Giant Nails, Oaxaca, and Mole

So last week, Thursday I think, our mom paid for Bonnie and I to get acrylic nails. They're pretty cheap here in Mexico I guess. 

There they are!

I know what you're thinking. "Those are so Courtney!" Haha no. I was expecting some nice elegant little  French tips. But all she pulled out was glitter! So I picked some not too crazy pink stuff. And then she added a bunch of other stuff to it! And now I have a fiesta on my fingers. And when she suggested I pick 'dos' for the length I didn't realize what I was in for! They are very extravagant, quite Mexican, and they make daily life challenging in ways I never imagined. But hey, my little ninos love to look at them! So that's a plus.

Anyway, last weekend we went to Oaxaca! We traveled there with our ward to go to the Oaxaca temple.

Quick grateful blurb. We are so lucky in Utah and Idaho to live in a place where temples are so accessible! These members have to dedicate a whole day and over 200 pesos, which is a lot for some of them, to get there. Be grateful you have a temple and GO TO IT!

Anyway, it was beautiful and a great chance to feel the spirit of the House of the Lord. I didn't take any pictures,  but here's what the Oaxaca temple looks like.

It was great! After this the other teachers stayed in Oaxaca for the weekend, but I've been feeling a little like a money spending machine, so I chose to head back home and spend time with my family. I'm really glad I did! I had a way fun time just hanging out with them.

Minus the fact that I had to take the bus home alone with my ward. And sit by some guy that was very interested in my life and wouldn't leave me alone! I may or may not have pretended to be asleep for two  hours so I wouldn't have to talk to him :)

On Saturday after I got home they fed me and we just chilled. Then on Sunday we did some fun stuff! I feel really guilty because we always go out on Sundays here. But I don't want to be like, "Hey, sorry to rain on your life-long family parade, but we're going to have to change things." Sooo... I just go along with it. Anyway! After I got home from church we tried to go to mass. (By the way... Mass is boring. Especially in Spanish. But I love my family so I go with them! Haha.) But the one we tried to go to was packed. It was ok though because we ran into this on our way out!

Yes indeed, that is a man.

Ok. Not this exactly. It was a parade. But there were a lot of these in the parade. Odd. And yes they did all try to dirty dance with me. Embarrassing. After this we went out to lunch at one of my dad's client's restaurants. (He's a lawyer). We had mole poblano, which is a very typical dish in this area and looks something like this.

That's from the internet, so the mole I've seen looks a little different. But still just as unappetizing. It actually tastes really good though! It's a thick dark sauce that has lots and lots of ingredients, including chocolate and chile and it goes on top of pork. Funny story though, apparently our family lets us eat like pigs and we didn't even know! Because I thought I knew pretty well how to eat this stuff. Until we were at the restaurant and my mom sats, "Diana, teach Courtney how to eat that please." Hahahaha. I was glad to learn. It's a delicate process of scooping out the fat, pulling the meat off the bone, tearing up your tortilla, and using your spoon to push food into the tortilla and then put that in your mouth. If you do it right your hands stay really clean! But I'm a guerita and still get quite dirty. But that's what napkins are for!

After this we went to Penafiel! Which is a soda factory where they use mineral water that comes out right here in Tehuacan! It was pretty cool.

Diana took this picture while we were there haha. People here LOVE blue eyes. Everywhere I go people comment about them. So funny. Yesterday a lady we were buying strawberries from told me they were beautiful and gave me a free apple though! And another guy cut my hair for free just because he wanted to touch it. Hahaha. But hey when every single person has black hair and dark brown eyes, I stick out pretty bad.

My family! <3

It was pretty cool, we walked through a bunch of underground tunnels and drank some water and yeah! Then we went to mass, spent some time in the park, and came home! Very fun.

Love you all!

Vacacion Numero Dos: Cuetzalan

This is a tad late. I had been putting off posting but then one of my lovely sisters chastised me so I thought I better get on it! Haha. Last weekend we got four days off so we went on our first long-ish vacation. To a little town called Cuetzalan (And that's CuetZAlan, not CUETzalan... pronunciation is everything hahaha. Or so the locals tell us). Anyway, it's this little city WAY up in the mountains. We took a two hour bus to Puebla, then another three and a half hour bus to Cuetzalan. Luckily none of us got car sick on the long windy road, but a poor little child definitely threw up in his sweatshirt. Yum.

I didn't take a lot of pictures on this vacation because I was afraid my batteries were going to run out, plus it's a huge pain to have six girls stopping to take pictures of everything haha. But here are some that I did take of the city! It's BEAUTIFUL.

Us with just one of the spectacular views.

The gazebo in the centro.

La catedral (The cathedral)!

This city was seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was like stepping back in time 150 years. We saw tons of little teeny indigenous women walking around barefoot... so cool. And the feeling of the city was just overall magical. Haha I hate to use that term because every time we said anything about Cuetzalan before going people told us, "Oh, it's a magical place." "So magical." "It's like magic." We were a little skeptical about all this magic talk. But it really was! It would be so cool to retire there.

So the first day we just wandered around, found a cheap hotel, and saw the city. Saturday, though... Saturday was bomb.com.

We found this deal where each of you pay like $40 and you go on an all day guided adventure! I didn't get a lot of pictures, so you'll have to imagine. Or go creep on my Facebook. Both are good options. Anyway, first we explored some caves! Those were pretty cool. Satan lives in one of them, or so said our guide. So we had to call our souls back to us after leaving otherwise they would have stayed there! Hahaha. And then another one went on for kilometers and kilometers so we explored for about an hour and a half maybe and then moved on. But it was way awesome. Climbing, crawling, jumping through a pitch black cave like 100 feet underground. Way fun. After that we went to see some waterfalls! The water was freezing cold, but you can bet your little hiney that I swam in that water! I wish I had a picture ... Look on Facebook! After that we hiked up to another waterfall and RAPELLED DOWN IT! I went first so I didn't get any pictures, but here's Bonnie at the bottom! It was way fun.

The waterfall

Bon Bon.

Our guide, Jesus. Or Chucho. Or Mexican Adam Sandler. Take your pick :)

Sara's ropes got all twisty! So the guy at the top had to come down and help her. Scary!

And then he climbed solo all the way up. What a man.

It was a blast! After this we ate dinner, went to our hostel, which was run by little indigenous women, showered in more freezing cold water, and went to sleep!

The next day it was pouring, but we went to the centro and explored the market for a while until we were way too cold and wet, went back to our hostel, and just played card games for a few hours. It was fun! And Monday we went back home.

A quick blurb about our guide though. He was so funny! He was a good guide, very polite, took care of us, the whole thing. We liked him. And then on Monday morning when we were leaving we ran into him on the street. And he was totally wasted! Funniest thing of my life. He kept trying to talk to us in English and making no sense and saying hilarious things. Like "You bad. Me happy!" And "Estoy.... borracho." (I'm drunk). Really? I never would have guessed. Then he told us he wanted to kiss us all on the cheek to say goodbye. Which was fine. Except I'm 99% sure he tried to go for Mandy's mouth. Hahaha. Such a good end to our vacation.

So yeah that was it! Super fun, I loved it all, you should go!

Hope all is well back in the States! Adios!