Back to Nashville, Mahomet, and back again

Hello all! I figure I should write an update about my life since Mexico. Not as fun, but hey, I'm back!! :)

First of all, Belmont went to the NCAA tournament... definitely motivation for me to follow basketball again! (Above is a picture of all the Belmont students in the Student Center watching the game against UCLA) I haven't for about 2 years or so, (and even before then, I still wasn't sports knowledgable) so I'm attempting to learn more about sports, especially basketball. For me at least, College Basketball is super fun to watch. And I'd like to follow other sports as well. So, bear with me while I pretend to know what I'm talking about. :)

And then of course, there is getting back to school and work and just all the "little things" there are to do! Life gets so busy so quickly!! But, I have been experimenting a little in the kitchen and teaching myself to cook, so that's exciting!! And look! I even have a photo of me making corn tortilla tacos! :) (this was also taken for a class... haha:)


And of course, Rhonda Polzin (friend from high school) and Josh Young got married this weekend. I can't help but think I'm way too young for my friends to be getting married! :) Shoot, I've never been this far away from getting married before... haha :) But, it's SOO great to get to see friends from home and such. I have a feeling these weddings are going to start to become more frequent. Well, seriously, I'm helping to plan my friend Samantha's (from Belmont) wedding shower that we're going to have in a few weeks. So, this is getting crazy!! But, fun!!

(Here is a picture of me and some of my BEAutiful friends from high school from the wedding... as you can see, two of them were bridesmaids:)




And of course, since I'm graduating in a year (AHHH!!!) I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I want to do after graduation! And I think I might have decided on graduate school (at least for now). I would LOVE to go to seminary and study missions. But, I really would love to study more Spanish. So, if you've heard of a school that combines the two, let me know. ;) I'm still looking into it!
Well, that's it for now. Nothing too deep, just a simple update!

¡¡México!!

Well... I went to Puebla, Mexico to visit Erin Snyder for Spring Break and it was AWESOME!!! It will be impossible to summarize it on here... so I thought I would let the pictures do the talking. :) (And by the way... the captions are BENEATH the pictures... :)
Here is me and Erin at the bus station in Cuernavaca. We got up at 5:45 that morning to make it to the bus on time... before finding out the bus was full and ended up going to Cuernavaca instead of Oxaca. The weekend was an adventure for both of us! :)

Here we are at Hernando Cortez's palace. It's now a museum!


At the palace there is a mural done by Diego Rivera. It shows a history of how the "conquistadores" came in and took over the indiginous people.

This is the Borda Garden. When Maximillian ruled it was his garden.


These were the public bathrooms... look how low the stall doors are!! It would have been awkward if there had been people that we didn't know in there! :)


There is Erin on the Great Piramid at Xochicalco. (an ancient ruin site of the Aztecs)


This is out of order... but had to be included! Our toilet broke in our hostel... and Erin was brave enough to try to fix it!! (Javier ended up having to come in and fix it... haha :)


At the museum at Xochicalco... Erin is doing a great impression of this statue of a cat!!


That's the ruins of Xochicalco in the background!


Here I am with the ruins!! It was SOOO huge and amazing and ancient to me! I recommend that you go sometime. :)


Erin is on the "Juego de Pelota" field!


We're eating elote on the bus!! Elote is corn on the cob with mayonnaise and cheese and pepper... You should try it sometime!! :)


This is at the University where Erin is studying!


In Cholula (the city where Erin lives) there are tunnels underneath the giant pyramid ruins. It was so amazing to look around and think about all the indiginous people that had walked in there and to consider what they had done there.


This is the pyramid ruins in Cholula (above the tunnels) and the church on top of the mountain that the Spanish built when they came.


Here I am with the city of Puebla in the background!

This is the volcano Popo... and it's smoking!

I swear... we originally took this picture because the volcano was in the background.... just look at these beautiful faces. ;0

This is our nice picture. And you really can see the volcano. :)

We just started laughing and couldn't stop!

This is a basketball game at UDLA... the University where Erin goes... we lost by 3 points at the last minute. :(

When we went into Puebla we went shoe shopping!! Doesn't she look cute? :)

Here I am in front of a mariachi band on the street! And when I gave them money they gave me a sucker! :)

In the marketplace they sell cactus to eat!! So... here it is! :)

This is the night we went out "salsa dancing". But really... there was no one out and we ended up coming home early... haha... I guess I don't change no matter what country I'm in!

Erin with her fajitas... wow... I already miss Mexican food!

Here is Erin in front of an old church with flowers on the stairs! (Probably from a religious festival that we're not familiar with!!)



Well... theres's the summary! My recommendation is that every one go to Mexico!! The people are great... I love the language... and the food is WAY better there than here! (Even though Dos Reales is good;) Feel free to ask me questions when you see me... I'm sure I'd love to talk to you about it... heh:)

México

¡¡La UDLA!!! A mí me encanta La UDLA. Es una universidad muy preciosa y también quiero regresar aquí en el futuro. ¡Porsupuesto, la comida es excellente! ;) Pues, escribiré más, más tarde cuando hay más tiempo, como mañana o quizás domingo. ¡Chau!