HEARTC♡RE

Montezuma's Revenge? More like Pakal's revenge. 

My biggest misconception about my own body is that I have a stomach of steel. Day 6 into my trip to Chiapas, I woke up with GI issues that have lasted me up to today (Day 11). Alhamdulillah, it isn't that serious, but it's probably the worst I have ever felt related to GI. Day 1, I felt weak, had a pang in my stomach equivalent to severe anxiety, loose bowels (:-D), headache and I felt lethargic. I took Mexican medication and it prevented me from having to use the bathroom, which was a Godsend because we were still traveling via Sprinter, 20 deep, hours away from home and sightseeing. Day 2 madrugada - it hit me all at once and I was the last one on the Sprinter that morning. Again, my body came through and kept all the noise at bay until I got home. Next day felt a little better, but still reeling from the hit to my body. I could not sleep at night from the pressure in my abdomen and finally I figured out that I just need to burp it all out (terrible sulfur burps). I was also coughing a lot of phlegm at night. I thought this was a separate issue, but after a quick Google it happens when the stomach acid rises to your esophagus. Then, I thought I had surpassed it all and on the road to recovery (Day 4). Now Day 5 and 6 I am back down. I'll spare you the details (well you have most of them), I can only be thankful that I have been spared vomiting. Now, everything I eat bloats me to such high discomfort, it is borderline painful. I cannot wait for this to end. But, I also have anxiety so my mind spirals a bit and toys with the idea that I caught a bug that will cause me chronic GI issues. . . but no, it will go away soon. The first bout of sickness, I do theorize was due to a virus/bacteria but after I got a bit better I will blame it on my diet - I am eating spicy, irritating, inflaming foods and a lot of sugar . . . I am definitely not helping the cause . . . might as well be throwing wood to the fire!

I am mostly surprised (not really) that there's still new bacteria that got me, when I have traveled to Mexico my entire life and if anything, I come from a pueblo and I have never gotten sick. Well it's never too late and you're never safe :-). FYI, aware I can get salmonella and e.coli in the US :'-). I just thought the Mayan spirits would spare me due to my good vibes.

After typing the above, I went on the internet and I think I know what parasite I am working with.... AHHHHHH. May be Giarda. You guys know I am a ride it out kind of girl (I recognize this is a mistake) so not looking forward to going to the pharmacy to get my one dose to help me out :-D (I am so silly....). Anyways, Google Giarda - he's a scary looking little sucker. 

Yesterdays food: spicy chilaquiles that I felt burn the lining of my stomach, a cherry ICEE, two scoops of sorbet, half a red bull, (I am pregnant with bacteria gases at this point), pizza, potato wedges, and a margarita . . . 

On to my diet of bland baby foods for the next week I guess. . . . .

On Tropical Diseases. I recently read a couple books on mosquitos and of course their whole schtick and purpose on this earth is to be vectors of diseases (please ask me and give me mosquito book recs). I was excited to come to Chiapas because it is one of the southern states that is susceptible to tropical diseases (don't get me wrong, we have some further up north too but Chiapas is always on the intake survey before you donate blood). Over chilaquiles yesterday, I asked my Chiapaneco brother in law about the status of malaria in the state and he laughed and said that's an African thing and equivalent to asking about Ebola. I was not very surprised to hear this since malaria is a rare disease, at least in North America, and with sustainable efforts for full eradication. Thankfully, he is a big Googler so immediately, he began reading out loud that malaria is present in Latin America, including Mexico in the states of Chiapas and Campeche. 

I found this website that's going to clearly be my newfound obsession. You can click by region and it is showing you real time Malaria risks by country. https://atlasvisualdelamalaria.org/paises/malaria-mexico/

But Malaria isn't the only tropical disease in Chiapas and the surrounding states. See CDC table below from the Mexico 2026 Yellow Book (I omitted the other Mexican regions but you can click to redirect you to the page). 

& if I'm already there, might as well stop in Macau right 😏  as they put it, the "Las Vegas of Asia". BTW Funny story about that, so when Portugal was democratizing (70's), it was ready to return (?) Macau to China after controlling it for the last few centuries. Unfortunately for China, they don't have their shit together, there is no rule of law, and subsequently asks Portugal to keep ruling and hold on to Macau until China could get back to them (late 90s).

This post was longer than intended, hope you weren't hungry, have the travel bug, or hate parentheses. 😉
Melissa

Thanks mom & dad, Amal & Salim, God 🙌🏾😘

Hi everyone, I haven't updated in almost a month. I have so many things I want to but haven't gotten the proper resources together. Pictures, information, and the like. I have three drafts of new blog posts but just haven't had the push to complete them.



Today I want to talk about Tinder! If you haven't heard, Tinder is a dating app. Dating is the way it is marketed but it can be used to network socially. The app works through Facebook, that is how you log into it/create an account. I think I made one in Atlanta once but didn't use it. I was wondering about how the scene was here and decided to try it. The way it works is you make a small profile, with the possibility of five pictures max, and a short bio of 500 words max. You edit your "discovery" settings to fit the gender, age, and location of who you are interested in. On the main screen, you have what I can only describe as a deck of cards, but it is a deck of profiles. You'll have one at a time, you can click, see their pictures and read their bio. If you decide you're not interested you swipe left and give a "nope". If you are interested you swipe right and give a "yes". The cool thing about this is, if you swipe "nope" it will not notify them, and if you swipe "yes" it will only notify them if they swipe "yes" on you when they stumble on your profile. You can only communicate if you both are interested and it is anonymous until then, so there is no room for harassment and unwanted messages. Also, once you swipe "nope", you can't go back and they are out of the pool.

So again, I made a profile to check out the Oman Tinder scene, if there even was one. Luckily for me, there is LOL. I am a bit surprised seeing as it is blocked in the UAE. You can read more about it here if you're interested. The fun part of the app, as everyone knows, is the swiping. There was a surprising amount of male users. . . well maybe not that surprising, but I still ran out of people to swipe with in two days. Out of curiosity, I changed my preference to women to check out the competition. JK LOL. Not surprisingly, I ran out of ladies to swipe on in about 7 minutes. I would say the ratio of men to women is 50:1. What makes this embarrassing is that probably every guy who has logged in in the last two days has seen my profile because they have no one to choose from. The pool is not too bad, it has a mix of all the ethnicities and nationalities imaginable. One trend I noticed is that everyone seems to have "traveler" in their bio. Which I believe because they have the pictures to prove it. They are also majority outdoorsy, all having pictures in foreign places, beaches, on bikes, hiking, if it's an outside activity, you name it, all Tinder users have it. I am only mentioning this because I am sure it is not something that would be too common say if I used it in Atlanta, but I will check out in two months lol.

In total I swiped right (yes), four times. For the first swipe I have a story: when I became interested in Oman more than a year ago, I was looking for pictures of Oman on Tumblr. I stumbled upon this photographer/fashion designer guy and began following his blog. I am not sure if he is Omani but he is here all the time. Anyways, so I followed him and eventually followed him on Snapchat too. I don't watch many stories now, but for a while he had a friend who I would see frequently. He always did this funny thing that made me crack up (get upset when his friend would put the camera on him) and funny enough I found him on Tinder! So I "yes'd" him just so I could possibly tell him this. Now that I am typing it out though, I hope he never finds me. Two more I liked were cute so I just did it for the adventure, and they liked me back so we matched. Fortunately or unfortunately, not sure because I am scared, they haven't messaged me. Lastly, I swiped yes to someone else because I recognized them from Instagram as we began following each other a couple months back. We've been having a nice platonic conversation so that's cool. I usually promote my new blog posts on Instagram, but I'm not sure if I want to. If you're reading this Tinder/IG friend, I'm sorry LOL. I will change the blog title now.





Last week, I think it was last week? We made a day trip to the UAE! I live in Muscat which is about a four hour drive and a forty minute plane ride from Dubai. We left the house around five am, did a McDonald's breakfast stop, and we were on our way. I was upset because I slept until we reached the Oman border exit. When we arrived I wasn't aware it was a police station and assumed it was a rest stop. My first thoughts when entering: "wow this is a fancy rest stop" "where are the vending machines." I was then informed it was a police station, which made me laugh because only the day before my visa had expired (we killed two birds with one stone with out Dubai trip, business and renewing my visa by re entering the country). So here I am rolling up to the police station with my expired-could-be-fined self. Luckily for us, it expired on the weekend and you get a day leeway. After our restroom stop, we hop into the car, and drive to the exit/border stop on the side of the building. The guy proceeds to tell us I need to go inside because my visa is expired, we do that and we are on our way (stamp #1). We reach the UAE border and hop inside so I can get my visa (GCC nationals can go in and out without a visa and just a form of ID). HD and I go inside, I smile at the lady and hand her my passport, she stamps my 30 day visa and says finished, I say thank you and we're done. As we're walking out the door my HD says, "did she even stamp it? She didn't charge you." We look at each other and say "run!" and briskly walk out the door. I am sure she didn't charge on purpose, not sure why though oh well! (Stamp #2)



We drive a couple more hours to Dubai, do business, have lunch at Mall of the Emirates (which BTW has a legitimate ski slope) and we're back on our way. I love the way the scenery is of course, and I didn't fail to steal some sand and put it into a plastic water bottle. We made our exit out of the UAE, where we were questioned unnecessarily (yes an American can spend a single day in Dubai, you're not that special) and got my exit stamp (#3). We arrived back to the Omani entrance border, hopped off, filled out a quick form and got my visa back into the country. In one day, I got a total of four passport stamps. & thankfully they were back to back and inky, unlike my entrance and exit out of Europe that both decided to mark my passport with a dryass stamp. Hopefully, we will make one more visit to Dubai, not because it's the best thing I've experienced but because I want a Dubai coffee mug.




This weekend (Friday) we are headed for a weeklong vacation, well at least N and I are. We will be staying at the Shangri-La Barr al Jissah Resort. I have not been yet, but from what I have seen and know, it is a beautiful five star resort, that sits privately on a bay. N and I will relax by the pool, while host parents are busy cooking up a storm. HD is invited as a guest chef at one of the restaurants at the hotel. I have been trying their dishes at home and I know it will be a success. Excited for the experience and the beauty and will post something on the blog when it comes to a close.


for those of you on FB, sorry I haven't uploaded any pictures of Europe they are sitting on my old phone and I am trying to find the easiest way to upload them. Still need to do a post on Omani men's traditional wear, and as soon as I get pictures I will make a post about shop signs here.

Posting soon, Melissa

I remember hopping off the plane, actually, walking out of the plane onto stairs and onto a bus, two months ago. I remember accepting defeat after my luggage fiasco, and walking through the last leg of security with only my backpack, a sweater, and a purse. I remember the "where are your bags?" and "where are you from?" I remember walking through the departure doors and directly into a crowd of what felt like a 1,000 people. Like I was walking the red carpet. ;) I remember waving to my host mom, who was to the far left of the crowd, pushing N in his red stroller, almost an hour after my arrival (courtesy of Etihad). I remember giving N a shy "hello". And meeting my host dad then after, and having a chat about what could have possibly happened to me because of my lateness. I remember choosing my phone number. And how back at T-Mobile my foreign customers would ask me if they could choose their numbers and I would say "?? you can't do that". Well yes, you can choose your phone number in other parts of the world. I remember walking out of the airport into the heat, only to be called by someone behind me, to let me know that I'd left my passport at the mobile phone store counter #confession. I made quite the initial entrance.

Now I'm two months in, including my two weeks out, where I had a few more plane-to-staircase-to-bus experiences (I am trying to rack my brain to see if I have done that elsewhere). But, that's beside the point. Now I am on a time crunch to make a (life changing?) decision. My original agreement was to stay here until January. Now I have the option to extend, technically to as long as I want :P JK, but realistically, until summer of 2016. Coming to Muscat, was a no brainer, and I was very set and confident in my decision. This time around, I don't have a plan and I am not leaning towards one decision or the other. Well I think I am, but I don't have anything to support me in the decision. Like I said, I am on a time crunch. What do I do? I don't want to miss out, but I also don't want to jump the gun. I am very conflicted, but on second thought am I? Because if I had the proper resources, I think I'd know what my decision would be. Maybe there is a reason I don't have the resources or maybe I just don't because #ItBeLikeThatSometimes. #WhyAmIUsingHashtags #BecauseItAddsToIt, #AmIRightOrNah.

Anyways, I am wearing a scarf (which I overpaid for in the Yemeni Pavilion at the Expo, but so worth it) as if trying to invoke Atlanta autumn temperatures in this 100 degree desert. I probably wouldn't mind the weather if I was thin and could wear little clothing, but I am not and I love to layer, so be it. This scarf is so soft by the way and it's like the perfect colors.

I want to post pictures, but I don't have any. So I am beginning and ending a new art project called:

It has already a week since I left home, but it feels as if I have been here a month. Honestly, sometimes I am walking up the staircase or getting into the car and I think "what the heck" to myself. Like I am honestly here thousands of miles away from my family and friends in a foreign country and culture. I can't believe I did this and that the time came so soon after what felt like waiting a long time. I am a bit crazy, but I came out lucky to be with the family I am with.

N:

Other than my lost luggage, the week ran very smoothly. As normal, N is still adjusting to me being around and taking care of him. He is doing quite well and I am very happy with how our relationship has developed so far. He is one of a kind and I am always thrilled to spend time with him. Even when we have climbed up and down the escalators 15 times (literally). He is also very smart and so I am excited to be part of this critical developmental stage, where hopefully we will start hearing clearer words and full sentences. Maybe after he has a bette grasp on his verbal communication in English and Arabic, I can introduce Spanish. I am very excited for that and we will see how and will it will happen. Sometimes I catch myself speaking to him in Spanish because I am used to communicating with young children in Spanish as opposed to English. We are also learning how to use the toilet and are in the process of potty training. I am very much rooting for him to grow exponentially in these coming weeks and months. Really excited & I am sure his family is even more so.

Family:

The family I am with is always busy (in the best way) so I am never bored. We are always at malls and shops or doing something. They are very active and so I am very active and I really enjoy it. I usually go to sleep late because I don't really get sleepy till then. What is funny is that so far I have woken up every morning before my alarm (that sounds around 9am) around 7am. It's funny because at home I will sleep straight thru my alarm and wake until about 11 or 12pm. I am enjoying it though, it gives me some time in the morning to relax and have breakfast. Hopefully I maintain my internal clock and have no problem when school comes around in a couple weeks, when I have to wake at 6:30AM. Another plus is that my family is in the food industry AKA they are foodies. AKA I am always well fed (although they don't think so :P). AKA there is always something to eat. And food is respected, as it should be ;). I couldn't be more at home in this aspect. Haha. What I have noticed when I go overseas is that I eat smaller portions. Not because of what is available, but because my appetite decreases. Food is equally or more appetizing, but in these cases I actually control myself. :O

Me:

I am very calm and comfortable, but when I think about being these "calm and comfortable, anxiety kicks in. I start thinking about the next day and what will happen and what we will do and I get nervous. I am hoping to live mostly in the moment and do things as they come, as opposed to plain out dread the unknown. Sometimes I get upset that I don't know how to do something or that things feel a little off, but I have to remind myself I have only been here a short time and that it is okay. Other than that, I feel very welcome and invited as I've said before.

There are these juice boxes that they sell here and they are one of the most satisfying I have tried. I drink one like each morning and night (I should not do this).

I begin school on today and I am not excited. I hope I find my rhythm soon, but I have a feeling my stay here will be somewhat unpredictable. Only time will tell.

Melissa

9am

Atlanta Time
Current Status: I was going to wait until I landed in Abu Dhabi to blog, but I can’t help myself. I’m currently writing from my AA flight from ATL to Chicago. The flight attendants tricked me though, they made it sound like the Wi-Fi was free and I was not only excited but was prompted to write this post. . . specifically on how they have free Wi-FI now, but guess not.

Calming Thoughts: I was surprised at how easy last night was. Usually, when I am excited or anxious for something it is hard for me to sleep at night. Although I did go to sleep late, finalizing some things, as soon as I laid in bed I knocked out. Woke up this morning got ready, and apart from being on edge during check in, I was still calm even after saying good bye to my parents. I’ll take this as a good sign.

Dreaded Thoughts: Since the beginning people have asked me how long the flight is and I have been saying the longer flight is 14 hrs and they’re like “whaaa, long time!!” I was like “yeah long time, but YOLO.” And now. . . . as I sit here. . . . I am chanting over and over in my head. .. . 14hrs. . . FOURTEEN HOURS. FOURTEEEEN HOURS!!! That is almost two work shifts. . . . sitting next to some strangers. (But hey, at least I’m not working ;) ) Also I don’t have an aisle seat as I first thought but a middle seat. And I get anxious having to tap people and ask them if I can scoot over them. I have my fingers crossed to sit next to someone decent (AKA not creepy).

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with Legacy on my calendar. After 40 minutes of rain and traffic, and a text letting them know I would be late, I got to the restaurant. We met at Blue Moon Pizza, which thankfully was/is not too far from my house. It was our coordinators R & L (husband and wife), Y and myself. We sat outside, under a cover of course, and had a couple hours to catch up over delicious food. Of course the topic of my trip to abroad came up, as we hadn't seen each other for a while. When I kind of finished speaking about it and mentioned where I had been, L asked Y where she had traveled to and if there was any place she was interested in traveling to. She said it wasn't something that she necessarily thought about or was keen on. That reminded me of even further back when I was chatting with another friend, K, about goals and dreams. She said her fear was never traveling and seeing the world, and I thought "well that's a good point". Back to dinner after the two seconds it took me to remember that time and dwell on Y's statement, it came to me that "traveling" was also a thought I hadn't necessarily thought about often.

Yes, I know. What?? & I mentioned that, that I hadn't given traveling too much thought. And I want to know why? I initially said it was because I was more interested in culture through people. But I am not sure that is necessarily true. I think to fully understand a peoples' culture, you have to see their country. Their history, politics, landscapes, architecture, even weather affect the evolution of their identity. When you're put in the middle of it all, you can see the why and have a deeper personal understanding. But, I digress. I am still young, and I think after I hit that initial wave of self awareness and clarity of my interests, I worked then on a basic understanding of Middle Eastern (for lack of a better word?) culture. In my opinion, and maybe not everyone else's, I did it in a very natural manner. As opposed to introducing myself academically, I did it through blogs, Netflix films, YouTube documentaries, and following simple news stories. Not only because the latter is more accessible, but I can barely read academic papers assigned to me in class. And this was over the course of a year and some change, where the information came to me gradually. OK, so I did that for a year. Then came my interest with Oman and I think I really just devoted my time to that and day dreaming of traveling there. So there wasn't much room for thinking about other countries and say "oh I want to visit here and see these peoples and landmarks." But now, thanks to being able to mark Oman off the list and people at the IRC who have mentioned details of places I think I would really enjoy visiting. I present to you my (very short) list.

(just a BTW I've visited to Germany, Belgium, France, Argentina, Nicaragua, and of course Mexico)

1. Ethiopia, why? well I want to visit an African country next. Just this Thursday too, I read an email from someone who is currently there. Blogging style, it was so well written I wanted to just appear in Ethiopia in the middle of a herd of cows. I heard the food is bomb. It's one of the few countries not colonized by Europe (except for like mid 20th century) and it'll have a very distinct culture than to what I have encountered thus far.
2. Nepal, why? I have a friend at work who is from there and of course I hear all the good things. I also think it would be a country to expose me to a new culture. I really want to witness the landscape and monuments first hand. It looks like, and I'm sure it is, such a beautiful country. I'd like to do more rural and nature tourism, and if I'm not mistaken that is there specialty. Especially after the devastating earthquakes and what followed, it wouldn't be a bad idea investing into their economy and get it back to it's formal glory. So, let's go soon yeah?
3. Spain, why? This is a trip I'd like to take a little later in life (5 or 6 yrs?). Everyone knows I have no big interest in Western Europe. Mainly because I want to deviate from Western culture. I know every country is unique and has something to offer, but it is just not a priority for me. Plus with my winter trip to Europe I feel I got that little bug out of me and I am satisfied. I would want to take a all inclusive European trip in the far future though. Anyways, Spain is some place I'd like to travel to with my family. I remember my dad mentioning wanting to visit Spain when I was little and it has been my dream for us to all go together. It'd be cool to see Spain in concentrate. That makes no sense, but what I mean is because I'm Mexican and because of Spanish colonization, we speak (mostly) Spanish, are (mostly) Catholic, and the rest of our culture has Spanish characteristics, but isn't Spanish. And believe it or not, it's easy to forget that. It'd be interesting to see the differences in culture although sometimes we believe we know what it is. Also to visit Basque Country and Barcelona and see their rich and unique culture in comparison. And it wouldn't be easy, but in a dream world we would separate and leave our parents in Madrid, and go, with my then older siblings, to spend a summer night in Ibiza. 

This weekend, well Friday & Saturday I went on a mini nun run with my good friends- Yuri, Karen, Deepa & now Clo. 


we went to the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia in Nashville! it was amazing.
 


Their way of life is so interesting i'm going to give a run through of my weekend there, but first let me say that this does not mean i am going to become a sister tomorrow. . . .or ever. It just means that I am open, interested, and informed of what God's will for me might be.


Let's see 0.0 - I love thier way of life. Last time I came in February, i wanna say it was my favorite although we only spent 3 hrs there :o. I'm extremely happy that my beloved youth minister Deepa decided to take us to Nashville again AND they're teachers and have a school nearby Atlanta.


Short & Sweet: we arrived in Nashville around 12, had some lunch and got to the conventa little before 1. We were early and do we took a nap in our beyond amaazingly decorated, vintage rooms!


 these are gorgeous! I <3 lots!


& after our quick rest we went outside and mingled with some of the sisters. Let me tell you I only have a couple of their names memorized for example Sister Cecilia Rose. And I cannot and i mean cannot remember their names! only their baptismal name and i only know 3! Afterwards we put on our tennis shoes and came outside to meet up with the rest of the sisters. We started off with a rosary walk. We split into 2 groups and made 2 lines and prayed the rosary while we sped walked around their campus which is beautiful btw. & to say the truth I wasn't really concentrating on the rosary :o I was looking around and the weather was amazing. So after rosary walk we did recreation! whoo!! we played soccer and ultimate Frisbee with the sisters. It was beyond fun! watching them run with their habits was adorable. 


then we had a tour of the MOTHERHOUSEE! how special is that??






afterwards we had some free time. Trust me that was used for a quick nap! We then returned to a room and had a talk on prayer, one of the sisters gave us each a book about prayer with a certain saint. I had St. Francis of Assisi. God knows i tell yah. The first section was about our journey. AH. just what I needed. I learned an awesome prayer. Goes a little something like this: 
Most high and glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart.
Give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, to carry out your holy and true command.
Isn't that great?? Ah. so perfect for my life right now.
Then we had prayer/vespers/adoration/meditation at the chapel. 


We had dinner with some of the sisters: Pizza, chips, etc. Best Pizza ever ;). We ate outside on the cutest decorated little table.
Did some spiritual reading & played an awesome game of headbandz with the sisters. Funniest things ever. Had a blast. 
















Then it was time for bed at 8. Long day the next day :o


next day: 6 AM. 
WAKEE UPPP! and time for morning prayers & mass. 
I could bearly sing because they sing so high :o but i tried. 
after THAT we had breakfast with 2 other sisters. I had a cherry pastry & milk. YUMMMYY. 


WE DID DUTIES!!!! AH. i really don't know exactly why it was just amazing but I swept two dining rooms a small and a half a large room. Moped one, then polished silverware. The sisters do this in silence & for some reason cleaning has never been so magical.


Cookie Decorating time! The sisters were having a Spanish night last night in honor of World Youth Day that was in Madrid a little while ago. we decorated cookies in what was the logo of WYD: