house hunters, international

i know that you've all been dying to hear a detailed account of my travels to mexico ;-) i am happy to report it was rather uneventful.

the most exciting part was an interesting bag search in mexico city when i was going through security for my connecting flight to culiacan.  they, of course, had no idea what a bassoon was, or fagot, so this guy in line in front of me said a lot of words in spanish, then turned to me and said "i told them it was a musical instrument" whew, clear of that!  i also had a sharpening stone in my carry-on, the security senora looked at it, took it out of it's box and examined it, she asked me what it was and i thought "oh no, how do i explain this" i could just see how this played out "well, it's a sharpening stone, for knives, i don't have any in my carry-on, but i need that stone to sharpen the knives i do have in the luggage that just made it through customs" instead of saying all that i just told her it was for my musical instrument, she gave the security senor a quizzical look and then put it in my bag and let me on my merry way.

my connection was delayed quite a bit and i ended up landing in culiacan around midnight.  i was exhausted, and hoping to god that getting to my hotel would be as uneventful as the rest of my travels.  luckily (and those of you that know anything about my travel history know that i have a certain knack for having the WORST luck) a man was standing outside the baggage claim with a beautiful printed sign with my name on it.  it looked official, so i went with him.

when i got to the hotel i was handed a key and told some very quick spanish numbers and realized the man had just told me my room number and i had no idea what he said.  i looked at the key, hoping to see the numbers printed somewhere on the key.  nope.  so i say "what was the room number" poor senor, he gave me a stupid american look and then walked me to my room.  i tried to say gracias, but what came out was danke.  crazytown.

and that is my travel story.  so easy.  so uneventful.  so thankful.

and mexico, so far - ya know...the past 48 hours, has been much like my life in chicago.  i hit snooze too many times, get out of bed, go to rehearsal, walk around the city trying to avoid talking to people, go home, practice, go to bed.  exciting stuff people.  aren't you glad you're reading my blog??

today i went house hunting with the 3rd/contra bassoonist here.  he's been so helpful to me!  well, pretty much everyone in the orchestra has been great.  it was a very interesting and nice mix of places that i saw.  of course i wanted to know if these places could have dogs and i'm fairly certain the answer was no, but no one really cares if you do.  so i'm of course looking at places with dobby in mind!  i saw a super cute and cozy (ok, small) place that i rather liked a lot.  most places had two bedrooms, but this one was only one, with a small little living area (which would of course be my bassoon playing/reedmaking area) a nice kitchen, and a patio that was possibly larger than the entire apartment.  it was super cute.  tomorrow i'm seeing a few more and will make a decision.  i really should be on house hunters, international!!

besides all that, life is fairly normal.  rehearsals en espanol are totally weird and every time i order something to eat i say "no carne" like 3 times.  servers hate me.  i miss my dobby dog like crazycrazyCRAZY, but i know he is being well loved and taken care of probably better than i could right now.  and i'm ever so grateful for the internet and how advanced technology is!  i am still able to text friends with iMessaging, so it really makes me feel like i'm still not that far away.

once i'm more settled in, i'm gonna figure out how to spice this blog up - or at least the graphics on it, because let's be real, i'm pretty boring!!

buenos noches, mi amigos!!