Guadalajara

Our January and February were full of travel, and during the weeks in between I presented workshops to various groups of teachers who were willing to come in and work during their summer vacations. The teachers I worked with during those weeks were energetic and enthusiastic about the new school year and the changes taking place at our bilingual school.

One week, our Department of State program held its mid year conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. The family stayed behind in Panama since I was in meetings most of the time. It was great to catch up with my fellow Fellows, commisserate about similar daily challenges, and exchange ideas for the remainder of our projects. We presented a conference at La Escuela Normal de Jalisco, and the teachers were so receptive! To be honest, I was a little disappointed at first that the location of the conference wasn't somewhere more exotic, a little further from the US, but I was pleasantly surprised by Guadalajara. After the conference, we got on a bus for an afternoon of sightseeing and then dinner on Lake Chapala. It was stunning.

A few highlights from the trip:

First, the weather was amazing. It was cool at night, cold in the morning, and warm in the afternoon. I had the impression Mexico had beach weather year round, but it's a big country with varying climates. For the first time in close to a year, I actually needed to wear pants and a jacket!

Everything I ate was delicious and either perfectly simple or complex. I discovered a new snack: fruit and veggies with lime juice and tajín, a smoky chili powder. So good! Even the "grilled cheese" sandwich they served as the vegetarian bagged lunch was excellent, with sprouts and tomotoes. Yum.

Mexico is cheap! With Panama's use of the dollar, so much is the same or more expensive than the US, so it was a welcome break from steep prices. Although there are cheap hotels, our conference was in a very high end chain, but I'm not complaining about my free standing soaking tub with city views. I don't care much for baths, but I took one there!

Finally, I was happy I had the chance to experience Guadalajara in this scheduled way, so that I was forced to see how not scary a big Mexican city can be. I was intimidated to travel to much of Latin America since having kids because of the safety factor, but this trip proved that there is yet another country (like Colombia) that has lots to offer and little to be scared off by. We kept a tight schedule and didn't have much time to explore on our own other than dinner time, but the trip whetted my appetite for more time in Mexico, and with the family next time.