First day of swim class!

Today is my first day of swim class at my school! Ugly royal blue one piece swim suit....check, bright red swim cap...check, goggles (which are pronounced gogles in Spanish, I get a huge kick out of that every time!), towel...check. I feel like a ten year old boy! Haha, but I'm so excited.

As many of you have read in my older blog posts, one of the most important things I've been missing here in Mexico is my connection with nature, the ability to hike around the state parks, climb boulders, jump in lakes, run through the woods and inhale the smell of fresh pine and earth. I no longer live on the farm, I live in a city, soon to be consumed by one of the largest mega-cities in the world, Mexico City. I can go hike around in the dry desert-like hills, but I have been warned that I could easily get robbed, beat up or even worse. There are beautiful archeological sights around Texcoco since it's the sight where King Nezahualcoyotl had his palace and where Cortes prepared for the attack of the Aztec Empire, but almost all sights that aren't recommendable for their housing of thugs and little punk-ass kids that will rob you. All the "rivers" around here are little tiny droplets of water that are green, brown, orange, all the colors of the rainbow, with tons of trash and feces in them, the smell is horrible! Nothing like our 10,000 lakes back home:(

This lack of having nature at my fingertips has really taken a toll on me emotionally, physically and most importantly spiritually. I don't really have a great way to connect with the earth right now, pavement, noise, graffiti, etc.

I'm hoping that by taking this swimming class 4 days a week, I am able to relax in a way that I've been missing. Yeah, so I'll be in an indoor pool with tons a chemicals, but at least I'll be in the water, I'll feel the sensation of being part of the water, of flowing, of being submerged in something greater than myself and of course the exercise will be great. Swimming has seemed like second nature to me, ever since I was a little kid. It's the closest and best option I have right now to have some kind of outlet of all my energy and need to relax in a deeper way.

We'll see how it work!