Catch-up

To start, I don't know how I am ever going to be able to fit an entire month of wonderful people, teaching, adorable children, adventures, vacations, and unforgettable experiences into only ONE little post! But I'll do my best. :) When I first arrived here in Mexico, and even in the following few weeks, everything was new and there was a lot of adjusting to do. But now... I feel at HOME. I love the culture here! The people, the food, the Mexican way of life, and especially my wonderful host family! I am really going to miss it here. Here is a VERY condensed update on my life this last month or so.

Cactus City.

One Sunday afternoon, my family took me to a city about 1 1/2-2 hours away, I can't remember the name. It was some kind of national park I think, there were SO many cactus's! More than I have ever seen in my whole life, and the biggest as well. It was so fun just spending time with my wonderful host family, they are amazing. And SO good to me.

Above: Emilio, me, and my host-grandma! Sandra's mother Martha. Below: Sandra and I! Love her. Notice the chile covered popsicle she has in her hands... they LOVE those here!

Fortin, Cordoba, Orizaba.

On another Sunday afternoon, my family introduced me to three new places, names of the cities above. They are all in the state of Veracruz I believe. They used to live in Cordoba not too long ago while Christian was going to school, so they love it there. They showed me a lot of neat places, like the cathedrals, the centers, and some cool shops and restaurants. I didn't take a lot of pictures due to a lack of planning on my part (forgetting to charge my camera), but here's a few. One of the places we went to was in a deep valley, they call it the 'heart of the city'. It was gorgeous, and lots of people. Then we went on an awesome hike! 500 stairs.... yes, I said 500. The stairs were numbered all the way up, I didn't count them. :) At the top of the stairs we found a natural well of water, so we cooled off and enjoyed a nice drink straight from a puddle. Then we walked out over a bridge/rail road tracks, it was a little creepy, we were SO high off the ground. I'll include a picture of the bridge we walked across.

Guitar!

Last semester on of the teachers (and also one of my best friends) bought a guitar here in Tehuacan but had to leave it at the school when she returned home. I was so excited to have one to play! I love strumming chords on the guitar and just singing along on a slow afternoon. Within the first week though, someone managed to break one of the strings during what must have been an intense jamming session... making one of the only playable chords an Em.... and there's only so many songs you can play with that one! :) So I brought the guitar home to have my host mom help me figure out where I could repair the string, and as with everything else, she was more than willing to help me! Due to a busy weekend I had momentarily spaced my inspired vision of getting the guitar fixed, until I came home from teaching on night to find the guitar -in full working order and more beautiful than ever - laying on my bed!! I wish I could explain my excitement at that moment. :) My family had taken it to be repaired for me, and surprised me with it! LOVE them.

WORLD CUP!

Mundial. I have never been one to really get into sporting events, but I am sure loving the World Cup. And what I love almost as much as the cup is how almost the entire country all but shuts down for 2 hours when our team is playing. One of the games happened to be during my classes, and guess how many children I had? 5.... Out of 29. Don't you worry though, we had a party to make up for missing the game. :) My host family bought me a Mexican soccer jersey, I love it so much! I proudly sported it on every game day. I realized that I've watched more MEXICAN soccer games and worn a MEXICAN soccer jersey more than I have my own country of the U. S. of A. ......A little ironic? I'll leave that up to you. :)

Veracruz.



Vacation time! I got to go on a 3 day vacation with all of the other teachers, it was a lot of fun. the first day we got to watch the sun rise over the ocean, saw the first game of the world cup in a small restaurant right on the beach, then we went to an ancient ruin site, followed by none other that the Veracruz TEMPLE! I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to do baptisms for the dead in the Veracruz temple, I am so blessed! It was such a neat to experience, and to add to it, it all in espanol. We even got to meet the temple president and his wife, and also the second counselor in the temple presidency as well as his wife. Wonderful people.

The second day we did some shopping.... okay a LOT of shopping. :) We got to go the Aquarium in Veracruz, as well as the wax museum. For dinner we had my favorite, tacos arabes, from a little street taco stand, then we drove through the night to a city called Catemaco.







Above: oh, just me and Pres Obama. All of the Mexican people were so amazed, they LOVED him. And they thought it was hilarious to see Americans taking pictures by him. Below: Brad Pitt. :) He refused to look at the camera.

At the end of the wax museum, we made a WAX HAND! Weirdest experience. As a child, I always stuck my fingers in my mom's candles when she wasn't looking... but this was my entire hand! And it was hot. After they got the mold of my hand in the white wax, they pulled it off my hand and re-shaped it, then dipped it into the colored wax, then filled it with plaster. Best/most random souvenir ever! We kept making jokes with it like "Hey Candace, will you hold my 'hand'? I need to go to the bathroom."



The next day in Catemaco, we went to a BEAUTIFUL waterfall, it was so pretty! There was a even a double rainbow visible at the bottom of the falls. After the falls, we got to do a boat tour of this Lagoon in Catemaco, and saw 'monkey island'. Apparently in the 70's, the Mexican gov't dumped hundreds of monkeys that they had used in experiments on this island, so now there are TONS! So random, and so funny. Just like everything else in Mexico. :)

Mi familia, y la vida.

I got to see Eclipse! My host mom was so excited to see it, and so was I. :) Sandra, Christian y yo got tickets for OPENING night, the MIDNIGHT showing! We are such troopers. Christian almost even stayed awake for the whole movie. :) I have a lot of random pictures and stories/experiences I want to add here, of teaching and my family. Here they are!


Ahh I just love this family SOO much. I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of their lives, and I am so grateful! I am going to be so sad to leave them, I will miss them tons! Especially Emilio and Valentina, those kids are adorable.


These are some of my kids at Discovery, at our end of year party! I miss them. I don't teach them anymore now that the summer semester is here.
Below: Some of the kids i teach at my second school, ILP. The first is Ivanna, she is so adorable! A handful though. She comes to opening every day pretending to be a different animal... and sometimes stays in character the whole night. Ah, Ivanna. As hard as she is to have in class, I'm going to miss her.

Cuetzalan!

Above: pictures of the beautiful waterfall that we hiked down to and got to swim in and under. So pretty! and the water was.... freezing. Literally.

Below: This is the center of Cuetzalan, it is so old, it's almost as if you've stepped back in time to ancient Mexico! Really pretty. The pole? I don't know. It was in front of the cathedral, and we thought it was really neat, so we climbed up the ladder.


One of the ladies that work for ILP, Julietta, organized a day trip for all of the teachers to a nearby city - Cuetzalan. My original plan was to just stay home with la familia, to save some pesos. It wasn't that expensive... I just have a tendency to be extremely cheap at times.. hahah. But after reading some words of advice in an email from a great friend, I changed my mind, and added my name to the list. and I am SO GLAD I did. We left really early (2 am...) on a Saturday morning, and the drive lasted about 5 hours. Ruben, our bus driver for the length of the trip, is the craziest/scariest yet most time efficient driver that I have ever had the ... (can I call it an opportunity?) of driving with. We went hiking, swimming in beautiful waterfalls in the middle of a jungle, we even went cave exploring!

One of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Our tour guide told us that at the end of the cave, we were 750 meters (2460 ft) below the earth's surface. Wow. A couple of the girls had to turn back because they felt extremely claustrophobic, a few of the passages in the cave were really tight and narrow. Also, almost the entire way we were wading through a stream - and, due to lack of information, we were ALL sporting flip flops! It was a slippery hour or so, but we made it. :)

Independence Day.

FOURTH OF JULY!!! Never have I appreciated my country more than I do now, when I can't take advantage of the innumerable opportunities, privileges and luxuries that are so unique to the United States of America. I am so grateful to have been born and raised in such a blessed and protected land, and am also very grateful for the thousands of men and women who have fought, many even given their lives, to protect our freedoms and way of life. Thank you! Believe it or not.... they don't celebrate the 4th here! So to commemorate the Independence of our Nation, all of us teachers got together to have a good ole American party! Complete with a BBQ, potato salad (with pickles even), patriotic songs and even a few Mexican fireworks, we had a great time! I made a huge fruit salad to take, and it was delicous! My host mom helped me make it, they thought it was so interesting mixing fruit with something sweet. Here the only thing they mix their fruit with is chile powder or lime juice. I sure missed the usual 4th celebration at home though... 5k around PC, breakfast in the park, the parade, and spending the day in the city square, then of course followed by fireworks with family and friends. I'll be there for ya next year, USA, next year.