College Food

Ha! What an oxymoron. I realized today as I made my self another peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a bagel (I'm out of real bread) that college students have got to be the worst eaters ever. Alan mixes ramen and mac'n cheese, Caroline has her special ramen log/burrito, and the there is the classic easy mac diet. All food is cheap and easy and 100% unhealthy. In our attempt to save whatever money we don't have, we are slowly clogging our arteries and destroying our bodies. Poor poor bodies. I guess that's why we go to college when we're young enough that our eating habits won't kill us. Man, I've got to start eating better.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I think 19 will be a good age. My birthday was really fun this year. I went out with Jordan to Chili's, we watched 'The Secret Life of Bees' and I got some pretty sexy shoes from him. They're massively tall, but I love them. The next day Jess and Chann took me to breakfast at Magleby's, while making me wear a funny crown. People gave me some pretty strange looks. Then I went to lunch at Olive Garden with the fam (it was delish!) and opened my presents. This year I only asked for a Jon Schmidt CD, but I was happily surprised to receive two Jon Schmidt CD's, a Heartland CD (which has special significance and isn't just random), some basketball shorts and a really nice jacket. After lunch and gifts I went to the color fest with some friends. It was an excellent birthday and I really appreciated everyone this weekend. So love you all and thanks for everything!

Color Fest

For those of you who don't know what or why it is, the Color Festival is an annual celebration created in India to maintain the order and balance between Castes. The idea is that the poor can throw colored powder chalk at the rich one day a year to release all their anger and resentments. Then through out the rest of the year they just have to deal with their misfortunes. Due to the very Mormon population in Utah, and the very limited Krishna believers, Color Fest has become more of a time for people to just hang out and smear chalk in each others faces. This year I went with Jess, Chann, Jordan, Taylor and Melissa and it was so much fun!

The initial explosion of chalk is suffocating, but it was way cool to see.


That's the temple in the background. There were so many people there.

For about 45 min. we ran around chalking each other. I got Jordan pretty good and he got me back. The whole idea of a Krishna temple in the middle of Spanish Fork is kind of funny. They let us go in their temple and it was ... interesting. Everything was commercialized, a fact that threw Jordan for a loop. Upstairs they had people dancing to the Mantra "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." That mantra was chanted and sung and danced to the entire night. It is basically worshiping the power of Krishna (God). Downstairs was a restaurant and a gift shop. They also had a llama petting zoo (not in the temple) and let me just say, they were super gross. I think they rolled in their own waste. Buh. It was a super fun experience and I'm glad I went. I'm so planning on going next year.

Mexico In Review

Well, I'm home. It was an amazing week, but I'm glad to be back to the land of "actually getting clean after taking a shower". Friday night our way down it snowed on us pretty hard so the trip to St. George took a pretty long time. We stayed the night with an amazing family who taught me a lot about the true meaning of charity. We've never met them before, but they took us in, fed us and made sure we were completely taken care of, while being completely happy and cheerful about it the whole time. Saturday morning we went to the St. George temple. That was a really cool experience. Doing baptisms in the temple the pioneers first used was really eye opening. After the temple we began our journey to Tijuana. It was a long drive, but a lot of fun. For lunch we stopped in Baker, NV: home of the largest thermometer.

We ate at a Greek restaurant where they served Greek, Mexican, Chinese and American food. The workers were Mexican and I saw a man from the middle east and a couple from India eating there. Needless to say, it was the most diverse restaurant I've ever eaten at. We made it to Tijuana safely and for dinner we went to a local taco stand. The boys who spoke Spanish tried to teach the rest of us how to order, but we were so intimidated that we didn't say much. By the end of the week we would talk to everyone we could in Spanish just so we could learn more.

Sunday morning we went to church and I didn't understand much of what was being said in the talks. I did try to listen, but I got distracted and made silly faces at all the little kids around me instead. Mexican babies are the cutest! I loved seeing all of them. After church we drove around the city to see what projects had been done in previous years. We also played a game of soccer with some local kids. They won. It ended 13-8 I think. It was so much fun though. One kid's nickname was Foca, which means sea lion. I never learned any of the other kid's names.





Monday took us to the home of a wonderful lady named Cecy.



She was the nicest woman and she taught me the most Spanish. While everyone was doing construction work I babysat her grand daughter, Alison

(who is the fattest baby I've ever seen in my life :aka Gordita) and I helped make lunch. It was a really long process, but I was proud of myself because I handled raw chicken. Yeah! For all of you who know me, this should be surprising because I am completely disgusted by raw meat. I have a hard time touching it at all.

Lunch was really good though, even though it took all day to make. Cecy had moved from a little shack made of wooden beams and tarps for the walls.

The house on the left is her new house, the house on the right is what they used to live in.

I learned a lot about the humility and poverty people live with. The toilet we had to use was just a bucket tucked away in a corner. There was no running water and everything was covered in dirt.

Tuesday brought me and my little group to Padre James' (pronounced Hi-me) little hospital. We had the chance to weed and weed and weed. It was crazy work. Everything was so disgusting. There was trash every where, animal feces, bugs and nasty mesh stuff all over. The garden acted as a little play ground for some kids and I felt so bad that they had to be in that environment.
We cleaned it up a ton though and I really hope they plant in their garden and keep better care of it all.



While working I managed to catch myself a little Mexican boyfriend. His name is Daniel and he was 15 years old. It was really funny talking to him because I couldn't understand him and he knew it so he would jabber at me endlessly. Jess Housekeeper speaks Spanish so I had him translate for me, but after awhile Daniel avoided Jess because he didn't want me to know what he was really saying (don't worry, it wasn't anything bad. He mostly talked about the Padre. I understood that much). After work, and being forgotten for lunch, we prepared to head out when a lady with amazing breads in her car drove by. We bought some with frijoles y carne. It was so delicious! I've never tasted anything that yummy, well at least not in Mexico.

Ellie cooked all our dinners. She was a super nice lady.

Wednesday I went to work at Oscar's house. We were pouring the foundation and floor for his house. I've never mixed cement before, so my first introduction was an experience. It was all by hand and I thought my arms were going to fall off by the time I was done.

Oscar's wife, Veronica, was a pretty cool lady. They had two kids named William and Gisele. Veronica's brother, Anthony, also helped us with our project. I learned the next day that they are Jehovah's Witnesses, but that was ok. They knew we were LDS, but because we respected them, they respected us in turn. Oscar spoke pretty good English so we were able to communicate well with them. Veronica was learning some English, but it was about as good as my Spanish. Luckily Scott was working there too so he could be our translator.


Thursday was another grueling day at Oscars. We poured the first quarter of their floor after leveling it all. I had blisters beginning to form, but luckily they never developed. For lunch we had some tasty BBQ'd chicken. I'm sad to say I didn't work as hard that day just because I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep and hard work, but I did my best so I'm mostly ok with it.

Me, Melissa and Caitlin. Two of my new favorite people now.

At night we would play games. This one is called Jungle Speed and it is so much fun!

Friday took me back to the Padre's to dig little holes. I got a rash on my hands that day and it totally freaked me out. I was convinced I was going to die of some disease, especially because I can't remember the last time I had any shots. After lunch (which was delicious) we went back to Oscars where we finished the first half of his floor.

We didn't have a lot of time because we were going to the beach that afternoon.

I'm really grateful for everything I learned from this family. I'm sad to say that I will probably never see them again, but I consider them good friends. That night at the beach we played in the water even though it was really cold and we had a near shark encounter. Ok, not really. There were some dolphins that came pretty close to where we were swimming and we thought they could be sharks, but they weren't so we were safe. I love the beach and sand so I'm glad we got to play for an hour.

Me and Super-Evan

Saturday morning came to soon. After a week with little sleep and vigorous work, we were all pretty shot. We woke up, drove to the border, walked across (with a ton of difficulty because I had a tool box in my bag that made it way about a million pounds) and rode a trolley, a bus, and a shuttle to the car dealership place so we could head home.

The journey through San Diego was super fun because there were always really interesting people to talk to. Caitlin pointed out that I have a knack for becoming friends with complete strangers. Before leaving San Diego we ate at a really yummy Hawaiian restaurant owned by an Irag/ Chaldaen girl and her Puerto Rican boyfriend. It was really fun talking to her. We even saw a bear...well, a dog the size of a bear. The thing was huge and I was convinced we were going to be devoured by it.

The drive home was super long but it was fun. I was in a really nice, red Hyndai, Elantra (2008 I think) with Jess and Mckayla. We got to St. George at about 10:30 pm, went to In-n-Out (my first time)

Jess, me and Mckayla

and then headed to Ephraim at 1. Being squished between 3 boys in the cab of a truck for 3 hours is a funny experience. Cameron and Andrew fell asleep for most of the ride so it was me and Jess. Boys are funny at 4 am. We hit a rabbit and they were making all sorts of sad jokes about it. They were super silly. We got to Ephraim at 5, I went to bed at 5:30, woke about at 6:15 and drove Cameron and Andrew up to PG. I only got a total of 3 hours out of 40 of sleep so I am now way below functioning level, but that's ok because I learned so much.
I learned a lot about the gospel, my testimony, people and cultures being human, humility, poverty, charity, gratitude, service and love through out the week. I'm sad that I'll never see my Mexican friends again, but I am so grateful for everything they taught me. I learned to love them so much, and that is something I hadn't really experienced before. Service really does bring love. I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity and I'm glad I decided to stick with it and go.

Mexico Countdown Cont.

Only 5 more days. Oh goodness, the madness! I'm really sad to say that I'm starting to have second thoughts about this. What I can't understand is why anyone would want to take over the world when planning a trip to Mexico is this stressful? Who wants to be in charge of 20+ people on a regular basis? I am worried that everything will fall apart at the last minute, or that I will let everyone down. I don't like being in charge. And people wonder why I only want three kids. The chances of me messing up are a lot fewer with three than four or five. Going to Mexico is a good thing, right? It will all work out and I can make sure everyone has a really good experience, right? I just have to remind myself that it will all be ok and I don't have to worry.

The truth is I worry about everything all the time. And I don't have a watchdog to look out for me.

I really am excited for this. It will be good and I don't have to worry as much as I do. That is something I need to work on. I'm confident that it will all work out. :) I just can't forget that.