My Life

"Lull"

2009-11-01T11:19:00.001-08:00

Seeing as how it's been so long since my last post and I've done so much since then, I've decided to just take it slow and focux on the here and now instead of expanding back 4 months. I have now been married 3 months and am enjoying most of it. The parts I don't enjoy are the ones when I have to spend 40 hours a week at work, 15 hours a week at school (not counting homework), and the other various awake hours trying to understand the material for school, reading, working on my church calling, or trying to learn my role as a husband and father. Life hasn't been the easiest thing, but it's been worthwhile. The kids are starting to get used to me, although they prefer Onna on nearly everything they do. I don't see them that much. We have the mornings, one night DURING the week, and the weekends. Not that much time. Unfortunately I bet my family has already disowned me from the lack of communication. Jen, Amy, Tiffany I apologize. This semester has been rough. I will have more time next semester to do certain things like talk. I haven't played the Wii for any particular length of time for months. Christian is now probably better than me at Mario Kart. Oh well. Such is life. I enjoy it. Ethan just had a birthday and got a lot of cool stuff. I will include pics at end for your enjoyment.

Oh yeah, by the way, Ethan was sick like crazy on his birthday and we had to go to the ER. Here is a pic of him coughing. The next is how he didn't really enjoy his bday. He only ate the frosting!

Father's Day (and ect.)

2009-06-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a roller coaster of a day, but I did get a chance to just sit back and think about my dad. He is such an interesting person whom I have had the opportunity to watch for many years. Most of my siblings think I am just like him (we certainly look alike!) My earliest memories with my dad aren't the typical memories. My dad is the reason I got into The Simpsons. We used to sit and watch it together on many occasions. Even after we moved to SC he would still watch it with me on Sunday night before he stopped watching TV on Sunday. Now he won't watch it on any day of the week. My dad always seemed to try to do what was best for the family. He drove a lot every day. And whenever I'd ask him after work he'd tell me about all the traffic he goes through, or the time he woke up that morning (which was usually 2-3 hours before me!). One time he got transferred to Pennsylvania and didn't move the family, instead he lived there and commuted every few weeks. It was a rough time, but looking back I can see the sacrifice he made. He was always out in the yard doing something, even though he readily admitted not knowing what he was doing. He always let me be his gopher, though. He said that his dad let him be gopher (but never actually help), so he let me be it too. I would get him tools and water mostly. Him and I (him on knees, me standing over him) put in the fake stone border in the Mesa house. That was nice. He came to me one day, "Karl, I think you should collect something. I've chosen key chains for you. Here's your first one." He then brought me over 150 over the next few years all from different locations throughout the US and world. When we were forced to move to South Carolina it was rough for mom and I. We did not like it here, at all. Mom helped me, although she hated it, by saying that we go where the money is. It seems to me that even though we both hated that we had to move here, it has been a successful move. Both his sons have found their spouses. My dad and I share love for electronics. I usually will see him have a gadget and have to get one myself, but by the time I save up money I get a step above what he has. He doesn't like that one bit and within the next few weeks he gets a new one equal to or better than what I had. He always needed the best stuff. We both love computers, too. Most of what I know he taught me. I learned a lot from constant use, enough to the point that dad 'disguised' a birthday gift by giving me my own computer so I didn't have to hog his! Nice try, dad! :-) While on my mission I couldn't wait until Monday to be able to email my dad questions from the week because I knew he would search for a good answer and get it to me. He's my role model when it comes to the gospel. He is such a schooled scriptorian. Well, aside from one time I beat him in a scripture contest. I won't go in to it now, but he will admit that I beat him once--the only child to ever one-up him! He's been a great example to me.

Today during Sacrament meeting Ethan decided he wanted to get something off the floor while sitting, he leaned forward as much as he could. Eventually there was more weight in front of him and he fell onto the CORNER of the hymn holder. Man his head looked bad! Onna and I rushed him to the ER. He loved it there. I think he loves getting battle wounds. He is one tough kid.

May

2009-06-07T14:26:00.001-07:00

Pretty sad when your blogs start taking the names of months because it's been so long. Luckily I should have a lot to write about. A lot has happened in the last month. I arrived back from Mexico and immediately began working the following week at my old job at Sonoco. The person who took my job was not very happy that I was coming back because it might mean for her to get the axe or for her hours to get cut. The latter did happen. Work slowed down, but luckily I have been able to work every day, which has been nice. Jan has talked about the full time position and I think that is still her desire, but the economy is still in a downturn. That could change shortly, though. One of Sonoco's competitors filed for bankruptcy last week. Their stocks dropped to .10 a share while Sonoco's have climbed about 60 or 70 cents since the announcement. That's good news!

The weekend after I got home I went to the beach with Onna's family. It was a really nice camper we stayed in, but I slept with the kids and that meant that as soon as the sun came up, so were they, and in turn, so was I! It didn't help that I had surgery on one of my foot warts only a couple days sooner. It was so hard to walk on the beach, or at all. I had to take more breaks than I normally would have liked to on a vacation, but all is well.

Christian and Ethan have been playing teeball lately. Ethan seems to be doing great, but Christian couldn't care less about it, it seems. He's in a big video game craze in his life, which makes Onna or myself limit his time.

Onna moved into our new place last weekend. There have been quite a few added stressors, but all in all it seems like it will be a great place to start for us. Heber J and I built the bunkbeds the boys sleep on and I've been hanging things at the will of Onna. One of the graetest things in that apartment is a table that we bought from Ikea. The table was just wood, intended for being able to paint it yourself. I did that and created quite the table (with plenty of help from mom!). I am really pleased with the work and how it turned out. My first project, the bedtable, still has a lot of work to go, and my next project will be nice 24" clocks. Mom and I are each going to make one. We're excited!

On Tuesday I got a call from President Barfield. He told me that I had to come meet with him. I knew it was for a calling, but which? On Thursday he called me to be 2nd Counselor in the Elder's Quorum. I was set apart today for that calling. I'm so excited to begin working!

I cooked today for the family. We had tacos. I thought they were fantastic! It seemed everyone else did too. Pictures of the new place will follow.

It's Over

2009-05-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

Well since school has been out now for a week and a half, I figured I could write about my experiences. I have not done anything! Last week I stayed at home and just did things around the house. Saturday we finally did get out and went to Lake Chapala. We didn't swim or anything, but we did go horseback riding. It was my first experience with actual riding more than just a little bit. My buns hurt afterwards! What surprised me the most is how much it hurts when the horse is jogging because all you do is bounce up and down with it, but the second it switches to running most, it then becomes one of the smoothest rides around! I loved the feeling when it was running (although my horse liked competing and somehow kicked his speed up at each horse that seemed to be approaching--to win). During this last kilometer run I was very close to flying off, and was certain I was going to, but luckily I didn't. I'd like to go again soon, even if I couldn't walk for a couple hours or if the next day I was in some pretty intense pain!

Today is the last day of the break. Yesterday was supposed to be the last day, but they moved it out to today so they could clean the school and get rid of any last H1N1 defects. As Onna would point out, "They had a week and a half to do that!" Yes, they did. But oh well!

Speaking of things being over, as most of you know I am a pretty intense watcher of Seinfeld. Yesterday I finished the series, in total. That includes all episodes, all deleted scenes, all stories of episodes, and one episode that is only on the DVDs! It was a great journey. I knew I had seen a lot of Seinfeld before, and out of the 182 episodes, I had seen 180 before this adventure. One of them was the only-aired-once episode of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and the other was when the gang decides to be volunteers for elderly people early in season 4. At least there are only a couple weeks left to entertain myself without Seinfeld! What a great series!

With school starting tomorrow and us having to make it up, instead of school for four hours a day, we will be going to school for six hours a day. It will be a bore, but it'll work out. And in reality, there are only 7 days left of school and you can't beat that!

Oh Mexican Flu, how you would like to be called...

2009-04-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time, and I have excuses for most of that time. Around the time of my last blog, you know, when I said I was going to start writing more, my hard drive on my computer crashed, and so from the end of March until the middle of April I basically had no computer that I could do anything on. I kept it on to keep me company though, until it would turn itself off from overheating. I called HP numerous times for this problem and they took care of it in 6 days.

That was good service I'd say. Well the last term of classes finished well. We made a trip to Guanajuato, which was beautiful. It is a city built on a mountain. There are only a few streets you can actually drive on, most are for walking purposes only. We did a lot of walking, but it all worked out in the end.

Guanajuato.

During Holy Week I stayed around Guadalajara for a few days before heading off to Arizona to stay with Tiffany and Amy. It was a lot of fun there and I was able to see the people that I wanted to see (which was the least amount that I've ever seen in any trip to Arizona!). I hung out with Tiffany and the girls a lot, and at night with Bryce. I finally played a little bit of Halo. I wasn't that good, but I for sure improved by the end of the few days I stayed there. Bryce and I went to a Diamondbacks game on Friday night. I make a point of explaining to my party that I've never been to a game in which the Diamondbacks lost. This is no small feat. I have been to over 15 games. Well this was a scary game. The Diamondbacks weren't doing too hot in the early innings of the game and I was thinking about the streak, then somehow their bats came alive and they put up 11 runs on the Dodgers. They won! My streak stayed alive! I was satisfied and anxious for that to continue going. On Saturday I switched to Amy's house. That was equally enjoyable. I got caught up in a craze of the game Croquet. Madison was quite well at the game; I believe the others just liked to play because she did. She is the leader of the pack amongst her siblings. Amy and I also bonded well while playing that, Mario Kart, and shopping on Monday morning. I got some nice tips at how to be a better shopper. Sunday at church, randomly, we were offered six free tickets to Monday's Dbacks game. I was a bit weary, seeing as how the streak had luckily continued a couple nights ago. Nevertheless, we set off, picked up Onna and my wedding announcements on the way and went to the game. The game was a pitchers duel, and was nerve wracking. In the 8th inning the Cardinals finally scored and won the game an inning later in a low-scoring game. What a blow!

Speaking of the streak, there have been numerous times that it was close to ending. I remember a specific game with Bryce a few years back. The Diamondbacks were down probably 5 runs in the 8th inning. We got up and left our seats, only to see a homerun hit as we were leaving, 2 runs there. We turned around in the aisle as the Dbacks put together some great at-bats to pull it within a run going into the ninth. We returned to our seats. In the 9th there was a lead-off double and that run eventually scored, but that was it. Moving on to extra innings the tension was high. The 10th passed with nothing happening. The 11th becomes a blur for me. I cannot remember if the team scored 2 runs in the top of the inning or if they scored none. The bottom of the inning brought runners to the bases and Alex Cintron to the plate. A 3 run walk-off homer was the result of that game just a few rows in front of us. What a game! Goodbye streak. I guess 16-1 is still a good run.

Then Easter Week was my next week of vacation. That found me on a surprise travel to South Carolina. I ding-dong-door-bell-ditched Onna with the announcements at her door and ran around the corner. After hearing about how in the world the announcements would arrive just the next day she comes walking around the corner where I was standing and got so excited! It was nice to spend some time with family. I set up croquet there and played with everyone I could. I was able to hang out with Will on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. He's a great friend. Sadly, Sunday came and I had to return to Mexico for one last time.

Since I have gotten back the time has gone so-so. It went super fast in the beginning for that first week of school. I was really getting into my Medical Spanish class and pondered on the thought of becoming a Nurse. I still have no idea what I want to become, but all that will be worked out. Also during that first week, Sandy, Onna's mom, found a little bigger place in Hartsville and her and Onna checked it out. It was a little bigger for the same rent, and it comes with two bathrooms! We had a decision to make, but eventually we went with this new location due to the size and Onna can move things when she wants. The lease doesn't start until June 1, however.

Last weekend we went to Zacatecas, another Mexican state. It was a lot of fun but A LOT of walking. We were able to go inside of an old mine shaft and walk around, and we took a tour of the city in a cable car that ran over it. I was able to see an old mission friend, too. He hung out with us for the two-day trip. It was a lot of fun! When we got home, however, it seemed that everyone was terrified over this new flu called the Swine Flu. Rumors were swirling about school being canceled for Monday and Tuesday, which were later confirmed around 2am Monday morning. Great, two days off from school is never something to complain about. Monday morning we all received an email that the school would be closed until 'at least' May 6. Wow! What am I going to do for that long?! Not only that, it's not like we can travel. We were advised to stay in. Needless to say, it's been a boring few days, but it'll get better I hope. This weekend we are off to Puerto Vallarta for a few days. Next Wednesday my parents are supposed to come, but it seems that each day leads to more doubt on that aspect. I will be here for the long run, or at least until school is out on May 15!

Joseph Smith look-alike (actually a Governor of Zacatecas)

Cable Car

I got up today at 7:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Why? Because of a stupid group of people! No, I am not talking about Mexicans. I will not single them out because they are all over the place. I am talking about construction workers. I realize the coolest part of the day is the morning, but they know they are going to be there after 9am when it starts warming up, why not do the quiet stuff first? Do they have to hammer the roads, mow the lawns, and trim the bushes (at the same time, mind you!) that early in the morning?

House Pictures

2009-03-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Gutted, but this is the idea. Read the real blog below, too!

The outside.

The Master Bedroom

Kitchen Pantry

Kid's Bedroom.

Bathroom.

Kitchen.

Living Room.

Los Guachimontones

2009-03-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well on Thursday we were able to go to the Guachimontones. It was so much fun and pretty cool to imagine what happened there. For those who don't know about the Guachimontones, it is a location in Jalisco, Mexico. They are a series of circular pyramids created either 1000 B.C. or 300 B.C. The tour guide and Wikipedia were in disagreeance on that. At any rate, I zoned out a few times while I was there. There wasn't much to look at. It was cool and all, but my zoning out was thinking of the people that created these pyramids and this culture. After much thought I realized that it was probably the Jaredites in their migration to the north. It was so cool. I can't express that enough how amazing it was to be there and to know that. The archeologists haven't decided who was the group of people, except that they were an ancient people to this area. Of course, but luckily I know! And even if it wasn't the Jaredites, it would still be the Nephites or the Lamanites. But I doubt that by 300 B.C. the Nephites or Lamanites would have migrated so far north by that point. It was so cool. I'm excited to go there again with my parents and be able to discuss things out loud as opposed to in my head. Tomorrow we are going to Guanajuato, another ancient city. I'm excited to go there, too.

In other notes, Onna and I found a place to live! At first the rent was a little more than we wanted to spend, but I called the owner and explained it to him and he was fine with the rent that we wanted. It was nice, and it was exciting for us. The cool thing is that it is an old house, but an entirely new inside. He gutted the whole house and will put in all brand new appliances. We are excited. It feels like its a house that we built. Onna will move in there on June 1 more or less in preparation for our wedding at the end of July. How exciting!

Ok okay, I'm sorry.

2009-03-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to blog when you keep meaning to and you always think that today will be the day, but instead more things just pile on that you think you should blog about and, eventually, it becomes so great a task that you just fight it all the way to the end. This is what happened to me. Of course a lot has happened in the last month, but the more that happened the more that piled and I just knew it was going to be too great a task for an ordinary man. Since I last posted I have received somewhat of a calling in my ward. It isn't a calling because I won't be around long enough to have it be known as a calling, but it is an assignment. My assignment is to attend mutual and help out with the Young Men. What a great assignment that has been! I love it! I love the young men, it's so fun to feel their spirits. Mutual is on a Friday night, so it is no easy task, but nevertheless, these guys come and enjoy themselves all night. And afterwords everyone plays soccer (of course). So far I have attended two mutuals. The first one the boys all brought in food they cooked themselves and we ate and we also learned how to iron correctly. The second one was watching Mormons and Mafia. Good movie. I have really enjoyed myself in that. Speaking of my ward, it has the youngest ward leadership I've ever heard of. The Bishop is early 30s, the Elder's Quorum President is 24, the Young Men's President is 21, the Young Women's President is 20. I am unsure of the HP and RS, but the counselors in each of these organizations (minus the Bishopric) are the same age, so it is very young. I like it though. School has been interesting. It has turned out to be quite easy. I am making straight A's without doing much studying. My days mostly consist of watching Seinfeld and surfing the Internet. In fact, the three seasons I brought of Seinfeld were all completed and I was lost, so I decided to buy the rest of the series. That's fun. I watch a few episodes a day. I actually saw an episode yesterday that I had never seen. It was a miracle! Jerry, George, and Elaine all decide to do some volunteer work. I'd never seen it. But it's cool to see the order of the episodes and how things happened in the series. I've also been watching quite a bit of sports. I was an avid watcher of the World Baseball Classic. The USA did good this time, but they still lost and tied for third, which is alright considering they got eighth last time. We haven't been on any trips in Mexico since I last posted. We were going to go to Guanajuato but Jill lost her wallet the day before so we were unable to go. We are going this weekend instead. And tomorrow we are going to Guachimontones. It's an archeological site. Wikipedia has some good info on it with pictures. Although I didn't travel around Mexico I did go home again for a weekend. Boy was that some trip. I got in on Thursday, Onna picked me up and we drove to Columbia to show the boys the temple. Christian had seen it before, but we weren't sure that Ethan had. It was a positive experience for them both I think. The purpose of going was to talk about eternal families and how mommy and daddy were going to go there and how they were going to go in a year with us. We also attempted to teach them to call me dad. Ethan picked it right up. He loved the idea of us being a family. Christian was not so fortunate. Actually, he refused to talk about it and walked away. Onna took him as I took Ethan and we each talked to them. Christian actually took it much worse than expected. He cried. Some welcoming! Oh well, he'll come around. It doesn't make me lose my excitement at all. On Friday night Kyle and MaryEllen came to Hartsville and we were able to hang out. We ate dinner first. I ate 50 chicken nuggets from McDonalds. Onna and I had a bet and she thought I couldn't do it. No one did. I proved them all wrong. And they knew that if I did do it I would be in a terrible mood the rest of the night. Not so! We were rockin' out to Guitar Hero all night. I surprisingly didn't get to much like a blob. In fact, I was able to bounce around playing Guitar Hero and wrestling later. I wasn't hungry for breakfast on Saturday though. We got up early and went to Ikea. Onna and I bought a good bit of stuff. We bought 4 chairs, a kitchen table, and a sofa. The ride home was interesting trying to fit everything in the truck. Onna and I were so squished in the back seat of the Tundra. We stopped at Wal Mart and I bought exactly what Kyle told me to buy--the biggest tarp they have. Well it was in fact WAY too big. It was 20' by 30'! It was a comfortable ride home from there on out. On Sunday we drove to the airport for me to return. Sad day. It was such a long trip home, though! We got to Charlotte and it was pouring, the planes were delayed. I didn't take off until 5:30, I missed my connection home in Atlanta and so from Atlanta I flew to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles to Guadalajara. I arrived at 5:30am instead of 8:30pm the night before. On top of that, my bag was gone. It didn't make it. How sad! Luckily we didn't have school on Monday, but even Tuesday I didn't have my bag until after school (luckily) and so I went without deodorant on Tuesday. And my contacts were in from Sunday morning until Tuesday night. They were burning. But all is well again. Onna and I have been avidly searching for a place to live come June. Hartsville doesn't have a lot to offer, but we are searching. We found a great place we love but it is just barely out of our price range so we'll see. While Onna was out looking in a neighborhood, my future son decided to unbuckle himself and jump out of the car. He must have done it quick and quiet (premeditated/planned) because Onna looked back and he was seated and next she saw him rolling on the street. What a scary thing! Luckily he's okay and it was a neighborhood road before the speed got up higher. He left with a few scrapes and bruises but is mostly doing just fine. Spring break starts next Friday and goes for two weeks--most of which I'll be spending in Arizona with my sisters. I'm pretty excited to see the Easter Pageant. I will try to write more. It's not like I have an excuse.

Wrestling.

Almost done with my nuggets.

Guitar Hero.

Brown Couch.

Hace mucho!

2009-02-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

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??

SO SORRY IT'S SIDEWAYS!!

Lo Siento

2009-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

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 - Sabado 7

2009-02-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

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!

Martes 3

2009-02-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

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.

Lunes 2

2009-02-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Domingo 1

2009-02-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

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!

Sabado 30

2009-02-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

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!

Victorious Viernes 30

2009-01-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-30T20:11:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T11:04:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-24T08:54:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T16:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-17T14:00:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-16T16:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-12T15:05:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-11T17:27:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-01-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

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??)

2009-01-07T00:07:00.001-08:00

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.

Life Revealed

2008-12-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

If anyone can guess what is wrong with this picture then you are cool. You have to be someone I haven't already discussed this with. This was taken on Black Friday morning.

Life has been going good. Only a few things have happened since my last post. School, work, Onna, and Church have been my greatest priorities. In school we have taken two exams and the only thing that I didn't like about the second exam was that we still didn't have the first exam to look off of, you know, to see how to study for the second exam. That's okay though because the first exam gave me a 76 and the second one gave me an 85. Those aren't the best grades, but they will do for a Western Literature class that is a Coker requirement! I do enjoy the class though, and reading along with the stories. I'm a much better reader forced than by desire. My Spanish class is likewise going well. We got our grades in and I have a high B but have a few assignments I haven't turned in, so that should bump it up to an A without a problem I would think. I really love Spanish. I love the language and the culture. I love speaking it. In fact, and I just noticed this, I feel more comfortable expressing my feelings in Spanish than I do in English. Go figure! A guy came and talked to our class the other day and he just got back from studying abroad in Chile. He said he had a lot of fun, he partied a lot, drank a lot. Woo hoo! (WHAT THE HECK AM I GONNA DO?!)I'll think of something. The temple isn't too far away, either is the beach. I looked it up and apparently there is a gym nearby too, so I guess I can spend my time working out. I hope to lose some weight while I'm down there. My temple jacket has been getting quite snug! Speaking of Church and the temple, I told them yesterday that it would be my last Saturday at the temple. I asked what the procedure was and they said that they normally release people who will be away for so long. I was doing so well on learning and memorizing! I had the longest thing ever down pat, but now it's all over. Oh well. It's been a lot of fun being able to go there and do the work behind the scenes. I have a much greater view of the work that goes on in the temple now than I did before, and for that I'm grateful. My time is running short on my time left in this ward. I keep wondering if the Bishop will release me or keep me around. I think it would be quite hard to do it by himself, but then I do like the calling. Do I listen to what he needs or what I want? I bore my testimony today and cried. Onna and I are doing well. We finished our third puzzle the other day and will proceed to glue it I think. Maybe we won't. It's of Niagara Falls. It is pretty sweet looking. We haven't done much lately, just movies and such. She did, however, get her first pedicure last night (she's 25, I know!). It was a birthday present that I got her and she finally used it! She really enjoyed it. Her toes look so pretty! Hopefully it won't become a practice that she obsesses with! I don't think she will. Work has been going great. I've been working every day. The other temp that works with us has not been able to work. The work load has decreased so much. I really enjoy my job and I hope that I can come back to it after I get back from Mexico. They interviewed a kid this week for my job, but my boss didn't find him to suitable. I really hope I can have the job back! About a month ago I bought a teeth whitening kit that was sure to work. Well I half-heartedly used it and I wasn't seeing any progress, so I stopped. One day I saw a charge on my credit card for $59.90! I was so confused! I called the number and they said that when I ordered the teeth whitener I clicked on a link that automatically signed me up for a service that charges that much. I wasn't happy. She said that they could give me $40.00 back but the rest was non-refundable. I was pretty upset at this and decided to stop falsely trying to use my teeth whitener but to ship it back for a full refund. I shipped it back, got $50.00 from them, and the $40.00 from this random click I made. Since I've already paid for it it's like free money! Anyways, that's as exciting as my life gets. Arizona in two weeks, Mexico in four.

Step Show

2008-11-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

Randoms

2008-11-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to update. A few things I guess. I've been terribly sick for about three weeks now and it was really getting old. On Monday I finally went to the doctor and I did all the possible tests I think (even x-rays for the first time!) and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I stayed home from work for Monday and Tuesday. I was so bored, but luckily I used my time wisely and did my homework through Thanksgiving in one of my classes. The only other major event (besides my mom STILL being gone!) was Onna's birthday. It was her 25th, so I gave her plenty of stuff reminding her of her growing age. I liked the fact (and kept telling her) that insurance goes down at age 25! On Thursday I showed up at work and gave her flowers and her presents. She kind of enjoyed that. I don't think she could really decide. Saturday I took her out on a date and we went to see a Step Show. Now, I think step teams are really cool, so this was kind of for me. She said she liked it, but I even still doubt her. I have speckled pictures and hopefully a video or two within. Enjoy!

P.S. My mom gets home this week!

Nothing to report

2008-11-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to update. Life has been good. I am home alone once again, my parents keep leaving me, but that's okay. I find myself sleeping on the couch more when they aren't here. Work has been interesting. My boss took off two days this week and work is always different when she isn't there. My higher up boss returns from a cruise to Antarctica this week, so that should be really fun to hear about. School has been getting tougher. My Spanish class is easy enough, I don't struggle much there. My reading class has been a huge struggle. Just this past weekend I was supposed to read 70 pages but after making it through 13 pages in 2 hours of reading I got bored with it and can't keep up with it! Not to mention it is written in olde English. Ugh! I hate it! But, we did have a test in that class on Thursday. I studied like crazy for it. I hope I did well. I thought I did. I wrote 7 total pages on it and I was living high, until my teacher took me out after the test to ask how I thought I did. She then went on to explain that people don't put enough time into the last question (worth 30 points) and they usually only write a page on it. I laughed and went on my way. Well, the laugh I gave was quite sarcastic. I ONLY WROTE ONE PAGE! What a joke! I will find out my score tonight hopefully. So that's it for school. Church has been good. Onna and I are doing good. We finished a puzzle this week that has taken forever! We then proceeded to glue it together, we didn't want to break it all up after the work we did! My dad said that us doing puzzles is out of our time, because OLD people do puzzles together! Oh well, I enjoyed it!

My dad comes back on Wednesday and then my mom comes back in 12 days. That's right, 12, I counted. I'm excited to see her. Oh, and I'm growing a beard! It has been almost two weeks now and it's definetly showing. I'm kinda liking it! I hope others do too. People were shocked at church yesterday, but that's okay. Life is good. I enjoy work, school, family, friends, not shaving. Kyle got unlimited texting this week. I'm glad he did. I think I annoy him with all the texts I send him now days. Oh well.

P.S. I've also become addicted to taking pictures of any temple I see, so this is the latest, of course, Columbia, SC.

Wow it's been a while...

2008-10-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

Tiffany, I want to hear no complaints due to lack of pictures!

Sorry it's been so long, once again. I don't have much to say. School started again. I am taking a Spanish class and an English class. The Spanish class seems to be a lot of fun. We have already watched two rated-R movies in the class so I've had to ask for alternate assignments. The teacher has been very understanding with that. I love the class because we speak Spanish the entire time. I love speaking Spanish. It is really getting me excited to go live in Mexico next semester! Speaking of Mexico, we paid the deposit, so it's officially official! Wow I can hardly contain myself some days, I just want to get down there already! In my English class, well, that's another story. I am not a huge fan of reading, but that's what this class does, we read! I bought this book that has about 1000 pages and we are going to read the whole thing--IN EIGHT WEEKS! Wow I'm gonna die. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the books on mp3 this last week. I am a much better listener. I went to Seatlle a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun! It was a quick trip and probably a stupid thing to do on a nearly twice broken tailbone (5 hours of sitting), but it was so much fun seeing Pablo and James. Megan is such a great girl for Pablo, too. The whole ordeal just made me excited to get married. If only I had a girl for that..... After the actual sealing James and I were just able to walk around downtown Seattle for four hours. It got a little crazy, but it was fun to hang out with him again. We were still dressed from the sealing that morning except we had jackets on. imagine this, two guys, white shirts and ties. People thought we were missionaries! I didni't mind, until one guy asked me to give him some money and then said we must be Mormon missionaries because we aren't giving him anything. How sad. Unfortunetly I didn't have my camera with me, so the following are pictures from James' camera. By the way, James is the former Elder Showley, my MTC companion. Time has progressed nicely. Hard to believe October is nearly over! Onna and I went to the Halloween dance last weekend. I was Santa and she was Mrs. Clause. Unfortunetly, the other guys thought she was "Santa's helper" and still asked her to dance. Sorry Comodor, she's not just a helper! I was a little annoyed at the dance because they played five total slow songs, and the Cupid Shuffle twice. I wish they had played the Cha Cha or Electric, something that Santa could have gotten down to! Oh well, it was fun. My grandma Ensign has been in town for a while. I loved having her here. She is a vessel full of advice and information and experience. I took her back to Charlotte and we chatted the entire way. I ate Jack in the Box following that and it was such a good meal. I wish we had one closer... or maybe I really don't! Finally, the news of the week. I was awoken on Saturday with a text explaining that my beloved Abuela had passed away. It was sad. I put my head down and before having any chance of feelings to set in, my brother called me. We talked for about thirty minutes about memories that we had remembered with grandma. After our call I called Tiffany, we connected with Jen and talked for another thirty minutes. It was a lot of fun just talking it out, feeling the closeness. I cleaned the house to take my mind off of grandma and then had no desire to do any homework. I tried to do other things to take my mind off of it. I went to Adam's soccer game, went to Ethan's 3rd birthday party and then came home. Onna wrote her talk at our house and I fell asleep. Life has been good, nonetheless. I am currently in Boise, Idaho. I don't know the next time I will be here, if ever. It's fun to be around family again. We are all here and I don't know how often this will happen either. I will enjoy it while it lasts. Tonight we had the viewing for grandma and a lot of people came. It was nice to see her, she looked peaceful.

Just a catch-up

2008-10-14T07:04:00.001-07:00

First and foremost, let me tell my wonderful sister that I love her and Happy Birthday! You are now 10 years older than me once again. Now that that's out of the way, let me get on with my week. Nothing really happened this week. I just went on with life as normal. I didn't spend a lot of time on the Wii Fit this week, but I did go the whole week without texting. What a crazy thing to do! Me, a person who sends and receives over 200 texts a day, took a week off. It was interesting to see who actually texted me from my friends. Now my family texted me for sure, but they were just trying to tempt me. Those jerks. ;-) I have, however, stayed home from work the last two days. Kyle said it was because my no texting finally caught up to me. Who knows. I didn't twitch all week! During church on Sunday I began to feel very weak and even fell asleep in Elders Quorum! The teacher threw a paper at me to wake me up. I came home and from 2pm all the way to 7am the next morning (with very short breaks) I slept! Wow! And when I did wake up I had the strongest aches in the world. My whole body ached. This scared me because body aches out of the blue mean flu. I can't have the flu. I kept sleeping. On my off day I had no aches but the strongest pain in my throat. I eventually got out around 6pm to take my final papers to school, but even that was a stretch. I wasn't feeling the best but I was determined that I would make it to work the next day. Well, at about 1:30am this morning (Tuesday) I was still up and couldn't manage to get to sleep! I think my body had so much energy that it just wouldn't allow it. I did take Tylenol PM and got to bed around 2:30. I woke at 7:10 and decided that I would miss another day of work. My throat is still KILLING me! To put it in perspective how sick I am, I didn't even see my girlfriend! In other news, my bed broke last night. I laid down in it to go to sleep and the whole thing shot up towards the feet. This isn't the first time it has happened, so I finally investigated (I mean, why not? I had so much energy!). The foot bar had fallen down so the bed was resting on only the middle and head bar. No wonder it shot forward. Well I took the bed apart only to realize that the problem was bigger than that. The Head bar was falling apart due to the added pressure probably and could be out for several days. We don't have several days though, grandma gets to town today and boy am I excited! And finally, in complete other news I wore my new white Crocs to the temple on Saturday for the first time. I got some looks, but two people said that it was a really good idea. One person (possibly jealous) said, "I would think the rubber would make your feet sweat." They were so comfortable! I've been watching a lot of baseball lately. I am really pulling for the Rays, that would be such a Cinderella story. I think that rooting for the Red Sox is dumb and those who do are as well. They have won 2 times in the last 3 years and this would be 3 out of 4. Let others have a chance for crying out loud! Sheesh! I go to Washington this Friday to see my friend Pablo get sealed to his new wife Megan. What a cool site that will be! I'm really excited to go, even if it is such a short trip and will mess me up on sleep. Hopefully there will be plenty of pictures!

Wowsers!

2008-10-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been quite some time, hasn't it? Not too much has been happening in my life lately. As far as school goes, we have three classes left before we start a new term with new classes. It's kind of crazy that we are already finishing school. My class that is supposed to get out at 10:30 we always get out at 10 or 10:10 and so that will be different with a new professor to stay the whole time. In my Social Problems class I got an A on the only paper I have written. He really likes my ideas and my paper. I was pleased with my efforts. My dad thought a little differently. He didn't agree with any of the ideas in my paper. He didn't understand the paper maybe, or just that he doesn't believe what I wrote. Oh well. In my Spanish class I'm rockin it. I love that class because we speak in Spanish. The best part is that there are no tests. They only have papers to write, and I am an okay writer so it translates pretty well. My Spanish teacher said I speak 'phenomenal' for someone who has never lived outside of the country. That was nice to hear. Most of my time has been spent on the Wii Fit. I love that thing. My mom even joined on this week and loves it too. They have agreed to letting me keep it with the big TV!

That's good news when no one else is on the TV!
Work has been a bit stressful. I heard on Monday that Sonoco was planning on cutting some temp workers (which includes me) and I was a bit worried. On Tuesday I was released at noon (which never happens) and I was a little worried the rest of the day as to whether or not I would have to start looking for a job. That afternoon my boss called and just told me to come into work as normal on Wednesday. I came in on Wednesday and it was just weird. I felt like every step I took they were watching and if I sat down for even a minute they would send me home. It was awful. Oh well. On Friday I got in a little argument with one of my co-workers. >
He asked me to help on this rush project, but only after he was done using the machine he was on. I agreed. I finished my assignment and went to do what he asked but he was still on the machine. I began doing my next assignment and was immediately yelled at that I wasn't helping out on this rush project. I then said that my co-worker said to not start until he was done and then he blew up and it was bad. I wanted to leave right then. The rest of the day was nice. I went to lunch with Heber J and then took Onna's car for a spin and washed it. It was awful! The bird poop stains were caked in. Like as if they were a part of the car. I also vacuumed the inside and changed her terrible wipers. She was appreciative. I had a doctors appointment this week to remove the planters wart on my foot. It hurt SO BAD to be injected in my heel. Afterwards the doctor pridefully said, "I think we got it." Well he must have forgotten the over ten times I have gone to him to remove it! It has a mind of its own, but it looks pretty gross! I also had a dental visit. He filled two cavities that I got while on my mission. Two in two years is pretty good if you ask me. We talked a little about Dental School and he said he would help me any way that he could. I was glad about that. The elections are getting pretty crazy. The vice-presidential debate was this week. Sarah Palin did a very good job, and Joe Biden did his normal job. Unfortunately for McCain, it might be too little too late. Say hello to the crappiest plan of all time--Socialized medicine. Kyle and MaryEllen came home this weekend. It's been good to see them, but they've been beating my Wii records! For that purpose I will not leave this house until I retake my livelihood (GLC! for those who have seen Seinfeld). Now this weekend has been fun. We have just been watching General Conference. It's so nice to hear them again. It's a good re energizer! I'm still doing my crazy Sunday schedules. Tonight, in fact, I plan on going to bed at 6:30pm and waking up around 2 or 3 to finish my homework. Good times. Well I got adventurous this week and decided to cook some frijoles de la olla (beans in a pot). Well I started last night and they be rank! They have about tripled in size, and today I plan on refrying them to get them extra good. All I can say is stay away from me when I'm done! Yuck...

Just a quickie!

2008-09-22T15:39:00.001-07:00

I don't have a lot of time. Actually, my Spanish Professor just let us out of class a little early to come to the library to study. I am glad for this because I literally have been feeling the heat of having no wiggle room! Life has been a bit crazy. I finally purchased a Wii (or found one to buy finally) and bought a Wii Fit with that and Onna, dad, and I have been enjoying that regularly. It's so crazy to see your balance and how it should be in comparison! I am a little off balance, but not by too much. I am really liking the dance game. It reminds me of Dance Dance Revolution, but we won't tell anyone that I have done that, either! I will start with the normal topics... my mom has been away this week and life is always so much different when she isn't around to baby me. Yes, I admit to it! I have eaten out plenty of times this week and had one very poor experience with Burger King. For those of you who don't know, traditionally Burger King has been my favorite fast food location. The other night I was really craving some Burger King and it was 9:30 and Onna and I went and I pulled in, turned the car off and a Burger King worker stepped out and informed me that I could go through the drive thru. I got back in, puzzled at the time because I could have sworn that the dining room was still open. I pulled around and got my food and saw an hour chart and sure enough, it closes at 10:00! After I got my food (and I made sure I had all of it!) I asked for the number to Burger King and someone in Columbia owns all the Burger Kings in the area and I got their number and plan on calling them to get free food. I veto the Hartsville Burger King, at least. On Thursday night my Sociology teacher decided to play an R-rated movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. I removed myself from the class and emailed him, hoping he would understand. He has yet to reply. I am worried that he will be offended, nevertheless righteousness never was easy. Speaking of that, have I mentioned how much I love working in the temple? It's such a great blessing. I take all my worries and craziness of a stressed life in and I walk out refreshed and rejuvinated. I love being able to go so often. Also, in other news, I have decided not to do any homework on Sundays and have been reaping the benefits. The past two Sundays I have gone to bed early (9pm and 6pm, respectively) and have woken at 2am to do my homework. I feel like my homework gets done easier and with much less distractions (except from my girlfriend who sacrifices to keep me company at the randomest times!) Life is going well, it is very busy, but it is going well. I will add pictures later.

Governor Palin, I really do support you!

2008-09-16T15:33:00.001-07:00

I'm as large of a supporter as anyone, but I know when something is funny, and this was simply hilarious! Enjoy to the right for a week or so.

The End of Colorado, the Beginning of Life

2008-09-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well it has been quite some time since I've had the chance to update everyone on my life, so here it goes, I'll give it a shot. The Saturday I was in Denver we went to Eliches, it's a Six Flags type of theme park, it was a lot of fun. Wait, I'm forgetting something! That Saturday morning was the big day. It was the day of the much-anticipated race. I woke up and laid in bed for about 30 minutes imagining my opponent and picturing my victory. Could I do it? Or would I lose again? These thoughts continually ran through my head. As I descended the stairs all dressed and ready to go Scott asked me, "now?" "oh yeah!" I replied. We actually didn't leave right then. I had to drink my special elixir, four limes pure (with a hint of salt). Jen and Scott were amazed at my concoction. I drank it and began my journey to the park, where we would race. I arrived early and stretched a bit, chatted with the grass, took some practice runs. I noticed the grass looked a little wet. It was. My opponent and I lined up. On your marks, get set, go! We began the race, adrenaline pumping. The only thing I heard at the start of the race was "Oh shoot!" from Scott's mouth. The limes gave me an internal boost and I crossed the finish line milliseconds ahead of my brother in law. I had done it. I won the series! One would assume that this was it, right? Wrong. "Alright, rematch." I was shocked at what I was hearing! Nevertheless, I divulged. The second time, however, Scott had a trick up his sleeve. No, it wasn't Gracen this time; it was a head start. I love you brother. Now, onto Eliches. It was a lot of fun. I love roller coasters. I was glad to have gone with my much more adventurous brother over my possibly less dare devilish. The roller coasters were crazy! They were different than any other ones I had been on. The first one we climbed up about six stories and got in the coaster and it shot us right out of the gate and down a drop and through a loop and then we hit the end of it and the next thing I knew we were going backwards. It was a weird sensation that I am undecided whether or not I like. There was another one like that a little later that was just as weird. The final one we all went on as a family, it was a tubing one where is simulates white water rafting. I like these ones and have had impeccable success in not getting too wet. The success was no different here. Scott, Jen and Gracen got SOAKED, while I was left quite dry. Afterwards Jen and I went to get pedicures (shhh!). It felt pretty dang good! Afterwards I treated her family to Subway. Good times. Sunday was a good, yet hard, day. I found myself in an internal conflict. The converts I had visited on Friday weren't going to go to church and actually were questioning their beliefs again and it really began to stress me out and got me pretty much in a state of despair. I eventually went to Sacrament meeting in one of my old wards I served in. That was a good thing for me. I immediately forgot about all the despair and remembered the joy I had in that ward and all the friends I made. When sacrament meeting ended a flood of people came up and remembered me. They remembered my name even though it had been over six months since I served there. After church I drove to Superior and visited one of my favorite companions, Elder Woodhouse. I love that guy. We just sat and reminisced for about thirty minutes. I hung out with Joel and Isela that night and really enjoyed them and realized how much I love them. I love the Colorado sunsets. Those are what I miss most. Monday I returned home to South Carolina and have been on this work, school, church, girlfriend cycle ever since. It takes some good time management, but I think I'm getting better. Tomorrow Onna and I are going to Charleston to stay with Kyle and MaryEllen. I will let you know how that goes and take pictures.

McDonalds

2008-09-01T11:46:00.001-07:00

Before I write a longer response from my vacation to Denver, I must give my props to McDonalds! They are amazing! Today I went to the Denver Airport at 6AM and didn't have time in the morning to eat breakfast. I was planning on getting breakfast at the airport, and I did. It was amazing! I got up in line at the register, told them I wanted a #7, she left to get my food, I swiped my card, she got my orange juice and gave me the reciept. How long do you think that took? 30 seconds! I was so amazed! Their customer service was impecible. I recommend the McDonalds in the DI Airport! I just wish all the other McDonalds would be as quick.

That being said, I ate the McGriddle sandwich. Did you know the bread/bun is actually a pancake?? It tasted so good. I almost got a McMuffin, but was glad that I got the McGriddle instead. go me!

Go McDonalds, you got it right this time! I'm lovin' it.

Day of Labor

2008-08-29T18:30:00.001-07:00

Life is good life is great, give us this day so we'll be great. Or something like that, right? This week has gone by pretty quickly. I have a goal to write in my blog more than I have heretoforth done, but we'll see how that goes. Since I last wrote I was just starting school. Nothing big has changed. My Spanish teacher is still really pushing me to go on a study abroad before I get married. He says that as an RM my time clock is ticking. I agree. I then asked my parents what to do about it and they said that I had better go in the Spring if I could. They didn't have to ask me twice. I immediately began searching for study abroads in Mexico. I knew that my timing was runnign short with deadlines. I've met a time or two with my advisor and they are all on board. It will be a tough four months, but I've gotta do it, right? I was half-accepted in to a program already. They just want to see my disciplinary form filled out by Coker College. I hope they don't find out about all those bar fights I've been in! ;-) My Social Problems class is going better. I've enjoyed learning the other point of view. Kyle is convinced I am going to turn Democratic over this class. It's interesting to read about how the book projects we fix the problems we have, but it always suggests we raise the minimum wage and lower taxes and rent. Those things are hard to do. If you lower minimum wage prices go up and thus, the raise in minimum wage was pointless. But what do I know, right? Last Saturday Onna and I took her boys to Sonic and they just played and played. It was fun to watch them play. They are great kids. My home teaching companion caught us in the action and now we have no where to hide. By caught in the action I just mean together. To this point the ward really hasn't known that we are together. On Thursday I flew to Denver. It was a lot of fun to see the sights again. I think I started annoying Kaye (Jen's mother-in-law) at all the "aww, this place is..." and reminiced my mission. We helped Jen move first thing, by helped move I mean I put the table together and watched the movers do their work. I was feeling pretty lazy! On a side note, Jen is pretty cool. I had Jack in the Box for lunch and I am convinced (convinced!) that they outsource their drive thru box to India! The guy that took our order was nothing like the guy that gave it to us! Scott and I had a lot of fun with this one! I love that guy. We were just cracking up a storm on the way home. When we got home I went on a walk while I called Onna. Jen and Scott live in a new little neighborhood. I figured I was wakling in a circle the whole time, but eventually in the phone call I realized that I was lost. I had no idea how to get home. My thoughts were then preoccupied with that. Eventually after wandering for an hour and 20 minutes I turned the right corner and shouted "yes!" with my arms in the air. When my arms retired to their original location I noticed that a neighbor of Jen's was drinking a beer on the porch and watched me do that. I felt embarassed, but continued my journey home. I zonked out on the couch for the next 8 hours. Go me! Today I just chilled around and then realized that I needed to go "buying" and we took off to the Flat Irons Mall. Good times. We ate at Big City Burrito for lunch and then I went and visited some people from my mission. The first two I visited are recient converts (from October 2007). They have done a 180 and it hurt to be there. They weren't sure what they believed anymore and it made me sad. I then tried visiting another family of converts but they moved! I called and got the new address, so I'll hit them up on Sunday. I finished the visiting with the Lloyds. Brother Lloyd was a huge influence for me in the mission and the family is so nice! I headed home after that and am tired as ever, but still ready to continue on. It's vacation, after all. Tomorrow we are going to Eliches (Six Flags). I'm excited to do the roller coaster deal again. I'll take some sweet pictures! Tomorrow morning, I can't forget, is my race with Scott G. I'm gonna beat him this time! I've prepared for this race by eating Sonic, Burger King, Big City Burrito, Jack in the Box, and Wendy's all in the last week. It's gonna be a doozy... I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes. Oh yeah, Gracen LOVES me! (and also the camera!)

PS Enjoy the new blog!

Work, School, and Sleep

2008-08-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting week. I haven't had much time for free time, but I decided to treat myself tonight to some personal "Karl time" and boy has it been beautiful. I haven't done a thing, but this week has been crazy and I feel like I deserve it. Monday started my schedule from below. I got up and went to work for a full 8-hour day and then raced to school for my 5:30 class. I was unsure about my teacher, but he didn't show until 5:29, so I waited there for about 15 minutes. Thursday was better. I walked in about 30 seconds before him. My classes are a lot of fun. My first class is Spanish. I love this class! It is a writing class and it will help refine my Spanish skills. I can speak fluently, but I sometiems struggle to include accents. We did the whole class in Spanish and it made me so happy. I understood everything! My classmates--similar to those in the mission--look at me with shock or amazement that a white red-head can speak Spanish so well. I love getting that look, actually. The teacher suggested I start looking at Study Abroad programs. I will need to do a total of 16 weeks of study in another country to graduate with my Spanish major. My next class is Social Problems. This class seems like it's going to be very interesting. The teacher reminds me of Jimmy Cooper (photo right). They look very similar! He seems pasisonate, unfortunetly his class is from 8-10:30 and by then I am pretty tired. We watched two movies this week. One was about sweatshops and how Wal-Mart and Disney pay only 14 to 17 cents to their workers in Bangledesh. The way I see it, those workers wouldn't have jobs without these corporations. Albeit little, it is more than they would have. Agreed? I got my new computer this week. That's exciting. It is an Inspiron 1525 from HP. I like it. Work is going well. I am excited to go to Denver this next Thursday. I'll post the results of my race victory late next Saturday.

Life as we know it is about to change...

2008-08-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well it was a great week! I didn't do too much, but aren't those the best weeks anyways? Onna and I went out a few times. On Tuesday I was able to take her two boys to swimming lessons. She had her visiting teachers coming over and was about to miss the lesson and since her visiting teacher is my mom I knew that this would cause a problem for my mom to have to visit Onna again, so I just volunteered to take them. It was so much fun! Those boys are really cool kids. On Friday I went to see that new Mummy movie. It was pretty good. The theater was about 2*, but other than that it was a good movie. Earlier that day on Friday I finished the OC. I have finally seen all 4 seasons! It was such a good ending, it kind of pieced it all together for me. On Saturday I went to work at the temple again. I am not sure I've talked much about this. I work at the temple twice a month. This time was special for me because it was Spanish Saturday. It was so great to be able to use my Spanish again. Those Hispanics, just like normal, were surprized as ever when a white red-head with blue eyes spoke their language. I love getting those looks. It was also special because the first thing that I was able to do as a worker I did to my dad and that made it more special. He has always tried to support me in whatever I do and am grateful for that. After having worked just two weeks at the temple I can see what a blessing it is for me. I love going each time and am really starting to learn the intracisis of it. When we got home it was sitting on the counter--my very first credit card! Don't worry, I applied for this one. I am so excited to start getting credit. I went by myself to dinner to celebrate. Just me and my Taco Bell had a great time. Just before I chose to celebrate I figured I would wash my truck. I haven't washed it for a long time and I knew that my dad was cringing each time he walked by it so I washed it at one of those pay-and-do-it-yourself places. All was working great until I got to the colored foam conditioner. It just was having problems coming out and spraying on the truck, big deal, right? Well I pointed it straight up in the air to see if it was work at a different angle. Well at that precise moment a large gust of wind happened and the foam began working. Within a second I was coated (and I mean coated) in this tri-color foam. I just laughed and said to myself, "This better dry away fast." I was on the way to my girlfriend's house and didn't want to have to go back home. It dried over time before I got there, luckily. Today is Sunday, I am tired. We just had dinner and now I am primed for a nap, at least a short one. Tomorrow school starts. My Monday/Thursday schedule will be almost unbearable I can feel it now. I will continue working full-time 8-5. Class starts at 5:30 and finishes at 10:30. My Monday/Thursday will be 8 AM to 10:30 PM! I'm not excited for that. I can't say my schedule is all too difficult. I am taking a Spanish class that the teacher already told me I would know more than anyone else in there. At any rate, I'm excited. :)

Technology Is Amazing

2008-08-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

Technology never ceases to surprize me. It all started on Saturday. I was driving to the temple for my first day of work and I realized that I didn't have my GPS cord. The battery was dead. I was about to be lost. I texted Kyle and he didn't help me, but he did tell me to text Google and get directions. I texted Google "directions 29550 to 2905 E Trotter Road. Hopkins, SC" Within seconds I had 3 text messages giving me 10 detailed directions as to how to arrive at the temple. Technology amazes me!

Apologies for the wait...

2008-08-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to all for the extended delay without a posting. I've had some vacation and now I'm here for the long haul. Let me update you on a little bit of the past. I had a friend come visit, her name was Brooke. We did a lot of fun things. We went to Charleston and Columbia. After her visit here I flew back to Arizona with her and visited some old friends. One of my visits was to an old junior high crush named Shannen. It was weird this time that there were no feelings for her, but we were able to reminice for the longest time and just laugh at our old memories. As for the current, I'm working full time still at Sonoco. I have missed work lately, like actually missed working. I have missed making money and have been spending far too much. I just bought myself a ticket to Denver for the end of this month. It will be fun to be in my old stomping grounds again. I have been spending some time with a friend from Hartsville. Her name is Onna. We went to the beach on Saturday and had a great time. We also went to Hard Rock Theme Park. It had some great roller coasters and it was just a lot of fun. The bathroom in the park was pretty funny, too, so I had to take a picture! On the way home we ate at Central Park, an old food chain that left Hartsville many moons ago. My best friend came home from Ohio where he was working for the summer. We went golfing and he beat me by a few strokes. I'm really not good at golf, but for some reason I love golfing. I don't understand it! What's on tap for the near future? I have a date on Saturday. I am going to work at the temple for the first time on Saturday, that should be fun. School starts in a week and a half and I'm pretty excited to now begin learning again!

Life returns to Normal

2008-07-13T15:25:00.001-07:00

Well it was a good week. On Tuesday I saw Hancock with a friend and it was an okay movie. I expected better, but what can ya do for 2 bucks? I didn't really do much more this week. I was trying to catch up on sleep but my friends never allowed that! On Thursday I was planning to go out with another friend but at the last moment the missionaries called and I went out with them. I had been wanting to go out with them so I cancelled on my friend and went with them and we taught a nice lady, but she has some misconceptions of the church and I did my best to bare testimony. It was fun to be in the teaching situation again. I really miss being a missionary. On Friday I went through the work thing like normal and then went to a game night with the other YSA in my ward. The THREE of us played games galore that night and it was a much later night than expected, but I had a lot of fun. I won some and lost some, and was destroyed on the OC game! On Saturday I slept in and then ate a muffin and went to play soccer in the blazing heat! It may have been the stupidest thing ever. I nearly passed out due to my lack of edible energy or water intake before I went to play. That night I went to Adam's and cockily told him I'd beat him in MLB 2005 on the PS2. I used to play that game every day before my mission. Long story short I went 0-3 and then lost the Home Run Derby for icing on the cake. Just as we learn in the scriptures, pride is of the devil and we are thrust to humility because of it. I learned my lesson, but I'll beat him next time!

Vacation #2

2008-07-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's been so long! When I got back from Arizona I immediately began packing for Illinois and we left the next morning. We were away from nearly all electronics for the entire week. It was kind of nice! My cell phone didn't work, which wasn't very fun. Oh well. We arrived on Tuesday after a 15 hour car ride. My driving kind of freaked the other passengers out, but that was only for the first few minutes. I really am a good driver! :) My "amazing" co-driver had the bright idea to play a trick on me and turned up the heated seat to 5 (max)! About 15 minutes into my drive I noticed an intense burn in my lower back but was unsure why. Kyle just told me that leather does that when it heats up. I went another 15 and really was burning at this time! I then inferred that I was the only one in the sun so maybe that was why my seat was the only one that was hot. Kyle then felt the lower back portion of my seat and said, "Karl, this is normal for leather." Never believe your family members! I finally found out about 2 and a half hours later at Jack in the Box! My back was soo sweaty! I gave Kyle a nice punch before laughing about it. It was so good to eat Jack in the Box, but my body was pretty upset at me for the food I had been eating. I really hadn't eaten very good to this point in my two vacations combined. That night we arrived after minor delays due to the flooding that occured a few weeks earlier. Kyle, MaryEllen, and I walked to the temple and it was so beautiful! They light it up well at night. Kyle went and took pictures from very random angles and places and MaryEllen and I just chatted. It was nice to chat and just be near a temple. On Wednesday we woke and all chatted. The whole family was there except the first in-law (Scott). It was so fun to be with my whole family together again! I hadn't done that since long before my mission, and now MaryEllen was a part of the experience which was fun. I kind of felt left out that all had their own partner, but Amy didn't, so we joked that we were spouses (complete jokingly!). We all did a session together in the temple and it was such a cool feeling to be there with all my siblings (minus Scott), and my parents. It made me so happy that we all were there together. I wish that we could all be in together one time, all 11 (and eventually 12) of us. I think that would be pretty sweet. The rest of the day we started family home evening and I was a little irked from the first time I got to my room, it was filled with people. I didn't like that people ate on my bed, nor used it to hang out. I wanted my personal space too, just as they all had theirs, but I guarded my door better afterwards and it didn't happen again. On Thursday we toured Nauvoo. It was a lot of fun. I was dead tired though. My feet hurt. I stupidly wore flipflops. Oh well. It was fun to do that. We saw a lot of cool things and Kyle and I broke the rope making machine for a second. We then went to the visitors center and I was able to talk to a nice sister missionary from Austrailia. Her accent was pretty cool. We then walked home and shopped on the way. It was good times. That night we went to Sunset at the Mississippi and it was a lot better than I had expected. I nearly passed up the opportunity, but it was a lot of fun and good dancing and song. President Uchtdorf was there with his family and went up front during the Air Force portion. I felt bad because after he was hounded by "fans". I saw the sister missionary again and chatted a bit more with her. I'll never see her again, but she's pretty cool and--well, she has a nice accent. On Friday we headed to Freeport and again due to the flooding we were late in traveling and thus late for plans already made in Freeport. We went as quick as we could, but some had hard time with that. At fireworks that night it was fun to go see them. Last year at this time I was with a less-active named Nikki and we watched them from her house. It was a lot of fun to think like that. When we got home we played Murder (of course) and it was fun as normal. MaryEllen killed us all. I was kind of protecting her because it was her first few times playing and she kept getting killed for nothing so I adamently defended her only to be killed (by her!) and find out who did it. I learned who my true friends were that night. Also on Friday we had the lip sync and we did the Cha Cha Slide. It was a lot of fun. Kyle and I normally get down a little more than we showed in front of the family.

On Saturday Kyle and I played Disc Golf and he totally won. It was fun to play. He kept hounding me on the way home, "Karl, you want to get in to it? I want to get in to it, Ellen." Good times. That night we had an open house for my grandma. It was so fun. My dad asked some girls to come speak to me. My dad is the best wingman!

On Sunday we had church and I had a PPI with my sister Jen. That was fun. We just BBQed that day and played Murder that night. Good times once again. I really like being around my family. On Monday we woke early to begin our trail home. 16 hours later we were home. Good vacation. I didn't go to bed that night very early. I wasn't tired, but exhausted. I was wide awake. It was the next day that I was dead. I'm excited for the next reunion, both our family's and the greater family.

Good times--once again.

2008-06-29T14:38:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a while and life has been equally crazy! Last week my work schedule was crazier than it had ever been previously at work! On Monday my boss gave me a special assignment that was ultra boring, but that's okay because it gave me plenty of time to think. It was seriously just as bad as watching paint dry though. Oh well, I make good money. My boss then gave me two more projects to finish before the end of the week because she was going out of town. Realistically speaking it would have been very impossible to finish even one of these projects, but I continued to work hard, I never took a break, I took 15 minute lunches and just worked my tail off. It was definetly not too desireable. The last two days of my work week I was at work until 5:30 and then the next night 6:45 to finish my projects. I worked a full week in only four days. I was DEAD tired at the end of the day on Thursday, but I got to do my FAVORITE thing ever. After my 6:45 day on Thursday I went to play soccer with some old friends. Now this is a pretty substantial thing. I hadn't played soccer competitvely in over two years and I could finally do it. It was so cool to lace up my old cleats and regain some control on the ball. It was ugly at first and we lost and lost due to some of my mistakes, but towards the end my command returned and it felt so good. All the stress caused by work and not being able to finish all my projects left me. I really do love soccer. I hadn't felt so satisfied in a long time and boy was it good. On Friday I woke up early and drove to Florence to board a plane to return to the homeland--Arizona. On the first plane ride to Atlanta my neighbor on the plane was sleeping and preferred that the arm rest stayed up (so he could take over a third of my seat!) I was hoping for some relief on the second plane ride but they placed me in the middle of two people! Ugh! My neck was very sore as I discovered that it is pretty hard and hurtful to sleep sitting up. It was so nice to return to the Valley. The first thing I did was go to the temple--that place is so amazing! I think it is highly underrated! After the temple I went to the vistors center to watch the Joseph Smith movie. I love that movie. So up to this point it was a pretty spiritual day. I loved it! After seeing Amy and the kids I went back out to see my cousin Scott. We met at Filiberto's and then ate at his house. It was amazing food, but not the best stuff to have before a blind date! Speaking of the blind date, as I was driving to her house and turning into her neighborhood something crazy happened. The gas ran out! Picture this--literally less than a block from her house and I run out of gas! She thought it was funny that we pushed the truck to her house for the first time we met, but all is well. On Saturday we went to lunch as a family and then I hung out with the kids before going out for the night. We ate at PF Changs and then saw Kung Fu Panda. Good movie--very hilarious! Today was any normal Sunday. I went to see my Mission President's homecoming talk. It was so nice to see him today. It just made me miss my mission so much. I miss the good times. I just sat there reminiscing the good (and bad) times of my mission--and that, in fact, was good times.

Wal Mart (La Tienda del Pared)

2008-06-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

I love the prices. I hate the people. I went to Wal Mart today and I realized there that every single person is only worrying about themselves and no one else! I got cut off so many times, people would block the isle looking at things without moving their cart out of the way, cashiers talking to their friends rather than doing their job. I was just pretty touchy today. When I was looking at the watermelons i stepped away from my cart and I heard this family vying to steal my cart from me. The lady began to walk towards my cart and I dropped the watermelon and returned to my cart quickly to show my owenership. I wasn't having it today! It didn't help that that was my second cart on the day. My first cart had the bum wheel and I ditched it quickly! Well, that was my fun Wal Mart trip--gotta love it!

Things are looking up

2008-06-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Life is going well. It's been a while since I last wrote, but I've been busy this week. I've been at a serious lack of sleep lately and so two nights this week I went to bed at 8pm! I felt soo good in the mornings of those days! On Wednesday I was able to have an interview with the Stake President and we discussed my life since my mission and also I got my new temple recommend. Okay, call me a dork, but I love having temple recommend interviews. I love the feeling that comes from being able to answer correctly to all the questions and being able to be worthy to go there. I love it! That night I got a letter from the temple here in Columbia calling me to be an Ordinance Worker! I was soo excited! I want to work on the Spanish Saturday so I can keep my Spanish up a little bit. This week was just so great! On Friday I got a letter from my last companion in the mission and he said that Tina--one of our investigators that we had set for baptism--had gotten baptized! I was soo happy! It really put an end to my mission. I think that all of our investigators have been baptized now. Well, there are two more that need to be. They weren't able due to problems with probation, but I heard this week that that got all cleared up and so they are good to be baptized very soon, too! I loved my mission so much. This week was just a time to reflect on that. I chatted with plenty of people from my mission and even talked to my trainer! He left me right after I started my mission and so we just had a nice long chat about his life and his WIFE! I saw a movie this week with Adam, Incredible Hulk. It was a good movie. Pretty action packed and left a door open for the next one. This morning dad and I cleaned the garage out in preparation for mom coming home from YW camp. He loves doing these little surprises for her. He's a good example to me. I am excited for my vacation next week! It's gonna be a lot of miles over such a short period of time, but I'm really excited to figure things out. I went mini-golfing again last night with Adam. I'm really trying to get good at it. I had a great first 9 and just blew up the next 9. I wish this game actually mattered... :) Life is going great!

Crazy Weekend in Charleston

2008-06-14T20:03:00.001-07:00

We had a good weekend in Charleston. On Friday I went out to lunch with Karen, an old friend, and we just talked and talked. It was so nice to be able to chat with her again about old times and what has gone on in the last two years. After that I went to search for a Father's Day gift for my dad and I realized that he was just the hardest person to shop for. For those who don't know my dad, he has the best of EVERYTHING! Karen was making nice suggestions, but they were in vain due to the things my father already has. She suggested everything from books (he uses I-Tunes) to movies (he uses Netflix) to speakers (he has a Bose system). I finally decided what I was going to get him, but have since changed my mind. It so difficult to shop for him! I then went to wait for my train starting at 5:30, when it was originally supposed to take off. The train finally left the station at 7:15. It was interesting to ride a train--it was my first time. It's so shaky! When I arrived in Charleston I had my greeting crew there and we all acted like it had been years since we had last seen eachother. I was showered with hugs and "Welcome home" chants. I'm glad my family are such goofballs like me! We went mini golfing that night and I just stunk it up. The truth is that I was prideful. I finished near the bottom. Saturday was fun, just really hot. We shopped--A LOT. I was pretty tired from doing so much shopping and so little buying. My dad asked why I hadn't bought much and I told him that it was because this week alone had been very expensive for me. I paid my cell phone, bought a plane ticket, paid my insurance, bought my contacts, and filled up my gas tank. The joys of being home... I got a call today to ask if I could teach the Gospel Doctrine class at church tomorrow. I accepted because it was the right thing to do. On the way home from Charleston I slept. When we got home I took care of the dogs (cleaned up their poop) and have just been lazing around. Life is

good.

2008-06-13T09:56:00.001-07:00

Well I'm new to this whole blog thing... but life has been good since I got home from my mission a month ago today. I've made somewhat of a transition, but still find it hard to say that my name is Karl or to ask girls out or to even talk to girls! But the first month has seen me get a job, register for school, make an impulse decision buying, and impress people with my Spanish. I got a calling as the Executive Secretary to the Bishop (my dad) and am just trying to learn all my new roles as a Returned Missionary. I've been talking a lot to a girl lately and she seems really nice. I miss my mission at times. Last night I talked to my 'son' and I was all smiles. I wish I would have been there. They set some of our investigators for baptism and I just missed that feeling. Nevertheless, I am still loving this new life and have yet to sleep in too terribly much. I read my scriptures everyday still and am continuing the traditions I learned as a missionary (making my bed as soon as I wake up.) Life is good.