While I am old enough and confident enough to find my own path in life, I am also still flexible enough to understand that very often new paths may find me instead. And that in a nutshell describes how I came to live in Mexico, long the land of my personal hopes and dreams.
It only seemed natural that, after many visits to this wonderful country, I would want to retire here. Well, maybe not here in the state of Chiapas, about which I knew next to nothing, but somewhere in Mexico. My husband (a Texan, whom I had married twenty five years ago) and I read books about retirement, attended seminars, heard pitches for tours and timeshares, and were avid fans of Mexico Connect.
Through it all, the reality of moving to Mexico remained a distant dream.
Then, while randomly surfing the Internet about this time last summer, I noticed several advertisements for native speakers of English to teach in Mexico. The proverbial light bulb went on over my head; and I realized that if I could work here in Mexico, we could actually afford to “retire” years earlier than we had ever anticipated.
I accepted a teaching position at a private school in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, and I flew down with my two teenage daughters last August. Of course they thought I was really crazy, but since they had been home schooled for the past two years they understood this was part of the program.
My husband stayed behind in Houston to sell the house and all our furniture. Within only two weeks we had a firm contract and the sale closed the first week of October. It sold so quickly we could not believe it had truly happened! At least not until we got the cashier’s check and converted it into pesos.
For the past twenty years my husband and I owned a small business buying, remodeling, renting, and selling houses in Houston, Texas. We are doing basically the same thing here in Copoya, where my husband is renovating a former furniture taller which we purchased. However, I love my home so much I may never want to sell and move again. My husband is also remodeling a small adobe cottage on our property which we plan to use as a bed and breakfast or as a school for total English immersion. The cottage was previously owned by Oscar Oliva Ruiz, one of Mexico’s most influential contemporary poets.
My educational background is a B.A. in English with a minor in Sociology. My Masters degree is in English. I have just been hired as a professor of English at the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas (UNACH), which is the largest university in the state.
Te esperamos. We await your visit and welcome you to our home in Copoya. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact .