I'll Miss You, Gordito..

Yesterday my roommates told me that Gordito had died...he had gotten out the night before (that's pretty normal) and got hit by a car. It was kind of a surreal thing to hear, I mean, I know it's only a cat to most of you, but he was the best cat I have ever met, so cute, cuddly, velvety, and loving. I figured I'd write a post as a sort of closure to his short and amazing life.

The Story of Gordito.

I got Gordito from a co-worker I worked with at the time the summer I got back from Argentina. I worked for the deaf homes and one of the girls said she had a kitten that she had just gotten but had to unexpectedly move and couldn't bring him with her and needed a home for him. I'd been wanting a pet so I said I'd probably take him, I just had to talk to my rommates. They said yes and he moved in. He was an amazing contribution to the family, he was so loving, he immediately started sleeping with me every night, cuddling up into the crook of my neck. He had amazingly soft velvety fur, and was always willing to make you feel better when you felt down. He was more of a companion than a pet, when I was upstairs, he was with me, when I was downstairs, he was with me, when I was sitting down eating breakfast at the counter, he climbed onto my lap. He knew I was his mother and he loved everyone around him. All I can say, is I'm thankful I had him even if it was only for a short time, undeservedly short.

It will be hard to find a pet that matches up to him, I really really loved that guy. So Gordito, wherever you are, I hope you know I loved you and maybe you can get one of your cat friends to come into my life, only if they're as awesome as you, though.

I hope your enjoying cat Heaven with all the cat nip you could want.
Rest In Peace my wonderful furry friend. I miss you.

Three weeks

Not that I'm counting or anything but...

I will be home in 3 weeks!! I have loved Mexico, though I must admit that I am very excited to go home. Here's some things I miss from home.

10. Understanding everything that is going on around me. - It can be fun, but the adventure of never knowing whats going on can get old, fast.

9. More of a selection of clothes to wear! - I really hate everything at this point. I feel disgusting every day.

8. Wide open green spaces - Oh lushness, how I miss you.

7. Clean streets and smells (!!!) - Seriously, cannot emphasize this ENOUGH.

6. The Maine Coast and woods - So beautiful and fresh

5.Being able to pick between going to the gym and running - Oh, you run to the cathedral, how I despise you at this point...

4. My Car -How nice will it be to have the freedom of a car and knowing where your going!

3. My Cat - Oh Gordito, I miss your cuddlyness.

2. Roommates - and that house in general. I miss the homey-ness.

1. Family and Ethan - contrary to popular belief, I really do miss you both!!! These people have helped me through all the hard times and enjoyed all the good times with me.

BUT...

I know that I will miss so many things from Mexico....top 10 things I will miss dearly.

10. Horchata, atole, tamales, tortillas, beans (wierd? probably. but so delicious), jamaica flavored water, that stringy cheese stuff, fresh salsa, memelas, all the food that I love! The list could go on..

9. Having the option of public transportation - It is quite nice to hop on a bus and not have to worry about how to get there.

8. Hot peppers - all kinds, shapes, sizes...everything is better with spice.

7. Delicious cakes - They are WAY better here than the US, frosting is scrumptious and they are always moist.

6. My kids - They are so so cute, I kind of want to steal a couple.

5. Street food - cheap and DELICIOUS.

4. Markets - whether it be food or souvenirs, they are so fun, and always colorful.

3. All my friends and my new family! ...my group is amazing, it will be hard to leave them. I also am sad that I didn't have much time with my new family - they are legend!

2. Being able to practice Spanish every day!

1. The weather - It literally has been sunny every day we've been here.

Well there you have it. And There is a lot more, and as I get thinking, it should be like the top 20 for each! But its a snippit of the things I love from both countries.

Zihuatanejo Vacation- Pacific Coast!

So we went to Zihuatanjeo this last weekend on vacation, only 3 of us got to go but it was amazingly fun! Here are some pictures of the weekend, pictures will probably show it best!

This is at a place called Barra de Potosi, a beach about 30 minutes away from where we were staying and it was BEAUTIFUL. About 10 miles long, gorgeous, and barely any people there. Paradise. We also did some kayaking in the lagoon right next to this beach, it was a ton of fun.

This is at our hostal! The hostal was super fun and I was loving chilling in hammocks..its the life I tell ya! I'll have to get a hammock to bring home!
Isla Ixtapa where we did snorkeling. Also unbelievably beautiful and so much fun.
Barra de Potosi.
Isla Ixtapa.
Snorkeling! Ready to go.
Zihuatanejo central at night...super tranquilo and really beautiful, also the perfect weather.
The beach that was about a 3 minute walk from our hostal.
A lookout from the bridge over Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa.

Birthday Celebrations!

So these are some pictures from my birthday. The other table that I'm sitting in front of says KateLyn and then the other table with the laptop says Ethan where Ethan is on Skype. He sang me his own rendition of Happy Birthday accompanied by his guitar playing and we played "Noche de Novios". Super super fun. Jordan as our host.

Noche de Novios!
Delicious cheesecake with an oreo crust!! Making a wish :)
Yum.
Waiting for my cake with Cryshel. Laughing, as usual.

I might have to say that this was probably my most favorite birthday ever. I also got some bomb earrings that they bought me, and a letter just in time from the parentals, and a little package from Kira and I know there's a package in the mail from Ethan that should have gotten here a long time ago! But I know it's on it's way..sometime! Oh, and a package with earrings from my best friend ReAnne! It is good to feel loved.

Jaguar and Monkeys?! Yes, please.

Me and a little puppy.
The group at the owners house! And our new Mexican freind.
With another little puppy. They're just so cute!!

So here is the baby jaguar!! SO CUTE! He made these cute little growl-y sounds, sometimes I forgot it wasn't a house cat and it was a jaguar until he growled!
Jaguar again.
This is inside the owners house, he has his animals stuffed when they die. Well, some of them. It's a little overdone but so cool to see!
Inside of his house again.
TONITO!! This monkey was SO darn cute. I can't get over it. And he cuddled up to you like a little babyy!

Birthday Weekend!!

So this weekend was my birthday weekend!!! It was super! Friday night my group (mostly McKenna) had set up a whole deal where she had asked Ethan a bunch of questions about me, and then they set up a game show with him through skype where Jordan, a boy in my group, asked me the questions and I had to guess what he answered...just like the game show Newlyweds, it was hilarious! But it was really nice, because I hadn't been able to skype him in a while (Well, like a little over a week, felt like forever) because of the internet at his house...annyyway, it was a really good night and so much fun, so we did a pretend game show and ate delicious cheesecake.

Then Saturday we went to Tehuacan. Tehuacan is like 2 hours away, it's where the other ILP group is, and we went to the zoo there. The zoo there is run by this guy who has a bunch of animals and lets people come and see them, its AMAZING. Because we got to pet tigers and lions and hold monkeys and a baby jaguar!! IT WAS INSANE!!! I felt like I was in a dreamland! And his house is right next door and he has a bunch of fossils and invited us to go see them and then ordered pizza for us and we ate pizza on his beautiful patio! It was CRAZY.

So it was a beautiful, wonderful birthday, and when we got home Mom and Dad's birthday card had arrived just in time! It was absolutely perfect. Here's some pictures to follow and there's more once I get ahold of them!

Us with the owner, Sergio.

Cutest monkey EVER, Tonito.
Me and my little sombrero that a guy made out of clay at the festival..OH YA. There just so happened to be a festival going on in Tehuacan that day. How lucky is that?!
Really cool tree carving.
KateLyn sized door! And it matches my dress.
Freaking out with a snake in my hands, I was just trying to watch its head the whole time.
Snake again!
Tehuacan is beautiful. Here's a picture of the blooming trees...spring is coming!

Feeding a grizzly bear. CRAZY!

And here's a video of us petting tigers!

Carnaval in a city that I still can't say the name

So we went to Carnaval in a city that I still can't name and it was really fun..they all had these crazy masks and costumes and did a huge parade and had a bunch of food and everything, it was really awesome!

Here's McKenna and I with some crazy guys that wanted to take a picture with us! Felt like I was back in China.

Part of the Parade
Another person that was part of the parade.
Parade again.

And us with some rockin' people from the parade. Really liked the old guys with beards!

Discovery Discovery

Well, I have discovered that maybe I really can draw...I sat down today and decided to draw a picture that I've been wanting to do, and it actually came out quite well...I've found some drawing tutorials online that I'll take a look at and learn some more...with a newfound drawing ability and my pottery at home, maybe I can actually do something with this pottery dream of mine! Plus, as I get older, it seems easier and easier to be creative with newfound patience. Here's the picture I drew, it's of the cathedral that we went to the first week in Cholula. It's my first attempt to draw in years, so I know I can do better!

Mexico shoes! Working on my artsy side.

So I decided that i don't do enough art here. Before mexico I was doing a lot of pottery and loving it, it was great to finally get my artistic side out but it's been lacking here!! The other night we bought these cheap shoes from Wal-Mart and took sharpies and made some mexico shoes..these are how mine came out!!

One side of the shoe with this little guy who is quite popular.

On the other side of this shoe it says 'Viva' so the whole thing says "Viva Mexico"

I enjoy this little lizard on this side, they're all over the place here!
Mexican flag and "Lennard"...Long story, but that's my guy name here. Inside joke not worth explaining.

This is probably my favorite side, it looks like graffiti. And it says "Classic", another inside joke, though a very popular phrase is "HA. classic." Whenever something funny or just ridiculous happens.
And the toes. I really like the sun on the right. And they both ended up having fun flowery/sunny things on the toes, worked out quite well.

So those are the shoes! They're quite fun and I'm proud of them, but mostly I had a rockin' time making them...Hey, maybe I'll learn how to draw and start drawing or something, you never know. But I have big plans for sewing and pottery when I get home!

Halfway Point...already?!

I can't believe that we've already reached our halfway point!!! It was actually last week, but I am still in shock. I also can't believe that I can also say that I'm going home next month. We had our mid semester visit yesterday which went awesome. Jared from the ILP office in Utah came to visit us and thought we were doing an amazing job and we had a really fun time with him filming our classes and eating the best tacos in town.

Jared told us that there is going to be a contest to see what group can make the best movie for ILP, there are certain guidelines and the winner will be used for advertising and whoever wins gets a cash prize. Great idea, huh?! We are already starting on ideas for ours, we have a lot of creative minds, I think we could make a pretty awesome one, and even if we don't win then we will have an amazing movie of our experience here. We've been trying to take more movies of our kids for that reason and just for wanting cute pictures with them so hopefully I'll be putting more pictures of our kids up!

I moved to level 2 in Salsa this week, which was quite exciting! I was happy to feel like I'd learned something, we actually have learned a ton! Last weekend we went hiking and fishing and also to Lucha Libre! It is absolutely ridiculous, if any of you have seen Nacho Libre you'll know what I'm talking about..fake fighting in ridiculous outfits. Priceless, I tell ya. I've got some good videos, those are to come.

Lucha Libre. Cartoons in real life? I think so.
Some people take this so serious they make shirts for it.
All of the outside of the arena is painted with these guys
Hiking.
Hiking again. Not sure why he wanted to sit so far away..maybe we smell.
Me and Hyun, (she's actually Korean, I'm sure you guys were wondering but she speaks Korean and Spanish and is learning English..lucky girl!) She is smart but so crazy! And this picture is candid, she just came up and climbed in my lap, makes me feel loved! :)
Christian. Cute. And a devil.
Frida. This was a race to see how fast you could put on all these clothes, remember this game when you were young?
The "waterfall" when we went hiking near Popo, the volcano.