Must Go Travelling

Travel+Leisure just posted their 2010 "World's Best Hotels" list. I've been flipping through the pictures, and I want to go to all of them! Is anyone up for a trip? Or willing to donate to the "Ashley is poor but wants to see the world" fund?

Here's the link, for anyone interested in browsing through some truly gorgeous hotels.
www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-best-hotels-2010

Dear Chelsey

Dear Chelsey,
I thought about you and Aaron last night. The hotel that I'm staying at in Nuevo Vallarta (which I have to say is way cooler than Bear Lake--sorry) had a karaoke night last night. It was pretty awesome to hear drunk Mexicans singing karaoke. I kept thinking, "Chelsey and Aaron would love this. I should get up and sing in honor of them." And I really was going to get up and sing, I promise! I actually wanted to sing. I even told everyone that I would. But then I looked at the song list, and I honestly didn't know any of the songs on the karaoke list--even the English ones. So I watched a couple of my friends sing karaoke and then went out to the beach. Oh Chels, you would love it here. It's definitely got the summer vibe going on. It's perfect weather for swimming every single day and there are kayaks and boogie boards and bikes to rent out every day at the hotel front desk. It's pretty awesome.
I just wish you and Aaron could be here to enjoy everything with me!
Love,
Ashley

Two More Days...

In two days--actually it's only a day and a half!--I get to go to an all-inclusive resort in Nuevo Vallarta. We get buffets and virgin margaritas/strawberry daiquiris/piña coladas all day every day. There are two gorgeous pools and a volleyball court. And the best part: the resort OWNS A PRIVATE BEACH! Heck yeah, this next week is going to be awesome.

Want to see a picture of the resort? Of course you do!
This is just one of the beautiful pools.

This is their private beach! How lucky am I?!

Guachimontones

We visited our first set of ruins this weekend! Yay! I was really excited to go because I love the ruins in Mexico. First we went to a town called Teuchitlán, where they have a museum about the ruins. The ruins are in a place called Guachimontones, which is about 25 minutes away from Teuchitlán, and these ruins are special. These ruins are circular instead of the normal pyramids that you usually think of when you think of Aztec ruins. Also, there are twelve (I'm pretty sure it's twelve, but it could be less) platforms that used to hold little houses that surround that ceremonial "mounds" (those are the circular pyramids). These ruins were only used in times of ceremony--the rest of the town actually lived in Teuchitlán. There was a whole bunch of facts that we "learned" when we watched a video about Guachimontones in the museum, but I was really tired and the movie was really boring...yeah, you can guess what happened about two minutes after they started the movie. But I loved Guachimontones--it was gorgeous! And the ruins were really cool too.
After Guachimontones, we went to another little town--I can't remember the name of the town, sorry--to go to another museum, but the museum was closed. So we just wandered around. They had a cathedral (of course) and in front of the cathedral was a really pretty garden with lots of rose bushes. It was great for taking pictures. Oh, funny story! So we all went to eat ice cream while we were in no-name town, and after, we all meandered toward the garden. As I was walking over to the garden, I saw two adorable street dogs. So, of course, I went over to pet both of them. After that, they followed me all over the place! Why is it that I can make friends with dogs in like five minutes, but it takes me FOREVER to make friends with real people?
Ha ha, anyway, enjoy some of the pictures of the beautiful Guachimontones countryside!I thought I would show a picture of myself, so that you all knew I really was in Mexico.

I love the trees here!

This is one of the platforms that sits in front of the ceremonial "mound."
This is the bigger of the two ruins--they haven't restored it yet because it would just be too expensive.

Ok, so I really do have friends here in Mexico. From left to right: Melissa Stephens, me, Erynn Scott, and Romney Olsen. I love everyone in our group, but I like hanging out with these guys especially.

This is the ball court in between the two mounds. Two parties who were disputing something would come to the ball court and play ball all day long--literally. The only place they could touch the ball was their hips. At the end of the day, the one who won was killed. Yeah, I said the person who won the game gets killed. Apparently it's an honor to win the game. It's a good thing I live in 2010.

One last view of the ceremonial mound.

My adorable new street puppy!

Zacatecas

This weekend, we went to Zacatecas, and we got to stay for two days (no school on Friday--YES)! It was really fun, except for the part where I got stung by a wasp. Right on the nose. Not so fun. But I just keep telling myself that I must smell like a beautiful flower, which is way better than smelling terrible, right?
Anyway, Zacatecas is a really pretty town (the locals all call it "pintoresco") that's full of narrow, windy roads, old-fashioned buildings, and lovely little cathedrals and churches. The first place that we went to was a museum, but we had to walk through ruins to get to the exhibits. I immediately fell in love with this place. It was absolutely gorgeous! I took so many pictures, both of the ruins and of the exhibits. The museum has a huge collection of masks from all over Mexico, and while some of them were a little weird, they were all pretty cool. After the museum, we went searching for the various churches in Zacatecas. Apparently, each town has one main cathedral and all the rest are just churches that kind of look like cathedrals. Who would have thought? The cathedral in Zacatecas is beautiful. It's famous for the carvings around the outside of the building--and it should be. The carvings are so detailed; it's really quite incredible. That was pretty much it for day one.
On day two, we went to the silver mine (Mina: El Edén), which is where Zacatecas gets most of its income. The silver mine itself wasn't all that cool, but they did have a "museum" that displayed all the different kinds of gems, minerals, and rocks that can be found in the mine. That was cool. After the mine, we went to the teleférico, which is the cable car that runs across the whole city. It was really cool to see the city that way. Then we did some shopping, ate lunch, did some more shopping, and went home. If it didn't take about 6 hours to get to Zacatecas from Guadalajara, I would definitely go there again.There are little craft stands like this all over the place.

This is the cathedral in Zacatecas. Aren't the carvings beautiful? Well, I like them.

This is the museum that I am in love with.
I absolutely love the colored houses here in Mexico. This is my friend Lauralee, a girl from our group.Part of the ruins inside the museum.
A couple of masks...pucker up, girls!

Tonolá y Tlaquepaque

So, every weekend our group goes on a "field trip." We travel around to different parts of the city--next week we're even traveling to a completely different city and staying there for two days, which is very exciting--so we can get a lot of "cultural activities." These trips have all been so much fun, but today's trip was especially awesome. Hand-blown glass "factory" that's behind the store. It's literally BEHIND the store.

I can't decide if ceramic toilets are cheap junk or incredibly awesome

The best ceramic warehouse in the world!
We went to Tonolá first this morning (the pictures above are from there). Tonolá is a market town and they sell a ton of crafts there. You can find everything from ceramics to paintings to furniture, and everything is pretty cheap. For example, I bought a full set of ceramic dishware (six cups, six plates, and six bowls) for a little under $15, and there were large (and I'm talking LARGE) triptych paintings for about the same amount! It was really fun to go walking through all of the little shops they had there. A lot of the shops were full of cheap junk stuff, but every once in a while we found some awesome stuff.
After Tonolá, we drove to Tlaquepaque. Tlaquepaque is another crafty town, but the stuff there is of much higher quality. They had a lot of clothing stores and a lot of jewelry stores. Mexico is famous for their silver and so I saw some really pretty silver jewelery that I was very tempted to buy...Tlaquepaque was such a gorgeous little town. All the buildings had that picturesque old-Mexico feeling that we always think of when we think of Mexico. There were mariachi bands strolling through the street and vendors selling through wares in between store-fronts and people just wandering around. Ah! I loved it.
This was the best restaurant in Tlaquepaque. The food was absolutely delicious.
This is possibly my favorite photo of the entire trip. I'm really proud of it!

P.S. The mariachi band that I have a picture of up there is the first and only all female mariachi band that I've seen here in Mexico. I thought it was awesome.

Catch Up

I thought that it was about time that I update those of you who wish to know on what I am up to now.

Well, I'm here in Guadalajara, Mexico! I was already in love with Mexico--ever since we went to Cancun the first time--but now I think Mexico is even more awesome. Guadalajara is big city, and it's gorgeous! There are trees absolutely everywhere, and it is so green. It rains, hard, almost every day here. Most of the people in our group don't really like the thunderstorms, but I love them. It makes me really happy when it rains.
The people here are absolutely wonderful, too. They are so sweet and they make you feel so welcome. The family that I'm staying with is super nice. Our new mom, Guille, cooks all the time. She cooks us breakfast, a big lunch, and a dinner (but the dinner is more like a snack). She always says when need to eat more. Finally I told her that I love her food, but I'm going to gain a lot of weight if I just keep eating. She doesn't mind anymore when I don't want anymore food. The people at church are really nice, too, especially the YSA group. They've done a lot of activities with us since we got here, and all of them are really eager to make us comfortable in our new surroundings. Everyone, our families and those at church, is very patient with us as we try and improve our Spanish. They correct--nicely--us when we get our phrases tangled, and they use what English they know to help us understand.
Our group is just really fun. Everyone is really nice to each other. All of the girls are really happy and friendly, and the guys are just funny. They make us girls laugh a lot. We do almost everything together, and we do a lot of activities. We've been to El Centro (the center of Guadalajara), dancing, a couple of cathedrals, lots of museums, and the movies. Tomorrow there is a stake dance for the YSA, and on Saturday we are going to a city called Tlaquepaque. Our mom says that it is a really pretty city. I'm excited.
I have a lot of pictures, and I'll put some up soon, I promise.

Summer Plans

Guess what Ashley's doing this summer.








No, I'm serious. Guess.








Go ahead. I REALLY want you to guess.








Ok, I can't take it anymore. You guys are too slow at the whole guessing game.








ASHLEY'S GOING TO GUADALAJARA THIS SUMMER!








(Excitement prevails, and everyone is happy)

I beg your forgiveness

I have been neglecting you, my dear readers, and for that I am truely sorry. Forgive me?
The reason I have not written a post in about two...no, I'm sorry, it was three weeks ago that I last posted--forshame!--but the reason for that is this: I have nothing of interest to say. My life, I'm very sad to say, has become a daily routine of looking at my computer dolefully and playing Farmville on Facebook. Once in a while, I read two or three chapters of my book (which is currently The Great Hunt, the second book in the Wheel of Time Series), but even that has not captured my interest as it should, now that I'm done with my first semester of college (Hurray for Ashley!). I'm afraid I'm boring.

BUT...I am here, at 1:09 a.m., to pull off that shroud of boredom and apathy, be cheerful and busy once more, and become the dedicated writer I promised I would be at the beginning of this blog.

This week was not boring, my friends. I just got home from a week long vacation (who doesn't love those?) with my sister, Heather, and her husband, Danny, who were so kind as to take me to California for a belated, second senior trip. It was wonderful! The weather was hot, but with ample cool breezes, we visited the Ronald Regan Presidential Library (which is a lot more exciting than it sounds), Heather and I visited the local zoo, where we were scared by bobcats and wolves, and I got to visit the Wildlife Hospital within the zoo (which made me ecstatic since I am planning to become a vetrinarian), and, of course, we all went to see that famous whale Shamu at SeaWorld. Other highlights included going to the Shakesperean Festival in Cedar City to see The Comedy of Errors (which was delightfull), and listening to Great Expectations on the way to California and New Moon on the way back from California. I would post pictures, but I'm afraid there are two problems with that: I don't have a card reader to download pictures from my camera to my computer (which is why I haven't put any pictures up from my trip to Paris and London--I will post about that as soon as I get a card reader!), and I did not bring my camera to California! You may boo and hiss as you like now.
California was wonderful, though, I would highly reccommend it as a vacationing spot (although half the world seems to have figured out that little tid bit), and even if you don't want to go to Disneyland and stand in lines all day (don't get me wrong, Disneyland is one of my favorite places on Earth, but it does get a bit tiring, standing in line all day), there are plenty of other things to do in the Golden State (see above list for a few ideas). I do firmly believe, however, that every person NEEDS to go to Disneyland at least once in their lifetime.

School starts again in two weeks, but I'm shaking things up a bit by applying for jobs. I've already had one offer in a sales position. Maybe I'll have fun stories about cranky (and hopefully a few crazy) people who answer my phone calls!

London Called

London is one of my favorite places on earth. Honestly, London and the entirety of England is a second home to me. It holds a certain charm for me that I can never truly release, even though I haven't lived there for about ten years, and I've only been back to visit twice. In short, I simply love it. Here are some of the pictures from my most recent of visits to London--the IB Theater trip!

Pret is the most amazing sandwich shop ever...literally.

Our Theater group. They're pretty cool--worth spending five days in London with, anyway.

That is the London eye. It's a huge farris wheel. And it's pretty nifty.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater.
Deliciousness mixed with joy, all in one cup. Starbucks--it's the place to be.
This play was extremely funny. It's a spoof an the old Alfred Hitchcock movie "The 39 Steps". There were four actors playing 139 roles in 100 minutes. Amazing!

Kerala Part Two

Because Mom really enjoyed the last pictures, here are some more for your viewing pleasure! This is Kiera and her friend Chloe Stoker. This picture was taken as we took a hike through the Periyar tiger preserve:

People in India associate a lot of things with cows, and the Hindus even worship the cow. It was fun to see a huge cow fair as we were driving to one of our hotels. There were hundreds of cows, and a lot of them had the horns painted like these guys below: Don't worry, painting the horns wasn't a fashion statement. When owners paint their cows' horns a certain color it tells the other traders and buyers where the cow comes from. This is a picture of a house boat, which is what we stayed on for a day and a half:

Mmmm...prawns:

Here's Kiera inspecting a piece of coir (coconut husk which gets spun into "fabric" for rugs):

Kerala was a lot of fun, especially since we got to go with the Stoker family. We didn't get to eat turkey on Thanksgiving day, but I think the amazing seafood we had made up for it.