Mexican Monday: Womp Womp

Alright, so my weekend was not so hot. I felt sick, and then ok, then sicker, and then just alright, and then SUPER sick, wanna die, and then today I am taking it easy. Basically I am not quite sure what's up, but until I feel awesome again, I am having yogurt and fruit only. Fun times.

Not only have I been Sicky Sara, my email also was hacked from the awesome mexican internet, so I have been locked our for two days now, and can't solve the mystery. The security questions are simple as pie, and somehow my answers are incorrect. Gahh! Does anyone know where I was born, cause apparently I have no idea.?!

Besides that I feel like I have a ton of stuff to do, its freezing cold outside, and I miss my missionary.

Yes I heard from him today through my school email account, but we didn't get to say much, because its very slow and much different than AOL. Yes I am disappointed, and yes this only added to my pity party. Woah is me.

The other womp of the 'womp womp' is that Justen didn't have such a funtastic week either, for unbloggable reasons. Poor guy. It was one of those, we both wanna run away together, I miss you so much kind of Mondays. So we swapped advice, and I love you's and hopefully next week will be cheerier.

Anywhoot, I finally had a mango on a stick here in Tehuacán, and it was fabulous and less than a dollar. I will definitely be snackin' on those again. Excuse my weird outfit, we were having a "swimsuit Saturday", but it was too cold for all that nonsense so we threw on some stuff overtop.

Next Mexican Monday better be better...hah..Only 45 weeks to go!!

-Sara Jacqueline

TGIF: My Mexican (Un)Birthday..

Well, get ready to judge me, because after I tell you this big ol' secret, you will think us ILP teachers are all awful people. Are you ready? Sit down.

Today was my birthday. Actually, let me rephrase that. Today was my fake birthday that me and my friends all made up so that we could have a party and eat cake, for no reason at all.

Yes, thats right. We told everyone it was my birthday. We told everyone I turned 20, even though I already did back in July on my REAL birthday. We bought a cake. We invited all of our friends. We told all of our students it was my actual birthday. We are awful, and we know it, ok?

But besides the fact that we are all a bunch of frauds, we had a TON of fun. And its only going to get better, because we made up a fake birthday for everyone in our group, except Courtney, because it is actually her real birthday while we are here.

So my Mexican/Fake (Un)Birthday was fabulous!

I started my day out with a long run, and then Zumba class. Afterwards I had a little morning break and then we met up for our weekly culture class, with one of our BFF's Irma. She is an amazing lady, with beautiful kids, and a super nice home. Irma, is always stylish, tons of fun and energy and she speaks really great spanish, so we can understand her.

For our adventure with Irma today, we went to el mercado, or the market, to shop for some groceries, try lots of new things, and stare at all the choices of fresh, raw and handmade food. There were whole dead animals just hanging in the market...it was pretty nasty to walk past, let alone eat next to. The food was also verrry cheap, which was awesome, and there were SOO many fruits and veggies, we loved it!!

After the market, we headed over to Irma's house, our culture teacher. She is amazing and way cool. She always has the cutest outfits, and frequently wears leopard pants with her boots. She has two little kids and loves to cook she said.

First we sliced up some jicama and cucumbers and sprinkled them with chile and lime. Lime makes everything taste awesome, and the chile was super yummy here. We will have to get ourselves some at the store soon, so we can put in on everything like natives.

Basically we took over her kitchen, and we all had our own little job to help make our lunch for today. We had no idea how much food we were actually making...it was WAY more than expected.

This was actually really interesting. We grilled the poblano peppers on the stove until nice and crispy hot, then out them in a plastic bag, sealed tight, and let them sweat, so we could get the skin of easily. We used the poblano peppers for the soup. Yum!!

Jamaica, a flower, is popular as a drink. We took dried petals and boiled them in water to make jamaica water, which is very common. It was SUPER delicious, and I would totally make it again. It was a really good summer drink, not to much flavor, but not boring like water. Its also known to help cure stomach problems, and is the color of cranberry juice.

This wasn't even the half of the ingredients that went into our lunch. But you can see the jamaica in the bag up top, the corn for the soup, the mandarins for dessert, the tortillas for our chalupas, the jimaca and cucumbers, and lastly, those purple/blue oval tortillas? They are calles azul tortillas, which are thick like pitas, and have black beans between the tortilla layers...these are extra yummy!

Once we completed our big cooking adventure, we got to eat it all too! First we had some soup, which was a chicken broth with zucchini, corn, poblano peppers and chayote, another kind of squash. We made sure to write that recipe down, because I will be making it for everyone I know at home. It was my favorite.! After the soup, we enjoyed these chalupas, both with cheese, one with beans, the other with pork and salsa verde, which we also learned to make. We boiled down several ingredients, including tomatoes, peppers, garlic, etc, and then put them in a blender for instant green salsa. Soo Good!!

Clearly we enjoyed ALL of our food, and we even made grilled nopal. Its big flat cactus leaves and we put lime and salt on them. They are a little slimy, but good and way low in calories.

Also, since today was my "birthday", Irma taught us how to make a so simple mexican cheesecake. We blended lechera, cream cheese and two eggs together, put it in a graham cracker crust, baked it for twenty minutes, and spread mora (berries) on top. Success!! That was one awesome birthday cake. Did I mention that Lechera goes good on and in everything?!?!

It was even cuter because Irma sang to me all by herself, the typical Mexican Birthday song. She is really a sweet sweet lady.

Anyways, we barely made it back in time for school, and when I got there, I found this! Ohh my my,..now everyone knows its my birthday. Shoot. Our friends at the school are so cute though..isn't this so nice?? Carol was really proud of her bulletin board creation. haha.
After four long hours of school, I really wanted a nap, but instead we had a party!!!! We were too stuffed from lunch to go out to eat, so we just skipped it, and went to my house for cake and games and dancing. We invited some of our school friends, and church friends.

They all sang to me in spanish, and this was no typical birthday song. It was much longer and I am pretty sure they harmonized.

The cake was SUPER fantastic. Ashley snuck out during teaching to go buy a tres leches cake, because we have been dying for one, and obviously Birthdays are perfect occasions. It was tres leches with chocolate and nuez. This means, it had three milks, regular, evaporated and sweetened condensed milk, with chocolate and pecan. Yum!!! This picture doesn't even do it justice. The cakes here look way awesome. We ate the whole entire cake between us all. We played some silly games, and practiced our salsa dancing and just laughed like crazy. Thank goodness for Mexican UnBirthdays and Cake.!

-Sara Jacqueline

We Got Two Left Feet

This week we started dancing lessons with our good friend Edwin. He is native to Tehuacán and can speak A-mazing english, so we like to take him with us lots of places for help and to be our body guard. Edwin is our primary dance teacher, but Teo, our Native Coordinator/Dad/Church Stake President also came in to assist since there are like seven of us. We have tried to stop every nice guy who we think can dance to come help us learn.

For our first two lessons we have been learning some basic steps, several turns and some solo moves for the Salsa. Thats right, I am dancing the Salsa, and eating it too. Nice huh?

Bonnie with Teo: This is probably the funniest picture I got all day.

Edwin and Ashley

Edwin and Jen

Betsy and Teo: She was pretty nervous..

This is what we think about our dancing skills...

I didn't get any pictures of myself today, and even the ones I got weren't the best. But as we take more lessons and get better, I will be sure to get a video and some sweet action shots.

Surprisingly, I was pretty good, and I felt like I was catching on fast. The boys are the ones who do most of the work, since they are leading, so as long as you don't trip and fall or smack anyone, then you are awesome! We are trying to get super good for a church dance coming up..... We shall see if us white girls can be as graceful as our teachers.. I think we better practice some more.!!

-Sara Jacqueline

Dear Sara,

For those of you who have been asking for my mailing address while I am here in Mexico, here you go! I would love some mail, and you can ask anyone, I am a greeeeat pen pal :)

Sara Lauer

Heslington Institute

2 Norte 1210 Colonia Jacarandas C.P.

75730 Tehuacán, Puebla, Mexico

Ready. Set. Random.

In case you didn't know I am in an Honors Theatre Fraternity at Morehead State, Theta Alpha Phi, and I love all my crazy friends. We all have characters that represent us, and mine is Violet from The Incredibles. It is pretty much perfect, because Violet is in love with a redhead and ummm so am I..haha... Justen is my redheaded lover. My big Mary sent me this video, which I think you need to atleast watch the first minute or so, because it is SOO adorable. I love Taylor Swift, my redheaded boy and The Incredibles, so it goes perfectly.

Can you see Violet kissing her redheaded boy in the comic??

I had spanish class today and I really think I am learning a lot. Me encanta Mexico!

-Sara Jacqueline

Mexican Monday!!!

I feel like Mondays come so much faster than they did before when I was in school, but I don't mind a bit. I love waiting to hear from Justen and all the cool missionary stuff he is doing.

This week, he had lots of wonderful news. First of all, Today he had a baptism for a 15 year old boy. Soo exciting! Even better news, is that they have four more baptism dates set up for the next coming weeks, which is also a wonderful blessing! Him and his companion are very excited for their investigators, and so am I and I don't even know them. Missionary work is such a neat thing to watch and hear about from my perspective.

In other news, he finally got his Christmas package!! He is so sweet. I apologized for it being so late and he says, "I always have said Christmas should be all year long". Yess, we both LOVE Christmas. Also our anniversary is today, which he remembered, so I think its a good sign that he knows what day it is..haha.

Basically to sum up the mushy stuff, he is as cute as pie. The end.

This morning we went to an extreme Zumba class. It was crazy fun, and pretty different from home. Those Mexican Zumba instructors will kick your buns. I loved it!!

Also today in my part of Mexico, we got our first dance lessons with our friend Edwin. Its not really hard, but I still feel awkward. I kept slipping all over the place in my sandals on the tile floor, which only added to the humor. I spent the rest of my day doing school work, and lounging in the sun before teaching time. So lucky.

Hey, did I mention they sell these babies everywhere?? They are seasoned grasshoppers and you can buy them by the bag full like peanuts. Gross times eleven. I haven't tried them, but I have heard they are good with lime!

Happy Mexican Monday!!

-Sara Jacqueline

Viva Puebla!

This past weekend, we all got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to hop on the 7 a.m. bus to Puebla, which is about two hours away. No worries, because these are like fancy pants tour buses, so we were plenty comfy. When we made it to Puebla, we traveled into the downtown area, or the Zoccalo and saw many beautiful streets.

We first toured the city a little and also went into the Largest Cathedral in Latin America. It took almost 115 years to complete the construction of the cathedral, and when you go inside, you can see why. It's HUGE.

One of the best parts of our day was a trolley tour throughout the entire city. Since we are in Mexico, we walk everywhere, and to sit down and take a ride somewhere is a real treat. We had a lot of fun on the trolley, even if we couldn't always understand the tour guide.

There was a ton of shopping in the city, and vendors were everywhere we went, so it was easy to find things we wanted. For lunch we chose this really cheap, hole in the wall place, that was actually really good. We got gorditas and quesadillas, and were quite pleased...until later when I felt sick. Yuck, I didn't feel good the rest of the weekend, so I didn't eat much after that. Bummer.

Saturday night, we wound up in Cholula, a smaller city right outside Puebla, because thats where our plans were for Sunday, and we also had reservations at an all girls hostel. Yes I said hostel, not hotel. Well by the time we made it there, it was around 9 p.m. and the hostel already decided to give our rooms away!!! Ahhh!! We were kinda nervous and short on ideas. Fortunately, we found a different hostel, that was twice as expensive, but it had room for all 7 of us. The girls ate some cholupas from the street, and then we all crashed for the night. Our feet were killin us!!

On Sunday, we got plenty of rest and then headed over to the ruins in el centro de Cholula. It was a beautiful warm day, so we got tons of pictures and walked through the whole park. First we had breakfast at one of the many food stands surrounding the soccer fields. The girls all had cemitas, which are like toasted sandwiches piled with pork, cilantro, onions and salsa. It looked soo good, but I felt so sick.

Oh hey, did I mention our little group of six has an addition?? Yes! Her name is Betsy, and she is in the picture above in the pink shirt on the right. She also teaches at the same school as us, but in a different program similar to ours, but with adults. She is SOO much fun, way nice, our age, and basically a lot of fun. We invited her on our little adventure, and we hope she comes on lots more!!

Anyways, our day continued looking at the awesome ruins, the cathedral of Cholula, and the gorgeous weather. We learned a whole lot and walked even more. We hiked all the way to the top of that half pyramid..holy cow, the view was scary, and it was even scarier that there was no railing or handle bars..Yikes!!

Overall, we had a super fun weekend, ate lots of random food, saw crazy people, and lots of neat stuff too. By the time we came back, we were way too tired, dirty and sunburnt. Puebla was Awesome!!

L to R: Me, Betsy, Jen, Courtney, Ashley, Mandy and Bonnie

-Sara Jacqueline

TGIF

I cannot believe I have already been teaching for two whole weeks!! Wow, we have already had so much fun, and have planned a TON more..exciting things to come!!!

Well Fridays are now officially the BEST days of the week besides Mondays, because we just got.....drumroll please..A Culture Teacher!!! Yes, this is exciting, because its not this old lady, or some strange guy who could care less. Me and my girls here in Tehuacán get to spend every Friday morning with our fun, young, wild teacher/mom, Irma.

Today she came and introduced herself, and we just talked about all the things we want to do and what we want to learn, and she whipped out her calendar and planned it ALL for us. We are looking forward to many food/cooking classes, fiestas, traditions, tours, and TONS more. Can it get any better??

Oh yeahh, she found us this place to do Zumba every day of the week. Each class only costs 20 pesos, or $1.60. I love bargains. Mexico is for me. So Irma is totally sweet, and fun and she is actually really easy to understand, so this is yet another opportunity to practice my spanish. I cannot wait till next Friday.

Tonight after class, I came home with my host family, picked up my laundry package down the street, and then we had a baking adventure. Ok, so its not really baking, but I chose to make Muddie Buddies, because everyone in the U.S. loves them, and they are basically the best sugary treat ever.

However, today at the store, me and Jen were struggling to find ANY of the ingredients. I already had brought peanut butter and powdered sugar from Kentucky, but we couldn't find any form of chex cereal in the store or chocolate chips. When I asked for chocolate chips, they pointed me towards cookies, and when I explained what I really wanted, they looked at me like I had a bird growing out of my nose. What the heck?

Welp, I got super creative, and substituted chocolate chips for Nutella, since that is ultra cheap and the chex cereal for Krave cereal from Kellogs. The cereal aisle is so wonderful to me, its already my favorite food, but in a foreign country, its even more fun. But we will talk about that another day.

These bad boys are like rice/corn puffs filled with a little bit of chocolate. So they are actually similar to the idea of chex.

My host sister Elly was OVERLY excited to make something with me, so we started as soon as we got home. I was actually really worried they wouldn't work the same, so I made sure she didn't get her hopes up...too late.

She thought this was hilarious to shake the bag of powdered sugar. She also didn't believe me when I told her the powdered sugar was sugar.

So yummy, but SO so bad for you.

Lastly, since it is Friday and its a good day to eat lotsa chocolate, I found this teeny box of goodies at the store, and figured I would try them out. Yes, this was my lunch. I have the best ideas, seriously.

The candy selection here is pretty legit. I haven't disliked anything except the corn/chile lollipop. But I am erasing that from my memory.

Thank goodness it is Friday, because tomorrow we are leaving on a bus to Puebla for a small weekend trip.!! We cannot wait!

-Sara Jacqueline

Photo Day: 2

These are all the fabulous girls in my teaching group. We spend all of our time together teaching and touring. From L to R: Courtney, Mandy, Bonnie, Ashley and Jen

Today we got AMAZING mexican ice cream for only 50 cents! How do you say....we will be back!!?

In el centro de Tehuacán, there is this beautiful Cathedral, that is usually busy with lots of people. Outside there is always a garland of flowers to symbolize a celebration. If the flowers are white, its for a wedding and if they are orange, it is for a quinceñera, or a girl's fifteenth birthday.

In my class today, these two cuties made pet rocks. At school, the kids are strictly not allowed to speak spanish, only english, so they were really afraid to tell me their pet's name's at home, because of course they are all spanish names! Pretty funny.

When I get my laundry done, down the corner, it comes back all neatly packaged and folded so cute!

One of my best students gave me this elote sucker today. It's supposed to be like the real elotes, which is corn on a stick with mayo and chile. Crazy Mexican candy..

See how funny it looks...literally a corn on the cob sucker.

Yeah, I tried it. And then the trash had its fun with this sucker. It tasted like the sweet feed from home that the horses get, which I used to eat as a kid. Yuck times five. I tried sucking on it for a while to see if it got better, but it just has no potential. Sorry Alexia, I still love your kind gift!!

Having a wonderful week teaching! This weekend: Puebla or Bust!!

-Sara Jacqueline