I’m lucky that Carleton’s campus is fairly small – small enough to help me bump into many of my Mexico travel buddies quite often. Still, I can’t believe it has been over seven months since we went south… and I miss being together in a big group.
That’s why this week I was so excited to get an email from Tessa, one of our ASB Mexico team members. She and Erin planned a Saturday-night reunion dinner at Mexicali Rosa’s on Dow’s Lake for all of us. Not everyone could make it (a few have graduated and some others are even taking big trips), but we had a wonderful time catching up and being nostalgic.
Left to right: Holly, Evan, Erin, me, Tessa, Lauren, Nicole, Rebecca
Evan and his Big-As-Your-Head Burrito. (He finished it.)
It’s absolutely wonderful to see how crew members are building upon their Mexico experiences.
- Some of the group came to Mexi’s straight from Carleton Serves, a giant day of community-service learning across the city. Several ASB members were group leaders, and our Lauren helped organize the whole thing.
- Erin has the travel bug! She went to Europe this summer and hopes to get to Africa with her mom soon.
- So many of us are taking classes related to development and culture, and a few of us have even changed our career goals and program elements based on our Mexico experiences. But it’s too bad not all of our learning can be as hands-on as it was in Cuernavaca. Personally, I’d take a trip to the People’s Market over a trip to the lecture halls any day.
- Tessa is getting ideas for the mosaic she plans to make using the ceramic pieces she found at La Estacion.
- We’ve all realized how “Mexican food” in Canada differs from Mexican food in Mexico. As we chowed down on our burritos and tacos in the restaurant, we asked ourselves: “Where were the burritos and tacos in Cuernavaca?!” We wholeheartedly agreed that we could go for a home-cooked Mexican meal or even just a piece of fresh, fresh pineapple.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we’re back in the sun and that can happen… but more than that, I hope we can all be together as much as possible this year. There’s something about that group that just gives me the warm fuzzies and helps satisfy the optimist in me.
