Alas. It only seems right to start off such an exciting adventure in such an exciting way. We chose to celebrate by setting our alarms at midnight for only a couple short hours later and waking up to the glorious melody of our alarm clocks at 2:30 AM. Although by this point the excitement of the trip was starting to set in a little, I'm pretty sure that very few things (except, perhaps, the real live Santa Claus standing before your eyes...with unlimited Tim Hortons gift cards...in Mexico...) can make a person truly happy at such an hour.
Off to the airport! Nicely enough, all of Emma's friends came to bid us farewell (thank you Jonathan Lefebvre)....at least SHE had one. We were greeted at the airport by a very nice security man who decided to make our goodbyes as awkward as possible as he whistled a tune and avoided all eye contact.
We made it smoothly through security, and to our delight both of our flights were on time and early. When we finally landed in Tucson at 11:00 AM, we were welcomed by lots of loud thunder and rain. Greg and Shelli, the couple that we are staying with and helping here in Mexico, arranged for a shuttle to pick us up at the airport at 3:00 PM. As soon as we landed, we collected our luggage and called the shuttle company, who informed us that the shuttle would arrive at around 2:45. Early, once again! We made ourselves comfortable on some chairs in the Tucson airport. We bought a very nutritious lunch that consisted of yogurt and granola, a fruit bowl, vitamin water, and of course, chocolate. After enjoying many laughs together, meeting a few very nice people in the airport, adding several picture albums to Facebook, and changing a relationship status or two, it was time for our shuttle to arrive. We hauled our seven pieces of luggage out the front doors and into the hurricane of death, making our way under the nearest shelter that really didn't keep us dry at all. After waiting for what seemed like hours in the cold rain storm, our chariot finally arrived, which, in this case, came in the form of a big white short bus full of Mexicans (As you can tell, we really got first class treatment here so far). They gave us the best seats in the house... squished between three Mexicans for the six hour bus ride. Between the two plane rides and the long shuttle, we managed to squeeze in approximately the Canadian equivalent of a full night's rest. Nonetheless, you could imagine how tired we were once we arrived in Mexico! It was so nice to finally get here.
We were dropped off at Greg and Shelli's house, and right away Greg took us to the church where people were celebrating Mexico's Independence Day (they celebrate the eve of in Mexico). We were reunited with many old friends and lots of delicious-looking food, but since we arrived so late the party wrapped up pretty shortly after we got there. The good news is that two beds were awaiting our presence just upstairs! Woohoo! Marcela, a lady from the church, took us up to the room and talked with us for a bit before we called it a night.
This morning we got up at 8:30 to go watch guys from the church play some football. Let's just say that watching twenty some Mexicans who grew up playing soccer try to play American football is very entertaining. Perhaps they should stick with soccer ;).
Because of the holiday, today was a pretty relaxed day for us all. After the game we went out to the country where a couple families and some of the youth were eating and playing games. We had a lot of fun out there, ate a little, took some pictures, and talked a lot. After some time, a few of us crammed into a car and drove back to the church where one of the ministries was happening tonight with some of the younger people from around the area. Marcela was leading the girls' chat upstairs, while Cesar (Marcela's husband), and some others were downstairs with the guys. That was good, except for the fact that we couldn't understand much of the Spanish... besides that, the night was good! The evening concluded with spending some more time with our Mexican friends and then Skyping for a while. What a lovely conclusion to our first full day in Mexico!
Things have been going great so far and we're really enjoying being here with old and new friends. We will try to keep y'all updated as time goes on, but since we don't ever know what each day will bring we just have to roll with the cheese. (If you're wondering what ever happened to sense and reason in this blog, she fell asleep on me 20 minutes ago).
Talk to you all soon. Thanks for readin'!
Em'n'Em
No comments:
Post a Comment