Victorious Viernes 30

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


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

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

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

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

I will try to post short video of game later.

Jueves 29

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

Miercoles 28

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

Martes 27

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

Lunes 26

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

Sabado 24 y Domingo 25

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

Viernes 23

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