Countdown

I have 3 weeks left in Mexico.

In exactly 21 days I will be on a plane that will cross over the border and fly into Phoenix, Arizona (after a short layover in San Fran).

I honestly can't believe it!

This week has been so good for me. We've finally had time to make friends, of course its right before we have to leave, but we've been hanging out with the singles from my ward a lot and they're pretty much the most chill people I've ever met. There's a few a who speak English too, and even though it may be snobby of us we are definitely better friends with them than others.

Honestly? I'm really going to miss Mexico. It's going to be weird transitioning back into the student lifestyle, getting a job (by the way if anyone hears of any openings in Rexbug for Spring- hit me up!), and hearing everything in English.

I decided I'm taking a Spanish class when I get home. And you know what else? I have ZERO classes on Fridays this coming semester. I know its fantastic.

Anyway, back to Mexico.

Today is Carly Kay Berg's 20th Birthday!!!!


And she thinks that we have nothing planned for her. But tonight we're going to surprise her with a dinner party at our school with a bunch of our new friends and some delicious cake. Then later we're going to Cholula to watch some Aztec dancers jump around fires. Yeah, I'm thinking it will be her most memorable Birthday. And don't worry about her reading this, I'm on her like white on rice allll day. We'll see if she even gets the computer...

Yesterday we went to Metepec to go to a small water park and it was SO great. We just needed a nice relaxing day laying around, snacking, playing volleyball and swimming.

Weather? Fantastic.

Pool? Refreshing.

Town? Cute, quaint and totally Mexican.

People? The best.

Again, I'm going to MISS Mexico.
Goofy girl...

Nothing Catchy

This blog was created for the purpose of talking about my Mexico adventures.

The things I do, the people I meet, the thoughts I have on the Mexican economy and such....

Maybe not that last one.

Although I have slacked for the past week or so at putting anything about my adventures, today I feel the need to simply talk about myself.

Is that OK with everyone?

Girls. We have these days. And frankly, I need some me-time. I could save you all the time and simply go buy myself a chocolate bar or something but I am going to be tough and resist the urge (or Mexican chocolate juuuuust doesn't really do it for me). Plus I just want to get some really personal things out on the table for the whole world to see. It's the world we live in folks.

It's OK. I'll be gentle.


I am missing home, alot.

I miss America, and all it's fantastic homey-ness to it. I've always loved being an American, but now more-so than ever I appreciate what it is to be an American. I'm not at all trashing on Mexican lifestyle here, but home is home, and America will always be my home. This doesn't mean I'll never travel again, because you know what? I believe that every single person needs to travel at least once in their lifetime. In fact, why is this sort of thing not demanded by our Government? Our society as a whole would be a much more open-minded, understanding, and appreciative one if we all had to get kicked out at some point for some good ol' global traveling.
I've lived in many different places within the States, and have liked every single one of them. Whether it's the warm beaches and rainy-winters of Southern California, or the frigid cold of Rexburg, I have a deep love for all the places I have been.

There is something about living in America that is deeply rooted in me and makes me feel so incredibly blessed to be a part of it. It's the freedoms, the history, the versatility, the melting pots that are some of our Nation's biggest cities. Maybe it's partially because of all the stares I get when I'm here that make me feel like I'm an important person just because of my birth certificate, but our capabilities and potential as a community are incredible. Absolutely incredible. I can go and do anything I would like, and I feel that because I was raised the way I was and where I was- I have the drive to as well.
It is sad to see so much potential and opportunity wasted on un-motivated people. One thing I've learned here in Mexico is that if you want to do something, YOU GET UP AND DO IT. Self-doubt seems much less prominent here, and I've no idea why.
All of my host siblings want to be doctors and CEO's of major coorporations. By the time I was 12, I wanted to be a secretary. A daggum Secretary people. What kind of flame-burning-inside-of-me-towards-success is THAT?? No offense to all of the secretaries out there. But if you don't dream big, you tend to stay small. And maybe that's where some people are content. There are many humble people out there who find happiness in a simple job that either works with their skills, or allows them to interact with people or maybe some other small quirk that they find attractive about it.
What I'm saying is we have a gift. So please, I implore all of you to do something today that shows your appreciation for America. Put your hand over your heart and whisper the anthem in the shower, recycle your soda cans, watch the East Wing (just kidding), have a BBQ complete with corn on the cob and a fruit salad, or go to a baseball game and sing your guts out during the 7th-inning stretch (I miss you Dodgers Stadium, your Dodger dogs... not so much).
It doesn't have to be big. Maybe thank your mom for not flying somewhere like China before you were born so you could have dual-citizenship.
OK. I'll stop on this subject before it gets more ridiculous.


I am having the absolute time of my life here. But here is a list of things that I miss, and maybe you'll find something that you can appreciate more.

1. My pillows 
2. The BYU-Idaho gym, and it's free-ness
3. My family
4. My roommates
5. Cooking my own food
6. Porter Park
7. BYU-Idaho in general
8. American fashion
9. Driving
10. Hot showers
11. American comfort foods
12. Church in English (you thought YOU could fall asleep in Sacrament? Psh.)
13. Walking into a grocery store and knowing where to find everything
14. Walls w/o graffiti
15. Target
16. Talking with people from home face-to-face
17. The popular-ness of playing cards
18. Bookstores
19. Stores in general
20. All of my friends
21. American traffic. Lemme tell you, Mexican drivers? Muy loco.
22. Sammy's
23. Mashed potatoes
24. Pools without yucky in them
25. Walking down streets. I can't explain this one. I walk here all the time. I just miss it.

All in all though, it's worth it to miss all of these things. This experience is helping me in ways that I can't really even see right now. And I LOVE that I have the opportunity to be with such incredible people and experience some really cool things. So that when I have kids, I have the license to say "You NEED to get out of the country. Trust me."

Yup. It's all worth it.

Just in case you've all been incredibly bored for this little tid-bit. I have a present for you! Here are some pictures from last Friday night when me and the girls got bored so we decided to buy some really cheap shoes and make them all Mexican to take home with us. Little home-made souvenirs you could call em :)

My shoes before. Which I would totally wear as is.

Finished product. Although I made some adjustments not shown.

Happy little English teacher.

p.s. Thanks Dad, for not flying Mom to China before I was born. I'm sure you were tempted.

Good good good good...

So many good things have happened to me in the past couple of days!! I went to paradise and got a tan on Saturday, I got to talk to my brother and sister-in-law on iChat on Sunday, have had a wonderful time teaching my ninos, started running again, found out we get to stay at a beach house for our finale vacation right before we leave, aaaaaaaaand......

Guess what guys.

My older sister? Jordan Kathleen Lawler?

 Is getting MARRIED!!!

It took me a couple days to find out for sure cuz I'm in flap-jackin MEXICO (first time since being here that I've actually been frustrated that I don't have a cell phone), but I talked to her yesterday on the phone and she is soooo happy. Which makes me happy. We're all just happy. Win win win.

Conversation:

J: "Blah blah blah blah blah"

M: "Oh yeah, blabbidy blah blah blah"

J: "McKenna. Blah blah blah. Guess what."

M: "... What Jordan??"

J: "I got engaged on Friday."

M: "AHHHHHH!!!!"

They're gettin murried just a week and a half after I get back into the States!! I am so pumped. She is going to look beautiful.

Her fiance is a stud, and I like him very much.

Aren't they smokin?

They will have good looking, soccer playing children.

Well I'm not 100% on the soccer thing. But good looking.

Happiness guys, I recommend it.


This weekend me and my compadres are planning on going fishing and going on a 126 hour hike. Approximately. Maybe it's only like 7 hours, but it will FEEL like 126 hours.

If I don't blog for a while it's because I'm dead.

Which CAN'T happen. I have a wedding to make it to people! And a niece to see born!

When I say 'see' I mean that in not the literal sense. 

I love my family.

Good good good...

Feliz de Dia del Amor y Amistan!!

My regular day in Mexico:

- Wake up at 7:30 (uuuughhh)

- Go on a run around 8:00 

- Get back around 8:30 and shower, get ready (2 minute showers I mentioned before)

- Head to the school around 10:30

- Prep for the days lessons, write up lesson plans for next week, hang out with teachers

 (sometimes just tan)

- Set up my classroom 

- Leave the school between 2- 2:30 to get back for lunch

- Come home and do chores

- Ask if our family needs any help, to which they always respond "Set the table" I am now a very, very good table setter :)

- Read on the roof/ blog/ nap/ email

- Eat lunch till my tummy wants to 'splode

- Read more

- Head to the school at 4:00 to get ready for the little chillin to come 

- 2 hours of crazyness and fun until 6:30

- Clean up

- Have either a very quiet-on-account-of-how-tired-we-are walk home or a I'm-so-glad-everything-went-so-well-and-school-is-done-for-the-day happy walk home

- Chilllllll

Seems pretty run-of-the-mill, huh?

(By the way could I go any farther with these dash-type-sentence-thingys???)

Well, friends. Today my day has been interrupted.

By Valentine's Day :)

Not a horrible interruption if you ask me.

Carly and I went to the grocery store (La Gran Bodega) and bought our fam-jam a lil cake to express our lovey dovey-ness and appreciation for them.

Lemme tell you, friends- Mexicans know how to do cake.

Normally, I hate cake. In fact, I detest cake. The dry icky feeling in your mouth mixed with 10 inches of waxy colored frosting just revolts me.

But here in Mexico?

I love me some cake.

But the best best best best best best best part of my Mexican Valentine's Day was Secret Valentines with these awesome folk:

We did Secret Valentines between the five of us and it was so much fun. 

So here's some cute lil piccies from my Mexican Valentines day.....

Carly's Valentine was Jordan. Jordan loves pineapples so she bought him a pina and put the fanciest shmansiest wrapping paper ever around it.

My Secret Valentine was Cryshel. And she happens to love chocolate. And cereal. Sooo... GENIUS! Chocolate cereal. Aren't I intelligent? I also wrote her a poem, and here's an excerpt:

"She loves her cereal box.

And her wit? As quick as a fox.

People like her a lot

Good qualities she's got

Including her bodacious brown locks"

I'm just a modern Robert Frost, folks.

And guess WHAT???

I got my first valentine from a student!!!

She was a total sweetie, and pulled it out of all her backpack all shy and said "Here Teachar".

It was the best chocolate covered marshmallow cookie I ever had.

Here's a pic of the little cutie pie.

Here name is Aylen.

She just decided one day she wanted to wear her Snow White costume to English class.

Did she wear it to her other classes?

No. Just to mine.

Kate had me for Secret Valentines and she picked up some serious bling, knowing my affinity for tasteful accessories...

Jordan looooved his pineapple.

AND Jordan had Carly as well. So they were closest out of all of us to having a legitimate Valentines day. He stuck a bunch of candy bars all over a big heart poster.

Precious.

Cryshel lovin on her cereal box.

Kate with her Twix and poem from Cryshel.

And me? Just enjoying the fruits of a good V-Day...

El Ranchito

It has been a tough past few days.

I've felt a liiiiiiitle emotionally and physically drained. Which is never fun.

But let me tell you friends- there is a cure.

Camping!!!

What?

You don't agree? Well, I happen to love camping. I love being outside, and having a campfire, and sleeping in a tent, and getting away from the city.

So on friday night the 5 of us teachers, plus our other teacher friend Kristin and a bunch of our host families headed out to a family ranch about 20 minutes outside of the city.


I was really excited to just get away for a while and enjoy the un-cluttered lifestyle.

I won't lie though, camping has its downfalls.

Like:

• Being greeted by about 100 daddy-long-leg-spiders in the shed
• Freezing my toesies off at night cause I didn't bring enough blankies
• The teeth-brushed face-washed clean feeling doesn't really exist
• Sometimes, no matter where you sit, the campfire smoke always finds you

The food we ate was pretty interesting though.

Mexicans like hot dogs. They call them 'salchichas' here, and its kind of their replacement meat. They use it on sandwiches and put it in their eggs, and do all sorts of other things with them. They ALSO use them while camping. Kind of chalky tasting, but it helped keep the camping spirit alive.

My awesome ingenuity at work.

Branch with 10 pokey things on it makes for excellent quick-time hot dog roasting.

Then I held a chicken

And rode a horse.

Jordan on his horse.

Carly, Abraham and me.

This kid is so funny.

He is constantly turning to me and saying "Cool, huh?" in a cute Spanish accent.

Then we took a nice drive to a nearby park to have our picnic. We ate rabbit. Kid you not, the stuff tastes like turkey. Sorry Thumper!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Sometimes it's easier to blog with a format. So I have decided to document this weeks events with a list of some awkward and awesome things that have happened.

Awkward

- I swear there have been more times I have walked into my family's bathroom (our 1 bathroom shared by 8 sometimes 9 people) and there being no toilet paper, than walking in and there being toilet paper. Exactly when do I realize there is no toilet paper? You can use your imaginations.

- Watching entire movies in Spanish

- Witnessing a crazed fan in a man thong run out onto the field during the Mexico, Bosnia soccer game last night on TV. Poor kid. Probably wasn't hugged enough as a child.

- Hurricane like winds on the beach. You thought sand got everywhere? You don't even know..

- Parents who like to leave kids who aren't in our classes at our school. One day a mom left not only her 5 yr old who is a student, but also her 3 yr old who doesn't speak at all let alone english. She just left! We are not babysitters people.

-Realizing we were staying the gay district of Veracruz for our 4-day weekend

-Sitting in cars that are too small for you. Still fun

- Koreans in Mexico

- The weird corn thing with mayo and chili powder that people eat here. Not sure I'll be brave enough to try out that delicacy

- Explaining the difference between 'see' and 'si'. We have a 'No Spanish' rule in my class so every time I say "See?" they all gasp and point there fingers at me. Children are good at making you feel similar to a leper. 

- Hearing my sister and brother speak really fast in Spanish while throwing my name into their conversation at least several times, then when I pop my head up and say 'Huh?' they insist that they were talking about their 'friend'. I'm white kids, I'm not stupid. 

Awesome

- Coconuts cut fresh with the juice still inside. It is absolutely delicioso

- Being called bonita (beautiful) everywhere I go. I tell ya, you can endure a lot when the whole world seems to think you're attractive

- Conversations with my group. It's funny because most of us have very different communicating skills, so watching two people try to explain something simple to each other can take a few minutes 

"What's golf?"

"The game we played yesterday"

"We played golf?"

"It's a game, that's just what its called."

"I know, but what kind of golf are we playing?"

"The card game from yesterday."

"Ohhh. That golf."

other party " Wait, what's golf?"

. And the rest of us just laugh. 

- Coconut popsicles

- The amount of Birthdays we have while here- 5!! And a party for every one.

- Our lovely 'Office' calendar, which is now on the month of February- Phyllis Vance. "I don't trust you Phyllis.."

- English institute class. I am going to have so much fun going to Church when I get back and understanding what people are saying.

- When my kids catch onto a concept I'm trying to teach. Best. Feeling. Ever.

- Emails from family, missionaries, and other people I love.

- Punch dancing on our roof. Carly and I have very unique methods of releasing aggression.

- Fresh mangos for breakfast. Be jealous everyone.

- Our Happy Mexico playlist. Just to give you a little taste, we have M.C. Hammer, Tarzan Soundtrack, Shakira, and Brian McKnight as a few cast members. 

- Decorated fruit. Don't you want to just dive into it??? No? Oh, just me then.

these People

Have you ever gone on a trip somewhere?

Well, duh.

BUT

Have you ever gone a trip somewhere, and the thing that made it most incredible wasn't so much the place you went or the things you did - it was the people who you were with?

I myself have had many trips like that. My family and I went on quite a few roadtrips back in the day and took some pretty cool vacations every once in a while that I'll always remember because my family is just fun. They make me laugh a lot. And I enjoy laughing.

I've also had trips with friends and college roommates which are unforgettable.

Like last Fall my roommates and I took a road-trip to Montana for our other roommate, Trenna's, wedding and it was a BLAST! It was the most fun 9 hour plus some change drive I've ever had because I was with my best friends. And lemme tell you, it's impossible for us not to have fun.

Me and my lovelies outside of Trenna's reception in Montana.

So now I want to take a second to talk about these people...

They are kind of my favorites right now.

Jordan, Kate, Cryshel, Carly and I have done lots of bonding since being here. 

Kind of hard not to considering we spend all of our time together and there's only five of us, which we kind of love. 

But I'm sitting in a hotel in Veracruz right now with these four awesome people and I am just very appreciative of the following things:

1. That we're all such different people, personality wise, but we somehow get along seamlessly

2. That no matter what it is we do we have fun together. 

3. We play scum (pee-on) daily.

4. There's enough of us that I feel safe, but not so many that planning or doing things is a hassle

5. We all run on pretty similar energy clocks so there's no disputes about whether we need to take naps or hit the town.

6. Everyone plays an important role in this group dynamic. Everyone is needed, and not having one person there just makes whatever we are doing not as fun.

7. In case you are wondering what this group dynamic is, I will sum it up for you: 

Kate is our head teacher, therefore our leader. She speaks Spanish the best of all of us and is very good at getting things done and making things happen. She is small, but very tough and is really bothered when Mexicans try to take advantage of us. She is open to all sorts of people and opinions which makes her an awesome leader. Plus she's also very motherly and likes to make sure were taken care of.

Cryshel is our walking encyclopedia. She is studying to be a teacher and she is going to be the best teacher ever, because she seriously knows everything. This has come in handy and is so entertaining in so many ways. She also is the one with all of the crazy-fun ideas that none of us would ever think of, and is always good for a story when we're sitting around wondering what to do with ourselves. She's a gem.

 Jordan (the only male, which obviously means he is extremely patient if we get along so well) is our fun-guy. He can make a joke out of anything, therefore make any somewhat not-so-fun situation much lighter and even funny. He has a very go-with-the-flow attitude but he's also really good at making plans for us. Plus it's very assuring to have a 6'3 guy walk with you everywhere in Mexico. Really, it's nice.

Carly is our peacemaker. She dissolves tension and puts everyones wants before her own, while still giving logical opinions for us all to consider before we make decisions as a group. She is also very funny. Its been really fun for me to see Carly be completely herself around people other than my roommates, because seriously the girl is a crack up. I don't know many people who can make you laugh just by looking at you. She's also the mediator which makes her a good person to talk to for everyone. 

I would tell you what my role is, but I honestly have no idea. I feel that my role has merely been to just enjoy all of these people and their personalities while seeing and doing some incredible things in Mexico.  And lemme tell you- it is one great role that I play.

I love my group!

And yes. We are always this goofy.