Weekly logs
by
Dave Clingman to read Dave Clingman's thoughts about life in Mexico,
click here
31 October 2010
Tonight is Halloween, but so far (nearly 9 pm) no
one has visited our door. Because we live quite far off
the road, we don't expect many kids. Last year we had
only two or three families of kids, all of which live
here in the RV park.
Tomorrow is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) . . . .
click here to read more
26 October 2010
This weekend was a fun one. Friday we went downtown
and spent much of the day in the Numismatic Expo looking
at old coins and selling a few, Saturday we relaxed, and
Sunday we went to Casa de las Flores after church. It
was a great weekend. . . .
click here to read more
7 October 2010
Sorry about the long day between email logs. I'll try to
summarize some of the highlights of the past one and a
half months in this "weekly log"! Our trip to California
was both productive and enjoyable. We drove fifteen
hours our first day and then usually about six hours a
day during our remaining seven driving days, other than
one long day again . . . .
click here to read more
21 August 2010
Tuesday we went to the Mexico Immigration Office
here in Guadalajara. You may recall last year that while
we were trying to get our FM3 visas, we sometimes would
arrive when they told us to and then discover that our
papers were not ready. This year, we can check the
status of our FM3 visas online, so that we don't go
there until they are actually ready for us. The status
online, however . . . .
click here to read more
5 August 2010
This has been the longest I've gone between my so-called
"weekly logs," more than a month, and I apologize for
that. We are still here, and we're still doing well. Now
let's see if I can play catchup.
Andrew's Washington, D.C. trip back in June was very
good. You can read about it on his new web page . . . .
click here to read more
26 June 2010
This has been about the most mellow week I've had in a
long time. Nothing pressing to do, not much work, and
Andrew's in Washington, D.C. One day blurs into another
even more than usual. I rather like this, other than
Andrew being away. . . . click here to read more.
19
June 2010
The rainy season has finally begun here in
Guadalajara, Mexico. That means cooler temperatures and
many night time thunderstorms, with usually clear blue
skies during the days. Grass is growing again, and Jorge
and Elvis now have plenty to eat. Oh, had I not
previously mentioned Elvis? That is the name we gave
last year to a very old donkey grazing in the pasture
next to Jorge's. Since the fence between the two
pastures collapsed . . . .
click here to read more.
27 May 2010
We have a new direct line from USA. You can now call
this Fresno, California telephone number, and it will
ring here in our home in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is
done through the "magic" of
magicJack.
Our telephone number is . . . . click here to read more.
6 May 2010
It has certainly been an interesting week with a
shooting, an armored car robbery, and a brush fire.
Fortunately, we were not involved in any of these, but
we were close. The temperature is getting up to 100
degrees (38 C) this week, and even the Mexicans are
starting to complain about the heat. We're looking
forward to . . . .
click here to read more.
1 May 2010
Andrew was ill much of this week (he's fine now),
but he still managed to make his appointment to teach
the class at the new school. He did quite well, but
realized that he lacks experience teaching a classroom
full of kids, and prefers working with smaller groups or
one on one. Also, that school doesn't pay much more than
. . . . click here to read more.
22 April 2010
Today is the day we arrived here in Guadalajara, one
year ago. We have very much enjoyed our time here, even
with the uncertainty at times of what we were and are
going to do. Now that we've settled on staying here in
Guadalajara in our van in the
. . . . click here to read more.
15 April 2010
It has been a very busy week, or rather, week and a half. I again received a large influx of web design business and pleased those clients with their updated websites. One local client here is now running
four websites to sell his language games. Each website is slightly different, as he experiments with different presentations and pricing . . . . click here to read more.
6 April 2010How was your Easter? Ours was good, though we didn't do much. Of course, there was the Easter service, which we
both fully enjoyed. We carried candles as we entered church and kept them with us during the service, though we all extinguished them at one point. There was incense, something that in our church is saved
for only special occasions. The priests all rang bells during the entire Gloria hymn. It was amazing. . . . click here to read more
28 March 2010
Happy Palm Sunday.
This morning Andrew narrates the English part of the service at our welcoming church's bilingual Palm Sunday service here in Guadalajara, Mexico. Our friend Pedro will narrate the Spanish
part. We also have a procession into the church as a remembrance of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem a few days before He was crucified. . . . click here to read more
19 March 2010I finally got our tub installed and working, and I enjoyed a very long soak late one night last week. The next day,
the water heater decided it didn't want to work anymore. We have checked several places before finding just today a store that sells the element for this ancient electric water heater. Most people in Mexico
use gas water heaters, because electricity is very expensive here. Fortunately, we enjoy free electricity here in . . . . click here to read more 10 March 2010
Andrew finally heard back from the University of British Columbia regarding his application for their Master's Program. They had 120 applicants for the twenty positions for the particular program he had applied
for. Needless to say, the competition was tough. As Andrew had feared, he was not accepted. So, we are staying in Mexico for the next few years. We will continue our search for a home, but . . . .
click here to read more 3 March 2010
Andrew and I are still considering what to do about buying a place in Michoacan. Oh, we've gotten the page about our trip to
Morelia and Patzcuaro area added to the website. We can't make any firm decision until . . . . click here to read more 2 February 2010
I am recovering nicely from my surgery. I stopped taking the pain medicine two days ago, and there is little pain. It turns out that the itching was not merely my incisions healing,
but rather it was due to an allergic reaction to the gauze or something else they used in the operating room. We called the doctor and then drove to his office one morning when the itching was . . . .click here to read more
25 January 2010The liposuction surgery was successful. As a few have commented, I am not badly overweight, but even when I was the
fittest of my life a decade ago, this was something I wanted to do. As we were preparing for the surgery, the doctor and anesthesiologist discussed how things would go. They told us that the nurses will
normally insert the I.V., but that for me . . . .
click here to read more 21 January 2010We are mostly back into our usual Guadalajara, Mexico
routine. Andrew is working approximately twenty hours per week. We are slowing down his work, since we are planning to move further south next month. (We'll talk more about that in a future
newsletter.) We are attending our welcoming church each Sunday . . . . click here to read more 8 January 2010
We are back home again in Guadalajara, Mexico after our two and a half weeks exploring a bit of Europe. The trip was wonderful, the best trip I have ever had anywhere. We briefly visited eight towns in five
countries: Amsterdam in The Netherlands, Montabaur near the Rhine River in Germany, Lucerne and Bern in Switzerland, Brugge in Belgium, and Lyon, Paris, and Rouen in France. Well, we actually visited more
places . . . . click here to read more
12 December 2009In a few days, I'll send you an itinerary of our Europe trip. We fly away from Guadalajara at noon on Thursday, 17
December and land at 8am Friday in Amsterdam (1am Mexico and USA Central time). We have free lodging every single night of our trip, which saves MAJOR money. Three nights are with . . . .
click here to read more
3 December 2009The USA Thanksgiving is not a holiday that is widely celebrated in Mexico, but expats like me carry the celebration with
us. There are also a few Mexicanos who bring it with them when they return after living and working in USA. We received four invitations to dinners, but two of them were at the same time. We did not go
to the Thanksgiving Buffet that the Guadalajara Reporter had . . . .
click here to read more 22 November 2009Here it is the second half of November, typically cool
autumn back in California, and there are still flowers on many of the bushes here in Guadalajara. This truly is a pretty place where we live. The temperatures are dropping . . . . click here to read more
04 November 2009It has been a busy two weeks since my last "weekly" update. I got another client for website design,
though I am only doing a few finishing touches on the site). I'll likely get yet another client later this week or early next week (Andrew's school). Thanks for praying . . . . click here to read more
20 October 2009This past week was my first truly busy week. Casa de las Flores finally accepted my estimates and has asked me to
work on his website. ( http://casadelasflores.com
-- This is their old site, not the one I am designing for them.) I am now working between seven and ten hours a day on it. I am very much enjoying . . . .click here to read more
10 October 2009We have a new puppy. Her name is Mela
(pronounced "may-lah" or "meh-lah"). She is about five weeks old and is a mix of all kinds of things, probably including cocker spaniel and chihuahua. She is smaller than we wanted, but she was quite inexpensive. Also, the vaccinations that we thought would cost over five hundred pesos actually cost just two hundred and change. We have fallen in love with her and she with us . . . .
click here to read more
2 October 2009While driving through Guadalajara this week, we were pulled over by two motorcycle policemen. We first passed them,
but were driving far below the speed limit, and traveling only with the rest of the traffic. Then at the next signal while we were stopped, one of the cops drove past us very slowly, looking intently into . . . . click here to read more
24 September 2009This was a less busy week for me. Yes, though I don't work much anyway, this week was even lazier. My main
website client took a short vacation, and I was already caught up on her site. So, I focused a bit on getting new clients. Besides the people I have been . . . . click here to read more
17 September 2009Yesterday was Independence Day here in Mexico. 16 de Septiembre
(September 16) is a holiday, of course, but the big celebration actually seems to occur the night before. At 11 pm the governor steps out onto the balcony of his palace and initiates the "Grito". Basically, the governor lists the heroes of the independence and gets the crowd to cheer for each, "Viva!". . . .
click here to read more
11 September 2009It has been a busy two weeks since I last wrote. We are still working on getting our long term FM3 visas.
It seems that every week they want more forms or more information. One day we sat in their office for about four hours waiting for them to take us to the next step. . . . click here to read more
28 August 2009Our FM3 (upgrade visa) process continues. We returned last Friday as we were instructed, only to discover that they
were backlogged and had to return Tuesday of this week. Tuesday we were told that we each have a few more papers we need to supply. I have to provide a copy and translation . . . . click here to read more
18 August 2009Andrew and I again visited Mazamitla this weekend. We wanted to spend more time at the house we are considering
buying there, and the lady let us stay there for two nights for $800 (that's pesos, remember, which equals just under $60 USD). Imagine being able to have full use of a house on an acre of land in a popular
vacation spot . . . . click here to read more
10 August 2009I am still surprised at times by the friendliness of people here in Mexico. Saturday Andrew and I drove up into the
mountains south of Guadalajara to view some properties for our possible home. Our first stop was Concepcion de Buenos Aires. The person who was selling the small house there was unable to meet us, but we
thought we would drive that route . . . . click here to read more
3 August 2009Though the TEFL training classes are finished, I still am not comfortable being in front of people teaching. Perhaps
if I begin with a client or two teaching one on one, as Andrew has, I will become more comfortable. For now, though, I've told the school's owner that I will wait before accepting a class. It is wonderful to
hear about Andrew's time with his students and to watch his . . . . click here to read more 28 July 2009
You may recall that Andrew was ill a week ago and missed one day of our TEFL training class. Well, I guess this week was my turn. I got sick about one week after Andrew did and missed two days of
class. But we're both mostly well now, and . . . .
click here to read more 21 July 2009Our TEFL teacher training is going well. The
instructor (the owner or the school) won't give us a definite time frame, as to how many of these classes we must attend. He is vague but seems to be suggesting . . . . click here to read more
16 July 2009Last week Andrew began his teaching career. We had both visited a nearby language school a couple weeks ago to talk
with the owner, and he said he wouldn't have any classes for him or me until September. Yes, he is also considering me to teach . . . .
click here to read more 07 July 2009
My column was finally published last week, and you can read it online without having to create an account. . . . click here to read more 01 July 2009
Last week we drove to Puerta Vallarta, but Hurricane Andres wasn't what he was predicted to be. Still, we had a great time. We arrived in the afternoon and looked at a couple of places to stay before
deciding on . . . click here to read more
22 June 2009Hurricane Andres (yes, they're calling it "Andrew"!!) is coming. It won't actually hit us here, but maybe
we'll take a drive over to Puerta Vallarta to experience it. We are hoping, honestly, to get out to the west coast . . . click here to read more 18 June 2009
After 23 hours of sleep, I finally am awake and ready to face the world. I guess the last day of our California trip wore me out. We arrived home just before 8 am and immediately went to sleep. We were
awakened an hour later by the airline notifying us that they had located our lost luggage. Yep, they lost . . .
click here to read more
2 June 2009This week we got a horse, some tequila and our first invitation to a fiesta.
The horse is not actually ours. It is not really anyone's. We are taking care of it . . .
click here to read more
18 May 2009This past week was quite interesting. By Wednesday, Andrew felt well enough to return to school. He had received an email stating that
classes would be held only for six hours instead of the usual eight. So, he drove to class Wednesday morning, only to find a note on the door stating that classes had been entirely canceled for the week. It
turns out, however . . .
click here to read more
12 May 2009How are things going with you? Things are okay here. For a simple and relaxing life, I feel quite busy. I guess it is because I am
still working on client websites. I love that God has brought work to me while I'm here.
Andrew was in the hospital this past weekend for 26 hours, a minor surgery he . . .
click here to read more
5 May 2009This past week, we visited several places for considering where to live and also partly to place an advertisement for my computer repair business.
We placed fliers in four or five places along Lake Chapala, which is where many rich gringos live. I have had one call. . . .
click here to read more
25 April 2009Finally, we are in Guadalajara, Mexico, setting up our new home.
The trip south was not uneventful. In fact, it was quite an adventure.
That is what Andrew and I kept reminding each other, so that we didn't get too frustrated
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