And We Thought Californians Were Wimps...

Last night it rained. I was at Global from about 4pm on, and it started to rain about 7pm. I noticed that my english students kept looking nervously out the window, and I just thought that it was because they knew they would get wet when leaving.

Then about 9:30 (the rain had stopped!!), I noticed that there was traffic on a side street to the cafe, a street that is never busy, and less so at night. In fact, last night, the traffic was at a stand still on that street! People started leaving worrying about how they would get home. Someone said that Zaragoza (a main street by the cafe) had flooded and that's why all the cars were on our street. I was working with Jenn, and we left a little after 10pm to take taxis to our homes. I left her in front of the cafe, and started walking to the entrance to the university where there are usually a lot of taxis headed in the direction of my house. (don't worry, it's well lit, and there are a lot of students leaving the university at that hour, so I wasn't alone in the dark at night!!)

On my way to the entrance, I noteced that NO cars were moving and that I hadn't seen even one taxi! I waited about 5 minutes, and still the cars hadn't moved, so I called Gaby to tell her what the situation was, and I crossed the street to a taco restaurant to eat dinner there. About 20 minutes later I left the taco place and went back to wait for a taxi. And I waited. And waited. And no taxis ever passed by. It was after 11pm by this time, and the taco restaurant was closing, and I didn't want to be out there all alone, so I was thinking about who I could call to come take me home. I knew that Gaby's car would be useless in the rain (our street floods pretty bad in the rain), Julian and Whitney's car was in the shop, Martin and Mayte were probably also stuck with no car because of the rain, Silvia's (Jenn's mexican mom) phone was not working, and I couldn't think of anyone else who had a car and that I had their phone number. Not good. So I started to walk. I was trying to think of the safest, not the fastest way to get home. Finally, after walking quite a ways, an empty taxi drove by, with a driver in a bad mood, who didn't want to take me home because he was convinced that my neighborhood was flooded even though Gaby had told me cars can still pass. So I arrived home at almost midnight, knowing what to expect next time it rains for two measly hours in QRO!

¡Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé! ¡¡Gallos, GALLOS!!

Here's the scene:
7pm in Downtown Queretaro. Every police officer and his pet rock are in the Centro. Many arrive with shields, others bring fences to set up around all the monuments in the Centro and to block off Corregidora Street so people from the 3 plazas on that street won't run into the street. Smart, and well-prepared is how I would describe the QRO police force tonight. Why? No, there were no riots, nothing bad was happening....

About 9pm, it began to rain. Whitney and her girls, and Jenn decided to head home. I was going to also, but there wasn't an empty taxi to be found. Julian called my cell phone to tell us the good news. 2-0 at half time! I decided that since I was already wet and couldn't get a taxi, I might as well just find a TV and watch the rest......

Queretaro Gallos Blancos (soccer) vs. Puebla in the Primera A league finals. Why is this game so important? Because the winner moves up to LA LIGA!! That means we are now in the big leagues. It means the CHIVAS will be coming to play in Queretaro. It means that I'll be going to LIGA futbol games.

When the game ended, everyonw was yelling, horns honking, blue and white flags waving, fireworks going off. Had I not been by myself, I would've stayed around downtown for a while. ALL cars headed for the Centro. I lft my spot near a big screen TV outside a downtown restaurant shortly after the game ended (about 10pm). It's 11:30ish now, and I still hear horns honking in celebration! Here's to the newest Liga Mexicana team!! Yay!



And what a day it is for soccer all over the world. My favorite Catracho team won the league title for Honduran league for the third year in a row. Olimpia Tegus knocked out Victoria of la Ceiba to become the champeons!
Sorry for those of you who read this blog and aren't into soccer. The next month and a half may be rough for this blog - World Cup starts in 11 days!!!!!!!!!

And Now, the Scavenger Hunt...

Here are the promised pictures from our craziness on friday night...

My team consited of me, Brisa, Mario, David, Checo, and Alvaro. The "other" team was Lluvia, Justin, JP, Jenn, Laura, Adiel, and Nadia. The "other" team allegedly won, but somehow they may have cheated... hehehe! The point of the whole thing was to take pictures of the team in specified places or doing a specified thing. We had a list of things to do and places to visit.

Here we are making a pyramid in front of the Niños Heroes monument

Ok, this is my personal favorite... to save time, we climbed a fence from the University to the Cerro de las Campanas park. When it was my turn to climb over, everyone started laughing and yelling "Aguas!! La migra!! Subete, subete!!" That means "Watch out!! Here comes the border patrol! Climb over fast!!" hahaha!

Here's Mario and David imitatin monkeys at the University... we all had to choose animal to immitate in public.

And here's Alvaro on the lawn outside his school being a worm. Now that's original!

Also at the university, we did the "gallinazo," a dance that is quite similar to the chicken dance, like at the Oktoberfest. Yeah, notice that our entire group is in this picture... some guy who we didn't know who thought we were completely strange took this.

And now onto the "other" teams' pictures...

This is my favorite of theirs - JP looking like he's about to pee his pants from laughing, while the rest of the team is frustrated with him! I'm pretty sure it's a posed picture though...

Their pyramid at the university

And the team at Global when they realized that they won. Notice Adiel at the right giving us the "loser" sign. Nice.

Me, Justin, JP, Laura, and Lluvia at Global after the hunt.

Yeah, it was a super fun night! I was SOOOOO tired afterwards though - I slept until 10:30 this morning! hehe!

Oh Happy Day!!

Jenn came to Global today and said, "I brought you a present, and I think you're REALLY going to like it. In fact, I think you'll scream and jump up and down and run and hug me for it!" I had NO idea what could make me do that... So she proceeded to pull two cans of Dr. Pepper out of a bag and hand them to me!! I was SOOOOOOO happy!! I didn't drink Dr. Pepper all that much in the States, but the fact that I CAN'T get it here makes me WANT it. Jenn found a few cans at a grocery store... someone told us that usually when there's Dr. Pepper here it costs about $1 USD per can! Jenn didn't remember how much she paid for them... But I was happy!!


Tomorrow: pictures from our scavenger hunt!! Trust me, we are WEIRD.

Live From La Joya

Oh the joy of being able to sit at my OWN desk with my OWN computer and type this! Yesterday I got internet and telephone in my house. And, only 2 and a half weeks had passed since I went to the internet/telephone company to contract it! That's fast for here!! (Mom, you'd love it here, MaxCom has phone, internet, cable, and they are adding cellphone service; all from the same provider, so you can just pay one bill!) So I now have a phone number that can be reached from outside of Mexico! Email me if you need it...

Every week I find myself busier and busier, but all stuff that I really enjoy. For example, here is my thursday today:
7:30 - wake up, get ready for the day
8:30 - leave home for my first stop of the day
9:00 - arrive at Galerias mall to meet Leslie (a friend from church) at Samborn's for breakfast
11:00 - arrive (one hour late, oops!) at Global to work
12:00 - Laura, Yesica, and Monse meet me at Global for our Purpose Driven Life study
3:00 - close Global for lunch, and go home
3:45 - arrive at home and eat lunch; rest, catch up on emails, finances, visa stuff, etc.
6:00 - go to Comercial Mexicana (like WalMart) to buy ping-pong balls for the cafe
7:30 - arrive at Global to finish plans for tonight's meeting
8:00 - university ministry Bible study
10:00 - clean up/close Global
10:30 - leave Global with the Hostes, Jenn, and Jean Paul, to take Jenn & JP home
11:00 - arrive at home, shower, devotions
12:00 - sleep!

Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday are my really busy days. For example, tomorrow I leave the house at 9:00, and don't get home at all until 11pm. But then there are days like Mondays, when I get up late, clean up my room, run some errands, nap, eat, and not do much else.

Anyhow, today was the first actual day that I did the Purpose Driven life study with Laura, Monse, and Yesica. It went well! Laura and Yesica are Christians, but for various reasons don't get to church very often. We decided to go through that book together. Last week, the week that we met to decide when/where to meet, and what the study would look like, the girls also brough Monserrath to join in. Monse is a Catholic, and knows quite a bit about the Bible. She is very interested in the Purpose Driven Life book. I am a bit confused with her though - she talks a lot about wanting to serve the Lord, and to have a RELATIONSHIP with Him (which I've NEVER heard a Mexican Catholic say before!), but at the same time, she was trying to teach us a song that she said comes from Jeremiah 1:5, (about how God knew us before we were born) and the song was talking about how MARY knew us before we were born! Ahhhhhh! It's an interesting situation.

So that's a tiny peek into my life today!!

Good Weekend, Bad Weekend...

I had GREAT weekend!! Friday night was a BIG birthday party for both Julian and Alvaro. We had it at the café. I think throughout the course of the night (from 7-10) there were at least 50 or 60 people who came! We had THREE cakes and finished them all, and only a few people had two pieces. It was a true birthday celebration – Alvaro even got dunked in the fountain at school earlier in the day, which is a tradition for students. Unfortunately for him, we were having a cold snap, and he had to be at school wet for a couple hours! Haha! Both Julian and Alvaro got the “mordida” at the party (where people smash your piece of cake in your face).

Here is a small glimpse of the happiness at the party:

Jean Paul smashing cake into Alvaro's face

Julian after his mordida

Whitney, Mayte, and Estefani ... with mouths full of food

And this picture pretty much sums up the atmosphere of the party!

Saturday, we had youth group as normal. Things went well – I think there were about 20 junior high students, and 10 “grandes” (those of us who are 19 and older), but only 3 high school students. We had just finished the meeting, and people were setting up the ping-pong table and chatting as normal. All of a sudden, Julian (who was on his phone) hung up the phone and said to me in English – “I gotta go, somebody just robbed out house!” And he was out the door, me being the only one who had any idea what was going on. I am always one to think of “worst case scenario,” and immediately thought of my friend Mayra and family in Honduras who got robbed a couple years ago – people came with a big truck, in broad daylight and cleaned out their ENTIRE HOUSE, leaving the curtains and their entertainment center (the piece of furniture). So I was thinking of how we can gather used furniture, clothes, etc. for Julian, Whitney, and the girls. Jenn and Jean Paul snapped me back to reality when I told them that the Kreveres got robbed. In QRO, people aren’t afraid to call the police when they see a house being robbed, so hopefully not too much was missing. We prayed, and called Martin – our pastor and one of Julian’s best friends. Martin went to the Kreveres’ house and dropped off Mayte (his wife), then came to talk with us at Global. Julian had been at youth group during the robbery, and Whitney, her mom, the girls, and Blanca (their house-helper) left to go downtown for like and hour. When they returned, Whitney saw that someone had entered the house with a ladder – like Julian does when he’s locked out – and thought that Julian had returned for some reason and didn’t have his keys. So Whitney went upstairs to talk with him… and found her jewelry case open on the bed, and some drawers open in the bedroom. That’s when she ran outside with her family and called Julian. Thankfully, the robbers had left already. The majority of their electronic equipment was gone, but all credit cards, passports, and visas were left in the house. And the family was safe.

The Code

Normal Scenario:
You go to the mall on Sunday night to see a movie. Arrive at 6pm, planning go to a 7pm movie. You get your combo plate of fried rice, “chop suey,” and pollo agridulce (sweet and sour chicken), YUM! At 6:55, after eating, you go buy your movie ticket, enter the theater and watch a movie.

What ACTUALLY happened last Sunday:
I arrived at the mall at 6pm, planning to see a 7pm movie. Jenn was already there waiting for me. We went immediately to buy our tickets, because we were going to see the newly released “DaVinci Code.” (Yeah, I know, it’s a heathen movie… oh well). Oh, I need to mention that this was the same night as the final for Mexican league futbol, and here EVERYONE loves futbol, I thought the mall would be deserted. Well, the movie was sold out for the 7pm showing, so we got the 8pm ones. Oh, also, the movie was showing on THREE screens at this theater, and also showing at two other theaters in QRO. This is Mexico. NO ONE buys tickets early for a movie here! But, we have heard that the Pope said not to watch DaVinci Code, hence all the Queretanos going to see the movie… ( I still got my pollo agridulce…!)

About the movie:
Yes, I am in complete agreement that the movie is totally un-Biblical. I wanted to see it to see what my non-Christian friends will be seeing and possibly relating to Christianity. Thankfully, in my opinion, the movie was unrealistic enough that I can’t see a lot of people buying the main point – that Jesus had a kid. The fact that the movie had an actual person who was supposed to be the offspring on Jesus, I think is enough to make people know that the movie is fiction.
The point that was made that I DO think people will buy is that the Catholic Church is deceiving the world. After living in Mexico for only 4.5 months, I have heard enough of the teachings of the Catholic church here to know that this is more or less true. People in the States have no idea what kind of teachings people are taught here, that are sanctioned by the Vatican. Catholics here don’t pray to Jesus or God, they pray to Mary, and an assortment of other saints, depending on what they are asking for. (Schools here have offering boxes where the students can put money so the saint of education can give them good grades. The offering box is mandatory, which is probably why any Christian schools that exist are not recognized by the Mexican government as giving a creditable education). I have a feeling that this movie will hugely impact this country, in that peoples’ already wavering faith in the Vatican will fall. The movie makes the Catholic Church look like the spiritual enemy of the world because of their dishonesty and cover-up of important things. While also potentially damaging to the True Message of the Bible, I hope the movie makes people open their eyes and realize that they can’t believe everything the Vatican tells them, to finish loosening the grip of the Catholic Church on this country. It is scary because that leaves people open to other false religions, ones that have nothing to do with the Bible. However, here, people see enough of a difference between Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism to not clump Evangelicals in with the Vatican. I suppose only time will tell which way the movie sways people – away from religion in general, or open to the TRUTH.

Looks Like Oregon!

This was the view this morning from where I walk everyday to catch the bus. May is usually the hottest month of the year, but I'm guessing that the temperature this morning (F) was about 60 degrees... and raining! Yay!! (You'd never believe from this foto that Queretaro is in the middle of the desert)


And here's the house I live in with Gaby and the kids. My room is the big window to the left.

Sports

I am happy. It is NBA playoff time; Olimpia Honduras is in the league final game; and there's only 22 more days 'till Work Cup starts!

My predictions:

Suns v. Pistons in the NBA finals - Suns will win it all.

Olimpia v. Victoria - there's a no-brainer, Olimpia is again the champion.

AND - Olimpia played BOCA JUNIOR, like the best Argentinian team, and WON!!!

World Cup semi-finals:
Brasil v. Argentina for 1st place, Brasil wins!
Costa Rica v. Italy for 3rd, Ticos take it.

Here, we wear Mexico jerseys until Mexico is out of the running, then we all pull out the Brasil jerseys and root fanatically for them. EVERYONE I have asked here who they want to win the World Cup has said Brasil.

So all this probably has nothing to do with anything, but there you have it!

....Stuff....

I am lacking in the picture department right now - I always like to post pictures so you can SEE what is going on here! But I am a delinquent and am letting Jenn take pictures of all of our events so I don't have to carry around my camera... so I'll get HER pictures before she leaves.

So another picture-less post.

I am finding myself with some spare time on my hands right now, and I'm in a rather talkative mood. About what? Nothing in particular.

I got up this morning and opened my window and was immediately hit with a blast of cold, yes, cold wind! I had closed my window before going to bed as it was raining in the night. So, after dragging myself out of bed at 8:30, I started laundry in the COLD out in our backyard. It felt SO nice to be cold, I think Gaby may have been a bit pertubed that I opened all the windows in the house to let the air in... I dressed in long sleeves today. May is generally the hottest month here. It remeinds me of Brasil when I went to put on a sweatshirt and jeans and found out that is was 80 degrees, but I was cold. Anyhow, I proceeded to make my "guiso" for our weekly potluck at Global. (Guiso = meat and vegetables cooked in meat and vegetable juice. Yum!) I am getting good at cooking. Watching people do things from scratch on a regular basis is good for me.
We ate, and I am full and satisfied. Off to the Centro to get supplies for the gringas who will be coming in 3 weeks! I love Wednesdays.

Orphans

Saturday night, after youth group, I was excited to be asked to hang out with other people my age!! They asked me if I wanted to go to Pan de Vida with them on Sunday. I wasn't sure what all that entailed, but I hadn't really hung out with people from church before outside of church activities. So Sunday evening I went to the church, and Lesly (19), Job (21), and Alex (24) came, and some guy that I didn't know from Pan de Vida came to drive us out into the boonies where Pan de Vida orphanage is. We got there and it started to pour down rain, which was nice because it was soooo hot. Job, Alex, and Justo (the guy who came to pick us up), set up guitars and stuff, and all the kids came into the dining room where we were with the instruments. The kids are really cute, and they knew all the words to all the songs, even though we didn't have the words up... and Job and Alex didn't even know all the words! oops! Well, they played for about an hour, and the kids kept asking for more, so they ended up playing for like 2 hours! Toward the end, the girls all started screaming after each song because they liked our guys. haha! Anyhow, it was an interesting experience, and we are thinking about taking the youth group from Horizonte up to hang out with them, do more music, and play some futbol. Next time, I get to sing too, because I know most of the songs, and if it's just Alex and Job again, they need help because two hours of singing is hard!

Ok, I hope this all made sense, I was talking with people here, and with Honduran friends on the internet while writing it... I still don't have internet in my home, so I continue to haul my compu to Global...

Just Thought You'd Like A Picture...

So I haven't written in this blog for forever, because I am finding myself quite busy these days. And I am tired of carrying around my computer to a place where there is internet. So, next week, I am having internet put in at my house! yay!

Things are going great in the ministry here - I've met a few girls who I will be meeting with for Bible studies, so I'm really excited about that!

I am also getting involved in helping with my church youth group, and that is interesting. I am still young enough to be a part of the youth group, but sadly, it seems like I don't quite fit in or something. I don't know if it's because I'm kind of old, or because I'm a gringa, or something else, but I feel like the other girls in the youth group don't pay me any attention! I try to talk with them, but it's kind of like, "uh, yeah, ok..." and that's the extent of their part of the conversation. So that has been frustrating. But hopefully that will change!

Also, my last grandparent died on Monday. She had been ill for a few years, so it wasn't unexpected, but I won't be going home for the funeral either, so that is kind of weird.

Right now, I'm at Global, and there is a group of Canadians here who came to work with Intervarsity at the UAQ. It's funny, I'm listening to their Bible study in two languages. And there is our usual group of 3 guys who come to play ping-pong ALL morning. I just found out that one of them goes to Seattle every year to visit family! My first "northwesterner" that I've met here! hehe!

That's all for today, I hope to have internet at my home on Monday (which here in Mexico probably means really I'll get it the end of June), and be able to write when I have spare time at home!

Another Birthday

On to a nicer subject, after my post this morning... :-)

Here's a real mordida, too bad I was at a bad angle for taking the picture! Mordida = in Mexico (and other latinamerican countries) you are supposed to take a bite out of your cake before they cut it. Normally you bite the side of the entire cake, but we had a cheesecake, so we just gave her a slice. It's sooo fun, because most gringos (Jenn included!) don't know that when you go to take the bite out of the cake, someone will push your face into it! hehehe! Martin and Silvia (can't quite see her very well) were right there to smoosh the cake on Jenn!

From the Mouth of an Immigrant...

Seeing what is going on in both of my countries regarding immigration recently, I figured that I, a legal immigrant myself, could shed a little light from this side of the border... Yep, I'm an immigrant too, just the opposite type of immigrant that is in the States, a gringa living in Mexico.

May first, labor day for latin America, was the day of an immigrant workers' strike, and a boycott of United States made products. Why? To show the gringos that the USA depends on immigrants (yes, Mr. Shwartzeniger, your state does too). Am I saying that people should come illegaly to the USA? No. I have to jump through hoops to be a legal resident of Mexico (STILL working on that...) and I have far less rights in Mexico as a legal resident than latinos do in the USA. However, a large part of our country is immigrants - our economy depends on them, legal or not, they supply a ton of the work force, while lazy gringos sit on their couches claiming disability for being overweight or some made-up health problem, and collect welfare that adds up to more than minimum wage. If there were no immigrants working here, maybe these people would take the jobs in the strwaberry fields and cannaries. HA! I think not. So, I don't believe that immigrants are taking jobs away from gringos; instead they are doing the jobs that the lazy people won't do anyway, and are doing them for minimum wage. And, besides yesterday, they don't go on strike because they are only getting minimum wage, because they AGREED to work for that!

So, let's send all the immigrants back to their home country. I MIGHT be able to stay in the USA, is 1/4 Native American sufficient to NOT be considered an immigrant? My mom would move to England, I have cousins who would move to Africa... Probably 95 % of the USA would have to move out. Wow, that would be great for the economy.

It's a sticky situation, because on one hand, you have the LEGAL immigrants who are very much contributing to our society and economy, and on the other hand are illegal immigrants who, well, are breaking the law. I wish that weren't the case, but that's what it comes down to. I think the thing that really makes me mad about all this are the reactions or some people from my dear city... I'll put one here because I was so offended at the ignorance of whoever wrote this:

Excuse me, Mexicans are not silent! In public they will shout to their friends who are a block away while their mouth is only 2 inches away from a stranger's ear. In public Mexicans don't quietly talk to one another. They talk loudly with their motor mouths running and all. It's like they're saying, "Here I am, I'm more important than you-- look at me!" Mexicans don't seem to know their "space". I was standing in line to pay for groceries when all of a sudden I was rushed at from all sides by a mom and her kids. I said, "What are you doing?" Then they backed off. They are not silent and I don't like being lied to by Hispanic Statesman Journal writers. They are in my face and in my space. I've been treated rudely, challenged to fight, asked if I wanted drugs and for only $25.00. Sorry guys! Your short, fat chicks don't turn me on. I'm not racist. I love my friends Lupe and Jose, and Hope and Jerry. They know where I'm coming from, understand me, and support me. If Mexicans would blend in, be gracious, courteous, and respectful, they truely would be the silent population.

Wow, do you even know what people in Latin AMerica think when GRINGOS go to their countries on vacation?!?! WE are the extremely rude ones in other countries! Mexicans are, by their culture, a bit loud and don't need personal space. That doesn't mean they are "barbaric" or anything bad like that, they're just different. They CARE abut their families, which is a lot more than a lot of gringos can say.

Ok, this is long and probably over the top. Just had to voice my opinion.