Synchros in Orlando

Over Rob’s birthday, we drove up to Orlando to celebrate with our daughter, Megan, and experienced a couple of synchros. That’s her backyard in the above photo.

On the night of Rob’s actual birthday – May 16 – we dined at an Asian place where everything was served as tapas – little plates of various types of food. Megan and her roommate, Erin, joined us. The meal was fantastic and we talked about the synchro weirdness of both Megan and Erin interning at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo. It’s an unpaid internship that accepts students from different colleges and backgrounds to spend a month at the facility for college credit. Megan and Erin attended different colleges but immediately found each other – a couple of Virgos –   and became fast friends. That was in 2008.

Fast forward six years. After college, Erin moved back to Orlando to live with her parents and applied for jobs at Sea World. Megan landed an internship at Disney to work with dolphins. She and Erin reconnected and realized their fascination with dolphins had continued. In late 2014, Erin’s parents made the down payment on a home on a lake and Megan moved in with her. Eight years earlier when we met Erin, who would have thought this?

Their house is next door to an elaborate home with a distinctive Mexican/Aztec theme. We’d heard that a couple of Mexican artists owned the place but had never seen anyone around except a landscaping crew. That night after dinner, Rob let the dogs out into the backyard and walked outside with them. When I joined him, he was standing at the fence, talking to Cicero and his wife, Q, the American artists who own the house and live most of the year in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Cicero used to be the art director at Disney and she was head of the arts and humanities department at an Orlando college. Both are retired, but had been visiting San Miguel since 1992, and are now permanent residents. Their home in Orlando is for sale and they plan to live permanently in San Miguel.

We must have stood at the fence for an hour, talking with this engaging couple about their lives as ex-pats in San Miguel. This old colonial city sits at about 7,000 feet and lies three and a half hours to the northwest of Mexico City. The cost of living is far less expensive than in the U.S., the weather is temperate – with only a few chilly days in the winter – and the ex-pat community comprises about ten percent of the population. The cultural arts scene is flourishing, with artists and writers flocking to the area.

I remember hearing about San Miguel when I was in college. Q described it as “a place where synchronous events happen constantly.”

“Great! A place where synchronicity is alive and well,” I replied.

“Are you familiar with Jung?” she asked.

“Definitely. Synchronicity is the kind of stuff we write about.”

After poking around on the Internet later that evening, researching the city and the area, Rob and I decided it would be an ideal spot to visit in the fall. So a casual meet and greet at the fence turned into a riveting conversation about synchronicity and Jung, art and writing, and San Miguel is now on our radar!