The Tercera

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

Dia Two

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

Just pictures.

Getting off the plane on stairs.



Entrance Gate.

I think this was the first President of the school.

The school dorms and courtyard.

Library.

International Center/Main Building.


Applebees.

Starbucks.

McDonalds.


My room.

Bathroom.

Beds.

My "Pool house"

My house.

Day Uno

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

LAX is the worst!!!

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

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

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


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


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

Life Revealed

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.