Day 22-27

Sorry I have been a bad blogger, writing doesn't come naturally to me and as the flow of work has increased the words have ebbed. I can already tell that my blog will be directly affected by when sleep takes place and along with the duration. If we are opening the shop then we are waking up at times roughly lining up when the bars are closing in Portland, (with the time change considered of course) and we are going to bed when stump town is coming home from work. So adjustments are needed in watching the sun set in winter and thinking that we need to be laying our heads down in an hour or so.
So far our schedules have not been sinking up to the best of our liking but we are still managing to figure it out, it is nice to actually work for a company that has HR where we can have them try and sort it out for us.
On the sales floor Steph and I are slowly figuring out. Between the two of us we have sold around $37,000 in the last week. We are both really happy with that, it is a weird draw of luck kind of environment. It just depends on who walks through the door when you are at the front of the line. The big sales will always add to your totals but we need to learn how to make the small sales frequent and bountiful.
The most difficult part of our jobs is the abuse our feet are taking. We are on our feet for at least 9 hours a day on hard tile floors. Today we were standing for at least 10, I know some theories of Chinese Iron Body training will began to kick in over time and we will won't feel the pain anymore, but for now the bottoms of our feet beg to be elevated and pampered by the end of the night. As the day comes to a close I beg for a customer not for the commission but just so I have somebody to take my mind off how loud my dogs are barking. We have both noticed some healthy weight loss in this first week in response to our highly mobile status in the work place.

Christmas was un-Christmasy but we enjoyed ourselves none the less. After dinner we had many choices for entertaining ourselves out and about on the town but our neighbors impromptu pizza and beer social hour on the roof won out on our socializing priorities list. A highlight as always was the calls home to the parents.
Food: Thursday we went out for lunch at a 'restaurant' a half a block from us, I use quotations in describing it as a 'restaurant' because it also is somebody's home. Not in the way that there are two parts to the house but that in the evening when they close up shop their dining room / living room is their domicile again and not the place you had lunch a few hours previous. They have a beautiful backyard though so you can escape the the portraits of relatives in which you have no relationship with beyond you both know someone who cooks up some really amazing Mexican food. For about $5 a piece we had a bowl of  chicken and rice soup and a well proportioned plate of our choice of protein with beans rice and veggies, and tortillas. I was in heaven.
Friday was my first big sale so we went to celebrate and had dinner at Le Chef again, and again it was delicious, Del Surs was closed.
For Christmas I made paella with chorizo, clams, and crab. Considering I made it on a hot plate it came out amazing.
Sunday we tried El Foco, a taco joint that is down the street, tasty!
Tonight I had a tuna sandwich, yes as we work more the delicacies will become less interesting.

Day 20 & 21

Sorry I missed a day of blogging, I was so incoherent after work nothing I wrote would have made a lick of sense. 
Our first day was mostly boring, I sold very little and Steph had no people come through her shop. I think this will probably be the routine we will have to get use to, the beginning of the week will be slow and it will only get busier towards Friday. 
Day two was more memorable, in that I could remember it. I love my walk to work, I watched the full moon make it's run towards the horizon, after a half an hour the clouds took on pinkish glow from the rise of the sun from the opposite horizon. Oh, did I mention that when I have down time I just stand at the store front and stare at the Caribbean ocean? Because that is what I do, and it is encouraged because it is where we greet customers. 
Work did start at a 5:30 AM so don't be totally jealous, okay be a little jealous. I sold $19,000 worth of jewelry today, with a 2% commission you can do the math. Steph had 9 people come into her store during her shift, so, yeah, do the math...
But on a positive note, Steph is getting along great with her co-workers, and when the cruise ships come into port, she'll have plenty of help navigating sales. The difference between my store and Steph's store, is that my store is more of a destination location. Steph's store is a shop that gets busy when a cruise ship with onboard promotions for her shop comes to port. So some days are crazy busy, others are VERY slow. She has only experienced very slow days so far.
Dinners: Left over chicken noodle soup, still yummy.
We had a late lunch or something, our days all are all messed up right now. Most people eat dinner about 2 hours after they get off from work, that falls around 3:30 for us so timing in our world is a little strange but anyways we ate dinner at Le Chef again. I didn't order the chicken breast so the prices were a little better. We both got sandwiches which we will finish the other halves tomorrow. We got a Caprese salad too, the fresh vegetables were greatly appreciated. 

Day 19

Steph is/was sick. She is putting up a brave front and hopes she will be all better tomorrow for her first day of work. She starts at 9 AM I start at 6  AM, by the time you read this I will probably be done with my first day.
Back to today, I just took care of Steph, I made one pot chicken noodle soup and gave her shoulder rubs. We had to run around at sporadic times of the day to get all of our final paper work figured out. We are now part of a Mexican union, and if we stay here for 5 years we can buy land outright without fear of the government taking it away from us. 
I have a camera on the roof right now hopefully capturing the lunar/winter equinox. Hopefully I will be able to hook up my computer some time soon and upload the results.
Chicken noodle soup kicked ass! 

Day 18

I don't even know why I am posting for today, the word of the day is sloth. Everybody in the apartments did nothing, the sun was too lazy to burn off the clouds, and the wind only blew indifferently. So we took the cue and fallowed suit. 
Plus Steph felt like she was catching a cold, so we wanted to lay low since we actually start working this week. 

Day 17

Simple day of laying next to the ocean drinking cervesas at No Name Bar. It was much needed after the previous two days of travel. Beyond that it was just a little shopping and watching the sun set on the roof. We aren't going to have many days off in the future so we are reveling in doings of nothing. 
Our upstairs neighbors, who don't work for DI, Tracey and Alex took us out for dinner last night. We went to a restaurant called Chilangos, they serve something called Hueraches. It is basically a large taco, a juicy, succulent, filling taco on a homemade thick tortilla. We loved it, we will be eating there many more times. I had two and was full, both were of different beef varieties. Steph had a carnitas and pollo, plus two beers each. It was only about $15. Perfect!

Day 16

Our mishmash vagabond train continued today. As we wound through the Mexican countryside it is no wonder that heads turned, though those with whiplash do not know the biography on any of us. Those of you reading this have nothing to visualize our ragtag nature. So here it goes... Head of the train is our HR/Mother hen a  Venezuelan born Israeli, followed by an Israeli who came via Australia, a Sierra Leon born Lebanese from Michigan, a Massachusetts born native, a Philippino, an Israeli turned New Yorker/jet setter, a Russian born Israeli, a third generation Mexican American Texan, another Israeli who I do not know the full back story but speaks Spanish, an Israeli army special services soldier turned South American trekker who came via Miami, and Steph and I.
Steph still gets the most head turns, her platinum hair and now nose-bridge freckles make her look like she belongs on a 2010 re-imagining or the Swiss Miss label. 
Back to the trip, WE GOT OUR FM3s, which means we can legally work in Mexico! We spent 3 hours at the immigration office because one of our fellow travelers papers were lost. Granted we spent most of those hours sitting in the morning sunlight of beautiful Central Mexico, but we were all too eager to just finish up this argues trip and get the return home over with.
Because of the paperwork delay the return trip happened in less time but we were late for every departure. Thank Jesus the Mexican airport security isn't as stringent as the U.S, otherwise we would have missed our flight. 
Differences between the first trip and the return were:
We saw more on the bus between Cuernavaca and Mexico City where they showed Gran Torino which made Steph cry, there were no crying babies on the plane, we took a van/cab instead of a bus between Cancun and Playa De Carmen, and the nighttime ferry ride was really pleasant and relaxing. 
We were not even planning to go to dinner because we were so tired  but some of our traveling companions insisted. We showed up to Del Sur not even hungry but soon we were mawing down Argentinian barbecued beef till we burst at the seams. If anybody can make it to Del Surs, Renne the owner is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

Day 15

The day started at 8:45 AM standing on the pier ready to embark on a journey for our FM3 so we can officially start working here. The 40 minute ferry ride to Playa De Carmen was probably the most pleasant part of the trip. The skies were sunny and the Caribbean spared us large chop and offered up stronger blues than what we are used to from the shore. From there we took an unremarkable bus ride to Cancun. Some bad airport food and then we took flight to Mexico City. Best part of the flight was the free cervesas but one beer doesn't muffle the screams of a very unhappy baby a few rows aft. The beer would have gone further being fed to the baby. From Mexico City we boarded another bus, this ride was longer and winded through hazy foot hills as the sun set. From the bus to a cab we soon found ourselves at our hotel in the city of Cuernavaca, Mexico. Our misery from the 11 hours of travel was only compounded in the knowledge we would relive the entire trek in reverse within 18 hours. The only good news was that we would have two days off to recover and sleep when the whole pilgrimage was completed. 
Our first day was not over yet, our 10 traveling companions had eyes for the mall, another taxi ride and we found ourselves in a really nice mall, nicer than any mall in Portland. Steph got some flip flops and found a Sally Beauty supply so she now has the bleach to keep near accidents to continue occurring in the Mexican streets when she goes for a stroll. 
Dinner: Italian restaurant mall food, good for a mall but still not great. Steph had spaghetti and meatballs and I had a white wine chicken pasta dish. My dinner was probably the lightest dish on the menu but it still managed to be heavy. DI paid for it so in combination with that and a bottle of wine my pallet was less discerning.