Happy (late) Halloween!

Just like the title says "Happy (late) Halloween". I majorly slacked this time, but if your still interested in hearing how my first halloween in Puerto Vallarta went; then here it goes!

31/10/2011

I was very excited for this day to come, so i started of early with dressing maya up in her costume. And even though i dressed her up early i was barely able to take 5, mostly blurry, pictures of her as she ran out the door. Maya was a pumkin witch, at least that's what im going with. Though you can look at the blurry picture below and decide for yourself.

I had even tried painting her face, everything was going well untill she smeared it all over the place. Note to self, don't do face paint on a toddler..it never lasts for more then 5 minutes... I did however face paint my brother-in-law's face. He is 10 years old and he wanted me to make him a pumpkin.

With maya dressed up and ready to go, our first trick-or-treat stop was the corner store. The owner there, Don Tonio, knows us well since we always go to him. He was sitting outside on his bench happily handing out candy to a group of kids who were dressed as all sorts of goblins, vampires and skeletons who would sing "Te quiero halloween" as they went. I found this funny, because it translates to "I want halloween".

As 8pm approached, my husband, Maya and I headed to la malecon with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and nephew. The malecon was packed with people! Locals and tourists a like. In the middle of they had several vans, some with a person sitting on top of them throwing candy to the people below. You can imagine how crazy this got. All the candy crazy people, including us, would tail the vans trying to catch the candy as it fell. There was a lot of candy hitting heads, feet stepped on, and fighting over candy that landed on the floor. Even though it was some what dangerous, i think was very exciting and i can't wait for next years!

Happy (late) Halloween Everyone!

My Trip to The Dentist..In Mexico [Insert Horror Music Here]

Okay, so it wasn't that bad. Really...


I have a wisdom tooth that took the place of a molar i had lost. So it was my first wisdom tooth. Well now my bottom row of teeth were too full for another, so the second wisdom tooth (for my left side) had no where to go and decided to cause a lot of imflamation and pain. I was tempted to leave it alone to avoid..the dentist..and after 3 days of it bothering me, my husband forced me to go. Darn that caring husband...


So today we headed down to Pitillal to go to a dentist, who is the boyfriend of my sister-in-law. The things you get by knowing people. He checked my teeth out and said i needed an x-ray of the tooth, but that he doesn't do them in his office. So he directed us where to go. After ariving the woman at the desk tell us that this dentist was at home. So she called her and we were told she would be there in 25 minutes. We decided to go ahead and spend that 25 minutes at Martin's families house. We then headed back to the dentist #2 and she started to take x-rays of my mouth. But her machine wasn't working properly. She did nnot charge us, even though she came from home to assist us. She then told us another dentist to go to. We followed her directions and realized that it lead us to dentist #1.. Dentist #1 laughed about this and told us of another dentist around the corner. At dentist #3's office we were able to get the x-ray. We then procceded to go back to dentist #1. He took us to his torture chamber and told us that the wisdom tooth was coming up straight but there was no room. He then asked me something i was not prepared for.. "do you want me to take it out now?".. Are you serious?! I am totally unprepared for this! (was my thought)...But sadly what came out was a measly, "sure". He began working on my mouth and honestly it wasn't bad. At all. I was so grateful. But thenn come to find out, the tooth was really close to the jaw bone. So when it was finally time to pull it out, i swear i thought he wanted my whole jaw to come out with it! Finally it was over. And i gotta say, that sucker was huge! Lol

(These numbers are based on people without insurance)

Minutes spent in a waiting room (US): 15+
Minutes spent in a waiting room (Mexico): 0*
Cost of x-ray (US, i'm guessing): $200+Cost of x-ray (Mexico): $15
Cost of wisdom tooth removal (US): $500+ (per tooth & totally guessing)
Cost of wisdom tooth removal (Mexico): $50

Amount of pain i was in either way: ... priceless

*Seriously, every place i wen't to today, x-rays and dentist, i did 0 minutes of waiting. I don't count waiting for dentist #2 because we left and came back..you can't do that in the US.


This story was not to scare anyone. Please do not make any reference to my use of horror terms, this is simply how i have always veiwed dentists as a child. And sadly i still do. My experience did go better thenn previous ones in the US.

Think in Pesos!



80 pesos! I'm Rich!

One of the many things i loved about Mexico when i first moved here (2 months ago) was how cheap everything was! I mean come on, $200usd for rent?! Food to feed three mouths $250 usd a month?! It's amazing! Who could complain?


Well.. I guess I can now lol.. Luckily my husband and I had eachother to remind at every turn, "Think in pesos..". It's true. Everything is in fact cheaper here, at least when compared to the US Dollar. But when your earning in pesos, that 2000 peso monthly rent starts looking pretty steep. Especially when your relying on a single income. And savings only last for so long.


It's great for those who have social security checks, or retierment savings, and they can have a decent living in Mexico. Even young expats can. But for me and my family, we're completely starting over here, with a minimal savings. I know that wasn't too smart, but in my defense, i love my husband very much and would rather come from my ownn free will then have him be deported. And hey if life was easy it wouldn't be as much fun.


So for now i will write my blog and pray one day it will bring in income, as my husband works cooking for pesos. Hasta Luego!

Mañana

Over the past two weeks we have moved out of my in-laws and into our own apartment, and have since been making it into our home. In the beginning we had some issues with the kitchen sink, where i learned "Mañana"... Often times when we would wake up in our apartment we'd find the kitchen floor with random water everywhere. It wasn't untill some investigagting that led us to find that the kichen sink was leaking whenever we used it. We told our landlord, Martin's uncle, about the issue and he assured us that in "mañana" he would have somebody come by and take a look at it as well as fix some tiles that were loose on the counter. The next day came and went with no sign of him. When we saw him the day after, Martin brought it up again. "Oh mañana." He replied.. And in mañana.. nothing. I have to admit i was getting a little frustrated, it was to the point he would'nt even say hi so to avoid us mentioning the sink. Finally i decided to take a look at why it was leaking, don't ask me why i didn't do this sooner, and found that the plastic tube (thats usually metal in the US) didnt fit into the hole it went into in the wall. It kept being pushed enough to let water slowly drip out. So we positioned it to where the tube got "stuck" so it would'nt leak. And it worked. So about a week and a half after us telly Martin's uncle, he shows up out of nowhere with another man to fix the tiles. We let him know that we did a temporary fix on the sink, and because it was "fixed" for the most part, he didnt even look at it. Which as long as it works for now i'm fine with that..


If that wasn't enough, we bought a living room set. At a good price and new. So i was very excited about it. And it would be here in 3-5 days. But then those five days came and went. We found the number to give the company a call and found out that they didnt check to see if the had it on the truck that diliveres them to the store, so the soonest we'd get everything is 8 days instead on 5... So for now its another waiting game.


At least i'm exercising my patience...