Funny couple of days.

Guess what?


Bonnie left me!!! Ahhhhh. She's been wanting a new host family for over a month now, not because of any problems or anything, but just to get a chance to be on her own and do it herself. We depended a lot on each other... too much probably. So finally they found her a family and she's gone! And now the attention's ALL on me, ALL the time. I'm not sure how much I like that. And I have no one to make snide comments in English to! I just have to keep them all to myself. Luckily we see each other all day every day at the school, so I'll survive. The real kicker though was that they took her bed down when she left! And now my room looks soooo lonely.

See that big empty space? Bonnie used to reside there. Now it is just sad emptiness reminding me of that other bit of emptiness in my heart. Oh Bon Bon. I miss you.

On a happier note, I have crazy nails again!

Diana did these for me. She gave me the choice of neon yellow, blue, green, or pink, and this is what I chose! Yay for watermelon fingers. I have an accompanying set of phosphorescent blue and yellow toes, don't you worry.

And today something happened for the first time in the three months I've been here.

It rained! And I mean real Mexican rain. Big fat drops, thunder, lightning, flood-the-street kind of rain. Just look!

It has rained before, but nothing even close to this. I loved it! We were hoping none of the kids would show up because of it, but unfortunately their parents seemed to decide that English is in fact important on today of all days, and most of them came. Here are two of them in their cute little jackets, or in Adrian's case, Christmas sweaters. What a little teddy bear.

 

I assumed the crazy storm would be the biggest part of my day, but there was more to come!

As we were sitting downstairs chilling after dinner, Chucho claims to see a rat. I have to admit I kind of didn't believe him. Nor did I think we would do anything except set a trap. That is until my host dad asks if I'll help them kill it. Uhhhh... I mean sure, I'll help you chase the thing down but heck no I will not smack that thing to death with a broom! (I knew that's how they would kill it because Bonnie had to kill a lizard that got into our grandma's house that way last week).

So, as I predicted, they all grabbed brooms and took their battle stances while Chucho went to get Duke, our dog that lives on the roof. (Someday I'll tell you about Duke. He's... different.) Long story short, we chased the thing down for a good fifteen minutes before Duke finally caught it and ate it. Saving us the duty of beating it with a broom! Hurray. It was a teeny little thing... I felt a little bad for it. All it did was come inside to avoid drowning in the rain and ended up Duke's dinner. But oh well.

The whole thing was quite entertaining. As often happens here in Mexico, I had a hard time not cracking up about how serious and dramatic they were making the whole thing. I also found out that big man 17-year-old Chucho is afraid of mice. Hahaha. Poor kid. I think he was embarrassed that he was afraid and I wasn't, but he'll get over it.

So yeah, it's been good! Funny, interesting, and all very Mexican! Which I love.

Just one more month here! Crazy.

Just some thoughts.

After being here for almost three months, I feel like a lot of Americans have some stuff wrong about Mexico. Don't feel bad if you didn't know some of the stuff on this list. It's likely that the reason it sticks out to me is because I thought the same thing before coming here!

1. Mexicans are very clean. I feel like a lot of white people have this feeling that Mexico and its people are dirty and/or unsanitary. This is completely untrue. As a people, Mexicans are extremely neat, tidy, and germ-conscious.

2. Mexico is not a giant drug factory. This country has a HUGE problem with drugs, don't get me wrong. But number one, keep in mind that Americans are their biggest buyers. We are the source of the problem. And number two, most Mexicans go about their lives coming into as little contact with drugs as you or I do in the States.

3. Mexicans aren't all dirt poor. A large number of them live in nice houses. It's just that the people that are poor are POOR. Think dirt floors and sheets for doors.

I could go on, but those are the three big ones that stick out to me right now. Did any of those surprise you? I want you to take a minute and imagine yourself walking down the street. You see a Mexican man working on a house and you hear him speaking Spanish to the other Mexican workers there. What are your first feelings? Be honest with yourself. Do you wonder if they are living in the United States legally? Or if they're in a gang? Do you feel a little resentment at them having taken a job a white person could've had? Just think about it. And I only say that because all of those thoughts and more have gone through my head many times back in the States.

I am convinced that our country is suffering from an unspoken racism against Latinos, and particularly against Mexicans. How many Mexican jokes do you hear every day? I'm not saying every joke that involves Mexicans is bad. Believe me, I'm more than aware of the idiosyncrasies in their culture that can be really humorous (like the fact that they really do jam pack as many people into the car as they can to drive across town). But most jokes are much more mean spirited than not, and I know they'll make me cringe when I get home. I know I'm preaching to the choir because you're all good people, but I think we can all be a little better about this. Just be aware of it. Mexicans are good people. They come in all shapes, sizes, education levels, and levels of income imaginable, just like Americans. So think twice before you throw a blanket stereotype over a whole country of individuals.

Ok, that's it. I'll get off my high horse now and stop lecturing you. Just think about it!

PACKAGE!!!

This post is dedicated to the one and only JORDAN MATHES! Today I got a package from her in the mail, which was my first one other than a pair of glasses a couple months ago, so I was pretty dang excited about it.

She sent me some Easter candy, granola bars, and cashews! My most favorite things in the whole world. Plus a hilarious long note that I loved. It was like America in a box! And after three months in Mexico, anything American starts to sound pretty nice.

So, THANK YOU JORDAN!!! You da best.

Temple: Round Two!

We got to go to the Oaxaca temple again yesterday!

I was pretty excited about it :) As always, it was a great experience to be in the House of the Lord. It's also fun because there are two senior missionary companions there and they're always excited to speak in English to us. Other than the temple we just went to some malls nearby the temple... and I scored a 20 peso Subway sandwich! Yummmm.

So that was Saturday. Then on Sunday we went to church in the morning, came home and took a nap, went to mass with our family (still boring as heck by the way), and then went out to lunch at a family friend's house. This was so entertaining!

So our family has these friends... From the States! Well actually not at all but they switch off living there and here every eight months. The husband, Luigi, moved to Chicago from Italy when he was 22 and at some point met the wife, Mago, and they got married. I'm not really sure where they met though because she's from here in Tehuacan. But anyway they're really fun because they speak some English and are a lot more American than most people around here. They're headed back to Chicago in a couple weeks though so they invited our family over for dinner. It was really entertaining.

All of us together - Bonnie, Luigi, me, Mago, and our host dad

First off, we drove up and one of our students, Maria, was there! Well she's actually not mine because she's in kinder but I still see her every day before and after class.

This is Maria with Belen. It turns out Maria is Luigi and Mago's granddaughter. Small world right? She's a major cutie though so we had a lot of fun playing with her all night.

Also, they made us American food! We had cream of broccoli soup with french bread, pork and bean tacos (tasted like homemade Taco Bell... yum), and shish kabobs. I loved it because our host family was so confused the whole time about what things were and how to eat them. They all pulled the stuff off their shish kabobs and stuck it in a taco. So Mexi. It was fun to do a little role reversal and have them looking at me like, "how in the world do I eat this?"

And finally, I'm pretty sure Luigi is quite the alcoholic. Haha. His shoulder is currently thrown out from an unknown cause other than, as he says, "Too much beer." And as soon as we got there the alcohol started flowing. They brought out honey liquor, all sorts of wine, and beer, all of which they kept trying to get us to taste. I had to tell Belen many times that wine does in fact have alcohol in it and explain to everyone else even more times that we didn't want to try the honey liquor because even in small quantities, it's still alcohol. But that didn't stop some other people from getting hammered (cough cough, Luigi!). By the end of the night he was pretty red in the face and his English was not so hot. It was pretty hilarious because he would mumble to us and in what was supposedly our language, we would smile and act like we understood, and then our host dad would ask us to translate! Welp if I understood it in English in the first place I could do that for you, but I have zero idea what he's saying, sorry! So funny.

Here's another picture from the end of the night.

Chucho and our host dad on their motorcycles, Mago looking lovely, and Luigi being a goofball. I love these people! If I ever go through Chicago I will definitely hit them up for a place to stay haha :)

Taxco

I know what you're all thinking. You went on another vacation? Aren't you already ON vacation right now in Mexico? I know. We're becoming little fresas. But hey, that's part of the deal! I worked hard for this! Haha.

We got four days off this weekend so we headed out for our second biggish vacation to... Taxco! Which is a beautiful city up in the mountains. Kind of like Cuetzalan, but a lot less indigenous :)

On Friday we headed out. First we took a bus to Puebla (Puebla is the gate to everywhere so we go through there a lot), then from Puebla to Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca is a pretty little town about three hours southeast of Puebla. We were pretty tired from traveling all day so we decided to stay in Cuernavaca for the night in this lovely 58 peso per person hotel...

Fancy right? Not so much. But cheap!

In the morning we got up, bought our bus tickets, and looked around town some more. My favorite thing was stumbling upon this square that had some gorgeous cathedrals and buildings from the 1800s.

The whole place just had that old peaceful atmosphere that I love. It was sad when we had to leave! But there were more adventures to come.

Finally we headed out. We arrived about an hour and a half later in Taxco, to this lovely view.

Taxco!!!

It is beautiful. The city has a very European feel, all color coordinated with white buildings and orange roofs. And all the taxis were old VW Bugs! So fun. The city is also the "cuna de plata," the cradle of silver, so there were tons of vendors everywhere selling silver jewelry. We spent Saturday just exploring the city and figuring out what there was to do there. Here are some things we saw.

Capilla de San Nicolas, aka Saint Nicholas' Chapel, aka Saint Nick, aka SANTA CLAUS! So this is where good ol' Santa goes to church. I always wondered!

Unfortunately, this isn't Santa's Chapel. I wish! This was inside the main cathedral in town and it was BEAUTIFUL. We see a lot of cathedrals, but I loved this one. It was so ornate and everything was plated in gold.

Another thing we did on Saturday was find where we were staying. Ashley knows some people that had gone to Taxco when there were here teaching and had stayed in a really cool place, so we decided to follow suit. And that place was... A monastery! El Monasterio Betania. Except there were no monks there, just nuns. I thought nuns lived in convents? Who knows. But it was way cool! What happens is that the nuns live in this place and have a lot of extra rooms, so they let people stay there if they want and feed them breakfast and dinner. It's free but they ask for a donation, which was really nice because we got to choose how much to pay. I didn't get a picture of the monastery itself, but here's a picture of the bathroom!

Absolutely covered in fun Mexican tiles. We loved it! The nuns were so nice to us. We couldn't find their information beforehand so we just showed up and asked if there were rooms and they welcomed us right in! I didn't get any pictures of the nuns themselves either, but look on Facebook because the other girls took some! They were a lot different than I had imagined. After Cuetzalan I was expecting them to be a lot more cut off from civilization for some reason. But they were very modern! They had cars, used telephones, and they even have a Facebook page. But they were just as nice as I had expected. I was sad to say goodbye to them when we left!

On Sunday we did some adventuring! We headed out to a big cave called Cacahuamilpa... Try saying that five times fast. The cave is two kilometers long and SO big! I can imagine it being the home of t-rex or something haha. The tour was interesting for about the first twenty minutes... And then the next hour and forty were pretty boring. But it was good!

Picture with no flash. Do you see me? 

That's better.

We love Cacahuamilpa!

After that caves we did some rafting! Well more like some fourteen year old boys rafted us through a river in a cave. I was loving our helmet lights. Such an adventure!

After all of this it was about 4 pm, so some of us headed back to town while others stayed to do some more adventuring. Those of us that went to town, though, headed to the mall in Taxco. I know right? Of course the white girls go the mall. But we just wanted to see how it compared to ours in Tehuacan! It was built straight onto the side of the mountain. Pretty cool. After that we headed back into town and explored some more. Mexican cities are always way busy on Sunday night because everyone goes to mass and then stays out for a while to party. The day before I had seen all these people walking around with these boxy strawberry things, so I bought one!

Super yummy. It's just a box of chopped, sugared, frozen strawberries that they open up and then add a bunch of delicious whipped cream and mix it all around for you. So good! I am definitely buying frozen strawberries and Cool Whip to recreate this when I get home. Mmmmmmm.

After this we headed back to the monastery, ate dinner with the nuns, and headed to bed. The next morning we got up, walked around some more, and then headed home! I'd call it another successful vacation!

Coming up this Saturday... Another temple trip to Oaxaca! Can't wait.

Adios!

Teotihuacan

On Sunday we went to Teotihuacan! (Tay-oh-tee-wah-con) It was amazing.

Funny story though. Daylight Savings Time happened in the States yesterday so us American girls assumed it was the same here and changed our clocks... And ended up at the bus station an hour early. As if 4 a.m. wouldn't have been early enough. Hahaha. Oh man.

We took a tour bus to go see the pyramids because we're not allowed to go to Mexico City (which is where they are) unless it's part of a tour. I guess it's dangerous or something. Anyway, it was awesome!

First they dropped us off and we looked at the "artesanias" - cool crafty things they make there.

All the pretty rocks they have in Mexico.

Artesanias

Voladores! They have these at pretty much every historical site we've visited.

La Piramide del Sol - The Pyramid of the Sun

Just some gueritas. 

Me, Edwin, Mandy, and Daniel.

 That's us on top of the Pyramid of the Sun. You can see the Pyramid of the Moon in the background. It was way cool! This site was HUGE and from on top of the pyramid you could see it all! So beautiful. I'm glad they let people climb them because when my family went to Chichen Itza and Tulum a few years back they didn't let you get on!

Just one of the many, many, MANY little pyramids.

Mandy, Edwin, and me.

Random side note. There were a ton of Americans here! It was so weird to see white people and to hear English! An American lady took this picture for us on top of the Pyramid of the Moon.

I love Teotihuacan!

My favorite line of the day was a vendor holding up this little hatchet made of obsidian to me and saying, "Muy barato para tu boyfriend!" (Very cheap for your boyfriend.) Hahaha. No gracias.

After about six hours at the ruins the bus took us to eat. They took us to this super nice buffet, which looked really fun until we found out it was 150 pesos per person! Which is like 15 bucks. No thank you! Our group headed down the street instead and bought some street food. This actually turned out really fun because they get a lot of tourists in Mexico City so all the restaurant guys descended on us like hungry sharks to feed. We'd have one guy say, "Free quesadilla!" And then the other guy says, "Free quesadilla and drink!" And it just kept going until we found something that looked good at a good price. And it didn't disappoint!

Plus some hilarious teenage boys wanted to take pictures with me and Betsy, so we let them. "Una fotp amiga? Pleeeease?" Haha all right. So I posed with each one of them while the others took a picture on their cell phones. So funny.

Then we hopped back on the bus and they took us to an ex-convent! We didn't go inside because it was like 42 pesos to get in and another 45 to take pictures. Unless you happen to be Mexican, then you get in free. Same thing at the pyramids! Dumb right? Oh well.

The group. We love each other!

Me standing by some giant ex-convent doors.

Ex-convent!

My favorite part of this part of the trip though was Jen, Sara, and I talking to our bus driver for about 20 minutes. We talked about a lot of things, but what stuck with me was him telling us that in twenty years of driving busses we were the first Americans to speak to him in Spanish. How sad is that? It makes me sick to think how many Americans come to Mexico without even learning basic Spanish vocabulary and expect everyone there to cater to their needs. Be polite and at least try. They really appreciate it.

Anyway, after this we headed back! And guess what we saw on our way home? You'll never guess.

That's right, amigos, SNOW! Mexico is a lot less hot than people think. It is quite warm a lot, but it also gets pretty chilly. But I never guessed I would see snow! So crazy.

It was a great day! Exhausting, but very worth it. Go there if you can!

Baking in Mexico

By now I've tried to bake a few things for my family here in Mexico and let me just say, it is a challenge. Today was a prime example.

It's my host brother's birthday today! He turned 17. The whole family went to Mexico City to get his gift (motorcycle gear), so I thought it would be fun to make a cake and surprise him when he got back! Good thought Courtney.

First I ran (literally, I finished up my run there) to the Bodega Aurrera, aka WalMart, to buy ingredients. I was wanting to try out a recipe I found on Pinterest that called for Greek yogurt, but alas, Mexico is not friendly with the Greeks. Nothing but the regular stuff. So then I settled on my second option, a jell-o poke cake. I found everything I needed, even some weird Cool Whip-ish stuff for the frosting, and was feeling pretty excited. And then I got home and we only had one egg! Poop. It was all right though because our maid, Martita, walked with me to a little store to buy some. Four pesos for three eggs! Not too shabs.

Cool Whip! ...Sorta.

So anyway, I made the whole mix and everything was good, poured it into our one and only cake pan, which happens to be for a bundt cake. How random is that? Haha. And then Martita informs me that the stove we normally use is out of gas! Here in Mexico people aren't hooked up underground to the gas like in the states. They have a big tank of it and when it's gone, it's gone and they have to have the gas truck come refill them. So our stove has been out of gas for a few days. Lucky for us though, we have another one! Our family has this super fancy kitchen with all stainless steal appliances and everything, but they never use it! Anyway, so I go to use the oven in the fancy kitchen. But guess what? It doesn't work. Big surprise there. So now I'm left with a bunch of cake mix and no way to bake it. What was I to do?

Don't you worry your pretty little heads, though. Courtney put her thinking cap on and found a solution. The microwave! We do kitchen activities in school but the only appliance we have is a microwave, so I've gotten pretty expert at cooking random things in it. Did you know you can make pancakes in the microwave? My family was pretty blown away by that one. And in addition to pancakes, you can make CAKE! Bam-o. Problem solved.

So I filled up like ten mugs and a plate and zapped those babies! Individual sized birthday cakes :)

But my work was far from done. Now I had to make the jello! This was actually relatively painless, except that we don't own a single instrument for measuring, so I have to make do. I figure a coffee mug is about eight ounces, though, so we go from there. So resourceful :) hahaha.

After I had made the jello, poured it on my cakes, and set those in the refrigerator, I set to work on the frosting. I did some research on google and decided that the easiest thing to do would be to just mix in some of the liquidy jello to the "cool whip" and call it good. So I did just that, put that in the fridge as well to set up, and went and took a shower. Then I came back, frosted everything, and voila!

The many shapes and sizes of the birthday cake.

It turned out quite all right if I do say so myself! Except that it wasn't until I finished everything that I realized that I had just made a bunch of pink cake for my 17-year-old brother. Haha sorry Chucho. I was just following my girly instincts! He's not back from Mexico City yet though, so I'll have to tell you what his response is.

So the point is, baking here is hard! Even when there is gas, it's a gas oven in Celsius, so that's different. Then normal ingredients are hard to find. Then you have no measurements. But it's ok! They're always really excited to have something weird and American even if it turns out sorta Mexi because that's all you can find. I can't wait to make normal things when I get home though! I will certainly know how to utilize a microwave if I need to!

Take advantage of all your American stuff and bake something! Right now! And then send me some.

Update

Just an update on how things are going.

First, my kids are crazy. Just watch.

But even though they whine incessantly and go a little crazy, we still love each other.

Adrian, Jose Alberto, and Erick. 

Two of my boys made this for me! And Erick photo bombed to act like he was part of it. Hahaha.

In other news... I've been here almost two months! Can you believe it? I most certainly can't. That means I'm half way! When did that happen?

Love you all!