comida: its a love/hate relationship

Today: Carly and I walk into the dinning room for comida (aka food aka lunch). Its the biggest meal here in Mexico. We find not one but two hamburgers on our plates, lemonade, french fries and spaghetti. Our Mexican Mama constantly over feeds us. It doesn't matter how many times that I tell her that I don't want to eat that much. Here you have to finish everything that is put on your plate. Everything. When we don't come home to eat...they have food waiting for us. Last Thursday night, we didn't eat. So instead of eating we just sat at with the family at the table. They were so worried about us. They thought that we were anorexic. The next morning, Mama made us our normal breakfast of fruit and OJ. She then brought out cereal and bananas because she was so worried because we didn't eat the night the night before. I poured a small bowl of dry cereal to be polite. Then Papa brought us a surprise. Tamales. While no one was looking, I poured my cereal back in the box. Basically when I get back I will be fat. Thank you Mexico!

and the Gimmie goes to....

Today we did mock award between all of the teachers at American food night (Which was amazing--mashed potatoes, lemon pepper chicken and steamed veggies) I was voted the following:

• Richest (Tied with the other Lauren)
• Most likely to stay in touch (With Carly Laga)
• Most likely to marry a Mexican
• Most likely to come back and live in Mexico
• Most likely to be famous
• Cutest Mom Clothes
• Spend the Most Money in Mexico

mole and chocolate

For the weekend, Carly Tai, Emily, Lauren and I headed off to Oaxaca for a weekend. We took a midnight from Puebla and arrived in Oaxaca at four in the morning. After trying to sleep in the bus station for awhile, we decided to head to our hostel with the hope that the owner would lets us in early. He did. Our hostel was awesome. The guy was super nice and thought that I spoke fluent Spanish. I loved going to Oaxaca...it gave me a huge confident boast with my Spanish. I was able to handle all of the problems that arose. I booked the hostel for the wrong day, forgot our bus tickets, etc. I was able to deal with it all! After sleeping for a few hours at the hostel we went to the Oaxaca Temple. It was wonderful. It looks just like the Detroit Temple. When I was doing baptisms, I had this overwhelming feeling of being at home. It was perfect. We spent the rest of the day shopping. We hit up the largest market in Mexico. They says if you can't find it in Oaxaca, you don't need it. I had a freak out. I tried to pull money of my account, but the bus company overcharged me $500, so I had no money the rest of the trip. Lucky I had already paid for my hostel and my bus ticket home. Carly Tai lent me money so I could eat the rest of the time we where in Oaxaca. That night we went to an ethnic dance show...boring. Emily and I ended up leaving it early and wondered around the Zocalo. There was a random parade and this guys danced up on us. He was dressed in a funky chicken outfit. On Sunday, we got up and went to the chocolate shop. Oaxaca is known for it chocolate. They melt it in milk or agua and then use a frother. I also bought mole. Mole is a traditional Mexican dish that contains chocolate, peanuts, chiles, etc. Every State has their own version of it. I don't like Puebla's black mole...but I loved Oaxaca's red mole. I'm excited for my family to try it. We spent that day in the Zocalo. We met a super nice lady and some cute little boys. We played with the boys for while. I pretended to throw them into the fountain and they loved it. They drew pictures for us. We ended up walking up this pretty cool street. We saw some cool building and churches. I ended up going into this really cool art gallery that was similar to Body Worlds but more artistic. In the end I loved Oaxaca.

Nacho Libre

I went to the Luchadora on Monday night...I liked it but never need to go back in my whole life. It was straight out of Nacho Libre. The arena was filled with smoke...love America for the no smoking rules. It was a family activity...people brought their kids and babies.

You look so HAPPY!

So on Sunday I went to another ward because two of the other teachers were singing. We arrived late and sat behind the missionaries. The whole time I was thinking that one of them looked exactly like Nick Taufer. He was a really good friend of mine during my Freshmen year. We where in the same ward during summer semester and lived in the same apartment complex during fall. He means the world to me. But I thought that he was serving his mission in Mexico City...not Puebla. I finally whispered "Elder Taufer, Elder Taufer." He turned around and had this look a surprise on his face. It was him! I was super excited to see him. Turns out he was accompanying Lauren and Emily. Afterward I got to talk to him for awhile. It was great to have a little taste of home in Mexico. I was leaving he turned to me and said "Lauren...you look so happy!" This made me even happier. I love this kid.

The Last Two Weeks

With being sick and all I've had the chance to write. As of now I'm 95% better. I ended up going to the hospital. It turns out that I have a intestinal and severe sinus infection. Lucky I had a docter that spoke English...a HUGE blessing. Here are the highlights of the past two weeks. Here is some of the happening over the past two weeks.

Tia's Birthday: Carly Laga's Mama had a Birthday. Its was tons of fun. We danced the night away and eat yummy food! They taught us Mexican line dances and we taught them the YMCA and the Cha-Cha slide. We also showed them typical American dance...they loved it.

Horse Show: We got VIP tickets to a horse show...I guess it was a big deal. Before we walked around and ate Hamburgers. The actual show was pretty boring. I tried to order a Vitamin Water and they brought me nasty salty lime water. It was gross. We ended up leaving early. We had to push start the Cav in the rain. It was an adventure.

Saturday Night: We went out with some boys, Emanuel, Moroni and Julio, in our ward. They speak English and are great friends. We went to the Center of Puebla and drank hot chocolate. They then brought us to this hill that over looks the whole city. Beautiful.

Sick: I was sick for a whole week. At first I thought that it was just a sinus infection so I just tried to sleep through it. But then I started throwing up, diarrhea, horrible headaches and a fever. I tried to teach on Tuesday but ended up throwing up in the middle of class. I thought that I had swine flu. I ended up going to the hospital. I had a intestinal and throat infection. I was put on four different medicines and all is well now. I was SOOOOO thankful for a bilingual doctor. At first I tried to act it out and us my broken Spanish. He then said to me "This would be easier if we did it in English." He even wrote my prescription in English.

YSA Dance: Went to another YSA dance and had tons of fun. More fun then the first one. I actually knew how to dance and held my own with my Spanish.

General Conference: Carly Laga and I spent the whole weekend in her room. We didn't spend more then 2 hours outside for two day. Conference was amazing...so was Mac and Cheese, Ice Cream and Candy. Carly wrote this on my Facebook wall "LJ: We have eaten nothing but junk these last two days, nor have we left our bedroom for more than 2 hours at a time. Together, within the last 24 hours, we've eaten 2 magnum bars, 2 twix bars, 1 snicker's bar (soon to be 2), 1 box of maccoroni and cheese, a bag of popcorn, a box of wheat thins, 3 bowls of cereal, nearly a package of grahm crackers, and 3 glasses of tamarindo. Outlook for tomorrow? RUNNING!" Our school into on Sunday. Our computer and MagicJack was stolen. Bummer.

Moroni and Julio's Soccer Game: The Carlys and I went to our friends' Moroni and Julio soccer game. Moroni is three inches shorter then me and was the biggest person on the field. Their team got a kick out of the three American girls there. Moroni's cousins are practicing their English for the game. Afterwards we went to a park and played soccer. I'm really bad. I mean really really bad.

I'm too lazy to post pictures here so if you want to see them check out Facebook or Picasa.