Lola the traveling cat

I was nervous about bringing Lola home. I've never traveled with an animal apart from the few hour drives to jefferson city with Cosmo,.the most mellow dog ever. So yesterday, in order to make sure today went as smoothly as possible, I dotted every I and crossed every T. I checked in online minutes after it was available. I paid for my extra bag in advance online. I called United Airlines to reconfirm that I would be traveling with a cat from Veracruz to Houston to Kansas City and that everything was in order and good to go. I was assured it was. I found out otherwise at the airport this morning. Octavio & I woke up at 6:00 AM, took a taxi to the bus station in Xalapa, a bus to Veracruz, then a taxi from the Veracruz bus station to the airport. Luckily, we were hours early because we would need the time. When I went to check in my bags were the perfect weight (one was actually half a kilo over but the guy kindly let it slide) I reached the counter and the lady had this look on her face when she said "hablas espanol?" She then proceeded to tell us that Mexico had just changed their policy about in cabin pets LAST WEEK! Also, she added, the cargo area isn't pressurized animals can't go with the luggage. They could change my flight and add a stop in Mexico City but I would need a hard kennel for that. (unlike the soft kennel I specifically purchased because I was told it was necessary for in cabin pets) oh, but then she realized the plane to Mexico City was full. I could use their pet shipping service to ship Lola so I could travel according to my original plan. No, thank you. While this nice lady is trying to find a way to help me her supervise wanders over with a smug look on his face. So I ask him why when I called United yesterday wasn't I informed that my cat wouldn't be able to travel in any manner on the flight. He said well they probably didn't know about the rule change. Then I asked why no one there had bothered to call and tell me when they realized it yesterday. He smugly tells me it's because I didn't have a mexican phone number listed. Well buddy, spring for the long distance and call the number listed. My mom would have gotten ahold of me. Or better yet, my email is listed there, that's free, shoot me an email and notify me of the changes. It seemed our only option was going to be stay in Veracruz overnight, buy a hard kennel, take the first flight to México City to Houston. Once I was in Houston I would have to change Lola to a soft kennel for the flight to KC. Luckily, the lady helping us realized what an inconvenience that would be and also how stupid it was that if I had traveled last week Lola would be allowed but a few days later no. So she talked to her manager and they decided we would, in a sense, sneak Lola on the plane. So I went through security like normal (except this time I had to walk through the metal detector with a scared cat in my arms, I guess making sure Lola wasn't a drug mule/cat) but no one stopped me so I kept going. And I am very thankful to the woman who was so understanding and helped me. I had a hard enough time saying goodbye to my fiance today, don't make me leave my cat in Mexico now too!

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Adios Mexico

This could very well be my last blog post from Mexico.  Although I'm sure there will be some entertaining stories about the ten hour journey home with Lola in tow so that might warrant a blog post (but still...not from Mexico.) 

Moving home is incredibly bittersweet.  There are some things I'm looking forward to immensely about being back in Kansas but there are even more things I'm going to miss about Mexico.

Things I'm looking forward to:

I cannot wait to have a hot shower whenever I feel like it.  I still have trouble remembering to turn on our water heater in time for it to heat up before I need to shower.  Also, our water heater is scary.  It reminds me of the scary furnace in Brave Little Toaster.  Sometimes when it decides to it pauses before turning on (surprise attack really) then spurts out a fire ball when you're not expecting it.  Well, I'm always expecting it now because my eyebrows and I had a few too many close calls so now I turn it on and back up really quickly just in case.  Also, Lola has recently begun investigating the water heater when it's turned off.  I haven't caught her in the act but I'm assuming she sticks her head in there because I'll catch her sitting in the kitchen with her little orange head black, completely covered in ashes.  She looks like a chimney sweep cat straight out of Mary Poppins.

Dishwashers.  I hate doing dishes by hand.  Hate it.  Luckily, it's just Octavio & I so there's really not too many dishes. Our water cups have a tendency to stack up however because Lola has decided she thinks it's great fun to stick her dirty little paws in any cup she finds then proceed to drink our water.  But I will not miss doing dishes by hand.  Ever.

Being busy.  Even when I was working I was never really busy.  When I worked at CEYCI I felt busier than I was because I was exhausted when I came home, not from teaching but from breaking up fights and chasing children down and pulling children out of the bathroom and back into the classroom.  What a mess that school was.  At Summer Hills while the students were polite and well behaved I was never busy.  I worked only two to three hours a day if that and half the time that was policing recess which basically consisted of standing by the swings and saying "don't run" repeatedly.  I'm really looking forward to having a job, having a schedule, and having things to do.

Friends.  I miss my friends like crazy.  It gets lonely here in Xalapa.  It's hard to meet people when you're not in school or working in a job where you interact with people your own age (as opposed to second graders)  Octavio's friends from school are great but the only person I've really gotten close with is his bff here, Soco.  So I'll add him to the list of things/people I'm going to miss about Mexico.  I miss the easy conversations and silly laughs I have with my friends.  So really, friends should probably be at the top of this list if I was doing it in order from most to least excited instead of the order I think of things.

My family & pets.  Lola is wonderful.  Octavio thinks I baby her too much but we have spent an exorbitant amount of time together these past months.  Plus, I got her when she was only 5 months old so I trained her to like to cuddle as much as I do. But I still miss my puppies and cats at home.  Especially sweet Cozmo who had to get her teeth pulled last month and is apparently walking even slower than ever now.  And even though I skype with my family a lot it's not the same as being there.

Food.  I miss the choices of food more than the food really.  The choice of "do I want Italian, pizza, Mexican, hamburgers, sushi...what do I feel like?" 


What I'll miss:

This guy obviously.

After four years of having to do the long distance thing it's been nice to just be able to be together.  I've gotten used to seeing him every day and it's going to be rough to switch back to only phone calls, emails, texts, and skype.  Plus, he makes really good food.  I've gotten used to that also!

These girls.

how can you not love this little face?  She's going to start walking any minute now & I'm going to miss it!

These little chatterboxes probably taught me more Spanish than anyone & I'm going to miss hearing them argue with each other & crack me up with their little kid sayings!

The rest of Octavio's family.  If Tres Valles wasn't so gosh darn hot I would have much rather preferred living there than Xalapa so we could hang out with his family every day.

Empanadas.  I just love empanadas and there's just no good empanadas in Kansas. 

Mainly, I'll miss the people.  If I could just scoop them all up and take them to Kansas with me then I'd be a happy, happy girl.  But it doesn't work that way. 

Tulum Day 4: More ruins + some snorkling

I thought I had already posted the last of our vacation pictures but apparently I just saved it as a draft!  ooops!  Well, here's our last day of adventure in Tulum! Better late than never!


Friday we went to yet another Mayan ruin.  This one was just down the street and we could ride our bikes there.  Octavio liked these ruins the best.  They were very pretty because they overlooked the beach.  Octavio decided this is where the Mayans went for Spring Break.   We found out Octavio could get in free to all the ruins with his student ID.  We also found out he got 50% off on a snorkling tour so we quickly signed up for that as well!

The entrance to Tulum's ruins.

Landscape in the ruins.

Octavio in front of the beach in the ruins.

Me in the same spot.

Another tiny hallway.

Overlooking the beach.

A view of part of the ruins from a hill. 

ruins & beach.

the beach below the ruins.

a big iguana enjoying his lunch.  Looks like he had a close call with someone bigger than him because he only has a stump of a tail. There were iguanas everywhere!

an entrance to the beach from the ruins.

Octavio in front of the beach.

The voladores from Papantla, Veracruz were there.  I'll never get tired of watching them fly.

After the ruins we headed down to the beach to go snorkling.

Sol was sponsoring a party later and they were just setting up their tents and cases upon cases of beer when we showed up.

Octavio ready to go as we all piled into the boat.

We got to sit in the front of the boat.

and away we go!

the view of the ruins from the ocean.

so pretty.

the ruins from the ocean side.

excited to see some fish!

the ruins again.

the snorklers.  It took us a while to get the hang of breathing through the masks and then Octavio had a run in between his knee and a rock in part of the coral reef.

We had fun though!