Happy Leap Day!!!

Just thought I would fill you in on a little bit of what we have been up to these past few days. First of all, we FINALLY got to go to San Lorenzo, the Water Park here in Tehuacan. Now this is not Holiday World, it is literally a park with water, thats it. San Lorenzo is far out of town, so we rode a combi out and then spent the day in the sun. There are two pools, one is basically concrete built around a natural spring, so it is like swimming in a lake or pond, and then the other is a shallow baby pool, that is actually a 'pool', but babies swim in it, so it is probably just like swimming in the lake or pond. haha. The weather was beautiful, and there was this awesome breeze going on which was nice too. We stayed there for several hours, and have some awesome tan lines to prove it. Believe it or not, this was the first time we got into our swimsuits, and actually put them to use. Usually we plan to swim or tan, and then its freezing outside, or the pool never really existed like we were told.

Also, we went out for Tacos with Teo again. It is seriously one of our favorite nights of the week when he invites us out. He is super funny, way way nice, and can always tell some sort of interesting story. Besides hanging out with Teo and Edwin our sidekick, we get to eat some amazing food. Yummmm!

Can you believe it is almost March?? I can't believe how fast time is flying..bummer. Do you have any ideas of things I should do on my Mexican adventure, or things you want to know about? Ask away! I would love to share with you!

-Sara Jacqueline

Mexican Monday: Only 39.9% Left

Justen was sad to say he wasn't transferred to a different area this week, and he didn't get a new companion. But I think that is because they still have some work to do together in that area, and they just don't know it yet. Everything seemed to be going swell for him, and he was all happy and such. Mostly he just asked about where he should go to school when he gets home, and when I want to marry him. Umm, yes he is adorable and you can't have him.

In other news, last night me and my friends went to the park to have some dinner. The park is like a humongous party on Sunday and Saturday nights, it is full of vendors and people making food, and all sorts of fun stuff. So we walked around, and examined our options and then sat down to a little tent for tostadas, gorditas and empanadas. It was run by a family, the mom and dad were both making food, and the little boys took our order and just ended up talking with us the whole time we ate. It was cute, they were like out little dates. They asked us if we liked airplanes, and showed us some American money they had been given, and asked what it was worth in pesos. They were pretty excited to know they had a whole meal's worth of coins.

If you can see in the last picture, there is a grill where all the food was made for us. These are ultra common. Basically all Mexi food here is made on one of these in small restaurants, in the park or on the street corner. In the middle, there is a little pool of oil, and around the outside it is kept hot for the food. Some are run by gas tanks, and most have like little fire pits underneath. It is like the Mexican Weber grill, everyone has one, and everything on them tastes amazing.

My tostada was awesome, and the other girls ordered gorditas and empanadas, and I know they loved them too. My entire dinner cost less than 50 cents!

Today some of my kids were being extra malicious, and usually when I bring out a camera, they stop, so I brought out my camera..hah! I hate to say this, but I took pictures of my favorites...oops. I love little Leah because she is so so smart, and the other two boys are just hilarious always.

Happy Mexican Monday!!!

-Sara Jacqueline

TGIF: Dance Dance Dance

Well I am happy to say Friday has come because we always desperately need a break. After school today we got to enjoy a little time at a gran fiesta at our school for the adult students. As ILP teachers, we work with children ages 5-12 teaching them english, but upstairs at the Heslington Institute, they have youth and adult students who are learning english. We shared some cake and ice cream and enjoyed some crazy music, but afterwards is when the real party started.

At our church, we have dances for the young adults every so often for fun, and we were really excited to be able to go to one here in Mexico, because we know all Mexicans are awesome dancers. When we first got to the dance, it wasn't doin' so hot. The lights were bright, there weren't any people, there were five year olds running around, and no music..just karaoke, so we were hesitant to stay. If there is one thing I have learned about being in Mexico, it is that Mexicans run on their own time..which is typically late. So we waited...

Once an American song came on, we were out there fist pumpin and side steppin, which got everyone comfortable enough to start dancing. I guess everyone was just waiting for everyone else to start dancing...as usual. So from then on, there was tons of dancing, silly or legitimate salsa dancing, and we had a lot of fun. We ate some square pizza and acted like crazy people, and ended up making a lot more friends than we started with. Now we have two dinner dates...hahah... How fun! Our Friday turned out to be pretty good!!

-Sara Jacqueline

Photo Day!!

Just thought I would fill you in on some crazy things that we, as english teachers do. First of all, do you see this crazy man in the middle?? This is Harry. Harry hangs around the main park all day singing to people for money, or fun, or whatever. He found Bonnie on Valentine's Day, sang a whole cd worth of songs to her, and hasn't been able to forget about her since. On two separate occasions he found us walking through the park, after the first time we met. He remembers all of our names, but he especially is in love with Bonnie. She stole his heart apparently, because even when Bonnie isn't around, she is ALL he can talk about. I took a little photo so Bonnie could tell her grandkids about this one.

Hey, you see my red sweater? You like it? Yeah me to, Thanks Mom for the package, it fits perfect!

Oh umm...Teo, can we take your car for a spin?? Pretty please??

Have a Fabulous Friday!

-Sara Jacqueline

Panaderia 101

One of the best parts of Mexico is the Panaderias. Panaderia means bakery. It is actually much different than what I always imagined as a bakery, full of cookies and cake and a few loaves of like italian bread. The word Pan means bread, and so literally it is just ALL bread. Everything in the Panaderia is pan, maybe a few cookies, but people still call it pan, not cookies. It is kind of weird, and when you ask someone what this or that is, they will always just answer "pan", so it can be kind of frustrating to not know the exact name.

After a while with my family, I have seen tons of Pan, and I think I know what is good and what is bad. We typically eat pan for breakfast, and pan for dinner sometimes too. Pan is SO so cheap, usually one piece of pan is about 2 or 3 pesos, which comes out to be less than a quarter, maybe 15 cents, VERY cheap. Basically you can get a bag full of pan for less than a dollar or 75 cents and it is mostly all delicious. Let me introduce you to how wonderful it all looks..I am only sorry you can't smell it when it fills the town.

Surprisingly, most panaderias are not open early like bakeries in the U.S. The bread starts rolling out onto the shelves around noon, and the best stuff is usually out around 7 p.m. There are so many kinds I could go on and on, but we will just highlight a few. Lets begin class..

First off we have the typical sandwich bread. This huge bathtub of white bread is called tortas, and are typically served with smashed frijoles, cheese, lettuce, avacado, tomato, mayo, and some sort of meat..maybe ham. To me, they are dry and crusty, and I really try to avoid them, because I don't really care for white bread, but here, everyone loves the heck out of them.

Another common bread that you can find at even the tiniest panaderias is the conche. They look kind of like seashells, hence the name, and are sweet and soft. On top they have a crumb coat of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, and the bright red one is just sugar. These are also one of the cheapest, and are popular at breakfast dipped in your warm milk, coffee or hot chocolate.

One of my personal favorites, the oreja, is a thin crispy piece of pan. It is more like a pastry, and it is named oreja, meaning ear, because it resembles an elephant ear. They are usually coated in sugar, and at some places cinnamon sugar which is even better. I like orejas, because they aren't very big or filling like all the other bread.

Another one of my favorites, which are usually common at every single panaderia are yo yo's. At first, when my host family gave me one of these big sugary balls, I wasn't so sure about them. But I absolutely Love them, so much that I have to limit myself to only buying them once in a while, like on Saturdays or something. They really are delicious. They are very soft, and covered in a sugary cream, with sugar stuck to it. Then in between the two sides of the 'yo yo' it has a creme filling, which is slightly like frosting. The only time yo yo's aren't good is if the bottom of one of the 'yos' was burnt, because burnt bread can be covered up with creme and then it still won't taste good. But you would never know when you went to buy it, so watch out!

Alright, listen up. Before I came to Mexico, I heard rumors that the donuts were amazing, but after trying two different places, I am still not impressed. Donuts here do NOT compare to Krispy Kreme in the least, and especially not that donut place in Lexington near Keeneland. The donuts (and muffins) are dry, and hard and basically the chocolate sucks. Sorry, but don't waste your time, pesos or calories.

I bet you are thinking this colorful think looks awesomely delicious too right?? Well you are close...it LOOKS delicious, but really its just some bread with whip cream and sprinkles. All those colors tend to fool you into thinking it is gonna be like a party in your mouth. Although, it is pretty impressive how they can get that pink swirl of bread all up in there, but don't be fooled, it is not strawberry flavored. Most of the time, this type of pan is just ok, but maybe there is some better version out there somewhere...

Lastly, these are my host mom's favorite. I see her get them ALL the time. I don't know what it is. These both are pretty much the same thing, just different shapes, and sizes. There are two butter cookies slapped together with a little frosting and that is it people. I don't really consider it pan, because like I said, they are cookies, not bread like at all, but they still taste delicious.

Well now I think you have successfully passed Panaderia 101. It's a delicious class right?? Well in all seriousness, if you have a local panaderia near you, run by some Mexican folks, go try it!! I know that where I am from, we probably have 2 or 3, and I cannot wait to go home to scoop up tons of pan for my family to try in Kentucky. You might be surprised how yummy it all really tastes.

Now that you have an A+ in a sugary bread class, you might need to go do some Zumba. Hasta Mañana!

-Sara Jacqueline

Mexican Monday #60 ?

I think one day I will miss having Mexican Monday, cause I look forward to it so much, and I hype it up so much, it will be hard to let go of...haha..but then again, maybe not. Who am I kidding, it will be like Mexican Monday 24/7 when my missionary comes home.

So today I got this fabulous long email. Yay me! Justen seems to be doing really well. He was all excited because he has been teaching english to some of the people from his church, and they are able to have full conversations with him now, and they are able to understand so much more than before. Thats pretty neat to see him enjoying teaching so much, because he has always wanted to be a teacher.

Justen also mentioned, he thinks he will be getting transferred soon to a different area, with a new companion, which he is pretty excited about. He told me how he was riding in a car with a guy from church, and he accidently ran a red light. Well the next thing they know, they are surrounded at gun point by some police, because the police thought they ran the red light to go rob something or do something bad. haha. They laughed when they found out they had only busted two missionaries and a little man.

Perhaps the funniest part of his email was the end. "This morning I stood up and banged my head on the wall on accident, and then bent over and my tie got all covered in beans. It was horrible Sara." I can't picture Justen, the whitest kid on the planet, being Mexican and eating beans for breakfast without laughing. He is a trip.

Yesterday I spent the whole day with my family, and we took a drive out to the family ranch to meet my abuela, and lots of other family. My host sisters wanted me to see how to milk a cow....little do they know, I have seen it many many times. I told them sometimes my mom milks horses...They didn't understand that one. My abuela was so sweet to me, and she said she was so happy that I spoke spanish to her, because she thinks that I must really be smart but I was just happy that she was understanding me at all. We played with the dogs a bit, and I met their cousins. I got to see all the lime and orange trees and enjoy the weather. The ranch was beautiful out in the mountains, but I prefer the city better.

Only 298 more days!! I am under 300 now, how fabulous!

-Sara Jacqueline

Memelas with Mari Carmen!!

Today we had an awesome Saturday lunch. We were all invited to have lunch with our spanish teacher and her family under one condition. We had to speak spanish the entire time, no english allowed. Mari Carmen is super cool, probably because she is friends with Irma, our super cool culture class teacher. They both wear cheetah print pants and black tops all the time, and they rock it out like two hot moms. We love them, and have learned so so much from them.

Mari Carmen came to pick us up from the school and we drove over to her house. We met her entire family including her husband, and her two beautiful kids who we hear about a lot. Mari Jose is 8 years old, and Jose Miguel is 4...basically they are adorable and hilarious.

They graciously invited us in and fed us all of our favorite foods. First we had some delicious soup, which was a veggie broth with corn, zucchini and who knows what else. Very good!

Next we scarfed down numerous memelas, which is basically a tortilla with salsa and cheese on top. Now if you really need to know, I can explain the difference between memelas and other kinds of mexican food to you later. However, for blog purposes, you only need to kind of know what a memela really is, and the real difference is how the tortilla is prepared. We had memelas with salsa verde (green) or salsa rojo (red), both tasted great, I just prefer the salsa verde. If you aren't careful, you can wind up eating 3 of these, or even more like Courtney. haha. They are sooo good topped with pico de gallo too!

Mari Carmen knows how much we love salsa, guacamole and chips, so she had tons of picco de gallo, guacamole and chips for us. Carne (meat) was also served, but I didn't eat any, just cause I wasn't in the mood, but I heard it was delicious as usual.

After our lunch, we couldn't forget Ashley's Birthday. Mari Carmen and her family had a cake delivered by motorcycle. Yummmmmmmy. They all sang to her, and lit up candles, and it was all so very sweet and fun. We really need to learn the mexican birthday song better. This time, it wasn't a Tres Leches cake, which made me pretty happy, because I wanted to try something different. The cake was more like home, it was a marble cake with frosting and a strawberry filling. So delicious! We all had seconds, and then licked the frosting off the plate.

We really enjoyed our afternoon with her whole family. We even got to see Mari Jose, her daughter perform for us. She has been taking belly dancing lessons, and is really quite adorable. We asked her how she liked her english class, and also discussed our future vacation plans. Mari Carmen and her family are just wonderful people, and I am so glad she is our teacher. We loved our memelas with Mari Carmen!!

-Sara Jacqueline

TGIF: Happy Fake Birthday Ashley!!

Yes, you read that right. We did it again. We faked another birthday so we could have an excuse to party and eat cake. You wish you were cool like this.

Today was quite a busy day. This morning we had our culture class with Irma, and she took us around the city and pointed out a few things that we might have over looked. We also tried sugar cane from the street, rice paper, and paletas de hielo. Paletas means sucker or lollipop, but paletas de hielo are popsicles. Homemade Tehuacán popsicles are too legit to quit. We rolled up to Lupita's Paleteria and all got popsicles for a late breakfast. Me and Bonnie were extra adventurous and got elote flavored popsicles...which means, they are made of corn..they don't actually taste like corn. They were actually very cinnamony and sweet, and we loved them up.

For my lunch my mom packed me crepas, or crepes. I thought crepes were always filled with something sweet like nutella, or fruit, so I was a little confused. These crepes were filled with chicken, peppers, corn and lots of cheese. They were stinkin' delicious!! They were actually more like cheese covered tacos..or in the U.S. we might call them chalupas, I'm not really sure. Most crepes here are actually like pancakes, and these just happened to be called crepes, even though they kinda weren't. Whatever you call them, they taste amazing.

My students were particularly naughty today, so sometimes I have to take a moment to do something silly to make them cool off and cut it out..So, I took their picture. They're cute right??

After class, we celebrated Ashley's fake birthday. However, our awesome plans had to be cancelled because (shocker) it rained!! It also was freezing cold, and we decided we would save our plans till next Friday, and just chill out a bit. We walked to a store to get some snackies and drinks, and then came back to eat the delicious tres leches cake. This time we bought a vanilla one with strawberries and whip cream. It was very very moist from ALL that milk. Tres leches cake has three milks, evaporated, sweetened condensed and regular. It is sure to make your stomach hurt, but it is pretty worth it. She loved her cake, and we were happy to celebrate with her. Happy Fake Birthday Ashley!!! We love you!

-Sara Jacqueline

Feliz Dia del Amor y Amistad!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. There was a lot of fun going on here down in Mexico. These people go ALL out for the day of love, with tons of balloons, making out in the park, and extreme mushy pink and red gifts..it's kind of funny. I played cupid Monday night and decorated the dining room in my family's house. I made a paper chain, and decorated a big card, and laid out tons of candy and cookies for my sisters. I also made them pink, red, purple and white friendship bracelets which they thought were the coooolest thing ever. I think they really like having a big sister :)

For my class today, my students made nachos, or what we would call in Kentucky queso dip. It was SUPER delicious, even though my kids all told me it looked like throw up. "Teeecha, this looks no delicious. This gross.!!!" Also, one of my students brought me a Valentines, which looked a little like a tacky wedding topper. It was filled with super sweet candies, that my class all scarfed down.

Also, to make my Valentine's Day even better, I got a HUGE GINORMOUS package from my family, filled with candy, popcorn, hot chocolate and an adorable red sweater. It was perfect timing, and I couldn't have been more excited for mail. Thank you so much Mom, Dad, Abby and Liz!!! Love ya!



After teaching, to top off our wonderful day, we went out with Teo and Edwin, our Mexican Dad and Brother for dinner at Teo's Tacos. It his their favorite restaurant, and we officially decided they have the BEST mexican food in Tehuacán. SO delicious. I ordered Tacos al Pastor which was definitely a great choice.

To top off our night, we went to the movie theaters to see Votos de Amor, or The Vow. Movie here are so so cheap compared to home, so I think we will be going out a lot more often. It was a lot of fun to hear a movie in english and read the spanish subtitles, becuase I really knew what was going on, and I loved comparing the words to the sound...kind of nerdy, but when you are trying to learn, it's very helpful. The movie was amazing, and I suggest you go see it, if you even have a crush on anyone. It made me wish my hottie boyfriend was home already, but I know he is having a blast on his mission right now.

Speaking of Justen, as of today he only has 10 MONTHS to go!! Isn't that exciting!! That means only ten months until the Christmas season, so start saving your pennies I guess...haha. I can't believe I am on the downhill, it feels great!
Our Valentine's Day couldn't have been better or more hilarious and crazy. We had an awesome day!!


-Sara Jacqueline