Oaxaca and Huatulco

The past week was mostly vacation. We had Wednesday to Friday off, as well as the weekend. Three of the teachers had been planning a vacation to the Oaxaca coast since before I arrived, and I was glad to go with them. I've been excited for a while now to swim in the Pacific for the first time and just relax on a beach, and I wasn't disappointed.
We left Wednesday morning at about seven, and so we mostly just slept through the three hour busride to Oaxaca. We checked into a hotel and explored a little, admiring the Spanish architecture from the outside, since most of the building required signing up for a tour which are only offered on certain days. If you are going to Oaxaca to see the buildings, I guess you just have to stay a long time or do a lot of research. We visited the zocalo as well, which is very much the same as every other zocalo.
In the end we spent most of our time in Oaxaca at the market, which is interesting to explore and inexpensive, and trying different restaurants, which were also not very spendy for how good and how much the food was. It was better to go a little distance from the zocalo to find fairly priced restaurants, but you don't have to go far. It isn't very hard to find restaurants that offer the traditional Oaxacan foods, including chocolate and grasshoppers.
The next day we took our eight hour busride on winding roads through some beautiful, mountainous country to Huatulco. Most of the ride had amazing views of the country, but there is a risk of motion sickness. I'm usually not affected by it, but even I felt it a little on this ride.

Mexico City

I had my first vacation two weeks ago, but I've procrastinated writing about it until now. We went to Mexico City for a three-day weekend, since we had Friday off. I had actually gone the week before, as well, to see off the last head teacher. While I was there the first time we ran into a guy named Emilio who was really helpful. He looks for tourists to show around so that he can practice his English. He doesn't charge anything for it, but does appreciate tips. He know the area very well and can take you to museums, ruins, restaurants, or even to where you can have some mariachis play you a song. He even helps you barter for souvenirs. I'll add his contact info later.
On my second trip the teachers and I went to probably the most usual places. We walked throught the National Palace, the Palacio de Belles Artes, and the ruins of Templo Mayor. We also took a bus out to Teotihuacan and climbed the Temple of the Sun. One thing we did that might not be so common was climb to the top of the Latinoamerica tower to look out over the city. We stayed up there until the sun set, then went to watch a movie at a nearby theater. A lot of the movies are in English with Spanish subtitles.
We probably could have gotten a lot more done, but we were all feeling very tired the whole time, and one of the teachers needed to be back Saturday night, so we all left with her. I'm not a big fan of really huge cities, and I think that one weekend in Mexico City was perfect for seeing the historical sights.

Someplace Warm This Time

I decided more travelling was in order this summer. I signed up for the Mexico program with ILP, so once again I am abroad and helping teach kids English. This time I am a head teacher, there are only four girls in my group, and it is really warm all the time. I am still the only guy, and I'm still having a great time.
Our school is in a little city called Tehuacan in the state of Puebla. It is a quaint, conservative little place, but still has most of the modern conveniences you could ask for. The people are very friendly when you know them. Strangers seem to be a little scared by me, most likely because I am white and a foot taller than anyone else. I love how decent the people here are. Despite the heat, the women dress much more modestly than those of Ukraine and Russia. Families are very important her, and include aunts, uncles, cousins, and even the white teachers. I have been able to attend parties with a few different families, and all the members are very close. The people here are also incredibly generous. If you tell them that you like something they have or are wearing, they might just give it to you without a second thought.
The food here is delicious. I was especting things to be too spicy for me, like the food some of my friends back home eat to show off, and that induces vomiting to any average person. It turns out that I can handle a lot more spice than most Mexicans, though. I get warnings all the time that things are hot, but I don't feel it much. I haven't run into anything that was distastefully spicy. The best part is that it's really cheap.
I've been able to do some travelling already, but I think I'll write about that in a different post.

Catch-up

It's been s few months since I wrote anything. We all finished well in Ukraine. The last weekend was a little crazy. A few of is even jumped off a bridge. On my way back to shore my shoes were stolen. I ended up going home the same day everyone else did, only on a different flight, so I was actually earlier than them.
Since we've been home our little group hasn't kept in touch very well. I guess everyone has just gotten back to their lives. I miss them, though. A few of us got together to go to Meagan's wedding. Jamie got married to her missionary, and her reception was the same day as Meagan's. We managed to see them both, even though one was in Idaho and the other was in Salt Lake City. It was good to see them again.
The summer flew by really fast. I went to Vernal for a week to stay with my sister and help her with her son who was born prematurely while I was in Ukraine. He was still on oxygen while I was there. Now he's as healthy as any baby could be. I visited the grave of my grandmother who passed away while I was gone. I wish I could have seen her again and said goodbye, but in the end there are no real goodbyes anyway. I'm sure that I'll see her again. I helped my little brother get his motorcycle running and used that to get around until I could get my car fixed. Now the motorcycle is having problems again.
I got a job with my old friend Casey at a new junior high school that they built while I was on my mission. It was a lot of fun working with him, and the schedule is easy and flexible enough that I can keep it and still have time to do all my schoolwork. In the summer I did all kinds of different jobs around the school, but now that school has started I mostly just clean the bathrooms. I can't say I really enjoy it that much, but it is symbolic for me to make something so dirty spotless every day. Then the next day it's filthy again and needs to be clean. I reminds me of our lives.
A lot of things have happened with my friends while I was gone. Casey is planning on marrying his girlfriend in April. Kyle got married not long after I got back from Ukraine, and now he has a job working with me, too. Kristy had her baby a few weeks ago. I still haven't had a chance to see him yet, but I'm proud of her. I was able to spend a little time with Deb before she went to California and then to England. I've seen Allen once since I got home, but only because his wife was out of town. I've done a few things with the missionaries I served with, but not a lot. Hopefully I'll get my social life going a little more now that I'm working less. For a few weeks I was doing two jobs.
I'm shooting for staight "A"s this semester. I need it to improve my GPA, and I want to prove to myself that I can do it. I've had a rough time in some classes, though. In history they just happen to have a quiz every single time I show up late, and the teacher doesn't consider accidents on the freeway or road construction to be valid excuses to take them late. In math I accidently mixed up my book with an older edition that I had, and did all the wrong homework. Hopefully I'll find ways to make up the points that I've lost.
I have a second on-call job playing laser tag. It's an easy, fun job. I mostly just help with equipment and sometimes I go out and shoot at people to make the game more interesting. I get to be a referee sometimes, too, which just means I take a really big gun and shoot cheaters from far away.
So, that's the last few months in a page. I could go on for a long time about everything, but that would be boring even to me. My goal now is to just do well in school and become an optometrist. I feel very alone, though. I'm sure it's my fault for the most part. I can see now that I wasn't really raised in our common culture. I spent all my time with my family and don't really know how society expects me to act. As a result I'm a little weird and hard to understand. I've been trying to learn to speak in a way that isn't to confusing, but it's taking time. Everything that I say seems to have two meanings, and I usually have one in mind but everyone else understands the other. That is how I'm different. So, school is my main priority, but I'm also looking for a friend who is patient enough to learn to understand me.

Flat Broke

The whole group seems a little confused when we try to get together now that Meagan is gone. We never know where we're going or what the plan is. I think it's kind of funny. We've done some fun things as a group, though. We went to the beach last Saturday and everyone got a little sunburnt. Chelsea and Jordanae brought a stray puppy with them that we all played with a little. The branch had some treats after the meetings as a way to say goodbye, even though we've still got two Sundays left.
I was actually planning on staying an extra two weeks, but the last time that I went to withdraw money from my debit card, I noticed that it wasn't in my wallet anymore. After looking everywhere I wrote home and had my parents cancel it. Now I won't have enough money to survive for an extra two weeks, so I've been trying to get the office to reschedule my flight to the original time. So far I haven't heard back from them, though. I told my mom to go start nagging them for me. That should get them working on it.
The end is coming up really quick. Only seven more days and we're done teaching, then we'll head home the next monday. Or at least hopefully I'll be heading home with everyone else.

Bye Meagan

The first week after our vacation was a pretty rough one for me. For the first time we had 100% attendance. The kids were all excited to be back together and because of the good whether and all the other stuff that makes kids excited. It was pretty hectic in class, most of the time. Since then things have calmed down a lot.
Other than the crazy kids, the week was memorable because it was our head teacher's last. We had a lot of activities that made it fun, but I was a little sad the whole time because this is the beginning of the end. Everything has been so different from how I thought it would be, but I'll be sad to go home.
The weekend was great. We had a party Friday night with a fireworks show. You can buy huge rocket racks here that would be way illegal in the US for cheap. On Saturday we had a picnic at Pirehova, a place just out of town where old Ukrainian architecture has been brought and reassembled. It was a lot of fun. On Thursday Meagan gave us all awards and notes. She is one of the most thoughtful people I know. I got the "Father Duck" award. The title comes from a time in Prague when I was feeding the ducks and got ten of them to gather around me. I pointed out to Whitney that I had as many ducks as girls, and she said I should start calling the girls my ducks. It stuck for me.
Meagan left from the airport early Monday morning. I walked her home Sunday night because I'm always afraid terrible things will happen at the most ironic times. Nothing happened, though. The little hug goodbye reminded me how deprived I am, and then I walked home in the dark thinking how much I'll miss Meagan. She's always so excited and happy, even when she doesn't really want to be. She does it for other people. She's someone I can really look up to.
Now another week is almost over. It has definitely been different without Meagan around, but things have gone as normal. I'm starting to get excited for the semester to end myself, even though it looks like I'll be spending my extra two weeks touring Ukraine instead of Russia. I still don't have an invitation to visit, so I still have no visa, and I don't think there's time to get one. I'll be able to visit some other time, though, I'm sure.
Well, tomorrow is another day of teaching. There aren't many left.

A Good Rest

In the end I think it's a good thing I stayed in Kyiv for my vacation after all. Now that it's over and I've heard stories from the other two trips, I have to say that I'd have like to have been there to help them, but if I had been than I'd be more tired than if I would have taught double shifts all week. They had some crazy things happen that I wish I could have prevented, though.
Some of the highlights of my vacation were seeing my old mission president, Elder Pieper, and talking to him and his wife, taking the teachers from Moscow for a walk around town, having sleepovers and movie nights, riding a Ferris wheel in the WWII memorial park, throwing up some hamburgers, and starting a blood feud with Deidre. I would go into more detail on all of those things, but I think it's a lot more interesting for you if I just leave it up to your imaginations, and I don't have a lot of time. It was a great vacation though. The best part was probably just laying out in the sun on the one warm day we had, or getting caught in a sudden wind storm. I love wind storms. So , now I'm back to work.