One Year with Chris

We've been together for one year now. I wrote him a cheesy little poem for our one year anniversary thing.

Here is it:

Christopher, my lover boy
I love you more than just a toy.
I found you only one year ago
I liked you lots but my love was low.

First I saw some sexy man
His green eyes shined with his perfect tan.
I liked him and he liked me
But a problem bit us like a flee.

My family didn't believe in you
And close I came to join them too.
Then I got to know you well
And then in love with you I fell.

You're kind at heart with so much love,
Your lips fit mine just like a glove.
I love your attitude of life,
You smile always, even through strife.

I see an example in all you do,
And I love that we wear the same size shoe.
You read and you pray every day,
I want to be with you after our hair turns grey.

I know it's hard that we live so far apart
But you're always with me in my heart.
I promise you that I love you,
And I know that you love me too.

We've done the golf cart, zoo, and beach
We've eaten out cereal with strawberry, blueberry, and peach.
You surprised me with flowers at my car,
We kissed on the water tower and saw Provo from afar.

Now it's been one year, I know,
It's hard to believe when time moves so slow.
If only you knew how much I love you
Well I hope this poem will give you a clue.

We've been through a lot this past year,
To my heart you are so near.
We've learned so much and cried some tears
I hope this lasts for many more years,

Again I will say that I love you so much,
Your face, your love, your every last touch.
Christopher John and Lauren Nicole
I'll love you forever, deep down to your soul.

We Can Each Make A Difference

Okay people. I'm home from Mexico as you all know. I have more to say about it, but this week has been busy. I just started working (tutoring the neighbor kids) and I also have an internship that I just started. I'm also preparing for my trip to Boston that I leave for in two days. This means that I don't have a lot of time to help out my friend. Soooo, I really need your help! Please. Chris's cousin just found out that his cancer is a lot worse and so they are stopping chemo. He has been dealing with cancer his whole life and he is only 20 years old! Well, he wants to go to Hawaii and spend some time with his family.

And so, I'm asking each one of you (please pretend that I am asking you personally, to your face) for a $1 donation. You are more than welcome to donate more, but even just $1 from each person will make a difference.

If you want to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and not only donate money, but get put into a drawing to win a Kitchen Aid, then go to my sister-in-law's blog page at www.treasuresofhope.blogspot.com.

ALL of the money that goes to my paypal account will go straight to the Mash family. My sister-in-law is going to drop it all off next week to Chrissy Mash next week.

You can read more about it on Facebook and join the group page and the event page at:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=132715040089895&ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=126738337362441

Paypal your money to lolomugg@aol.com. $1. Let's make this happen!

The Good Life

It's good to be home, but since I'm using this as my journal, I need to talk about some things that I haven't written about yet. Last weekend was quite fun. On Friday my roommates and I went to the beach; it was great for about 20 minutes. Then it started raining. Not just raining, but pouring. like more pressure than a shower raining. Some of the girls wanted to stay and play in the rain, so we did. The Ocean water was so warm. All of my things
were soaked, including my clothes and towel. Finally they decided to go home
when the lightning and thunder started. So I walked back to the bus stop in my
swimsuit (I wasn't about to put on soaking wet clothes). Shelby did the same,
but she was wearing a bikini and has a hot body, ha ha. So this creeper kept
following us and didn't stop until she put on a shirt. The interesting thing is
that I was walking down the street, barefoot, wearing only a swimsuit, in
the pouring rain, and I wasn't even cold! It was great.


And I forgot to tell you guys about Rebekah and Becca's teacher. His or her friend died from a drug trafficker. Isn't that sad? I hate to leave on a sad note. So I gotta say that I am just grateful I didn't have any problems with the drug people while I was in Mexico. Before I left, everyone was warning me and scaring me. I kept assuring them that the drug problems weren't happening in the Yucatan and especially not in Merida, but I guess I was wrong. Thank goodness I didn't have any problems bigger than sunburns and bug bites!

Home, Sweet Home

I'm in Houston, Texas right now. On my way home. It feels weird to be in the States again, if feels wonderful, but at the same time, I keep talking in Spanish to random people. I have so much to tell. I will start with 2 nights ago. I went over to the house of a girl in our group (her name is Lauren). Rebekah and I spent the night there. First we watched a Spanish drama movie. It was sad and cute. I went to the bathroom during the movie and guess what I saw? A moth the size of my hand. This is no exaggeration... pictures are on Facebook.

When bed time rolled around, we didn't really have a place to sleep. Lauren's roommate, Sarah wasn't home so I slept on her queen size bed. I really don't know her well enough to sleep with her but I didn't want to sleep on the floor because I was scared of bugs. Also, because I love to cuddle so much, I was afraid she would wake up in the morning with me spooning her or seat-belting her. Lauren kept telling me, "it's okay, she won't care!" but I wad super nervous. I guess I did a good job at telling my sub concience to keep to my corner of the bed because I woke up in the same spot.

Then last night (my last night in Mexico) I fell off my bed. I felt really stupid but my roommate said she never heard a thing.

The day before yesterday my roommate flushed her keychain down the toilet and then had to tell our mamá who called the plummer.

Ohhh, I never did tell you guys that I got to go to the Mérida temple. It's small, but very pretty.

Remember the parade I told you about? The small pueblo we went to and joined in their parade... well I didn't do a good job of describing just how it felt. My roommate said it very well. Just imagine a group of Asian tourists (with their fancy cameras and all) came to our city and joined in our 4th of July parade or something. Or even better, imagine that our neighborhood held a parade every year and a group of Asian touris showed up at it for to understand the culture of Californians better.

What I Expect Upon My Return

My life has changed while here in Mèxico... (by the way, sorry that a lot of my accents over letters are backwards, the Spanish keyboards are different). Okay, so, I wake up every morning and breakfast is ready for me. It sits on the table waiting for me. I get home from school and lunch is ready. The table is set and we all eat together. The dinner comes and again, the food is ready. On weekdays, the housekeeper, Reina, usually cooks, but when she´s not here, our mamà does it.

So, when I get home, I will wake up and wonder where my food is. I will get home and lunch should be ready at 2 p.m. And if I plan on not being home for dinner, then I should tell mom that I won`t be home.

Okay, not really. I won`t expect those things. But it`s interesting how different things will be.

Three days left!!! I`m excited to come home!

Dreaming in Mexico

Today was like a dream. At the beginning of the day, not so much. But by the time we get to the end of my day, you will think it was a dream... except it wasn't.

So first I woke up at 7 am... without trying (1st sign of a dream). I think I woke up early because I went to sleep early last night (2nd sign of a dream). Anyway, I forced myself back to sleep and woke up again at a more reasonable hour... 9:30. I had pancakes and mango for breakfast. After breakfast my mamá taught me how to make this delicious rice.

After that my roomie and I were super bored. We were thinking of going to el centro, but we've spent so much time there already. So we decided to make paper puppets of all our roommates. Then Lana (one of the roomies from Arizona) came in and helped us finish. Then we snuck onto the roof and did a show for the other 3 roommies in their window.

Then we went over to the house of some guys in our group to watch the world cup game of U.S. against England. It was a tie game.

The dreamy part of my day comes next. We met with our group to go to this little pueblo for our very last group excursion (5 days left!) When we got here (I say here, because we are here right now... I'm writing from my cell phone) we joined in the parade. It's this tiny little pueblo and we made up about one-fourth of their parade. Some of us just marched behind the band and others held candles or cloth poster things and walked with the people.

It was the weirdest thing ever. Seriously. We walked around waving to the croud (by croud I mean people looking out of their houses/huts). I was like, "why are we in the parade of some random Mexican town?" It was sooooo weird. It was absurd. I don't even know why the people allowed us in it. We just showed up in their town and joined in their parade. We marched around the block and into a church. Then I think I got sprinkled with holy water. Not sure.

Okay, I imagined this would sound better than it does. You kind of have to be here to understand. The point is that it was interesting.

Anyway, next I spent a good 10 minutes watching this group of ants trying to carry a dead tic into their hole. They couldn't fit the tic. He was too big.

And now I'm sitting on a rock writing in my blog. But I'm watching this little kid (maybe 4 years old) throwing some fruit as if it's a baseball. He's got a pretty good arm.

Okay, I just played baseball with the kid... Jesus is his name. He's 3 and is super chubby. He grabbed a plastic coke bottle and was the batter. I was the pitcher. We played for a good 10 minutes. But then I saw my group leaving so I had to go. Sad. He was cute and that was the first time I've played baseball in years.

Lastly, I also saw some monkeys and a goat. The monkeys were tied up next to a little circus tent. They were just lounging around. The goat was eating grass under an RV.

My point is that today was a strange day.

P.S. I'm so ready to come home. And now I'm on the bus going bacl to my Mexican casa. Soon, I will be home home. Los estados unidos home.

Tengo Celos

Okay, so I wrote about the cenotes last Saturday, but I never wrote about the rest of my weekend.

Friday was super fun. The Mexican mom of Kassie and Sarah (2 girls in our group) threw a birthday party for them. And it was like a BIRTHDAY party. It was so cool. There was a fountain, like a chocolate fountain, except it was of chinmoy (sp???) to dip vegetables in. There were also waiters that walked around and asked what you wanted to drink. And there was a dance floor. It was so much fun. They played tons of American songs like YMCA and Ice, Ice Baby and all the Mexicans stared at us U.S. kids and laughed at us. Then the Mexican songs would come on and the Mexicans would get up and dance with partners doing the Salsa all perfectly. Then back to the American songs and we all got up and jumped up and down (the American way of dancing). Yeah, they all thought we were crazy. And we are.

It's so funny. I've been to like 3 or 4 dances since I've been here and it's so interesting to see the way the Mexicans dance compared to us. They are so much better. And they always dance with a partner.

Okay, so then the next day everyone was totally dead since we were dancing all night. But the cenotes were so much fun and we all woke up when we realized how cool they were. That night I went to sleep imagining I would sleep well because I was soooo tired. But I woke up at 3 am to my poor roommate throwing up. And that is right when two of the other girls got home (the 2 from Arizona State University). They had just gotten home from a club and one was drunk. So they came in our room and hung out with my roommie and me. They held back Rebekah's hair as she threw up. We never found out what was wrong, but Rebekah was throwing up for 2 days. She thinks she drank the water in a cenote or something.

Anyway, I am SO happy I didn't get sick from her. I was super scared.

Okay, lastly I just want to say that I miss my family and my boyfriend SOOOOO much!

Chris is out doing fun stuff with his friends in Idaho. And my family is posting all these funny and fun things on facebook about how they all went to see The Karate Kid last night together. I'm jealous. Tengo celos.

My Mamá Mexicana

My mamá mexicana thinks I'm crazy. But she still loves me ha ha. I love her too, she is so funny. She talks and talks and loves to talk. And she loves to see movies and is so happy that us exchange students are here because she needs somebody to go see movies with. She won't take her husband because he doesn't know how to whisper (even though she answered her phone and whispered on it for 5 minutes in the middle of the past 2 movies I've seen with her). Ahh, she's soooo funny and crazy... but a good crazy.

Anyway, back to why she thinks I'm crazy. I asked her about superstitions (black cats, walking under a ladder, spilling the salt, etc.) just because I was curious if it was an American culture thing or if lots of cultures know of those same superstitions. She told me that some people believe them but that it's silly and there's no such thing. Well like 5 minutes later I spilled the salt and I put some over my shoulder. (Out of habit and maybe a little because of OCD). Anyway, she looked at me with a look that said, "what the freak are you doing you psycho face?!?!?!" And then she lectured me about how nothing bad will happen if I spill the salt and about how life depends on our choices and nothing more.

Last Call for Souvenirs!

Guess what tomorrow is??? Other than the 11th if June.

Yes, it is the World Cup! Everyone in Mexico is super excited and truth be told I'm kind of sad because I wanted to spend all day on the beach. But, the game starts at 9 AM so it looks like we will be going to the beach later in the day. Okay, so I will be watching soccer in the morning (a.k.a. reading a book) and the world will stop for a few hours as Mexico cheers for their team.

It's pretty cool that I get to be in Mexico while the world cup happens. It's a big cultural experience. It would be like one of the frenchies being at the Mugar house for the Super Bowl.

Okay, people, I will be home in exactly ONE WEEK from today. If you want A specific souvenir, you better tell me fast. I've shopped enough for the nextt year. I'm so sick of it. So I won't be doing anymore unless I have to :)

Los Tres Cenotes

This past weekend my group went to three cenotes. Oh my gosh, they were amazing! And they didn't have annoying, tiny, creepy fish swimming too close for comfort.

First we got on these little buggy things ("trucks" they called them, with their nice little accents). The trucks fit 5 people each, plus the driver and they were homemade. Not sure how sturdy they were, but I'm still alive! A skinny horse pulled each truck attatched to the mini tracks.

When we got to each cenote the horses stopped. Each cenote was in a cave. The water is perfectly blue and clear and it's the perfect temperature to cool you down in the Yucatán heat. When we got to the 1st one we had to climb some ghetto stairs to get into the cave. But it was worth it.

But then when we got to the 2nd cenote, I was thinking that the first cenote's stairs weren't ghetto at all. For the 2nd ones you had to sit on a step and make your body flat just to get inside the cave.

Then we got to the 3rd cenote/cave and I was thinking "where is it?" I didn't see any holes in the ground or stairs or any sign of anything but dirt. But then we walked over to this hole in the ground that was about 3 feet across. The bottom of the hole was black. Black as in I saw no sign of water and no sign that the hole even had a bottom. Leading into the blackness was a homemade ladder with some nails holding it to the side of the hole. "Ummmmm, we're going down there?" I asked. What the heck! I'm in Mexico! Holy crap, it was scary.

Anyway, when I got to the bottom I couldn't see anything so I just felt around till I found the water. Finally my eyes adjusted and I'm glad I went. It was so beautiful!

When we got back to the place where our bus was waiting for us we all got on the bus to go home. As we were driving out of this little pueblo, I noticed one of the kids in our group, running next to the bus waving his arms. Ha ha ha! We almost left without him.

I`m Mexican

I was in el centro doing some shopping and this lady who worked at the store asked me what pueblo (small Mexican town) I was from. I was like, "Ummm, I`m live in the United States... California." Then we started talking about what I was doing here in Merida and I told her I was going to school and then she asked me what pueblo my parents were from. And I told her they are from California too. And she was like, "Oh, you`re not Mexican?" Haha, it was awesome!

Worst Bathroom Experience of My Life

¡Hola! There is exactly 2 more weeks left for me in Mexico. It's so bitter sweet. I miss my family and am excited to come home, but I love Mexico and need to learn more español. But, since it is what it is. I am happy to be coming home.




Last weekend on Friday we went to a city called Izamal. Almost all the buildings there are yellow. Weird, huh? Well anyway, I was grumpy for the first hour or so there because I had the worst bathroom experience of my life. The only thing that would have been worse is if I had to throw up or go diarrhea. Anyway, so I went to the bathroom... well, before that I paid 3 pesos to use it. And I had to grab some toilet paper that was sitting on a dirty table outside the bathroom (I probably have an STD now). Then I walked into the bathroom and then ran back out when I saw a ginormous cockroach just chillin' in the middle of the floor. I didn't want to use the bathroom anymore but I couldn't get my money back and the guy I asked to kill the bug said no. Rude. So my roommate helped me get past the bug. Finally I got to the toilets, where there were no seats. I don't mean toilet seat covers, I mean seats. The toilets were man toilets. So I squatted and peed, not wanting to touch my booty to the cold, dirty non-seat. Next was the washing of my hands. I was excited to wash my hands... but what do I find? Bar soap. Dirty, nasty bar soap that at least 100 nasty hands have touched. And so the grumpiness began.



Thankfully I have an awesome roommate, Alyssa, who cheered me up and we had tons of fun.



Okay, back to where we were before the bathroom. In a little town called Izamal. In the middle of this town is this big nunnery... you know? A place where nuns live. It's been there since like the 1500s or something crazy like that. After that we went to some more Mayan ruins. These ones were tiny, and right smack dab in the middle of a town.



The next day we went to a hacienda that has a living museum. We got to look at this really old Spanish house and see the machines they used in the early 1900s to make fiber/string out of these cactus plants that grow in the area. I also found out that a Jamaica flower is actually a hibiscus flower. I drink Jamaica juice all the time here, so I've been drinking hibiscus flower juice for the past 5 weeks.



Then, after the hacienda we got on these carts and donkeys pulled us to this cave where there was a cenote (natural pool) inside of the cave. Holy crap! It was so beautiful. Yes, I swam in this one because the fish didn't come close to us. The water was clear with just a hole in the roof for light. There were bats all over the ceiling and it was an awesome experience.