We made these Strawberry and Chocolate Nachos (from www.ourbestbites.com) to eat while watching the third Narnia movie tonight. All I have to say is, De-lici-ous.
Ingredients needed: tortillas, butter, cinnamon sugar, strawberries (or another kind of fruit that would be good with chocolate), chocolate
P.S. The Narnia movie was very good, too. I really like those movies a lot. Very well-made, besides having a good story.
People always say that when they served their missions or had a certain calling, that they loved the people they were serving even when they didn't know all of them.
Although I started to understand that as a Primary teacher, I don't think I ever fully have. I grew to love my kids in Primary as I got to know them - it didn't just come naturally.
Now I do understand.
I love every Mexican here with all my heart. Except for the creepy ones - but yknow what? I don't even feel a weird hatred or nastiness towards them like I probably would at home. I love my family. I love love love my little sister. I love the people on the bus, my teachers, the bus drivers, the people who drive around in those trucks and honk while we're waiting at the bus stop. I'll be honest - as excited as I am to be with my wonderful husband, drink American milk, eat Cocoa Pebbles, and have my clothes back, thinking about leaving these wonderful people and this beautiful place is breaking my heart. LITERALLY.**
**For those who wondered, my heart is not literally broken. Thank you for your concern.
This song is on the radio all the time here and I've been trying to figure out for weeks what it's called! Last night someone had a guitar at the JAS activity and played this song, so finally I know and have purchased it :) Enjoy!
We went to the beach today! The girls came to pick us up to meet at Nate's house, but Tony was already planning to pick us up to go to Nate's... The girls didn't know how to get to Nate's house, though, so I went with them so I could tell them how to get there. Then Jen, Nate, Jill and I got to ride up to the beach with Tony! = no bus fare, no walking, no bus :) It was nice.
When we first got there, I was mostly in the mood to just relax in the beach setting, so Jen and I put ourselves in charge of guarding the stuff. Eventually I decided it might be fun to swim... but then all of a sudden we were hoarded with people who'd been stung or bitten by something! Jill came running up in pain because she'd been stung twice. Tony hurried her over to the bathroom and gave her his water so she could rinse herself off. Then James came over and said he'd been stung once, right by his armpit. Next came Bryce, who'd also been stung twice. I really didn't want to get in the water! Yikes! Bryce kept telling me how good it felt, though, so I finally decided I'd just try it for a minute. I went out... but then everyone around me started saying they were getting bitten/stung! so I ran back in, dried off, and didn't regret for a minute that I didn't really swim today :)
After "swimming", I sat out and dried for a while. Then Brianne wanted to walk down the beach - she met this woman who was looking for a certain kind of shells b/c she was going to make a curtain or something out of them, and she wanted to take a bunch of shells she'd found to her - but she wanted someone to go with her, so I went. (I found out later that she wanted a partner just in case everyone left while we were gone b/c she didn't know how to get home:) While we were walking down to where the woman was, we met a group of college kids who were in Mérida/Progreso for the weekend. They were friendly, so we talked to them for a while. They also were drunk, though, so we didn't stay too long! :) Then we got to the older lady and her husband and talked to them for a while. At this point I was starting to get nervous about people leaving b/c the sun was starting to go a little, so I tried to cut off the conversation after not too long so we could leave. (I also have no idea how to get back by myself!) While we were walking back, we ran into the drunk kids again although we tried not to (they told us earlier to walk by them on our way back so we could take a picture together), and took some pictures with them. People here like Americans a lot. :) Actually, one of them told us she wished she could be as white as me - I told her I wished I could be as dark as she was! They have such pretty skin here. They also tried to get us to get tattoos and stuff. Interesting :) The older couple was really nice. They told me I speak well, which I only sometimes believe but it's nice to hear anyway! They were very nice.
When we got back there was still a large-ish group left, which was a relief. I continued to dry off while I sat on the beach and played in the sand. It was kind of cool - at one point Jill went somewhere but Tony stayed, and it was the first time I've had to actually talk to him. He seems like a very nice and genuine person.
Jajajaa, so after a while, this group of college-age boys came to the beach. We first noticed because Michelle decided she was going to walk to the other side of them to pretend to take a picture of the sunset, but actually take a picture of them. Apparently they were attractive. I couldn't believe she was so brave! She got over there and didn't even have to pretend, because all of a sudden they were all wanting her to take their pictures and stuff. As she was doing so, Cat went over to join the fun. Adrienne, Jill, Tony and I were all laughing about it by our stuff, but when they came back and showed us the pictures, it was ridiculous - those boys looked like Photoshopped models! I have never seen someone look like that! They didn't have attractive faces, though. Sad. :) When she saw the pictures, though, Jill went over to have her turn while the rest of us stayed back and tried to decide if they were gay. (We later decided by their actions - including, but not limited to, drawing hearts in the sand and how they posed with them and each other - that they were.) :)
When we left, Tony took us home and we hurried and got ready...
TO GO TO THE DISCOTECA!!!!!
It was so awesome! Christina from church told us about a good discoteca and invited us all to go at the same time as each other (she said they're more safe that way), and that time was tonight! Oh man. Jill was kind of so-so about going, but I was pumped! First of all, I've been in the mood for a dance and I wanted to dance like a crazy person! Second of all, I have always thought it sounded so fun to go to a discoteca :) Third, I thought it sounded really fun to go to a discoteca with our group. Tony picked us up and then we went to get Michelle and went to the disco! When we got there, we realized we'd forgotten our ID's... but Tony acted like he knew the bouncer or something because, although he was less than enthusiastic, he was willing to let us in without ID. Michelle decided she was too weirded out by the environment and wanted to go home, though, so we took her home and got our ID's. She was really embarrassed, but everyone was really nice about it and respectful and telling her that if she should never apologize for not doing something she feels uncomfortable doing. Anyway. :)
When we got back and walked up to the door, it was funny - we felt soooooo Mormon! There we were in a Mexican discoteca with all these girls dressed in tiny dresses and we were there with our sleeves and non-disco-style clothes :) It was hilarious. So we got in and it ended up costing a little more than we were expecting (it was like, $8), but oh well. It included drinks! (non-alcoholic, of course:) I was so thankful Tony was there - with the loud music and everything, I had no idea what was going on at the desk where you pay for your ticket. We gave him our money and he paid for us. ...and then we showed our tickets and went in!
So, it was a lot different than I expected. First of all, no one was dancing. Second, no one was creepy or weird. (Actually, the whole night, no one even really danced with us or did anything creepy. For which I was thankful.) Third, when we walked in, they led us to a table like at a restaurant and we ordered Squirt :) ....and then sat down and drank it. I was like, what is going on? We're at a discoteca in Mexico! We should be dancing! but Jill was embarrassed because no one was dancing, and Tony actually knows the culture so he knows that people don't start dancing until later in the night. But I really wanted to, so I went! There was an open spot and I went over and just went crazy! It would've been 10000% more fun if Carrie had been there, but I just made the best of it :D After a second Jill started dancing a little, but she was still embarrassed. There was a giant raised dance floor - pretty much there wasn't any other dancing room - and after like, one minute, I decided it'd be super fun to dance on it. We didn't have any room where we were! But I didn't want to go by myself and Jill still was unsure, so we stayed on the normal floor. We took turns having Tony as a partner, since we were an awkward 3 :)
Finally everyone was ready and we ran up to the actual dance floor and had a party! It was so fun! It's been a long time since I exerted myself so hard, though, so after a little while I had to take a break because I was totally out of breath. Also, in discotecas, Mexico's lack of air conditioning is painfully obvious. :) I sat down to catch my breath and watched Tony and Jill for a minute (we were still the only ones!) .... and then realized how weirdly awkward I had looked. So, yknow Latin dances. Yeah. It suddenly was obvious to me that we were an awkward 3. So instead of dancing, I just drank another Squirt. (Actually, at one point I did get up again, but at that point it wasn't quite as fun.)
As I waited, I sat and watched. I went to the bathroom. I drank more Squirt. And then it was time to leave. Which was good, because the Squirt combined with the smoke was starting to make me nauseous. I went outside a little before them felt like throwing up all over the place because of all the smoke in the disco. The fresh night air was delicious! :)
When we got home, I immediately got ready to take a shower (ocean + nasty disco smell and sweat = yuck!) and literally fought back tears upon finding there was no water in the shower. Is that silly? The shower ran out of water after Jill's shower last night, so I haven't showered in two days. I ran back into the room and chatted Joel for a minute to get back to normal, which was so helpful. He is so great at helping me not be overwhelmed about silly things. He and the gospel have been great ties to reality while I've been here.
OVERALL OPINION OF THE DISCO: As it was, it was decent. But with more people next time, whenever that is, it'll be awesome!
Oh yeah, hahaha, while we were at the disco and I went to the bathroom, it was funny b/c I walked in and there was this person sitting in there that I would've sworn was a man! I walked into my stall super fast and then stood there and prayed that I would be safe. Went super fast. Got out and walked to wash my hands... and saw that it was a woman. Yay! It was just an employee whose job it was to hand out paper towels. What a relief! :)
Come on in and sit a spell! Okay, I don't really say that. That's just how the couch up top makes me feel.
"She" was a nickname I received in high school. So hello! and welcome! I am She. [except on Twitter and Instagram, where I'm alison.is.she :) ]
Posts
