I'm being lame at the moment

This is not really an update on Mexico so much as a way for me to feel better, so if you aren't interested in the technical details of my sin/frustration with life/whining then you may not want to read this. That is A-OK.
I don't really know what happened. I try really hard to not think of my time as "my" time. Mejor en español, no?
Mi tiempo no es mío es de Dios
No sé por qué lo quiero como mío, porque no lo uso bien.
No me puedo controlar a veces. Me pongo celosísima con algunas cosas y de repente me siento muy humillada, avergonzada, por haber sido tan egoísta y tonta. Me quejé demasiado en frente de la banda, y no habría hecho eso. tampoco habría querido toda la atención. Es un equipo, una banda, no puedo cambiarlo en una cosa de mí mí mí...

Quizás es porque quiero más tiempo con Keila, quiero ser su amiga, quiero cantar con ella quiero compartir música con ella, todo eso, y cuando ella misma reconoce que soy pésima me desespero, porque si ella no cree en mi talento, me siento tomada por vencida. Pero no es así - Dios sí cree en mi talento, él me lo dio.

Tengo una conección con ella muy fuerte y profunda y cuando me siento que ella me falla, me pongo como deprimidísima...qué onda con eso? Me choca mucho esta actitud que tengo pero a la vez no quiero dormirme sin reparar las cosas entre nosotras.

Por favor, Dios, ayúdame en estas situaciones que me desesperan. Me choca esta actitud y depresión que tengo y no quiero ser así. La música me toca muy fuertemente y no quiero ser así. Jesús, por favor, ayúdame, yo creo que canté hoy mejor que nunca. Por favor Jesucristo que mañana cante mejor que hoy.

Dios, bendícelos a todos de la banda. Ayúdanos ensayar bien, y aprender uno del otro. Te adoro Dios mío, y te quiero seguir en todo. Amén.


Hola MaryBeth - te quiero :)

Pues, ya, me cansé de hablarme a mí y Dios me oye dondequiera que vaya, entonces voy a hablar con mi amigo y luego llamarle a Keila, para pedirle perdón por mis acciones tontas y que ella todavía siga mi amiguita.

Dios te amaré y te seguiré para siempre!

 

VIDEO 1


VIDEO 2

June? Already? Wow!

Hey lovelies :)
Pat and I are doing well. We are in México still, hanging out mostly. Pat has gotten the hang of the bus system all by himself, which is a great thing! He comes over to the house where I live every day at around 10ish, and we hang out all day. He's getting better at Spanish. The other day (Monday) he spent all day making lists of verbs and stuff, and I think he really enjoyed it actually, haha. He's been working on math as well, which as fascinating as it seems, is really boring in my opinion, so I've been doing other things when he does that (like play facebook games or read).
I have looked into some of the Grad School programs that I wanted to check out (they're in my spreadsheet) and so I have narrowed down some options. I need to e-mail some of the professors I have at Eastern to ask them what programs I should look into, because they would actually know who the good people are. I want to study immigration/migration Sociology and though the best place ever would be Princeton (yay Doug Massey!!) I might be well off at UC Berkley or at University of Chicago, or something like that as well, I just need to make sure I find out from the right people. Pat and I need to take the GREs when we get back, and I already told my friend Sara that we could study for them together once we're back home. I am a little nervous about them, but at the same time, I know that God is going to work with what we've got and Pat and I are really putting our best into our academics so that we can get into the schools we want. I'm sure that we will get in somewhere, you know?
For anyone wondering, the plan is to get into the same grad school, or grad schools very close to each other, but if only Pat gets into the great school, then we'll go wherever that is. We still haven't figured out what might happen if the opposite is true, but we're discussing it. My education is subordinate to his, because I can be happy doing ministry (which doesn't require a Ph.D) and then once he's got his Professorship going then I can try and go back to school, even if just for a master's degree. This is all the back-up plan, though.
In other news, I started a small group for musicians where we're going to talk about Christian music and why Christians should be musicians and what the Bible says about music, and the history of Christian music, and stuff like that. I'm pretty excited about it, we're going to meet tomorrow evening and then have 2 more meetings talking about the contemporary Christian music and then the future of Christian music. I'm psyched to get to hear the opinions of some of the college students down here as far as music is concerned. There are some really amazing musicians here :)
Also, Pat and I are going to go to a worship night tonight led by some college kids that we know, and we're pretty pumped about that too. I'm seeing the network of ministries and how they sort of flow into each other, and that's how it's supposed to be, right? I think it's pretty cool.
Pat and I cooked all day on Tuesday for the youth group/college group (the ministry that I am an intern for) because we give free dinner for the meetings. We made sincronizadas (sync-cron-ee-SAH-dahs)which are two tortillas with mozzarella cheese and ham inside that you cook in a frying pan with butter. Served with them were pico de gallo (what we think of as salsa) and sour cream, it was really good. We also baked 60+ soft pretzels with cinnamon sugar on them, they were pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. The people were pretty impressed with them :D Even the culinary students that were helping us cook thought the pretzels were great :) :D That made me feel awesome haha. Pat did a wonderful job helping me, and even though we got frustrated a little bit, it was still really good (and who isn't going to get frustrated if they're cooking for 9 hours in a single hot kitchen?).

Well, I feel like that's the end of my update, Saturday night we have youth group, Friday night we have the small group, tonight we have the worship night. Sunday we have church in the morning and will (crosses fingers) spend the day with the Pastor's family because that's the only day they have time, and we love them, they're my Mexican family. Also, Pat seems to get along pretty darn well with them, so that's awesome :D - Really, everyone loves Pat, which is expected :)

During the day we are usually online for at least a little while, so should anyone need to talk to us, that would be a good time. I am usually on skype :)

Please be praying for us, that the ministry opportunities would keep presenting themselves and that we would be able to worship God with our actions and glorify him in all that we're doing here! Also pray that Pat gets better at Spanish :)

Love,
Nora

Day 9 - Mexico Take II

Hey all,
I don't know if any of you will actually be reading this, since it's summertime and everyone has something else to do, but I figured I would keep anyone up to date if they were interested.

It's day 9 here in Cholula. I got here on the 11th at 9pm. I took the Estrella Roja from Mexico City to Puebla. It wasn't too bad, although I had slept so much on the planes that I didn't really get to sleep on the bus. I got to see Liz that night (she left the next morning really early). That night I slept about 12 hours, it was insane. I was tired!!! Then the next morning I saw my friend Pedro, which was awesome! We ate breakfast (4 tacos for 10 pesos = less than 1 dollar) and got some juice at the new burrito place, which was fantastic. The juice doesn't have sugar in it! yay! And it's the best juice ever!! Strawberry Orange! It's so good! Half a liter for 14 pesos, which is a little more than a dollar! I love Mexico! Can you tell?

I've been doing pretty well on my diet so far, just eating meals and hardly ever snacking! I'm proud of myself, because I think I've actually lost weight, which is a very different outcome from the last time I was here (hi +12, I don't like you).

Anyway, basically when I got here it was the week of rest for the staff that I joined because the semester had JUST finished and pretty much all the students cleared off the campus. Next week (Monday) classes start again for summer school, and it varies from 5 to 7 weeks of classes. (Although it's funny, a bunch of people decided not to do summer classes because it would be during the world cup and they didn't want to have to choose schoolwork over soccer - gotta love mexico, right?) Anyway, so a bunch of people will be returning to campus this weekend, but since last weekend it has been a ghost town, like seriously, it's hilarious! I have been able to go to church and see my friends and pastor and everyone, which has been truly wonderful! I also had the opportunity to spend more time than ever with the staff of the ministry I am interning at. This is also great.

This past week and a half has just been really awesome for me because I have gotten to sit down and actually to think about everything that has happened over the past 6 months. There are a lot of unresolved issues that I have been trying to cope with and understand, and so this time has been really helpful to me so that I can actually do that. It also is so wonderful to have people around with whom I can talk and communicate (I'm mostly referring to the Americans who are around all the time with me - the ones I work for, but Mexicans too, although a lot of my friends are gone for now).

Something that has been a real blessing to me is to see how a ministry works. As many years as I have been in ministry I have never been so blessed by a ministry that lives what they believe. The people at El pozo (elpozopuebla.org or for English speakers www.cmf.org - campus ministries) really know what they believe and strive to live it! I have not been part of a ministry that really wanted me to read my Bible everyday and if I didn't then I should not be ministering. I know that that sounds horrible, but I'm serious. This is really how it should be, and I'm so glad to have found somewhere where that's actually true. Same thing with my church here. I know how tired my pastor and his family are, but they read their Bibles and do their devotions regardless. Because they know in the morning when they get up they won't have anything to give unless they have been given their daily portion.

I am re-learning to be a Christian here, and to be a minister of the gospel. There have been multiple days where it's just been like, I feel like Becca - getting so excited about the gospel that I'm almost giggly and giddy all day long! I got so excited about the book of Mark the other day that Courtney (staff member) was just sort of confused on how to respond to me, like, that's cool, but wow, why'd you turn into such a girl?

I have been really, quite, blessed so far by this time to relax, do some reading, chill in the beautiful 80 degree weather, etc. It's just absolutely wonderful to see God like this everyday in everyone!

Thanks so much for supporting me, and praying for me!

I pray God's blessings upon all of you!!!

Love and God Bless,

Nora

12 days and counting

Okay,
It's pretty intense having so few days left. I'm missing people on both ends, anticipating seeing people I've missed desperately and at the same time anticipitating missing the people I've fallen in love with (platonically speaking, no worries, I'm still getting married in a year and 7 days - wow). I'm excited for the opportunity to work down here over the summer for like 7 weeks, and I can't express how glad that makes me feel to know that I'll be seeing these people again, because my church here, my ministry here, they're a new set of roots, really. It has been a really reallly fulfilling experience. I also think i'd be really really sad if these good-byes here and now were good-byes forever. I just don't know how I would deal with that. I don't think I could. Really, I never want to say goodbye forever, just see you later. Well, if that's not enough reason for a Christian to evangelize I guess there isn't one good enough.
In the mean time (which mean time is purposely ambiguous) I am staying up late and playing games with people and it's fun. I love playing games, until it's like 1:30 am (like it is now) and here I am typing a blog entry because I like the idea of telling people what's going on in my life.
My goal is to have finished my exam tomorrow (I'm going to work on it, I promise!!) I'm going to get up at 8 and start working on it, while also cleaning my room and doing laundry. I'm going to also read my Bible outside, because that is incredibly pleasant, I love sitting in the rose garden (it's huge and smells wonderful) and just enjoying life. (Wake up and smell the roses?) Then at 11 I'm going to eat breakfast with some friends, which is great, I love it. I'm going to eat potatoes with chorizo (an amazing kind of sausage) on a big tortilla with cheese and salsa verde and onions. It's incredibly yummy, for real. Then I'm going to come back and finish this exam, by gommit!! I will be done by tomorrow at 4:30pm!!
I'm not going to do anything else until I'm done! Then maybe I'll just go over to Casa verde and hang, or I'll take a nap, cause those are awesome!
Anyway, I'm really really tired, but I just wanted to catch up and tell you all that I love you so very much and I really appreciate that you read my blog and stay up to date with me.
I haven't put up pictures in awhile, but to be honest I haven't been taking very many. I'm gaining a ton of weight (why do I do that!?!) but I'm going on a strict pre-wedding diet as soon as I get home (maybe as a new years resolution because Christmas and my birthday require cheesecake and ginger snaps....oh man I'm a fat-kid) So yeah, I'll be ok. I'll go off sugar again asap.
I love you all! Thanks for your support while I'm here! I really appreciate it!

Love, tons of it. xoxoxo,
Nora

Thanksgiving - Things I'm thankful for

Jesus
Pat
My family
My church
My friends
Mexico
THC (Templeton Honors College, not the active ingredient in marijuana...come on now...)
Emma (I miss having a warm puppy on my lap)
Being done with 25% of my classes! (PHEW!)
El Pozo
Good Food
Freedom of Speech
My grandparents
My brain
My professors
Cough syrup and tissues
Clean fresh water
Shelter
Opportunities to minister and serve people
House (because that show is awesome and you know it)
And now I must get dressed because my exam is in 2 hours and I have a class before it!
Love you all, and I'm thankful for you!!!

Nora

The week of death

This week has been crazy and it's only going to get crazier tomorrow.
I haven't prepared at all (I mean not even a tiny eency bit) for my last Literature class of the semester tomorrow because it's almost 12:30 am and I am exhausted. Today Liz and I stayed in the house of the missionaries who are out of town (Liz is dog sitting) and we are still here right now, I kid you not I've been here 11 hours and I have not finished studying for my exam tomorrow in Interpreting. It's killing me. I have so much to know and I'm just getting discouraged and I just want to go to sleep, you know? I haven't slept much in quite awhile...because it's been a crazy life... Yep, I've had something due and last weekend I went to a wedding, and so yeah, I haven't had sleep.

In other news, I'm so sad to leave Cholula. I really love Puebla, I really love the people, I really just adore life here, and I love learning so much every day. Although, I also have a lot of happy things to look forward to when I go home.

I called and talked to Hunter, my best friend and virtual big brother today. It was so great. I couldn't have spent 49 minutes in a better way. It was so good to talk to him, he said he has been missing me the past couple weeks and it really felt good to hear him say that - just as a girl, your guy friends don't tell you that much, so it feels good to hear it. It was really good to talk to him, because I realized that it's a lot harder to start up friendships with the opposite sex from scratch, you know? It feels awkward and they think that if you're hanging around the guys it's because you're trying to look for trouble. In my case, it's because I don't totally get girls...but I'm doing better. I think I'm really learning how to be a friend to girls, it's just really hard. I don't get the incessant giggling thing (unless it's 2am, and then there is just no choice).

I've been missing people more lately, but more missing people from Puebla than anything else. I've known for awhile that I'm the type of person who deals with problems in a more anticipatory manner than in any other way, so basically I get upset before something "bad" happens or before a big change. But then, on the bright side, I am always ready to adjust quickly and jump right back into life after the change is made.

Really, I've been kind of regretting some of my choices with regards to with whom I've spent my most time while I've been here. I think I've been blinded by wanting the younger kids in youth group at church to think I'm cool, instead of just being a minister to the people at school who really need someone to care about them and listen. I hope I can at least change that a little bit in my last (less than) 3 weeks here, but *sigh* I think I'll just have to come back this summer or something.

I'm really going to miss my church here. I've gotten so close to the people and the band and the families and everyone, I'm just really sad to say good-bye to that. It's ok though, God is so good, He always provides.


In other news, I get to see Melissa McClellan this weekend, and that's totally awesome! She's going to be visiting Puebla and so I'm going to meet up with her and the two priests she's travelling with (Well, her last name is McClellan :p) and Liz will come with me and we're going to take them to eat an early lunch. It will be really cool, we're excited! The only thing is, we're meeting up with her at like before 12, and I don't know if there will be much open for lunch time at that hour (usually it's like 1 or 2 at the earliest that people eat lunch) but oh well, it will still be good to see a familiar face, you know? And it's been a long time since I saw her!!

Well, I am exhausted and totally forgot what I was going to say. If anyone wants anything from México, they better tell me before I head back home, so please let me know, anyone. I'll try and get some good recipes out of Abril (the intern who cooks for Casa Verde).

Anyway, I need to get to studying andd then sleeping. Liz and I have had a lot of late nights lately...

Good night guys. Lots of love and hugs,

Nora

What a crazy weekend!

Okay so on Saturday I was supposed to sing and stuff at youth group without Joa and Keila because they had a wedding to be at, but the wedding ended early and they decided not to stay for the reception (lots of alcohol) so they ended up coming and Joa sang, even though Key didn't. We had a good time at youth group and stuff but then at the end it was cool because we stood in a circle and held hands and all prayed, and we were praying for things and Zuri (keila's cousin who lives with them and she's 19) said pray for Samuel (the 24 day old baby of Anita and Beto who are on the worship team with us and are a young sweet couple who I adore), because Friday night Beto had been really excited that Sammy was getting better (when he was born he went 45sec without oxygen and was a little deformed and had an extra finger). That was when Axel (the leader of the youth group) cut in and said, actually, a couple hours ago, Samuel died. You see, he couldn't breathe on his own, and on Friday he had been showing signs that he could, but on Saturday he couldn't again, and he died. So I decided not to go home Sat night, because I wanted to be sure I'd see Beto and Anita whenever I could and hug them, you know?
Well, anyway when Axel told the youth group that, we all got on our knees (there were like 30 of us) and prayed for like 15-20 minutes straight for Beto and Anita, it was the most beautiful thing ever. The youth group was so so there. We were all crying and just, really together. So like I said, I stayed with Keila and Joa, and Keila and I wrote a song for Beto and Anita, which we are very proud of. Sunday morning at church it was also a viewing/funeral thing, -we didn't sleep much saturday night - and then Sunday at 6 there was another service, and then this morning at 10 we buried him.
Guys, I don't think I've seen anything so incredibly sad as two really young people burying the 24 day old body of their first born son.
It broke my heart. I mean, yes, we know they're going to see him again, and I thank God for that faith, but these two people are in their 20's, and they've already had to do something more painful than I can ever imagine. They've been handling it so well too, I mean, everyone knows he's better off this way, he would have had tons of medical problems and everything had he lived, but still, Anita and Beto are parents now, and always will be, and they have had to live through a true tragedy.
I will never forget their faces when they handed the tiny coffin over to the gravedigger.
It was a long weekend.
Today we have off for the celebration of the Mexican revolution, which is nice, especially since my eye is killing me (I slept - very little - with my contacts in on Saturday so I'm pretty sure I gave myself a corneal abraision or something like that) and dude it hurts so bad. Plus it doesn't help I've been crying all weekend.
Anyway, it's been crazy here. I'm going to try to translate the song we wrote for Anita and Beto so you guys get an idea of it....but I'm going to do that after I take a shower in my own shower...it's been awhile...

Love you guys,
Nora

Slacker...

Yes, I know I'm a total epic slacker. Sorry for not writing. As you might not know, I am incredibly busy and I should be doing my 10-12 page research paper in Spanish on the European Union and junk. Unfortunately I am really sick of looking at it. Therefore I am writing a blog post about food, which is absolutely amazing here. Did I tell you that 100,000 times already? Well, here's 100,001: The food here is absolutely amazing.

I just had left-overs from last night for lunch, and it was so good, I can't even explain. That taco for 43 pesos was worth three meals, I'm not even kidding, which would come out to about a dollar a meal (But I ate it in 2, so it was more like 1.50 a meal). I love the food here. I love it all.

Really, I think I just love Mexico.

Either way, I am pretty bummed because it looks like no one will be coming to visit me (ie Nolan can't come because he has commitments to stuff and no one else is going to either). It's just a bummer because it would be really cool to share all the stuff I know with someone else. Not to like show off, but just to have them see a part of my life. I'm hoping Pat and I can come down for a little while this summer, but who knows if that will work. Heck, if I could find a job here I'd stay all summer. I should talk to people about that, because there are a lot of missionary organizations down here that I'm aware of, maybe they'd hire me as an interpreter or something (like for mission trips?) Who knows.
Either way, I adore Mexico.

I'm getting psyched about going back to the DR, I've heard a little bit from my team this year, which is really exciting and I've been chatting with Brian over email(one of the leaders) so that's really good. I'm excited to see Esperanza again (my sponsor daughter). And yeah, I even got an email from Wilman that said he took his church to Sabana Cruz and did a 3 day mini mission to help cut little kids' hair and do stuff with sanitation and what not. So that was really encouraging as well.

Either way, I have a lot of writing to do, in the next two weeks I have to do A LOT (I mean A LOT) of work for school, and that's in addition to all the activities I'm already involved in. Either way, I'm pretty stressed right now so I should get back to doing my paper, and try to calm down.

On the bright side: I have gotten a lot done, and I am almost done 5 entire pages - which is good considering I had 1 paragraph done on Thursday morning).

Oh yeah, by the way, you know you've been writing your paper for awhile when you start pressing ctrl+s on everything you type, like every 5 seconds (it's quite annoying when I do that on my blog post because it keeps trying to save the silly webpage as an html file, which totally doesn't help me haha). Either way, hooray keyboard short cuts (I know that my father and Pat are smiling at that in their hearts, as is Drew Cope if he ever read this).

Well, now I leave you with this request: Please pray for my productivity and focus. This weekend will be trying I think, and so any extra support would be greatly appreciated.
Also, please know that I really love that you read my blog and care about my thoughts and I'm so deeply touched by that simple fact (Becca - I thought this entire sentence with a british accent, which by the way my best mexican friends think is hilarious when I say "Mr. Darcy, do tell us of Pennbury, I hear it's beautiful in the springtime").

Okay, thanks guys. I love you!

Nora

Last Weekend Continued

Sorry you'll have to let this load for FOREVER...I'm a chatterbox...



Love you!

Nora

Popo at sunset

 

Okay this is popocateptl which is a volcano right near here, and this is a picture I took on Friday afternoon around sunset of the smoke coming out of it, this is a picture from campus, and the bleachers there are for the outdoor basketball courts. I love living in Cholula, it's so awesome. I just thought that it was so cool that Popo (it's a nickname) was smoking, and I needed a picture :D

Love you, I know, I need to finish my entry. I will do it soon, I promise.

Nora

Written, not recorded.

Okay, so I was going to post another video blog, but I really want to take a 15 minute power-nap before my class tonight at 5 (it's 4:22). So yeah, I'm going to do that instead of going through all the youtube uploading trouble.
I had a great and crazy weekend. For weeks I had been planning to take Liz out to celebrate her birthday (which was Oct 11) and so we decided to do that on Friday. We went to the centro historico (old city equivalent) and walked around and went shopping and bought some really cute earrings from a lovely artisan store where the ladies hand made everything there (I loved it so I wanted to make sure we supported their business). And then ate tacos al pastor (sooooo good) at a taco place right by the cathedral. We walked around a lot and then decided to come back because we had a flag football game at 4. We left old city at like 2:30. We sat on a bus going sort of the right direction for about 45 min and then we noted we were pretty much leaving the city. So yeah long story short, we were scared and ended up on a bus alone with a male bus driver at the top of a mountain outside of the city....it was scary, but then it was ok, and we got back into the city on the bus (it made a huge circle in the mountains outside of the city - tons of goats). And then we took a taxi from the city back to school and were only 30 min late for our football game...even though we were on the bus for almost 2 hours. And it was the worst bus ever, too.
But yeah, I don't mean to worry you. I am usually really good at using the buses here, but it's a lot harder getting back than going. But Liz and I have promised each other to always just take a taxi home from the beginning. It's not worth the trouble trying to find a bus when you don't know where to look.
And yeah, then after the tocho (football) game we did a little homework and then went over to the Basile's house and played games. I kicked serious but in scrabble and they were all impressed hehe. Then I stayed there because Saturday we had to go at like 6:30 am to our youth group conference because the band was going to play.
The conference was in Sardan City which is in the mountains and where my pastor grew up. It was so freaking cold. They said it was freakishly cold. Either way, not cool.
I'm going to finish this post later, I need my quick nap.

Love you,
Nora

Video Blog 2

Here's another video Blog. I put it on youtube because I'm just that high-tech, and now I am sharing it with you guys. You're so lucky. I'm going to go brush my teeth while it uploads and then put in the embed html jazz. Love you all
Good Night

Nora

ok, I brushed my teeth and changed into my PJs and everything and it has only uploaded half way...woops...

Loss in the Family

I was going to tell you all about my wonderful relaxing and fun weekend at the Oliva's (Keila's house) but today I got news that my first-cousin-once-removed (aka my dad's cousin) died today, suddenly. She was only 47 years old and left behind 3 kids and a widower. My family is all in shock and saddened by the news and I've been having a hard night dealing with being away from all of them. This is the 4th death in the past 5 years in the Barth family, and it's a tough blow for all of us, especially my dad's generation. She was so young. Tomorrow will be hectic and crazy, and since we don't know why she died it could be a very long time before we get the results of the autopsy and everything.
I have class in 11 hours and still want to try to chill out before going to sleep, so I should get off of my blog, but I just wanted to put this up and ask for prayers to be sent out for the Barth family and for the Van De Voorde's in particular, who have suffered a great and unexpected loss. Thank you for your love and support, again. I will try to write soon with happier news about Mexico.
Love,
Nora

Distrito Federal - Mexico City

This weekend I went to Mexico City (A.k.a. D.F. - pronounced de efe) with Susanna and Moi to see our friend Moi's house and meet his family and go to a lock-in for the youth group at his church. The church is an American church and Moi's best friend runs the youth group (Jaaziel - Ha-si-EL). He was really really cool. The lock-in was fun, although I think that Susanna and I ate about 7,000 calories each that night, I'm not exaggerating too much there either. Although, we only got about 3 hours of sleep Friday night. Then Saturday during the day we walked around Mexico City. We went to the center of like "old city" if you will and walked around - they had a lot of vendors set up which was cool and I got a nice black purse for 50 pesos (like $3.75) which was sweet. We then went to the cathedral in the center of the city which was built by the Spaniards basically on top of where there used to be a pyramid and where they did sacrifices and stuff (Aztec). Pretty crazy. Then we went to see the ruins from the pyramid, that was also nuts. Then we walked back from there to the car and went and ate crepes which is a tradition for Moi and Jaaziel, and a few girls from the youth group leadership met up with us there (they were very sweet) and then after that we went and ate tacos. Which were good. Susanna tried intestine tacos (they look like intestines - EW) and she said they had the texture of clam or calamari, which I would compare to a balloon but she didn't think that gave it justice I guess. Either way, Jaaziel and I thought it was pretty weird. Moi ate like 3 of them, intestine tacos that is, gross. Anyway then we took Jaaziel home and went back to Moi's house where his brother was watching a movie and so I half was watching it half was reading for European Union (which I didn't really understand anyway so I mostly just watched the movie - Jim Carey in Yes Man- is that what it's called?). After the movie Moi and Susanna and I decided we'd play golf (the card game) and we were like ok, best out of 3, then best out of 5, okay best out of 10 but in the end Susanna (who taught us the game) kicked our butts and we knew it. Although Moi's massive amounts of luck are definitely worth mentioning. We went to bed late and then got up for church in the morning after about 7 hours of sleep (A grand total of 10 for the weekend - woo hoo). We ate tamales for breakfast - my first tamal in Mexico. It was really really good. I liked it a lot. Then we got ready and headed out (I left a container of hummus at Moi's house, which is kind of sad but oh well - the part I feel bad about is that it wasn't my container...woops). But oh well, point is we went to church. The service was done by the youth group and they performed a skit that one of the girls had written and it was good minus the fairly overt references to certain things that kind of irked me and Susanna a little bit (but not a lot). They did a great job though and the service went really well. It was all in English which was weird because I haven't been to church in English in 2.5 months now, but I liked it.
Then after church we went out to eat with Moi and his family, Jaaziel, his brother, and two girls from church Kate (who wrote the skit) and Rachel (who had gotten crepes with us on Saturday). They're both American and Kate's uncle is a professor at Eastern - WEIRD right? lol. It was really funny when she said that because immediately I was like, WOW you look like Dr. Sparks too!!! Haha. It was funny. Anyway, we went to a buffet at a hotel that had like everything, and it was really good. Moi's parents paid for me and Susanna, which was so sweet, and we got to eat such good food. It was really good. They had great desserts (except the cheesecake was sub-sub-par) and it was fun. Susanna and I have decided to fast this week due to our obscene amount of calorie intake this weekend, so that's good.
Then we dropped Jaaziel and his brother off and came back to Puebla. We had a really good talk on the way back which was about 1/2 in Spanish and then the other in English. Mostly because I failed at one point in expressing what I wanted to say in Spanish so I said it in English and then it just kept going from there. It's frustrating that Moi is better at expressing himself in English than I am in Spanish sometimes, but he has had a lot more time speaking English than I have Spanish.

Overall the weekend was fantastic. I put up the pictures on Picasa and the link is http://picasaweb.google.com/PerfectlyMade/KeilaYDF if you want to see them. :)
It was a great time!

I have class in 20 minutes so I should get ready to go to that. I hope you all have a very blessed day and I'll try to write smaller entries more often, rather than these huge rants every 10 days ok?
Remind me!
Love you all,
Nora

ViDEO BLoG

Hey guys, this is my video blog update - I just got bored this morning and didn't really want to get ready for classes. I have a big exam today in Translation so obviously I'm really studying a lot for it (heh) - no, I studied already don't worry. I hope you are all doing well. Remember to skype or email me. Especially you, Daddy!!
I love you!
God Bless,
Nora

October, Crazy!

Hi everyone!
Sorry it's been more than a week. I'm kind of a slacker.
It's been a crazy week though. I had a lot of stuff going on and I thought that it would calm down by Monday but that didn't happen because my professor who was supposed to give us an exam on Monday, totally (TOTALLY) forgot and didn't even know what day it was so we're taking the exam in 25 minutes. I studied with Liz in addition to making a huge outline and study guide of the book, so I should be ready, I'll just look over the notebook before I go to the exam.
I have decided to rein in my self control because I think I've lost it. All last year I didn't eat sugar more than once a month on average - really. Now I eat chocolate a LOT, and that's so bad, so I decided I am not going to eat any more chocolate, not for awhile at least. I want to at least go 2 weeks without touching any and then I'll decide if I feel well enough to eat some. I have had such hard times getting up in the morning though, so I think it will be better to just, not eat chocolate and hope that makes it easier. I also decided to avoid sugar and caffeine, unless absolutely necessary and to not eat after 10pm (that's really hard here though because people don't eat the last meal of the day until really late, but usually the last meal is a lot smaller - or at least it should be).
In any case, that's what's going on. I have been doing lots of homework, yesterday I had a stye developing in my eye, and it hurt really bad so I couldn't get much done at all, Liz and I studied but that's pretty much all I accomplished in like 7 hours, other than play bejeweled with one eye open and talk to my mom on skype. Haha. Pathetic, what a waste of life. I held a hot compress on my eye though and that seemed to help a lot. So that's good. It hasn't hurt me yet today though and I got up almost 3 hours ago! YAY for that!
On Sunday I went to Keila's family's ranch (her dad's siblings are all doctors and politicians so they have this huge beautiful ranch and her cousin is getting married there in Novemeber) and it was awesome. I met her family and her cousins and was invited to the wedding in Novemeber and told that I had to go, which I would never argue with, lol. Keila is like my best friend here, and even though she's 16 and a junior in high school, she's like, really stinking awesome. I love hanging out with her and her brother, although it really really makes me miss Nolan a lot.
I might go to Keila's tonight and go into school with them tomorrow morning because she's going to sing in a ceremony thing that's like traditional Mexican stuff and she wants me to see it (really bad) so I might do that, the only thing is I have class tomorrow at 10am and have to make sure I get all my stuff done before then and will be able to make it to class on time. The other option is to skip that class and just go to the one at 11, which is translation, and I can't miss it because we're going to have our exam on Tuesday and so we'll need all the practice we can get - plus I have homework due tomorrow. We'll see what I decide. Either way, I love Keila <3
Also, today Josh (Liz's boyfriend) arrives and will be here for a week. I'm not thrilled but I'm not upset either. Liz's birthday is on Sunday and so he's coming to celebrate with her. It should be an exciting thing for her so I'm happy. I think I'm going to a concert with Keila on Sunday (even though it's Liz's birthday) because Liz will be with Josh, and I think we're going to have a big party for her like Friday or Saturday.
We'll see what happens, plans here just don't get made so we'll see some other time. I think we'll have a party somehow, not sure how, but it will be fun. I can't disclose what I might give her for her b-day because it's possible that Kathy Myers reads this and if so she would tell Liz, so I'll just keep my hands (mouth) shut on this one jaja.
Anyway I should get going, I have my exam in 10 minutes.
I love you all, thanks for your help and prayers!
Nora

Keila, and nothing else in Spanish starts with K....jaja

Okay so I don't even remember the last time I wrote but I bet it was awhile ago. I looked it up, a week. Wow. Okay so I went to Band Practice a couple times last week, which was awesome, and I even stayed over at Keila and Joha's house on Monday night to translate the song "east from the west" by casting crowns - btw, we did an awesome job and I'm SO proud of it! I love this whole translating songs business, it's really really fun and I feel SO proud of the work when we're done. I think I'm pretty good at it, even INTO Spanish, yay! Anyway so then on Thursday I got to go see my friend Moi's house, he has this cute little condo and it's number 8 (which is my favorite number) and I spent like 2 hours doing a tavern puzzle that he had and had forgotten how to do...lol. I did it 4 times in the end, just to prove that I remembered how haha. Friday I barely got any work done and then Friday night I played with the Basile boys (their parents had been out of town so there was another family staying at their house) and then I stayed the night there. Saturday I went to practice and was at church all day (as usual) and ate at Keila's house. Keila was at home all day doing her homework - she spent 15 hours on her homework for COMPUTER class. Isn't that insane? She had to make a like 20 page book thing on Word that included all these parts and stuff and it had to describe her life and everything, it was ridiculous. Anyway, she did it and it looked really good at the end. She'll definitely get an A+ (she's also smart and probably didn't have to work as hard as she did, but I'm glad she did). Then we had Saturday night youth group, which was fun. Afterwards I went home with the Basile boys and we celebrated Caleb's 16th birthday (Sunday) and ate brownies and ice cream (yum) and that was good. Then we watched get smart and then I went back to my room. Then Sunday we went to church, and as I was leaving Keila was like...*sadface* you're leaving? ...so I told her to tell me if she was going to do anything fun, but I had homework (which I didn't do until today). So she texted me like at 2:30 saying to come eat pizza with her and some young adults (like the young professionals group or whatever) and so Liz and I went and that was fun. Then we dropped Liz off and I brought my laptop and went to Keila's house again (I practically live there now haha), and I shared a bunch of my music with her which was really fun and we just talked for awhile. She thought some of PDQ Bach was HILARIOUS and we just couldn't stop giggling hahaha. It was great. Then we talked some more and I ate the best donut (not homemade) of my life which I don't even know what it was but it was AWESOME. Then we were going to write a song, but we came up with (at least) a really cool chord progression (which I don't remember at the moment but I think it's AE x3 F#m C something?) I can't quite remember. Either way we're going to write some music together. Yay!
Keila also said to me (she's only 16 by the way) that she was really glad we were friends because she's been really wishing she had a friend who she didn't feel like she always had to remind not to be a stupid girl (if you know what I mean). I was really glad she said that, it just made me feel like I was really pouring into someone here, even if I have been feeling a little less than useful.
Also, she let me rip her demo CD and I am addicted to it. She is such an amazing singer, and she's eclectic with her styles. She's just the most incredible 16 year old in the whole world.
Anyways so I stayed at their house last night I woke up with them at 6:15 or whenever it was, drank some juice and then went back to sleep for an hour and a half (that was great) I tried reading but I was falling asleep so then at like 9 Juan Manuel took me back to UDLA and I took my meds, ate some pasta for breakfast (I know, weird) and have been doing homework and stuff mostly all day. I should be studying for my little test tomorrow in literature class, but I don't really know how to study except read my notes over and read the poetry again. We'll see. I will talk to Mollly tonight (she's in that class too) and see if she studied.
Also today, Keila sent me a text after school and invited me to go with her and her family after church next Sunday to eat lunch with her Uncle at his ranch, which sounds really fun so I told her I'd love to. I'm going to have to get a lot done before then though, because I have a bunch of stuff to do by Monday (maybe Tuesday too, I'll find out tomorrow).
I'll try and put up a recording of Keila that I think is really good, she's so awesome guys, really. Anyway, I should get going. I have class in 20 minutes and should probably try and to at least do a couple more things on my to do list before I go.

Love you guys, thank you so much for always keeping me in your hearts and prayers. I really appreciate it!

God Bless,
Nora

PozoViaje etc.

I had a wonderful time on the Casa Verde retreat this weekend. We went up into the mountains (Malinche is the name of the mountain we were on) and we stayed at a retreat center/hotel kind of place in Cabins and it was really fun. I stayed up until 3 both nights and it was a crazy little amount of sleep I was living on but I had a wonderful time. I ate so much food, this trend is stopping now though, seriously. I am adamant about fitting into a wedding dress (i.e. they won't make them big enough if I keep eating like I am - but purple is really slimming, right Pat?). Anyway, I got to get to know a bunch of people and we had a really great time. I totally loved it. I noticed though that I really depend on English a lot mroe than I want to, so I'm going to try not to say a single word in English for the rest of the week (I know that sounds absurd, but if you call me on skype, sorry, I'm speaking Spanish). Good luck. I am really really going to try to go for a whole week without speaking a word of English. We'll see if I can (I hope so). Also, I think I'm just going to try and be more self-controlled from now on, I've been really bad with what I eat, and how much I really exercise and stuff like that, so I'm going to really try and work on those things. Speaking of exercise - we had a scavenger hunt kind of thing on the retreat on Saturday and we had to go up and down the retreat center (which is in the side of the mountain) and so now my legs hurt SO BAD like, we didn't even do all that much but my thighs hurt so bad I couldn't stand up long enough to take a shower last night. I was so gross but I couldn't stand so I just went to bed.
Also, since the altitude changed from like 2,000 kilometers to like 3,500 kilometers it was totally hard to breathe and stuff, and now my sinuses are freaking out for going BACK to 2,000. Crazy right? I know. Anyway, so I don't really feel that good and I have a big chunk of homework to do because tonight I get my take home midterm and have to start that asap. (Tomorrow after classes I think). It's a little crazy here, but I'm having fun and I got a ton of sleep last night (like 14 hours, seriously) so hopefully I will be good to do work today and then will be able to chill out before my classes and doing my mindterm tomorrow.

Love to all, xoxo
Nora

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!
Last night I went to the celebration party (they celebrate at midnight the grito de dolores which is when they declared that they were going to begin fighting for independence in 1810 - look it up :P) at my church and stayed for about 2.5 hours and probably ate 2 kilos of food. Seriously. Lol. It was awesome. I came home around 10:45 and was going to go out again but it was raining and I lost my umbrella so I decided to stay in. I went to bed around 12:30 or 1 and got up this morning around 9am. I did all my homework for tomorrow (except print it out which I will do tomorrow morning before class) and then have lounged around on facebook all day. I also read a page in my book lol. Additionally I straightened up my room a little bit, watched the end of the flintstones movie with my suitemates, ate a sandwich, talked to a million people on facebook (including MaryBeth :D I miss her) as well as Angelina and Becca on skype (love them) and have filled up my 20oz glass at least 5 times today...I love water. I am still trying to decide if I want to eat dinner, I mean it's almost 7 o'clock so if I want to do it at a healthy hour I should do it now, but at the same time I haven't really been hungry all day (because I ate so much yesterday). I don't really know, but I love quesadillas is the thing.
I had intended to go out today to buy more credit for my cell phone but it has been disgusting rainy all day long so I haven't gone out....sigh...
Anyway, I should get back to my facebook chatting, Kasey misses me (I miss her too) and then maybe I'll read my book and go to sleep.

Love you all, thanks for your support :P
Nora