Checking In

Currently live blogging the World Series game, www.twitter.com/vikingdrewby

Very slow blogging the month of October, sorry about that. I could pretend I was busy but we all know that's not true ... at all. So, anyways, how's it going? Being so high here in the mountains, weather is definitely starting to show it here in mexico (my capital 'm' isn't working). Apparently, just being so high up in the mountains, most of the next few months will be fairly cloudy during the day, mid-60s and a lil windy, and mid-40s and windy at night. Sadly not beach weather, but certainly better than the midwest where I've lived my whole life.

I'm definitely happy with the group of people I've met here. I really like the other students at Tec and I'm enjoying the classes. I translated a paper for my advisor that's getting published here in January.

Still the most frustrating thing is not having anything to do during the day. I've been doing a lot of job searching, but that obviously takes a long time. I've been trying to go to a lot of business events around the city (mergers and acquisition reception, breakfast for the Dominican Republic's Treasury Secretary, mexpat parties, etc.) and am meeting some good people, but nothing yet. I'm pretty flexible about things, so hopefully something will happen soon. The average job search in the US now lasts 7 months, so I realize it just takes time. For comedy sake I went to an Accenture recruiting event on campus last week, seemed like a very exciting company to work for! The other major problem still is living as far south as I do. most of my friends live more in the center (areas like Condesa, Roma, and Polanco), and more businesses are there (and also wayyyy west in Santa Fe). So, if I find a job, I would likely move. Until then, it's not worth it, considering the traffic to get to school

Day of the Dead, a huge holiday here in mexico, is being celebrated today and tomorrow. Families gather in cemeteries to remember their loved ones. It's more celebratory than melancholy. Been eating a lot of Pan de muerto lately.

my friend Kendall (his never-updated blog is linked on the right) has had swine flu the last flu days. Fortunately none of the other students in my house have had it.

I went to a costume party Friday, mainly gabachos, it was very fun. Went as Forrest Gump, here's the photo. Definitely glad I got the haircut, even though my dance partner in salsa class thought it was so bad that she basically was laughing the entire way through our class a few days again (though, my still-improving moves could be a significant factor). Halloween is getting bigger and bigger here, I saw lots of kids Trick or Treating yesterday.

This article is a very good summary of the biggest news story in mexico here during the past month. President Felipe Calderon decided to shut down a state-run electricity company that was losing $3 billion US a year, and the populace strongly supported the move. Power goes out a lot here (I've had to throw out a lot of spoiled food), so hopefully it'll get better now that a new company has taken over. The article implies the president, for the short term, has a window to make mexico more economically competitive (break up more monopolies and unions, better tax collections, etc). The other big news is the president trying to get a sales tax increase in order to keep the country's finances in order. That definitely doesn't seem likely. my favorite newspaper here is milenio. If you're on Twitter, I recommend following the mexico city news, a feed (in english) that offers a sarcastic take on news in mexico.

I really miss playing golf. Hopefully over winter break there'll still be enough days in the 40s that I can play a couple rounds of golf, I haven't played since I've been here and really miss it. Golf is extremely expensive here in mexico (and most of the developing world), and despite golf's addition as an official sport in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, I don't see that changing much at all, at least not anytime soon. Nonetheless, I greatly respect guys like this Tony Ciabattoni, an American living in Colombia and attempting to make golf accessible to people of all classes.

This semester will be entirely complete December 7th, and assuming I don't have any obligations to keep me here, I'll probably be back in Naperville by December 10th. I'll be home for an entire month and hope to find some 'holiday job' (retail/restaurant). maybe I'll work as a viene viene. Possible quick trip to Vegas w/ my sister and her boyfriend's family during the month, but otherwise nothing else planned. Definitely looking forward to being home, and hopefully I can stay busy while I'm there. I'm planning on coming back for the spring semester, hopefully I'll find some sort of job for this spring. If done full-time, the program runs 3 semesters (not sure what I would do in the summer).

Well, I hope everyone's doing well. It'll be a weird Thanksgiving for the Stiling family; I'll be here, and my parents will be with my sister in Boston as she's recovering from hip replacement surgery. I'm hoping to organize a Thanksgiving meal here.

Enjoy November!

www.twitter.com/vikingdrewby

skype: drewby222

andrewstiling@gmail.com