Birthdays and Stuff

JP and I had good birthdays, we're 28 (yikes!) and had a few different activities for our birthdays this year!

My parents have been here for a week now, they leave tomorrow. I've been a bit sick, but have been able to show them around Queretaro a little more...
Here's them in Tequisquiapan, a small town in the State of Queretaro:


My parents leave Friday, then I have Saturday to get my house in order and cook a week's worth of food for JP, Sunday is family picnic/carnaval day at church, then on Sunday evening, 6 of us head off to Mexico City to go to Ecuador for a week! I'm excited, but sad to leave JP... :(

So if you don't hear from me again for a while, it's because I'm out of the country! Yeah!

Only Rich People and Missionaries...

In college, I had a professor who told of experiences during his time as a missionary, and described some of those experiences as "things that only rich people and missionaries get to do." So true! I'm so grateful for the many life experiences I've had, most having come to pass from being a missionary. I'm not rich by US standards (ok, not by mexican standards either!), but I've had the opportunity to travel and do some "exotic" (in the good sense of the word!!) things.
Here are a few highlights:

• Visiting a tribe in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
• Going to three famous sets of indigenous ruins (Teotihuacan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala, and Copan in Honduras).
• Burning cockroaches out of a toilet before using it in El Salvador (I said "exotic," that doesn't necesarily mean pleasant!!)
• Spending a month in the Amazon swimming and walking through the jungle barefoot. No lie, I went several days at a time without putting on shoes or even flip-flops!
• Having the chance to taste "delicacies," such as: monkey (used in place of ground beef in spaghetti sauce), cow intestine soup and tacos, chicken feet, pig hoof tostadas, corn fungus, cow head, curdled milk, and cactus. Some are tastier than others... :)
• Being "adopted" into a wonderful Honduran family.
• Sight-seeing in the world's largest city (Tokyo doesn't count, they cheated) so much that I know my way around Mexico City better than a lot of Mexicans.
• Going to a museum of dead people (mummies) in Guanajuato Mexico.
• Swimming in a natural wave-pool in the Pacific Ocean in El Salvador.
• Swimming through 1.5 KM of underground caves.
• Actually using frequent flyer miles from flying enough in Latin America...
• Getting "stuck" in a nice hotel in Nacaome Honduras while the bus and truck driver strike prohibited any traffic from leaving the country.
• Being on a hijacked bus in Central America. (oops, not sure if my parents ever heard about that one...)
• Being in TWO bus wrecks in L.A. county on the way to Mexico.
• Travelling the entire distance of Interstate 5 betweek Canada and Mexico TWICE in TWO WEEKS on a SCHOOL BUS.
• Seeing the Aurora Borealis.

Ok, so maybe most of my experiences aren't necesarily things that "rich people" really want to do, but they're unusual and exciting experiences none the less. Jean Paul always shakes his head in disbelief at the stories I tell, saying that they couldn't be true, but they must be because no one could make up stories as odd. Hopefully, we'll have the chance to have many more of these experiences TOGETHER in the future!! (although I think I lost JP for any future visits to Central America with the cockroach thing, but it's really not that big of a deal when you're actually facing the decision: a). burn those little buggers out of the toilet and do your business in peace; b). use the toilet with the cockroaches in it and chance them flying up at you; or c). hold it and risk going in your pants. Option A seems best to me!)

Preparing cactus for a BBQ:
At Teotihuacan:

Wonderful Honduran family!

Notes

Wow, sorry I haven't written in like a month! Lots of good stuff has been going on, which is keeping me very busy!!

We've had an amazing turn-out for our "young adults" group on Thusday nights, and have began meeting in small groups after the worship time and "large group" talk. Two of the meetings this month, we didn't even have enough seats for everyone!

My parents are coming on February 19-27. JP and I are excited to see them!

JP and I have our birthdays this month, we're turning 28. His is the 20th and mine the 23rd.

On March 1 - 8, I'll be in Ecuador with 5 other Queretanos for a conference with International Teams. I'm excited to visit a new country, and also to see my friend Michelle, who lives in Honduras!

JP got his visa approved for going to the States, and we plan to visit for a week or two in August!

I'm off to go out for coffee with Julia (see blog entry below), I just wanted to write a little, and give two random pictures from a Sunday afternoon in Bernal (in the State of Queretaro) a couple weeks ago!

JP and I in front of the Bernal rock:


Me in front of the "comal" (grill) at a gordita restaurant in Bernal: