May 14th, Aw...no..Katie don't leave

Katie's last day..tear. Felix and his driver, the quiet and friendly Fernando, planned to come pick Katie and I up at 6. At that time we would start our mini journey to the Poza Roca Airport. Felix and Fernando pulled up 15 minutes early, forcing us to hustle out of the cabin. Katie said her goodbyes, and before we knew it, we were out of the Tecolutla and getting on the highway.
I'm pretty sure I've described driving in Mexico before, but I'll go over it just to refresh your memory. Highways are one lane, and from time to time, will even have a small shoulder. In order to pass cars in front of you, you must pull over into the opposing traffic's lane, speed past the slower car, and then move back into your correct lane. It feels like a game of chicken actually. Who's going to make the first move and pass? Is there enough time? I wonder if a car is coming around this corner.
Fernando, well aware of the rules, decided at some point to push them. First of all you never pass cars when you're going around a turn and can't see cars coming up. You also should never try and pass a car when you are approaching a hill, as you cannot see what is coming up the other end of it. Fernando did both. His tiny Nissan risked all of our lives, and for a few seconds Katie and I pretty much thought we were gonners. We got back into our lane with only 9 feet clearing room. Usually you want at least 100.
That was the highlight of the ride though. The rest of it was a piece of cake, and right around 7.10, we pulled into the tiny airport parking lot.
If the Philadelphia airport is a human being, the Poza Rica airport is a finger nail. Only one mini plane can operate at a time, meaning only one flight leaves every couple hours. The airport itself is a box, as Katie frequently described it. You pass through security only when you are making your way outside to walk onto the plane, so Katie, myself and our posse of Mexicans hung out at the "gate" and waited for her to leave. Felix had also never seen an airport or plane, so that was even more incentive to hang around and wait for her to take off.
Katie's flight took off right on time. There was no reason for it not to. As she walked out to the plane, I quickly reflected on the friendship I had just made and knew then I would be seeing her again, whether it was in Colorado, PA, Tecolutla, or some crazy other place. The friend I had made was too great to just brush off like any other brief acquaintance. We were now "buddies", and I look forward to keeping it that way. I smushed my face against the glass wall so she could see how much I would miss her, and she waved back and laughed.
The second part of the day was pretty uneventful. I drove back with the my gang and we went shopping at a huge Walmart. Everytime I find myself doing something so natural in such an unnatural setting, I like to just get out of my head and look around. Then I make a strange face because that too is unnatural, and then I just laugh at myself. I was practicing this in the Men's department, picking out pants with a Mexican English teacher, and his driver. Felix couldn't decide on what pants he wanted and was consistently unsure about whether or not the shirts he picked out matched the pants he wanted. Fernando was obviously getting frustrated, but stayed true, and kept himself composed. I laughed everytime Felix would ask Fernando what he thought, because I know inside Fernando was thinking, "Dear Lord, just pick something out!!" He laughed with me as Felix just went about his business.
By the time check out came around, we had probably been shopping for at least 45 minutes. We started towards the door, but then stopped. Felix asked me to wait with the cart while he went BACK IN to get money from the "automatic teller machine". I told him we just called that thing an ATM.
I sat on the bench for 20 minutes, starting to get impatient. I wanted to be in the car with my book and making some progress getting back to Tecolutla. When Felix and Fernando returned, I was relieved and a little frustrated with all the stops we had been making. I cooled down immediately when Felix showed me what he bought. He had gotten me what would have normally been prescription oitment for my bug bites. They are pretty bad right now and it almost seems useless to try and put bugspray on to prevent them. Throughout this trip and the previous one, the bites were successfully making me feel self-concious and giving me a vice for any situations where I couldn't talk. I just itched them instead. The fact that he had thought of me when I was convinced he was in his own head, worrying about his stupid pants, made me want to cry. I was tired and hungry, and he had gotten me what I needed most- Ointment for my boo boos. It felt like Christmas.

I got into the car feeling pleasantly surprised and with a new sense of happiness. I was constantly seeing why I chose to come here and why I came back. I finished One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and that just did me in. I was bopping along to the mexican music I didn't like, smiling the entire time. I had people who cared about me right here, and I didn't need them to use words to convey that.
The rest of the day was full of naps, sweating, reading about Baja California in the Lonely Planet book Katie lent me, and starting "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson. I looked around a couple times, trying to let the fact that I was alone sink in. I had gotten so used to having someone to joke around with and talk to, all of a sudden not having that felt so different and wrong. I tried to remember the time when I did this before, and spend my time like I had then, but I was still having trouble. I picked up Three Cups of Tea, and read the intro. BAM. I was back out of my funk, and moving onto the next project. So far, I love the book. It is the story of a Mountaineer turned Humanitarian, who gave girls in a remote town in Pakistan that chance to get an education. He was determined to build them a school. I haven't gotten much further than that, but I'm almost definate it's going to be just as great as Eat, Pray, Love, if not better.