A Good Ending to a Marvelous Dream

*Phew*  Finally catching up with my blog posts.  Thus saying, this is my blog post for Tuesday, August 11th of the year 2015.  Now known as the Last Day on Earth.  I mean, the Last Day in Mexico.

Ahem.  *Looks at notes written on phone, then travels back in time*  (Humor me and pretend I actually wrote this on Tuesday).

De ja vu, anyone? :P

Moving on.

Today I got up super duper late.  I guess the last day of school did not motivate me enough to heed my alarm clock this morning.  Nevertheless, I did get to school on time (the teacher was late this morning).  How did school go, you may ask?  (Besides the late teacher).

Well, in our first class we gave our final presentations, then ate tamales and drank horchata.  (If my stomach had been more agreeable, I'm sure I would have found it more scrumptious).

Our 395R class with our teacher

In my second class, we took our final exam.  (And also ate some candy that Conner brought):

After finishing the test, we waited outside the class while our teacher graded, laughing and talking with our Profe whilst doing so (good times).  Eventually we got our scores back (I got an A!), following which we headed out (we being Claire, Conner, Christina, Raquel, and I), saying goodbye to our school (Universidad Modelo) for the last time.

Instead of going straight home, we walked to an outdoor nursery that was about a five minute walk from our bus stop.  It was so cool!  And had lots of pretty plants and flowers.

Street leading to our bus stop.  (I love street shots, what can I say?)

Lots o' coconuts up in that tree.

A baby coconut!  (Well, not Conner.  The plant Conner is holding).

After that, we caught the bus (waited in the shade by the nursery til it came).  Then, Christina, Raquel, and I went to the Centro for the last time.  (We just rode the bus that took us home, all the way to the Centro.  It was a super long bus ride, and took us to a stop we were unfamiliar with, so we got lost for a split second, but it didn't take long to recognize where we were.  Which was somewhere by the Centro).  Anyway, at the Centro, we first got some ice cream at:

Which is actually a little north of Centro.  But man is their ice cream goooooooood!!!!!  *Ahem*  I had some mint (white, not green) chocolate chip and some other flavor (that has slipped my mind, awkward):

Left To Right:  Me, Raquel, and Christina

Cute little bike rack INSIDE the store.

After this, we went in search for Nativities (and also looked at some shirt shops along the way).  Which didn't take too long.  After that, we went to Colon's, where I got even MORE ice cream.  (YUM.  I wasn't going to, but then I realized that I hadn't tried the pineapple flavor yet!  It was unfortunate that this ice cream had some weird grey stuff in it, so I didn't eat all of it).  Then we headed home.  We dropped Raquel off at her bus before heading to our own.  Let me just say, it was the most epic last bus ride ever.  Why?  Because there was this band that got on our bus and they played music!  And it was pretty good sounding music.  (Pretty good talent.  Have you tried playing the guitar AND the pipes on a moving bus?  It's pretty hard).  I got a video of it, but just of the music.  I didn't want to be that one guy awkwardly recording on the bus.  We eneded up giving them some money for their little show.  The only awkward thing about this was that no one applauded when they finished their music...which I thought was strange.  But, anyway, here's the video:

When we got home, we found Elisa and the girls doing some back to school cleaning.  We chatted for a bit before doing our own packing and cleaning.  (During which we listened to some awesome Bolivian tunes).  When we were basically done, we went and had our last Mexican lunch (pork and rice) and chatted with Elisa.  We got a lot of recipes from her (since I want to come home and make some Mexican food for my family).

Following lunch, I came back to my room to work on my blog.  But instead, I discovered my phone was having some serious spazzing issues, so I spent that time figuring out my dumb phone instead.  (Luckily, it is now back to working.  I probably dropped it one too many times on the trip and it decided to rebel against me).

After leaving my phone to charge (I found out that if I turn it off, it charges), Christina and I headed to the store to buy some snacks and to buy Elisa some flowers.  I spent all but two pesos, and the pesos I'd previously pulled out to save for my blog book (perfect).

We came back and gave MM her flowers (she loved them.  Course, she went on to talk about our stay there, etc, calling Christina's stay awesome and my stay complicated, lol.  At least she was straightforward.  I didn't think it was complicated, but hey, it's always fun to find out what other people think of you, I guess).  The conversation didn't last too long though because we went had group dinner to get to (at Los Taquitos!)

It was the best dinner ever.  Why?  Well, first I should note that we were told our dinner would be paid for by the program (before we came).  When we got there, we asked Profe how much we could spend and he said, you can get whatever you want PLUS dessert (and there was much rejoicing).  So I got the most expensive thing I've gotten here in Mexico (158 pesos!):  papas con arravanje (at least, I think that's how you spell that).  It was the best, most delicious, most tender meat I've ever had in my life.  SO GOOD.  For dessert, I split with three other girls, so I got to try all three desserts:  queso neopolotin, creama española, and creama de coco.  For me, the crema española was the best.  It was basically horchata made into a cream.  YUM:  Following all that, we got a present from Profe (a little marble jaguar!).  Then we all said our goodbyes (SO sad).

Well, not all of us. Because most of us girls ended up heading to Raquel´s house (after a quick stop at our house) for a last night girl get together (it was SO nice to be walking in the cool of the evening.  It made the ten minute walk very enjoyable).  Which was awesome.  Words cannot describe the good time we had there.

Following that (and our final goodbyes), Christina and I headed home (stopping by Oxxo on the way), talking about what we've learned and our favorite parts of the study abroad.  It was a nice time to just chat and to drink in Mexico for the last time.  *sigh*

'Til Tomorrow

R J Carr

El último día en la playa

*Phew*  Finally catching up with my blog posts.  Thus saying, this is my blog post for Monday, August 10th of the year 2015.  Now known as the Last Day on Earth.  I mean, the Last Day at the Beach.

Ahem.  *Looks at notes written on phone, then travels back in time*  (Humor me and pretend I actually wrote this on Monday).

Today I got up at 9ish AM.  Then, without further ado, I got ready for the beach (i.e. got my bathing suit on and my bag packed).  Following which, I ate some breakfast (eggs and ham).  After breakfast, I snuck out (ninja like) and headed to...the bank!  Because I was low on money.  Luckily, that didn't take too long, and I was back at the house in about ten minutes.  Upon my return, I finished packing up my bag (with peanut butter sandwiches from MM).  Cute quick story:  So, I had to wash and fill up my water bottles (I had two plastic ones I was taking with me to the beach).  On the way back, I found one of the kittens being all ninja like (must have seen my awesomeness and decided to copy).  So I picked him up, and went to find MM (wanted to make sure that it was okay for him to be indoors).  I discovered MM cutting the dogs' hair in the hallway by our door (which explained how the cat had gotten inside) and she told me it was okay if he stayed in, so I let him down, and he pattered over to his mamma and followed her round (kittens are SO CUTE).

Round that time, Ellora showed up (it was about 11 AM by this time) to go to the beach with us.  We left a few minutes after she arrived and headed for the Progresso bus stop (about a 10 minute walk from our house).  When we got on the bus, I'll admit, I was surprised at how full it was!  Luckily, I was able to get a seat (Ellora ended up sitting on Christina's lap, see?):

About 30 minutes later, we arrived at Progresso (i.e. the beach).  It was super busy, I was surprised. But I found out that it was the day before school started, or something like that, so a lot of people decided to come to the beach.  Anyway, we looked around for a little bit, at all the different shops.  And we even found a fruteria (fruit stand)!  

You can't see it in the picture, but there's a lot of bees and different bugs swarming round the fruit.  It was...nice?

Shortly after this, we found a leather shop owned by an American who is raising money for impoverished Mayans.  He had a lot to say about Merida and the Mayans.  He went on for about an hour about all the bad stuff that happens in the Yucatan, and I was like...yes, I realize bad things happen.  But do we have to dwell on it for so long?  I wish I could do something for those impoverished, and I can.  I can give them things, money, food.  But I can't give them opportunities, not now.  And opportunities is really the only way to help people.  I mean, truly help them.

Moving on.

Finally, after an hour-ish of looking around, we reached the beach!  We tanned (I didn't even burn!  Okay, my neck and face got kind of burned.  But for the most part, I just tanned).  For the first part, I did a little studying (had my little umbrella I used to shade me from the sun.  I had to move it to the side so I could get some of the ocean breeze on my face.  WAY too hot without the cool ocean breeze) and put my feet in the water.  Probably an hour later we left to go find food.  We found a cute little resteraunt.  I didn't order any food (I was SO tired at this point), but Ellora and Christina did.

Afterwards, we went back to the beach.  This time I got in the water (forget the studying!)  Stayed out there for about an hour, just chatting with Christina and enjoying the waves.  Eventually, got out and dried off (poor Ellora was so burned).  I took some pictures (I really didn't want to leave).

  

On our way back to the bus, we stopped to get a coconut.  My first one!  It was...all right.  Ellora's tasted better than the one Christina and I got.  Also, I was surprised at how heavy it was!

#awkwardselife

After that, we looked for ice cream!  I can't remember the name of the place we found, but it was all right.  Not the best ice cream place I've eaten at.  Along the way, I spotted the light house!  So I took a picture of it.

At about 4:30 PM we got on the bus and headed back home (I sat next to Ellora and we listened to some tunes).  By the time we arrived in Merida, it was raining. Luckily, not too heavily.  Ellora got off first, then some time later, Christina and I found our stop, then walked home.  We got slightly lost, but we found our way again!  

And it sure was fun walking in the rain and thunder.  We found this cool house:

A little while later, we reached the park by our house.  I took some pictures of it.

Being the mature ladies we are, Christina and I decided to stop in front of the church (right behind the park) and splash in the puddles.  It was SO fun.  I've never gone puddle splashing.  But with my bathing suit on and having found clean puddles to jump in (i.e. puddles not on the road), I couldn't resist.

 And for your daily science lesson:

After all that, we came home, showered, then I studied and stared at Facebook.  (Really was having a hard time studying.  I was just so exhausted).  Ate dinner (tried not to loose it.  I think I had four burritos.  They were yummy.  My stomach was just a little non-cooperative).  At some point, I began packing for my trip home.  (Mainly, I threw clothes into my suitcase).  Shortly after I headed to bed.

Random note:  I got cat called A LOT today.  Let's just say, that is one thing I will NOT miss from Mexico.  Why?  Because it's annoying.  NOT a fan.

*Ahem*

That's all.

'Til Tomorrow (or, ya know, when I write up the next blog).

R J Carr

 

They've Been Robbed!

Today started out well.  Got up at about 7:50 AM, took a shower, and then got ready and dressed for church.  We were running a tad late, so Christina and I just took some slices of bread with us to eat for breakfast.  (I had to be there early to practice with Ellora.  She sang in sacrament with me accompanying her).  We arrived at church at about 20 til, only to find the gates locked.  So, we had to wait a little (it was just a few minute) before going inside.

Ellora and I practiced for just a few minutes (she sang “Teach me to walk in the light”)  I must admit, I have never been grossed out by a piano before, but today, that piano seriously grossed me out.  It was just so…oily!  It was gross.  Nevertheless, I played (germ-xing my hands directly afterwards).  I’ll admit, with the practice, I was nervous.  Mainly because during practice, I played awfully. 

Following practice, I played the interlude music for sacrament meeting.  (Which also didn’t go to well.  But, ya know, it’s the thought that counts right?)  It wasn’t long until sacrament started.  Which, at the last minute, they realized they had put up the wrong musical number (it was originally the hymn “Praise to the Man” but then it was corrected to “Let us All Press On.”)  Kinda had to fake my way through that one.  (I have never been able to play Let us All Press On well.  I was fine with Praise to the Man, but obviously that was not the song we sang.  I couldn’t help but think to myself, “I’ve been tricked!” :P)  Then, for the second hymn, I’d looked at it previously and was like, that’s easy enough.  Needless to say, I ended up biting my tongue.  That song did not go over well, either.  However, I was so proud of myself because, I didn’t really get nervous.  I just told myself, “Hey, this is the last time you’ll be playing the piano, in Mexico, at church.  So just enjoy the experience.”  So I just kind of drunk it all in, not caring about all the mistakes I made. 

Luckily, though, Ellora’s song went without a hitch.  She sang it beautifully!  And I managed to play it with no mistakes.  #success

The final song of the meeting was a strictly Spanish song (i.e. a song only found in the Spanish hymn book).  In other words, I didn’t know it at all.  Luckily, it was just a simple 6/8 song.  And I guess I must have played the rhythms right because no one threw tomatoes at me.  (Not that they would.  They are, after all Mormons).

But enough with the piano playing.  I must do a quick shout out to Christina, who did a fabulous job today on her talk!  She spoke so well!  I enjoyed listening to it.  #yourock

After church, we got picked up by MM.  (Who took Brandon home as well).  On the drive back, MM stops the car (at the stop sign) to make a call.  I was confused (she’s never done this before), until I realized it was MM’s husband.  It didn’t take long for me to catch that MM’s husband was saying that someone had robbed her parent’s house, and that her husband was already in a taxi en route to the house.  Needless to say, MM dropped Brandon off right there (it was just a block from his house) then sped us home.  She asked us if we were hungry, and I said, “Oh no, we’re good!”  (A big fat lie.  We were starving, but I didn’t want her to worry about us.  It was much more important that she see to the needs of her parents first).  So she dropped us off at the house, waited until we made it inside, and then zoomed away. 

Needless to say, Christina and I headed to the kitchen and got a little snack (MM told us that she wasn’t sure when lunch would be because, ya know, that whole robbery thing).  I had some toast with PB and frosted flakes.  Following that, Christina and I laid down for a nap (I’m sure we talked a little before doing so.  In fact, I believe we talked about Days for Girls and about what it was like to be a woman back in the day.   

After the nap, we had lunch (we were awoken by MM’s husband on their return).  Which was exciting.  Most of the time was spent talking about the robbery. 

So, I guess the robber had tried to break the window, but that didn’t work.  So then he broke through the door.  Everything in the house had been ransacked, with things thrown all over the place.  Though not much was taken, I don’t believe.  The robber escaped through the back by climbing up the plants (or something like that).  Sounds like it was someone desperate for money (which, you know, with how poor some people are here, I wouldn’t doubt it).  So yeah.  It was frightening for the poor couple.  But by the end of the meal, the grandma seemed a lot calmer.

After lunch (and chatting with the family for a good hour), we headed back to our room and chatted about the Word of Wisdom (why you may ask?  Well, for desert today we were offered cake made with coffee.  Which, I didn’t realize till I’d taken a bite of it.  And even then, it took a moment to register.  The grandma felt bad that she’d brought a desert we couldn’t eat, but we were like, No worries!!  Anyway, of course, after that, a discussion ensued about caffeine versus coffee and tea and all that jazz.  So, Christina and I tried to do some research on why it’s okay for us to drink caffeine, but not coffee and tea.  Course, after all the research I did on caffeine today, I’m uh, probably not ever going to drink it again, sick or not.  That stuff is SO bad for you.  And yes, you can overdose on caffeine.  And yes, it can kill you.  Just something to think about).

About 5:30 PM Claire and Ellora showed up at our house to offer us a ride to FHE (we had FHE tonight because one of the students is leaving tomorrow).  They ended up staying for a while because FHE wasn’t until 7 PM.  We were shewed to our room by the adults, so we ended up just hanging out in our room talking until it was time to go.  (We picked up the rest of Claire’s house on the way over there.  It was pretty entertaining, fitting seven people into a honda.  Four in the back, three in front.  Claire ended up sitting on my lap.  Malena was super funny and did “brake tests” several times.  Luckily, we survived :P)

We made it to Raquel’s house in one piece.  We then talked and waited for everyone else to show up.  When they did, we had food!  Spaghetti and some type of Mexican food, planichas?  A pineapple drink.  And some carrot cake and ice cream to follow.  (I realized today that no, I really don’t like carrot cake.  So how have I grown up thinking all these years that it’s my favorite???  I think I get spice cake and carrot cake mixed up.  Because I do like spice cake). 

Following food, we had this nice little slide show of pictures from the trip, done by Raquel (she did a smashing job!)  Followed by a walk down memory lane (aka, everyone shared their favorite part from the trip.  Mine was basically thanking them for all the support they gave me as they helped me through my fears.  Kinda got choked up during it, which I was not expecting.  What can I say?  I hate goodbye activities).

After that, Christina and I walked home.  It was a lovely evening.  We had a good time talking about our favorite memories and things that we learned.  I think I’m going to compose a list of my favorite things and what I learned for the last blog.

As for now, we were working on homework (a presentation on google docs), but the internet went out.  So I ended up writing this blog in Word and posting it today.  (Dern internet)  So, yep.

Buuut, we have bomb plans for tomorrow!  (Well, today, now).  We are going to go to the beach and study!  For rizzles.  I’m super excited.

‘Til Later,

R J Carr     

Sotuta de Peón

Yesterday was a mostly fabulous day.  Got up at about 6:30 AM to shower, eat, and get ready for our trip to Sotuta de Peón.  I believe the bus came at about 7:30 AM to pick us up.  (I didn't really pay attention to the time yesterday).  As always, we went around to the different houses, picked everyone up (Claiire's house brought us doughnuts again!) and headed out.  I believe it was an hour and a half bus ride.  I slept for most of it.  And when I wasn't sleeping, I was reading my book, "Woman in White."  (Good book by the way).

I think about 9 o'clock we arrived?  Then we ended up waiting around a good long while for the tour guide to show.  But it was well worth the wait because our tour guide was amazing!  The tour was given in English and Spanish.  (There was a couple there that only spoke English).  I may or may not have listened in to the English translation... :)  I have lots of pictures (and videos!) from our tour of Sotuta de Peón (the henequen plantation).

First we toured the main house of the plantation:

Dining Room (one of them.  I think they were dining rooms from different eras)

View from the front balcony.

Another dining room.

Kitchen Stove.  But it was just for show.  Even back in the day they never built a chimney so that they could use it.  They just had the servants cook the food outside and bring it in.  Which makes sense, with how hot it is down here, I wouldn't want to lite a huge fire in a tiny kitchen.

Sink,

Cupboard storage.

View of the whole kitchen.

Beautiful staircase.  Sadly we never got to go up it.

After viewing the main floor, we ended up going to the storage/cellar area (the downstairs).  It actually was not underground because the ground here is too hard to dig in (way too rocky).  So they just built the cellar above ground, but on the bottom level of the house.

Don't look now, but that's a Tarantula! 

Cellar Area

The Mayan Nike.  The string it's tied on with is made from henequen.

After the cellar, we learned how the Henequen was made!

Right before they twist it to make rope, they do this little pull thingy.

In his hand is a leaf of henequen.

You know it's a good tour when they bring you out drinks.

This is the contraption they use to wind the henequen and make it into rope.

 

These are the different sizes they make.  So, you make a small rope, then combine that with another.   Then combine that rope with a similar sized one, etc.  

After that, we got to watch how they made henequen bales for easy transportation throughout the site.

Here's a picture of the finished product:

Following this, we got to see how henequen was processed from the green leaf to the stringy white stuff you see here (by the way, I should mention, this stuff has the texture of horse hair.  It's very coarse).  It was so loud, I didn't even try to talk while filming the process.

Here are some still pictures of the machinery.

Here is where the Henequen dries out (you may not have seen it in the video, but it was pooling water at the end of the process.  That stuff was sopping).

Train tracks.  For transportation.  What kind of transportation you will find out in a few moments.

Carts they took the henequen on.

No idea what this is, but it looked important.

Where the Henequen water drained to.  It.  Smelled.  AWFUL.

Of course, now they use electricty to run everything.  But back in the day, they used fire power and this engine.

This is the next part of the process.  How it's made into rope (with technology.  The fast way!).

First step here.  (Sorry, I didn't catch what the first step was.  It took me a while to realize that  this was a process, not just different ways of packaging the Henequen).

 Lots of videos here (and not any pictures).  Don't worry, they're short.  And they go through the last steps of the process.

First, it's put into barrels.

Then it goes from the barrel onto spools.

Then it goes from those spools onto even bigger spools!  (which, I think that's only if they want to sell spools of it...?  I'm not quite sure).

Then it gets made into rope!

Here are some still photos of the machinery.

Building where all the machinery was.

 After looking at that, we then got to ride on the train.  Which are carts pulled by a mule!  Here's a picture of the cart (I was sitting at the very end).  It's funny because I didn't realize, at first, that we were going on two carts.  I thought the four carts were all together.  So when I saw the first two carts getting pulled away, I was like, "Wait!  Come back!!"  But then the driver came up with another mule and I was like, "ooooooh."  *ahem*

Of course, I had to take some pictures during the ride.  Which is what these are.

We got stopped after about five minutes on the train (which is when I took these next pictures).

I then realized that we were heading up to a little house to listen to a very cute old man explain the work he'd done here.  So, long story short, Sotuta de Peón died a while back ago when the owner decided to shut it down (I didn't catch why he decided to do that).  After that decision, another man came along with the desire to make Sotuta de Peón come alive again.  When he did, he asked this old mayan man (whom I am sure was a lot younger at the time) to help him out.  When he came, he found that Sotuta de Peón had been all overgrown by forest.  So they had to clear it out and start plating henequen (by the way, you have to wait seven years for the Henequen to grow before you can harvest it).  He did a lot of the work.  So all the Henequen we saw on the ride?  Planted by him.  I guess back in the day there were 3,000 workers.  Now there are only 60 (just the bare bones to keep it running for tourists.  I should mention, the Henequen industry shut down a while ago.  Now most of it is imported from Brazil.  The henequen made here is given - for free - to the surrounding villages.  It's there that they make it into different little trinkets to sell to tourists.  As he put it, it's a way for them to earn a little more income).  He said that now, he is retired and all he has to do is sit on his little bench and welcome tourists (it was funny the way he said it.  We all laughed).  He was so cute!  

Of course, because he was speaking in Mayan, I took a video of it (which, was funny because later he commented on how now he now also got to be famous because his photo is now all over the world, or something like that.  I wish I could make the jokes as well as he did!).  So here is a video of him during part of his first lecture.  The second video is him explaining how to plant the Henequen plant.  What's nice is, although he speaks Mayan, the tour guide translates it (for obvious reasons.  None of us speak Mayan).  But because of the English couple, not only is it translated into Spanish, but into English as well.  So don't fear!  You shall be able to understand what he is saying :)

Side note:  Watch in between the people, about half way through the movie, for Profe's little boy.  I don't know why, but every time I watch that part, I always crack up laughing.  Ah, kids.  Such fun!  Also, do you like the whole double screen thing going on?  #groupprobs

Here's the explanation on how to plant Henequen.  It's not too long (bout 3 minutes) and I think it's super interesting.

After that, we said goodbye to the little old man (I wish I could remember his name!  It's Don something), we got back on the train and continued our journey again.  We stopped at the end of the line (well of that line anyway) where there was a small bar and some restrooms.  And...a cenote!!  A very beautiful cenote.  So we all got changed into our bathing suits and got in (we had an hour to swim).  The coolest thing about this cenote is it is literally undground in a cave.  The water is SO clear.  As clear as the Caribbean ocean, but it's pure water.  And there were no fish, which made me sad.

After that, we got back on the train and, following a different track, were taken to the exit.

Animal along the way.

Becca and I

After this, most of us changed back into dry clothes (some of us had changed before the train ride), then we piled back onto the bus and headed to our end of the Study Abroad lunch at this super fancy hotel in Merida.  It was legit.

Crembule!  Or however you spell that.

 

After lunch we all had to fill out a survey/evaluation about our experience here (you know how BYU loves their evaluations).  Following which (and after a little waiting for our bus), we piled back onto the bus and headed for the park!  (After dropping Profe and his family off.  They were letting the kids rest before going later).  It was nice we got to go to the park.  Malena got us the tickets, so we got in for free!  We stayed there for about two hours.  During which time I did the extreme obstacle course (which you will see some pics of shortly) and a jumpy thing.  By that time I was tired, so I and three other girls left for Claire's house (it took awhile, but we got a taxi!  Through Conner's geniusness in getting the park to call us one.  Else it would have been hard to get home.  We could've by bus, but it would've taken hours probably).  It was also at that point that Whitney pointed out I was lethargic and therefore, probably dehydrated, so I chugged some water.  #goodfriend  Anyway, here's the pictures (the last of them for today):

Notice the photo bomber, lol.

It was a great experience (for someone who can't stand heights, it was terrifying, but I did it!  Thanks to Janice and Aubreyann's and a few other's support.  I felt like I was on one of those team building shows).

Anyway, so after the park I went to Claire's house and iced my knee (it'd been bothering me all day), ate some cake and ice cream.  I was supposed to meet Christina there, but plans changed (I got more than a little frustrated with everything at this point.  I was tired. My knee hurt.  I was still recovering from an infection.  I'd had two chances to go home earlier, but hand't because I was waiting for her...Basically I was just done).  So I ended up speed walking to Wal-Mart to but an ace bandage before coming back to see if Conner was ready to leave.  He was.  So we headed out to the bus stop.  We waited a little while for the bus to come.  Wasn't too long of a bus ride, though.  We ended up at Conner's house (the bus took a different way then I'm used to).  So I dropped them off at their house and walked the few blocks to mine.  I was terrified.  But I survived.  I should've asked one of the boys to accompany me home, but I was too mad they didn't offer in the first place.  Anyway, that's a different topic that I shall not delve into, or I shall just get mad again.

Anyway, the point is, I survived.  Got home, got ready for bed, watched half of "The Blind Side" before passing out on my bed (not in the literal sense).  Didn't wake up til about 9 AM this morning?  And I basically didn't do anything today, except rest.  I call it the end of the study abroad, non-alcoholic hangover.  So basically I worked on a few school things, finished up the Blind Side, tried not to die from stomach pain, and slept.  Tonight Christina and I did watch Young Victoria.  SUCH a good movie.  Looking back on today, I guess I did accomplish something.  I finished my jar of nutella.  #success.  

So yep, that was my Friday and Saturday.  Friday was exciting.  Saturday maybe not so much.

'Til Tomorrow.

R J Carr     

PS Not all my pictures were included in my blog today (because, well, there are already a lot of them).  I shall be posting all of my pictures to my Facebook at the end of my trip.  So I shall post them then.  Only three more days till I'm home!  I shall miss Mexico, but I am very excited to be seeing my family (it's been four months).  #cantwait #realmilk #childreneverywhere #bliss