Holy Mole

C'mon, you knew that I had to title at least one blog with that.

So it is raining in Mexico. Maybe it doesn't sound that unusual that in the middle of the desert it is raining. Maybe it doesn't seem odd that the streets are flooded and on some of the roads there is standing water almost a foot in depth. I would only assume that if you didn't think it was odd, it was because you had traveled with me before and know that the rainy season follows my travels. Unbelievable. Not that the rain is bad exactly, it is a constant rain that has definitely cooled everything off and cleaned up the air. I think that the high yesterday was 83. Not bad at all.

We needed to be at the office at 7:30 in preparation for the training. To make our commute to the office, we then needed to leave at 7, so breakfast was scheduled 6:15. Of course, breakfast doesn't open until 6:30. So to get up, iron (someone please check on Nicole -- she probably just read that and fell out of her chair), check email, etc... that was a start at 5. Since this is going to be a typical day, I definitely am NOT going to get adjusted to the time zone and go to bed by 9:30. Regardless, I woke up at 4 (even having taken a Tylenol PM) -- so all was fine.

Breakfast was interesting. As we start out each trip we get adventourus and then quickly ease back into our morning stupor and go back to the comfort and simplicity of toast and coffee. I had enchilada casserole?, steamed vegatables and coffee. Without a Spanish/English dictionary that was as far as I would go.

Our ride was a bit late so we were trying to drive faster to the office through the flooded streets. It turned out that it didn't matter as the VP that was kicking us off was stuck in traffic and wasn't able to make it until 9. We adjusted our training to finish on time in the morning with a lot of "We will talk about that later this week".

Lunch at the site is at the cafeteria (free) where I used my exquisite language skills to point and grunt at what I wanted. I got flautas and rice. Everything was good -- just a bit embarrassing as the flautas were spicy enough that my whole head was sweating. Just in case anyone was wondering on this trip -- yes, my sinuses are completely clear.

The afternoon was 1x1 with folks on the tools and strategies. The team is pretty smart and while we are teaching what you should/must do -- there is a lot of push back in what people "really" do. However, I think we made some good connections. The team oddly mainly remembers me as the guy that ordered the frog legs -- and wants to take me to some restaurant later this week that serves them.

We left work about 6:30 and went to dinner. I debated all sorts of menu items -- there is this "Black Bass" that keeps appearing on the menu that I think is interesting. I went exotic and had Tacos. They were good, but they serve you the fillings on a plate with a stack of corn tortillas more like we get fajitas. Cecilia got a vegatarian enchilada with mole that was awesome. For dessert, we had Crepas which is like a unfilled crepe with a cooked milk (kind of like caramel) and minced pecans in the sauce. Very good.

My phone worked for exactly 10 seconds. We were driving and at some point the clouds, roads and signals aligned -- and I got two text messages from Sunday. Any other time I tried the phone, it would simply ring and then I got a recorded message yelling at me in Spanish.