Sights and Sounds :)

Aguascalientes is such a beautiful city. The architecture on some of the buildings is so amazing. The styles are way different than home too, lots of bright colors and different shapes. There´s this beautiful park that has a large gazebo in the middle, and there´s flowers of every color everywhere it´s so gorgeous. There´s lots of fountains with benches around them for sitting at. There´s also like a big Roman Catholic church on every corner it seems. The area where I´m staying is very modern I kind of expected people to be living in grass huts :) However most people live in a regular mexican house. If you go to a different section of Aguascalientes there´s a mall, Wal-mart, Costco so things are quite Americanized. Where I am though there´s lots of little corner stores, and little shops. On every street there´s lots of venders with carts on the streets selling fruit, or coconut milk, some will sell stuff they´ve made. The town can be a really noisy place it´s quite a bit different then home. Taxis drive by like every 30 seconds and if they´re free they´ll honk their horn so there´s lots of honking. And there´s these certain trucks I dont know what they´re used for but they have a speaker on top of the roof that plays this really annoying lady singing. The city also kind of reminds me of disneyland you often will see people working for the city with their cart that has a garbage and a broom and they´ll be cleaning the streets. That´s a lot diferent than home there´s not much litter on the streets at all. The nights can be really different here too. Erin was telling me that most people dont have really big houses, a lot of them dont have tvs or anything like that. So at night the streets are full of people. They´ll be walking, or sitting in front of their houses talking. I´ve walked downtown a number of times in the evening and you always feel so safe because there just hords of people everywhere. There´s also police everywhere, at like every mall and when you´re walking down the street you usually dont go longer than a minute before seeing a police in their car or on a bike or motorcycle. Every Sunday night one street over from the casa (the orphanage) there´s this huge party. There´s fireworks and music and dancing, the fireworks this past Sunday went off right over the casa I could see them through the tarp, so Sunday evenings are always a bit noisy. For the most part people dress the same here as they do at home, minus the winter jackets :) I have noticed they will wear brighter colors but for the most part they way they dress is very American.

I wish I spoke Spanish...

This is a funny story now, but it wasn´t very funny on Friday when it happened. So everyday I walk the kids to and from school, I only have three that go to the school I walk to. On Friday I went to go pick the kids up and I couldn´t find Marco Chico anywhere, his classroom was shutdown his teacher wasnt there, so I was kinda freaking out. I made Lolis and Adrian run as fast as we could the whole way back to the orphanage. In the end they figured he must have had a field trip but we didn´t know what time to pick him up. The school phoned at like 1:30 and said that Marco had been waiting for half an hour for someone to pick him up. The other moms must´ve know what time to pick up the kids after their field trip but I must´ve totally missed the teacher telling us. So I make my way back to the school where Marco is the only one left along with the principal. So I go to the principal´s office and she´s waving at me frantically and saying something in Spanish so I thought she was getting mad at me for being late. Turns out she was only trying to tell me that I was standing in wet paint. Now I have a lovely shade of pink on the bottom of my flip flops. :) The rest of the weekend was really good. Saturday night Jessy (my room mate and a mexican volunteer) and Olga (one of the girls that lives at the orphanage she´s the same age as me though) went downtown shopping for the night. That was really fun and Jessy pointed out some stores that had some cool jewlery and stuff. So I´ll have to go back there. I made one purchase, a tanktop that I´ve been eyeing for a couple days. And that took the last of my money I brought here to last my whole trip. Oops :) So I had to make a trip to the ATM today and take out more, and the ATMs are in English too! Then yesterday church was really busy because there´s a family from BC and a team from Ohio working at the worksite. Which meant that the church service was in English which was a nice change from last week :) The team took the kids to the park and I went for a little while and then went for a walk on my own to take advantage of the peace and quiet. Last night Aaron and I took the kids downtown for icecream and to walk around. That was pretty neat, I got to see some of town that I hadnt seen yet. We walked for a loooong time though my legs were a bit sore this morning :)

Two Weeks!!!

I can not believe Ive been here two weeks, it´s going by way too fast already. I´m getting more comfortable walking around and doing some shopping. I absoloutly love going to the market, it´s so awesome. I´ve bought a few things the language is still quite the barrier but I seem to manage ok. I don´t think anyone´s tried to rip me off yet :) Yesterday was a holiday so all the kids were home, they went to the park in the afternoon I went for awhile but wasn´t feeling really good. The weather continues to be hot hot hot, it´s really nice because I hear it´s quite cold at home :P The sermon this Sunday was all in Spanish so I didn´t understand any of it, that´s something I´m definitely missing from home.

The Weekend

I had an awesome weekend here at the orphanage. The kids were all gone saturday for most of the day. I took the opportunity to explore the town, I took my camera with and took lots of pictures. The architecture out here is just so amazing, and there´s huge churches on like every block. It was nice to explore a bit and see where everything was I did a lot of browsing in the shops and stopped at a cafe for a frap. I think I was out for about 5 hours and didnt think to put sunscreen on so that night I was quite red but I dont appear to have burned so phew! Sunday was also a nice relaxing day, I slept in a bit and then church started at 12. There was praise and worship, sunday school and then a short message. It was really nice because the guy doing the message and leading the sunday school I was in did it in Spanish and English. I´m told it won´t be like that every week but it was definitely nice for my first time. It´s hard to believe I´ve already been here a week and a half, the time is already going by too fast. :)

Getting used to the culture....

So i´m not sure if I´ll ever make it back to Canada alive because I keep forgetting that pedestrians dont have the right of way so I always start walking and then almost get run over :) Mexican drivers won´t stop for anything. There´s also this crazy traffic circle that has ELEVEN openings it´s super crazy. I have to say I like running on Mexican time, I can run late all the time, just like home. I´m having this food issue, for some reason I just cant eat beans or potatoes or soup for breakfast, so usually I dont eat breakfast and depending what lunch looks like I dont always eat that either, I have this huge box of granola bars in my suitcase which I´m making good use of. Suppers are usually pretty good they don´t eat supper till 7, last night we had this potato and hot dog stew which was actually pretty tasty. Fruit is sooooo cheap here, so I´ve been eating a lot of htat yesterday and today, its just a bit frustrating to buy it because I dont understand Spanish at all so I have no idea how much it costs. My schedule for next week will change a bit because Jeremy and Ana are gone for the week so I have to take over Ana´s class which is four of the older boys, just from 2 till 4 in the afternoon, but it again can be challenging because we don´t understand eachother, I think I´ll have to act out there homework or something. The two little girls in my room have been trying to teach me some spanish so I now know, open the door please, 1-5, you´re hair looks beautiful, and all the things on my face. They had lots of fun last night listening to my ipod and teaching me words. A lot of the kids have problems pronouncing my name, I don´t think sh is something in the Mexican language, so alot of them have been calling me Ally. :)

First day on the worksite

Last night I went to a cafe with Skip, Erin and Laura and it was a really nice decorated stuff and had two pool tables. It was really nice to have some good coffee, and we got sandwiches as well, so yesterday I didn´t end up eating ANY mexican food. Today I went to the worksite for the first time, it´s so big and awesome, I´m sure the kids will be so excited to move in there. I spent the day painting one of the rooms. At lunch we had some spagetti, and then Laura and I went to a market just around the corner where i bought a huge pineapple for only 16 pesos which is like $1.60 cdn. Everything here is so super cheap, the internet is only 50 cents cdn for half an hour and same with the bus to take me from the orphanage to the worksite. Its super hot today so i think I might go to one of the stores on my way back and find some cold water.

I´m here!

So i made it in one piece. YAY. my first two days have been quite overwhelming lots of people to meet, and the language barrier is more frustrating then i thought it would be. Hopefully that´ll get better as i understand more. I´m staying in a room with Jessy one of the Mexican volunteers and she´s about my age. Then also in our room we have Lolisse who´s 5 and Sara who´s 3 I´m not sure if I spelled their names right, they´re so cute. And our room is pink, like really really pink, and I got the minnie mouse bed spread. :) Yesterday I didnt do too much just played with the kids a lot, then today we figured out what my routine will be, so every morning at 9 i have to walk 3 kindergarten children to school, then when i get back to the orphange i have to clean the two fridges, which this morning took me i think at least 2 hours cuz they were pretty gross. AT about 10:30 I´m supposed to help the younger boys with their English homework. At 12 I have to go pick up those 3 kids again from school. the afternoons I think I´ll just help with whatever needs to get done, or like today take some time for myself. Then on Thursdays for now I´ll be working on the construction site. So a little bit of everything it´s really nice. Also I´ve killed 5 cockroaches and seen one dead and dried mouse, I guess that´s part of the experience right?

Texas Airport

The airport in Texas is HUGE!!! i had to take a train to get from one terminal to the next. And I'm not sure they know the meaning of eating healthy out here, the only restaurants are fast food or burger joints, I managed to find some bbq chicken and corn on the cob which was quite tasty. Texas is also a very ugly state to look at from the plane it's all brown and bla and yucky, nothing like taking off from Vancouver the mountains were AMAZING and snowy and it was so beautiful. Anyways I still have a two and a half hour flight after I leave here but I dont take off for a couple hours yet, I should arrive in Aguascalientes at 8;30 their time I'm hoping some of the kids will still be awake, otherwise I'm sure I'll get to see them tomorrow :)

I'm leaving on a jet plane :)

AHHHHHHHHHH i'm totally leaving my house in 6 hours and it's so crazy I can't believe it's finally here! :) I don't think its totally sunk in that I'm going yet though, I just had all my friends over and said my good byes but I still kind of feel like I'll see them later this week :) And once again I've used my procrastination to the fullest and I'm just packing my bags... oops :) My mom got this journal and I think everyone I know wrote in it and I get to read it when I get to Mexico so I'm really looking forward to that, and it's so hard not to peek at it before :) Anywhos I should pack and catch some zzzzs or I'll be one grouchy mexican :P