Pesos

So far, I have been spending A LOT of money in Mexico!!  Of course I realized that Puerto Vallarta would be a bit more expensive than Tanzania, but it's not a lot more expensive, so I really had to analyze why I am spending more money here.  This is what I have come up with.

1.  My friends here have more money, hence, suggest more expensive activities.  The general standard of living here seems a bit higher than in Tanzania, so even my local friends here have more money than my local friends in Tanzania.  And even Sofia from Sweden (fellow volunteer in Tanzania) was on a pretty tight budget, which really helped me out!!  I usually hang out with my classmates here in PV, and most are here only for a few weeks, so they are looking to experience as much as possible in a short time!  And of course, I have a hard time saying no to fun activities!!

My expensive friends and I cruising around PV!

2.  I live right in downtown Puerto Vallarta, whereas in Africa, I lived a good 20 minute, very shady, dala dala ride away from downtown.  Here I am super close to shopping, restaurants, and activities, whereas in Tanzania, I was pretty close to the orphanage and....not much else.  It is so tempting to spend money when everything is so close!  Which brings me to number three....

Hanne and I dining on the beach!

3.  There are so many great restaurants here!  I had really good intentions of getting groceries weekly and almost always eating at home, but so far, that has not really happened at all!  I have gotten groceries exactly once since arriving here, and I still have quite a bit of food left in my cupboard.  I just love to go out to eat, and when there are probably 30+ restaurants within 10 minutes walking distance, it is pretty hard to eat at home.  And Mexican food is so good!!  I have actually decided to seriously limit my semi-expensive, touristy restaurants, but allow myself as much street food and local Mexican food as I want!!!  In Tanzania, unless I wanted to take the 20 minute shady ride into town, I had exactly 2 food choices near my house....chips mayai and cassava.  Hence, it was a lot easier to convince myself to eat at home.

Mmmm....quesadilla!

Mango donut snack

4.  Shopping.  My street is pretty much the "cute boutique, accessory, and shoe store" version of Michigan Ave.  I have thus far restrained from buying any new clothes or shoes (I can't say the same for accessories), but it is SO tempting!  And I don't even like to shop that much, but I walk past these cute displays every day on my way to school.  I simply didn't have this temptation in Africa!  There were very few stores in the whole city that sold new clothes and shoes, as most people bought their clothes second hand at the flee market.  By the time I was finished with my 14 weeks in Africa, I was pretty sick of wearing the same clothes that I had packed, but here, I am getting sick of my clothes already!!  I want cute NEW ones!!

New beach chair and new inner tube......obviously I needed these things!

5.  Maya is doing great, and I love having her here with me, but she is certainly an added expense.  Dog food, treats, poop bags, a new bed, not to mention that we've already been to the vet twice since she developed some sort of skin allergy from the humidity here!  But besides that, her health has been great, thank goodness, and hopefully her medicine will be cheaper here.

Me and my baby

Next week, Louie will be here visiting (I'm so excited!), but I swear after he leaves, I am going on a strict budget!!!  We'll see how that goes....

Mi clase de espanol

My classmates.  Joelle (Canada), Hanne (Belgium)
 and Martin (Austria)

I started Spanish class last Tuesday, and so far it is going really well.  It has been a really long time since I've taken a class taught completely in Spanish, and it does take a bit of getting used to!  It has actually really made me think about my own students and my teaching practices.  It is really hard to learn new concepts when you don't understand quite a lot of the words that the teacher is saying!!  When I am teaching my own students, I sort of expect them to remember the definition of a word that we just talked about 10 minutes ago, but in my Spanish class, I am shocked at how often that happens to me!  The word sounds familiar, and I know we just talked about it 10 minutes ago, but I just can't remember what the stupid word means!!!!!  I will certainly be more patient with my students next year when teaching new vocabulary and concepts!

I am getting the hang of it though, and I can already tell that my Spanish is getting better.  Although I still can't imagine what it will be like when I can actually think in Spanish and do not have to translate constantly in my head.  If I am at that point at the end of my 12 weeks of study, I will be very very happy.

Dinner at Senor Frogs

Not only are my four hours a day of Spanish class keeping my busy, by my classmates and I are keeping busy outside of class as well.  There are school sponsored activities every day of the week (board games on Mondays, movies on Tuesdays, Cafe Social at a local bar on Wednesdays, cooking class on Thursdays, and salsa lessons on Fridays, and I usually sign up for two or three of those.  In addition, my new friends and I come up with our own fun afternoon and evening activities as well.  We've tried many different restaurants for lunch and dinner and of course a few bars as well for drinks and salsa dancing! 

Cafe Social with our teacher Edgar, Hanne, Joelle, and Diane

Hanging in PV

After Maya and I moved into our new apartment, I had a week before my classes started to just hang out and enjoy Puerto Vallarta.  In addition to Maya and I's daily walks to the beach and setting up the apartment, I have had a few other adventures as well. 

Last Monday, I went with Antonio and Ricardo and some other friends to a nearby town called Sayulita for a night of salsa dancing!  There was a live Cuban band and everyone was dancing.  And since I went there with four Mexican boys and two others met us there, I was never without a dance partner!!  Actually, I barely had a minute to sit down for a rest!  I will be an excellent salsa dancer by the end of this four months!!

On Friday, Antonio and I checked out the Puerto Vallarta Zoo.  It is a few miles outside of Puerto Vallarta, so we took a very scenic bus ride along the coast to get there.  The zoo was quite different than a zoo in America.  We could get so close to the animals and even feed them!  Also, I got to play with three baby tigers and two baby monkeys! 

For the Superbowl on Sunday, I went to a bar owned Antonio's friend Cesar to watch the game.  It was fun, but unfortunately, they were watching the game on a Canadian channel, so there were no good commercials!  I had to watch the best ones on-line the next day.

On Monday, my last day of vacation before starting school, Saul and I headed to Punta de Mita for surfing lessons!  It was my first time surfing, but I think I had a great teacher because I actually could stand up on the board almost every time I tried!  It took me about half of the wave to actually stand up, but I was able to stand for a while.  It was so fun, but my arms were so tired from paddling!!

Also, I wanted to add a few more pictures around my apartment.  It is such a beautiful area; Maya and I chose our apartment well!

Outside the apartment.

Our view of the ocean.

The walkway up to our apartment.

Our new home!

Our apartment in Valle Dorado

For the past week, Maya have been staying with Ricardo and Antonio at Ricardo's lovely house in Valle Dorado (sort of a suburb of Puerto Vallarta).  Maya had mixed feelings about staying there since she liked the boys when they fed her chicken, but she hated them if they came within 10 feet of me!!  Valle Dorado was a really cute and safe neighborhood with mostly families living there.  In the evenings, kids would ride their bikes in the street, and everyone was out sitting on porches or walking around and talking.  The atmosphere was great, but I really needed to live closer to my school in downtown Puerto Vallarta.

Maya guarding the bed!



We moved yesterday to our new apartment in Colonial Centro, Puerto Vallarta!  We are 3 blocks from the beach and about 5 blocks from my school.  The apartment is a super cute studio with an enclosed garden that Maya loves to play in.  We are happily settled now after a trip to Walmart today for some groceries and a few essentials.  I also took my placement test for Spanish school today.  I am very excited to start next week!

Our new apartment!

Besides apartment searching, Maya and I have been keeping busy mostly at the beach!

Hanging with Antonio and Saul.

Maya's first trip to the beach!