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| seeing my sister again after 9 months! |
8/21/12:
Only after a day of me being back from juarez my little sister came over to visit! I showed her around Rosarito and she had a blast. She thought she was in paradise (she LOVES the beach). We also stopped to get some groceries and look around the little stores that they have there. I ended up buying her a really pretty summer dress and a big poster of Marilyn Monroe because she loves her. We had a nice day and night talking about our shared memories about our childhood. She is going to be eighteen now and I shared with her a lot of my memories of our father and why I wasn't his biggest fan. It was really nice spending time with her.
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| Now that is a burrito! |
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| My sister Mariel enjoying the view of my apartment. |
8/22/12:
I woke up to the news that my Visa was in transit! it was on it's way to Tepic, Nayarit! I started freaking out and tried to get a hold of DHL for them to re-direct it again but no luck... It's "sensitive information" and they can't re-direct it without the consulate giving the "Go". I called Juarez and they told me to call the DHL, I called DHL and they told me to call Juarez... In the end after talking to my husband we just said fuck it and bought two plane tickets for me and Mariel (sister). The next morning we where on our way to Guadalajara.
8/23/12"
Mariel and I woke up early and got ready to take the plane to Guadalajara. The "fun" started as soon as we walked into the airport. I had forgotten that Mariel needed a tourist visa and the line was HUGE. So we where going to check in our luggage then wait in line when the lady told me that my bank did not authorized the purchase and my flight had been canceled. I ended up using two ATM's in order to get enough money to buy two more tickets for the next flight. We got mariel her tourist visa and we where on our way. Now we didn't have tickets to come back so we would have to buy tickets when we got to Guadalajara. Then we had the bus tickets to worry about from Guadalajara to Tepic and from Tepic to Santiago.
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| on our way to Guadalajara |
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| She has no idea what's coming to her. |
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| Damn ATMs! |
When we finally arrived in Guadalajara we asked how much a taxi would cost to take us to the bus station (270 pesos!) ugh.. well I had to pull out more money but I was already maxed out for the day! I ended up exchanging $100 USD to Pesos then using all the ATMS that I could in order to pull more money out. We got the tickets then we where on our way to Tepic. It was raining like crazy! I have been on a lot of buses in mexico but I had never been on a bus during a thunderstorm. Once we got to Tepic we called my mom to tell her that we where fine. Turns out my husband noticed me taking money from different ATMs and told my mom and she started freaking out because she thought we had been kidnapped and the kidnappers made us pull out a lot of money. After calming her down and telling her that we where fine we took the bus to Santiago. Once we go there my aunt and uncle where there to meet us!
As soon as we got off the bus I had horrible flashbacks of the weather in nayarit. It was raining warm water and it was humid and hot. I looked at Mariel and laughed because she was in for a hell of a surprise.
8/24/12
After a horrible night of thunder storms and bug bites, -oh and mariel waking up screaming in the middle of the night because she had a bug on her face- we waited around for my uncle to get home so he could take me to Tepic, it was still raining and I did not want to take the bus again! Finally he got home and we went to Tepic to pick up my visa!
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| Visa in hand! |
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| it would not stop raining! |
After we got back to my aunts I showed Mariel around town and a guy selling Churros. Mariel by the way was already ready to go due to the crazy amount of mosquito bites we both had (and still have scars). I told her that it would be fine, My aunt had told us that the next day they where taking us to a river!
8/25/12:
There is a river by San Blas that is really nice to go swimming in. There is a hot spring and the water is so warm you feel like you are in a Jacuzzi. I thought I was going to get a chance to Tan but... Once we got there it started pouring rain! I love the rain and was more happy in the rain than in the river. My aunt told us that the next day we would go visit my moms oldest sister so Mariel could meet her.
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| I love the rain... |
8/26/12:
After we woke up Mariel counted the bites on my back (32)... it hurt.. a lot. Later in the day we went to visit my moms oldest sister and she was really happy to see us and meet my sister for the first time. Her daughters (my cousins) made us food and we had a nice time talking to them. -I did not have any internet this whole time by the way.
8/27/12
Our last day in Nayarit was nice, I took Mariel to Santiago so she could look around where I was born because the next day we where going to have to travel back to TJ. She loved meeting the family but the weather and humidity where horrible. Not to mention we where covered in bites.
8/28/12:
We said our goodbye's to the family and promised to return soon. I think Mariel had her fingers crossed when she said that though. We once again traveled all the way to Guadalajara taking two buses in the process. Then finally home! we got there at maybe 2:30am and the next day I was going to wake up early to get my Visa stamped because Chris was on his way to bring me back home!
8/29/12
I got woken up early by my awesome neighbor Lara, she works in san diego and i asked her if she could take me to the border to get my stamp. Once we got there I was maybe 15 minutes in there.. at first they told me that it would take 3 hours because there was a lot of people there, minutes later my named was called and the guard just handed me my passport and had me put my fingerprints on a piece of paper and said that I was done! I was like "really? that's it?" He handed me my welcome letter and send me off!
8/30/12
Chris, Mariel and I went out to Puerto Nuevo to celebrate we went to a nice restaurant and then went home and started packing!
8/31/12
Time to go home! A lot of people have asked me what it felt like crossing... My answer is this: I was in too much of a shock to react. It took me a while and it's still taking me a while to adjust to being back in the U.S. I am so happy to be back home with my family that I have no words to describe this feeling. The last 10 months have been a very humbling experience. I don't look at things the same way anymore. I appreciate everything around me. My journey is far from over, I still need to get my SS# and my Green Card. I am about to start a new chapter in my life and I couldn't be more grateful. Stick around!
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| Adios Mexico! |
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| Hello Home... |
-Roby
Things I've learned
....with hard work, you can make miracles happen.
