Final Week

All I have to do is get through today, wednesday, and thursday. I CAN DO THIS!!!!! Now if only my stomach would feel better...all this would be ALOT easier.



Can't wait to see all my family and friends at the wedding of the summer. Congrats (in advance) to Gentry and Alli!!


Love, saltine crackers, and pepto,

Amy

Week 3...yeah...the whole week.

Well. I'm alive. Thank Jesus. I was really sick this week. I started feeling bad on Saturday night (a week ago tonight) and FINALLY was semi better yesterday. Hopefully by the time my mom reads this, my dad will have already told her. But I was in the hospital from wednesday morning til Friday morning. I felt so bad they had to take me to the hospital and put me on an IV to get my antibiotic in me and to get some fluids in me. It was a very very rough week. And unfortunately I missed all my classes this week.

But luckily, I was able to get all my assignments from a friend and I was able to work a little at home on stuff...(tonight and tomorrow will be dedicated to homework-finishing essays and presentations) Since it's my last week here!!(I'll get to that excitement soon).

So yeah, I was in the hospital all day wednesday and all day thursday even until friday morning. The good part about it was being able to watch sweet shows on tv (Will and grace, everybody loves raymond, friends, csi, FELICITY-yeah, that's right, felicity). And I got an IV with my meds so I didnt have to worry about throwing them up! And the bed was way comfy. Overall, a bad experience(being in the hospital rather than in class) but i made it good. They were really nice and helpful...(for $800 they better have been!).

But, now im out and it's my last weekend here. I went out to dinner with friends last night but that drained me and I had to come in early. Then today we went to El Museo de las Momias (Mummy museum). It was....kinda creepy, but also kinda cool to see a bunch of preserved bodies. Still creepy though. Then we went to the Mega (their mall) to see ECLIPSE!!! Because I still hadn't seen it yet!! It was soooooo good. Team Jacob. K, I'm done. But really, it was good. and it was in English! Yay. And we got to eat subway. yum yum.

Now I'm just at home gonna work on a presentation and hopefully skype with Kimberlee Hauss(who has been out of my life for weeeeeks) and also just rest.

Here's some pictures that are from a while back that I never posted.









And....me in the hospital:

Sick

Hi everyone.

I have a lot of pictures to post and things to catch y'all up on but I am currently very sick :( I've been feeling awful since Saturday night. It's no fun and i've barely eaten.

I would greatly appreciate your prayers right now that I can get well and be able to go to class again. I can't hardly keep any food down. I'll post again once I'm feeling better.

Y'all are the best, thanks for praying!

Love and...Jello,

Amy

Days 10-12: Tarea, tarea, mas tarea

It's currently Wednesday and I am laying in bed relaxing after eating a MASSIVE plate of spaghetti...or Espaghetti, as they say here. It was delicious. Well, this week has been good so far. Monday class was very difficult, because we started a new grammar lesson on Subjunctive- my least favorite part of Spanish! haha. But i made it through it. Good news: out of my whole class I'm the only one who got 100 on our first quiz. My professor said he was very impressed- which is good, but it also means I got keep up the hard work and not slack off!

On a not so fun note, I've had more tarea (homework) lately. I have an essay due Friday (which I've already completed!) and a group presentation Friday as well (which I'm going to work on tonight!). So, the last two nights I just stayed in and worked on homework/relaxed. It's been good.

I found out yesterday that I actually am going to have to take my clothes to the lavanderia instead of her being able to wash them here, but I think it'll be cheaper that way anyways, and they fold all your stuff up so cute!

Let's see...what else has been going on? OH! Today in conversation class, some students from Mexico that are learning English came to visit. So we spent half of the class practicing our Spanish with them and the other half helping them with their English. They were horrible at English, haha which is im sure how they felt about my Spanish! But maybe not, since they were beginner English and I am advanced. It was a really cool experience though! And fun to meet Mexican students our same age.

how about I list the top ten things from home I am missing and yall can enjoy them these next few weeks on behalf of me? K great. Here they are, just like David Letterman show: TOP TEN THINGS FROM THE U.S AMY HOLDEN MISSES WHILE ABROAD:(excluding people and pets (aka Leo).

1.Moe's (come on, y'all HAD to know this would be first)
2.Chick f la spicy chicken sandwich
3.Sushi
4.Driving a car
5.Bachelorette/Pretty Little Liars
6.Target
7.My own bed
8.First Evan
9.Sweat tea
10.people laughing at my jokes

Te amo todos de mis amigos!! See you all semi soon at the glorious wedding festivities of Allison Kirby Gaines and Gentry Kyle Hill. CANNOT WAIT!!!! Hope my dress fits, and if it doesn't I hope it's because I've gotten skinny from walking up these darn hills all day.

Love and Tortillas (and spaghetti?),

Amy

Days 7-9: Salsa, Jesus, and Cards

Hola! Weird title combo? Possibly. Fitting for my weekend? Yes.

My first week in GTO (Guanajuato) is complete! Which is good. And since my first week is complete, that means I have completed my first weekend as well. And it was definitely fun! Friday night I went out in el centro with Lori, Abby, Cassie, Allysha, and Trish. It was alot of fun!!! We went to dinner at a place called El Abue- it's recommended by the New York Times as one of the best restaurants in GTO. And my meal only cost $7. Yeah- it was legit AND cheap. Alright alright. Then we went to Bar Fly- kinda lame, but fun to talk with everyone. Then (this was my favorite part of the night), we went SALSA DANCING! At this place called "El Bar"- most creative name ever by the way. It was so much fun. The four of us (me, abby, cassie, and lori) are sitting there talking and all of a sudden this huge tall mexican man just walks up to Cassie and says "baile?". So she just got up without thinking and starting dancing with him and didnt stop the whole night!! Me and Abby were dying laughing. We kept an eye on her to make sure he was being a gentleman- and he was! Then Lori got asked to dance. Which makes sense. Lori and Cassie are both half mexican. But me and Abby are EXTREMELY white...therefore we assumed we would not get any invitation...

HA. Next thing I know our WAITER asks me to dance. I look at Abby as if to say "Seriously?SHould I? (all hesitant). and she just gives me a look like "duh." Next thing I know I'm salsa dancing in Mexico with some random waiter. It was so fun though! He taught me alot of things and I had a good time. We didn't stay out too too late because we had an early morning but it was such a good first weekend night!! Here's some highlights of that night:





On Saturday, we took out first excursion to "Cristo el Rey"- basically a massive statue of Jesus Christ that overlooked the whole city! The biggest statue of Christ ever made is located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras- and luckily I saw that last summer. Blessed to have been able to travel to great places...with jesus statues! It also provided a BEAUTIFUL view of the city- we were basically level with the clouds. Which made me want to jump on them (which I realize is impossible). Here's what it looked like:





Nearly exhausted, we decided we couldn't handle salsa dancing saturday night we instead we played cards and drank cappucinos with two guys on the trip (married ones ha) Greg and Mark. It was a chill night and alot of fun. They are fun guys to talk to!! Mi primer fin de semana fue tan bueno y divertido! I can't wait for what's to come. I'm having a great time and really improving my Spanish!

Well, now Im about to skype with K. Mole then S. Chandler then K. Hauss hopefully. That's a pretty strong line-up. No weak players there. Ha. Oh, and I'm drinking hot tea....mmm warms my belly and my heart.

Well, that's all for now! Hasta luego

Love and Tortillas,

Amy

Day 5: Siesta, Te, y LASAGNA!!!!!

Hola todos mis amigos!!!

I almost just starting typing this whole post in Spanish, that would have been interesting to see y'all try and understand it (minus my Spanish-pro friends: Alli, Kimberlee, Aunt Susie, and... Mole (ish).

Today was a gooooood day. Filled with...not too much- which made it good :) Class was long but manageable. I am getting much more confident in my conversation skills and since my classes are advanced, there aren't too many people in them (only 10) because most students are taking beginner or intermediate. After class I stopped by the Atm to withdraw some money. Hopefully it'll be my last time to take out money- i'm really trying to budget while I'm here but since everything's so darn cheap it makes me feel like I can buy everything.... :) But I won't.

Well yesterday we visited this famous monument que se llama la "Pepila". It's famous in Guanajuato because it symbolizes Mexican Independence and the men that fought to make that happen. It was pretty awesome. And the weather was perfect. Naturally me and Abby Nolen got a sweet picture of us acting like warriors in front of Pepila. I'll post pictures sometime soon hopefully of that trip.

Side note: I'm sitting in the den right now updating this and I was watching some CSI in ENGLISH! with spanish subtitles (shout out to mi mama American- MOM THAT'S YOU). Anyways, all of a sudden mi mama Mexicana walks up and asks if she can change the channel to watch a Mexican romantic novel...haha. So i'm currently watching that with her. Strange.

Anyways, so today was good, like I said. Mainly because we had the best LASAGNA ever for lunch- and lasagna is not normal for mexico, if you didn't know. It was gooood. Then I took a siesta for about 2 hours :) Then got to skype with my rents for an hour and I'll get to skype with Shawn tonight!

I ended the night by eating chess by and drinking hot tea with Erica, Pancho, and Elaina(the girl from Chicago that lives upstairs). Hot tea makes everything better(especially my stomach!)

Here's some pictures from the past days of my room, Leo in my suitcase (ha), and my reaction to my first experience with Mexican cerveza:








Thanks to all who read! It makes me feel like y'all with me.Trust me, if I could I'd fly you all out here!!!!

Love and Tortillas (and Lasagna),

Amy

Day 3 (as promised)- First Day of Classes

Remember my first day here how sad I was and how miserable I described it? It's much better now. Thanks for all of the prayers and for thinking about me while I'm gone. I have the best friends/family ever. Things have gotten so much better!

Though it's currently Tuesday, this post is about Monday-my first day of class! I am taking 4 classes while I'm here, which is sort of alot but they are only an hour each, which makes it better:

Gramatica, conversacion, literatura, y historia

I like all of my professors...well almost all. Ha...

My grammar teacher, Martin, rocks. He's hysterical and is actually making el subjunctivo (this really difficult grammar lesson that is imperative for Spanish but doesn't exist in the English language) kinda fun!

My conversation teacher, the only female (professora) that I have, is really awesome too! She is very animated and makes us speak in class so i think it'll definitely give me confidence!

My literature teacher is also really great. He is very passionate about the subject, which makes it more interesting. All of the authors we will be covering over the month are ones that I have studied in my classes back home in the university. I'm really excited about learning more about them though!

And lastly...Ignacio. My history teacher...oh Ignacio. Well, A of all, he has a sweet beard and is as thin as a pencil. B of all, he mumbles like crazy and therefore I (along with the rest of the class) cannot understand much of what her says!!! C of all...it's history, which is boring anyways. But alas, I'll push through it. I usually just laugh whenever he laughs. That seems to work pretty well.

So those are my teachers/classes. I have school from 9-1 (monday and friday) and til 2 on tues, wed, thurs for museum visits and Mexican culture class. and then i go home for lunch at 3!!! (this late lunch is killing me...not something I wanna get used to!)

Things with my host home are great stilL! I've seen alot more of the girls who live above me. They are nice and we are able to practice our Spanish together. Kelsey, the girl from Louisville who lives above me, has class at the same time as me and we walk to La Universidad de Guanajuato together. That's about it for day 3 in the city. I'm planning on staying in the house tonight to rest, read, do homework, ans skype with some friends, so I'll most likely update tonight as well about Day 4( today- tuesday).

P.S i tried to post some pictures, but im not sure if it's working..i'll try again later i suppose...

Love and Tortillas--which i had for lunch :),

Amy

Day 3- Preview

Hola!! It's 11:30 and I should be getting to bed so I'm only updating to say: stay tuned for tomorrow when I will tell y'all about my first day of classes and more! It's currently raining, which means i will sleep well. Why you ask? When it rains at night, the men who love to play guitar and sing late into the night in my neighborhood and keep me up...can't! So I will fall asleep to the rain rather than la musica mexicana.

I'll update tomorrow when I have time! I have pictures to share as well so check back later!

Love and Tortillas,

Amy

Day 2( technically day 1 in the city)

Well. I made it safe and sound....well.. not necessarily sound. I'm going to be honest. This isn't fun. I imagined my first post in this great city to be about how amazing everything is and how I never want to come home and how I am overjoyed to be here...it's pretty much opposite. And I almost wanted to lie and say that it was great so I could have a cool adventure. But here I am confessing that I'm A of all: a big baby who apparently isn't as independent as she thought, B of all: THAT girl that misses her boyfriend after only being gone one day (I guess I really like this kid).

I don't know why I thought I was more independent than I really am. I'm actually really insecure on my own and need people around me to support me and encourage me. I can't do this on my own! (and thank the Lord for that cause you know i'd mess it up if i tried). But I need way more than just the help of friends- I need the Lord to give me strength to be brave in a new situation and find the good in things. I so often forget about Him. Because I am so often consumed with other things that I place above Him. Encouragement from people close to me is great, but I can't rely fully on them to tell me to snap out of it and get a grip. The Lord reminds me that all the time- I just tend to push Him aside.

Whew. Breathe amy. There. That was my complaint/rant from day 1. It was hard. I cried, not gonna lie. But...I'm alive. And i haven't thrown up. And I haven't gotten on a plane to come home(tempting). I can do this. The Lord can help me do this.

Currently I am sitting in a yellow towel on my bed waiting for the shower to get warm. Though it probably never will. Mi mama just keeps saying "Yo no se...quizas esta roto?" (I don't know...maybe it's broken?). Ha. So we'll see if i get a shower tonight.

Now, let's here some positives:

-My host mom is the sweetest, though she doesn't speak a lick of English
-I ate a really really weird meat tonight( and y'all know how I am about meat) and didn't puke.
-I toured the city (in the rain..) and got a really good intro to what life is like here.
-sat in on a quincenera while we were waiting for the rain to pass. ha. I was the only one there who didn't cross my chest and face in a catholic manner.
- the shower eventually got warm by the way-such a blessing.
-I ended the night by reading "To Kill a Mocking Bird". My house mom brought me tea por mi estomago. She said it would make me feel better :)
-I talked with Allysha the director about my lonesome-ness and we are meeting tomorrow to try and work something out.

Today ended well. It was a rough start but God is getting me through it. Prayers would be greatly appreciated!! Tomorrow (sunday) we have a free day and then we start classes monday morning!

Love and Tortillas, (Ruth Minor- the ever so sweet positive influence in my life told me that tortillas is less offensive, and probablly more true, than tequila.)

Amy