Mexico City!

A friend of mine found plane tickets to Mexico City for $65 USD so we went this past weekend. It was fantastic and I'd recommend anyone to visit there! I went with 5 friends...below are Melanie, Jen, me, Kyra and Rebecca.
In order we have: Zocalo, the square in front of the National Palace, then the next picture is the same square but the cathedral is right behind it. Our hostel was right beside the cathedral. Next is a Sun Stone inside the Museum of Anthropology, then Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's house (Mexican artists, married to each other and both super famous). Lastly, the last picture is a mural inside the National Palace created by Diego Rivera. They were painted between 1929 and 1945.

Some stuff about Jesus

Since I've been here I've gone to church, but its mostly been to meet people and practice Spanish. It has been a challenge to understand enough to be fed. So, I've started listening to preachers on podcasts. Right now my usuals are Tim Keller and Matt Chandler, though Matt Chandler has taken the lead. He preaches at a church in Dallas called The Village Church and he is very real and very awesome. So, I write this for two reasons:
1)If you have some time during the week for a podcast, look him up.
2)I sometimes run out of sermons and I'm always looking for someone new to listen to. Tell me if you listen to something you like! Not just preachers, but anything that might give me a good strong dose of Jesus and perspective.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Some of you know that I'm funny about people knowing about my blog. I try to write on it as I would in an email to you. With that said, I gave in to the cyberworld this week and joined twitter. And I want to know if you're on it so I can geek out and "follow" you.

I leave you with a picture from my birthday (more to come) but I want you to know that the girl in purple is Rachel, one of three sweet Christian friends I've made in the last few weeks. The other girl is her roommate, also really sweet.

Spring has Sprung

I was told yesterday that Winter is over. I'm having a hard time believing since we're in mid-February, but the high tomorrow is 87 and I see a glaring 96 in the 10-Day Forecast. I'd be okay if we had a few more cold days...but in the meantime I'm dipping back into my summer wardrobe. Who wants to come visit me now?

Locked out

Last week I went for a run with friends and when I came back, the cleaning lady had locked all the doors in the building and gone home for the day. She didn't realize I had come home and that I had left my keys inside. For the record, the apt. is behind a gate, so I tie the gate key to my shoe when I run and leave my door unlocked...that way I don't have to take two keys. So, ALL of my belongings and my friend's house keys were inside. We then proceeded to break into my friends house (we thought about breaking into mine but the windows you see below are the only ones...that place is a fortress). So my two friends fed me, gave me clothes to wear to work the next day, and let me crash with them. The plan was to wait for the cleaning lady in the am and then be late to work (Plan B: They gave me money to take a taxi in case she didn't show)Well the cleaning lady was late, but Alex and another friend (who comes over every morning to tutor ALex in Spanish) were assessing the situation with me in the morning. The only window that will even open at all is the little tiny window in the bottom right corner of the window on the left. My friend Carlos says "Let me just try to fit through." So we unscrewed the screen and slid the window open. The next thing I know, his butt and legs are sticking out from the window and he's saying "Cupe!! Cupe!!" which means, "I fit!! I fit!!" and then his legs disappear inside the apt. Sure enough he fit, but he lost his pants in the process. Door unlocked. Erin is an hour late to school...but in her own car.

To come...I maybe had the best birthday party ever last night...friends, food, rock band, pinata, power outage, dancing in the street, Mexican Dancing, Bull City dancing, and Costco cake.

Mexican "Snow Day"

This is Chipinque, a mountain near the school. It was really cloudy at the very top, but we could see a solid dusting on the side of the mountain.


The temperature went below freezing today and we actually had some snow flurries! I heard mixed dates about the last time Monterrey saw snow...anywhere from 1986 to 1999. Nonetheless, there were a few kids who had never seen snowfall before so it was fun to see the excitement at a few snowflakes...I have to admit I was excited too. I was in the cafeteria when it started and the cafeteria staff were looking out the kitchen door and laughing excitedly. I then all of a sudden got really excited too and actually went back in the kitchen with them to look out the door (mind you they were only flurries).

Here are the kickers:
1. Our school has a rule that if the temp gets below freezing (0 Celsius) then kids don't have to come to school and it doesn't count as an absence. But, they still have the option to come...so, I had 6 kids today. In total, 20 kids showed up in 4th grade out of 110. Here they all are in my room for Spanish class:

2. The power went out around 11:50...no one knows why but the guess was the weather+everyone running their heat on full blast. Our school hallways are outside and our rooms were getting colder by the minute, so there was no escape from the cold. The power came back on around 12:30, but by that time an announcement had already been made that we were closing early. I left work at 1:30 today.

The temp is below freezing until tomorrow afternoon and we're expecting precipitation tonight, so we all have our fingers crossed that there will be no school tomorrow, which is UNHEARD of around here. The snow only stuck at the tops of the mountains today, so we heard about a ton of kids who skipped school but drove up to the mountain near our school to play in the snow. Here are some of my sweet kids pointing at the snow on Chipinque.
All that to say, today was super bizarre and I felt like I accomplished nothing. And...I moved to Mexico to take a break from the cold. It followed me.

Attempt at a funny story

A friend of mine had a clothing exchange party last weekend. Basically, we all brought clothes that were still in good condition, but we just don't wear them anymore. We sorted them and then went "shopping." I got some great stuff and I got rid of a bunch of clothes that I never wear. We donated what no one wanted. (I thought it was an awesome idea)

Anyway, a friend was coming over and didn't know where the apartment was. It is on a one way street and it is a PAIN to pass it and have to circle back. She called when she was close, and I ran outside and up the street to meet her. There are a few parking spaces outside the building with those cement guards at the front end to keep cars from pulling up too far. So I'm in a full jog with my phone to my ear, and I didn't see the cement guard and tripped. The next thing I know I'm lying on the ground, both knees throbbing. As I'm trying to figure out how I fell, I realize the phone had been up to my ear throughout my entire journey to the pavement, and my friend is rambling on in Spanish trying to tell me where she is. I stay lying on the ground, partly trying to figure out how serious my injuries are and partly trying to concentrate on what she's saying. As I'm laying on the ground I start laughing, to which my friend is a little annoyed because she's lost. There wasn't really time to explain what happened so I just started saying, "Me cai, me cai," which means "I fell I fell." It would have taken centuries for me to tell her the whole thing in Spanish. So we continue our conversation with me laying on the pavement and watching the street. As I start to get up, I look up and realize this guy has been standing ten feet from me the whole time, and he must have been watching the whole time because the look on his face said it all. Thanks for the help man.

So here's the injury report...worst bruise I've ever had in my life on my right knee, equally painful but less noticeable bruise on my left knee, and small bruise on my elbow that took the impact because I kept the phone to my ear, instead of putting my hand down like a normal person would have done. I tried to take a picture of the bruise on my knee, but the picture doesn't do it justice AT ALL. It looks like someone colored with black, red and purple all over my knee. My knee still looks like this and I fell on Saturday.
And here's a little Tim Keller quote I got while listening to his podcast today...
"I'm not the means to an end. I AM the end."

Feliz Ano!

Hello friends and family. I hope the new year has treated you well! I am back in Mexico, and life is going on as usual.

I have nothing to say...but I have seen some HILARIOUS youtube videos lately so enjoy...

1. A friend sent this to me the other day...if you've seen Weekend at Bernie's II, you'll appreciate it. And please notice that it says the latest dance craze in the SOUTH (What?!?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRBLmogRL4c&feature=player_embedded

2. Improv Everywhere...might be my new favorite thing to look up on youtube. My friends and I decided that we want to do this at school one day...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnY59mDJ1gg&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRKfZ0mGLaY&feature=channel