The Start of the Next Adventure!

So I've ended up in Mexico! I have plans to stay here for the next four months, until the end of June. Many people asked me before I left where and why I was going, so in this first post, hopefully I'll provide some explaination.
This trip was insprired by graduating from Evergreen last spring and hearing over and over again that I needed to "get out" and travel, learn, experience, etc. away from home. I started to do this during the summer after I graduated, but I was waiting until after the medical school application process to really get out. I knew that this spring would be an important time for me to travel because it fit well with my work and school schedules, because right now I'm free of both of those! But there were so many places I wanted to visit, and I know people in many different parts of the world...where to go? Where to go?
I picked Mexico because I wanted to refresh my spanish and eperience a different part of Latin America, which I loved so much in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Having never really seen Mexico beyond a day trip to a border town, I wanted to understand this place that has such an impact on life in the US. I also thought I would take the opportunity to visit my friend Aly in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (small town north of Puerto Vallarta) and Cam, who lives six months of the year in Mazatlan. These two amazing women (and their housemates) offered to host me, and with Cam I will be helping out with a medical brigade from the Iowa University PA school. From now through mid-April, I will be visiting these friends and traveling with my mom to the Baja peninsula. After that I will have about seven more weeks to travel in Oaxaca, Chiapas, the Yucatan and maybe Guatemala before meeting up with Jay to go on a WWOOFing adventure in Chiapas. I left the middle part of the trip open, mostly because I talked with friends and family about coming to travel with me during this time, but many were unable to commit, so I'm still waiting to hear when they're free. Regardless, I don't have any doubts that I will meet plenty of interesting travel companions on the way, and hopefully lots of locals who can guide me and show me the back door secrets as well.
It has taken me over a week to get just this first post up, but I will be adding photos and stories from my time in La Cruz very soon! Thanks so much for reading and please contact me at kelsey.sholund@gmail.com with feedback or travel recommendations! Hasta pronto!