I knew this would happen

Here I am sitting quietly on a Sunday afternoon, waiting for our groceries to be delivered, with a box of tissues and a pharmacy to my side. I'm sick...but not in the way you'd expect when you come to México. I have a sinus infection, a sore throat, and no voice. I've taken Airborne, Mucinex, Tylenol, Pseudoephd decongestant, and some throat anti-inflamatory. I have antibotics, but I don't want to take them unless I don't get better after today.

I think I'm sick because I didn't get much sleep all last week. You know, you're in a new place, you want to go out with friends and have a good time in the evenings, and then you have to wake up at 6am for work. The combination doesn't leave a lot of time for sleep and recharging my immune system.

On to business. I have now worked for one week in the airline business! I have learned so much already. I've read lease agreements and calculated the maintenance reserves they have to pay each month with escalation, found the costs of landing at all the major US airports and put them into a snazzy excel file. It's crazy how you calculate the landing/take-off fees. Every airport is different. Some calculate fees based on Maximum Take-off Weight, others on Landing weight, others on total seats, others on passengers, and others on Wing Span. What my department, the Finance Planning people, are working on now is the cost-analysis of the new 5-year business plan. Volaris is signed with Airbus to get lots of new A319s over the next 5 years, but maybe not enough new airplanes to quench the demand. So, Volaris has the option to buy new A320s in addition to the A319s. My group is doing the cost analysis which decides whether or not Volaris is going to buy the A320s. How cool is that? It is so real! Unlike textbook problems that are not significant in real life, this is serious stuff.

On to the fun stuff. Friday night there was a party given by two German guys, who having been working on the Volaris 5-year business plan, because they will be leaving soon. It was a Mojito party and my boss, and his boss and lots of other Volaris people were there. I got to bring 4 Fulbright friends and we had a great time dancing to the entertainment -- one guy with microphone, speakers, a Mac laptop....quite a sight to see! Let's just say you can't do that job if you are self-conscious. At one point in the night, there was a song with the beat of a Waltz, and I danced with one of the German guys, Florian, who appartently was a ballroom dancer for 10years! I hadn't Waltz'ed in 10 years!

What was awful about Friday night is I could bearly speak to anyone because I had lost my voice at about 9pm that night. Guess why? I had a great political conversation with two guys from work at a restuarant called "Beer Factory." We talked/argued (with good hearts) about everything from Iraq, healthcare, education, taxes....you name it. What a great way to practice my Spanish!

Last night I stayed in....it was so sad because I was invited by a guy from work, whose cousin was doing PR for a club called Vibó, to the opening last night. I got all my friends in VIP to the club with red carpet and all while I sat home with my tissues.

Oh. and the funniest part of this week, "learn something new everyday"....I've been waiting on two FedEx boxes from home with clothes, towels, mattress pad, etc that should have been here 1.5 weeks ago. I finally get a call from the FedEx lady. My packages are stuck in customs because it's illegal to send USED clothes to Mexico from the US.???? haha. Well, I think everything has been approved now, so hopefully they will all be here tomorrow because I've been living off very few clothes. So yeah, FYI, don't send used clothes to Mexico!