Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hello. Goodbye.

The last few weeks have been ones of hellos and goodbyes.
I guess the story starts when I went to renew my visa about a month ago. Everywhere I had looked online, it said that it was very easy to renew tourist visas. All I needed to do was go to this government building right here in Morelia and give them $50. The problem came when I realized that I misunderstood something and I could not renew my visa. It turns out 6 months is the maximum you can have for a tourist visa, and after that you need to leave the country from 3 days to renew it.
So, with a this snag in my plan, I began to think up all the different options for getting across the boarder.

ROAD TRIP!!!!

Unfortunately, that didn´t pan out. Turns out it would be very complicated and expensive and well, a lot of driving. While doing laundry at a friend´s house, they tipped me off to some good, safe, cheap Mexican airlines. I found some great deals from Morelia to Los Angeles and so that was my plan. From there my friend from NY was talking about going to LA to see me and we could spend a few days together. Quickly my cheap airline tickets were getting added to rental car and hotel fees which made the trip a lot more expensive. It was then, that I decided, hey if I´m going to spend all that money just to see one friend, why don´t I fly to NY with that money where I can see everyone and sleep and eat free in my family´s house. And so I found a cheap roundtrip ticket from LA to Rochester. The fun part is though, I didn´t tell my family, or hardly anyone else, that I would be arriving :)
(My mom had no idea I´m behind her when we took this)

It was such a blessing to spend a week in Lima. I successfully surprised people and was able to spend quality time with the people I love. It was a great week - even worth sleeping on a bench in the LAX airport :)
While there I was able to reflect a little too. It is so neat how the Lord is knitting my heart to Morelia. While being in my hometown, where I grew up and have lived 21 years, with the people I love, I couldn´t help but be excited to return to Morelia. It is starting to feel more and more like home here.

But, just a day after saying goodbye to my friends and family in NY and arriving back in Morelia I had to say goodbye to some very close friends. Two of my friends, brothers Nestor and Diego, headed to Arizona for Christmas vacation with their family. While they will be coming back in a month, it is still sad to say goodbye to them as we hang out often. And, I had to say goodbye to Aaron, an American, also from NY, who has been here for the last 3 months. It seems like a short amount of time, but we have gotten to know each other very well. I´m going to miss having him around.

But, as the song goes... "na na na na life goes on." It is good to be back in Morelia and I am just as excited as ever for what the Lord is doing here both in and through me.

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