Questioning

So now that I’ve settled into my new place (although it still needs a lot of stuff for it to truly feel like a home but it’s coming along slowly) and have celebrated Halloween, I feel sort of adrift. People ask me “Do you live here or are you visiting?” I do live here; I have a lease and no job or apartment elsewhere. “Are you working?” is the next question. “Not yet” is my reply. And then things get sticky. What am I looking to do? Photography right? Yet, I haven’t taken many photos. Val1arta is not really inspiring me on that front and if you know me, taking photos and my happiness are tightly intertwined and a reflection of each other. I’m not giving up on this place so soon; I’m just questioning if this is the right place for me in Mexxico.

Puert0 Val1arta seems to be a place that foreigners come to for a vacation and keep coming back over and over again. Eventually, some decide to move here because why not live in vacation paradise? I came here because I wanted to move to Mexxico, and Vallarta seemed very approachable with a lot of job possibility – not because I fell in love with Vallarta. I love being near the beach, yet I’ve only been a few days and I’ve now been here for 5 weeks. There are some very nice restaurants but I’m on a budget and most don’t even have very many veggie options. And being a tourist destination, I feel in a weird place of being neither a “here today, gone tomorrow “ tourist or a local. I guess I’m struggling now with where and how I fit in here.

On a positive note, I went to an eyeglass store to get my glasses adjusted and ended up speaking with the optometrist who by chance wants to learn more English. We made an appointment to get together on his lunch break on Monday and try doing ½ hour of English and ½ hour of Spanish. I’m looking forward to it.

I also went to a book signing reception tonight and ran into a woman there who I’d met a couple of weeks ago at a get together in a bar for people from an online group that I’m a member of. She was very excited to tell me about the upcoming film festival and thought I should volunteer because it would be a great way to meet people. I’m really happy she remembered me and wanted to share that information. I emailed the director tonight and will hopefully hear soon.

And Alden’s sister, friend, and niece are in town visiting. We had a fun evening hanging out with them. His sister and friend are very friendly and have invited me to go to the beach tomorrow. It will be nice to have some women to hang out with and his niece is 6 and a girly girl like me and spunky too so it should be fun.

P.S. The photo was taken at an amateur Muay Thai tournament I photographed a few weeks ago.