We had our second group of visitors this weekend. Our first group was only weeks after we'd arrived - they got here before our moving truck! While we were excited to host them, at the time we were little more than tourists ourselves.
This weekend, we were locals!
We knew how and where to drive to the airport, exchange money, find local food, find american food, use the metro, avoid the metro, create our own turi-van, cure stomach ailments, worship in English, shop for souveniers, program the GPS, and keep everyone safe.
We were so proud to show off my new hometown that I didn't mind translating every menu, reading every sign, explaining every idiosyncricity, and answering every question.
I was so prepared to cook American food that I was almost disappointed to eat out so much. We were so accostomed to Mexican food that we didn't mind eating some US staples.
We are now comfortable with our accents and our pale faces and confident of our security; enough so that we didn't mind walking through the city, bedecked in shorts and white tennis shoes, carrying cameras, and talking loudly in English.
Who cares?
I want to show more people our city - as much of the good stuff as we can fit in, and the unavoidable "bad" aspects, but definitely NOT the "ugly" side of the town!
But I am ashamed of how little our first visitors got to see. They saw a nearly empty house and a dirty city and a few US shopping malls and a very uncomfortable Dave & Kelly. Almost a year later, I hadn't noticed how comfortable we've become - in our home, in our car, in our own skin!
Comparing the trips really helped my perspective.
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