THURSDAY #7!!!!

ONLY TWO MORE THURSDAYS!!!!!!!!! Hoorah!!!! Little by ever so little, I am pulling out of my depressive downward spiral to hell. Not counting today, or the day we leave, we only have 15 days left. HOORAH!

Last night, we went and saw Batman! It was pretty boss. The movies here are sooo cheap. Wednesday is 2 for 1 day, and Drew and I paid $2.80 per ticket (USD) So cheap! I wish we hadn't just had dinner before we went cause I seriously wanted some caramel popcorn. We didn't get any though. Maybe next time. I also had a pretty throbbing headache, so I didn't want to do anything but just sit.

Tonight, I don't think we have anything planned. We both seem to be extremely tired. Maybe I'll be able to finish Messenger tonight, so I can do the whole Jane Eyre thing soon.

Wednesday #6 - Albondigas

Last night for comida (mom it's literal translation is food) - but really, it's like full on mega lunch/dinner. Anyway, last night, we had albondegas, rice, black beans, torillas, tostadas, and limeade. "A traditional Mexican meal" You guys want to know what a "traditional Mexican meal" consists of?? Well I will tell you! A traditional mexican meal consists of whatever the crap you want with tortillas and/or tostadas, rice and beans. Avocado if there aren't kids around to eat it all is also very popular. But seriously, albondigas are meatballs. So you're supposed to stuff cut up meatballs with rice and beans into your nasty corn tortillas. Ok, I can handle that (although 99% of the time, I don't eat the tortillas). These meatballs were made up of random hard boiled egg parts in the very middle, and then meat and RICE mushed together! And to my amazement, I actually really liked them. Lydia's nephews liked them too. So much so, that Lydia is making chili rellenos and albondigas (for the ninos) tonight for dinner. hahahaha!

This is kind of what they looked like, but the sauce wasn't so fancy:

They look all normal, but they aren't! It's like a Kinder Egg where you get surprises in the middle! Maybe today, I'll get a quarter!

I got all sorts of wonderful Breaking Dawn spoilers I am so hoping they are real! Oh I am all giggly goodness over this lame stuff!

Tuesday #6

Last night, I finished listening to Eclipse on my iPod. I'm such an emotional wreck that I really wanted to cry at the end. I had all these thoughts running through my head on what is going to happen in the next book. I want to know so badly that I'm going to scour the internet in attempts to find a bootleg copy of it once it comes out. I am dying!!!

I started listening to Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry since I was done with my love stories, and felt that maybe my psyche needed something a bit different from the drastic vampireness for a few days. I like it so far. I think that Shannon Hale has taken a lot of her writing style from Lois Lowry.

Anyway, I was sitting there listening to the forming of a new person, in a new story when Drew came into the room. I told him that I really love reading. He started laughing at me. I then rephrased and said I like to read through my ears. LOL I made myself laugh.

I really do love reading though. I'm so glad I got out of the funk of "I don't like to read" - it's not that I don't like to read, but I like reading things that interest me. If that means it's all teenage drama and young adult novels, so be it. At least I'm expanding my horizons in one way or another.

As for here, it's ok. I'm trying REALLY hard not to think of how many days are left, but in doing so, that's all I think about. I'm just hoping it goes quickly.

We don't have any plans for after school today. I like not doing anything- it means I have more time to "read" my books. I still need to read Messenger? (another Lois Lowry book), and Jane Eyre. And if I finish those before I leave, then it's back to Twilight!!! (Unless I can somehow get a pdf copy of Breaking Dawn!!!!)

Pictures of People we Know!

Not many though...

Pictures! Click HERE!

- Drew

Saturday #5, Sunday #5, Monday #5

I think I'll cram 3 into 1. It's just easier. Then I'll upload pictures.

Saturday - field trip to Taxco with Drew. It got HOT. I don't think I've fully recouped from my run in with the sun in Acapulco. I started to feel nasty sick. We got lots of goodies there though, then hopped a bus back to Cuernavaca that evening. All in all, it was decent.

Sunday - Sunday was a difficult day emotionally. Just call me PMSMaddy. I didn't do ANYTHING all DAY! In all actuality, it was extremely nice to just sit and listen to Eclipse. I kind of wish I had the actual books with me, but they would have been way too heavy. Oh well, the iPod is good.

Monday - Today started out ok. I still feel a bit sick. I think it might have been from dinner last night. Let me tell you about it. We had nastily way over salted spaghetti with onions. Normally it's pretty decent, but I think it just had too much salt (no marinara sauce, just some random cheese). We also had pieces of flat chicken that were fried - again, way too much salt. And Guacamole. Having spaghetti tonight? I'll bring the tortillas! Carb overload? Never heard of such a thing! Anyway, I think that's why. Just an odd combination of weird stuff.

I don't think we have anything planned this evening other than picking up our laundry. I think the laundry lady likes our money.

Friday #6

Today has been a pretty mundane day. I'm really enjoying not doing classes in the afternoon.

I have some thoughts though. It's about insects. Yesterday, we decided to go to Hancock. Lydia drove us over to the movie theater cause she was already taking her 2 nephews and Pablo, so she asked if we wanted to go too. Drew said yes, and told me we were going. Oscar, Omar and Pablo went and saw Hellboy 2, and Drew and I saw Hancock. ANYWAY, while we were waiting for their movie to get out, there was a mosquito attached to my leg. I smashed it and blood came oozing out. It was disgusting. Gross. It was MY blood that that little wretch TOOK! AND I actually felt bad about it. It was like, well, the damage has already been done, I guess I shouldn't kill you? But I did, cause I don't know any better. :/

THEN...well, not then, but a few days ago, a praying mantis got into our bedroom and I asked Drew to get it out. Instead, I flipped out and it flew up to above the windows. Drew sat there looking at it for a while, got down, went and got the RAID and sprayed it. I was SHOCKED! Shocked because he actually killed it, and shocked cause he didn't just take it outside! I was so uberly emotional that I actually contemplated crying for it! How sad is that?

OK, so that's about it. Tonight, we're going to go buy our tickets for the bus ride for Taxco tomorrow....I've been debating the Dramamine.......and after buying our tickets, we're going to catch a cab to Marco Polo (apparently they have yummy pizza), and then go over to the market for a while to peruse some more. THEN there's apparently going to be a fiesta at the school tonight...no one knows why, but we're going to come check it out anyway.

Tomorrow is taxco, and sunday is church, nothing much else.

Thursday #6 - Life Update and a new week number!

I would say I'm at about 85% today. I finished off the last of my anti-biotic horse tranquilizer sized pills this morning. All I can say is thank goodness Lydia is a worry wart for something. When she went to pick up my meds at the pharmacy on monday, she picked up some acidophilus to help keep my stomach lining intact. I took them not really realizing what it was until this morning, and realized I was extremely thankful for the increase in good bacteria in my body. I think I'd be on a plane home if I was ailed with anything else.

Kate showed up for class today, half way through. I seemed to have been breezing through the material until she came and we slowed down to a snails pace. I was amazed. I just had the hardest time understanding why she had even come to class if she was acting so "sick" (aka hungover in my opinion). At least when I'm sick and tired, I still make an effort to understand what's going on. She just sat there while I conjugated all of the past verb tenses. Lame.

Otherwise today has been decent. I'm having a hard time keeping my regular water bottle clean, so I've bought just a regular water bottle and I forgot it somewhere today, so I had to buy another one. Whoops. Nothing else is really going on. I'm still pretty exhausted and spent over being sick (my diagnosis: Heat exhaustion + traveler's diarrrrrrrhea - yeah, I'm that cool you guys). Thankfully I seem to be recovering from both without a hospital stay - I consider myself pretty lucky.

Wednesday #5

I'm still alive. I actually feel loads better than yesterday.

---edit---

I took some stuff out. I'm glad people still give me crap when I ask them not to, so here it is:

I got up, i didn't eat breakfast, i went to school. The end. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Pictures Times Two!

Two different links for you guys today!

One

Two

Enjoy!

Another cliff diver

Tuesday #5

I'm still alive, my wish to die didn't happen. The doctor finally came at 2:30, I got in there, told him my symptoms, he gave me a prescription for antibiotics and tylenol. So just incase I have a teeny ickle parasite, the antibiotics should do the trick, right?

I am feeling better today. I'm trying to take it as easy as possible. Having a constant stream of Dramamine in my makes me extremely lethargic. I ended up not going to conversation class again today because I just can't even imagine trying to come up with things to say while feeling so uncomfortable. I probably should have found out who my teacher was and told them I wouldn't be there, but I just can't seem to muster up enough energy for even that! Sitting is good. Not moving is better. If I don't move, I don't get sick.

So now, I'm taking tylenol, some random antibiotic, some random pill to help keep the lining content on my stomach (Lydia INSISTED- HAH), dramamine every 3 or 4 hours even though it says 4-6, I just can't tolerate not being heavily medicated at all times. I'd rather be tired, in pain and dizzy than in debilitating pain and coherent.

Last night, I ended up eating a spoonful of rice, a 1" piece of chicken and a 1" piece of zucchini. I couldn't even begin to play with thoughts of eating more. I excused myself to go downstairs, and slept til 7 or 8..i dont even remember. Drew brought down some random cream of wheat stuff that lydia insisted would be good for my intestinal issues, and a piece of toast. I was actually extremely hungry so I wanted to eat, but the thought of ACTUALLY eating made me nauseous. I ate it anyway. I then layed back down, watched Treasure Planet for a while and fell back asleep. I probably slept about 12 hours yesterday. I still wanted to sleep this morning...but my will to use the computer overcame the need to sleep.

Lydia's nephews came over last night and brought their playstation 2, so Drew sat up there playing with them all afternoon and evening. I'm glad he had something to do cause I always feel bad when I can't be there to keep him company.

I think that's about it, I can't remember anything else. Oh wait, yeah I do. Ok, so this morning while I was putting on my tshirt, I accidentally bumped the bedside lamp - it's the kind that attach to the wall like at hotels. Anyway, I bumped it and totally popped it out of it's socket and broke it I think. I am terrified to tell Lydia, but I HAVE to since the maids come tomorrow morning. GAH! Stupid dramamine making me dizzy and disoriented. :( Maybe Pablo can fix it?

Ok, I think that's it for real. I'm going to try to upload some movies of the cliff divers. Wish me luck

Monday #5

I still feel sick. I have an appointment with the doctor here at school for whenever they decide to call my name. You know it's bad if I'm going to the doctor for it. I believe it's heat exhaustion rather than heat stroke, but very borderline. THat seems to fit all of my symptoms. I should probably go buy some gatorade since getting anything down is killing me. I ate frosted flakes and drank some milk this morning - first food in 36 hours. I'm drinking water now, but I can't get a lot down cause every time anything touched my stomach, I feel nauseous. ...then again, I feel nauseous anyway, but it just seems to get worse. I hope this goes away soon. I really can't handle feeling this sick.


---EDIT---
It is now 2:10pm and I haven't seen the doctor yet. They have 10 minutes to see about 10 of us. I went into the main office to ask if he was even coming today. I was told that they believe so and that they were told on Friday that he would be here Monday, yet no one has seen him. I have very little faith that he will even be here. I'm thinking I'll just go buy some more gatorade, take some more Dramamine and tylenol when I get home and sleep. That seems to be all I can do since I don't have any air conditioning to utilize nor cold fluids. Dang.

Sunday #5

I have a lot to write, but I don´t have a ton of time. We´re down here in acapulco in the internet cafe area of our hotel. our bus doesnt come for an hour and a half, so we´re hanging out here for half an hour. yesterday, i think i got heat stroke or something because i just felt like crap last night, my head was and is throbbing. we had plans to go over to the diamante beach this morning and there was just no way it was going to happen. i feel sicker than i think i ever have in my entire life. drew went and bought me dramamine and tylenol and asprin. he said i was just burning up this morning. i also slept til 12:25pm. i felt really bad cause they wanted to go out dancing last night and i said there was no way i´d be able to, so no one went. i hate feeling like the party pooper, but honestly, there was nothing i could do about it. so yeah, i am sick, sick, sick. i haven´t eaten today, and dont plan on it. we did have a pretty fun time the last 2 days though. cliff diving at night on friday, all day at the beach on saturday. i´m not sunburnt so why do i still feel like i´m going to vomit at any second and i have to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes. woe is me. oh, yesterday, i got two little 12 year olds to braid my hair in cornrows. i like it a lot. i have pictures, so ill upload them when i get back to school. i also bought a cute bag that says acapulco on it, and a conch shell....not only did i buy a conch shell, i bought it from a guy that was in the middle of the bay! -we were on a boat heading to some little resort called paloa i think. so yeah, i am alive (barely), and ill write more later.

Friday #5

Today was a day full of choice words in my head about the curriculum here. I won't discuss it since a few people don't seem to take kindly to my opinions. Just know that I'm not happy, and being a teacher, I expect more out of these people. So to put it succinctly, I wrote to the professor in charge of the Spanish department at LaVerne University where I am getting my college credits, finding out how many weeks I have to be in class to earn my 8 credits, and if it is any less than 8, I am dumping the rest of my classes. My experience here has been a joke, if I could afford to send myself home early, I would, but at least I can attempt to get rid of some of my classes and maybe get a partial refund on those classes. I would not recommend this school to anyone.

In other news, we head off to Acapulco today. I hope it goes well. I'll write more about it when we get back.

PHOTOS!

Maddy uploaded 2 albums today. One is of the week's pictures and the other is of our trip to Xochicalco. The link should get you into the album library.

Week of 07/15/08 and Xochicalco.

Hasta Luego.

Thursday #5

Holy SMOKES! Thursday # 5!?!? Only 4 more fridays to go. Thank goodness. Today/Tomorrow is hump day. It's all downhill from here.----at least I hope so. We head out to Acapulco tomorrow afternoon. I'm getting reports that the beach and the ocean are dirty and polluted. I'll keep you guys updated. I'm hoping to take my laptop, but it depends on how much crap I have to shove into my backpack and bag, since my suitcases are way too big for such a short time frame.

Drew should be posting a couple links to pictures here as soon as I send him the email. It's taken me almost a week to upload these pics since the internet has been so slow. --there are some pics in there I didn't caption well, but we're in a cave, under the pyramids, and there was a observatory type thing that one day a year where it would light up the entire cave - which was decently large, too. Nothing else is to exciting.

Last night, we went to Hellboy 2. The movie was lame, but the experience was decent. It was in a mall, which was regular sized, but had a huge circus tent for the roof - it rained tons last night and you could hear it throughout the end of the movie. We were going to see Hancock, but it sold out before we realized that we could only pay with a Visa (no mastercard). Uhm, we bought Drew some mexican shorts at Liverpool - similar to nordstom/dillards, I think. Lydia had driven us to the mall with Horacio so they could go grocery shopping afterward. Lydia sat and complained about the water bill being $300 for 2 months, and how she can't believe she pays so much for rain, so horacio told her to just gather the rain and filter it. Then something about a pool, grumpity words about the whole ordeal, and then we were there. I can't believe how expensive the water bill is. That's insane. I'm thankful for my cheap, clean water in the US. Our taxi driver for the way home had lived in Chicago for 6 years prior to coming back to Mexico 2 years ago. I think he wanted to practice his English cause he wouldn't speak in SPanish at all. That was actually really nice, and he knew exactly where we lived - which was nice too, since it was 11:00pm and I have no idea how to tell them how to get there.

I didn't sleep much last night. I'm having some serious sleeping problems. I feel that they're probably situational, but if it continues past a couple weeks back up in Oregon, I think I'll need some medical diagnosis because this is getting insane. I got to bed at 11:30, didn't really get to sleep til 1am, and woke up every half hour or so throughout the night, for several minutes. I'd be surprised if I slept for more than 2-3 hours total. This seems to be an recurring thing. Oh well. :/

So, tomorrow, acapulco with random people - of which none are friends....should be interesting...I've been told the beach and ocean are polluted, and the only things to go there are to go get drunk and dancing. If that's all, I guess I'll be watching a whole bunch of tv. At least it'll be acapulcoan tv, right?

Las Aventuras de Drew

!Peligro! !El proximo mensaje es en Espaňol!

(Warning! The following message is en Spanish!)*

*Don’t worry. I will translate it at the bottom.

Estoy escribiendo en Espaňol porque yo necesito practicar espaňol ahora. Traduciré este mensaje en ingles a bajo. Este mensaje va hacer corto porque no se hablar/escribir bien Espaňol.

Mi siento mas confortable con el idioma y la gente de México. Ayer, Maddy y you fuimos a la peluqueria sin un diccionario de espaňol.

La comida es muy sabrosa aquí. Ayer, comí un chile habanero. Despues de la primera mordida me dio hipo por cinco minutos. Maddy pensó que fuí a vomitar porque sudé mucho y mi cara estaba roja. Lo creen ó no lo creen, pero no tuvé “problemas” después de comer el chile.

Maňana, Maddy y yo vamas a trater de otra vez ver una lucha libre. Los anuncios se ven bien. Los cuatro luchadores se ponen mascaras. Estoy entusiasmado.

Bien. Este mensaje lo escribí en una hora y diez minutos, mas or menos. La próxima vez escribiré más rápido.

Hasta luego,

- Dreu

ENGLISH TRANSLATION!

I am writing in Spanish because I need to practice Spanish now. I will translate this message into English below. This message is going to be short because I do not know how to speak/to write Spanish well.

I feel more comfortable with the language and the people of Mexico. Yesterday, Maddy and I went to a barbershop without a Spanish Dictionary.

The food is delicious here. Yesterday, I ate a habanero pepper. After the first bite I got the hiccups for five minutes. Maddy thought I was going to vomit because I was sweating a lot and my face was red. Believe it or not, but I did not have “problems” after I ate the chile.

Tomorrow, Maddy and I are going to try again to see a wrestling match. Four wrestlers wear masks. I am excited.

Ok. This message was written in one hour and ten minutes, more or less. The next time I will write faster.

See you later,

- Drew

Wednesday #4

Hmm...... I don't think I'll post a lot cause there aren't happy feelings about what's going on. I have a feeling the teachers here, have been yelled at for their students inability to get to classes on time. It's Mexico - no one has watches, and no one does anything consistently, so why am I getting reamed for being a few minutes late to class? All it is is lamesauce.

TOnight: Hancock at the mall, subtitled in Mexican
Tomorrow: Lucha Libre - finally! ugh
Friday - Viaje to Acapulco for the weekend. - I am having second thoughts about this because of who is accompanying us. Hopefully my worries are for not. We stay there saturday, come back sunday. Nada mas.

Tomorrow/Friday is hump day(s) for being here. Hopefully the last half will be better than the first?

Tuesday #4

I am in a down right ornery mood today. My teacher wasn't kind to me, told me that she hated her situational class yesterday- that the students were HORRIBLE (which just so happened to be Drew's class)- she said that he was being extremely rude to Juliana, but I talked to her and she said, uh, no, we were joking with each other. So I think my teacher took it out on me. I'm getting some wishy washy responses from 2 people about Acapulco, so Drew cancelled the 2nd room and now I have to creatively tell them that they're welcome to come, but they have to pay for their own rooms, etc. ugh. I hate being rude like that. I don't mind being RUDE but when I have to continually be cordial with them, it's difficult to not hurt their feelings.

I have extremely strong feelings against one of the girls that is coming with us. I hope and pray it goes ok. Anyway, that's about it. I should probably stop since I got scolded for being late to my conversation class yesterday, so I think I'll just be 5 minutes late instead of 10 or 15. That class is like pure torture.

Monday #4

I didn’t get a chance to blog today while at school, so I’m doing it tonight to post in the morning. So here’s the rundown of the day: Class again. I have Vanessa for grammar, Federico for conversation and Margerita for situational Spanish. I have thoughts about the first two teachers, but I won’t go into detail here. We spent all our free time, as well as Michele’s trying to find a hotel in Acapulco that wasn’t a dump, and close to the beach. Thank you Michele for the help!!!! We went with her top choice and booked 2 rooms. Now we just have to attempt to find 2 more people to go to make it relatively cheap. Tickets to and from total are $60, so we’re hoping to get the rooms down to $25 a night per person. Otherwise it’ll be about 33, which isn’t bad either. After comida, I did my homework and started walking to Gold Star – the bus station to price things out. Halfway up the Virreyes street that the Fragoso’s live on, Lydia came rollin by in her pimp car, and told us she’d give us a ride to the station since she just works around the corner and that’s where she was headed. We found out there are 2 stations the bus goes to, so we need to talk with others and decide if we want to go earlier but arrive further away from the hotel, OR leave around 2pm, and be about 15 mins from the hotel. So we didn’t buy tickets because of this little dilemma.

After the bus station, we walked the rest of the way up to the Zocalo. Someone told us that the black market was up near there. We found the “black” market, but I think it was really the white market – it wasn’t shady enough and there weren’t any ipods or nintento ds’ or anything sketchy. They didn’t even have any knock off purses. I wasn’t impressed. So then we walked back down toward the Zocalo and bought some ice cream at mcdonalds again and found the vendor that sold churros with chocolate, or cajeta, or what looked like white chocolate. We bought one churro with chocolate and one with cajeta. They were delicious, but I think I prefer my churros solo. That was WAY too much sugar for me for that time frame.

While we were eating our diabetic inducing coma treats, a bunch of boys were setting up for their break dancing spree in the zocalo. We stayed to watch for a little while. Some of them are extremely good – I was impressed. They even had a teeny bopper there doing it, along with 2 girls. That impressed me too.

Then we walked back home. Once again, halfway back on Virreyes – the fragoso’s street, Lydia saw us and told us to get in. hahaha Oh, the reason she has a pimp mobile is because it’s some fancy shmancy Honda, BUT the windows are so flippin dark, they’d be illegal times 2 in the states. And the way she just darts out into the street to turn left scares the CRAP out of me every time. These cars DO NOT stop for anyone or anything. It’s horrible. She sits and swears the whole time. I think that in and of itself would give me a heart attack.

I think that’s about it for today.

Sunday #4

On Thursday or so, Drew had told me that he wanted to go to all of church this week. I told him that I didn’t want to go to relief society because I didn’t want to have to introduce myself and feel all weird and uncomfortable when people came to talk to me and I couldn’t understand anything they said. Thankfully he compromised with me today, and we just went to Sunday school. He asked that when we get back from Acapulco, that we go to all of church that day. I told him ok. I’m hoping I’ll be able to understand a bit more then. My problem is that they just talk to fast, and if it isn’t basic words, I have no idea what they’re saying.

So anyway, today was a pretty “normal” Sunday. We got up, ate breakfast, hung out for about an hour (I listened to my books), and then walked over to church. Walked back, hung out again, ate dinner, and came back down to our room and chilled. Drew went back upstairs after playing Sim City for a little while to watch TV. I think he’s been up there 2 hours or so. I took a shower and have been listening to New Moon. I’m at a good point, and I really don’t want to turn it off – and truthfully feel a bit guilty for not going up and watching lamesauce tv and socializing and such. But at the same time, this makes me happy, and that is the number one important thing right now – is to keep me from dumping into severe depression again.

I considered today, that when we get back to Oregon and I get a gym membership, that I might try and keep to the same sleeping schedule so that I’m able to wake up at 4:30am so I can go exercise from 5am-6am before work in the mornings. I think it would be most beneficial that way. So that’s what I’m hoping for. It makes for very early nights, but really, I don’t do much socializing during the week anyway, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It made me sad to realize that I’m going to have to get rid of my treadmill though since my house just isn’t big enough for it and potential additional people in the house in the future. I guess I can hold onto it until that’s a for sure thing though? I miss the gym too though. I miss the selection and all the machines. I’m ready for a change, and I feel I deserve it with my upcoming raise.

Uhm, for those of you that know I have OCD issues sometimes, I have my days counted down on my phone, and I’m always excited to see the days get smaller and smaller til we go home. I also like telling people that the Sun pyramid at Teotihuacan (hey I spelled it correctly the first try!) – anyway, I like telling them that it has 238 steps, most of which are over a foot high each. The ~12 steps that aren’t over a foot high are so tiny and steep that they’re almost worse the throwing out your thigh muscles on all the other stairs. Anyway, back to my phone story. I sit and think about all the good stuff at home I will be happy to have. These include first and foremost- my bed. I love it. As you all know, these beds such. I might come home with severe back issues, but it’s ok, cause I have a wonderful bed at home. I will also give praises to my shower faucet. That was the best $20 ever spent. It is better than ANY faucet I have come in contact with in MANY years. I will also be excited for my electric toothbrush, lysterine (I didn’t bring ours cause our suitcases were too heavy, and the junk is about twice as expensive here….no wonder the rest of the world has crappy teeth!). Oh, speaking of teeth, the Tuesday after I get back, I will be very thankful to have my teeth cleaned. I’m also very thankful that I get paid as much as I do….I’ll talk more about that in a minute. I’m also very thankful that I can talk to my family and friends as much and whenever the crap I feel like it. As well as chat on the internet for as long as I want. I will also be glad to be able to read the PostSecrets the day they post rather than a day or two later. I’ll be excited to get back on my blogstalking game as well. I’m excited to go back and drive where people are kind and considerate. I’m excited to go back and cook.- I’m not allowed to touch anything in the kitchen… Uhm, I’ll be excited to sit on the couch and put my feet wherever the crap I want them. I’ll be excited to not wear shoes if I don’t feel like it. I’ll be excited to see my family, friends, and even coworkers! – I miss you all so very much. I’m excited to be somewhere where I feel I belong and am appreciated for who I am. I’m excited to hang out with LexyCat. I’m excited to use my beautiful kitchen again. And second to my bed, I am excited to see my ocean again. We get back (august 16) Saturday night – like around 11:30pm- so we won’t get back to our house until at least 1am – which makes for a pretty bad 8:00am church Sunday the next day. I’m thinking I might bug Drew to head out to the coast with me that day – just to say hello. I am just that lame. I should probably let Drew in on this now so he can warm up to the idea. Hah!

Ok, so now the story about money. Lydia was saying – and unless her English and ability to translate is incorrect – the minimum wage here is $50 pesos a WEEK for an 8 hour work day. For any of you that are not already gawking at the $50 part, keep in mind that this is equivalent to $5 USD. That’s right, FIVE BUCKS A WEEK. Granted, not everyone makes this kind of money – but the fact that many factory workers do is despicable. Lydia was also saying that about 35% of her earnings is pulled out in taxes. Most of the money just goes into the politicians pockets. She was saying that the “social security” here was $1500 pesos a month ($150 USD). And they expect people to live on that. No wonder there are these bungalow things just engulfing the mountain. These people don’t have electricity, water, refrigeration, a toilet, nothing except 4 walls. It made me feel absolutely terrible. I know that Horacio is 79 and from what I understand, he still works. Lydia was saying that almost everyone works until they die – otherwise you just don’t have the money. What a horrible thought that there is so much corruption and power in their politicians that they can actually go to bed at night knowing that their country is so impoverished. It made me feel very lucky for what I had. It made me feel horrible to realize these people make in a week for what I make in 10 minutes. That’s sick. Lydia said that she pays her maids and Pablo $7 an hour (USD) – she was saying it was $560 pesos for an 8 hour work day. That’s pretty decent I may say…especially for here! Anyway, Mexico is messed up economically, and I am sure glad I don’t have to live here permanently.

Alright, I’ve typed long enough, I’m going to go back to day dreaming as I listen to my stories.

Saturday #4

Today was a decent day. We had a gigantic group (~37 students + 5 teachers) going to Xochicalco. It was only about a half an hour drive, but we had one of those huge ole tour buses for the journey. About halfway through the plane ride, someone at the back of the bus threw a paper airplane toward the front. I happily flew it back, and it went back and forth until this girl in front of us flipped out. She screamed that if any of those hit her, someone is going to die! She grabbed the plane and crumbled it. So I said to her, what are you going to do? Beat them up? She didn’t say anything. Drew told me to be quiet.

So a couple minutes went by, another plane flew by, she grabbed it with her foot, scooted it along the ground, ruining it. I think by the 4^th one, she screamed toward me to stop it. I said, I didn’t do anything. So she proceeds to tell her Spanish teacher from Colorado that there are people throwing planes, while using the F word about 154 times, and how rude it is. It took EVERYTHING I have inside of me to not say that her words were offensive to me, and that every vulgar word that came out of her mouth made her that much stupider. I didn’t though. I understand being upset, but seriously? At someone flying paper airplanes? Come on. She pissed me off pretty badly.

So then once we got to the ruins site, there was a museum. I took lots of pictures. My favorite thing there was what looked like a bracelet of skull head carvings. I want one now…how morbid. After that, we headed over to the actual ruins. There is a part there that has been set up just right that it reverberates any sound that is made in the middle of an area type area. It was pretty cool – kind of like olden day microphones. Apparently, these pyramids were called the stars……which is fun since the Teotihuacan pyramids feature the sun and the moon. Apparently, the Teotihuacan, the pyramids of Xochicalco, and one more that the teachers couldn’t remember a bit more south were in a direct line of one another. Xochicalco was a very good destination for trading since it was between the two of them. I have to hand it to the native Americans that established these pyramids. They chose some prime real estate. When you’re on top of these structures, you can see miles and miles away. Definitely good strategy for trade/war/whatever.

We came back home- got here right before 5pm, and we had told Lydia we didn’t need dinner, but she was here anyway, making us the random spaghetti of noodles, cheese and onions. Today is Horacio Jr.’s birthday and everyone was over there. We told her she should have just gone, and she said no. I don’t know why she does this. She was also late to her class this morning because of breakfast. I really wish that she wouldn’t cater to us so minutely…it’s a bit extreme.

Drew said that he wanted to go out dancing tonight, but kind of didn’t as well. He wanted me to make the decision. I told him I only wanted to go 20 out of 100 percent, since he was 50/50. I feel bad, and sometimes like a wet blanket, but seriously? I don’t dance at home, I’m not out there trying to hook up with anyone, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke….I don’t have clothes for it, I already have sleeping issues….how fun could it really be? I thin I’d rather go to bed. I feel bad, but not bad enough I guess. Hah. I guess if he really wanted to go, he’d say he did. People also mention going to the black market, but I have no idea where it is, and Drew is extremely against going. I kind of just want to see what it’s like, but honestly, I don’t think we’ll go. Oh well.

So now, we spent about an hour watching some new tv show on E! about some job agency that gets people into jobs. One of the guys wants to be a butler, which to me, is extremely odd. I got sick of it a lot faster than I thought I would, so I came and uploaded the pics onto my computer, and typed this up. I think I might shower and relax the rest of the night. I’m feeling extremely anti social and don’t really feel like trying to put forth the extra effort to be unrealistically happy with 19 year olds. I’m done for the week.

Tomorrow, Drew wants to go to ALL of church. I’m not so sure how I feel about that. I don’t think I’d mind Sunday school so much, but I definitely don’t want to go to Relief Society by myself. I’m freaked out about that. Drew suggested that I could walk home, but really, that to me, sounds like I’m a big ole baby. Ugh. I just don’t know what to do.

One interesting thing happened today for myself though, was when I was taking pictures of all the vegetation on the mountains circling the pyramids, it made me miss home. I miss the Oregon coast line like I’ve never missed a piece of land before in my life. I don’t care that it’s freezing cold, I don’t care that it rains almost every day. It is what it is, and I love it. I loved seeing the green covered hills here because it reminded me of Oregon. I felt a bit sad because I seem to have grown to love Oregon more than I ever thought possible. I love Utah too, but I think I love Utah for my family that lives there, not for the weather there. I need to remember this when February rolls around and it rains for 2-3 weeks straight. Hah!

Pictures

I don't remember what these are of, but here you go.

Pictures of who knows what.


- Drew

Friday #4

Yay! We finished another week finally. Only 5 more to go. Half way through next week, we'll be halfway done with this hellish nightmare.

Last night, we had a group of 8 of us that went to Lucha Libre....the only problem was that there was NO lucha libre last night!!!! No one seemed to know this though cause several people came and went, all pissed off. Apparently, there is going to be a big ole fight next Thursday. I think we're going to round up people again and for reals go this time. ....again...

Other than that, we came home late, got to bed late, had a hard time sleeping, and came to school today. In my situational spanish class, we taught our teacher english tongue twisters. Screw the spanish, I guess. :)

Tomorrow morning, we're going to Xochicalco with the school. Sunday is church. Then we do it all over again.

Today, after comida, we're going to take a trek up to the bus station to make sure we know how much bus tickets are, possibly buy them, and make sure we know what time the bus takes off to Acapulco next weekend. I still have no idea who is going with us other than Eve. We might have 3 people or 40. Who knows.

Thursday #4

This is our FOURTH THursday here. Granted that we didn't get here til 7pm, but still, we were here. That means in a few days, it'll be hump day for school! YES! Then it's all downhill from there. I believe it's in 7 more days....maybe 8. I can't remember. We have 37 more days though. So yeah, I guess it's 8 days.

Today, at our lunch break, 2 teachers, and 5 of us students walked up to a pasteleria (bakery) and bought a cake for Julianna's birthday on June 1st, and Drew's birthday on June 28th. They saved me a piece. I think I'll eat it after dinner tonight ---I have to be extremely hungry for Comida because if I don't eat a decent amount, I get ripped on and whined at for not eating more. So from 11-3:30 I don't eat anything...which is actually extremely hard since I'm used to having a snack mid way through that time, but whatever.

Tonight, barring any random weird crap, we're have a group of people going with us to Lucha Libre since last week was a wash. Hopefully we won't be rained on too much. Hopefully this time, I'll be able to post and let you know how it went.

I didn't go to my class again today, I kind of like it this way. I thought about maybe going next week, but then I get all panic attacky type, and that's not cool. Esp. with my sleeping issues, I probably emotionally couldn't handle it. We shall see though.

There's a song playing on the radio in the kitchen area here at the school, and it sounds like Erasure, but in Spanish.

In my conversational class today, my teacher and I shared music we had on our phones. That's it. Oh, and she told us she has a half hour presentation she has to do in English for her English classes on the 24th, and she's extremely nervous about it. She's doing it on personality colors. She wants me to write up a whole bunch of crap for her, and I don't want to. I think that's something I'm going to pass on. I do have books on it though- but they're at home. :/

There's a few people leaving this weekend to go home, and people keep asking them if they're sad to go home, and none of them have said yes. hahaha one girl, from England said that she'll miss mexico, but she's ready to go back and be in the real world. Another girl said that she's just excited to lay on her carpet at home. I thought that was funny. It got me thinking though, and one of the things that is happy making here, is that once a week or so, they change the soap in the bathroom here (communal bar soap)- and sometimes, I get to use the brand new soap that no one else has touched. THAT my dears, is the excitement of my life. Or when I get the oilet paper with imprints of dolphins on it. hahaha

Oh, on another topic, there was a big ol terd on the patio area next to our bedroom at home this morning. We're assuming it came from an iguana cause we don't know what else would have done it. And our green eggs next to our bedroom door seem to have moved from a tiny egg to a larger one or something cause there are some clear egg "shells" in the middle, and all the other eggs have moved outward more...it's really weird. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it today.

I guess otherwise, things are ok. I'm still not too thrilled to be here, the exhaust from all the cars has given me smokers lung and I'm always coughing, but I guess at least I'm not dead, and there don't seem to be any warewolves or vampires nearby....?

Wednesday #3

Tomorrow, I can post Thursday #4. I realized yesterday that we only have 5 weekends left to do anything. Hooray. So this is how its going to go: This saturday Xochicalco or something like that.

Next week: Acapulco
Week after: Taxco
Week after after: 6 Flags - it's only $30 a person! It's like $80 at home! lol
Week after after after: Tepotzlan

So then we get to fly home the following saturday. Yay!

The highlight of my day: I was the first one to use the new bar of soap in the bathroom. THAT is how absolutely wonderful this place is.

I have to go back to class now, I'll probably edit and update more later. It's raining here like crazy. It's just literally pouring from the sky and won't let up. I wore flipflops yesterday and had to take them off to walk cause I was sliding around. Today, I wore shoes. My shoes are wet, my socks are wet. But at least I can walk without sliding. We also didn't see sprinkles, the pitbull or whatever dog on the way to school today - it was too rainy to be outside. That made me sad.

Tuesday #3

I got some sad news from a friend this morning that another friend of ours' 4 year old passed away last night. I'm extremely shocked and don't entirely know how to take it. My best bet is to just go on with my day and think about it at home. It's really bothering me though.

As for here, not a lot has changed. I hate getting up in the morning, and my classes are extremely difficult. Too bad I don't care enough to try to figure it out.

I don't really feel like posting much more right now.


----Edit----

I ended up not taking the workshop classes again today. I don't have as much to catch up on this week as I did last week, so I do feel a little guilty, but definitely not enough to go to class. I've been listening to a discussion one of the girls from our house is having with her teacher. I can't decide if her boyfriend is coming down here to stay with her for the duration of the visit, or if she's going home already. She came in at 11pm on Saturday. If I can do it, so can she. And she leaves on August 2nd. We'll be here TWO weeks longer than her. And have already endured TWO weeks. I feel sad for her.

Drew wants me to talk the salsa classes with him this afternoon. I am undecided on the fact. I don't feel like doing it, but it gets me out of the house and keeps me busy. I just don't care to learn how to dance. Esp. with all these random people from some Colorado community college.

I learned what rock-paper-scissors is in spanish, but I don't remember. I also have the phrase for Tag! You're it!, uhm, I don't know what else. I asked our teacher to teach us some kids songs in spanish, but she said that was boring, and wouldn't. I was crushed. I told her I wanted to teach them to my students, but she just kept insisting that they were boring. dangit. Maybe my teacher next week.

Oh also, we went over Pedir and Preguntar - I don't get them - the teacher couldn't explain it, so we sat there for 15 minutes, not doing a thing. Awesome.

Monday #3

I'm having a difficult time making time for this and LJ - I'm thinking LJ's will be a day late so that I can get most up to date stuff on here, and feelings about it later on LJ. That's what I'm going to try to do. So Monday #3. I got some pretty awesome emails today - thank you to everyone that lvoes us so much! And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, I just have very limited time on Mondays cause of the back log over the weekend.

Let's see. Today, we came to school, I saw I had conversation class with Vanessa. I like her. She was my grammar teacher the first week and was really nice, and explained stuff in english a lot (even though she's not supposed to). Uhm, so I went to grammar class - new teacher = much better. Then break = banana, orange and some candy. then conversation class. We did lots of talking about boyfriends and brother in laws. That's all I'll say about that. Then we had situational spanish. I was a bit worried about who I had for this one cause I didn't recognize the name. Turns out it was the guy that gave us our placement test when we got here, as well as the guy that came to bother me to find out why I wasn't in class on thursday, last week. Kate said that he reminds her of where's waldo. After she said that, I laughed and could completely see it. Too bad his striped shirt was blue instead of red!

Tonight, I don't think we're doing anything. Just comida and I'll probably plop on the bed again and listen to New Moon since I got through Twilight way too fast. The rate I'm going through these, I'll probably be able to listen to all 3 books at least twice while I'm here, if not more! I think I'll try to do Jane Eyre, but it's an audio drama, and I have a difficult time with those since it's like it's been recorded off of a radio. I have a couple Lois Lowry books to read too. Maybe I'll commit to reading those as well.

I have some pictures of the weekend to upload, but I don't think I've pulled them off the camera yet, so I'll try to remember to do that tonight as well.

I don't think I like the 2 girls living with us. Part of it is because they mess with the chemistry that had become fragoso's + jackson's, but whatever. Hopefully they'll get better. I just know that Lydia does not like Genevieve cause she talked on the phone for an hour, and there are specific instruction to only be on the phone 10 minutes or less. She's in trouble!

I think that's about it for now.

Saturday and Sunday #3

I am posting this against my will. Drew said if I don't, he'll be sad.

Saturday:

(I apologize in advance if there are rude comments about anyone - this was meant for livejournal and I don't want to go and reread it)

So we left the house at 9am to go venture out to see what this Saturday market was all about, and we were curious about the Costco here. We had been discussing Costco with Lydia this morning and she had no idea what we were talking about. So we started describing all the bulk things you can get there and she goes, OH COOOSTCOOOOO Like a pigeon coo. And we’re all like, yeah! That’s the place – totally forgot about the accent on that one. So we leave and find out that the markets aren’t even open when we get there (10am) – but some people were setting up their clothes booths and ripped DVD booths. There were also some porn booths – which really surprised me since little kids are walking through these things – crazy. We got lost a few times, and it started getting hot, but we finally found Costco. It was DEAD – seriously, maybe 50 people in the store…and anyone that knows Costco in the U.S. knows that #1. Costco is always busy and #2. Costco is a MADHOUSE on Saturdays. Yeah, not here. So anyway, I hadn’t brought my wallet cause drew had his, and we both forgot he has a temporary card since we had some drama with his last card and it getting lost in the mail so we cancelled his card, they sent out a temp, and we didn’t receive his permanent one before we left. So anyway, it didn’t have the barcode on it, so this checker kept telling us to do whatever it was in Spanish while they checked on some things. They finally let us get the maps we wanted and we went over to get a hot dog and a drink. They have to scan your card at the concession stand as well, so the guy told us to hold on while he got someone out there, but we said nevermind, and left. Oh, while we were in line though, a guy with blue eyes asked us where we were from (I knew he wasn’t a native cause of the blue eyes…it just doesn’t happen here – same with light hair). So anyway, we told him we were from Oregon, and he said he was from Vermont or Vancouver…take your pick, cause I don’t remember. Anyway, he had come down here for Spanish school a year ago and ended up staying and getting married 2 months ago. CRAZY!!! I could NEVER do that. So then, after that adventure, we huffed it back down to the market of all markets.

Let me tell you about this market. It was I N S A N E!!!!! Seriously. You want it, they have it. Not only do they have it, but you can get it from 10 different people at least. Lydia had told us “el Mercado es muy feo!” we said, yeah, yeah, but we wanna see it. So we go, and it is so busy, I couldn’t believe it. People were taking hand carts to get all their food. People were screaming at you to come to their little stations to buy things. You could get 1 kilo of mangos for $1.50. I don’t know how much a kilo is, but it was $6 at Mega (the supermarket). So it was TONS cheaper, but you have to deal with a chaotic jumble. To top things off, we went down the meat “isle” on accident and I think I’m going to be sticking to eating grass for a while. I had a difficult time with that. I saw one guy carrying in what looked like half a cow, I saw some kind of fuzzy animal skin hanging there, we saw a cows head in the trash (why didn’t anyone want to eat a cow head?) – and last but definitely not least, we saw multiple pig heads. I wanted to vomit. Literally. And to top it off, right after this lovely, stinky isle, you could buy TORTAS! Sweet! AND!!! People were actually EATING there. Oh my gosh. Disgusting. I took a picture of the candy isle and the flash accidentally went off and I think I pissed people off. I don’t care though, it was pretty entertaining. They had marshmallows as big as my fist. I’m going to buy some before we come home – thankfully they have them at the grocery store so I don’t have to go to the market again if I don’t want to….that meat isle about did me in for life.

We walked over to McDonalds after that and got a couple ice cream cones. We were going to eat there, but I wasn’t hungry and Drew said nothing looked good, so it was just ice cream. It tasted the same. We then went to the Museum de Cortez or something like that. Drew likes history crap a lot more than I do, and surprisingly, he really enjoyed the museum. I thought it was meh. For $4, I was expecting something spectacular. It was the same ol stuff. They did have this mural of the Spanish invasion, which was interesting – I took a couple pictures, I think. Drew said he wanted to learn more about it, so I told him my rendition, and now I’m going to post it here: “Once upon a time, long, long ago, there were natives to this land. They liked what they did, and they were happy. Then one day, some crazy Spaniards came in and said, hey! We’re really cool. Be like us! OR DIE!!!!! So they did. The end. (there were also some parts about having to worship our god and scalping, but I couldn’t remember where they fit in. …besides, I like the short rendition better).

Ok, so after that, we walked over to a really old cathedral. THERE WAS A WEDDING STARTING!!! So of course, I took TONS of pictures. I am such an ass that I made Drew go inside with me while they were starting the wedding to take pictures. No flash – don’t worry! Hehehehehe I felt SO naughty! So after that we found a churro vender and bought some. They were 10 pesos = $1. They were so fried!!! I think this will definitely be something I search out again. Definitely so good shizz.

Then we went to Mega. I like saying mega, it sounds so lame. It’s like Fred Meyer/Target. Good and all. We went to get M&Ms. While we were there, we decided to get some random Mexican candy. We bought some carmels and some other cajeta things. Cajeta is this goat milk based chocolate. Don’t knock it, cause seriously, this shizz is the bees knees. Although these random wafer things aren’t. Drew likes them fine, but I think they’re weird. Let me tell you about them. They taste like molasses in between 2 tasteless wafers. Weird. If I remember, I will bring some home and send some to some of you. These caramels though, are freakin delicious. I was going to eat 1, just to try them out, and ended up eating 3. Yum, yum, yum. For those of you that don’t know, caramel has become my new favorite (besides chocolate) since peanuts are out the window….so if I can get caramel and chocolate together, that’s the best. :D

After Mega, we huffed it back down the hill to the house. 6 hours of walking took a lot out of me. I was so hot and tired that I took off my shoes and socks, changed into shorts and laid on the bed til dinner time. We chatted about whatever during dinner…nasty meat. Don’t know what it was, and don’t want to know – cause I’m worried I’d vomit. It was just (texture wise) disgusting. Then we had chongos for dessert. I love those guys. After dinner, Lydia told us there were carrots in the trees this morning that we missed. And Drew was all….you mean parrots?! And she’s all, YEAH!! LOLOLOL I love when carrots hang out in the trees. Then there was a caterpillar on the ceiling. I can’t remember the name in Spanish other than it having something to do with centipedes or something. Anyway, when Lydia went to get a really tall duster for fans and such, Roman got out. Man, he is a giant dog. Lydia wanted him to eat the caterpillar, but he was too interested in hanging out. He knows Spanish. He’s really smart. My dogs only know English. I thought that was impressive.

Michele – you mentioned you never hear anything about roman- so this is for you- and whomever else wants to know J Roman looks like a giant german shepard. He hangs out in the laundry room, and where they hang clothes to dry. He has access to the yard, but not the grass area that is so lovely, just by the orange trees, and the jungle below. I think he is mainly a guard dog since we were told he often bites strangers – but he hasn’t acted that way toward Drew or me at all. He never wags his tail and he’s dirty. I’m guessing that when there aren’t guests in the house, they close the little gate to the front door of the house so he can’t get down onto the nice (crab grass + shamrocks) grass in front of our little room, so that he can “patrol” the driveway area. Not sure though. So in reality, we never see him, never hear him, nada. Although, Roman probably loves me cause he gets all the leftovers that I don’t eat. I am probably making him fat, fat, fat!

So yeah, that was our day. We watched a bit of TV, but it got boring. There is a Spanish song I really like – its on the radio quite a bit, but I don’t know who its by, but its like modern pop junk that I like, so it’s catchy, although I don’t know any of the words. I think I’m going to try to figure out who it is before we go. I think I need to watch more MTV or whatever music tv they have here since MTV never shows any music anymore. Oh, I also listened to more of Twilight on my ipod. How pathetic is it that looking forward to listening to those stories I feel has actually made me happy. I should totally be way more emo than I let on. Oh, and speaking of twilight, they had all 3 books at Costco in Spanish, but they were hardback and $18. I wasn’t going to buy them for $18 each!! I don’t love them enough to try to figure out what it says in Spanish. So ingles solomente para mi!

I think that’s about it. I was about halfway through typing this when Drew went to shower. He’s out now and can’t believe I’m still typing. I guess I have a lot to say. I like editing down for blogspot and going off here. I’m impressed if you’ve made it this far! I still don’t like being here, and I don’t like having to learn something I didn’t have a mindset on doing, but I really am trying to pull myself out of a funk. I think walking ~6+ miles today really helped my endorphin levels immensely.

Sunday:
Nothing much. We went to church, were given a spanish hymn book, sat and listened to the last half of Twilight on my ipod, went to bed.

I wanted to Blog...

...but I don't have much to say.

I feel tall some times. I wonder what the average Mexican height is.

I watched TV in Spanish last night. I had a "Bart Simpson" moment. I am referring to the episode where Bart goes to France. Near the end of the episode he is complaining that he has been in France for 2 months and he does not know how to speak French, but then he starts speaking in French. It was like that last night. I was absorbing Spanish. I still cannot speak it very well, but everyone seems to be speaking a little bit slower so I can recognize the words instead of a long string of syllables with breaks for breathing.

Mosquitoes like the taste of pale women. Maddy is getting eaten and I have seen the legs of several other female students. If I did not know better I would think that they had chicken pox or something. I have a few bites, but not like them.

I kind of want to buy souvenirs but what would I do with the crap? "Look! I bought some cheap crap that would look good in Arizona or New Mexico, but I live in Oregon. I guess this will go into the attic." If any of you want some cheap Mexican crap let me know. I will probably by a t-shirt that says "Hecho en Mexico." I'd only wear it in the states. Wearing shirts that say "Made in the USA," or "Hecho en Mexico," when you actually live in that country makes you overly patriotic and as a consequence, somewhat scary to me. Oh by the way...Happy 4th of July.

- Drew

Friday #3

Sorry guys, we didn't make it to Lucha Libre last night. I had a nasty headache, and couldn't imagine running through the crazy streets in the middle of the night being dizzy. Hopefully we'll go next week. I heard it was as entertaining as the WWF or whatever it is now.

We had a fiesta at school today for the fourth of july. They had hamburguesas and stale chips. I ate 2 pieces of cheese and a bunch of stale chips. I couldn't eat the hambergers, they looked questionable, and I wanted a perros calientes, and I didn't get one! So I wasn't going to eat a hamburger!

I found a recipe for chongos zamoranos online, I'm going to have to translate it into english, and then I'm going to learn how to make that shizz.

I don't know what we're going to do tomorrow. Drew mentioned something about possibly going over to Taxco for the day, but I'm not sure if that's something we're going to do yet. His Spanish is a lot better than mine (goes without saying!), so maybe we will. Who knows. I'll let you guys know probably on Monday. We might just hang out saturday, maybe go up to the market again or something. I duno.

Only 6 more weeks to go!

Thursday #3

Finally. 6 more weeks to go. I didn't go to my last class today, again. I didn't want to. One of the teachers/office helpers came in here to ask if I had too much homework, or if I just didn't go to class. I told him I didn't want to, so I was taking a break. He said ok. I said thanks, and he left. So here I am. I gave my grammar teacher a bad review for the week - she deserved it.

I'm trying to reset my mind frame that I'll actually be OK here - but it's not working yet. We're supposed to go to Lucho Libre tonight with some people from school. I don't really feel like going, but was told it would be a great experience and it's just one of those things you have to do while in Mexico....whatever...

Wednesday #2

Tomorrow, I will be able to write Thursday #3. that means I am that much closer to not being here. I want to thank everyone for all of the kind words of encouragement - I want you to know that I appreciate more than you'll ever know- it's probably the main reason I'm still here. I talked with a fellow student that was telling me that I'm just going through culture shock. So I went and read up on it today and have decided that it isn't culture shock. I don't mind being here. I don't mind the people, the place we live in, or even the dog that barks at us every time we come to or from school. What I do mind is that for some reason, in my head, I had decided when I finished my Master's program that I was done forcing myself to learn in extremely stressful environments - and so now that I'm in this competitive atmosphere, I am so done with it. I contemplated backing out on a week or two of classes and just hanging out at the school on my computer while Drew does his thing. It's kind of one of those random thoughts though that I'll have to ponder upon more. There are just so many teenagers here and all they want to do it compete with one another. It's ridiculous. So anyway, yeah, thank you to those that have written me, I thank you so much!

Since this weekend is fast approaching, and Drew and I have decided to do our own excursions rather than go through the school, I think we aren't going to do anything this weekend. Or rather yet, stay here in Cuernavaca and head up to the market and zocalo, and try to find McDonalds so we can go eat fattening food and ice cream cones. The only places I want to go are Tasco and Acapulco. We have 6 weekends to do things, and 3 will be taken up by those, so that's only 3 more to go, so that's not bad at all. I would have liked to go up to the Mexican Temple, but it's being renovated til October :/

I also decided that this place wouldn't be have bad if I wasn't restricted to time constraints. Like when you go on vacation, you can go and see and do whatever you want, whenever you want, whereas here, it's just going to high school with people you don't understand - I think that's why I hate it. And a bonus today, it's actually a bit chilly in the shade. It's been overcast all day - a first - and I'm enjoying it. Normally by now, I'm all gross sweaty.

I guess that's about it for now.

Even MORE pictures!

It is like we are giving them away!

More and More and More Pictures!

- Drew

A TON of pictures

More and yet more pictures!

Basilica and Pyramids

- Adios.

Tuesday #2 - This blows

I had a good all out tantrum at my teacher today. She pissed me off. So here's how it went:
We were supposed to be creating sentences such as Is Maria going to buy tortillas at the store? and rephrase it to say - Is Maria going to buy them at the store? - a simple substitution for the object and make it them/that/it/its, etc. So I didn't get the concept very well, and neither did Kate. SO our teacher goes- make up 10 sentences and rephrase them. So I go...uhhhh...ok... so I proceed to ask where is the dog? He is there. And I made a whole bunch of those sentences cause really, I didn't understand that I had to have a subject, verb, and direct object BUTTTTT the verb couldn't be the ESTAR verb - NO ONE TOLD ME. So instead of my teacher fixing my mistake on the first question I made, she waited for half an hour and I was "done" she says to me, "These are good, but they don't make sense" so I said, WHY!? and she just kept going, cause they don't make sense. So I told her to F*CK it, threw my pen down and sat there fuming. She proceeded to blab out her mouth about something or other and I was so pissed that I just got up and left. I came back about 10 minutes later after a good burst of anger, and about 5 minutes after I came back, we had our first break. I complained to Drew and he told me that everyone in his class has a difficult time with that concept as well. So then after the bell rang to go back to class, a lady from the office came to me to ask if I wanted to switch teachers, and I said no, I hate it here, all these teachers suck, so I might as well stay where I am. I asked if the teacher wanted me to leave and she said no, she's fine, she just thought you might want to? I said no, I'll be fine, the concept was just presented extremely poorly. So at least I have an out, but at the same time, I think it's ridiculous to not stop me to begin with and say, wait, no, you can't do it that way instead of making me feel like an idiot. Assholes.

So after she finally explained that you can do the replacement words (lo,los, la, los) just not with estar, I understood it. Freakin a, it wasn't THAT hard and I don't know why she didn't say that to begin with.

So then we had our lunch break and this stupid girl Briyana kept complaining that she wasn't in book 2 yet, but from what i've heard and understand, there's no way she should even be as far as she is. I keep trying to figure out who she's trying to impress and her only excuse is that her mom paid all this money for her to be down here, and she should get as far as she can. whatever. Just because you're in book 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 doesn't mean that you should be there if you don't get it. What an idiot. I'm proud to say I don't know Spanish, and I'm happy to get as much help as a foundation as I can rather than pretending to understand crap. I'm not trying to impress anyone - and instead, I just have tantrums. No wonder my 1st graders flip out! Maybe I push them too hard... ?

So anyway, Drew is in our pronunciation class while I sit here and type. I didn't want to go to class. In all honesty, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to do this for 6.5 more weeks. Too bad I don't have anything else to do here, and I'm pretty much stranded. :/

I have some movie clips I took, I'm going to try to upload them here.

Tonight, after comida (which translates to food), Drew is going to come back to do an intercambion thing where he speaks spanish with the spanish students and the english students speak english to him. I told him I won't do it, so I'm going to sit here and upload pictures instead.


\---nevermind about the movie clips, they'are ~40megs. It's going to take a lifetime down here to upload them. I'll try again tonight, but you guys just might have to wait for 46 more days and then see them.