Hustle Bustle

Hey Guys, So after almost two weeks I am starting to get into the swing of things. The internet in my apartment is spochy so I have to go down to the common area to use it. My room is clean but a bit boring with the empty white walls. From my windo I have a view of mountains volcanoes and a skyscrpaer that is part of a mall. The tower itself seems to be empty and more just for show rather than actual purpose.

I can now get to the center and back easily and know my way around decently. Life here is not as slow as it was in Chile. It is Mexico, but it is a large city (3 million) and for me it is taking some getting used to. I have leads on a few jobs. One I think I have in the bag, and it pays $3120 pesos per month/ $300 / 12 hrs per week. I would need to find another job to supplement that one in order to save some money and pay off my loans. There are a lot of other positions available some which I am awaiting responses and some which I still need to visit. Oh and the majority of the jobs require me cutting my hair because the students have strict dress codes. :( ..asi se va la vida... Another option is private tutoring, which goes for about $7/hr depending on size and the client. This is a bit more difficult as everything becomes my responsibility, including purchasing materials and collecting payments etc.

I can eat for about $5 a day but a little bit more would be nice to be able to travel and try some of the famous foods here. I have not gotten sick, but Maria has. The food is great, for about $1.50 you can get a huge molote, taco, quesedilla, tostad or torta, all of them are awesome and not like those we have in the US. The vegetables and fruits are fresh and of numerous types. The beverages are really good, Agua de Horchata which is a milky sugary juice is amazing. Equally delicious are the agua de jamaica and Tuna (Tuna's are prickly cactus fruit and jamaica is a dried flower).

I am also working about 8 hours a week for the CIF Centro Integral de Fotografia. The school is looking to begin doing kind of tourism photo workshops. They need someone who speaks english to help start the program and later on to be involved with the clients and tours. I think I have landed in a great position in that respect. Right now, I am working to create a program that will attract tourists from the US and Europe mainly. Lilia the owner wants to do the first program in the Fall so I have my work cut out for me. If the program does work out I may have to renegotiate my pay from receiving free classes to an actual paid position. But for now I am really enjoying just having access to all my photo needs. Sorry for the lack of pictures this post but here are some generic scenes from the center to appease.

Here is a link to a map I made, not sure if it worked though

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=19.024472,-98.297424&spn=0.698471,1.035461&z=10&msid=106460799863697335375.00047147ca7a8dcbf3f37

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Part of trip: Mexico

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