Patiently waiting . . .

I've been back in Iowa for a little over a week, patiently waiting for the green light from immigration to make my appointment at the Mexican consulate in Omaha and then receive my work visa. Like any other government process, this entire ordeal has been a runaround and at times quite comical. A woman that works in Cancun is helping me, I don't know how a person would ever go about doing this on their own. Let me give you a quick recap of what I've had to do to get to this point.

Starting the beginning of March, the hotel that I'll be working at sent a letter inviting me to work for them. Once immigration received the letter, they asked for my resume, in Spanish, with a lot of spacing, color, and my picture. So basically, a resume that goes against all the rules that I've been taught when it comes to writing resumes.

Once they were happy with that, they wanted my diplomas. Upon receiving those, they wanted confirmation from the US consulate that the diplomas were valid. After a few phone calls and one sweaty trip through Playa, it was determined that consulates don't do that. Thankfully, the American consulate in Playa del Carmen knew what they were after and told me that I needed to get an apostille from the Iowa Secretary of State. I wasn't back in Iowa yet so my mom made a trip to DSM and the Secretary of State office to get these for me. Overnighted the apostilles and they arrived the day I got back to the states. Then, the woman helping me emailed to say they wanted the apostilles translated. This is where it gets funny. If you haven't ever seen an apostille, it's about 20 words, basically a notary stating that the other notary (the one on my diploma) was legit. So I translated it via Google and told her to take that to immigration. She was worried that they wanted a translator to do it, one that would stamp/seal the document and charge me $50 bucks. But thankfully, they accepted my google translation. I had to scan my passport for her (again) and cross my fingers that they were going to ask for my first born child, a vile of blood, etc.

So here we are - April 5th. I received an email yesterday saying that we did it, that immigration was satisfied with all of the documents and now I'm just waiting for the authorization code that the consulate requires to make my appointment. Once I get that, appointment in Omaha at 8 am, work visa in my hand at 1 pm, flight back to Playa the next day.

Whew. Seriously. A few times I thought it was never going to happen. And if I didn't love Playa so much, I might have given up. I'm anxious to get back and start working, very excited to join the Royal Resorts concierge team and meet some new people. A few pictures from my time back. I'm in DSM currently, visiting friends and getting as much great food as I can, Hu Hot, Sushi at Sakari, Jethros, Flying Mango, Zombie Burger.


Sunset out at my parents' place. Iowa truly is beautiful, even with no leaves and brown grass.

I was able to help with Lyndsy's baby shower last weekend and even surprise a few friends. Love these ladies!

 

Baby Gumz is going to be a scuba diver, I just know it!

Everyone cross their fingers for me that I'll be able to start work in another week or so. Viva la Mexico!!

Arachnophobia

Today, I, Sarah Benz, am admitting to myself and the entire world (or just the handful of people who read this blog) that I am petrified of spiders. Small spiders I can handle. Big, hairy, long-legged, super fast, Mexican spiders? Not a fan.

Yesterday I was cleaning the house, moving some things around and getting my clothes re-organized. We have been searching for a dresser for me to put my things in since I got down here but it's been kind of an afterthought most of the time, I wasn't in a rush and I had my stuff laid out nicely on a blanket, no big deal. As I'm moving my clothes a HUGE spider runs from under my bag into a pile of shorts. I lose it. Like screaming at the top of my lungs, ready to start crying, almost run out of the house, lose it. Now I have to go through all of my clothes to find this spider. I get the chair from the table and the broom and begin using the handle to flip over and shake out all of my clothes. I see the giant one more time and again scream like a little girl but then, after going through everything, he's gone. At this point I have no idea what I'm going to do, it's a good 6+ hours until Cristian gets off work and I can't just casually hang out at the house knowing that there is a spider waiting for the right moment to attack. I check to see if the neighbors home so he can help me, no dice. I put on my sandals for optimal squishing and then after going through everything and not seeing him, I decide to suck it up and go about my day. I am getting ready to change the sheets on the bed and when I pick up the top sheet, he falls out of the sheet onto the floor. YEP, THE SPIDER WAS IN MY BED!!!!!!!!!!!  With cat-like reflexes I stomp on him. It took me two hours and one corona (at 11 am) to calm down. And now, if a dust bunny happens to blow by me and I see it in my peripheral, I scream.

Needless to say, see below picture of my new dresser. No freaking way were my clothes going back on the floor. There are guys around town that haul dressers, tables and chairs around on a little cart and you just stop them on the street and negotiate a price. We're going to stain it eventually but for now, it's perfect. Anything is better than the floor.

#1 reason I should have never started a blog . . .

Here we are, more than a month since my last post. I had a feeling this would happen. Okay, let me recap what I have been doing the last month. It really hasn't been that exciting. I remember when people asked me in the past how things were going and I'd be all snarky and say "oh you know, living the dream".  Well, I can say that now and truly mean it. It's been a fantastic couple of months. I found out that most of the "stuff" I had at home, material things, I don't need or miss.

My family - mom, dad, and grandpa, arrived in Playa on February 2nd, my sister on the 6th. Spent a lot of time with them, I introduced Em to scuba diving (she was a natural), we both got to try Fly boarding for the first time (check it out on Youtube, incredible) and she spent a couple of nights at our house, sleeping in the hammock.  Been working on my tan, reading lots of books, and trying to improve my Spanish. I do a great job at learning slang words, I'm sure that will be helpful when I get a job. Tomorrow I'm diving in Cozumel (my favorite) for the first time this year. And Wednesday is a big day, I have a job interview!!

I'm interviewing at the Royal Resorts for a concierge position. I'd work with about 15-20 families a week, helping them make reservations, plan day trips, etc. Basically, planning their vacation for them. I truly enjoy planning and organizing so I think I would love the job. In the winter the majority of the guests are American/Canadian so my lack of Spanish won't be a huge issue, until the summer time when the majority of the guests are Mexican tourists. But I have time to learn. The application process for obtaining a work visa recently changed so I have to return to the states to interview at a Mexican consulate in my home country. If they like me, I get a work visa and can make some money and stay here for a year or more. My plan is to fly back to Minneapolis at the end of this month and go to the consulate in St. Paul, since we don't have one in DSM.

Aside from the job interview and my family being here, I haven't really been up to much. Getting used to life in a different country. Here are some pictures, courtesy of my sister, the family photographer.

La Cueva del Chango para desayuno

La hamaca!

Fly boarding!

Mi familia

Pelusa, mi gato!

La cucaracha

The last two nights I have had encounters with bugs, BIG BUGS, in the bathroom at the house. It's not that I'm surprised, living in a jungle environment, there are lizards, bugs, etc all over the place. They get in the house. It's a part of life. The lizards are cute, I don't mind them at all. They actually eat the bugs so that's cool. I guess it's just the size of the bugs that freaked me out. And has me scared to use my bathroom.

Sunday night, I'm going to brush my teeth, turn on the light and see something scamper under the garbage can. I call Cristian in, tell him I think there's a cockroach in there and he opens the door, grabs the broom, and sweeps the cockroach outside.

Last night, I'm using the bathroom and there is a HUGE spider watching me. He's just casually sitting there, not moving, maybe waiting for the right moment to attack, I don't know. It was good I was already on the toilet so I didn't wet my pants. I finish using the bathroom and run out of there to have Cristian come get rid of it. He opens the door, grabs the broom and sweeps the spider outside. Mind you, this might have been the faster spider I have ever seen. He told me last night that it was small compared to the ones he usually sees, they are on average, THE SIZE OF HIS THUMB. Then he told me a story about one time in Mexico City, his friend kicked this huge spider who happened to have all of it's babies on it's back and they went all over the house. Seriously. I have no words to describe how that makes me feel.

 

Cristian has this whole "live and let live" mentality with bugs and I have to tell you, that attitude is out the window if I see a giant bug when he's not here. This is the Third world, it's kill or be killed, and I'm not going to casually sweep some freaking giant bug out the door just so he can show up later to attack. Or maybe I'll just run screaming from the house.If the spider is the size of my thumb, how will I crush it?! I can't do it with my flip flops, I need cowboy boots or some of my dad's hunting boots.

 

Anyway, now every time I go to use the bathroom, I'm like a gunslinger, I swing around the corner, ready to kill anything that moves. There's a new sheriff in town!

Book suggestions por favor!

A rainy Wednesday in Playa del Carmen, which allows me to spend a day inside, rest my skin from the sun, read my book, clean the house, and work on some Spanish lessons via Rosetta Stone. The former all things I would rather do than the latter, for some reason I just cannot force myself to sit down and practice Spanish on the computer. It's more fun to just try to practice with someone in person. I'm reading El Principito, aloud, every night to work on my pronunciation. Estoy loca, I thought I'd have this language mastered in like a month (that might be the impatience that I inherited from my dad coming through).

I'm incredibly thankful for my Kindle and being able to check books out from the Urbandale Library from another country. I need book suggestions though so that's what this post is about. Send me any titles of great books you've read, much appreciated!!

Shark bait ooo ahh ahh!!

Wednesday I crossed "scuba diving with sharks" off my bucket list. One of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. The sharks we saw were bull sharks. Here are some bull shark fun facts.

1. They can survive in fresh water. But only for a couple of days. So sometimes they travel up rivers, like the Mississippi.

2.  Bull sharks get a bad rap for "attacking" people in murky waters. As the dive master explained to us, bull sharks in murky waters (like rivers, the Pacific, etc) use their mouths to figure out what something is, since they don't have hands to reach out and touch it. So they take a little taste of you and then spit you out when they determine you aren't a fish. But again, this is in murky waters where they can't see what they're putting in their mouth. Diving in the Caribbean on a clear day, you can see as far as 200 yards away. As the dive master put it, it's kind of like a baby, putting things in their mouth to figure out what it is.

3. The movie Jaws was based on a bull shark attack, not a great white attack. EEK!! Here's a fun article to read.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0802_020802_shark.html

**Note: all of the research I did about bull sharks was after my dive :)

Anyway, putting all the scary stories aside, I have never seen a more timid ocean creature. Even with the dive master pulling out fish pieces, the sharks were incredibly shy and afraid of us. We saw probably 6-8 sharks and I think I only saw one take a fish from Marcos. We performed the dive at around 80 feet, at a SHIPWRECK, which was freaking awesome and another dive that's on my bucket list. We didn't really get to explore the wreck, it's a fishing boat that has been down there for about 15 years. We started the dive on the upper deck of the boat, on our knees, with Marcos (dive master dressed in a chain link dive suit) about 10 yards away from us trying to get the sharks to come up. When that didn't work, he went down to the ocean floor and we moved down a deck, it was almost like watching a show in a theater. Amazing dive that I would love to do again. At no point did I feel afraid or nervous, there were 4 instructors diving with us that kept watch all the time but really, you were so busy watching these beautiful creatures, the dive seemed to only last 5 minutes.

I also experienced my first bout with fire coral on this dive. It was growing on the railing of the shipwreck and I brushed my wrist up against. It's really itchy.

Fire coral, looks pretty huh?

 

Day 1

 

Day 4

 

 

 

Day 9

Lavanderia

The best thing about living in Mexico - the climate. It's freaking gorgeous every day. But with no AC, that means I sweat like a pig. All the time. I sweat from the moment I wake up until I go to bed. I have a fan that is about 2 feet from me when I sleep. I take a shower and then I have to sit in front of the fan. I brought a blow dryer down here, I think if I actually attempted to dry my hair, I'd have to get back into the shower. Because I am so sweaty, I go through about 2 shirts a day. After 10 days here I already needed to take clothes to the laundry.

I didn't mind doing laundry at home, not a huge fan of folding clothes and putting them away but it wasn't that bad. What's better than doing your own laundry? Paying someone a very small amount of money to do it for you.

We take our clothes to the Lavanderia just up the street, they weigh your clothes, give you a little receipt, you come back at the end of the day, everything is clean and folded. All for about 60 pesos (a little more than 5 bucks). Of course this cost will vary based on how much you bring in but still, worth every penny.

I've had the opportunity to scuba dive three times this week, today saw a beautiful sea turtle and a HUGE barracuda, some lobsters, eels, and my new favorite - the parrot fish.

Tomorrow - if all goes as planned - I will be diving with bull sharks. I am not freaking out (yet) but I am also not planning on spending any time looking at shark and shark attacks online tonight.