This Week in Collage

I decided to do a "This Week in Collage" (the picture looks like it says "this week in cottage") to direct my comments and to remind me what happened this week. As things are slowly shutting down, it gets more and more difficult to remember what I did the previous day- much less the whole week.

I only have 5 more weeks in Mexico! Shocking eh? Though I'm excited to go home and see friends and family, I'm trying to enjoy each and every moment and get a lot accomplished. That's one thing I regretted from my Cancun experience- that I never really stopped and enjoyed the ride. I was so excited to go home that I forgot where I was and what an amazing experience I was having. So, I've been working hard to look around at where I am every once and a while- which makes the experience that much more memorable and beneficial.

So, I'm going to attempt to explain about each of my collage items. I am incredibly passionate about each one of them- so pay attention!

In case some of you didn't know, I use a google phone to stay in contact with everyone. It's available through Gmail and only costs 1 cent a minute! I just barely put more money on it and I'm anxious to use the rest of it so it won't go to waste! I had quite a few memorable conversations and I'm so thankful to all of those who take an hour or so out of their day so I can chat with them :)

Spanish! I've been speaking more Spanish than I ever have in my entire life! My new host family doesn't really speak English and so I'm continuously listening, or speaking in Spanish. Even the kids who know English don't speak in English at home because they want their parents to feel included in their conversations. I'm so excited that I've been able to practice so much!

The Penafiel soda bottle is for a culture class that we had on Tuesday where we went and got a tour of the Penafiel soda factory. They've been around since about 1918! It all started out with a spring that was rumored to have medicinal purposes. In fact, hundreds of years ago, the ruler of Mexico asked that people bring him this special water from Tehuacan to Mexico City (a 5ish hour DRIVE). So, it's pretty special and incredibly famous. It was interesting to learn some of Tehuacan's claims to fame.

The shrimp dish is because I LOVE shrimp and my host mom made me some the other day. Seriously, it was from heaven- and I told her so.

This next chocolate chip story may not be understood by the general American population. I'll try to explain my excitement in the best way possible: There are no chocolate chips in Mexico. There just aren't. You can buy chocolate chip cookies in the store, but there are no chocolate chips available for purchase. Then, I saw that my host family had some chocolate chips in their cupboard. I immediately asked them where they got them. They told me of a magical store a few blocks away that sold lots of bakery/American goodies. Though it took me a few minutes to actually find the store- I was amazed! There was TONS of bakery items! AND there was CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!! I immediately bought a kilo (about 2 pounds) of chocolate chips without thinking. I'm incredibly excited to use them for chocolate chips in the coming weeks. My mouth is watering just thinking of the possibilities.

I watched Taken. One of my favorite movies- and for someone that doesn't really enjoy action movies, that's saying something.

We made no bake cookies in school. WITH NUTELLA!!! Yummy!

I read The Hunger Games in two days. I can't really talk about it that much because or else the urge to find and immediately read the second book will be unbearable. I will say that it is literally one of the best books I've read- I could hardly put it down.

I've been continuously on Microsoft Word the past few days updating information about classes, vacations, and Tehuacan in general for future teachers that come here.

The last is an album that I absolutely LOVE. I found about this artist from a friend. So, when I was doing my research I found out that he was giving out some songs off his newest album FREE. He really is amazing so if you'd like to listen or download those songs you can at this website: http://noisetrade.com/benrector

He is now one of my all-time favorite artists. :) I hope that all of you enjoy him to, but if not- you now have some free music right?

I hope that everyone is having a great week! I pray for most of you everyday. (I say most of you because you never know what creepers are looking at this blog haha). Much love from Mexico.