Victorious Viernes 30

Today was a good day. I got so tired though! I stayed up late last night because we didn't have school today, but I did still have to get up at the same time in order to get to school on time so we could travel to Tonala at 9. It was a fun trip, so bouncy though. I reclined my chair and it bounced back and forth so I sat up straight to stay in one place while I listened to music on my iPod. When we got to Tonala we did a lot of interesting things. First we went to see where a popular clay doll is made. Her name is Lupita. She has 25 different styles including her hair style, what she's holding, and what dress she has on. The work that is put into these little things is amazing! They make about 80 a day, all by hand, all painted by hand and carved. The end masterpiece is really fascinating.


After that we visited a paper mache place. They made everything out of paper mache. It isn't what I thought it would be either. The paper mache I imagine is ugly stuff that you can tell a kindergartner made, but this stuff was made by professionals, some of them life size. They have a 6' giraffe in addition to many other animals. They don't look like the paper mache I was referring too!

Next we went to a glass shop and saw how glass was made. Now this was cool too, I'd never seen how glass was made. They blow it up like a balloon! Interesting stuff! Afterwards we had time to go on our own to shop and I just looked. I found two great nativities that were pretty cheap, but upon closer look I noticed they were missing something... the baby Jesus! I don't know why they didn't come with Him. Oh well. I also went to a wood shop. The stuff they make from hand is amazing! They were selling full living room sets for $400, and then about $80 to ship it to Juarez (the border). Just unbelievable! On the way home I zonked out. My lack of sleep and being in the sun all day really caught up with me. I didn't do anything when I got home. I laid down and relaxed. I decided I needed something American tonight and so I caught the bus to Burger King. Good stuff! It was such a nice treat. When I left I remembered that I didn't have enough money to catch the bus back home, but that was okay, I decided to walk, and then while walking I stopped at an ATM for fun, but still walked. A bunch of people were outside and I didn't know why. There was a big game tonight. The UAG Tecos (my school) vs. Cruz Azul (a professional team in Mexico). I was approached once by a guy selling tickets, but I didn't buy one, but then a second guy did and so I decided to take the offer and go to the game. I had a good seat for what I paid. Really, the ticket just gets you in the door, they are numbered with rows and seats, but they don't mean anything. It's pretty much a find your own seat kind of thing. Well, The Tecos somehow won 1-0. They never win. That's the weird thing. I came home and just relaxed the rest of the night. What a day!

Interesting thoughts:
I remember getting an email forward when I was younger asking where your eyes were as you walked. If you looked up you were confident, if you looked down you were self-conscious. Since then I always tried looking up as I walked. Lately I've been noticing I've been looking down at the ground though. No, it's not because I've lost confidence in myself, but maybe in the sidewalks. There are holes all over the place and you have to look down at them!

People don't care about the police here. The police ride around all day with their lights on, but for no reason. They aren't in a hurry or trying to pull anyone over. I don't know why they have their lights on.

I will try to post short video of game later.

Jueves 29

Good day. It seemed like a Friday. Probably because tomorrow we don't have school. We are doing a school trip to Tonala and so school is, essentially, canceled. How fun! I'm excited. Today I went to classes and then went to the library for a little bit to download some things because the internet is faster. When I came home I had lunch and then went back to my yoga class. That class is really beating me up! I was so sore tonight! Oh well, it'll help. And at least it's causing me to sweat a little bit. After class I went to Wal Mart to get some contact solution. NO other store has it. It's weird. And I made the determination to get the generic brand to test it out because normally my contact solution costs about $8-9 because it's the best kind. Well this Wal Mart didn't have any generics, so I settled for my normal brand, which was $6 for the bottle. After I got home I was going to sit around and then head off to the school for better internet, but again, I got lazy. I just stayed home, but miraculously the internet worked a little better here tonight and I could do video and talk. Well, it still wasn't the best, but better than none at all! I just stayed in the rest of the night chatting. Interesting thought, Tiffany ruined movies for me. I never thought of lice being on the back of the chair until last night. I was so self conscious that it was harder to enjoy the movie! Oh well, I'll try to get over it.

Miercoles 28

Well today was a fun day. I went to my classes and have just been bored out of my mind in them lately for some reason. I still do what I am supposed to, but I just go and do. After school I went and called Will. This was so exciting to me because Will just got home from his mission to Chile! I haven't spoken on the phone with him for quite some time! We talked for about an hour before my computer battery died. Oops. Oh well. It was a lot of fun, I'm glad he's home. Afterwards I went home and ate some lunch and just sat around and watched some Office before heading to church to meet Rodriguez. It was nice seeing him again. He talks to me in English and I talk to him in Spanish. It's a nice set up and it's been good to have him so far. We went to his best friend's house and watched him play Call of Duty for about 20 minutes before the 4 of us (best friend's wife) went to the movies. Since I was the new guy or something I was able to choose and I picked Marley and Me. I heard it was a good movie, so we went to that. Unfortunately it was dubbed, but that was okay, I understood most of what was going on, which was a nice feeling. It was a good movie though. I really enjoyed it. After the movie I had to go to the bathroom so bad. Mexicans don't walk very fast because the life here is slower. I didn't know how to get them to walk faster and didn't want to seem like I was trying to get away from them, nevertheless, I walked faster but only a constant 5 feet in front of them. I had to use almost all of my energy to not go to the bathroom. It was embarrassing. I got home around 11 and just chatted online with Will, Kyle, and Onna. It was a nice ending to the day. Oh, and I got a new bed today, pillow top! Gotta love that!

Martes 27

Today was a good day, too. I went to class and in my conversation class we did a mock trial, and I played the Father (Catholic) of the girl we were trying to condemn (for being a lesbian-mind you). We lost the trial, but that's okay. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards the teacher told me that I would make a good Father. I chuckled. I think it is just because I knew the vocabulary already. After class I went and signed up for my work out class. It was about $15 for the whole semester, 2 classes a week. Man it's gonna be so nice! Afterwards I went to that class and I sweated like a madman, but it was so much fun! I really enjoyed actually working out and such. After class I went home and ate lunch (at 4:30pm). I then watched some Office and sat on my computer the rest of the night. I did some wedding stuff and then looked to my left (the room is completely dark) and see this GIGANTIC spider (that's not a tarantula, but a normal spider). It was about 3 x 3. I looked at it long and hard and was terrified! It was up high on the wall and I thought it would jump at me to attack if I got close, so I snuck up on it (I know I know, they have 8 eyes) and I killed it with my shoe. It was so scary. I climbed on my nightstand to get it. Then I did my homework and went to bed. Tomorrow I might go to the movies, I am not sure. We'll see.

Lunes 26

Well Monday was an interesting day. I got to my first class and we got our grades back from our exams we took on Friday. I got a 95.5%! Pretty good I think. I knew it was easy. We are now moving on to things that I spoke more readily in the mission field. It's kind of nice to have this little review class while I learn Spanish. The cool thing here is that the teachers will give like 30 problems to do for homework (problems that take me 15 minutes to do) and will feel bad they are giving so much! I'm loving it! In my next class we had our oral exam and I went out and did that with the teacher and at the end she said it was sufficient. I was so worried about what that word meant to her, but then I got my grade and got a 100%! Man school is turning out to be so good! I kinda hope my grades transfer back to Coker so they can help my GPA! That would be good. Anyways, after class I didn't do anything. I went to the library and played a little bit of Warcraft and then went home for lunch. It was there that I stayed the rest of the night while watching a few episodes of the Office and doing my 15 minutes of homework. My stomach is feeling much better. I haven't had any scares for a while, so that's good!

Sabado 24 y Domingo 25

Saturday
I got up after a little sleep in and went to do my laundry again. It was the same price, $7. Still so expensive! I had to be back home by 12 and I would have been. The laundry was quick. When I went to go change my laundry the guy looked at me and said sorry. He forget to turn on one of my washing machines! How messed up is that? I had another hour to wait before I could hop on the bus. I got home at 12:40. Luckily my partners were understanding and we left to go downtown shortly after. It was a lot of fun and I bought a few souvineres and gifts. After I got home I was starting to feel sick and just stayed home, but that night I wanted a pizza for dinner so I called Pizza Hut and ordered one. Well they couldn’t find my house and so they went back home. I don’t understand WHY pizza places will just take the pizza back and not call? I had to call them and regive directions. By the time the pizza got to me it wasn’t as hot as it should have been. I ate the whole thing as I watched both X-Men 1 and 2. I then went to bed.
Sunday
Today was even worse. I woke up, took my cold shower, ate my bran bars, and then got the call to go to the bathroom. It was there I sat for the next hour. I didn’t do anything today. I sat at home, close to the bathroom. I’m really sick of this. Onna stayed home from church too because her son has a pretty bad rash. Onna and I had our own little church service, well nothing big, we just discussed church things for the next 3 hours. It was a lot of fun. I took a nap later, did some wedding business, and chatted with some family and Onna again. Nothing too exciting to report today. Tomorrow I have my first test in my conversation class. We’ll see how that goes.

Viernes 23

Well today was a pretty good day. I got up and didn’t get up to breakfast until about 8:40 due to stomach problems. Missing school is not an option though, so I just walked even faster today because we had our first exam. I got in class and was so nervous that I was going to forget something on the exam or miss a lot of questions and not do well. Well she gave us the exam at 9:15 and told us that we had until 10:30 to finish it. I got the exam, did it, and by 9:30 I was walking out of class. The exam was super easy. Of course I say that before I get my results, but it was a pretty easy exam and I think (and hope) my grade reflects that! During that off time I thought hard about not using the bathroom. Let’s just say that I’m not doing well. My body has been rejecting something I’ve eaten in a very bad way! I guess that’s a good thing so it gets out of our system faster, but still! Not pleasant! Anyways, in my next class we finished “The Day After Tomorrow” and then went and got ready for our test we’ll take Monday. We shall see. Today officially marks the halfway point in this class. I am excited to move up because then it’ll feel more like I’ve been here longer. After school I went to the library and played Warcraft with Scott before heading home for lunch. After lunch I returned to the library and played a little more with Scott and then chatted with Onna and my parents before heading home. When I got home I watched a few episodes of The Office, and then a movie on TV before going to bed. Tomorrow I have a project to do with some classmates and my laundry to do, so that’ll be a good Saturday.

Jueves 22

Well today was fun. I went to classes, first of course, but was running way late this morning. I went up to eat and had an intense urge to use the bathroom. It must have been those tacos from last night! I ran downstairs and a good while later I finished my breakfast and hurried off to school a few minutes late. In between classes I decided to sit down and get online for a second. I had my laptop, so why not. Well I plopped down and befoer I knew it there were about 10 guys surrounding me, not saying a word just looking at the computer screen. It was like, whoa! I wanted to say something, but didn't. I then packed up and went to my other class, thankfully! We watched "The Day After Tomorrow" in the class. It was a pretty good movie. We watched it in Spanish, of course. I understood a lot, which was good. I then went to the library and Scott and I played a little bit of Warcraft before I rushed off to lunch. After lunch I didn't feel well at all and stayed close to the bathroom. I am not liking this feeling! I watched the rest of season 2 of The Office and it is still such a great show! I recommend it for sure! I didn't go out at all, but I did study for my exam that's tomorrow. I'm kinda worrying about it, I'm not too sure how I'll do. It is easy stuff, I guess, but it's just the fact that it's a test and all. I had taquitos for lunch today and they were so good! Yumm! The food here is great, the weather is mostly great, and as long as I can speak Spanish, that is great too! I was supposed to get a room mate this week, but he never showed up, so I don't know that I ever will. Oh well, I like the living alone thing (for now!).

Miercoles 21

Well the middle of the week sure came quickly! I was pretty excited for tonight because my friend was going to call me, but he never did, therefore I stayed in and chatted online, which was fine, just wasn't doing something. I did go get some tacos and eat them. Those 5 peso ones. With the exchange rate now, that's 3 for a dollar almost! They were so good! I got 3. My first tacos since I got to Mexico. Wonderful! Today in class we are just preparing for our tests. I have a test in my grammar class on Friday and my conversation class on Monday. We'll see how I do. After school I went to the library and hung out there until it was lunch time. I went home for lunch and then relaxed for a few minutes before suiting up to go play soccer! Every Wednesday the guys here play it and so I got to be one of them. My team played two games and lost both. It's a 6 on 6 affair and the winner stays on the field. I was tired just warming up! I did have a few good blocks though on defense but it's hard when you can't run without panting or coughing. It's like I'm a smoker! I almost have turned in to one here. People here can smoke wherever they want. It's pretty annoying. After soccer I went back to school in hopes of being able to use the internet to call my sister Tiffany. Wednesday is her day. Unfortunetly I wasn't able to because another guy was in the room with me. Dangit! Oh well, sorry Tiffany. Speaking of Tiffany, we have been talking a lot more lately online. My no life self always finds her online at the right times. I went to bed kind of late and my stomach wasn't feeling the very best. We'll see....

Martes 20

Inauguration day! How exciting! The person I live with is a huge Obama fan and thinks he is the Savior of the world. Of course she believes in Jesus Christ, but she thinks Obama might actually solve everything. We can only hope, I guess. I was in class during the speech, but watched it later on YouTube. It was alright I guess. I expected something more charismatic, but this will have to do. Immediately after school Jill, Abby, and I went downtown to see about getting discounted bus tickets. We found out while down there that foreign students can't get them, only "real" students. That's alright I guess. The coolest thing was that I found another job the government has. It pays someone to stand outside and watch your car so no one steals it. This would obviously be the bottom of the barrel, but at least the person has a job! Also, this same person will wash your car while you walk and do your errands if you want. You pay for that, but it's very convenient. We headed back home and decided that we would go do some fun things over the next few months. We're gonna go check out this place that's called Mariposas (butterflies) and here all the butterflies migrate to. They are there now. Jill said it was very noisy but gorgeous! I'm excited for that. We're gonna go to a Chivas soccer game too! That will be really fun! Just exciting stuff. I got home, ate lunch, and went and did my homework. It was good times, the homework isn't too hard. The teachers think they are giving a lot when they give 3 fill in the blank hand outs and write 10 sentences. It took me 30 minutes. Oh well. I continue to watch the Office! It's so funny! While we were in class a student came in and asked us to sign up for Futbol. So of course I did and we play Monday and Wednesday at 4pm. I'll probably go once a week and to the gym another 3 days in a week. Exciting stuff! I spoke to my family and Onna and then went out for some tacos. Boy was I disappointed! I went to the gas station and bought some hamburgers. They tasted good with the Heinz Ketchup I put on them, but 20 minutes later I was NOT doing well! I went to bed all sick, yuck!

Lunes 19

Well the day started off much better than it should have. We got our week one grade reports and I have a 100 in each class, so that’s good news. The only stuff we’ve really done is participation though. Oh well, it looks nice. After class we took a tour of the library. That was so boring. They doing use the Dewey Decimal System in Mexico, they go alphabetical! How simple is that?! She explained to us for 40 minutes how to use the library. I’ve been to a library before! Anyways, after class I boarded the bus to go to Wal Mart. I hoped I would get there this time. I did choose the right bus, and was so pleased! I got to Wal Mart and noticed that the people that shop at Wal Mart here in Mexico are just like the ones that shop at Wal Mart in Hartsville (and probably every other place)—they don’t care about you, they are inconsiderate and just want their own desires fulfilled. No common courtesy! Also, in this Wal Mart they allow solicitors! I was approached to buy steroids! I love that I can play the “I don’t speak Spanish” card whenever I feel like it. Is that wrong to do? Afterwards I went to Carl’s Jr. I got a thing of fries and they had Heinz Ketchup! So good! Yum! The fries really hit the spot. I crossed the street and waited for the bus as sweat dripped down my back, but at least the fries were good. I watched as the other side of the street had over 5 busses pass by until we had our one bus, a 30 minute wait. When I boarded the bus it was jam packed already. There was clearly standing room only. About 10 people were crammed into the entrance of the bus by the door because we couldn’t squeeze any closer. Great for me, whatever. Except when I had to get off the bus. As I was moving to get off the bus driver shut the door and continued driving. I didn’t know what to do, I couldn’t move! I kept inching and then another pushed the button and I got off then. I walked about 3 blocks to get home from there, dripping in sweat. I ate lunch, watched some Office, and hung out while I chatted with my parents and Onna. What a good night.

Super Domingo

I got up, went to get breakfast, the door was still locked. Great. I'm starving because I didn't have dinner last night. Oh well. I go to church, it was a nice site. It was stake conference. It was one of those that a bunch of stakes are involved in. This one had 47 stakes listening. It was presided by President Monson. Boyd K. Packer was there too, and Sylvia H. Allred from the RS. It was such a good conference. It was in Spanish, of course. I was excited because I know Pres. Monson can't speak Spanish so maybe he'd do it in English and pause while it's translated. Nope! All I heard in English was "My dear Brothers and Sisters..." my heart excited during this sentence that I would hear it in English, but my hopes were dashed as a dubbed voice took over. Darn. While in there I noticed someone. He looked like a guy from my mission. After conference I ran over to him and asked which mission he served in, yup, Colorado Denver North. We served in the same areas. His name was Elder Rodriguez. He was so excited to see me, even though we had never spoke in the mission, just heard about the other. It was so fun! He took me around and introduced me to all these people. While we were chatting after conference (which btw no one left, everyone just stood in the parking lot for about an hour afterwards!) my Bishop walked up, Hey Carlos, he said. I asked if I could talk to him for a moment and I followed him to his office. I told him that I wanted to serve. I was willing to hold a calling. He told me he was looking for people and that they would pray about me on Tuesday and he would probably call later in the week to set up an interview for a calling! How exciting. Rodriguez drove me home after showing me a few sites and we made plans to go to the movies on Wednesday and the temple on Thursday. How exciting! A friend, and maybe a calling! I get home starving and went to the doors and they were still locked! Darn. So I sat my butt down, ate my fried chicken I bought last night and watched the NFC playoff game. What a great game! The Cardinals won! They are going to the Super Bowl! They haven't been to the Super Bowl in over 70 years! So I watched that, did some homework, and then chatted with my parents and Onna. Such a great day! I got the thought during stake conference that maybe my being here is due to a calling and this calling could help me prepare for a future one in Hartsville. I watched some Office, read a little, and went to bed.

Stinky Sabado

Well Saturday may have been one of the worst days yet. There is so much free time! It’s crazy! I woke up at 9, amidst my futile attempts to sleep in. I guess that is sleeping in, just not like I had thought. I mulled around until about 12 I packed up my clothes and headed off to the Laundromat. For my two loads of laundry in the washer, and one in the dryer, soap included, it was $89 or about 7 USD. Pretty expensive, huh? I didn’t realize it was seven dollars until I just typed it. Wow. While I was waiting I found WiFi that would work on my iTouch but my laptop would not pick it up. Oh well. Anyways, after laundry I came home and just sat outside on the porch and worked on the computer, nothing too special. I then got the idea, hey, I’m gonna go to a movie. I looked at the schedules, picked a 4:55 showing of Lakeview Terrace with Samuel L. Jackson. I got on the bus at 4:20 to make it there on time. The maid told me to take the 632 so I boarded and was primed to get there on time. My watch then said 4:45 and I was worried, well I remember very clearly that the theater is next to Wal Mart. I never remember taking the turn to get there and we just kept going straight. At about 5:30 I texted Jill and she led me to another bus, the R-3. Well I rode that bus through the smallest little streets in tiny little neighborhoods. I thought we were going to hit the buildings! Well suddenly the bus stops, it’s now 6:15. I look around and notice I’m the last one on the bus. What happened? I took the wrong bus! Oh gosh. Well after the 20 minute hiatus of the bus I got back on and eventually Jill said she would come pick me up. It was now 7:30 when she got to me, then 8:30 by the time I got home. I was so lost and confused. Felt bad because Jill had to come get me. I felt so lonely. I couldn’t speak Spanish or express myself and I just felt so terrible. It made me realize how alone again I was here. After I got home I just chatted with Dad and Onna. Tomorrow is church, and Sunday. I hope things go well. This blog leaves out many of the details that went on yesterday, but hope you understand my lack of desire to write about how lost I was, or that I was an HOUR out of town!

Viernes

Well today was Friday and it was nice to have the opportunity to finish a week of school. In my first class we just continued to go over grammar. And the homework I had done the night before just wasn’t going as well as I had hoped. I didn’t put a lot of thought into it, and that might explain why. It was fine when we began discussing and got into groups and spoke it though. We have a good bit of homework for Monday due, but so far the homework load hasn’t been that bad, and so if it stays like this over the next few months it’s gonna be really easy to at least finish my homework and if I see the need to study then that will come easily too. There aren’t a lot of things pulling on my time right now. That’s both good and bad. In my conversation class we had to identify all the Mexican holidays. She gave us a sheet and we were supposed to fill in all the dates. There are so many random ones! Mother in-law day, God parent’s day, child’s day, to name a few. I just pulled out my laptop and looked them all up online. Crazy stuff! We didn’t get to do any dancing, we ran out of time, but we did do some conversing, which is the point of the class. Good times. After class I went to the library for an hour or so and just chatted online, and downloaded the office season two from iTunes. I went home for lunch and amazingly found internet connection, so I just stayed home, watched like four more episodes of the office, watched some movies on TV, like Paycheck, and then eventually chatted with Onna. The signal isn’t too good from my room, so I went and laid on the lawn and had nearly perfect signal. How exciting! I came back inside, watched some of Los Simpson and went to bed. On tap for tomorrow? Maybe a movie—Marley and Me, or just another day at home. I do have my laundry to do.

Jueves

Today was a good day. My classes were very similar. In my grammar class we went over future tense of words and we played a game. My team won 5-4. Go us! I’m still loving that MTC more and more every day! In my next class we spent a good bit of time discussing bars and clubs. My teacher seems to think that that’s all we do, go to bars and clubs. We had to walk around the class today and ask 10 questions, and they were each about bars, and how they are in the different countries, and what kind of people go there, ect. I had to answer each one that I had no idea because I have never been! Oh well. We also spent a good bit of class going over the curse words in Spanish. I just looked down at my desk while she was writing the English words on the board. I didn’t want to see them. Later we began discussing music and culture and the words that are associated with that. We brought up the Cha Cha Slide and she said she was gonna look for the song and bring it tomorrow. How cool! By we I meant I, because who else would bring up that song but me?! After class I went to the library to connect my iTouch to the internet. After that I ran into a friend of mine and we went to the Kubo together. The Kubo was where we had our special lunch as a welcoming. They served a lot of food, and it was a lot of fun to see everyone again. I stayed there for only an hour or two and left and walked home. While home I got online and then I went upstairs to talk to Gloria’s daughter and husband that came to visit. It was a lot of fun. I was able to speak to the computer tech that was there fixing their computer about helping the signal out. He just suggested moving the router. Tomorrow we are going to move it and see what kind of signal I get. But unfortunately he changed a cable somewhere and it prevented me from getting signal. It made me upset, but I went to the library and there I stayed. I talked to my mom, Kyle, and Onna, while doing a lot of work on Facebook. I left the library early and walked to Applebees. I was really feeling the need to have something American. It was so good! I waited there while they made it. I gave the guy a 15 peso tip because he spoke with me, got my ketchup, ect. His name was Cesar. He’s been to the United States and Europe to play soccer. He’s 19. Cool guy. I came home and ate and watched 3 episodes of the Office. I am really starting to like that show. I did my homework and got to bed. Boy am I ready for the weekend!

Muy Short

School continues to be good. Today it was much harder to concentrate in school. Still fun though. We played SceneIt and we split up into teams and the girl they partnered me with knew all the answers so pretty much all I did was roll the dice and get a good number. It was funny. On break there was this girl I started talking to. She is from Idaho so I figured she might be Mormon. I asked her what part she was from and she told me that she was from the neck part, so I figured she wasn’t Mormon since a lot of the areas up there aren’t as populated as down south. She then went on talking about the jack-Mormons at her school and how fun they were. The Koreans then walked up and asked if she was Mormon and she replied with a strong, “Heck no!” I just smirked. How awkward it would have been for her if I told her I was at that moment. I kept it to myself. She went on and on about how they were growing all out from Utah and how they are everywhere and it’s crazy that they are taking over (by growing everywhere)! After class I went to an electronics store and bought a router. We hooked it right up and I now get signal in my room. The signal is very weak though. In fact, if I am on Skype or something that is ALL I can do as far as internet goes. Video messes up too. I might have to also buy an antenna amplifier. That would make it good, but the son here mentioned he might purchase it from me at the end of the semester, so instead of me taking it home he would just buy it. If he gave me 75% of what I paid for the router and if I buy an amplifier I would sell easily. I’d have to talk to him first. After we got it set up I just stayed in and surfed the net. At night the signal got weaker than in the day. At one point I lost the entire signal during a convo with Onna and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I had no thought to check the router, so I ran (ran!) to the school so it could be worked out. When I came home I checked the router out and it had been turned off (the surge protector). I flipped the switch and things were fine for a while. It was turned off again around 11:30 and I didn’t bother with it then and just went to bed. Good times.

Otra vez, dia two...

Well the second day of school was really good. I got up and wasn’t really that tired, and my throat didn’t hurt either. Good! I went to school, got into my first class, no rush because we got in to our seats yesterday, right? Wrong! A girl stole my seat! I was the first one to class on Monday to ensure my right seat, only to have her steal it! Gosh I gave her a sarcastic comment in Spanish in a joking way, but was serious. I am now in a worse spot, but that’s okay. We went over some good stuff in that class. It was grammar. Like I said yesterday, the MTC teaches well on grammar. It is just review so far. I’m sure as I go up in levels to 6-8 it will get past just review. Then I went on to my next class, conversation. We started that one by listening to a song and we had to write the words down and see how good we could understand it. I got the most on the first try. Good stuff. We then just went through our list of vocabulary for the day. We have about 30 words a day to know. They are pretty simple though. So far. After class I rushed over to the library and started it up to chat with Onna for a second. We then crammed in a car to go to downtown Guadalajara. It was good stuff. We went to the museum first and walked around there. It was an ex-orphanage and it was huge! It would have been such a nice orphanage! There were paintings there from Jose Clemente Orozco too. He’s a good artist. After that we came back and I stopped at 7 Eleven to get a hot dog and then I went to school to get on the internet. I just chatted with my parents, Onna, and Kyle. I also made huge advances on a project I am doing. I did my homework too. I walked home, stopped to chat with the guy at the taco and hamburger place. Every night I’ve walked by I’ve thought he was packing up, but instead he was setting up! He is open from 8:30ish to 1am. Wow! I didn’t know he’d get business that late! The hamburgers are 25 pesos and the tacos are 5 pesos. I can see myself getting a taco on my way home. That would be like 40 cents every day or so. I already eat that late anyways, so this would be just as easy. At least once I’ll try him. I then finished my Cheetos for dinner and spoke to Gloria’s son. Tomorrow I am going to buy the router and during lunch time we are going to set it up! I am pretty excited and hoping that it works. Fun stuff!

Y La Escuela Starts...

Monday, finally! Wow it was an interesting day! I got up early to be able to get to class early enough to do a few things and then went to my assigned class. Imagine about 200 students all standing outside waiting for their assignments. Class didn't get started on time! But my first class has 13 people in it. 7 of them are Korean. In this class we go over grammar like crazy! The cool thing about being an RM is that in the MTC that's all we went over. They told us that as long as we knew the grammar we should be fine and the words would come. So far it's been fun. The teacher seems really nice and cool too. Her name is Gloria. In the second class we go over strictly vocabulary. It's a conversational class. She told us about a few assignments that we'd have to do in regards to communicating with people in Spanish. I'm really excited for this class too because she seems to be a very cool teacher. After class I went to get my student ID and then began calling each of my immediate family. You can't complain if your household did not get to talk to me! I tried! I then had lunch, corn soup and beef. I had a good talk with Gloria's son about WiFi and he said that if I bought a router he would set it up. I then said, because they have a problem with keeping the computer on all the time, that if they do that we could have a rule like every night at 10pm the internet turns off. He said he didn't like that idea and if I bought the router he would set it up to stay on all the time. Wow! That would be so cool! I'd be a huge couch potatoe, but that'd be okay. The rest of the day I spent talking to people and surfing the net. I chatted with Onna for a good while too, which is always nice. I came home and didn't eat dinner. I just wasnt hungry at all! I watched a bit of MIIB (Men in Black 2) in Spanish before lying down for bed. What an exciting day!

P.S. I think all of you have Facebook, that is where I post pictures. If you do not or are having problems finding them, comment here. I will post here if there is a huge need.

The Reposo Day

Well finally it came. Sunday. The day to go to church. I got up so groggy in the morning. I have had the worst sore throat, but it leaves after I begin talking and getting ready. I got up, got ready, and hopped on the 632 to take me to the church. It was so nice, I was pulling up and got off the bus and walked the short distance to the church. I saw the missionaries and was so excited, cool, someone to talk to. They were so dumb. They didn't say a word to me. I went up and talked to them and they gave as short of an answer as possible. So much for me ever going out with them later. The chapel was tiled floors, no bigger than Hartsville's, the seats were all individual. The stand had only one row, however. After Sacrament no one came to talk to me. I felt like such an outcast. People would look, but they wouldn't talk. Finally a counsellor in the High Priests came up and talked to me, he introduced me to the right people. I met the Bishop and he seemed nice, but busy. He gave me his card and told me to call if I needed anything. I went in with the YSA during Gospel Doctrine. It was okay. The teacher did a good job teaching. Then I went to Elder's Quorum. It was a full room. After church I chatted with the Exec. Secy about my records. We'll see if they ever arrive. Ironically enough, he also has red hair. Afterwards I rushed home and had Cheetos, cookies, and water for lunch. How nice! We then went to Tlequepaque to tour. It was just a huge market where most of the stuff is made right there. Cheap prices too. If it wasn't Sunday, I would have purchased. Then all the others wanted to go to lunch, so we went. They ate, I got a Coke. It was good times. Fun talking Spanish to everyone. Finally we got back around 6pm and I rushed to the school, but, alas, it was closed. It was going to be my first day without internet, or talking. How sad! I got home and ate my dinner, more Cheetos, cookies, and a muffin. How good. Gloria eventually got home and I asked her if I could get online, she allowed, and I surfed for a few minutes. It wasn't a good connection, but I did chat with Onna for a little bit. Afterwards I laid in bed, watched the Office, and went to bed, ready for school the next day! Man am I excited!

Dia de Preparation

Today was such a LONG day! I got up early and ate breakfast, which was watermelon and eggs with ham. Good stuff. I am really not eating a lot here. I eat what they give me and go on with my day. Some odd reason I can wait until a 2 or 3pm lunch, and then a 9pm dinner. Crazy crazy! I got up early to be ready for the tour of downtown Guadalajara. I got to the bus and it didn’t leave for at least 15 minutes. As soon as I got there I remembered that I didn’t grab my camera! If I knew they weren’t gonna leave right a way I could have ran home. It was a good tour though. We waited for about 30 minutes for the guide to arrive. There were so many pigeons in the court yard! I was so afraid to be pooped on! The first place we went was city hall. They built this building only 50 years ago, but they built it so it would look like it was built by the Tapatios (the natives of Guadalajara).It looks ancient. The paintings it had up on the wall were so cool. There were five paintings that described the history of Guadalajara and how they fought for their freedom. Nice paintings. Then we went to the Cathedral. This place was huge! It was built in 1550. It had three doors to enter; one was for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Ghost. The one for the Father wasn’t open. They also had three chapels. All were open and the one for the father was the normal size. The other ones were little for when a person wanted to connect specifically to the Son or the Holy Ghost. They had everything up about Paul. This year is the year of Paul, they are celebrating his life this year. Then we went underground where the bodies of some famous Cardinals lay. Then we went to the Governor’s Palace. This place had a HUGE mural of the Nazi oppression and how it effected even the Mexicans. It was amazing! The painter, Jose Clemente Orozco was half blind, and had only one hand. And according to the rules, he was only allowed to paint two hours at a time. It took him 7 months to finish it. The motto was “If he could do this with one hand, imagine what we can do with two.” Then we went to the market. It was crazy all the different stuff. People were following you around to get you to go buy from them. I only asked one question and that was the price of boots. They are about 2000 pesos for authentic, less for the fakes, of course. Everyone else ate at the market, but I just drank a Coke. When we got back I quick and ate and boarded the bus to go to Wal Mart. The WalMart was the exact same. It had the same set up, the employees knew about as much as those in the States and the prices were low. The only difference was that most of the lines were open to take people. The cool thing I’ve noticed about Mexico is that everyone seems to have a job, everyone does something. People will sacrifice digital cable to have a house keeper just so they can give another person a job. It’s a good thing. Oh, another similar thing, I saw a lot of people standing around, just the same. And it was packed for a Saturday. I also noticed while I was there Sears, Sam’s Club, Costco, Carl’s Jr., Burger King, 7 Eleven, and Blockbuster. Amazing how American (or similar) things are! When I got back home I rushed over to the school and searched and searched for a plug in, but the school hardly has any outside! I finally found one and sat my tooshie down. Another came shortly after and noticed there wasn’t an available plug in, so he unplugged the drink machine! It was there I sat as I talked to my parents, Onna, and Kyle. Man did my butt hurt when I got up! On my way home I stopped at the gas station and then continued home. I live off of a very busy street, so I am never worried until I turn onto my block walk to my house on a well lit, but not too busy, street. Tonight I ran in to someone whom I’ve seen before and talked to him. Turns out he is a security guard for TelMex, the telephone company here. The office is right there on that street. So not only is the other street very busy, but once I get to my side street I have a security guard who can see me all the way home. How cool is that! I got home and I watched the Cardinals pound on the Panthers! I am excited for church tomorrow. We are also going to Tlaquepaque tomorrow. It’s supposedly a huge market place with a good bit of souvenirs.

The Tercera

I would have to say that today may have been the best day so far. I think partly because it’s another day closer to actually starting school. I got up and ate breakfast—cantelope and papaya with 3 half-quesadillas. It was some pretty good stuff. It’s amazing how little I eat but how long it takes me throughout the day. After breakfast I went to the school for orientation with all the rest of the international students. There were about 100 of us this time. A good portion was from Korea or Japan, which really surprised me. It was cool, nonetheless. We watched a video about the university and how great it is supposed to be. We then went on a tour. Here is where the day went weird. There were only about 6 of us that were either Mexican or already had taken the exam. I was one of them. We went on a mini tour of the campus and then went to get our ID cards. I get up and my name isn’t even on the list. Stinks. They had no idea what I was supposed to do. After everyone else had their ID cards we waited for all the students to finish the exams. I sat and texted Kyle and Onna. It was nice to be able to text again. Well from there we went on a tour of the rest of the campus. The school is split in to two sides, the academic side and the athletic side. A street actually splits the two. They don’t want one thing going to the other side of either. The work out gym is so nice! I think I’ll spend some time there. Then we went to the pool. It was HUGE! It was a swimming laps pool, and you have to wear a speedo, but I can see myself swimming too. Then we went to the soccer and football field. They both looked so nice! The school teams and professional Jalisco teams play there. It seats either 3,000 or 30,000 I missed that part. But he did say that the Chivas stadium in Guadalajara can seat 90,000, or three times the school stadium. Then the tour was done. Wow. I still didn’t have an ID or my class schedule. I went to get my ID with a paper saying I was really a student but the line was so long, so I waited for a while, but eventually just headed home. I then texted Jill on my Mexico cell phone and she let me know about my schedule. Start Monday about 9am I think. I’m pretty excited for that. Then I went and ate lunch. I had carrot and zucchini soup and then a thin slice of meat. It was pretty good. Tasted a lot like A-1, so maybe it was drenched in it. After that I went shopping again, and tried to set up WiFi at my house. I am close. I might just need to buy a router and then I’d be able to get online from home. That would be so nice! I eventually made it to school and sat in the same seat for multiple hours surfing the web and chatting it up with Onna for over an hour. It was nice to talk to her for so long! Afterwards I talked to my parents and then began the walk home. It amazes me how busy the street is at 9pm at night! It is comparable to a freeway, only it has lights, luckily. When I got home I watched an episode of the Office. The second episode was MUCH better than the first. Afterwards I watched Los Simpson (no joke, The Simpsons in Spanish—weird!) and went to bed. What a nice day.

Dia Two

Well the second day was a good one too. I woke up after a rough night to the sound of my name being yelled. Breakfast was ready. I overslept my alarm! Breakfast was eggs and tortillas. Good stuff. I then got ready for the day and rushed to the Universidad. I was excited to get my WiFi all set up. I did! I then went to the library, found a plug in (they are definetly not as easy to find as in the US. Probably like finding them in airports, you have to really search!) I camped out for the next few hours in that spot and chatted with my dad and Onna and Christian. It was SO NICE to finally talk to Onna! I didn’t get to yesterday and things just didn’t feel right. We didn’t talk long, just long enough to hear each other. I didn’t talk much though, I was in the library. After that I rushed home and had lunch. Corn soup (mush) and some potatoes. They were smothered in red sauce though and tasted just fine. I then relaxed for five minutes before heading to meet with Jill and the other GLS student. The other student is Abby, from Tennessee. It was fun to chat with people. We got new cell phones and just went over some rules. No drinking is allowed. How sad. There goes my chance to binge! (yeah right). Then we took a taxi to dinner. We ate at a very nice restaurant (Bizzells like). I wish I took a picture of the place but hate seeming like such a tourist. I will do better, promise. I had a steak there. It had a lot of fat on it, but still good. We then walked Abby to her house and took a taxi back to the Universidad. I sat my toosh on a bench and called and talked to my mom, Onna, and Kyle. Things are starting to be a little better since I can kind of get my schedule down and will hopefully be able to make many calls home! I think I am gonna look in to the price to add internet. How nice would that be?! I’d love internet in the house. Oh yeah, next week I will have a roommate for about a month, then have maybe another month without one, and then another month with one. This is probably better than a mission in that if I get sick of him I can just walk away or go out on my own. It’ll be tough without the freedom of which TV station I watch! After my phone calls I walked home and found the BCS game and watched that. Goooo Sooners! (Dang it...)

Just pictures.

Getting off the plane on stairs.



Entrance Gate.

I think this was the first President of the school.

The school dorms and courtyard.

Library.

International Center/Main Building.


Applebees.

Starbucks.

McDonalds.


My room.

Bathroom.

Beds.

My "Pool house"

My house.

Day Uno

I woke up on the plane and there were about twenty minutes left until we were to land. My throat was killing me! We were on a huge airplane, but when we landed we walked out on stairs, boarded buses, and drove to customs. The lines were so long! After finally making it through I quickly found my baggage and exited and was picked up by Jill, the Global Learning (GLS) supervisor in Mexico. She drove me around a bit and then took me to my house. It is such a nice place. The lady lives in a nice area and I am literally right across from the school. It is a quick 10 minute walk to get on campus because there are only two entrances. When I first got there I laid down and was then called for breakfast. We had eggs, beans, and ham. It was nice. After I took a nap and then a shower. I then embarked to the school. It was scary to be off on my own. I got to the school, got online, and stayed there for a while chatting with my dad and responding to emails. Bad news? The school for some reason blocks Facebook because it doesn´t want us to participate in any acts of hatred. I figured, oh okay, well let me check Myspace. Myspace worked! That exclamation point is not a happy one. It is a "how can Myspace work and Facebook not??" exclamation mark. Oh well. Then I returned home for lunch. Lunch was soup and a thin piece of beef. After talking a bit more with the lady, her maid, and her son, I went back to the school. Actually the next thing was that the maid, Maria, is also a member of the church! I was so happy because now I would have at least someone close by. I then walked to Starbucks because every Starbucks has WiFi, right? Wrong! This one wanted $10 for the day. I said no way Jose. I went shopping at the local supermarket. I spent $200! Okay, close your jaw, the peso sign is the same as the dollar sign, so 200 pesos is only about $15 US dollars. I got a towel, a loufa, some body wash, shampoo, some hand soap, and a bottle of water. I thought that I did pretty good! Now here I am again, in the library. For some reason I can´t find any WiFi anywhere on campus. I'll get that taken care of so I can post pictures ASAP. Tonight on the agenda we have unpacking, ironing, maybe start the Office, read a little, bed on time. This no internet at home thing will really push me to bed on time! Oh yes, I have cable, too. No room mate so far. We shall see how long that lasts.

LAX is the worst!!!

Last night I had a scare on the plane. The whole day I was nervous about the adventure I was about to embark on and then my sister Tiffany dropped me off at the PHX airport. Great. I got in and had plenty of time. I go to the US Air kiosks and I slide my card and they have NO reservation for me! I begin to worry. I tried it again, still nothing. I go to talk to someone and he can find nothing. I am really beginning to worry. I pull out my iTouch and read my itinerary again and it clearly says that I am heading to Mexico, but (there´s always a but) I am only flying to LAX on US Air and then Delta to Guadalajara. Great, they found me. I am on my way. I land in LAX and the terminal we landed in had nothing. No computers or anything. I walked around looking for them only to discover that, darn, I accidentally left the terminal. I am told that I need to go to a completely different terminal and that I should wait for the bus outside. As I walk out it was like I was paparazzi. Everyone rushed me, "sir, sir, can I help you?" I kept walking and was followed by one gentleman. I quickly told him tht I had to catch the bus that was right there, he backed off. The bus left before I got there and I was worried he would come back, but he didn´t. I then get to my new terminal, terminal 5, and head back through security. Something isn´t right though. My ticket has nothing on it telling me which gate or anything. The computers have no info on my flight. I went to the gate that the man told me to go to and all it had was a flight to New York. I began to worry. The computers listed another Guadalajara flight at 11am the next day, so it wasn´t that 1am was too far away. I asked the Delta help desk and they reprinted my ticket and off I went. I sat there for the longest time. Luckily it took me TWO hours to reach my new gate (luckily I had the longest layover known to man). I still had 3 hours to wait for my plane. I was so happy to board my plane. I went to sleep right away.

#1 of the new ones... (what??)

Okay, so it's been about a month. How sad is that? Well in the last month a lot has gone on and it's been hard to update my blog. Right about the time of my last post I was getting ready for finals. Well, they have come and gone. I aced one and did okay on the other. My mom told me not to argue about the C grade I got in English because of the situation. Well, I didn't. I hope it doesn't hurt to bad. I said goodbye to my place of business. I love working there. It was so hard to leave AGAIN! I really enjoy what I do there and the people I work with. I hope to return when I get back from Mexico. Oh, duh! I proposed to Onna! She reluctantly said yes. Actually it was a lot of fun. We went to the beach to do our Christmas exchange and when all the gifts were exchanged I pulled one more out-a Spanish/English dictionary, sort of in commemoration to my leaving to Mexico. We took it and set it down. I told her to look up a word that starts with 'E' and she struggled to remove the bow from the book. I grabbed the book from her and tore it off myself and gave it back to her. As she flipped the pages she noticed that something was askew in the book, some pages were torn. And amidst the cut out pages laid a nice 3 stone diamond ring. She looked twice and then to me. She asked me what it was. I then asked her to marry me. While she was opening it I smoothly got on one knee in preparation. She hit me, and cried, and then said yes. It was a nice outing. We mini golfed later that day. Well, about a week after that it was time to say goodbye to her for the 5 months that followed. We hugged, she cried. I was sad too, don't get me wrong, just don't cry that often. I left her house and boarded a plane the next day to Arizona. I wasted my days away in Arizona playing Xbox. I did do pretty darn good in football though. I hung out with a few friends but my dad said I was pretty mopey. About a week before I was to leave for Mexico my parents went on a "secret errand" and brought back my fiance!


I was so happy! The next week was much more active than the prior. We went to movies, hung out, did lunches. I just enjoyed having her around. We did a lot of wedding planning too! We picked out some invitations, looked at dresses, and colors. We decided on these (more or less)...


But, of course, that came with another chance to say goodbye. This time she had to walk away, and it wasn't easy. Similar to the last, it was hard. We hugged, she cried. I was sad too, don't get me wrong, just don't cry that often (direct quote). This time, though, I felt more empty as I left and drove back to Maricopa. It was a crazy day in anticipation for my flight that night. I am every emotion mixed in to one.