Monday:
So as I wrote in my last email I was sick Sunday and I have been since last Saturday I decided today that it would be best to stay home because I was getting worse not better and my medicine ran out. It ended up being a smart idea because I finally started to get better, my mom got me some more medicine, and I was able to take a break/slow down from everything that has been going on. They also won't allow me to have cold milk until I am better and have been cutting off bits of a ginger root and soaking it in hot water with honey to make a drink that is supposed to help me as well. I went out with Alan to go find the ginger but otherwise I just stayed at the house and slept or wrote this email.
Tuesday:
I decided to stay home one more day so that I could make sure that I am going to be able to finally kick this cold but I am definitely teaching the rest of the week. We do get a break this weekend for a trip but I am not sure that I am going to go on the trip because with this cold and being so tired lately anyways I would rather not go and be healthy for longer than have a party and just be a mess. I was really excited for it so we will just have to see... I will at least have to go to Puebla with the girls on Friday because Ashley and I only got 30 days on our Visa because of the immigration officer so we need to either renew it or find a way to get it for 180 days because otherwise we will have to visit Puebla every 30 days and pay a fee to turn it in. Anyways today mostly consisted of resting and reading up on the church website about how I can prepare to be a better missionary emotionally, physically and spiritually. It opened my eyes a little bit to what I could be doing even better to prepare to be a missionary as well as watching a video from the series the church is doing about missionary work called The District. It was a good use of my time and I felt a little more productive doing that than just lying around all day. It has also made me resolve to make some goals about some of the things I need to better prepare myself for while I am here and still have a decent amount of time before my mission. Which include:
- studying chapters 1 and 3 of Preach My Gospel
- striving to work out for at least 30 mins a day (an article about health from the church [and he is a cardiovascular specialist/surgeon] said that if you don't work out often or hardly at all it takes about 4 months for you to actually start enjoying working out and that you should at least work out an hour even if it is just running, walking etc. to have it be effective) so I am trying to build up to that,
-trying to be better about sleeping because my sleeping schedule has not been bad but it hasn't been great
-organizing my schedule/using my time a little more effectively.
Feel free to email me and ask about how I am doing on these goals. It will keep me more accountable to them. I am going to try to make weekly goals associated with these things so its a little easier to see the results of my actions.
For most of the day I just tried to keep my brain busy but rested. Something interesting about today was that I tried fried cauliflower. Yup, you read that right fried cauliflower. I have never really eaten cauliflower in my life but to be polite and just to try it, I ate the two full heads (?) that and they gave me some papya juice to drink which I don't really favor ( the juice and the fruit) but I can have it occasionally. ALSO it was either today or yesterday but I got to talk to my best friend Parker in Utah :). It made my day or possibly even more like my week/month but I have not talked to that kid in a while so amazing. So if anyone has a strong desire to Skype me, contact me through Facebook, email please do. It makes me immensely happy. I will try to contact you in a timely manner.
Wednesday:
I was able to teach today! It was hard to get back into the swing of things. I almost fell asleep while teaching at one point but other than that just a few minor aches and left over grossness from being sick.
Thursday:
I was not sure that I was going to leave on the four day trip for the four day weekend because of being sick. We got to the bus station to buy the tickets and I was just like why not? It will be really sad if I miss out so I decided to stick it out, catch enough sleep as possible and just plan on having fun. I also taught again today and we had lots of kids. We tried to make it more fun so we had it combined for a little while longer in both shifts (4-6, 6-8) but it did not go well. After a while we just went to classes and had our last class of the day before our long weekend. That night we went to play soccer with Teo (our stake president/guy who owns Help) and some guys our age/ around it. I did not play because I was still a little sick but I did cheer the girls on and occasionally kicked a ball or two/ helped go get balls. It was so much fun! Teo is also teaching us how to dance in a Colombian style, we have Spanish lessons ( w/Mari Karen), culture classes, lunches, dinners and classes all during the week. Plus my Dad is teaching me Kung Fu which is awesome by the way.
Friday:
We left for Puebla at 6 am. From there we went to Cuernavaca in a bus and drove to Taxco in a taxi. The city is nicknamed "Little Italy" and is absolutely gorgeous! It is all white and on this mountain side and in a moment of awesome nerdyness we called it Gondor (LOTR Reference if you don't recognize the name). The city although a little touristy (which meant people overcharged us because we were gringas aka white girls) but overall the experience was something we hopefully always remember. On Friday because of some hiccups (which include why we took the taxi not the bus) we arrived later in the afternoon. We toured about the area and figured out our way around to the Zocalo, centro, tourist information center and just enjoyed the area. We also had some amazing pizza at this pretty cheap restaurant. We almost ate 2 Grande pizzas all by ourselves and it was so good that you would have to taste it for yourself to understand. I would even say so good that I will miss pizza here in Mexico when I go home. A little while later we went back to the apartment to get ready for that night but I was too exhausted and sick to go up anymore hills so I slept. The other girls went to a light show and enjoyed watching it. We then went out on this gorgeous Patio on the roof of the hostel. While up there we met some other girls from the U.S. who were going to school in Puebla. We ended up having to leaving the roof because a man was going to propose to his girlfriend up there. He even bought us tequila and basically said here have a drink now get off the roof. Since we don't drink we gave it to the other girls and went down to our room. From there because we were all exhausted we had conversations that ranged from more serious to slap happy/ I am so freaking tired. It was awesome and definitely a bonding experience.
Saturday:
We got up early so that we could catch a bus as early as possible to go to some caves called Las Grutas. We needed the earliest possible tour so that we were able to meet up with a guy (who spoke English!) who was giving us a tour to Atzala to see these waterfalls and pools of water that we could swim in. The day communication wise was very frustrating because no one told us the whole truth about transportation, time, and money but the day ended up being one of the really amazing days of our trip. The trip to Atzala was worth ten times what we were paying so we tipped the guy extra because he was so amazing. We also later went to find the LDS church for Sunday, food and a free panoramic view of Taxco as well as enjoy the Zocalo for the night life. It was very busy had of the holiday coming up on Monday. Something interesting and quite fun about Mexico is that when we go on our trips people ask us to take pictures all the time. We got asked in Las Grutas by some boys who were on a school trip, and later we got asked by a boys soccer team for a picture as well. We always joke that when we go back to the U.S. our self esteem will take a plummet because people won't ask to take pictures with us or notice us as much anymore. After that we also found a super cheap restaurant with delicious food. I especially loved the consome (it was a type of soup). Anyways, after we ate we found the free panoramic view. One we got up there we just enjoyed the view sitting at a table. It was so beautiful and perfect. It made it even more perfect when they had Adele playing in the background and the city alive for the night. I cannot even describe the feeling that could be felt up there. We could have stayed up there for forever but we needed to walk back to the hostel and go to bed because it was late. Once we did we just talked till we were really tired and knew e should go to bed because we had church the next day.
Sunday:
Even though we had not been able to walk directly to the church the night before we were able to get directions by calling the church the next morning. The night before we walked all over and had not be able to find it and when we thought we found directions they were incorrect hence why we called the church. We had left the hostel early that morning so not only were we able to find our way there but we were able to make it early! We also were leaving Taxco that day to go to Cuernavaca so we had bought our bus tickets the day before so we did not have to pay on Sunday. We were so happy to be at church and that we found it. It was an amazing sacrament meeting (For if you don't know what I mean or at not LDS and want to know these are links to definitions of things! Definition of Sacrament Meeting). They had Ashley play the piano and so many people were so thankful for the Spirit her playing brought verses the recording they usually have. We also ran into a Missionary from Kaysville,UT and it was hilarious because his first reaction to seeing us was WHOA! After that it was just nice to talk and be introduced to all the people. They were so excited to have us there and since it was testimony meeting it was amazing to be able to feel the Spirit (Definition of the Spirit) through what they were telling us. Thats something that I love about the church. That we don't need to understand the language or the people but we know that we are all there with the same goals, same beliefs, and same teachings, it is universal wherever we go. One man talked about his chance to be able to go to the temple (Def of Temples) and be sealed to his wife for time and all eternity as well as have their little girl sealed to them. Another man talked about how he felt the Spirit so strongly through the music and how it strengthened his testimony (Definition of Testimony). He also talke about how he was so grateful and surprised that we called that morning. There were many more but those are the ones that really touched my heart. We were sad that we couldn't stay all three hours but we had a bus to catch. We took a Combis from the church, grabbed our stuff and left to the bus station (we had paid the day we arrived). We arrived in Cuernavaca about 2 hours later and Baylee's Uncle took us to what he calls "paradise". He owns a Bed and Breakfast and it was absolutely gorgeous! I wish I had more pictures to show you but sadly my camera died and I did not have a charger till later. We also explored near the bed and breakfast so that we knew our way around a little bit. We were able to find the center and a couple of other prominent areas around the center so we knew where we were essentially. We watched shows and at one point Heidi got pulled into a clown show, I had a violin show down with a street player, and we met some pretty awesome break dancers. We got a lot of attention after the clown show and had so many people talking to us and we even had people just walk by snap a photo and walk away. The show down was interesting because the street player Daniel knew parts of some harder violin songs but had modified them to be easier and more showy. I also couldn't exactly do the type of music the crowd wanted because I mostly only know classical music but I was able to play some songs by ear and bring out some of my older classical pieces. People really enjoyed it and it was interesting just to have the experience. The break dancers were overall just nice, and interesting but we left after we spent a little bit of time at their spot in the centro because they were a little bit worrisome in the sense that they just wanted to go clubbing, and drinking with us which is against the rules and because all of the girls in our teaching group are LDS (though this was by chance) so that also meant we would not drink anyways. Teo (the Mexican who owns Help and is our Stake President [a man over many congregations in an specific area]) also told us to avoid these kinds of people not necessarily because of their choices but because they have only seen MTV Springbreak and other shows like that with American girls going crazy so that is how they think all Americans are and we could get in a bad situation possibly. After that we just went home because once again it was late. Haha Bailey was sick of all the attention that we were receiving and on the way home from the center when a bus driver whistled at us and she yelled at the top of her lungs...SERIOUSLY???? We all burst out laughing and laughed all the way back to the Inn. Shortly after we arrived home, checked out information for El Rojo (A Water Park) and went to bed.
Monday:
Day of AMAZINGNESS!!! Baylee's Uncle drove us to a bus station that could take us directly to El Rojo or very close because it was further away. In a stroke of luck we were able to buy tickets that were cheaper and included a meal deal as well as buy tickets and get a taxi to El Rojo for a very inexpensive amount considering the kind of park it was and the trip. El Rojo was amazing and we said we would try everything and that literally meant everything. It included this awesome slide that was a straight drop and then looped around. It had to be pressurized so that you could make it to the end. Which meant that you were locked into a chamber in the typical water slide position and then a recorded voice counted down and the floor just pulled out from under you and down you went into the slide. Straight Down. It was freaking scary doing it yourself but super hilarious to watch our other friends do it. Something that I admit about myself is that I am a scardy cat always have been and I believe some part of me always will be but I have also realized the right kind of people can always help me overcome my fears and do what I wouldn't normally dare to do. In a good way and luckily for me these girls are those kinds of people which are actually very rare in my life. It also pushes me to choose to do more things like it in the future and I won't need the extra push because I tried it. In fact I can honestly say I am so proud of myself for doing all the things I did at the water park and I barely recognized myself but in a good way. It has also encouraged me to be out of my comfort zone and enjoy some things like that in life that I have always wanted to try but have not. Its hard to explain all of my thought process but the explanation I gave was the best I could do. Anyways an awesome day and we were able to stay all of the day. Getting home that night was not fun and a little scary because there was this guy that was creepy that was staring/glaring and following Ashley around when we were getting dinner. Not just being weird but he gave off a you need to stay away from him vibe. He looked like Johnny Depp's character in Alice in Wonderland except black and not so much like a clown and with slicked back hair with a tattoo of a cross on his chest. But, Ashley and I ate at McDonald's and the guys were so nice there. They came and brought us food and gave us anything else we needed. Other than that we were all just cold and a little sunburned and the walk back took forever but it was better than paying tons of money for a Taxi. Shortly after arriving Baylee's Uncle came home and he had made us soup earlier so we were able to have a before bed snack. Soon after I went to bed.
Tuesday:
Today Bill got up and made us breakfast as well as took us to the bus station. It was a little early but not nearly as early as when we left I wished that we could have stayed longer but sadly we had classes to teach. It was once again a long drive back to Tehuacan with several transfers but we were able to make it a little while before class started. Ashley and I went straight from the bus station to her family's kitchen to eat (for free which was nice!) and then we went to the school. My phone had died and there was some confusion with what was happening but I figured it out and I just stayed until the end of classes. It was really hard to come back and get back into the swing of teaching but we were able to do it.
There was more I wanted to tell you after this but I will send it in another email because this one is already very long! Hope that you enjoy and just let me know if I should maybe cut down a little bit on details ;). I also will be doing the rest of the week Feb 6-10th in another email. Anyways hope you enjoyed!
Love,
Becca Thacker
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