Fascination for Mexico and the Salsa Showdown

Song of the Day

3x5

I picked up a book about a month ago while I was in Cuernavaca, and fittingly, when I went back to Cuernavaca this weekend for a visit, I took it along to read. I got through about half of it and will finish the rest of it relatively quickly. It's called "Fascinación por México," and I'm starting to identify my feelings here as that. It has really interesting information and anecdotes about lots of things, ranging from food to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sun god.

While in Cuernavaca, my camera decided to become a glutton for battery power, so I only managed to take these pictures that were of the Salsa Showdown I had with one of Nico's friends. I had the bright idea to chug salsa to see who could endure more. I'm getting a taste for Mexican food, and yesterday I even had a few jalapeños by themselves (and one stuck in my baguette for lunch). So, yeah, here's the Salsa Showdown.

Naively optimistic about this.

And Jonathan, without even waiting around, gets started.

Unfortunately there are no good pictures of me drinking it. Then again, I only did for about 5 seconds before I started spewing and dry heaving. (Well, it wasn't necessarily dry)

The face of defeat.

And the ruckus applause for the victor.

Other than that, I checked out some interesting stuff in Cuernavaca. But since I didn't have my camera, I'll have to tell you about it another time, because I really don't want to do it injustice.

I also picked up some cool stuff, a gift, and some other surprises.

I am fighting with all my might to stay in Mexico, and I think it's working. I had a sincere talk with my immediate boss, and she wants to help me stay here. Honestly, I nearly cried while talking to her. I'm figuring out that I really love it here, and also, that I really like the person I'm becoming while here. Just a superficial bit, but check the difference in my weight. (I guess losing 18 pounds does make a difference).

23 June 2010

18 October 2010

But that's not the only thing. I am more confident for more reasons than my appearance. I outlined some of those reasons in a previous post, but I'll reiterate a bit. I figured out that I need to focus on ways to make myself happy. That would put an end to the dependency on others to keep me smiling, and so far it seems to have worked.

I know that I'm a better person here, and I'm becoming even better everyday. I am happy, at ease, and I think that I could leave now, but I'm not ready to. I've still got a lot to learn in Mexico, so I hope that things will go well for me this week.

Also, one last thing before I let this post end, I need to earn to focus on letting things go. People, issues, relationships gone awry and problems I can't resolve. I'm hurting myself and others more by focusing on them. Pray for me as I take on this giant. I'll talk more about this later and in private if you want.

That'll be it for today. We'll talk soon.

Love, always,

~Buster