Well last week seemed to be a blur. Probably because we only had three days of school. Last week I just went on with my normal schedule. I caught completely up with the Office and am now having Office withdrawals because I have to wait for the new episodes. I have curbed that a little by watching my Seinfeld seasons 1-3, but even then, it's not the same! I didn't go to yoga this last week and today I have it again, so I'll probably be sore. Oh well. On Thursday I got up really early and got on a bus to go to Mexico City. What a long journey!! Luckily, and unplanned, I slept the WHOLE way. How nice was that?! The whole 7 hour trip. I did wake up twice and watch an episode of the Office before falling back asleep. On Thursday we arrived, checked in to the hotel, and went downtown touring. There were so many people! We were able to see dug up pyramids that were in shambles and cool stuff like that. We saw the largest church in Mexico, of course Catholic, too. It is so odd to me, and often gruesome, how the crucifix is portrayed. I am in full agreement that Christ died on the cross, but do I have to relive that gruesome scene all the time?! We went to a old church on Saturday and it had paintings up, dried blood on them, dead body with blood stained sheets. It was just gruesome, I walked out. I couldn't stand it! On Friday we were able to go to the archeological museum. That was well worth it. A lot of cool stuff from the Aztecs and the Mayans. We also saw some people "flying" from a pole. I have posted a video. On Saturday we went to see the temple, which was simply amazing, and then we went to see the pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon, which were likewise amazing. I have posted a video of those, too. As always, pictures are on Facebook in the Mexico 4 album. On Saturday as we drove home I didn't sleep nearly as much. I read my book and watched the Office. It was nice to be home. I hated the 7-8 hour bus ride! On Sunday I went to church, sick, but went, and then studied all afternoon while chatting with family. On Monday I didn't do too much, just watched Seinfeld before studying and chatting online. Tomorrow is Mexican Flag Day. I never understood the meaning of flag day, but what do I know??
Sorry it's been so long. Last week I was busy keeping in a secret that only Onna and my dad knew. I went through my normal days with soccer and yoga and finally on Friday at 6:30am I took off to fly home for the weekend. Onna and I had worked something out less than a week ago to allow this to happen. It was so nice being able to see her again. It had only been a month, but nice, nonetheless. I drove back home in her car and we went to Fuji's, a Japanese restaurant in Hartsville. SO GOOD! After Fuji's I went to Onna's to see the kids. I had missed them too. We played with them by putting marbles down their shirts. Ethan enjoyed it a little more than Christian! After they went down for bed, Onna and I watched movie trailers for the next day (we were going to see a movie) and then before too long the night was over and I drove the truck home. On Saturday I got up and got ready to go. We went to Lawton Park and took pictures (most of which can be found on Facebook). It was so fun to take family pictures and see the place where we'll have our reception. It still feels like so far away though! We are still over 150 days (thanks Eden!). We went to McDonalds for lunch and then put the kids down for a nap before heading off to Florence. We saw the movie Taken. It was such a good movie. It was the second time I had seen it. I saw it a few weeks ago in my class in school. It is already on DVD (legal) in Mexico, but just barely hit theaters in the US. I wonder why. We went to one of my faves, Five Guys. The food took longer than normal to arrive, 20 minutes, and we ate quickly and raced home to surprise my mom and sister of my arrival. Onna dropped me off down the street and went inside my house. I putzed around for a few minutes before entering the house to shocked faces. Did I get a hello? NO! I got a "what are you doing here?!" Oh well, I'll take it. Gracen was happy to see me! I know the other two were too, she just ran up and hugged me! We played Settlers and to no one's surprise, Onna won. She has the best beginners luck of anyone I know! We then played Uno Flash and I won two hands on that before calling it a night. I was SO tired! Sunday was another great day. I got to church a bit early and my dad went and told Will to turn around. He was ecstatic to see me. It was nice to see him too. He's such a great friend. Onna and I sat by her parents because I felt like it was too early to start a bench dual in Hartsville. We'll wait until I'm back from Mexico for that. After church there was a luncheon for Will and then I raced home, packed, and Onna and I were off to Charlotte. We got lost on the way and only got to the airport an hour early, but I got through security and still had over 45 minutes to wait. It was hard leaving, but it all will work out. I almost missed my connecting flight in Houston. I went to McDonalds when they called for boarding and it wasn't taking card, so I went to Schlotzky's Deli and they ran out of bread. I heard my name on the intercom and ran to my plane before they took off. They were suppsoed to leave the gate at 8:55, but we were off the ground at 8:53, they pulled away from the gate about 20 minutes early! I fell asleep on this one. When we got to Guadalajara I raced through customs and was fearful they would search my bag and steal my Mountain Dew, but sure enough, I was searched, but both 12-packs are still in tact! I took a taxi home from the airport. It is nice to be back on the normal schedule, but hard at the same time. Monday I spent most of my time working on a tourism project to encourage people to visit Hartsville. Pretty hard! I used the BlueGrass festival as a selling point and we listened to some music in class on Tuesday. This weekend we go to Mexico City and will see some pyramids!
Miercoles 4 Today was an okay day. Less running than yesterday! I went to school first and we had that test on my grammar class, but I think I did okay on it. I was done in about 20 minutes, so that’s good. I just got my laptop out and began doing things. I’ve been doing a little bit of wedding planning, just designing the invitations and stuff. That’s been fun. It’s tedious at times, but fun still. I went to soccer today. It’s been a while since I went, but I went today and there were a lot less people there this time. I was able to play right away and got on a team full of Mexicans so we won a lot. I was the goalie, lucky me, right? I barely broke a sweat there, but it was still nice to play. After soccer I did a little bit of studying and watched the Office. I went on a walk tonight too. I didn’t know where I was going, but I just left. I ended up going to Burger King and ate my dinner and read there. It was a nice spot to chill. I came back about an hour later and just hung out in my room. I think I watched the Bourne Supremecy tonight, but not the whole thing. I was beat! Jueves 5 Today seemed like a Friday again. Probably because I don’t have school tomorrow. I got up and put some final touches on the PowerPoint I made of “My Life” to share with the class in conversation. In my grammar class we got our tests back and I got a 99.5! I knew I did okay on it! We reviewed for the test we have tomorrow that I was going to take after school because tomorrow we are going to Michocan. In my conversation class we all took our oral finals and I got a 100 on that. Afterwards I gave my presentation and the class seemed to enjoy it, as easy of a topic that it was. I had a slide on Coker, my mission, Sonoco, and Onna, in addition to others. The class was so surprised that I was getting married at such a young age. I still have a lot to figure out about the world I guess. At least that’s what they say. Oh well, I’ll do it with Onna! Tonight I just packed and watched the Bourne Supremecy, it was on again. I’m never going to see the full thing. I stayed up late so tomorrow I could sleep all the way to Michocan. Viernes 6 Well, I got up at 5:30 to leave at 6, to meet Jill and Abby at 6:30. Wow it was early! And I was tired. I’m pretty sick of taking cold showers. I get about 2 minutes of good nice warm showers, so I guess that’s good. I can save water when I get back to the states! I waited for 15 minutes until 6:45 for the car to arrive, but that’s normal Mexican Standard Time, so I was actually early. We got to the bus station and got on our way. They gave us these ham and cheese sandwiches that were so so good! The little joys in life. We then got to Michocan after the 3 hour bus ride and hopped on another to get to our final destination. When we got to the hotel it seemed to be nice. I had a tv, my own bathroom, and the bed was so comfortable! The people were really nice, too. We left right away to go to the island. The island, I would think, would be filled with wealthy people who could afford to have boats, ect. I was wrong. The island was so poor. They did have a cool Statue of Liberty looking thing. We climbed up that, which was kinda scary as you got higher because the space to walk was getting skinnier and skinnier. Oh well. I’m alive. I found a cool few things there and then we headed back to the hotel and rested for an hour before going out for the night. We ate at this place that seemed pretty good. I had enchiladas. We went shoe shopping that night, how fun, and then we came in. I just watched TV and chatted with Onna. What a good time. Sabado 7 Wow! Today was a long day! I got up at 8:30 and hopped in the shower. It was hot for a few seconds before going ice cold. I was so upset. I went up to breakfast and Jill said her shower had plenty of hot water, so I just went and took a shower in hers. Yes it was scalding, but it was good. We left around 10 to make the “1.5 hour” drive to see the butterflies. We arrived at 1. Little longer, no? We started heading up the mountain. It was such a long hike. I didn’t expect that. It took about 1.5-2 hours to hike up, but we stopped along the way to take pictures, but I was highly disappointed for a good while. I imagined butterflies flying all around you and all I was seeing was a few if I looked good enough. Nevertheless, I continued hiking. We finally came to this open area where we saw hundreds of butterflies. This is more what I had imagined. They told us to continue hiking up to see more. I didn’t believe them. Well, I was wrong. As we continued hiking, thousands of butterflies were flying all around us. The pictures I got were just magnificient. I got a few videos to show the majesty of it all. All the butterflies in Canada and the United States fly down here to deal with the winter. It’s such a majestic show! It took 30 minutes to hike down and then we stopped at the stores and bought stuff before heading on our way. I just went to sleep, but my goodness, there are some big speed bumps in this place! I felt bad for the guy, but he hit so many of them with the bottom of his car. I was just waiting for a pipe to break or whatever. Luckily it didn’t and I went to sleep. I woke up around 7 and we had pulled off the freeway to look for a place to eat. Finally, seriously, finally over an hour later we pulled into this place that the old man knew about and we ate there. It was good food, but man it seemed like he ordered so much. The final total was only about $30, so that wasn’t bad at all. During the whole dinner convo I’m just wanting to get back, Jill too. He made a joke (that wasn’t a joke to him) about how he’s not a talker. Well we were at the restaurant for quite some time! And after dinner we got on the freeway and then he said we had to get ice cream, so we went to get ice cream. It was okay. He was a nice man, I just wanted to get home, but he was just being nice. We finally got home around 11 and I wanted to clean off quick, so I jumped in the shower, cold. The lady turned on the water heater so I could take a shower and I wanted to wait so it could heat up, but Jill and the lady insisted so I got in. It was nice for about two minutes before going ice cold. It was nice while it lasted, though. I just watched Spiderman 2 and then went to bed. What a long day!
Today was a better day. I actually did something. I went to school, of course, and was told in my first class that we'd be having a test the next day. Dang, stinks. Oh well. In my next class we watched a movie, Taken. Wow it was such a good movie! A dad fights for his daughter that was kidnapped, good stuff. I understood most in Spanish, too. I can tell the Spanish is getting a lot better, although I still lack, I'm definetly improving. The words come out naturally now rather than an afterthought of English. After school I raced home and grabbed my clothes. I hopped on the bus to the laundromat, put my clothes in, ran up the hill a few blocks and spoke to Jill for a little bit about random things, and then sent my package to Onna via UPS. PS. Shipping is expensive! Anyways, afterwards I ran back down the hill and changed my laundry, and then sat in there while my clothes dried. After they were done I raced home on the bus, folded them and put them away quickly and then ran to my yoga class. That class is starting to get interesting. I'm really enjoying it! After class I came home and just sat around doing nothing for a few hours before making one last trip around 10pm. It was a nice trip. I met a cool guy along the way that lived in Santa Barbara for 25 years. Anyways, good day.
Well another wasted day. I woke up today after sleeping in, got ready for the day, and just for FUN I took my clothes to the laundromat to do my laundry, but they were closed. 10 pesos down the drain. I didn't do anything the rest of the day but sit around and chat online, watch the Office, play some Warcraft. Just got ready for the rest of the week, really. Sorry to disappoint you for coming to read my blog for today. Holidays are no good.
Well I woke up today and nearly had another Montezuma scare, but I fought it and went to church. Church was good. I was able to add a little to the class and talk a little. In EQ I just sat there, it didn't excite me to much. After church I came home and studied a bit, and then took a nap before enjoying the Super Bowl with my amazing treats of ding dongs, Mexican coke, oreos, and water. Wow it was a treat! What a good game! It was up and down. Man I wanted the Cardinals to win! Oh well. Again, another nothing day. Tomorrow could be another since there is no school. Fun fun stuff!
Well today was a wasted today. I woke up at 11 and decided I would do my laundry on Monday, the holiday. Good idea right? Wrong! I found out later that they would probably be closed on that holiday, so oh well, now I have to do laundry on Tuesday, if I can last that long! I did NOTHING today. I went to the store and bought a book to read for a future Spanish class, but did nothing else. I guess it was just my Super Bowl prep time. I did buy some hotdogs do I could enjoy those at home, but nothing else. What a wasted day!
