Tuesday: Institute

Hola! So this morning was class at 7 like always.  We had the everybody class first and Cassy was sitting where she always does when I got there.  Chispaz.  (Cool, awesome)  Class went pretty well.  I hardly was tired at all = BLESSING!  The second class was kind of funny and a little weird because I stayed in my same seat, but my first class's teacher decided to sit by me and then invited another teacher to sit on the other side of me.  The first class teacher is pretty young and the other man is older and blind.  I don't know the old one at all, but the young one is the teacher who came on our excursions with us.  It's funny - after him coming and doing the social activities with us in addition to the learning parts, I feel like he's a part of our group and should always come around with us!  Anyway, but sitting by two teachers in class today certainly gave me extra motivation to stay awake! :)  


Jill and I have been wanting to exercise, but I want to swim and she wants to run, so we decided last night it'd be fun to use the school's facilities! Then we can exercise at the same time, plus it's at the perfect time of day to get it done.  We went to do it today, but unfortunately the exercise office was closed (although the lady at the school told us it was supposed to be open).  We're going to check again tomorrow and if it's still closed, she gave me the phone number so I can call and get the hours.  I hope it works out - it'd be so perfect.


Today is El Día de las Madres, so Carmita bought lunch instead of cooking today.  Good for her!  Lunch was suuuper delicious - my favorite part was a ham and brown bean soup.  Mom, you would've loved it!  There were also fresh corn tortillas (we eat those a lot and I love em!), some kind of meat that was flavored just like American steak, chopped onions with cilantro to eat with the steak, salsa, and a little bit of boiled or something onion.  It was delicious!  After lunch I took a siesta... for quite a while longer than I meant to, but it was all good.  I guess that means I needed it, right? :) It was a good nap!


At 4:00, we left to meet a group of people at El Centro.  Some people were going to see Thor, but I never pay full-price for a movie at home, plus it's not anything to do with Mexico... so we decided to go to El Centro instead.  We were going to meet everyone at the cathedral at 4:30.  While we were waiting for people to come, guess who we saw!  That's right - Freddy!  I couldn't believe when I saw him!  He was trying to make suckers out of a group of tourists ;)  Jill took a picture and we tried not to let him see us... but then he came and sat exactly right by us!  So Jill pretended to pose while I took a picture of him behind her.  They're such stalker-looking pictures :)  I pretended to be focusing it and stuff until he would turn his head towards us, so in all of them he's staring at me from behind her shoulder.  It was so hilarious :D  Anyway, we waited at the cathedral until 4:50 and the group never came, so we went to the museum we had planned to go to just in case they had gotten there earlier and already left.  When we got to the museum (just around the corner), we found out it was closed for El Día de las Madres, so we went straight over to the government house.  (btw, I'm not posting photos today - I'll put them up tomorrow)  It was cool!  There were a lot of governmental offices, but also a lot of really neat artwork.  The building is green and very pretty :)  There's a hallway upstairs filled with paintings about Mexico's history and I was honestly surprised at how powerful they were.  I took a picture of one of my "favorites."  Honestly, though, it was very poignant in there - it almost felt like a church.  I'll tell you more about it when I put the pictures up.


When we left the governmental palace, we walked over to the church for Institute.  I was excited to be around some more members of the church!  It's been interesting since we've come here - church has been one place I feel totally comfortable (although I never realize how much I miss it until we get there), and every time we go somewhere church-related, I just want to stay there forever.  "Sweet is the peace the gospel brings."  That is so true.  Also, being at Institute made me miss the piano so much!  I've thought a few times about that - I didn't bring any piano music because I didn't think there was enough space in my suitcase but as soon as the guy at the airport said it was only 45 pounds, my heart broke for not having piano music :(  I've been thinking about it a lot because we've learned about talents, and talked about doing a musical number, and also, when I have a bad day, I feel the Spirit so much through playing the piano.  I really miss it.  I asked Joel to scan and send me one of my favorite hymn arrangements because I really want to do a musical number next week.  What a good husband I have :)


One thing we learned about today was charity and the teacher challenged us to read Moroni 7 this week.  I feel like reading it everyday to grow closer to Heavenly Father and give up petty feelings so I can be a better person.  


After Institute, we went to this place called ki'Xocolatl, a Mayan chocolate café.  I got a chocolate milkshake (it was actually pretty liquidy - it kind of tasted like a more delicious, glorified version of Nesquik :) ) and it was so perfect!  It really hit the spot.  Cold and tasty.  It was fun at the restaurant!  When we all had finished, we headed home where I showered, chatted to Joel for a couple of minutes, and now it's time for bed!  Have a good night! :)