Happy 1st Birthday Ana Paola!!!!!

On Saturday, my sweet cousin Ana Paola turned 1 year old. Paola lives right next door to us, so she always comes over to play and every so often we try to have some english lessons too...haha. For her first Birthday, she was baptized in the catholic church early in the morning, and then spent her afternoon partying it up with over 150 family and friends. I was so excited to get to go to her party that was just as grand as some weddings I have been to.

Paola's cake was bigger than her, about the size of a park bench. It was tres leches cake, layered with pecans, and fruit and frosted with a sweet whipped cream. (I can't lie, tres leches is not really my favorite thing in the world, kinda soggy)

 She blew out her Dora candle, and then later on started eating it when we were playing...Sorry Dora, your waxy head just looks so edible to a 1 year old.

As tradition goes, even babies get their face pushed in their birthday cakes...just a little for fun.

Then she got to cut her cake with her Daddy, and then we all gobbled down more cake than necessary, along with some peach jello (yucky peach jello that Mexicans love for some reason..).

Here are my host sisters, Elly and Viviana, right before we got wild dancing with with Paola!

Thanks Paola for being so cute and entertaining so many mornings before I go to school! She is such a sweet little girl, and she did not cry once during her 8 hour party...what a trooper. I am trying to get Paola to pick up on some english before she starts to talk...but shes better at just giggling.

Happy Birthday and Baptism Day to you Pao Pao!






-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

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

TGIF: Rain and Brownies. Enough said..

Fridays always seem to drag on and on, almost as if they are laughing at you and torturing you while you wait for Friday night, or even Saturday. This morning after going to my usual Zumba class, we met up with Irma, our awesome culture teacher to talk about Oaxaca. We are going to Oaxaca this weekend to visit the temple and also to enjoy some more adventures. After we chatted about out trip and planned out every waking moment, she took us out for a ride.

I love hanging out with Irma, because she usually takes us somewhere in her car. This may not seem like a big deal, but for us it is. Why??? Well for this one day a week, whenever we are with her, we don't have to stress over how long it is going to take us to walk there, or if we will get lost, or anything else, all we have to do is sit in her warm car with the windows down listening to Adele. There really is nothing better than being taken care of by a Mexican Momma, and driven around in her car..haha...snobby much?? Yeah, probably. I just enjoy car rides too much these days.

Anyways, back on topic. She took us to this huge place called MineraliA, where they produce a ton of different beads out of natural stones and minerals found here. We also went to a onyx factory...or something like that, basically where they made the onyx into everything you could imagine for your house, or to wear, it was really kind of neat.

In the afternoon, a few of us walked down to the corner to get our 50 cent homemade ice cream cone and then hung outside until it got too cloudy and cold. The clouds rolled in, and then a miraculous thing happened. IT RAINED!!! Yes, it rained in Tehuacán for the first time since I have been here...which has been like five weeks. Wow. Thats crazy compared to home, where it rains all the time. We were so excited we ran around a little bit, and stared at it and screamed about it, and basically we loved all thirty minutes of it.

After class, I came home to my family and decided to make brownies with them since they have been begging for more cooking lessons and American treats. I haven't been feeling well for the past few weekends, so I never wanted to make them, but I figured I could make something sugary before I left for the weekend..haha.

We had to make the simplest brownies ever becuase these grocery stores are seriously lacking in ingredients for ANYTHING. I never realized how lucky I am to be able to bake at home all the time. Its so hard to bake here because planning is such a pain in the butt, and shopping is even worse.

My sister, Viviana was super excited and wanted to stir her little arms off, she wasn't quite sure what we were making, but she really wanted some. haha. Cute.

The whole oven thing was also complicated, because of course its in celsius and even more difficult it is a gas oven..I don't even know what to do with that. Does that make me an unfit baker?? Is my badge of domestication going to be taken away?? I don't know, but I was completely dumbfounded.

When my mom got the oven going, she realized we didn't even have enough gas left for the oven to work today, which really stinks. The gas always runs out at the most inconvenient times, like when I need to take a shower, or when I want to make brownies... Mmmm, oh well.

Time for Improvisation!!

Brownies in a mug. Yummmy, yes it wasn't quite the same, but they were still gooey, chocolatey and sweet, which is just what we wanted. We saved the other half of the batter for tomorrow, when the gas could be refilled.

We also made some hot chocolate with the cocoa powder. My family didn't know you had to add sugar to cocoa powder, so they took big licks of it, and realized how bitter and gross it was. That was hilarious for me. I love hot chocolate. It's actually one of the things I miss the most about home, because Swiss Miss is so easy to make.

Tomorrow we are going to Oaxaca, which is about a 3 hours bus ride, so we are ultra excited. We have been told that Oaxaca is very colonial and beautiful and warm!! We have to be up at like 4 a.m. so it better be worth it! I can't wait to tell you all about it! Peace

P.S. We have the most epic Valentine's Day plans, and I cannot wait to tell you about them!!

-Sara Jacqueline

Edwin...What would you order to eat??

These past few days have been crazy busy between our four day vacation and our mid-semester visit. A director from ILP came to visit our teaching group on Tuesday to check up on us, interview us and just spend some American time together.

After teaching, we all got to go out to dinner with the director Jared and his wife. What a blast, we got to eat out and didn't have to pay, that was a good deal. We went to this place between the park and the school, it is known as Teo's Tacos because it is his favorite place to go, so we were all really excited. By now, we have become pretty good at ordering food from a menu, but we still love to call our BFF Edwin. Edwin, our mexican friend, speaks Amazing english, loves to hang out with us, and of course be our body guard/tour guide/translator. We always like to know what he is eating first so we can decide for ourselves. Of course, we had to call him and find out what was best to eat...hahah...little did we know his selection was meant for a mexican man, not six puny white girls.

Bonnie, the bravest of us all managed to order whatever Edwin suggested, and we were a little afraid looking at the price tag. We have come to learn, that in Mexico the amount of food correlates to the amount of money you pay directly. The less you pay the less you get, so you can pretty much gage your plate size before you even get your food. This is nice because we aren't always starved for twenty tacos. Bonnie should have known that 95 pesos, or about $9 is quite a wad of money for a meal in Mexico.

Yes this mountain of meat and cheese came with four forks and twelve tortillas! Yikes. I am glad I didn't listen to Edwin this time, my three tacos were enough.

We had a wonderful time visiting with the ILP director, and all day today, we still felt those tacos from last night. I actually had quite an eventful morning, wanna hear??

I felt so awful from the night before, that I decided to go running for an hour today and then go to my Zumba class for another hour. Afterwards, I came home and all of my family was gone at school, church and work.

All alone, I decided to go hang up the laundry on the roof so that it could be dry when my mom returned later that day. Since the family dog lives on the roof, I was sure to close the door behind me, so Croqueta couldn't get loose inside..yuck. I hung up all the wet clothes, and then it hit me... I LOCKED MYSELF ON THE ROOF!!!!!!

Yes, it can happen. The door just shuts, and there is no getting in. I locked myself on top of my three story house. Awesome. I must be gifted or something. Not panicking yet, I decided I could probably repel down the side of the house to the next floor down, into a window or something. I even considered roof hopping to another house, but all that tin looked so shady, I would surely land in someone's living room.

Now in a more serious panic, I decided to yell for help...but I am in Mexico...so of course shouting "Ayuda Me" is the best option. Screaming HELP ME, in spanish wasn't working because I must have sounded more ridiculous that believable. I seriously yelled for help for a good ten minutes. No one came.

Even more afraid, I was SO glad to see my cousin walking down the alley, that I flagged him down with the best 'Necesito ayuda' I could give. For some reason, whenever I am in a sticky situation, ALL of my spanish language flies WAY out the window. Crap. I am pretty sure my cousin thought I was joking, because the white girl was shouting for help from the roof. I begged him to break into my house and come save me from this predicament like I was in a Disney movie.

Luckily he is smarter than I am, and climbed up to the third floor of his house, out on the roof, and then helped me jump over to his house so I could get down through their door. I must have thanked him a thousand times, and I also told him he was my best friend, and that I would bring him cookies or something...I don't think he knew what I was yapping about, but he said 'No pasa nada' a hundred times telling me it was not big deal, so I felt better.

Did I really get stuck on my roof today? Yes.

Am I still feeling taco pains? Yes.

Do I love Mexico? Yes.

-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