Orientations

Well it has now been two weeks since leaving Richmond. What a whirlwind!

The first week of orientation in Akron was incredible. There were over 100 of us there, people from all around the world gathered to prepare ourselves for the upcoming year. Being able to connect with other people who are in the same boat was an invaluable experience. Our days consisted mainly of various workshops and sessions designed to aid us in our cross cultural living mixed with free time which we used to relax, play games, and connect with other people.

Last Saturday I left for Mexico City, a relatively short flight compared to the rest of the SALTers. Although turbulent weather delayed the planes a bit, I arrived safely on Saturday evening. The next few days were spent at the house of the MCC Country Representatives, Marion, Ricardo and their little daughter Isabel. I got a bit of an introduction to Mexico City, a rather overwhelming place with about 23 million residents. On Tuesday, due to some technical difficulties, I ended up needing to head down to San Cristóbal de las Casas, a beautiful city in the southern province of Chiapas, where I met and stayed with an MCC family doing work at an NGO in that city.

During my time there I was able to spend time wandering the streets of San Cristóbal learning about Mexican culture, food, and history as well as have an introduction to MCC's w0rk in the area. I was a little disappointed to find out that the weather in San Cristóbal was much like Vancouver's; wet and cold. However, despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed my adventures there with Kirstin, Elí, their two little girls, and Meredith, another MCC worker who happened to be in San Cristóbal for language school.

I arrived back in Mexico City this morning; having spent 33 hours of the last four days on a bus. Although this was longer than anyone had expected, I was able to see a lot of Mexico in a short period of time. One thing that has struck me about Mexico is how much it looks exactly like B.C. Most of the time travelling was spent going through beautiful mountains covered with rich green trees. Also, I have discovered that the Mexican time schedule suits me perfectly...nothing is really expected to happen before nine or ten in the morning! A perfect situation for someone with my morning-person skills.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading to Cuernavaca, my home for the next year. We will leave early in the morning in order to arrive in time to start language classes that day. I am very excited to begin to explore the city!

Until next time,
Sam