10 días más :(

Well everyone, I only have 10 more days here in beautiful Cuernavaca. It definitely is a bitter sweet feeling. I think that 3 months is a good amount of time, but at the same time I wish that I could stay here for another month or two, or at least it only be March or something. Don´t get me wrong I am very excited to see all of you, but I just can´t believe that this once in a life time experience is over. But I am definitely trying to make the best out of it, everyday is a gift and I need to just have so much fun and study hard, which is such a tough balance.

But I haven´t written in a while mostly cause nothing too exciting has happened. But I thought that I should give you a solid update on my life these past few weeks.


Well mostly, I have definitely started to feel really comfortable here, and of course that feeling comes right before I leave but whatev. I think the main reason why I am feeling more comfortable is because of my Mexican friends. For the past 3 months we have all been friends, but it takes a little while to get comfortable with people, and even longer when there is a language barrior. All of my mexican friends are guys and most of them play soccer, so we have been going to their games, so fun, and then afterwards we go to one of their houses to swim and just have fun for the night. And I have started to feel more comfortable with my spanish too. I know that it isn´t any where near fluent, but it is so much better. Just looking back on the first weeks when I had headaches everyday from consentrating so much but still not understanding, to now where I can somewhat do two things at once while speaking. And the school has been great, but I do give a lot of credit to hanging out with Mexicans, it helps so much.

A few weeks ago we went to Las Grutas, which were incredible. They are these caves here in my state that are just huge, it was so much fun! And of course our tourguide pointed out different rocks that supposedly looked like something else, like a monkey or a bottle of champange or people kissing.

Last weekend, some of my girl friends and I went for a long walk from my house to the center. It was so great. Normally we take a taxi, but we really wanted to see the city this way and we did exactly that. I never noticed some of the beautiful parts of Cuernavaca. When we were walking we came across some sort of park, so we decided to enter, it turned out to be a beautiful botanical garden in the middle of the city. It was mostly under a bridge that I pass by every day in a taxi. You know just sometimes you need to take a walk and really look at what is around you!

Last week was my last week at the school where we try to teach english. Doing this was one of my favorite parts of this semester. All the children were so cute and just were such a pleasure. I know that you aren´t suppose to have your favorites but everyone does. There are these 2 boys that always come, Raul y Natal. They are about 10 years old and just so sweet. Everyday after the class is over we play games with them for a like 20 minutes. One time we taught them how to play MArco Polo (outside of the water) and they fell in love with it! They just have so much energy and really love hanging out together. I will never forget this one day when we were teaching them things that were at a party. One of our words was music, and as soon as someone said music I started to sing to myself ¨Please don´t stop the music, music, music¨ and I turn to Natal and he was singing the same thing :) Where we teach is not a good neighborhood at all, and it just breaks my heart to think how their lives will be in the future. They both are so incredibly smart but in reality they probably won´t make it very far just because of where they came from. It just breaks my heart to think how they will be living their lives in 10 years. I just keep praying that they will keep out of trouble and that they really will be gifted with a blessed life, whatever that means. I was really sad to say goodbye to them. And I know that they probably won´t really remember anything that we taught them, but just spending time with them I know makes a difference. Everyone needs love in their lives and need to know that people care about them. But since then, Claire and I started volunteering at an Orphanage. This place just breaks my heart too. It really is not in good condicion. It is in one of the worst parts of town and there are probably about 40 kids there, of all ages. But these kids are just so adorable. They really love and support eachother like they are a family. Some of them aren´t orphans at all acutally, some of their families don´t have enough money to support them and so the government takes them and places them in places like this. Ulitimately it probably is a good thing. At least I know that they are being feed everyday and that they are attending school. I have a friend that helped out with this orphanage last summer and started raising money for them. She goes to NAU so hopefully I can help out a little more when I get back. I just love this place and want to play with these kids all day long.

Well this weekend is my last and I really just want to do everything that I haven´t yet. We might be going to a Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) and we probably are going to spend a lot of time wandering the streets of Cuerna. I can´t wait to see all of you (only 10 more days) but I will definitely be sad to be leaving. This place has become part of my life that I will never forget!

Ok so the pictures, one is of my roommate Claire, our conversation teacher who more or less is more of one of my best friends here, and me. The other is part of the city, infront of El Palacio de Cortez. Isn´t it beautiful.

Ok so from the length of this post, I guess I have had a lot more stuff go on than I thought!

Hasta muy pronto!

D.is F.rute Otra Vez!

So I have an incredible friend Erika that lives in Mexico City. She is working for Campus Crusade for Christ (Crew) and is doing some incredible things in this dark and broken city. We went to college together and she just graduated and moved down to Mexico to continue to do ministry. So she invited me to come spend a weekend with her. It was just so great! My friend Megan came with me too, so that was great. She lives in a little apartment with 2 other girls who do things for Crew too.
Every Sunday, their friend Edgar comes over to teach them how to make some sort of Mexican food. This week was tomales. Man I had no idea how much time tomales took. But they were the best tomales that I have ever had. And did you know that there are such things as sweet tomales. We made some with pineapple and brown sugar. Wow!!!! After that Erika and I made Pizookie (it is very popular in Flagstaff) because none of them have ever heard of this before. Thankfully it turned out perfectly! Good food with good company is just plain good!
This weekend might have been one of my favorites here. We really didn´t too anything too exciting or extreme but just be together, relax, and laugh until we cry. It was so good. These 3 girls really are full of Christ, you can just see how it overflows in them with everything they do. They can´t stop serving eachother and loving life! I really had forgotten how much you need fellowship in your life! How important it is just to spend good quality time together, talking about anything without worrying of what others might think. Being with them made me miss all of my friends back at home, but it was just such a good reminder of the kind of relationships I want with people, for Christ to be the center of all of them.

You all really could be praying for these woman and this ministry. They are doing some incredible things in Mexico City, especially with students. Pray that God would continue to work through them and that He would continue to give them strength to do things that are really hard and that don´t always make sense.

Spring Break in Oaxaca!

Whooo I have so much to catch up on. Time really flies when you are here, and I just don´t have time to get things done sometimes. So I will try to catch all of you up on my life a little bit.

So I am going to be home in 1 month and 1 day. I can´t believe it. I have been here for more than 2 months. I will be sad to leave, so I am going to try to make this month the best. I have set some goals for myself to learn so much more spanish and practice more. I want to learn so much more in this last part that in the first.

Last week we had spring break! My group from NAU, my friend Megan and I went to the state of Oaxaca (Wa-Hawk-A). It is a state known for its chocolate, mole, mezcla (a type of alcohol) and cheese. And man was that stuff good.
The first part of the week we stayed in the city of Oaxaca. We stayed in a hostel where the bottom floor was a chocolate factory, so there always was a smell of chocolate. Now let me just explain this chocolate a little. Honestly I didn´t really like it. The texture was different, a lot more grainy, and the taste is a little different. The thing that I absolutely loved was the hot chocolate, which is also very famous here (random fact: hot chocolate originated in Mexico during the time of the indiginous people, just so you know). The flavor is different that hot chocolate in the US. It has a richer taste, so good! And the cheese is incredible. They put cheese pretty much on everything. It is hard to explain this cheese, it is white, very stringy and just plain delicious. I absolutely love the quesadillas with this stuff! The best meal I had here was quesadillas and hot chocolate next to possibly the oldest tree in the world! Incredible.
Ok so enough about the food. When we were in the city of Oaxaca we did so many touristy things. The first day we had a free day. A bunch of us went to a culture museum, it was in an old monastery, so the building itself was a beautiful museum. And we spent a lot of time shopping in this beautiful city. The Zocalo here is beautiful. It is a little different than the one in Cuernavaca. A little smaller with builidings all around. There were Christmas lights all in the trees with a beautiful gazeebo. We also went to a lot of beautiful cathedrals. Some of which were so different than others I have seen. My favorite was the cathedral of Santo Domingo, it had these incredibly huge wooden doors with beautiful stained glass. To my surprise, the city was so clean. There is a problem with trash here in Cuernavaca, which bothers me a lot, so it was nice to see a clean Mexican city!
Over the next few days, our director, Javier, took us to many great things. We went to a lot of the near by towns to see things there were known for. We went to see what is possibly the oldest tree in the world. We went to some more indiginous ruins (which might have been my favorite). And we just did a bunch of other really cool things!
The next three days we spent at the beach. The beaches in Oaxaca are known as some of the most beautiful in the world, and they definitely lived there name. Once again we stayed in hammocks, which is always a little interesting. This beach was a little different than Marquelia, a lot more tourists. It was fun cause it was really hippie! I loved it! The second day we went on a boat ride in search of sea creatures. After some time, we saw our first turtle. (Keep in minde that the laws in Mexico are different and that no one really would care anyways, so don´t freak out) Right after we spotted the first turtle, one of the guides jumped out of the boat, grabbed the turtle by its stomach and just held it there for all of us to come touch. That was so cool! I actually touched a wild sea turtle. Then, one of the coolest things in my life, we saw a whale! I think it was just a baby, cause it wasn´t as big as I thought it would be, but still it was a whale! And we saw tons of dolphins, which was so fun. One of them jumped in the air and practically froze in mid air for all of us to ohh and ahh! It was so great.
So in general, Spring break was great! I was so good to get away from classes and just enjoy myself!

I hope that all of you are doing well and enjoying your lives! I will see you soon.

Cuerna-Cow Craziness!!!!

Wooh these past few weeks have been so crazy. There are so many things to tell but with so little time, but I will try to get it all in.
So these past two weekends I stayed here in Cuernavaca, which I was so happy about. I had been here for almost a month and hadn't even felt all too acquainted with the city so I was really excited to be able to explore. The first weekend, some friends and I went to the Black Market. To be honest I am not so sure how I feel about that whole situation, yeah it is illegal but it is helping people who really need the money. So I don't know what to think. But I was so excited cause I bought a beautiful Mexican Soccer jersey(which I am wearing in one of the pictures)! I love it! That weekend, Claire and I visited Jardin Borda, which is a beautiful garden in the middle of the city. It was really relaxing and just a great time to walk around and just do whatever. We attempted to take a paddle boat out onto the little tiny lake, but it was a lot harder than we imagined, which made it pretty hilarious for us and the people watching. Overall it was a great weekend, relaxing and just fun!
The following weekend was great too. It started out with tons of plans that seemed to overlap each other, but it worked out in the end. Friday afternoon, I went to some friends house to make brownies, you have no idea how excited we were just to be able to bake and eat chocolate. That night I went with some friends to Jardin Borda again cause there was a concert there. It was absolutely incredible. There was one man who played the guitar and sang, he was so good. It was a beautiful concert, on the little lake of the Jardin with little lanterns floating everywhere, so chill! Saturday I slept in which was the first time in a long while. On Sunday Claire and I went to church with some girlfriends. I am so happy I went, afterward I could tell how much I missed being surrounded by Christians. It was a great service, the music was really contemporary and everyone was so nice, but get this it was 3 hours long. Wooh! But I really did love it. We met these two women who are missionaries that invited all of us to their house for lunch the next day. It was so great. They are both so wise and have so much love to share. It was great to talk about the love of God and hear stories about their lives. That definitely has been one of my favorite parts of being her in Cuernavaca.
Another one of my favorite parts of being here are Wednesdays. A group of about 4 or 5 girls and I go to one of the poorest neighborhoods and teach english classes at a little school to little kids for an hour. It is definitely extremely rewarding. They all have so much energy, especially the boys. Most of the girls like to learn words and will constantly be asking, how do you say this, while the boys can hardly contain themselves from hitting each other. Each one of those kids has so much potential and they all are so sweat. It is just such a pleasure and joy to be doing this. I have no idea how much they will ever remember or how much I am actually helping, but to have a positive influence in their lives is always a good thing.
Things have been really busy here. We are right smack dab in mid terms which are never fun. I have been studying a lot. I have less than 2 months left, next Wednesday is halfway, awwwww. I can't believe it. It definitely makes me sad. But I will definitely use my time wisely here. This friday we are leaving for spring break to Oaxaca (Wa-Hawk-Ah). I am really excited to have some time off from school and just relax and do some touristy things!
I miss all of you so very much and look forward to talking to you soon!

Hasta Luego!

Amenacer a Aterdecer

Sunrise to Sunset!

This weekend my group and I went to the beach! It was incredible. Full of little sleep, alot of swimming, awesome food, and some aweful sun burns.
We left on Thursday night at midnight and traveled by bus through the night. The first 3 hours I couldn´t sleep at all. I have a little cold and took some cold medicine, that was suppose to be for the night, but for some reason kept me awake. At about 4 am I finally fell asleep for a couple of hours. We arrived around 8 am to Marquelia, a little town. Then we took a truck, totally Mexican style, where 8 of us fit into the back, for 10 pesos a person. The place where we stayed was incredible. Basically there are a lot of little huts each owned by a different family. In front of their hut, they have a lot of hammocks. You don´t have to pay to stay with them, but the idea is that you order all of your food and drinks from them and then you get to use their hammocks for free. It was awesome.
The first night was awful. It was really cold and only a few of us brought blankets, I was not one of them. And of course I couldn´t fall asleep again because I took my cold medicine. So I lied awake for many hours freezing. Finally a few of us got up to build a fire. After many attempts at the fire, we got a pretty good one started. Then more people started to come to our fire and join us. We decided to stay up to sunrise, when it would start to get warmer and then go to sleep. So we watched the sunset, the moon set (which was incredible because it was all orange as it went down, it reminded me of a pizza) and then the sunrise. It was quite the night. Thankfully, the next night was better. The family we were staying with gave us some blankets, so we were all thankful for that.
But this beach was absolutely incredible. To my surprise the water was a lot warmer than I thought it would be. And it was really private. We probably were the only tourists on the whole beach. The waves were not to large but were just about right. It was so great just to be able to relax for 3 days. I layed in the sun a lot and just soaked up the sun (so did my skin, not so good). We drank coconut juice straight from the coconut! Even without a lot of sleep, it was a great time just getting to know the people in my group and playing in the water. This next weekend we are staying here in Cuernavaca, and I am really excited about that. I want to get to know the city a little better.
I hope and pray that you all are doing well. Please say hello to the snow for me!

Mi Viaje a La Ciudad de Mexico

This past weekend, my group and I went to Mexico City. We left Cuernavaca around 8 on Saturday morning and got to the city at 9:30. We took a bus (which is always an experience in itself) to Frida Kahlo´s house, La casa azul. If you don´t know who Frida is she is an incredible painter and is world famous. When she was young she was in a bus accident where a pole went through her abdomen, leaving her bedridden for months at a time. That was when she started painting. She ended up marrying the womanizer Diego Rivera, a famous painter that is known for his controversial paintings. They lived a very hard life together. But I think that is why she is such a great painter, because she painted what she knows and what she understands and sees. It was such a great experience! The last picture is of my roommate, Claire and I at Frida's house.
Then from there we went on the Subway, if you have been reading my blogs you can understand why I was a little nervous for that, but it turned out to be fine. Suposedly on the weekends the subway is less crowded, Thank God for that! From there we went to our hostel which was my first experience ever staying in a Hostel, but it was great! Seriously the place was so nice, not what I expected at all. It was located right in the middle of the city, near the grand Cathedral (which is the fourth picture, the view from our window), the National Palace and the Templo Mayor. After checking in we went to the National Palace, which is free with a student ID, AWESOME!!! It was incredible. It housed many murals, a lot of Diego Riveras. The concept of such controvercial murals, with communisitic messages and many political figures, in the National Palace is so strange to me, but they were incredible. The third picture is an examplt of one of Diego's incredible murals. Then we went to the Templo Mayor, which get this, is an indigenous ruin that they just discovered not that long ago that is right in the middle of the city. Basically what happened, as years went on the templo started to be covered up with dirt and stuff like that, then they started to build buildings on top of it without even knowing that something so grand and precious to their culture was right under their feet, literally. Then we went to the Cathedral, which was my favorite part. This cathedral was HUGE! The best part was that we took a tour on the roof of the Cathedral to see the bell tower. It was absolutely incredible. And we picked the perfect time to do it cause the sun was starting to set. I loved it! The second picture is of the Cathedral! Isn't it incredible. The first picture is from the top of the Cathedral!
The next day we went to more and more museums. It was great. First we started out at the Anthropology museum, which I went to before with my dad, but it was still great. That place it huge and we difinitely did not have enough time to check everything out. Then we went to another musuem, that I can´t remember the name of, but it was a museum of modern art. I loved it there. Sadly we couldn´t take pictures inside, but it was a great experience. They housed some huge and incredible murals of artists like Diego Rivera and other famous Mexican painters. After that, we took another bus ride, which was scarey and funny at the same time cause our bus driver was a maniac, to Xochimilco. Which was definitely an experience. Basically it use to be a lake, but now there are man made islands, and there are tons of little boats that you can take around the canals. They are all brightly colored with fun names. But the best part is that they are other boats with Mariachi bands that you can pay to come onto your boat and sing to you. Also there are other boats that sell food and drinks and random things. So for an hour you just hangout on a boat listening to mariachi music. It was great. Then we headed home.
It was a great weekend. Mexico City definitely has some good parts and some bad, but so does every city, you just have to know what to do and where to go. Tonight we are leaving for the beach! It is this little town called Marquelia, kind of near Alcopulo. I am super excited to be able to just relax and soak up the sun! I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying the cold weather, I miss it!

The Little Children Broke My Heart...

So I had a little revelation yesterday, if that is what you want to call it. We went on an excursion yesterday to this beautiful city called Taxco, it is just about an hour and a half away from Cuernavaca. This is a picture of it. In the picture, the tallest buiding n the back, is this beautiful church that was built in the 1600's. It is a city that is was build on a hill with all white houses and red roofs, it kind of reminds me of Greece. Taxco is known as the Silver City because it is known for its silver mines. The town is full of jewlery stores, some really expensive but others are great deals! But anyways, about my revelation. We were sitting in the Zocalo, which means it is the center of every town in Mexico, and these 2 little kids came up trying to sell gum. And when I say little, I really mean little, like 3 or 4 years old. It broke my heart to see them working. I think that little kids should not be working, they should be playing and learning, not wandering the streets by themselves talking to strangers. Their families must have been so incredibly poor that they have to send their children out to sell gum, basically with the look in their eyes. I understand that they need money and that may be the only way that they can have food on the table, but to me it is like child labor. I hated it! And I was so upset and didn't know what to do. Should I give in, so that they can get some money or should I oppose it and not buy anything? I completely oppose the idea but I want them to have money. It just absolutely broke my heart to see that. God has given me a heart for children and I actually started to cry a little. It is just terrible and I want to do something about it but I don't know what to do.

En Mexico!!!

I have made it through my first week of classes, at least I can say that I am alive! My dad left on Saturday and I was sad to see him go but was excited to meet all the people in my group and to get to Cuernavaca! This place is beautiful. I really like it. It definitely is different but it is fun. On Sunday, my group from NAU went to this beautiful city named Tepotzlan. It is a really hippie place with lots of “energy”, at least that was how it was described. We went on a hike to the top of a mountain to a pyramid. It was absolutely beautiful but the hike was super hard. Basically it was like walking up stairs for over a mile. But thankfully I made it, Ran, Sarah and Krista you should be proud! One thing that I found to be very different was that many of the women hike in sandals, I suppose they don’t have a need for tennis shoes so they just hike in what they have. It was so weird.
Everyone in my group is so nice. I really like all of them a lot. We all are different, but that is what makes it a little fun. My roommate Claire is really great. I like her a lot. We get a long really well and have fun together.
My Mexican family is so sweet. There are two daughters. The younger daughter is so funny. She is super animated and loves to talk to us. She has so many stories to tell and we definitely can tell that she is a rebel. She is only 14 and she talks about all these crazy things that she has done. It is really funny cause she definitely uses a few English words every now and then. Por ejemplo (for example) she says, “ya I know”, “It’s crazy”, and “Jesus” but it sounds more like “She-sus”, it is so funny. They all are so great and make us feel right at home. Surprisingly I can understand more than I expected to, but I can’t really reproduce anything myself. I know that it will take a while for me to be able to speak and hold a conversation.
School is really good too. The campus is absolutely beautiful. The main campus use to be an apartment complex so there are lots of smaller buildings and lots of pools, but we can’t swim in them. A lot of it is outdoors, so that is great. Everyday I have Spanish 202 from 8-11 am, Monday through Friday, that is 15 hours a week. It is so intense. And get this it is just me and one other student. It is such an intense 3 hours and everyday after that class my head hurts a little from concentrating so much. And then I have 2 conversation classes which are fun cause basically all we do is talk to one another in Spanish. But the best part is that we are outside at little tables around one of the pools. I also have a class about Las películas en México (Mexican Movies). It is very interesting but is going to be a little hard.
So here are a few random things I have learned. In Mexico, right after a woman gives birth she is given chocolate, if it is a girl, or cigarettes, if it is a boy. And to say that you think someone is hot, you say "Esta como mango", like they are a mango! I love it!
Ok so the pictures are: 1. At the Zocalo in Mexico City, a beautiful building lit up at night; 2. My dad and I at the top of the pyramid of the Sun; 3. These are some of my new friends at Los Arcos, the hang out for Tuesday nights!

So everything is going pretty good. I am definitely enjoying myself. But of course it is a little difficult to be away in a country where I have no idea what people are saying sometimes. I miss all of you and hope you are having a great week!

Hello all,
I made it to la Ciudad de Mexico yesterday afternoon. My dad is here with me, if you didn't know. We are spending a few days in the city just so I can get acquainted and just explore this huge city. Mexico city is home of just around 22 million people. That is huge, especially coming from places like Flag and Prescott. Yesterday was filled with flying, leaving the Prescott airport at 7:30 am, a 2 hour layover in LA, and arriving to Mexico City around 4 pm Mexico time, 2 AZ time. Our hotel is right around the corner from a Cathedral, which we can see from our hotel room window. Also, there is a very large government building that forms a square around this huge Mexican flag. It is absolutely beautiful and thankfully they are just starting to take down their tacky Christmas decorations, which I am happy that we got to see.
Today, Wednesday, my dad and I went to El Bosque de Chapultepec, which is really fun to say. It is a huge park in the middle of the city, much like Central Park in NY, but it is full of museums. We went to El Museo Nacional de Antropolgia, the Anthropology Museum. It was surprisingly very interesting. It was really cool to see so many Aztec and Mayan artifacts that have been preserved. My favorites were definitely the statues of the gods that had snakes for necklaces and human hearts for hands. Man their culture is so different than ours.
My dad keeps trying to talk to people in Spanish, tries is the key word, which normally turns out with them saying "What" or speaking back in English. I guess that we look like gringos (white Americans) enough that we are an easy target to get pickpocketed. Which actually happened to my dad when we were on the subway today. It was pretty scary. There were all these guys around us that made me suspicious because they keep pushing and trying to get closer to us. I held on to my purse even tighter and turned away from them when I felt one of there hands attempting to reach for my purse. Before I knew it my dad was yelling "Hey" and "Stop" chasing a man off the subway to a stop that wasn't ours. I suddenly realized what was going on and shuved my way, and I really mean shuved, off the subway finding out that the man droped the wallet right in front of a police officer who grabbed him. It was crazy, but thankfully ended well. The only thing that my dad lost was his glass case which was in his other pocket. So that means this guy got both his glass case and wallet sometime in the 2 minutes that we were on the subway. I knew this stuff happened but I didn't really think that it would happen to us.
Let me tell you this place is definitely a little weird, not bad just a definitely different. Here are a few reasons why:
- You can't hail a taxi on the street cause there are a lot of people who fake to be taxi drivers. Scary
- Tonight at dinner, all the women were given roses.
- The subway costs 2 pesos, about 16 cents.
- Everyone crosses the road like frogger would, one lane at a time in the middle of moving traffic
- In some restraunts they offer English menus, good, but they have some random words that are spelled funny, ex. yogurth for yogurt
- There are police men on pretty much every corner, mostly doing traffic control
- Everyone is really friendly, besides those pickpocketers!

Overall, we are having a good time, besides the few bummps in the road. Tomorrow we are going to Cuernavaca, which I am so excited for!
I miss you all and hope you are having a fantastic week!

Getting Ready

Ok, so honestly I have never in my entire life wanted to blog and never thought I would, but I decided that this may be the best way for all of you to know what is going on with my during my semester abroad.
I have six days left in this beautiful country, and I am a little sad to leave, but I am on my way to being prepared. Just yesterday my mother came home from work with not only one but two things of pepper spray. One to keep in my purse and the second to keep in my night stand, just in case. I am in the middle of packing probably way to many clothes, but what can a girl do. I know that with time everything will come together.
So in these next few days, I am trying to prepare myself for life in Mexico. I have been studying spanish, to refresh my memory. And getting as much sleep as possible.
I hope you enjoy my endeavors with writing a blog and enjoy reading about my life in Mexico. I will see you all in a 3 1/2 months!!! Hasta Luego