Thursday: Cinco de Mayo!

Holy cow. Today was so fun!

This morning we only had one class... that I pretty much slept the entire time. I tried so hard! And I even sit in the front row to help myself stay awake, but it totally did not help today. We got home pretty late last night so I didn't get to bed until 12:something, and with waking up at 5:20... it made for a hard first class. Oh well - Cassy's a good sit-next-to-in-class friend (she's also good at being friends in other ways :) and wrote down important things I was missing so I could copy them after class. Gracias, Cassy!

After class, we went to go look one of the boys suggested we go to the temple today and with everything great that's been happening with my testimony and everything lately, I jumped on that opportunity.  So, guess what time the weekend started!  9:00 am today!  It was such an awesome feeling!  After school, we decided to walk home after our first bus (instead of taking the second one) with Adrienne and hacía mucha calor!  We were going to swim when we got home because it was so hot, but we decided to catch up on our journals instead.  I still need to finish writing yesterday's, but I was really glad we decided to do that.  At like, 2:30 or something, we ate dinner and it was goooooood.  I'll do my best to write the recipe, but I have no idea everything that was in it.

chicken (boiled, to make a broth).  Then take it out and put some red seasoning on it and cook it in a toaster oven until the outside is kind of crispy.
Parsley or something.
Garlic (roasted first on the stove fire) to flavor the broth.
Onion (roasted first on the stove fire) to flavor the broth.
I think that's all for the broth.

Shred the chicken and put on a salad with....
shredded lettuce
grated carrots
pickled onions - slice a red onion and boil a pot of water.  When it boils, drop the onions in and turn off the heat.  After just a couple of seconds, dump out the hot water and pour on cold.  You only do this to bring out the color; you don't want to cook them.  Then somehow soak them in the juice of a bitter orange (?) and a little lemon.

Eat the salad and the soup separate or together (I prefer separate) and put some tortilla chips in the broth.  YUMMY!

By the way, I forgot to tell you - we had hot dogs for breakfast with ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise.   Yeah. I couldn't finish mine.

So after lunch, which was so delicious, we took a siesta, and at 3:30ish, got up to get ready for the temple!  We were both so excited - things have been really interesting spiritually lately.  At 3:50, we left to meet at Nate and Lars's house.  We were running a little late, so we saw them across the street from his house leaving when we were about a block away.  We ran (in our Sunday best!) to catch up and were crossing the street when we noticed that Nate was not, in fact, waving, but telling us to stop running because we were going to catch the bus back a few blocks from where we had come :)  Oh well - it was all good.  Nate was the only boy in the group and it was funny because a couple people said something about, "This is probably why people think we're polygamists."  :)

When we were on the bus, Nate told Jill and me that we were to be the guides.  (The temple is pretty close to the Centro.  A lot of buses go to the Centro, but none go directly to the temple, so you always have to walk.)  The streets are numbered in a way that makes a lot of sense, so I started paying attention close to when we would stop to which direction the numbers were going.  The streets are numbered like this - all the streets in one direction are even, so the streets go 2, 4, 6, 8, ..., and all the streets perpendicular are odd - 1, 3, 5, 7.  So you just have to know in which direction the numbers go up and in which direction they go down.  And all the addresses say, This house is number ## on Calle 15 in between Calle 23 and 25 in the neighborhood ____.  It's pretty easy.  And street signs are marked very well.  (It was funny because at one point I was telling Jill the address of the temple and Nate was trying to say it was at a different address, but I was like, Whatever, that address is burned into my memory! :)  So anyway, I figured out a trick! I always try to pay attention to which direction the numbers are going when we get close to el Centro so that I know where to go when we stop, but I always end up getting confused.  Today I decided to make a little plus sign on my lap with my fingers, pointing in the direction that the numbers were going up.  Then, when we stopped, I had a little "key" and I knew exactly where to go! It was exciting.  Somehow Nate and at least Laurel, I'm not sure who all, ended up getting to the temple before us (maybe they speed-walked and we slow-walked or something), but we got there perfectly well without a hitch!  It was reallllly exciting because last time we went to the temple... well, you know what happened :)

The temple is so beautiful.  I'm so thankful we have one.  Also, I'm glad Jill's my roommate.  I like that we can talk about things like the gospel when we see them around us instead of always feeling awkward.

So anyway, the temple was great.  Oh man. When I walked in I was so happy to be there.  When we first got there we waited in the waiting room for a few other boys to come, and it was nice to have some prep time.  During confirmations I bawled my eyes out.  And then it was fun that Nate was doing the baptisms - it's cool when you know the person doing them.  And the shower was amazing!  Don't get me wrong - ours is pretty good.  But that one was AWESOME.  It's better than mine at home.  It gets hot and steamy in approximately 0.0009 seconds and the water pressure is hard without hurting.  It was great.  After I changed (I was the second girl done), I didn't know where to go because I couldn't find the first people, so I asked a lady.  She said I could stay and watch, so I did.  I am very thankful to have a temple.  I cried a lot in there.  I haven't done baptisms in such a long time and I loved it.  It was funny, though, because I had the perfect seat to watch everyone else after me who knew what to do, leave the room and go to the waiting room.  It was a little weird because I was the only person in there in my Sunday clothes, but I liked it anyway and I stayed until everyone was done.  Btw - I love my hair short. It was so easy.

After the temple, we took pictures and I thought about things and then talked to some of the people in the group to make better friends with them.  There are some really cool people in our group!  One is Bryce, and he told me something cool - he said the temple is exactly like his temple at home, and it's also like the OKC one, only backwards.  He said that he liked it because it makes you feel at home in the house of the Lord.  I liked that idea.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say - we went at the time we did because that's when the ward we attend went.  There were probably three boys and three girls who were there, and I really liked them.  One of them was wearing a super pretty dress, and I when I told her I liked it, she said she'd made it!  And without a pattern!  I have to be friends with that girl.  And her.... sister? I don't know, maybe friend, was so cute and nice.  She was pretty shy, but I liked her.  I didn't meet the third girl or any of the boys, but those two girls made me want to make friends with the youth in our ward. :)

After all of that, Nate told us there's a place where, on Thursday nights, there's a concert called Las Serenatas (the Seranades).  I didn't really know if I would like it, but when we got there (about an hour early) and they were playing the "prelude" music, I couldn't stop smiling!  It was soooooo much fun!  I would even venture to guess it was the funnest thing I've done here so far.  I couldn't believe I loved it so much.  It's just a concert - first a little band (like the size of a jazz band) played some traditional Mexican music, and then there was a group of four men who played the guitar and one played an electronic instrument that had all the percussion on it, and they sang.  They were really good! Then a woman came up who apparently was pretty popular - there was a woman in the crowd who was practically having a conniption fit wanting to be noticed by the singer - and everyone knew her songs.  She was good.  Her voice was lower than I expected, but it was right on pitch and nice to listen to.  The entire time I felt like throwing my hands up and laughing I was so excited!  I loved it!  I wish I could dance like them!

I bought a little snack at the Minisuper across the street, but later some people had these things at least Kelli will appreciate.  They were tortillas with cheese and Nutella inside, rolled up like a taco, and then fried or something - I know, it sounds gross - but I tried one and it tasted like a jumbo Pirouette!  It was sooo good.  I'm getting one sometime.  It's called a marquecita.

We walked together to the bus (we were supposed to be the guides, but we literally had no idea where we were supposed to be - I never know where to get on the bus or which one to take) so Nate was the guide.  We found the bus (we were a little confused at first because the bus driver told us it wouldn't take us to where we wanted to go but it totally did) and got home without any trouble!   We told Carmita all about it and it was hard to keep from laughing and everything because it was all just so fun.  I loved it.  I want to go back every Thursday! :)  Also, we made a couple of friends on the bus, which is always really fun.  It's helpful practicing with people who live here.  Oh man, this is so cool.  Joel, you wouldn't like it, so you should probably glad you didn't come, but I love it! :)  Well, we're going on some fun trips tomorrow and have to meet up at 8:45, so I should probably go to bed.  Love you all!


And I got to know Laurel a little better tonight!  We sat by each other on the way home from the beach on Tuesday and got to know each other a little, so today I talked to her at the temple and stuff.  Weended up sitting by each other at the concert, too.  She's super nice, and also funny.  And I got to talk to Bryce and Mari a little, too, which I haven't done a lot of yet.  I like them a lot!  Laurel is a really good sit-by-at-exciting-events person, Bryce reminds me of Joel, and Mari is just fun.  I haven't gotten to know her super-well yet, but I hope I get to know her better.  It's fun getting to know people in such small groups like tonight (we were a biggish group, but when you walk or sit and are only by one person... you know what I mean) because now I feel like I could walk up to any of them in a big group and be friends.  How happy :)

Well, I texted Mom and Dad about calling but they haven't responded... which I'm taking to mean not tonight :)  So I'm off to shower and go to bed! I'm excited for the adventures tomorrow! Oh, and remind me - I need to buy a water bottle before we meet up with everybody!  Have a good night, all! :)

alisonmj