Weird

I've been back home for 4 days now. Don't get me wrong...I LOOOOOVE home. Love it. But I can't help but feel weird.  I can't really describe how I'm feeling. It's a weirdo feeling. Maybe it's because I know there's so much more out there, I feel like Fayetteville is too small for me now. There are so many cool things to see and do and I'm young...being here seems like such a shame, but then there's my family here too, which makes it totally not a waste of my time.

I don't know. I feel like I'm really different and everyone else is the same. After all, I have been away for a year, and as much as I'd like to think it didn't, life did go on without me?!

An End and...a Beginning

Welp. I'm done.
Done.
I still can't believe it. Done with the school,
with my kids,
with my co-workers,
living with Meggie,
walking to work,
speaking Spanish everyday,
walking to ancient pyramids,
going to the zocalo and walking around in churches older than the United States,
rain...everyday,
perfect temperature,
seeing Yuyo everyday :(,
being completely uninformed about everything at work,
making new friends,
way overpriced clothes,
super cheap food,
Monchis,
cheladas, esquites, chilaquiles=food in general
talking on gmail to my family,
making excuses not to run (the ground, the area we live, bad shoes, rain, etc.),
Don Rafa telling us "Echale ganas",
QB, my sweet little baby puppy,
Henry Oscar Boynkill (our cat formally known as Oscar),
eating lunch at 2 and dinner at 10,
pizza, cake batter blondies, and OC marathons with the roomie,
going out and staying out until 4 am,
men whistling and kissing at me,
eating at Chili's and loving it (ew...),
being called "meeees" and "teacher" every 5 seconds,
Mexi people watching (the best there is),
mullets,
staches,
Oxxo,
leaky/flakey roofs,
nasty showers,
not drinking from the faucet,
not flushing toilet paper,
taking my laundry for a woman to wash and fold (well, I guess that will be Dud from now on...haha), hanging out for hours in restaurants,
asking for the check instead of the waiter pushing you out the door,
Mexican Spanish,
markets,
being a tour guide,
taking taxis,
not filling up my gas tank because there are men that do that,
tipping random men in parking lots that "help" you park and back out,
the gas man driving down the street at 8 am Saturday morning yelling to ask the neighborhood if we need gas,
calling everyone by a nickname (corner man, dj, oxxo lady, nasty beard, etc.),
seeing precious little 3rd grade faces everyday,
drinking beer at 2 pm and it being perfectly acceptable,
paying a $15 electric bill every 2 months,
having to buy water from Oxxo everyday,
going to bed like a grandma at 10:30 every night,
just having carefree fun,
sitting at the corner coffee shop downtown drinking chai frappes and listening to reggae music,
paying for parking. everywhere,
tile floors. everywhere,
eating tacos at 2 am from places where hygiene is not an issue,
dogs barking all night,
neighbors throwing parties on Tuesday nights until we leave for school at 7:45 am,
missing Hay Hay,
and the list goes on and on and on.
I wish I could remember, absorb, and enjoy every memory of this year so I could replay it in my head whenever I missed my life here in Mexico. It was a truly unforgettable year that no one will completely understand except one of my best friends forever, Megan. We came here, hated life, loved life, and lived life and now we are done. We were talking today about how this chapter in our lives is over, and we don't really know how to feel. It's definitely a bittersweet thing. Bitter=losing our Spanish level, not being with Yuyo and QB, and a lot of the things I wrote about above and Sweet=getting to hang out with friends and family again. I can still remember the first night here and my first day setting up my classroom. It's so surreal that it has come to an end. Megan has been such a great friend to me this year. I really don't think I could have done it without her. Lil shout out to Meggie Boo Baby. I luh you guh!
Annnnnd there's Yuyo. He's the best thing ever. I definitely could NOT have stayed in this job and in Mexico for a year without his looove and support. I wish I could write everything that he has done and continues to do for me on a daily basis, but there are too many things. I'm so spoiled and used to it, that I probably wouldn't even recognize as much as I should. He is the greatest and I'm so happy to have been able to spend this year with him, growing, fighting (not very often...haha), and working everything out in the end. I loooove you Yuyito!!
And last but not least...YOU!! The readers!! Thank you all for your love and support throughout this year. I couldn't have done it without your thoughts and prayers for me. I love you all and thanks for reading!! These are my last besos from Mexico!! <3 <3

Last Day

Today was our last day of school with the kids. Ohhhh don't think it's the last day of school. We still have to go until July 8th. BUT...saying goodbye to those kiddies that I've spent 190 days with was hard! I had about 5 girls who were sobbing. I hate to see people cry, but I did pretty well. I didn't actually cry that much (believe it or not!!!). I'll probably cry later, when I can actually take it in.

Honestly, I don't really know how I feel right now. It's like I've been hoping and praying for this day to arrive quickly, and now that it's here, I'm a bit nostalgic. I don't want any other teacher to have my kids because they're mine! I know them and have grown to love (most of) them. Ok. That's all. I'm not going to apologize for not writing, because I do that every post. I don't know if anyone even reads this anymore to be honest. haha.

Ok, so a week and a half until I come home for the "summer" and then we'll see where my adventure goes from there!! Shout out real quick: Charlie and Karen came to visit over the weekend and Mom and Joy came like 2 weeks ago and we went to Veracruz. Ohhhh so wonderful. Charlie, Karen, Megan, and I went out at night and visited markets and churches during the day. It was a great time and I'm loving some relationship Charlie. Now that we both have significant others, we can do coupley things that we always used to make fun of other people for!!! I can't wait.

I'm hungry, so I'm going to eat. Good Mexi food. Love you all. Thanks for following me and reading even though I don't write. Besos!

2 MONTHSSSS

I know it's been 2 whole months since I've written in my blog. Quite honestly, a lot of stuff happened in those 2 months as well!! haha. I'm a horrible blog-keeper-upper, but I will try to be better about it.......starting my next post.

Just wanted to say that I had a WONDERFUL Spring Break at home with friends and family. Each break makes it that much harder to come back to Mexico, but I'm here now, and ready to finish this year out!! I will write more later, but as a preview, there was lots of TCBY, Target, Kohl's (I know, sometimes they have good deals, but not all the time!), Ross, T.J. Maxx, driving, walking, boot camp, Zumba, funfetti cupcakes, Taco Bell (which I hadn't had in foreverrrr), visiting and checking up on Mimi (will write about that incident later), prom, etc. Quite a fun-filled adventure.

Anyways, blog and pics to follow, as well as talking about Mom's trip in March and all that jazz.
Well I am going to bed because traveling alllllll day is not fun and I am tiredddd!!

Besos <3

Yayyy!!!

Soooooo......

Non is coming on Friday at 8pm and I'm SOOOOOOOOO excited!! I seriously can't wait. We're staying in Mexico City all weekend and being tourists with Yuyo as our tour guide...yeah right. Haha.

In other news, Megan, Colleen, and I have joined a Yoga studio. I go to pretty much 2 class every evening. I can feel myself getting stronger and more flexible and relaxed and I LOVE every second of it. Some of the classes are really intense, but we've totally befriended one of the Yoga instructors. He. Is. Amazing. Seriously. He's an older man with a big belly and he kicks our butts in there!!! He is so strong and it's amazing. Inspiring actually. I can't wait to be as good as some of those people. I'm loving it. But, Mom is bringing me a yoga mat and some more pants so I'll be set to go (and stylish at that!).

The whole 3rd grade is having a Nutrition Fair tomorrow. There are 6 third grade classrooms and each class has a different theme. My theme is "Guess what you're eating", Colleen's theme is "International Food" and some of the other themes are "Food Experiments", "The Food Pyramid", "Desserts" (my personal favorite...ha), and "Nutritional Lunches" (all of my kids said "BOOOOO" when I told them that one...hahahaha). So I will go around to each classroom with my homeroom (whom I struggle with greatly, they are kind of bad). Let's just say, I'm sooooo very grateful to allll of the wonderful mothers who are helping this happen, but let's also just say that I am NOT looking forward to tomorrow. haha. The only good thing about tomorrow is that it means that Friday is one step closer.

Alright, that's all for now. Thanks for reading. Post with Non and pics soon(ish)!

<3 Besos!

I know, I know...

Everyone is mad at me because it's been 2 months since my last post...but here we go.

Christmas. Was. WONDERFUL. It was soooo great to be back with the fam and friends and just having Christmas celebrations, giving and receiving presents, eating EVERYTHING THAT WOULD FIT IN MY MOUTH, going to TCBY with Lis, eating ABC with Bray, watching awesome TV shows (I wish) with Jo, and hanging out with Non, Dud, Tar, and Hay. Once Non had to go back to work, Dud, Hay, and I just straight up hung out everyday. Not even kidding I gained about 7 lbs while I was home because I said "Oh, no thanks, I'm not going to eat that." to absolutely NOTHING. It was divine.

My receiving crowd at the airport

Mirrrr!! All the way from Idaho!

The goal of the night with the Bowens is to get the worst picture of a group of people.
It's awesome...

The best one I could find...haha.

Here are some pics from the Marsh Christmas Eve.

Tar, Sar, and Me

Such a big girl.

I told her to pose. This is what she did.

The cousins and Mud

The traditional girl cousins pic

Dresses and boots

Andddd Christmas Day!!!

Traditional Christmas morning pic

In the snowwww!

Mim and Pap

Something no one has ever seen before...

The Boynton grandkids washing dishes
(only bc Mom and Uncle Mike won't let us...ever)

White Christmas (best present ever!!!)

The traditional Christmas story reading

Cousin pic!

No comment...

Our little fam (minus Hay...)

...But there he is!!!

Needless to say...I had a great Christmas with great people. The only thing that was missing was Yuyo, his family, and of course QB.

This was before Christmas...now he is grandote (HUGE!)

This is the beast now...

So these past 2 months, I've just been doing the same old, same old. Going to school, taking QB for walks, going to the movies, hanging out with Yuyo, eating Friday lunch with Colleen and Meggie, etc. Nothing really new in my life. I've stopped worrying about work, stopped being stressed and already, this semester is 10x better. I think partially it's because I know I'm on the downward slope and I have a routine. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy every single day at 2 pm. I am really happy. haha. But, I've learned to live with it. 

About 2 weeks ago, I sent an email to the English coordinator at the University Yuyo attends, UPAEP--that's the acronym, I'm actually not really sure what the name of the University is...haha. Anyways, I wanted to inquire about positions for the fall. I got an email back from him last week saying he'd love to interview me and wondered if I could teach classes starting right away. ha. I told him that because I have a full time job and because I tutor, I would not be able to teach right now, but I am very interested about the fall. Sooo I would love for all of you to pray about this job interview. I haven't received an email back saying when it is, but I think teaching older students is right up my alley. And, because it's a college, I wouldn't have to deal with parents and complaining all the time, it would be just my students and me. I like that.

Anyways, that's what's going on with me, nothing really new. Just an update about Christmas I guess. Oh, for Valentine's Day, it was Yuyo and I's first time being in the same place! Now...I'm not a super Valentine's kinda girl. In fact, I don't really even love it at all, but we went to dinner and Yuyo bought me some roses and I made him a 3 Leches cake. It was delish. Seriously. I really want some right now actually. But, it was nice. We just chilled and I went to bed early that night!! I swear, it's incredibly sad when you are excited about getting in bed before 11 pm. hahaha.

Well, that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading. Love you guys!

Besos <3 

In the words of the great T.I....I'M BAAACK!!

Well...the countdown is down to 1 DAY!!

I really can't believe it's already time to go home for Christmas.

Don't get me wrong...sometimes it seemed to last forever, but now...it's here. 

Someone told Megan today that she read our blogs and reassured her that Mexico wasn't so terrible. If I have come across in a way that I portray Mexico as being a terrible place and that I'm miserable here, that is in NO WAY TRUE!! I love Mexico. I love living here. Being able to live 10 minutes from Yuyo and living with Meggie this semester has been the bomb.com!! 

This semester I have been struggling a lot with my job and the transition from college to being a grown up, but in no way am I displeased with Mexico. I love my life here, just not always my job. It has definitely been a learning experience though. I have discovered many things about myself through this huuuge change I'm undergoing. I've learned that I like being a student because that what I know how to do. I've learned that I'm not completely sure that teaching elementary school is for me, but maybe older kids. I've learned that sometimes, even when I want to be mad at them, my kids make me laugh when I shouldn't. And really hard. I've learned how to turn on a gas stove. I've learned how to drive in Mexico (which actually is no different than Atlanta). I've learned to talk people down at the market. I've learned how to tell a taxi driver EXACTLY where I want to go. I've learned that I love my family a whooole lot. I've learned to like electronic music. I've learned that I actually do like Mole Poblano. I've learned that I love Yuyo as much as I thought I did. And TONS more. It would take a lot of time to write everything.

So...yeah. Just wanted to clear that up. I will be home in approximately 38 hours!! (But who's counting?) Can't wait to see the WHOLE family and give all of my presents. I'm really excited about that this year. I had a lot of fun buying now that I make a steady income! :)

Thank you for ALL of your prayers and support this semester. Many ways I will never know, but I definitely felt the love here South of the border...maybe that's why I was so homesick! ha. Anyways, I really do wish you and yours the very best this Christmas and New Year. Spend time with the fam, eat a lot, and enjoy every moment with the ones who love you most this season! I pray that each of you has a lovely holiday! 

My last *besos* of 2010!! <3 And as always...thanks for reading.

P.S.-I didn't forget the pictures in the last post...I tried again, and they wouldn't upload. Gotta figure out what the deal is...