Conchas. Fair. Conchas. Real de Monte. Chonchas. Fut Bool.

Alright. So this week starts way back to the beginning of last week. Monday morning we were briefly
informed to give a presentation for the Parents that had their kids in ILP. Tuesday morning was early and Super Great. and the Parent Presentations were awesome- we totally rocked it. Wednesday was another Big day, Our Super Awesome Program Director came to visit us and watched all of our lessons. So we had two REALLY big days in a row. To make things better, the kids were CRAZY and super wild. So really our week was good but full of craziness. So to end the week, we treated ourselves and went to the Fair! It was Awesome and it looked like a mini Lagoon. Street food, rides, and the people on the side trying to get
you to play their game to win a prize, There was even a mini concert. Needless to say it was Pretty Awesome.
Okay, so lately I have been obsessed with the delicious pastry, the Concha. Every day after school, after we eat lunch- we walk down the street right past the BEST cocina pan place here. All of the delicious pastries are freshly pulled out of the oven and the whole street smells Amazing! WE all can't help but pull out our three pesos and get a Fresh Pastry that your taste buds will never let you forget. Just as I got a doughnut every morning at work, I get a lovely Concha everyday in Mexico. SO with that little side note of Conchas, I will continue to tell you about the fair. THERE WERE GIANT CONCHAS AT THE FAIR. Also on every
corner of the fair, they had this corn, mayo, lime stuff and it is AMAZING. I will never be able to eat corn the same. I never thought I liked mayo, but when you put lime with it, it changes the whole thing. There is something about limes, they change the world, or at least my taste buds anyway.
Alright. So the very next morning I had the opportunity to listen to the prophets voice- Yes it was indeed General Conference weekend. I LOVE general conference. There is nothing better than Listening to the prophets voice on a Saturday morning. People might think otherwise, and that's fine. I make my religion a
 priority and love the spiritual uplift. After the first session of conference, I went with my lovely roommate, Laney, to Real De Monte to do a Home visit with one of our Students.  It was a really neat experience. They invited us into their home, we exchanged some of his work and in return they fed us Pastes and took us around el Centro. Real de Monte is beautiful city! I feel like the city is built on different hills, so if you want to go to one side of the city you have to go down the hill and up another one. Anyway our student's grandparents took us up to this one place, I honestly couldn't tell you where it was, we weaved in and out and up and down- but here we were at this one place and it was full all these shops that went down the street. As
we looked around the Grandma was like "Are you going to buy anything?". Laney and I just look at each other like Ohhh we are taking the time to do this okay. Okay. So as we looked around to buy something I saw the COOLEST turtle, but I didn't buy it I just held it in my hands, contemplating if I should actually buy it or not. And just as I was going to set it down, My Student grabbed it out of my hands, Bought it and then handed it to me saying "Teacher, this is for you!". I was speechless. I swear this kid hated me! He calls me teacher Ugly every day. This kid Never listens in class and suddenly he was my best friend, sticking by my side, totally interested in what I was buying, wanting to take a Selfie with me, you name it. This kid was suddenly the sweetest kid I had ever met. And maybe it was just because his grandparents were

there watching, or maybe it was just because he suddenly discovered that I wasn't scary. I will in fact never know, but I definitely connected with him on more of a personal level and I can only hope that he will be better in class now. This was definitely a moment to always remember.
Remember when I said it was conference weekend? Okay so Sunday I was planning on staying in my Pjs all day, eating snacks and listening to the Words of the Prophet. On the lovely Sunday morning the Wifi decided to cut out, so I had to get ready to go watch it at the church. One of the reasons I just wanted to stay home was because I wanted to watch conference in English- I knew I would get more out of it that way. So after getting to the church and finding out that they don't broadcast it in English, I just gave up and watched it in Spanish. It was fantastic, I caught words and sometimes phrases here and there, but I didn't catch a lot. But hey, what else should I expect,
I live in Mexico.
So that weekend was a great start to the Next week. We didn't do a whole lot and that is why I am combining two weeks into one post. Two for one! Anyway. This last week we seriously did 5 things. 1. Watched a movie in Spanish. IT WAS AWESOME. I will definitely be watching The Martian in English- it was So good. 2. We taught our daily lessons to the crazy children. 3. We went to this super awesome cafe. Our principal's son, who has two kids in the ILP program owns the little shop. So we got some really yummy treats. Anyway the whole trip was short and really fun- it was Great. :) 4. Saturday we went to Real de Monte and went to the crazy awesome Paste festival and ate lots of Pastes. We also

had the awesome opportunity to Tour through a Silver Mine! I have never before walked through a Mine, and now I can say I have, and it was AWESOME. 5. We went to our awesome friends house and watched the BIG Soccer game -Mexico against the United States. So our Saturday night was dedicated to watching Fut Bool and eating Hoot Doogs. It was a great day to an awfully boring week. :) Did I mention I caught a cold? It is the weirdest cold I have ever had, and I wish it was gone already- It makes teaching miserable. But its all good. Just like all colds it should pass... right? Right. Anyway I have discovered that time is passing WAY to quickly and I only have Nine Fridays left!!! NINE. I mean if you think about it, nine weeks is a long time, but when you're in Mexico that isn't very long at all! So basically I will have at least Nine more Awesome Adventures! YUSSS. P.S. Mexico won the big Game.

Mexico, one step at a time.

So this next week all starts with My class making Ninja Turtles for art projects. I had arts and crafts this week and since I love turtles, I thought hey why not make my kids craft them together. It was a genius idea and the kids LOVED them. I had them make all sorts of funny little crafts, and not one of them complained- it was a miracle!

That Friday we got home from school and immediately packed and left for our First REAL Vacation! I say the first real vacation, because we haven't gone farther than the outskirts of Pachuca the whole time we have been here. So for the first time we left the state of Hidalgo and wandered over to Puebla! The State of Puebla, the city Puebla. The Streets kind of look like Disneyland- everywhere you turn there is a new street full of shops. The buildings are all colorful and there are people playing music at every corner. Its quite the magical little town. In the Dark there are lights EVERYWHERE, just as if it was Christmas or something. I mean literally, it all kind of looks like Christmas because of the colors of the Mexican flag. Its glorious and the little town is filled with tiny shops and restaurants. As we wandered we found the BEST Churros EVER. They were fresh, hot, and they dipped it in sugar right in front of you. I could go on and on about the Churros, and I probably could have spent all my money on the delicious treat, but that didn't happen- that won't happen. They were just really good and that's all you really need to know. The very Next Day we spent the Whole day Touring the Cute Little Town of Puebla. We first visited the Old Historic

Cathedral, and it was SO amazing and it really made me appreciate art and design. Some of the artifacts and designers dated back to the 1600's- Life is literally a small moment and completely amazing. Also I got a glimpse of how dedicated the catholic people are- EVERYTHING we saw was hand crafted and hand carved- Literally the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
Second we walked town the street and into the open areas of little shops. Every where you turn there is someone sitting there just waiting for you to touch their stuff and buy it. It was also so incredibly easy to get lost in this place and never return, but eventually you run out of money and you have to find your way out. Story time: So I decided that I was going to get a turtle in Every city that I visited, that way I wouldn't buy 10 turtles in one city. So confession time, as we were passing through a shop I saw the COOLEST turtles, so just out of curiosity I asked how much they were and this guy clearly stated that he would give me all 7 of the turtles for 50 pesos. But I had already bought a turtle earlier, so I said no and walked away. For some odd reason we ended up passing this guys shop two more times. The more time we lingered there, the guy kept trying to convince me to buy the turtles for 10 pesos less. Long story short I
 indeed bought all 7 of the turtles for 30 pesos. So in the city of Puebla I got 9 turtles in total...
We spent two nights and one full day in Puebla and it couldn't have been better! One of the glorious nights we went to this GIANT Ferris Wheel! It was so BIG, and it went so Slow- It was so high in the air that we could see over the city of Puebla. It was simply amazing. That is all.

Our Adventure doesn't stop in Puebla! Out next stop was in Cuetzalan! The city is built on a hill, so literally every step you take is a NEW ADVENTURE. This place was so cute, it was filled with a lot of old women and lots of young men. There were very few in between and it was really weird. Anyway while I was there, I experienced some really good tacos, the BEST
 Fresh Orange juice, and the coolest water cave I will probably ever tour through. First of all we found this awesome tour guide, and he took us through the jungle, cave, and then he lead us right to a really cool water fall. Now again, the whole City is on a hill, so by the time we were done hiking, and done touring the jungle cave and waterfall, we were exhausted! But we weren't done yet- We had heard from our tour guide that there was going to be a little fair right in town. Something I've learned about the Mexican culture, any excuse they get to throw a party, they go all out and party HARD. Cuetzalan is a tiny little city, so the "fair" was three little taco stands and one little shop filled with homemade things. Then the WHOLE city was in this little building having a little Mariachi band competition. It was really cute. We left at 9 pm and went straight to bed in our lovely little Hostel. The very next morning we wandered around town a little bit and made it a thing to go see the Ancient Cuetzalan Pyramids, It was something to cross
off my Bucket list- I have ALWAYS wanted to see ancient ruins! They were Amazing, really tiny, and broken up. I mean yeah they were incredibly old, but they were so cool! It's crazy to think that little ancient people of Cuetzalan made a living and homes out of these pyramids. I can just imagine little ancient people wandering around this place. Yes I say LITTLE ancient people, because I was either the tallest person in town or some of the men were just as tall as me. So these little ancient people are adorable and I'm in love with the city of Cuetzalan. Shortly after we saw the Ruins, we caught a bus back to Puebla and then back to Home sweet home, Pachuca. The bus ride was long and a little miserable, and I discovered that I get really, REALLY car sick. Anyway, the whole trip was AMAZING! I loved every moment and I'm pretty certain I can call Mexico my second home. :)