Magic!

I had never noticed how life really changes with day light savings. I always associated the change of lifestyle with the sun being out longer and later, as much as this is true for summer time, it has not been as prevelant in the spring. Day light savings is magic.

Travel reflections

Titles have never been my strong suit.

I have been completely fortunate to be able to travel this year and have mobility monetarily and physically to do so.

I have been battling internally with the privilege I have, that has allowed me to travel. I live in a community that does not always have the opportunity to go to other countries, or even other states within Mexico. Many people in my community were asking me to put them in my luggage, and they actually seemed slightly serious.

Normally my host family has been able to travel and see other parts of the country, but do to personal changes in their lives that is no longer posible. My host family is amazing and very supportive of my trip to Oaxaca or other solo trips I have in mind. Though they are not able to go themselves, they encouraged me to go and listen to me for weeks talk about the things I was going to do and the places I was going to go.

I am also fortunate to have a worksite that is equaly excited for me to see more of their country. I have been asked many times by my coworkers where I will or have gone over long breaks or weekends, and have disappointed them when I tell them, I have no plans or did not go anywhere.

All in all I can come to no conclusion but to acknowlegde my privilege to travel, and for a host of other things. I cannot change it, nor change the situation of those around me. My next step is to walk with my community, I do not have much time left here in Mexico but the metaphorical sidewalk we walk now will not end in July. The people I have met, have impacted my life in a lasting way. My privilege has allowed me to meet them, and to learn from them. Lessons like appreciating time spent just sitting together, or filling a need where it is needed whether that need is large and takes a life time or a small need that can offered and completed in an afternoon. 

Travel Blog #2

Sorry Travel Blog #1 has not been finished yet but #2 is.

I have just come home from my trip to Oaxaca. Oaxaca is a state in Mexico and I traveled to 3 cities: Oaxaca City, Huatulco and Puerto Escondido. If you have never heard of Oaxaca or do not know how to say it this is how you say it: wa-ha-ka. It is an indigenous word either from the Zapotecas or the Mixtec. Oaxaca is in the southern Pacific Ocean side of Mexico. It is full of culture, food, and HEAT. I felt like I was going to melt every day.

I started my trip with my friend and fellow YAGMexico, Carlee. She and I traveled to Oaxaca City from Puebla. We spent about a day and a half there and did a lot of walking. We went on a free walking tour of the town. If you go to Oaxaca I would 100% recommend this tour to start you out. She also has a facebook page: Free Walking Tour Oaxaca. She took us around the city to some of the lesser known places to go to. She told us about cacoa, coffee and mezcal. She has a passion for her city, learning English, and meeting people from all over the world. I was truly inspired by her. We tried mezcal, and it is most definitly not my favorite alcoholic drink. It comes from the agave like tequila but can have a much higher alcohol content. Mezcal is also not a shot type drink. You do NOT drink it as fast as you can. It is a sipping drink.

Oaxaca City is so beautiful and colorful. I was so amazed by it that I came back a day early from Puerto Escondido. Oaxaca is where many of the alebrijes you find throughout Mexico are made. Alebrijes are wood carvings of animals, that they paint with wild colors, some animals are given wings or breath fire. Some of the alebrijes are dragon like characters, or other fictional characters that remind me of the monsters from the book Where the Wild Things Go. In Oaxaca there are several collections of artists that have gathered to have a store front of their own so they could cut the middle man out of their sales. There is even a guild of just female artists that have a store near the Templo de Santo Domingo. They are not just Alebrijes. They range from skills with rugs, weavings, paintings, leather work, needle work to make embroidered shirts. I was told that an even better place to get these art pieces is from the extieror towns aroudn Oaxaca, where most of the artists live. There you can talk to the artist directly about their work.

Carlee and I infront of the Oaxaca sign.

After Oaxaca City, Carlee and I went to Huatulco (said just like is it spelled without the 'h'). Huatulco is a beach town on the Pacific with a ton of bays and shares a border with a nature reserve. Carlee is from San Diego, California, so she was excited to see her ocean. Carlee was supressing, I think, much of the excitement she was feeling to see the ocean because when we finally go to it she was like a little girl b lining it to her favorite swing at recess. I was seeing a new person emerge from her. Actually not a person, a fish, or the little mermaid emerged from her. I saw the actual little mermaid. It was amazing to see.

During our time there we got to go on a bays tour. We got so burnt! I am now pealing, and not just from the time in Huatulco. I got burnt in Puerto Escondido and at my host home. (One thing I have for sure learned is that I need to wear sunscreen that is higher because the sun here is much more powerful than in Minnesota.) But being burnt was not the only thing I enjoyed on this trip. We got to see a mother and baby whale and I saw a turtle (I was the only one to see the turtle but I swear it was there!). The tour we went on was in Spanish, and full of Mexicans. This made it all the more fun and interesting. I competed in a dance competition and won! I got to drink a beer with the Captain.

Beers with the Captain. 

We also went snorkeling and saw some amazing see life! Somewhere on Facebook or in the internet are pictures of everyone that snorkels holding a puffer fish all puffed out. (Yes, even I held the fish!)

After Huatulco, Carlee headed to Mexico City and I headed to Puerto Escondido. At this point I would like to add an appreciation for Carlee. Carlee. Thank you for coming with me on this adventure, keeping me in check and enjoying the ride. As a general note. Thank you also for being such a good friend and cohort. 

In Puerto Escondido (and in Huatulco), I got to have the Spring Break my mom has always wanted me to have. I relaxed on a beach or in a hammock and read. Which also lead to me burning and looking like a tomato but that doesn't matter I enjoyed my time to just be. I also surfed for the first time, I got up too! 

I have no photographic evidence of my actually surfing, but this will have to do. 

Then that evening (same day) I went and released a baby turtle!

This one's name is Sammy (like from the movie A Turtles Tale), other's names were Olivia, and Nicole Jr. (My host brother says her name is really Nicolasita)

After a fun night of dancing at a Salsa Club, I headed back to Oaxaca City, to do more exploring there. Monte Alban is interesting for the views, but if you are wanting to see ruins, I would suggest Mitla, and you will be able to see El Tule as well and maybe even El Hierve de Agua. (all very famous Oaxaca sites)

A view of Monte Alban.

The giant famous tree of Oaxaca. 

If you have read up to this point here are some suggestions I have for you:

1- If you go to Oaxaca City, a lot some time to do activities outside of the city center.

2- For #1, talk to your hostel or hotel staff about how to get there cheaply, do not go with a tour you encounter in the city center, you WILL pay way too much. 

3- If you want to go to Huatulco or Puerto Escondido wait to book a bus, your hostel or hotel will have information about busses or vans that will go to those cities (especially Puerto Escondido) you may even pay less for the same trip. 

4- In hostels: talk to people!!!! You will meet some amazing people from around the world and have some very interesting conversations.

My Germans

At my work I have the pleasure to work with some amazing women the teachers and the volunteers. In total I am one of four foriegn volunteers at my worksite: CIPAAC. We are all serving here for one year through various programs. We have other volunteers as well that serve for a shorter period of time and are all from the surrounding community.

I affectionately refer to my volunteer collegues as "My Germans" or "The Germans" because they are more than just the people I work with they are my closest friends. There have been many times were I needed to just talk to someone I knew was going through some of the same things as I am and they have always been there for me.

It has been a pleasure to watch these women grow and change. The changes we have experienced have not been bad or inherently good, just different. I am excited for them and can't wait to see what will do in the world. 

With Love to: Lara, Luise (aka Luigi) and Nora

Sitting on the side of La Peña during our trip to Querétaro. (Left to right: Nora, me, Lara, Luigi and Luigi's friend from Germany Linus.)

Luigi's birthday celebration in Querétaro (Left to right: Me, Luigi, Lara, and Nora)

Post Dad Blog

So I sorta did a little pre Dad visit blog by answering the questions Kelly gave me after I published my last blog. I have been thinking about the time I spent with my Dad and those questions. This blog has been sitting in my head for a bit so I apologize if my thoughts do not always make sense.

First of all my time with my Dad was AMAZING! I am so happy that he was able to come down here and spend time in my community with me. We saw many things and did a LOT of walking. Even I was exhausted after our four full days together, and I am a customed now to walking a lot and the difference in altitude. We spent a day for Puebla and took a tour bus around the historic center, then walked around the city center (zocolo), and finally went to dinner with my host family. My Dad got to eat a typical Poblano meal that I haven't even had yet! (Chile en Nogada) Then we had a day for Cholula. We even got to go to a party at my worksite where we danced the "Chacha Slide", and all the students were impressed with our skills as a pair of dancers. (The Germans are still impressed 2 weeks later that he danced at all!) On my Dad's last day we went back into Mexico City, and passed the day there. Dad's flight was REALLY early in the morning the next day, so we went to the zocolo and did a segway tour of sights in the historic center then called it a night. The tour was truly fasinating!

I learned some of the ways I have grown in during my time here in Mexico while my Dad was here. As part of my program I am enacouraged not to have a phone plan, especially one with immediate inernet access. There are some that do but there circumastances are different than mine. Since I do not have internet all the time I have little use for being on my phone except to listen to music. I also have a limited amout of contact with my family and friends in the states as well (even my friends here in Mexico I rarely talk to because our Mexican phones are hard to text/call on). This can be a good thing and a bad thing. While my Dad was here I suggested that he have an international plan soo that if we needed to find something quick or get an Uber we could. But for him this was also to have contact with people back home, primarily my stepmom and sister. His contact with family and his work was eye opening for me. I do not mean this as a critique on my Dad, but it is some thing I noticed. Every once and a while my Dad would look at his phone turn on the data and check any messages he had gotten. When we were waiting for a bus or other transport, in the car with my host family, or waiting for food we ordered to get to us. Because of this I noticed how my relationship has become one of a tool and less of a friend, by that I mean that I don't feel pulled to look at my phone as much or to use it as much to go the whole day without wifi to check emails or facebook does not bother me as much anymore. I hope that this habit will continue when I return to the United States.

While my Dad was here we did a LOT of walking. After the first day my Dad was tired physically from all the walking and was working hard to keep up with me! I have not been a very active person in recent years and would not call myself a very active person here in Mexico either. But I walk a LOT everyday. There is also a large change in altitude, to the credit of my Dad, so that affects how a person can walk and be active. However, I am very proud of myself for being able to just walk like I do and the physical growth I have done. There is a different perspective that you get when you actually walk with the people you are living a long side.

Before my Dad came he got many of the same questions I did before I came. "Oo, are you going to be safe there?" "There's a lot of violence in Mexico, aren't you worried?" What I replied with was that YAGM is not going to send me to a place that will put me in harms way, and that I will be living with a host family that will help look out for me. Mine truly does look out for me. My Dad's responces (or so he tells me) were similar to mine but not about the program his responses were about me. I was not going to let him come visit me here if I did not feel safe or that he would not be safe. He also trusted me and my host family to look out for him. As my time here goes by I have become that person that someone (my Dad of all people) can count on. I would like to think that I have been that kind of person for a while now but there is something your own father tell you "I don't know what is going on or where we are going but I trust you." that you find a new confidence in yourself.

 I have grown in many ways and hope to share more with you as I write more blog posts in the future.

I will typically put here at the bottom of my blog post a Ted talk link of a Ted I have recently watched, but this time I have not spent as much time watching those. Instead I will leave you with a book suggestion: Tattoos on the Heart. I have not yet finished it, but it is very interesting so far. If you are a person that needs a lot of good stopping points then this is a great book for you.