more death, KFC, and power naps.

Well, this morning I woke up. Kinda. Actually I felt that I was dead when I woke up this morning. I got about 4 hours of sleep, along with a bunch of other kids from our group. We rode on the bus for about 45 minutes to Tonala. We didn’t sleep because sleeping is LAME. We got there, and bought lots of cheap stuff… like placemats, mugs, plates, and other cooly things. There was tons of pottery and suns and moons, and it was all really pretty. At about 10:40, Becky, Marco, and I broke down and ate…. Lunch… at KFC. Yeah, we win the prize for coolness. It was quite delicious, I might add. Right after we ate, we crashed even more. Everyone was SO tired. We bought a little bit more, and then we got back on the bus again. Becky and I got our second wind for about 20 minutes more, and sang every Disney song on my iPod. It was a good time, but we were tired once we stood up. We went to an art museum. The art was different, it was modern stuff.

us in front of... something? ha.

Everyone was so exhausted.

We took the bus back to the university. It would have been happy if we could have gone home, but we had to be at the church to practice for stake conference. So we went to the church, and we ate a cinnamon roll on the grass outside… quite yummy, but honestly I was too tired to know any better. We went to stake conference, and we sang. For about the first 30 minutes I was in and out… sadly. But it was a nice power nap. I enjoyed it very much. I understood the mission president and the temple president because they were both white and spoke slower. That was nice. =) After stake conference we practiced Thriller in the parking lot. Yes, lots of people watched. Also, they announced our talent show in stake conference. I believe that I will have never been so fearful in my whole life. Dancing all crazy-life in front of a billion people. Yikes! We almost went dancing, but thank goodness everyone was too tired, and we all went home and slept. =) Buenas Noches! Te quiero!

iggy, cinnamon rolls, and death.

Pues, today is Friday… kinda. =) And I went to school! After school, our group went on a zoo trip. First we went to the gas station outside of the school and bought some food to eat for lunch. I got some delicious cinnamon rolls, and then felt sick afterwards. Not that this is really much of a difference from my usual feeling of sickness. Anyways, we got on the city busses and went to the zoo! The busses were SO dang crowded. Being my claustraphobic self, I felt that I might die.
Here is a picture of Heather in such madness. Note man behind her... yes. He was video taping all of us. I guess we are quite entertaining...

Thank goodness we got off the bus for a bit and waited for the next one. We finally got to the zoo… =) I love the zoo… I will just preface with that. It was a really hot day, but it was ok, because we did cool things. First off, we took cool pictures like giraffes.
somos giraffes!

Then we took pictures like monkeys…
somos monos!

ojala que seamos cangaroos tambien!

fatties!

waiting for the tram/safari... whatever you would like to call it...

Then we ate amazing ice cream… it was chocolate. And it was my new favorite thing. The other girls that got it felt similar feelings of love.

We went on a safari.
Here is a picture of us in front of the safari sign! woohoo!

That was a good time. It wasn’t quite as legit as the safari in San Diego, pero no me importa. We still saw cool animals. Some of us even got to feed giraffes with carrots. The giraffes didn’t really like Natalie or I.

They didn't really like Mindy either. Poor dear.

Natalie was creative in the disposal of her carrots. She decided to make a trail of carrots behind the safari truck (?) so if she got lost in the “jungle” we could find her. I took a video of this Hansel & Gretel moment. I will show you all when we get home. =) After the safari there were cool African drums. We played those, and even re-did the video to “Beat of my Heart” by Hillary Duff. I know, we’re pretty much really cool. After that we hid behind rocks. It was really funny actually. It doesn’t sound that cool, but we have a video of that tambien. Here are some pictures to quench your desire to see it for a few more weeks.

Then we walked around the zoo! While I was walking I ran into Brandon’s old iguana. I believe that it was wild. I don’t really know. I hope it didn’t escape. If so, that is sad. We named it Iggy, naturally. And then chased it for a good five minutes, scarring all of the Mexicans for life. Also, we took a video. It is lovely. Here is another picture!
We just hung out in the zoo for a bit more, and I bought some Sprite. That was delightful because it was so so cold and so so lovely. We left the zoo and waited for the bus.
Here are some pictures of random cowboys walking down the street...

We took the bus home again, this time I sat, so I was quite happy. We got home, and I got ready to go out again… This time we went Banda dancing! Oh my, what an adventure! It was so much fun! First of all, I would like to say that it is my goal in life to always ride in the back of Chewey’s (Jesus’) truck. It is so much fun just cruising downtown Guadalajara in the back of a truck. So we did that. =) And then we got to the Banda place. There was a live band and it was really loud, but I loved it actually. They dance really differently… they bounce all over, and they are super close. We didn’t dance as legit as them, but we tried. Haha. Two of the Mexicans asked Natalie and I if we would dance and we said no with some lame excuse attached to it. We drove home at 3 AM in the back of Chewey’s truck. I actually was kinda cold… which was a strange feeling to me. I brought my key out, but it wouldn’t go into the key hole because the other set of keys was still in the hole on the other side of the door. Basically my only option was to knock on the door… or call the house. I was so humiliated… and Marcela came down and opened the door. She felt bad, so I guess that is good because I thought I was going to get in trouble. I crashed of exhaustion… but it was kinda like a nap. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

cute-ness, burned-ness, and delicious-ness.

Hola everyone!!! Today was a lovely day! We woke up… and went to school. Just the usual! I got my test back and I got a 56/60! I was slightly shocked, cuz I wasn’t feeling that great about it. We had our break, and then we met with the other class to watch La Misma Luna… it is a super cute movie about a boy trying to get to his mom in the US. I liked watching it in Spanish… I definitely want to get some movies that I bring home that are in Spanish. After school we went swimming! This time Ashley came… she’s a little fish! Also, we were walking into the pool area, and the man told us we couldn’t put sunscreen on. I told him I had to because I was white… I guess he didn’t care, because we still couldn’t. Therefore, that explains my red face in these pictures. After swimming for a bit, we did some dives. And Marc pretty much owned that. We went home and ate some delicious lunch, and then went to service. Today we sang outside for most of the time. After we sang for a bit, we went around and talked to the different people. At 5:30, I went to go look for Ashley inside and I saw here with a lady and the lady wouldn’t let her go. It was so sad. The lady kept saying, “Don’t leave me!” and wouldn’t let go of Ashley’s wrist. To set the scene, this is one of the ladies inside that never talks to anyone. They tie some of the people to a bar in their wheelchairs with bed sheets… and it is always really uncomfortable for me to talk to them because I don’t understand them, or I feel awkward because they are so sad. I think most of them are just completely lost in their memories of the past, and they don’t know what is happening now. Anyways, we got the lady to let go of Ash… and I went to go kiss another lady goodbye. She grabbed onto my wrist and kept saying “Get me out of here!” I didn’t really know what to say, so I just kept saying, “I’ll be back Monday!” She started crying and begging to get her out! It was awful, and I didn’t know what to do! Eventually I just walked away, I didn’t really know what else to do. We went home and ate dinner… and then we met some friends for churros and we just sat outside of Starbucks and talked.
Ash, Alejandro, and I eating our AMAZING churros...

becky and i chilling after our churros!

some of the girls after churros!

ashley, spicing up the city. (but not for reals...)

It was fun! When we were ready to go home, we took a taxi. The man was a creeper and kept hitting on Ash. It was actually quite funny how she handled it. At one point he was talking about how he lived in Guadalajara for 18 years… and Ash was all “Wow, that’s pretty much my whole life!” It was funny… but we got home without any troubles, and then went to bed! BUENAS NOCHES!!!

caramba.

lo siento, i really do try to keep the pictures updated. sometimes this internet just won't cooperate. basically i am still missing pictures from friday on... i PROMISE i will put them up. =)

Love you all!

sick, lucky charms, and SWIMMING!!!

This morning we woke up at 7:30 and I thought I was going to throw up… No good. I went back to sleep for a few more hours, and woke up still feeling a little gross. I didn’t have breakfast because I wasn’t sure how food would go with my lovely stomach. We got to school just in time for our LoVeLy project. You should be so proud… my public speaking skills are probably better in Spanish than they are in English. But basically, it was fun having the different girls present. Ashley and Jessica (the other ones) did a presentation on St. Patrick’s Day, and we got lucky charms. If either of you is reading this, gracias! They were really good. And sugary… =) After school, I WENT SWIMMING! Oh, I can’t explain how amazing it felt to get back into the pool. It was basically really fun, and I am glad that I get to for another few weeks. I started teaching Marco, I feel that he doesn’t like it like I do. Haha. I went home, and ate a little bit of food. We went to service, and while I was there I got sick again. I just sat down for most of the time, so that was good. We sang some hymns and played some Bingo, and it was nice.
This is a picture of me with one of my heroes...

I love how the ladies love having us come. I like feeling appreciated. After service we went home and got ready to go to the movies! Here is a picture of the pretty sunset and the railroad tracks!

We went to the Gran Plaza… and we walked on one of those overpass things… YAY!

We got to the movies, and the time was actually an hour later than we had planned on. But it was nice, because we got to chill and eat some food.

I had a few chicken nuggets from McDonalds, the cure-all for all illnesses. I honestly feel that way though… haha. It is kind of like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the dad thinks that Windex fixes everything… yeah, well I think chicken nuggets fix everything. We saw Indiana Jones… it was way fun, but the music made me slightly nostalgic for Disneyland. =( That’s ok though! Because I get to go with Bebs in a month or so!!! HOORAY! After the movie, we just chilled for a bit and talked… and then took a taxi home. I must say that this is the first time that the taxi driver did not fight us on lowering the price. He started with 60, and we just said 50, and he was like, “Ok.” Weird. Haha. But I am home now! Have a good night! LOVE YOU ALL!

tests, cheesecake, and proyectos

Today was a really good day!
But before it was a good day, I had my blood drawn to find out my blood type so I could use the pool. Ugh. That is all I have to say about that. Marc and Ashley were like "just look over here!" and it hurt. No good. Also, I guess they couldn't get enough blood out, because the lady was swirling the needle around in my arm. I didn't notice it, but Marc did. Here is a scaredy-cat picture of me getting my blood tested...

This morning we had our test… I feel kinda iffy about it, because I am not good at direct and indirect objects. But who knows, hopefully it went well! After school, we went to get our credentials for school. We learned that we have to have two pictures (like the insert kind you have to put in your passport). So basically, we didn’t swim today… and walked to the Kodak store and got our pictures taken. After that, we went home and ate! Yum! After lunch, we went to our service. I talked with Loraine today about her life. I still think she had the most perfect life! Today she told me that her brother kissed Shirley Temple. Isn’t that crazy!? I showed her and Chupita pictures of my family and friends… they say everyone is pretty or handsome. Haha. We had to leave a little early to go to the temple. I had to stop on my way there because I forgot my recommend, but we got there just about the time that everyone else was starting. The temple was beautiful, and when we got out it was a little stormy.



We walked to OK Pastelerias and ate some amazing dessert! I had cheesecake and chocolate ice cream. Both of those pretty much made my life. We went home and worked on our project. Happy days that we finished it in 15 minutes. =) We also did some laundry...

and hung it from the door...
Then we went to bed. Have a good day! LOVE YOU!

snowmen, chicken, y the bohemian rhapsody

Hola! Today was a good day! First we went to school… after we went to the computers and goofed off for a bit. Then we went back home and ate some amazing chicken for lunch. It was so so good. After we went to service. OH MAN, SERVICE. Today was QUITE the adventure. We got there, and figured that it had been a good three days since they last played bingo, so we got that game started. Do you remember the lady that said she couldn’t see because she was too old… and would flip her card upside down and pout? Well, yeah… know I have a picture of it. =)

Some of the ladies get REALLY involved in bingo. One lady started yelling and she started praying, and we thought it was just because she was upset about something with the game… but her eyes rolled back in her head. I freaked out! I thought I was going to watch someone die! All of the nurses came over and after a few minutes she was fine, but it was so intense. We also heard the Bohemian Rhapsody on their CDs, which consists of elevator music. So it was all jazzed out, and quite hilarious.
As we were leaving, the ladies told us to get Mexican boyfriends so we could stay. It was cute, but I don’t think I will follow their advice.
Here is a picture of a flower from the walk home...

Here is a picture of a bird head on the walk home... *ugh*

Here is a picture of me on the bus eating a Mexican candy... it wasn't vale la pena.

We came home for a bit and relaxed, and then we went to Family Home Evening. It was way fun… we played telephone, but we had to act it out. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. Marc, Becky, and I were the first three to leave the room… and Becky and I were talking about how it could be embarrassing acting out whatever in front of everyone. Becky was like, “I have sweaty armpits! What if I have to raise my arms?” So we decided that if the thing to act out was snowman, we would do a certain action. Well, it turns out the thing was snowman, and everyone was in an uproar because I got it in 3 seconds. They were like “tramposas!!! (cheaters)” ha. That was funny. Also, Hermana Stallings acting out going to the bathroom was funny. After FHE we had popsicles. YUM! And then we practiced for Thriller. That dance is so fast and slightly intense for me. I still have lots of work to do before next weekend!!!
We got home, and studied our little brains out and went to bed at 11:30. YAY! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

small children, KFC, and serving sizes

This morning we woke up, showered, and got all ready for church. I opted out of our lunch left-over breakfast for fear of a) the option of sketchy hamburger meat and b) getting sick again. (Last night I woke up with a HORRIBLE stomach ache). We got to church, and Becky and I played hide-n-seek with a little boy sitting a few rows in front of us. He was potentially the most adorable boy I have ever seen in my whole life. He was horrified of us by the end of Sacrament meeting, and ran out of the chapel so we wouldn’t talk to him. It was quite funny. During Sunday School, the most precious little girl came and sat on Marco’s lap. Her name is Raquel, and she is 18 months old. Every time Marc would click the pen, she would gasp… and it was so cute. She also wanted to draw on everything that she wasn’t allowed to draw on, such as Marc’s dictionary. Relief Society was lacking in little kid excitement because Raquel fell asleep. By the time church was over, I was starving! We went to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and I had popcorn chicken and fries. It definitely tasted different than the normal popcorn chicken, which was un poquito triste. After lunch, we went back to the church and just talked on the lawn until choir started. That was nice, but the heat made me pretty tired/lame. We went to choir and sang… and I was SO happy to find that my new friend Raquel was there as well. She came up to me, voluntarily might I add… and sat on my lap. P.S. Marco, she loves me more. We decided that we need to have a test to see which of us Raquel likes better. I am pretty sure it is me. =) I took a picture with Raquel.

She is SO adorable. We took a bus home, and wrote a bit in our journals. At about 8:00 we decided to get some dinner (because our family doesn’t feed us on Sundays), so we went to Oxxo and got some cereal and milk. We may or may not have eaten the whole box of fruit loops. P.S. Each box has 8 servings. We are down-right shameful. And then Marcela brought us donuts too… so we are even more shameful than it appears. Basically I am banking on working out lots when I get home. Also, Marcela brought home the new maid. I feel so sad and upset about it… she is 17 years old… she lives with us. I can’t even imagine coming to a new house where you don’t know the family. And it is all to support her family back home. It is so depressing to me. Basically, I am going to be extra careful to be clean, because I don’t want her to do anything. Also during church, I made lots of goals for myself for next year. I am pretty excited about it too! I want to keep doing ballet, and SOMEDAY (hopefully) get to pointe. Also, I want to be an amazing cook. And I want to keep doing well in school. I am really excited for those things, plus I have a car… which is even better than last year. That’s all that is going on for now! I will write more tomorrow! Sorry about the lack of pictures! I have no idea why the internet is being so sketch… Love you all!!!

glasses, regina spektor, & talks

This morning I woke up a little late. There was mass confusion in my heart because I could not find my contacts ANYWHERE. Basically, I left them back in Guadalajara, and sad times for me… because I had to wear my glasses. We went over to breakfast at a little restaurant and it was really good! I had this amazing Mexican hot chocolate… and I will definitely be buying it for next year. Dear Bethany, We should make lots of Mexican foods next year, no? After breakfast we went to Diego Rivera’s house, which is now a museum. It was really cool seeing all of the original paintings that I have learned about in class and stuff. There is one mural that he painted called Sueno de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central. It is pretty much amazing, with so many cool details that I never noticed in my book. I loved seeing that mural, and also the paintings of Freida Khalo, his wife. That was really interesting. After we went to the museum, we went shopping! I bought a shirt, bracelets, and a really bright Mexican blanket. We ate pizza at three, and it was really good! It was definitely different than normal pizza. It was completely flat! After we ate lunch, we felt slightly ashamed to run off from the group to get ice cream, but we did anyways. Our bad. The ice cream bar that I got was so cool… it had four whole oreos in it. And I might say, it was quite delicious. We got on the bus, and started pulling out when we realized that Tyrell was not on the bus. Marc went out and looked for him, and found him in the bathroom. Poor Hermana Stallings, she always looses one of us. Thank goodness it’s not me. On the way home we stopped at a gas station to buy water. Also, I got the Regina Spektor song called The Call stuck in my head. I love that song so very much… it is from Chronicles of Narnia. On the way home we played the question game and had some pretty deep talks. Those four hours went by really quick. Ashley and I FINALLY got home at about 9:00, and our family wasn’t home. At about 12:00 when we went to bed, our family still wasn’t home... Very good times. Anyways, have a lovely night! LOVE YOU ALL!

caves, torture methods, and fake sleepovers

This morning we woke up at about 6:30. This was pretty much the worst news of my life, especially since I went to bed at about 2:30. We got up, and ate some breakfast… and showed up at the school early. ALSO!!! ASHLEY AND I GOT 21 TICKETS! BOTH OF US! I know, amazing. We started our bus ride to Guanajuato… it was super long… and tiring, but WAY fun. I wouldn’t let anyone sleep, my bad. We played the question game, the what-if game, and we talked a lot too. It was really fun talking to everyone for four hours straight. We were pretty much tight after that bus ride. We got to Guanajuato, and I felt like it was exactly how I pictured Mexico to be.
This is a picture of some Natives doing a dance... pretty rad...

It was very picturesque and there were bright colors everywhere. It was pretty much amazing. We went to our hotel, and dropped off our stuff.

I feel like the hotel was pretty much the Winchester Mansion hotel of Mexico. There were so many random hallways with random rooms… and it was so cool.
becky and i in the snazzy hotel.

This is the view from our window!!!

Also, we had a bird in our window. Check out its eggs!!!

This is the street!

After we dropped off our stuff, we went to a Dulceria (it was our first stop on the tour). There were a million different types of caramels and dulce de leche… I bought some dulce de leche with almonds in it. I feel that I won’t miss Mexican food too much… but I KNOW with every fiber of my being that I will miss dulce de leche. I had better figure out how I am going to get a supply back to the United States. Tambien, there were bees ALL over the store. That sketched me out. After we went there, we went to a mine.
the beautiful mine landscape...

Becky and I feel sketched by such mines...

The tour was in Spanish, so I didn’t understand as much as I should have, but basically native slaves would haul ridiculously large amounts of rock from under the ground. We went down into the mine as well… it was super moist and sticky. I bought two different necklaces. One has a purple fist, a white fist, and a pink fist. The purple fist is for head health, the white fist is for luck, and the pink fist is for love and harmony. The fists symbolize the hands that hauled the rocks from the mine. The other necklace I bought was crystal (and I am pretty sure it is real tambien). The crystal symbolizes memory. The legend says that if you stick these necklaces in salt water for five minutes, they will make all of these aspects in your life improved. This is mainly why I didn’t buy just one… I figured I could use all the help I could get. Anyways, the landscape by the mine was GORGEOUS and so green. After the mine, we went to a torture place… with real torture tools. It was pretty much the most sickening place ever. They even had different kids from our group be models for what happens with the tools. It was sick. At one part, there was a tool where the victim had to stick their thumb into a little slot and a knife would cut their thumb. Four of our kids went up as examples, and Marc was one of them. His thumb almost got cut! Right after that, the creepy tour guide took us down into this musty old basement. I felt so eerie about it, and I couldn’t breathe, so I left with Becky. Basically, I am glad I did, because the tour guide turned off the lights. I don’t want to know what would have happened if I was down there when he turned off the lights. Basically, it would have been huge drama. Basically after that adventure, everyone was really quiet and slightly depressed. We got back on the bus, and cheered ourselves up by telling pick up lines and jokes. We went to this look-out point at this mountain, and it was BEAUTIFUL. We could see the whole city, and it was even more gorgeous because it was sunset.
Marc, Becky, and I in front of the city!!!

an amazing mexican sunset.

After we looked at the city for a while, we walked back to our hotel. We went down these little roads, and it was so quaint and charming. I feel like Spain probably looks like this city. We walked by a little street that is called the Callejon del Beso (the kissing street). The legend is that if you walk down the street and kiss someone, you will have fifteen years of good luck. I didn’t walk down that street, but Hermana Stallings and her husband did. It was cute. =) We finally got back to the hotel. Marc, Becky, and I were feeling so lame, tired, and anti-social, so we decided to go get hamburgers and ice cream from a little place we saw earlier.
This is a picture of us exploring at night...

This is a picture of me before the ice cream...

This is a picture of me after the ice cream...

The food tasted scrumptious, and we went back home. We changed into our pajamas, and just laid lamely on Becky’s bed and talked about cool things.

At about 12:00, Marc and I were going upstairs and ended up staying at an almost sleep-over for an hour. Here is a picture of us at our little fiesta...

Tyrell told the most HILLARIOUS story of all time about his planned out, almost first kiss. We partied for a bit, and then Ashley and I went back to our room. We clunked out pretty good, because it was a DANG long day. Adventure to be continued on Saturday!!! Love you!!!

trampolines, dancing, & cigarette smoke

Today was a great day! We went to school… that was an exciting time. After school we did the crazy games again. This time I jumped on the trampoline! YAY! Here is a picture of me with the guy hanging onto the bungee cords trying to make me go higher.

Here is a picture of me doing a flip. WOOHOO.

After school, we came back and chilled for a bit… I showered and then we ate. Then we went to service. I feel kind of bad, because I was not really into my service today. I think it’s because I was so distracted with our trip on the weekend. Basically we mostly just played bingo… it was really funny because there was almost another fight. In short, bingo is huge drama for older ladies. Also, a couple of ladies got really mad because we weren’t playing with money. One of the ladies turned her card upside down and crossed her arms. I feel distraught that I did not take a picture of such things.
After service we went to Walmart with some of the girls. We wandered around and looked for cool Mexican things… we also found the bakery in Walmart. Sounds sketch eh? False. They had billions of different desserts. AND there are samples of everything. It’s pretty much amazing. Here is a picture of Nat/Nolka with our pastries.

After Walmart, we walked over to the Churro stand to wait for Ashley, Jessica, and Marc. Basically, we had no self-control… and ate lots of churros. After a few cockroach encounters, we got on the bus and went to the Cherry Lobby (an American Club). It turned out that it wasn’t open (sad times). Some of the other boys from the ward met us there with some of the other girls from our group. We had a mini dance party in the back of Jesus’ truck. Good times. We then went to another club… it was kind of American, and it was WAY fun. We were all dancing and partying and such. We even ordered Sprite at the bar. How presh we are. We danced until pretty late, and got home at about 2. I had to shower because I smelled like cigarette smoke SO BAD. But it was tons of fun!!! Talk to you all soon! Sorry I can’t write, I am off to Guanajuato!!!