in case you were wondering, i am still alive and well in mexico. i'm just a really bad blogger.

ok, here's the short version of my life right now. yes, i finally got my visa, on the last day the immigration office was open before closing for christmas. it took some haggling with the lady at immigration to give me the visa that day. as expected, the visa wasn't ready when they said it would be, but my boss very respectfully argued with the lady until she agreed to have it ready by that afternoon. i was really happy. so i was able to spend christmas with my family in the states, via a 19 hour bus from mcallen, tx to little rock. 19 hour bus rides are not actually as bad as they sound. after spending 10 days with my family and adorable niece and nephew, i drove my car down to texas where i met my cousins, who were spending christmas with other cousins who live in texas, and we caravanned back to mexico together.

so i started teaching for berlitz in january. it's going well, although they are not able to give me the amount of hours i would like. i've also started teaching a course at a small catholic university. it's a prep course for the TOEFL test, which is an english language test for non-native speakers. i really like my students there, but i'm struggling to not make all the grammar so boring.

other things are going well, although there are many days when living in mexico kind of drives me crazy. having my car down here is nice. and i've pretty much become accustomed the mexican way of driving, which is to say a little crazy. also, my cousin backed into the driver's side door of my car one sunday morning, so i'm dealing with mexican insurance. they don't make my car in mexico (toyota echo), even though saltillo is the detroit of mexico, so they are going to have to order a new door from the states.

i'm sorry this has taken so long for me to update. next time i'll have some more insights on frustrations and appreciations of mexican culture.