Ola Webland!

Hello Webland! 

Sorry it has been a while.  I was down in Mexico for work and only had my work computer with me.  I make an absolute point of not doing anything personal on my work computer.  Since I was traveling light with just a carry on and a backpack for 6 days I didn't bring my little Mac Book with me.  (Although I really wish I had it with me!)

I was in Guadalajara Mexico for a week with my department and about 70 of our closets NGB friends for the final team leaders meeting before the Pan American Games to be held in October of this year.  It was quite the adventure, especially given the fact I was only on week two of my internship by the time this little trip kicked off! 

Sarah Konrad (Athlete Services Coordinator for ParaPan American Games) Justin Rogers (Transportation support) & myself.  It's not all that often that an intern has someone working for them during a games!  I have the power! I have decided that Justin and I will get along swimmingly on our little adventure in Mexico!

As each day passes I am slowly...slowly getting more and more details from people as to what exactly I am going to be doing while I am at the Pan Am Games.  When I arrived in Guadalajara I learned that I'll be working transportation.  Hence most of my time down there last week was getting familiar with the various routes from the athletes village to venues, to the hotel where the operational staff will be based.  I have to admit I find it a bit humorous that for someone who is directionally challenged I am going to be doing transportation!

Now this is much more my style of transportation!

Day One of the trip was spent meeting NGB team leaders at the airport and getting them to the hotel.  Via van, shuttle bus, or car...we had to meet, greet, and send them on their way to the right location.  It wasn't all that adventurous and indeed meant spending a whole day in the arrivals hall of an airport.  The one humorous point was me trying to communicate with the bus company that we had contracted with.  I speak pretty much zero Spanish...which meant I wound up speaking what I know call Air Spanglish.  I combination of Spanish, English, and international air charades!   Humorous that is for sure.

Day Two of the trip was the actual excursion day to visit all of the various venues and athletes village.  Now being transportation..this girl now has to drive in Mexico.  That is an adventure in itself.  Pretty much I was determined to follow the bus that was in front of me at all costs.  The best part was that the local assistant for the USOC, Zabdi, even questioned my driving ability in Mexico.  I asked him if he was headed to a venue, when he said yes, I told him I would follow him in my van to learn the route.  His reply to me was, "Your driving....good luck."  Come on dude you have known me for like 2 hours...throw a sister a bone here! I think I impressed my one of coworkers with my ability to be a seriously aggressive driver. By the end of the day even Zabdi gave me props for driving skills and he transportation crew of the Pan Am games has a new motto, "There are no rules for driving in Mexico!"

Myself, coworker Lisa, and the infamous Zabdi...man of oh so little faith!

After we zipped all around town we eventually headed back to the hotel and did preparations last minute preparations for the evenings reception dinner at a local restaurant.  It was a really nice dinner with lots of local specialties served.  It just so happens that the evenings reception coincided with my birthday.  I joked that it was so nice of the USOC to host a birthday bash for me in Mexico with over a 100+ people.  I did celebrate with one of my favorite margaritas (tamarind) and my co-workers had arranged for a mariachi band to serenade me with the Spanish version of happy birthday.  All in all not a bad way to spend a birthday, and it's not all that often that one gets serenaded in Spanish by a mariachi band!

Throughout the streets of Tapalpa have lots of bronze statues all over.  It makes the whole area really unique.

Day 3 we continued on with a few more venue trips, some office work, and even a sight seeing tour.  I was pretty appreciative of this especially since we had been working non stop for the past week plus leading up to this trip.  We went to a place called Tapalpa, it's kinda a little artsy place.  I had to laugh because I we pretty much just bee-bopped (that is what Norman calls it) in and out of all the little shops.  It was quite a bit of fun. After our excursion we of course came back and worked and got ready for the next day.

This was one of my favorite street statues.

A small group of street vendors inside a historic art district.

A historic loom.

Another one of the statues around the streets of Tapalapa

Day 5 we headed home, but of course not before I did a few more airport runs, before I and the rest of the team headed to the airport ourselves.

The streets of Tapalpa are really quaint.

All in all a very very busy trip.  Quite the adventure to be thrown into on week two, but it did allow me to learn quite a bit on the fly.  Regardless I'm glad to be back in the states.

Adobe is the restaurant that we ate at on our last night.  They had all of these beautiful tin stars hanging from the ceiling.