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!

BIG News

On the 4th of July, after lunch and a whole lot of card games, I went back up to my room to relax for the rest of the day (which is not unusual). Getting bored, I decided to check my email (which I tend to do at least three times a day here in Mexico). I had an email in my inbox saying that Milanne Clark (my awesome roommate who has become one of my best friends) had sent me a message on Facebook. Figuring that the message would about my English portfolio (which she had kindly agreed to pick up for me, since I'm in Mexico right now and I can't get it), I trekked on over to Facebook to see what she had written. Imagine my surprise when I opened the email and read that Milanne had just become engaged! I was so exciting that I shouted for joy, right as my new roommate walked into our room. I'm pretty sure I scared her half to death, ha ha.

So ever since then I've been thinking of things to do for a bridal shower. It has to be completely AWESOME because I won't be able to go to her actual wedding, which is December 22, in case you were wondering. If you have any ideas, send them my way. I would much appreciate it!

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.

What the heck, Utah?!

IT IS THE END OF MAY! WHY IS IT SNOWING?!

For the past few weeks we have had some beautiful weather here in Utah. The days were nice and sunny--not hot and cool, but not overly cold. Sure, Utah threw in a couple of rainstorms, just to catch us off our guard, but we pulled through. Then Utah threw a hissy-fit. I don't know why Utah was upset--maybe Colorado was calling Utah names again. In any case, Utah decided to take it out on us. Now we have to wade through this cold, sloshy, STUPID snow! This is just not fair. It's almost June, and we are still suffering from winter temperatures. I want SUMMER!

Please, Utah, have compassion on your poor residents. Be kind. Send us some warm weather for longer than two weeks, if that wouldn't inconvenience you terribly. We promise we'll be kind to you.

Danny was right!

So, my brother-in-law, Danny, told us about an urban legend he had heard of from a nice waitress in California. When you have the hiccups, all you have to do is pour a packet of sugar underneath your tongue. I just laughed at him--I thought, why would sugar help stop the hiccups? It didn't make any sense. Well, today I kept getting the hiccups off and on. They usually stopped after one or two hiccups, but later in the afternoon they just wouldn't go away. I decided to put Danny's myth to the test. I took a packet of sugar (I used Truvia, which is the new sugar substitute) and poured all of it under my tongue. I felt really weird, but as soon as the sugar had dissolved, my hiccups were gone!

Danny, your waitress friend seems to be right. Thanks for passing that on!

English 218

I was so excited for this semester for two reasons: 1) there are far less people on campus during Spring/Summer than there are in Fall/Winter and 2) this was the first semester that I could take the first Creative Writing class. I love writing, and I really wanted to take this class because I felt that I needed a little help to make my writing the best it can be.
We do writing exercises almost every class period. We have begun studying poetry, and for one of our writing exercises we had to write a poem entitled "Happiness". This is what I came up with.

Snuggled deep under the duvet,
I hear the noisy whispers of my
nieces and their brother.
I peek out and see them
coming in. They crawl to
the very edge, peering and giggling--
sometimes they dare to poke the
sleeping bear that is their aunt.
As stealthy as giant tractors,
they climb onto the bed frame,
test the ocean on top of me, and finally
they leap.

My nephew stares at me,
the stare of a little wise-man.
I have tried everything--he
blinked at peek-a-boos,
yawned at tickles, and
turned away from silly faces.
The boy still stares, boring holes
into my soul until
I am ready to tell him my sins
and weep on his shoulder.
I smack my lips together,
and there it is--the soft smile
that turns him back into a babe
of six months.

There they sit,
the oldest sisters,
crowned by their families,
the glow of motherhood surrounding them
like dust shaken from angel's wings.
As they chatter about diaper brands,
potty training, and baby food,
I ache to belong to that secret circle,
while my younger sister begs me to play.
They turn and smile,
inviting me, and even the youngest, in.
We all four laugh together,
recounting memories from
far away places and
long ago times.

Our giant, our protector--
the man who could crush a hopeful
young man merely with his presence
even as he lovingly carries little ones
on his shoulder--bellows a lion's roar
from outside. Suddenly we are
ants scurrying from here to there,
patiently waiting for
the picnic to be set.
The sweet smell of smoked meat
is tantalizingly strong, and
our father stands amid his
smoldering kingdom.

With a the grace of a swan on a lake,
Mother glides around the house.
Upstairs and downstairs she goes,
gliding from kitchen to living room,
living room to back porch and
back again.
The glow of motherhood does not
simply surround her. She is
steeped in it; it comes from her very pores.
She is benefactress, counselor, wise woman,
comforter.

I am curled up in the armchair,
a blanket tucked around my legs,
an open book in my lap.
Everyone is gone, and
I am encased in silence.

So that's it--that's my poem entitled "Happiness". I've decided that it could also be called "Fourth of July". Tell me what you think!