Week 1.5: Un hecho de vida: nadie le gustan los insectos.

Happy Fourth of Julyyyy! I hope everyone's had a fun day so far in the United States :)

Mexico doesn’t exactly celebrate Independence Day for the United States (unfortunate, but understandable), so I won’t get to do any sparklers this year! :( And sparklers are my very favorite firework to do... (Probably because I’m too scared to do anything else hahaha).

Anyway, my roommates and I are planning on getting some American food for dinner to celebrate. Maybe pizza or hamburgers from a fast food place or something... We'll see :)

Alright, my activities of the week so far! :)

For Family Home Evening on Monday we learned how to dance Merengue and a couple other typical dances down here. 
I’m probably one of the worst dancers you’ll ever meet in the world. I just can’t do it. And forget it if you think I can dance in a way that requires you to move your hips all fluidly! I’m one of the most uncoordinated people I know! (That’s why I did swimming in high school!) 

But who knows, maybe eventually I’ll learn to shake my hips like Shakira like this baby penguin can…

Tuesday my roommates and I decided to go to Progreso after lunch so we could do our homework there. How often can you say that you went to the beach JUST to do homework?? Definitely a first for me! Awesoooome.

It was raining on our bus ride there, but luckily it stopped by the time we arrived! It was pretty windy and a little overcast there, but it was nice to be in some weather that wasn’t muggy and blinding! Haha :)

Here's Kate and I enjoying the cooler weather:

Week One: ¡Mi nueva vida!

Oh my goodness, where do I even start for the last 7 days??

Well, let’s start with Tuesday. On my flight from Portland, I got really thirsty, so I got my water bottle out of my backpack. It’s one of those with the straw that goes down the middle… If you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, as I went to open it up, it basically did this:

It exploded out of the mouthpiece and spewed water ALL OVER MY PANTS! 

It almost got my neighbor, too! I was so embarrassed! Haha.

Note to self: Don’t open a water bottle without de-pressurizing it when you’re 30,000 feet in the air… You’ll most definitely regret it.

That night at about 11 o’clock my flight landed in Merida. We drove home with my roommates and our papás mexicanos (our mama and papa!), then went to bed at about 1:30. Unfortunately I couldn’t sleep since it takes me forever to fall asleep in general, and the beds and pillows here are pretty hard. I just wanted to get comfortable... So I basically did this:

So I got a grand total of 2-3 hours of sleep that night, because we had to leave for school at 6:45 Wednesday morning! YUUUCK.

It's a Small World!

So a couple days ago I requested to join this Missionary Girlfriend Support group on Facebook just for the heck of it, figuring I’d just read other Missionary Girlfriend’s stories and blogs for fun. BUT YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!

I was added into the group yesterday and was asked to tell a little about myself and my missionary, so I did. Then someone replied and said she’s from Oaxaca. Cool, right?! BUT WAIT.
She then posts this picture on the page and says, “Lovely miss Chanel Lawson, please tell me is this your Elder Gibby? :)”

My reaction when I saw the picture:

IS THAT MY ELDER GIBBY?!? LET ME TELL YOU, WHY YES IT IS!!

He was wearing the tie I gave him and everything!! GAH he's so cute! And his hair! It was as fantastic as always :) Ahhh! :D