Hello everyone!
Well, its starting to become more of a reality for me that in about 2 weeks I will be back in the US, making a big shift from what I have lived the last 6 months. Becoming the majority after getting used to being the minority, speaking english, etc. It´s difficult to invision all the changes that will take place, and its probably best that I just let myself experience them, although I have been thinking some recently about what it will feel like to go back to harrisonburg, a city so familiar to me, yet so different than xalapa that it might feel foreign for a while. Anyhow, returning is definitely on my mind, but not so much so that I´ve forgotten to enjoy my last 2 weeks here to the fullest.
First and foremost, I forgot that I havent written on this blog since the most recent big change in my life and in our family...the birth of my new niece Lydia who was born a week ago! Ive very excited to be an uncle and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to get to meet her over skype last monday. She didnt have too much to say but by the look on her face, she is overjoyed to have joined the family and I think we are just as happy to have welcomed her as the newest member of the clan. Of course I´m looking forward to getting to meet her in real life here in a few weeks to test out my uncle skills.
Life here in Xalapa has continued to cruise along, this past weekend has been especially full of activities. Yesterday, Saturday, I got to experience a graduation banquet here with a bunch of friends, which was a formal night full of food and dancing. We got done with the celebration at around 4:30 in the morning and I caught a few hours of sleep before getting up this morning to head to a city in Puebla to celebrate another friends birthday. We arrived there this afternoon and hung out and enjoyed pozole, a traditional mexican soup, and birthday cake. We also stopped off at a natural swimming hole to take a dip in the crystal clear water. This evening, we headed back to Xalapa and I actually just got in a few minutes ago. I´m pretty exhausted from the weekend so I´ll probably be heading to bed before too long.
School continues to go well, the main thing I´m working on at the moment is a final project in my chicana literature class. I read a book by a chicana author and I´m now in the process of writing a research paper about several themes in the book. I spent most of last friday working on the paper and its getting close to being finished. My classes will be wrapping up here soon, I was expecting to have more work at the end of the semester, so it really shouldnt be too stressful.
I´ve continued to play and watch soccer here, more now than I had in the last few months which has been really fun. Mexico has had several national team games, which are always fun to watch as well as the final in the mexican national league. I also found some guys who play every saturday in the afternoon, so I´ve played with them the last 2 weekends. I also semi joined a team who plays a few times a week at night on a cool artificial turf field. They invited to play with them because they are coworkers of alejandro and found out that I enjoy playing.
Well, I´ll leave it at that for now, I´ve left out a ridiculous amount of my daily life and rountine here, but as I´ll be coming back so soon, I will hopefully have a chance to share way more details with you soon. I hope everyone is doing super well back in the states. This may be my last blog entry, we´ll see how things go. If I do something super exciting and I have time to write about it, I´ll put it up. If not, I´ll see everyone in about 2 weeks or soon after! Take care,
Tio David
