criplomats

Can we do this every day?!!

The cars made it!

Jim, John, and Ann

With Ann

John

With Cathy, my Foreign Service bestie

David

Alison

With David and James

With Leslie

Lynna

With Mary

Marybeth, Patrick, and Alison

We did it! We arrived in Hot Springs Friday afternoon. David and Alison picked us up at the airport and brought us to the lake house we’re renting. They have been lifesavers – they’re loaning us a car until ours arrive, they brought us homemade lasagna for dinner, stocked us with other basic food supplies, and they put together this great baskets of goodies with things we will need (paper towels, detergent, etc.), as well as fun things like cat toys and bubbles to blow while we’re sitting on the porch. Thank you so much! What a great welcome home!

Goodie basket from David and Alison

Flavia did great on the trip. That is always my biggest stressor, but everything went without a hitch. She even got to go to the Centurion Lounge in Houston. And she’s adapting well to the lake house.

Yesterday Pamela came over and spent the day. She and I went to McClard’s for lunch, and then we spent the rest of the day on the porch, yakking and watching the world go by. The weather was in the 80s with a nice breeze – this morning it’s stormy, which I love.

Our last few days in Guadalajara were pretty nice. We went to the VIP theatre last Sunday to see “Planet of the Apes.” John’s boss Ray took us out for a nice steak dinner on Tuesday at one of our favorite restaurants, and John and I made a final trip to Corazon de Alcachofa on Thursday.

I helped teach my last English class on Wednesday. Saying goodbye to the guards was really the hardest. I got to know many of them, and they’re just so nice. The class brought in a cake to celebrate – so sweet.

English class

Katana, one of my favorite guards – he writes beautiful poetry!

My team brought in lunch for my last day, and even Ale who is out on maternity leave came to say goodbye.

So there you have it – three years wrapped up and we’re on our way to the next adventure – but first, a relaxing two weeks on the lake and the chance to see family and friends!

View for the next two weeks! Stormy this morning.

Hanging with Muffy

We are in the countdown to leaving and are getting pretty excited. Last Sunday we went to David and Suzy’s house for the afternoon and met their baby. We really enjoyed getting to know them, and John especially enjoyed gaming with David.

Yesterday we spent the day with three other older couples and had a lovely time. We went to Janet and Paco’s house for chiles en nogada, a classic stuffed chile with a creamy walnut sauce and topped with pomegranate – the colors of the Mexican flag. Since pomegranate is in season now, now is the time to make them and they are delicious. Their house is lovely, especially Janet’s extensive backyard garden – just beautiful. The day was filled with excellent food and conversation.

I spoke to the incoming medical school class on Monday – one of the universities has a curriculum just for American students, so I gave a short talk about what the Consulate does and basically told them not to get arrested. It was fun to get out of the office.

We went to dinner at La Matera, one of our favorite restaurants here, on Friday after work. I love sitting on their covered porch, especially when it rains because it’s very pleasant. Well, it rained! It was one of the hardest rains I’ve seen here, plus about 15 minutes of hail, too! We had a devil of a time getting home because all the streets were flooded, but eventually we made it!

Here’s a photo of my team at work – we were saying goodbye to a co-worker visiting from the Vallarta office.

ACS team