Acianos? ( I think thats how you spell it)

Yesterday, was a very good day for me. I learned one thing. Service is service. No matter what age group you are serving. Yesterday we went to an eldery care home. It was beautiful. We sang American songs, and we sang church hymns cosas asi. I almost started to cry. God loves them even though they are not all there or they do not know it. Classes went well today, we talked about el medio ambiente ( the environment) we had to ask native Guadalajara people about if they thought they that there city was clean. Love you all, and miss you, and hom. Remember this motto: inspire everyone.

Un fin de semena

I will quickly explain my last four days.
Friday; Dance
Saturday: Tapalpa
Sunday: Panaroma/Lookout
Monday: El noche de Hogar a.k.a Fútbol!!!

Viernes: On Friday we went to a dance with the kids from church, a young adult dance. I think most everyone in our group was nostalgic about American music, we kept asking the DJ for Musica Americana. They played a lot of techno, the salsa and Latino dance was not too bad though, that was fun. The Mexican guys think I can dance excellante! Más or menos.
Sabado: we went to this town called Tapalpa. We ate at this restaurante called El Tonga. We had tortillas and limonade, and I had pollo (chicken) after wards it was quite a treat a Mirachi band came and sang to us, it was cool. After lunch we went to the city. It was very impressive, very beautiful. It kind of reminds you of a Méxican town , very nice people, inset in the mountains, small little shops and stands everyone, one big church in the middle of the town. It rained on us there, but it sure was beautiful town. I bought a mango there, and some bread. Quite deliciousa. I ate the mango on a stick. Me and Melissa hung out with our friend Juan from the Universidad. Our Spanish is slowly progressing. I know how to say two spanish frases. Melissa is better than I. She is good about always speaking in Spanish , even to the Americans, when I am with my Americanos amigos I like to speak English, The two phrases that I have learned are Es un pan de cada día, which means oh its no problem, its part of my regular routine everyday I dont mind doing the favor for you.
Domingo: After church, in the evening, we went and saw this panarama of the Guadalaraja city. It was beautiful. The kids from the church took us there I have tons of pictures, but I will have Lunes: Fútbul y más fútbul. For family home evening we played soccer ( i got obessed with it) and played for about four hours. The local Mexican guys played with us in our group. We think all of our group will meet up with them each week and play. Hasta Martes.

Un Chiste

Things I've learned thus far:
1. If I get fewer than 3 whistles/catcalls/honks/kissing noises a day, I should be ashamed of myself and reevaluate my appearance.
2. Guadalajara is safer than downtown Winston Salem.
3. I am white. No- really. I'm not sure the sun has been informed of my relocation.
4. Bus drivers have delusions of being nascar drivers.
5. I'm not as picky of an eater as I presumed myself to be, although I may never like onions.
6. "Estoy buena" does NOT mean "I'm good". It means something along the lines of "I'm hot", and that's awkward.
7. Houses in the U.S. are boring and too big.
8. Air conditioning is my friend.
9. "Pedestrian right-of-way" is a joke.
10. Salsa can be put on everything.

This is from my friends Natalie (Natalia in español) blog, these are the top ten things that she has learned here in México the past week, I laughed when I read it because it is sooo true!!!

Our first day

This is all of our group from BYU. ( me and the guy I traveled with just asrrived in México about three hours prior ) we were exhausted This is in the centro of the city.

Bailar!! y Llover!

So ayer, fuimos a bailar!! It was an experience, but it was fun, and well worth it, we went to the center of Guadalararja to dance with the other young adults from the church here. One of the guys se llama Alejandro, turned me a lot, Mexican's know how to move their hips and shoulders, I could not do as well, but we had a fun time.
This time in Guadalarjara is rainy season. The skies practically fall. Yesterday, on our way to the dance, my roomate and I ran with our unbrellas ( probably not a good idea) and it was lightening, thundering, the sky was lightening up. Pouring rain. The streets here get soaked, practically flooded here with a rain storm. We took the bus and the bus driver could barely see out of the bus. I stink at making my blog sound catchy, but I hope everyone is having a fun summer. No vemos mañana. Adios.

el primer Semana

Okay, so the last couple days have been más slower, just a bit though. I can not remember what I last wrote about but I will just update my profile as of Tuesday evening. So Tuesday evening we went dancing at the church. Well, it was only practicing. We met up at the church building with the other young adults and one of the guys, his name is Gabriel, taught us how to dance Salsa. After wards, two of the guys from the ward, Hugo y Gabriel drove us home. Both very nice. We all stood in front of my roomates and I gate outside our front door for about an hour talking. I am now able to understand a lot of Spanish, not everything though, some times people speak very very fast, and use a lot of slang that I am still learning, but I can find some way to create a message or get my message across what I need to say. Anyways, so after we were done talking to them we went inside. Our mom in our casa aqui said that is not a correct thing to do in Mexico. We were not loud or anything at all, we were normal, but The houses here are very open, and sound travels very very well through everywhere, adn the houses are so close together, and people have universidad en the morning so they would be able to hear us talking. So we wont be talking outside our gate anymore past 8. But all is well It was sooo much fun, I still need to move mis hips y hombres más. Also we are learning how to take the bus around more, once we figure it out it is not very hard. School classes are continuing to go well. Even though we are in Mexican school, its just like the Los Estados Unidos. going to school every morning gets repetitive, pero me encanta mucho our teacher and clases have been muy fun. Sorry if I mix up Spanish and English words.
Yesterday, my roomate was sick so I had to walk to school by myself, it is safe though, as long as it is in the day time. Melissas and I house is the closest out of all the groups to the University probably, just a short 20-30 minute walk probably each morning. But after school last night we went to one of the gallerias and we saw Toy Story 3. It was soooo good. We watched it all in Spanish, no English subtitle, solo español. It was muy muy bien. I would suggest any one to see it, it is a little bit of a tear jerker, we were able to understand a lto of it, probably abotu 80 percent or so, más or menos.
So we bought celluar phones here. However, it has been a pain to get them activated and registrated we finally had some one help us activate it, now we need someone to registrar it. After lunch we are going to this mall called Andares to do that, then go shopping, then tonight around 9 we are meeting up at the stake center with the other young adults from the church to go clubing/dancing. Okay so I know clubbing sounds bad, but it is very different here then what we would think of it in the States, we are going with the kids from church so they will take us safe, thats just what they call it, not like the bad ones. so I will let you know how that went tomorrow. Hasta Luego. Te quiero todos.

He llegado en Mexico !!!

Hey everyone, sorry I dont think that I will be able to upload pictures while here is Mexico, but I want to keep up on my blog. So I arrived in Mexico on Saturday June 19, 2010. Me and the guy that I traveled with arrived at 5 a.m. en la mañana. Sorry if I mix up some ingles y español. Anyways, we got to our house at 6:30 in the morning. And we needed to stay up the day, so I was very very tired ( well we choose to go out and do activies) The name of my host mom is Felipa, she is very very nice and kind. She can cook comida muy rica, and she is always helping us and wanting us to have fun and asking us about our day. My roomates name is Melissa, but there is a another girl from Canada, her name is Lisa. However, she is only here for one month. Our house looks like a little Beach bungalo, tienda type thing. WIth marble and tile floor and some wood as well. The house is very open so bugs get in quite often, as I already have four or five bug bites. We are not allowed to drink out of the tap water, just shower and brush our teeth. The traffic is crazy here, people often drive in the middle of the road, with no seatbelts they have them but they usually never wear them, and you can not make any promises that they will stop for pedestrians. And the busses ( camions) they drive like that are a little fast jeta, I get a little bit nervous on the rode, its crazy, however, there are hardly any crashes at all.
On Saturday we went to to the centro, and just kinda viewed it around a bit, we saw this marvelous church, and these muesums, and this huge galleria San Juan de dios. On Sunday we went to iglesia , which usually starts a las 9, pero it was stake conference this last sunday so we had to travel to another building by bus, however, there was one member who had a motorcycle and he asked anyone if they wanted to arrive there muy rapido, I said I wanted to and got the okay/ kinda nervous look from my professor, so we arrived there early and he took me around the town again. Church was very humbling, the really emphasized the family proclamation to the world, and going on missions, and eternal families. After that we went out to eat at this restaurane se llama Pipioli. It was muy rica ( very good). Then we went back to our houses. On Monday probably was one of the best days of my life.
First to start off, Monday was our first day of school here at the University, oh by the way, we study at the Universidad de Autonoma, which means University of Medicine. It is Huge!!! 1,000 square acres. Muy gran. We have classes everyday from 9-12. Our professor is very beautiful and very simpatica, her name is Paoula Patricia Valencia. We have an hour of grammar and then 2 horas of speaking spanish or talking about current fashions/ cool things to do here, or types of people, but all in Spanish.
Anyways, back to yesterday, after school , well there are three people in charge of el noche de hogar, which is family home evening, me, my roomate Melissa, and this other guy named Romney. So we were in charge of it, we played a get to know you game, and before that I bore my testimony of how God words miracles, and we are his children, and how I was very humbled that God provided me for this trip and I was able to earn the money and work hard through Him. I was very grateful. Then afterwards, we talked with the other people our age from the church that came to el noche de hogar, the other Mexican girls and guys. They were very very very nice, I taught them how to play a game called Dip, Dip, Dip. It was very fun.
Then today we had school again. Every morning my roomate and I try to get up and go running, we have this bosque ( forest) very very close to our house, that is fun and very safe to run in. My roomate and I live close to the Universidad, We give ourself a half hour to get there, but today we made it in 15 minutes by walking fast.
So to close up todos, I just want to say a quick over view about Mexico. I love it here, my roomate and I already want to stay for longer. Although I love it here, I would not want to live here, America is a very wonderful land where we are blessed with much freedoms and blessings. The Mexican people are very giving, they give you all they have, although they might not even really ahve nothing. They are willing to help you for how ever long, and take time out of their day. People are more important thn schedules to them,. They always say if we ever need anything we can go to their houses. I have not really been shopping yet, but we will soon, today my roomate and I are going to go exploring. Te quiero mucho, email me or comment on my blog if you have any questions I can answer them. oh and P.S. the food is incredible, muchos tortillas, however, a lot of picante ( very spicy) which my stomach is not quite used to yet, but its very full of flavor. Over and out . Hasta mañana.

Round Two

Well, to close the day, I would just like to say that Hawaii is absolutley beautiful. Anyone who comes here will fall in love with the Aloha spirit, today my family and I, my dad, brother, and I went on a second dive. We went to a place right across from an electric plant. It was very colorful lots of fish, then I came back to Grandma's and cooked in the Wok! Aloha and out.

The beach picture is of the area we went diving, and the city is downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, looks like New York City doesn't it! That is the view from my Grandma's apartment. Good night and out.

First Time Scuba Diving

Hello Everyone!

You are talking to Hawaii's newest certified Open Water Diver! My first diving experience as about a depth of about 45 feet or so, so not that far. It really is a beautiful world down there, very unique, it's hard to describe, you feel as if you have left Earth! But you know it's God's planet. I got to swim with a turtles, see a family of turtles, and hold an octupus! My favorite part. As most of you might know, I am not much of a dare devil or high adventure girl so I started descending that I indicated to my instructor to go up, then he asked what happened, I told him I got scared, so I relaxed then worked my way down to the bottom again. Aloha!! REmember you are welcome to comment or ask questions if you want! Mahalo (thank you in Hawaiian)

Cooking At Grandmas

For my birthday my grandma and her friend got me a Wok. So now I am learning how to cook. The day I arrived in Hawaii, I learned how to bake salmon. Here on some of the pictures. In the Salmon we put lemons and onions, however, he could chop at about well very fast, and I was a bit slower, but it was fun, enjoy the pictures. I have officialy become a certified Open Water Scuba Diver! More posts and entries on that when teh pictures arrive. The pictures with me and the four bottles of Chili Sauce is because I realllyyyy looveee that sauce, and about two years my grandmas friend sent me home with some, however, we ran out, so he bought me 4 to take home with me!

This is a map of the place in Mexico where I am studying, in comparison to the other cities

Just the Beginning

Dear Family and Friends,
So this summer I have been gratefully blessed. I know that God has blessed me with a couple of wonderful opportunities and experiences. Starting June 18th, I will be going to Guadalaraja, Mexico for study abraod through BYU ( Brigham Young University). I will be blogging my trip so every one can see. I will be taking 8 credits of Spanish, sight seeing, and volunteer work. Before I leave however my family is going to be taking a family vacation, to Hawaii, my 90 year old grandma lives there, and I am going to become a certified diver. So if you would like, you can read my blog to see my dives. To close, I will be begin blogging next Wednesday. God bless you all, I would love for people to comment. Love you all!
Erynn