So I will back track a little because I have had many adventures since I last wrote. I have now come to understand why this is not such a common thing that people do. Because it is really, really hard.

My first week after school finished I did many fun things with very nice company. I watched the sunrise over the ocean, spent a very, very fun day exploring a cenote, a place kindof like a lake with secret caves and great snorkeling and went snorkeling with enormous turtles! The turtles were absolutely incredible, one old big guy stayed right underneath my friend and I, close enough to touch for over five minutes!

I then took six days travelling on my own from Playa del Carmen to near Mexico City. Altogether I spent 35 hours on the bus and visited three towns. It was very interesting but probably not my favourite kind of travelling. I saw three beautiful waterfalls, one cascade Aqua Azules (blue water) was so far and incredible, I walked beside for an hour and didn´t yet reach the top. I also took a tour of old mayan ruins and stayed in a very pretty small city, San Cristobal. I liked walking through the outskirts, the further I got from the centre, the poorer the living conditions, the more people stared at my white skin and the more easily people smiled. I met with other travellers and spoke Spanish with many, many people. Everyone was so friendly, whenever I was somewhere on my own; in a restaurant, a shop, on the bus, at the bus stop, almost always someone would talk with me. It was so nice and made my adventure much more enjoyable.

My favourite part of the trip was while I was waiting to change buses on the road next to the jungle, outside a single shop with cheeky local girls out the front selling bags of fried bananas. While the other tourists stood around looking bored and tired I asked the girls if they would like me to braid their hair. One teenage girl was brave enough and although I didn´t think I did such a bad job, they all passed the rest of the time laughing and repeated to me what I thought was, ´now she is your daughter!´

I arrived in Cuernavaca Sunday night, ready (kindof) to begin the course Monday morning. The first week was incredibly overwhelming and it might just be the hardest thing I´ve ever done. By the second week I began to really enjoy it and make friends and I could see how well my Spanish was improving. I still need a lot more time though. Learning a language takes so much time and effort, I now have so much admiration for people who can speak two and even more languages!

Despite all my external adventures, of course the most interesting has been my internal experience. After going through a period of feeling unusually miserable and very confused, to the point that someone suggested I have a melancholic temperament, I made the difficult decision that I am not going to stay and work for this school for the next two years. I came here to work with disadvantaged children so that´s what I will do, and unfortunately it´s not possible with this school.

I have been researching Waldorf schools and projects around Latin America, at the moment I think the first thing I would like to do is return to the Qéwar project in Peru (where they make the beautiful dolls). So now I look forward to a new adventure!

The Cenote

Snorkling with Sonja from Germany

Aqua Azules

My classmates at the Waldorf training