Guaymas v. Salem

I’ve had some questions about what we’re doing now that we’re in Salem so here goes…

First off, we are looking around and noticing all the differences between Salem and Guaymas. Like the mountains (snow capped) v. the cactus or the raindrops v. the sun or the coffee drive-thrus v. the taco stands. Talking, listening and reading in English and not Spanish – although there is a lot of Spanish on signs/notices that I don’t think we had in Seattle.

Secondly, we are looking back and wondering if we did the right thing by selling our house (YES!), our furniture, car, Harley and all the other things and we just now looked at each other and said, “Hell yes!” We had the dream to teach English, to live in another culture, to LIVE life and we did it. Did it work out? No, not really. But we still like to reflect back on the last year. Geez, we wouldn’t have met Mama Lolita’s entire family, Brenda and Roy, Bliss and The Capt, Ritchie from Scotland or all those little Mexican rascals that I taught if we hadn’t lived in Guaymas!

But back to the present…we are exploring our neighborhood. Sitka and I have been up and down one street after another. There is a marine park about 5 blocks away and it runs right along the Willamette River. We were there again this morning and Sitka walked in the water – BRRRRR! She’s not a Mexican dog anymore.

We’re doing boring stuff like updating our address (again) with all of the different businesses we deal with and now we’re shopping for a better deal on auto insurance, plus, I need to get started on filing our taxes for 2008...that should be interesting.

We’re writing letters to family and friends that don’t have email. We’re spending time with Betty and Ron and getting to know them. We’re gathering our documents for Mike’s appointments with Social Security and his new doctor.

We’re talking to friends and relatives back in the Seattle area, but don’t have plans to visit anytime soon. But we are expecting our friend, Teresa, from Lake Stevens to visit next month and we will all get together with Steve Cotton.

And, of course, I am job hunting online. I have submitted multiple applications…mostly for governmental jobs which seem to be in abundance.

I’m cooking a lot and Mike is finally eating more. In fact, I’ll probably write another post about food. I’ve gone a little crazy!

We’re arguing a little…we always do. But we’re good about kissing and making up. We’ve had quite a year – it’s been 11 months since Mike’s seizures and brain surgeries in Mexico City. Where does the time go?!

So there you have it. Mike, Cynthia and Sitka in Salem.