TGIF: Off to the Beach!!!

Just a few highlights from these past two days:

Me and Bonnie being crazy....of course. One of our students brought us some foreign looking berries, sort of like raspberries but droopier and longer. Weird..

On Thursday, it rained ALL afternoon, for about five hours and hailed as well off and on twice!! Crazy weather, but we loved it!!

The hail was nickel sized if you look very closely...

We had to say goodbye to our good pal Betsy from Maryland. Unfortunately, she has to return home a little earlier to go back to school, but we had a lot of great times together. She was actually not part of our teaching group, but taught adults upstairs in the same school. Still we will miss her funny stories!

We are off now for an entire week for Semana Santa, or also known as Spring Break. We are headed to the beaches of Puerto Escondido, Puerto Angel and Huatulco!!! I can't wait!!!! Adios!

-Sara Jacqueline

A Shout out to my Shelbyville Homies..aka..the Young Women!

I was SUPER surprised to receive a package today from the Young Women from my church ward today. I didn't believe it was for me when the secretary gave it to me, but then I thought- Wooohooo!!! These sweet girls put together some easter candy and lovely handmade cards, which were hilarious to read...I do miss these wild ladies.

• Ashley T.-I miss you too. Don't think that turning 18 will be any cooler than 17, but Happy Birthday little girl.
• Nettie M.- I hope I have a great Easter too (haha thanks), apparently nobody here likes the holiday as much as Americans..but I will try to make it great for my host family like you would do if you were me. Can you tell me some good jokes? I know you have something ridiculous to say right at this moment.
• Abbey R.- You miss my face? Well I can send you a picture cray cray. I will definitely be coming home soon. Praise. Jesus.
• Grace!!!- Of course I remember you. You are so cute with your long hair and I hope you are fitting in well with the big Fielding family. They are just lovely, and I wish I had a host family like them..haha. I have no idea what those korean symbols mean, but I will ask around and see if anyone here can read them..hahah.
• Brittany B.- I think its funny that you miss my cute little dress, but thank you. Unfortunately the laundry methods here have injured many of my dresses. Sewing class when I get home?
• Em T.- I am not surprised that you kick butt in tennis, and when I come home I wanna see you in action. Do you get to wear one of those coordinating snooty tennis skirt/top combos?? Also, no one here calls me Sara Beara...mostly I get Sarita.
• Carysanne F.- I am having oodles of fun, and when I come back I will tell you all about it, and one day you will have to leave the country too. If you try to be good, I could probably find something to bring home to you..haha. You. are. a. nut.
• Kiara D. - You are awesome too girl. I heard you are way ahead on your personal progress, which rocks my socks off. That is too too cool.
• Destiny D. - Happy Easter to you too!!
• Abby M.- The tacos here are WAY WAY different than fiesta mexicana, and sometimes even make me sick. However, they are yummy either way. Want me to bring one home on the airplane? LOL.
• Megan R.-Everyday when I read my scriptures, I see that bookmark you made about what being a daughter of a heavenly father means to you, and it reminds me of the great example I can set for other people here. There are so many converts here and so many people who haven't heard the gospel that its so important to stand for what you believe in and to live the gospel always. You are right, and I love that bookmark.
• Saeda M.- Mexico is awesome and warm and funny and weird all at the same time. This next week I am going to the beach!
• Malia B.- Are you gonna be a doctor? Because your signature says so. You crack me up just thinking about your funny stories you tell.

Thank you so much for thinking of me!!

Also, on another note..did you know that you put beans on your sandwich here?? Probably not, but if you don't put beans on your sandwich, it's like you forgot the peanut butter, it just doesn't work that way. As you can see my sandwich today came with beans, mustard (only because I have made it CLEAR that I strongly dislike mayo) ham and cheese. Today I was pretty lucky, cause first of all I got wheat bread (highly unusual) and there was also no avacado, tomato or lettuce..which I actually mostly like. Funny right?

Lastly..loook how cute Julian is....He is basically the Mexican Harry Potter but with a better personality.

Hasta Mañana!

-Sara Jacqueline

It's Mexican Monday!!!!

Basically it is the best day in the world, so you should celebrate Mexican Monday too. Eat some tacos, or pour a ton of lechera on your fruit, thats about as Mexican as you need to be.

Justen is doing super swell this week, and his email was nothing but smiley faces and exclamation marks, so thats good to hear. Here are some highlights:

• "I got my hair cut and the gay guy did a horrible job. Lucky you aren't here to impress."
• " My new companion is really cool, but pretty strict. I like him though, I think he is a good example. He is older than me, but looks pretty young."
• "We have been working really hard, but nothing is happening. It's the fourth quarter and I got no special plays."
• "I had a dream about you the other night. We were in high school, and I was watching you in a play and then we were attacked by spacemen with lightsabers. I know it's weird, but in the end I saved you and we lived happily ever after."

Yeah, he is still the same old goofy Justen. What a nut. Gotta love him.

Also, this past weekend I got an AWESOME package from my family. Woooohooo! It was full of girl scout cookies and reeses and Easter candy, all things that are not sold in Mexico. I have sufficiently stuffed my face with sugar.

Oh yeah! There was also a magazine in ENGLISH!! That was a blast. haha. I should buy one in spanish just to practice...we will see how that goes. Thank you for all the goodies! I am so sad I am missing Easter at home, but this made it a bit better!

-Sara Jacqueline

Photo Day, Because I am Just Not Feeling Creative..

Just a few snap shots of my basic reading class with their costumes. For some reason they are obsessed with wearing costumes and playing with the dolls and stuffed animals....

Also, yesterday we went to Oaxaca for another temple trip with our ward, and HAD to visit the KFC. Anytime I mention where I am from, the first thing people say is: "Ohh like KFC?". Their menu is a bit different, and they didn't have green beans, which is what I really wanted, but Ashley had some chicken and Bonnie gobbled up a few mashed potatoes.

When I told the cashier I was actually from Kentucky, he laughed, and was completely confused, and then continued to laugh the entire time we were there. I wonder if they actually know it is a real place...

-Sara Jacqueline

What a Wednesday!! The Party. Never. Stops.

First of all, I got a package today from my cute Aunt and Uncle up in Ohio. I was SUPER excited...obviously because I love mail, and even more so because it was from America. There is nothing better than snacking on some America before class. This definitely made my day!

Also today Jen's mom and sister arrived to visit her and us and Tehuacán, which is all very exciting. We took them out to eat at our favorite place 'El Taco T's' or also known as Teo's Tacos because Teo always goes there with us, and it is his absolute favorite too. We invited a few of our church friends to come with, and obviously Edwin too for some tacos al pastor..yummmm...just the way we like it.

The owners of the restaurant are soo so sweet to us. Their kids come to learn english at our school and actually Samuel, their son is my student and loves to talk with us when we come to eat there. Usually he likes to steal my phone and play angry birds, but today I got a kiss and an invitation to go swimming from him when we left! I must be one cool teacher, haha. Their family also refused to let us pay....seriously, the nicest people ever.... This is not the first time they have done that. Like I said, we love Teo's Tacos.

Now that I am stuffed with yummy tacos, I have returned home to two cockroaches in my bathroom. Let me tell you how it all went down. First I shooed them into the shower, then poured water on them to flip them over so they would squirm and drown. Then I doused them in ajax cleaning powder to poison them, so I know they are for sure dead. If they are still in the same place in the morning, I will know they are officially in cockroach heaven, and I will pick them up to deliver them to their grave in the trash.

Seriously, the party. never. stops.

-Sara Jacqueline

Adventures in Tehuacán: Free Food and Some Yummy Dessert

The other day we took a little visit over to a family's restaurant who has been dying to see us. The family once hosted a teacher named Paige a few semesters back and they are still in love with her and so therefore, they want to hang out with us too. Her family has a little restaurant where they make tortas (sandwiches) and also a ton of yummy desserts. We stopped in one afternoon, ate some tortas and also enjoyed tasting lots of treats.

We tried a few different kinds of cake, one with caramel and one with nuez (walnuts), but my absolute favorite was the postre do limon, or also called Carlota. The funniest thing was that Justen actually just told me last week that it was his favorite Mexican dessert and I had better try it...so of course I jumped at the chance to do so.

The carlota was amazing, and after some research I found out that it is actually very easy to make. Only some Marias cookies, lime juice, lechera and evaporated milk. Don't worry, I will probably be bringing it to your house one day, or making it for some church get together so you will get to taste it eventually. This was seriously SO delicious.

-Sara Jacqueline

Happy Mexican Nunday!!

Today is our last day of our four day vacation, and we said goodbye to the nuns this morning before we went back into town. They are really the sweetest Mexican nuns I have ever met....and the only ones I have ever met.!

We headed back into downtown Taxco and shopped around for a couple hours before we caught a bus back to Puebla. We finally made it home after six hours in a bus...Sheeeew. Even better when I got home, I had a nice sweet email waiting for me from Elder Justen Turley.

He seemed to be very very excited about his new companion who is a greenie, fresh from the Missionary Training Center. In the mission, Justen would be called the Father and his new companion would be called his son, because he is training him from the ground up in Mexico. I think it will give him something else to be excited about, and to be focused on so that is all cool beans.

Apparently he is also very busy with cleaning and teaching other missionaries how to teach, so it seems everything in Monterrey is peachy. Also, I am happy to say he said he sent me lots of letters and even one ALL in spanish. Basically I am gonna stalk the mail man, cause I cannot wait!

Hope you had a Great Mexican Monday!!

-Sara Jacqueline

Let's Get in those Grutas!

Before we headed out to the caves, or course we had to have our breakfast with the nuns. It actually was a lot better than last night, we had scrambled eggs with tortillas and pinto beans, all things which I dislike, but they weren't as bad as the Mole. We also had a basket full of bread and bananas, so we ended up surviving. But again, we were stuffed because the nuns LOVE to feed little white girls.

This morning we were up at the butt crack of dawn after breakfast to take a bus out of town about 25 minutes to the grutas; Grutas is basically another word for caves or caverns. The Grutas de Cacahuamilpa were the biggest cave I have EVER seen. I have seen plenty of caves in my day, including Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and as far as I can remember, nothing compares to this cave. The cave is 2km long, and super high..however, I could never find an exact number, I know that it is atleast 110 meters high..still pretty big.

The tour lasted WAY longer than we could have ever imagined, over two hours long. However, there was a bathroom in a cave and a theater for the symphony orchestra that performs there. Wildest thing ever, what a cave.

Even the Virgin Mary has a shrine in the cave. She is everywhere people. You cannot escape her.

After our extremely long cave tour, we went all the way down the mountain where there was a nice little river. Since it is the dry season, it was more like a very large creek, but we are told in the summer it is a huge wild river. We took a rafting tour through an cave that has an underground river, which was really stinkin cool. The best part was wearing life jackets and headlamps..which seemed to turn us all into crazy fools.

We had four guides come with the six of us, a bunch of boys ages 14, 15 and 17. Basically, we turned the entire ride into a radio and sang to them the whole time on our little ride through the cave. We even made up songs about Diego, Leo, Felix and Alejandro and of course they clapped along. Everyone else who was swimming in the cave was totally jealous of all the attention we were giving our tour guides. hahah! We like to think we made their day a hundred times more interesting.

After our long excursion, we decided for the evening we wanted to check out their mall, so we could compare it to the one we have in Tehuacán, and also enjoy some ice cream. The weather was perfect and we had another great day on vacation in Taxco.

-Sara Jacqueline

Taxco: Nun of Us Wanted to Leave

On Saturday we took a short little bus ride over to Taxco from Cuernavaca to spend the rest of our four day vacation. Taxco is a colonial style city, so you won't find any buildings painted in teal, orange, yellow or pink. It reminded me of a quaint little European town, almost like the Mexican version of Greece, it was really neat and white. The town was built up into the mountainsides, and stretched pretty far across, making the roads windy and skinny and bumpy. We had a lot of fun hanging out in a more touristy town.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the city, enjoying the centro and the people. We went into the cathedral in the Zocalo, which was more beautiful on the outside, then on the inside...I didn't bother taking a picture, trust me you aren't missing anything.

Taxco has a very big silver mine, and so the silver there is very cheap. We shopped around a lot and maybe if you are that one cool person, you will get something for your Birthday. But like I said, I only bought silver for one person. haha. It was pretty cheap, but I am tighter than two coats of paint, so I didn't buy much.

The best part of our day, and the most anticipated was our stay at the convent with the nuns, or 'monjas' is spanish. There is a convent in Taxco, about fifteen minutes outside of town, that will let people stay for free and they also feed you, only asking for a donation when you leave. Obviously we wanted to sleep with the nuns! Our rooms were really clean, and they were so helpful and nice to us.

Oh yeah..Did I mention there was also a snake staying with the nuns? Bonnie was seriously afraid of this little thing, but look its nunthing but a harmless mexican garden snake.

For dinner, we weren't exactly sure what to expect, but we were wishing for Pizza. hahaha. Unfortunately, we were served mole in tortillas topped with lettuce and cheese and some pinto beans and hot milk (ewww). Not Mole like the small rodent, but a big mixture of chiles and chocolate and lots of other mysterious things. Mole is very famous in Puebla, where I live, but so far I have not been able to eat much of it, because it is SO SO gross. All my Mexican friends like it though....I just don't get it. Yuck.

Luckily, there was some pan (bread) so we scarfed that down, and then pretended to eat the mole by pushing it around our plates, and hiding it under the beans and such. Basically a lot of nunsense we learned when we were six years old. We should have just told them it was too spicy, because that would have been believable. But instead Courtney volunteered to eat most of the plate. Thanks girl for making a sacrifice for the rest of us!! Do NOT be fooled by our smiles, we were not enjoying this meal.

We went to sleep mostly hungry or like Courtney with a belly ache. It sure did feel nice to have a clean bed and a warm shower! Can't wait for Breakfast with the Nuns!...or can we?

-Sara Jacqueline

TGIF: I Never Saw A Single Cow in Cuernavaca.

Today was the beginning of our second four day vacation. We had no school today, so we woke up super early to catch a bus to Puebla, and then to Cuernavaca to spend the day. Cuernavaca is actually a pretty big city, and it would be fun to spend more time here, if we had it. Today we spent most of our day walking around the city and enjoying the centro.

First we bought these awesome fruit cups for our lunch. These were not typical fruit cups either. I filled mine with apple, banana, mango and guayanaba (Super delicious fruit) and then topped it with lechera, coconut and granola. The whole cup was only 12 pesos, which is exactly 1 dollar. Seriously, when I come home I am going to put lechera on absolutely everything.

We spent the afternoon at this huge park which was actually pretty neat. We saw a parrot show, and walked around and then sat by a pond for a while and did some paddle boating. We also tried to get a ride on this cute little train, but the driver told us it wasn't in operation today...Well we just gave him a few sad faces, and he let us on for a short free ride!!!! If only life was all that easy. We definitely enjoyed ourselves, and afterwards headed back to the centro. Here is me, Bonnie and Jen:

For the rest of the time in Cuernavaca, we hung out in the centro and enjoyed all the crazy night life. One thing I love about Mexico, is that in every city, there is a Zocalo or a main square, and there is always action going on there. It's like the best place for everyone to come hang out. We saw a ton of street dancers, and then listened to some sweet tunes from these cool guys!

We actually had McDonalds Flurries for dinner..hahah..how embarrassing, but they were delicious and worth it. Don't worry, afterwards we ate some street tacos too, so we evened it all out and those were just as yummy.

For only 58 pesos a person, less than five bucks, we slept in a super sketchy hotel..haha....I will tell you about that another day..in person...so you can see my facial expressions to go with it all. Can't wait until we get to Taxco for the rest of our adventure!!

-Sara Jacqueline