Background: I actually wrote this back in 2004, but had pulled it from the blog to try to get it published. There was a reason to put it back up for a while. This was written when I was going to IUSB to get my degree in Spanish as I remembered why I wanted to learn Spanish.
It's important to remember what events changed you. When I get tired of going to school, and continually trying to wrap my head around Spanish grammar and trying to improve my accent, I try to remember the day that changed me forever. The picture above was taken on that day, that's me in the lower right corner. I know, I know, what's up with that red bandana? In 1997 I went on my first trip to Mexico. This was my first trip outside of the USA. I was extremely nervous and did not know what to expect. I had been to two Spanish classes before the trip, so I was looking forward to getting a real workout
We were running free dental and medical clinics in the mountains of the state of Puebla. The third day we were high up in the mountains, around five thousand feet above sea level in a village called Ahuactlan. The mountains were covered with coffee plants,palms and pines with every shade of green imaginable. Every evening the fog would roll up the mountains like a blanket of white cotton candy that would melt away with the morning heat. As we drove up into the mountains in the morning from the town of Huauachinango, we passed colonial homes with fuschia Bougainvillea growing on the pastel walls guarded by wrought iron gates. The next street we passed would be a group of shacks with home-made turkey pens and skittish dogs peeking from the corners.
