Woops, haven't written in awhile

Well, Happy Saturday all!

Today is a special day because it is the first day that Liz and I are not in the same place at the same time. Weird, right? I should recap and explain how this happened.

Monday after my night class I met a sweet girl from Massachussettes named Daniella. She's a total doll and she has actually been here since her freshman year in college. She is Jewish, and lived in Israel for awhile, and her first language is Hebrew (CRAZY right? the girl is so language savvy, I'm a little jealous, yeah). Anyway, she and I talk for awhile and she tries to buy a new computer online while we're talking but it doesn't work out. Fast forward to Thursday. Thursday Liz and I went over to La Casa Verde, which is a green house (no kidding!) right across from our campus where they hold bible studies and other fun Christian meetings. I had been told about it by two different professors from Eastern and multiple students who had studied here before, so Liz and I knew we needed to go. So we went there and hung out with people and met some nice people and whatever, and then came back to our rooms. I texted Daniella later that night to see if she had gotten her computer and she said yes, it worked out and by the way did I want to hang out with her this weekend - she was going to celebrate her 23rd birthday. Of course, I said yes that'd be awesome, because I need friends (lol) as we all know. So then Friday I did hardly anything at all because I have NO classes on Fridays (which is sweet because my weekend starts on Thursday at 12:15, you know that's awesome). But at around 1:30-2pm my suitemate and I cooked a big lunch for everyone in the suite. It was carne (beef) which had been marinated 2 days (mmm) really thinly sliced and then seared. Sauteed portabellos with onions, pasta and cream/cheese sauce (cheese, milk, sour cream, garlic, pepper, salt). I was in charge of pasta and sauce and Andrea was in charge of beef and mushrooms (I helped too though). It was awesome. Everyone loved it, so we totally felt like chefs and good ones at that. So that was a great time.

After we ate our suitemates decided to see a movie that looked really awful, so we decided to hang back. We kept in mind that one of the guys at church on Sunday had told us that the young adults group meets on Friday nights (8pm) so we sent him a text asking if he could take us to the church. He said he would so we (after a little difficulty) met up with him and went to the service. It was fun and nice to meet some more people. Also, they invited us to go on a retreat with them, but like I said, I had told Daniella I would celebrate her b-day with her tomorrow (Sunday) after church, and also I had homework to do (about 60pages of reading or so) so I said I couldn't go. Well Liz got all bummed out and I was like, dude, Liz, just go without me. And she looked at me all bug-eyed and I was like, what? This is the new you, go without me. So she decided she would. Pretty cool right?

Then we were invited to eat "supper" with some people (3 of whom had just gotten back Sunday from working at a camp in Iowa all summer, so they had really good english and were funny). So we did that, but first we drve around for like an hour to drop this girl off who didn't feel well and then were pretty confused on how to get the heck out of her little town haha. In anycase we ate food and Liz and I paid less than 4 dollars to split 2 tacos with beef and cheese and we each got a mango juice drink in a bottle. Isn't that nuts? the food was great too. Such a good find. So the brothers that were in Iowa (there was also a girl who had went but she was at the other end of the table so we didn't get to talk to her too much) were really nice and cool. So yeah, they brought us back to campus and then we went to bed. When I woke up, Liz was gone so she's at the retreat and I'm here, avoiding my homework and chores. lol. I guess I should get on that now, but thanks for listening to my rant!

Love,

Nora

Games

These are some of my suitemates and some other people who live in our building. Don't worry it's Pepsi that we're drinking in the cups. We ordered pizza and got soda on Friday night and played pictionary down the lane for hours. We also taught them dutch blitz, which they desperately want their own copies of hahaha. It was so fun and hilarious. Gotta love staying in on a friday night and throwing a mini-party :D

We went on Saturday to the historic center of Puebla (about 30 minutes bus ride with city traffic (ya know). It was beautiful. This is the park in the center of the city, the next picture is just looking down the street.

This is the cathedral in the center of the city. The bells are only in the left tower, and the story is that Angels flew them up there because they used to be on the ground and then the priest saw angels put them up in the tower. Therefore, the city is actually something like city of the angels (like Los Angeles) so they left the name at Puebla (like city) because of California's Los Angeles. It's a beautiful Cathedral.
This is in the cultural center in Puebla, it's a library of old books, and as a book lover/reader and student, I couldn't help myself but sneak a picture. Isn't it beautiful?

!!!Photos!!!

This is a beautiful rose garden that's on my campus. I love it! I told my mom I'd post pictures so here they are. Don't feel bad for me, because obviously I am so lucky to be here and see the beauty of the earth here everyday :D.

Church!

We went to an awesome church this morning with a lovely family of missionaries from the U.S. (their church in the US is actually in PA) They are wonderful and their church was so great. It's small and growing and really sweet. Everyone was nice to us and they invited us to stay after and eat lunch with them (for free) so that was awesome. Also, they told me I could sing on the worship team if I wanted, so that's really cool. Their singers are really good. Liz and I really liked the pastor and the worship so we are totally content with this being our home church for the semester. Also, it's great because we get a ride for free every week (the missionaries live uber close to us).

Also! Sandy (mom-missionary) told us where the good grocery store is and how to get there and what-not, so that's awesome. Yeah, so I'd say overall we're really pumped about life right now...except for the fact that we are exhausted lol. We aren't really sure why, but it could be because we went to bed last night at around 12ish. We went to an apartment where there was a party (people were drinking but Liz and I had coca cola :p). I thought that going to clubs or bars or parties would be like the worst thing ever but really, it doesn't bother me nearly as much as when adults in my family get drunk (which happens more often then I think about). I might just be saying this cause they haven't been that drunk when I've been around, but I mean, yeah, they were pretty drunk. It's weird cause this is a public school, with more rules than Eastern, but everyone still goes drinking and stuff and goes out for the night. It's just weird.

In any case, yeah, sorry for jumbling thoughts together and putting them on the internet. I have just been thinking a lot about alcohol and alcoholism and getting drunk instead of drinking a little of something. I decided that I would just not drink while I'm here, it wouldn't be at all helpful for anyone if I drank anything so yeah, I'm not going to. I just have noticed that even though people are basically having a sin fest (ya know, drinking, dancing, doing stuff they shouldn't do before marriage, cursing, etc.) it could be a heck of a lot worse than what they do in a club and I believe in the Jesus in the Bible - Who went and hung out with the prostitutes and tax collectors and drunkards, right? I guess I have been learning what that means to accept other young people as making mistakes like I do, just in different ways. I know a guy here who is SO nice, and like really takes care of people and is just really chivalrous, but drinks a lot ya know. That for sure doesn't make him a bad person, because I don't drink and I'm still a jerk sometimes, so I mean, yeah who am I to judge, right? Everyone has something they are trying to stop doing (or should try to stop doing) and I have plenty enough for everyone. I just feel bad for being judgemental about everything.

Anyway, church was beautiful. Today was great. Sandy, Tom, Caleb, Steven and Zach were great, and now I want to take a nap.

Love to all,

Nora

La primera semana - The First Week

Wow! I cannot even believe that the first week has gone by this fast! It's crazy!!! I met lots of new people and have many new friends (and a few old ones too). I am having tons of fun, and this whole first week people have been going out to different places every night. Somehow or other I end up going along and sometimes it's fun and sometimes it isn't.

I went to a club the other night and that was interesting, but I found out there are tons of rules in the dormitories that they never told us about (and never even gave us a link or anything to find out about the handbooks or whatever that go along with these rules). I intend to write a letter to someone complaining about this.

I also scheduled all of my courses (that was great). I have lots of questions about money though, because UDLA (my school) keeps telling us we have to pay for this thing and that thing (like printing, we have to pay for each page ahead of time - weird, right?), but Eastern is paying for stuff, so they're supposed to bill Eastern not me, so yeah, I don't know I'll have to talk to people about stuff. that comes later.

Classes start Monday - WOW! I'm a little nervous. I have my first course at 10am on monday and then also a night class on monday about the European Union (a four hundred level international relations course with all mexicans - YIKES!!!!!!!!). But I mean, we'll see.

Oral Translation is actually the class I am most worried about because oral translation is friggin hard. Luckily I don't have that until Tuesday. On the bright-side, due to my beautiful schedule, I don't have any classes on Friday, which means Thursday at 12:45 until Monday at 10 am I get a weekend. That's a sweet thing for going on trips and stuff, if I want. YAY!
I don't know what all I am going to end up doing but tonight I think I'm going out with some people somewhere. Who knows? It should be fun though.

I ate a plum and need to floss, and then probably maquillarme. So I'll get going, but thanks for reading up on my life ;)

Lots of love,

Nora

p.s. as always feel free to email me or skype me anytime!<3

First Few Days

So, my first few days in Mexico have been an adventure to say the least. Not everything, but close to everything, that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. It's nuts. I am alright now but still have CRAZY amounts of things to do tomorrow. I also still need to buy a whole bunch of stuff. I also need to make more Mexican friends. I will write more later, but for now I'm going to skype with Pat for a couple minutes and then hit the hay. My adventures shall be chronicled here, do not fear, it just will not happen right this minute.

Keeping you in the loop,

Nora