Timesa' flyin'

The Eastern Prom with some of Cassandra's friends
Cassandra (my roommate) and I, applepicking!
Ethan and I hiking in New Hampshire
The Islands to watch teh sunset
Ethan and I at a restaurant
Soo.

I figured that I should probably update everyone on my life, as I haven't done a post in a couple of months. The summer flew by with lots of work and a little play. I tried to take enough time off to visit Mom and Dad and spend days at the beach or just outside in general, going to Peak's Island, taking advantage of Ethan's friends with boats to see beautiful sunsets from islands off the bay, going hiking and apple picking this fall, things like that.

I feel like I've had about 10,000 jobs since I've been back...I've worked at 3 different restaurants (now I've landed one I'll stay ate, Sebago Brewing Company), and also do one host shift at this really cute place called The Cafe, it's a finer dining rustic restaurant, we get free shift meals and my boss is awesome, so I decided to keep one night a week there. I also tutor ESOL for USM, which is super awesome. I'm getting some good practice for when I go for my CELTA certification! I moved into my new apartment, with the help of Mom and Dad (Thanks!!) and also inheriting a lot of furniture from Aunt Kathy (Thanks!!). Living right in Portland has its perks but theres also lots of downfalls, like no yard and crazy people who like to listen to really loud music below you or, if you live in the ghetto, like I do (because its cheap), sometimes fist fights. Ohhh the joys of being a student!

All in all, things are great and school is going well, my schoolwork load is relatively light this semester since I'm taking a couple classes for fun because I had some free credits I needed to take.

Pictures, though, usually do the best to show!!

Maine Life

This is at a park in Freeport, soo beautiful.

Hiking in Freeport

Spending a beautiful day that we both had off (WHAT? this never happens!) at the East End reading and tanning and eating delicious blue cheese spread and ciabatta bread. Perfect day in my book.

It's quite difficult keeping up with a blog when your just doing everyday normal boring things. So what have I been up to since I've gotten back??

Here's a couple things:

-Took a summer class, Linguistic Field Methods, and learned how to study languages (usually endangered) and how to understand them without even having a text book, figuring out the phonemes and morphenes and syntax and verb forms and all fun things like that! We worked with a Passamaquody speaker with was super fun. Actually a class where I can see myslef doing work like that!

-Started doing Yoga and LOVING it. I do yoga a couple times a week and then work out the rest of the days. It's AMAZING.

-Got a new job at a restaurant called Jimmy the Greek's, we are opening a new location in South Portland, the original was in Old Orchard, and it is super fun. Fun atmosphere, good food, the works. It's going well

-Lot's of hanging out with friends and going to the Art Walk, concerts, live music, etc., fun things like that.

-Eating good food.

-Hiking

-Lots of reading because I'm a dork like that

-Farmers Markets

-Basically tryinhg to figure out how to live in Portland again!

-and of course spending pretty much all my free time with Ethan because, well, he's just great! Here's a couple of pictures where we went hiking/spent sunny days outside.

Home Sweet Home

For some reason I can't copy and paste, so read the paragraphs below first! And then the pictures. I think that it would make more sense!


After the chocolate farm we went to an amazing restaurant overlooking this beautiful river. It was awesome.

Here's what a cocoa bean looks like. You can see how inside there are little white sections, inside that membrane you get the cocoa bean that you use for chocolate, you have to dry it and all that first. It's really cool.

Palenque. This place is mind blowing.

This is my group and the family we stayed with. Paola, the wife, on the right, Alan, my "uncle" in the middle in the yellow and the two little girls of course are their kids.My family in Puebla.

The beach house we stayed at. RIDICULOUSLY beautiful and amazing, and the best part FREE. Our host uncle owned it. Well, actually her family did.

Swimming in a waterfall, las cascadas el chiflon, in Chiapas. So crystal clear and beautiful!

Thoguht this was just a darling picture, host uncle and his daughter, had to put it.

Church in San Cristobol de Las Casas, a really really cool hippie town in Chiapas.

Palenque panoramic view.

SO.

To catch you all up.

I got home late Monday night after a wonderful 6 hour layover in Washington D.C. :) It's been a crazy week, but good. I'm basically working out my classes for fall semester and a couple for this summer, job searching, getting my life back together in general. It's always crazy and insanely overwhelming to come back from another country. There's been some tears, but mostly smiles. The nicet hing was that all my stuff was at my apartment, just where I left it, making it so I didn't have to move anything.

The last week that I was in Mexico we went on vacation to the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, which are hot, humid, and beautiful. We were lucky to be able to stay with my host uncle down there who lives in a beautiful beautiful house with his wife and his 2 daughters, who all are so incredibly cute. I guess I'll give a little rundown through pictures.

So in a nutshell things we did on this vacation :

*Stayed with Villahermosa with my host uncle

*Drank the most famous Horchata in Tabasco

*Went to Palenque in Chiapas

*Lots of swimming

*Chocolate farm ("hacienda")

*Went to Tuxtla Gutierrez

*Took a boatride down el Canon de Sumidero in Tuxtla

*Went to San cristobol De Las Casas where we were attacked by people who wanted to sell us things.

*Went to las cascadas del Chiflon

*Stayed at a beach house for free

*Rode four wheelers down the beach like royalty

*Caught a jellyfish

*Caught some fish

*Made a beach fire with tinfoil dinners

*Had a crapload of fun.

And I've Reached the End

I've reached the end, and it doesn't feel real. In about 40 minutes we will be starting our last hours of teaching, and it partly doesn't feel real. They are moving the school to a different building so we had to pack up all the ILP stuff into boxes today. What a strange, strange, feeling! We're leaving for our vacation tonight to Tabasco and Chiapas and I am unbelievably excited! And then after that, hopping onto a plane to Maine!!! Then, I get to drive to Turner with Mom and Dad and Ethan and visit home! I am so excited!! Here's some end of the semester pictures.

This is a representation of how I moved from living with Cryshel to being "siblings" with Jordan, because we ended up having the same family, just at different times.
I love this picture, I think it really represents all of our personalities.
This is me teaching the little chillins'. I just look so professional, huh?! I mostly just help the teachers and don't teach solo, but I wanted some pictures of me teaching!
This was the picnic that we had for McKenna's surprise birthday party! We made a bomb fruit salad and calzones and had the picnic at the top of the hill where the cathedral is at night, the view was beautiful!

So I'm pretty much done with my responsibilities, everythings squared away, and and I'll be on a plane before I know it...probably a good reflection post coming once it all hits me!

It's good to have family everywhere!

So this last weekend (the second to last weekend I have in Mexico...just thought I'd point that out) I went to Xalapa to visit Jackie, who is Ernesto's sister, and they are just a darling family! The first day we got to go visit surrounding cities with their daughter, Priscilla and her friends, whose 21 years old so just about my age. It was really fun, we got to see Coatepec, one of the "Magical cities", it has a really rich history, one of the first cities the Spaniards landed in, therefore theres lots of Spanish traditions, they do one of the most famous, or maybe the most famous, running of the bulls, just as in Pamplona. They also do amazing sand art on the streets.

The cool thing is is that I had just watched a show on T.V. with my host mom about Coatepec and had thought, "Hey, that looks amazing, I want to go there!", not realizing it was so close to Xalapa! And when Priscilla and her friends were telling the history of the place I thought, hey, this sounds oddly familiar, and realized I had just watched that on T.V. The cool thing, though, is that I understood it both times almost perfectly (in Spanish) and obviously enough to realize that we were talking about the same place! Spanish milestone!

Here is Jackie and her family, they were super amazing and nice.
Heres a really cool cafe that had this patio inside.
Kristin and I at the waterfall..I like this picture a lot for some reason.

A cool broken bridge in Coatepec.
A view of Xalapa.

Here's the Zocalo in Xalapa...all the trees are blooming, the purple ones are SO beautiful! There's tons of these in Puebla too.
This is a really cute town I forget the name of that is in the mountains near Xalapa, it's famous for leather shoes!
This is an outlook from the city in the mountains, it was absolutely breakthtaking, it had just started to rain and it was all foggy, like a movie. I really felt like I was in a movie, it was so picturesque.
The waterfalls near Coatepec.
Priscilla is the one in the white next to Kristin, the other two are her friends..this is near the waterfall.

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.