Have you ever
gone for a run, and as you pass by other people running, they say “Good
morning” or “Hello”, or even just give you a little nod? It feels pretty good,
right?
I came across
this realization when I went for a run on Tuesday, and while I was running, and
older man that was going the opposite direction told me, “Buenos días.”
Normally I just smile at people as I passed by, but I thought that saying
good morning was kind of fun, so after that during my run I told
two guys “buenos días.” Their focused, almost-angry faces lightened up
into a smile! It was so cute!!!
So I made a goal
to say “buenos días” to everyone I pass by on my runs. Well within reason of
course. I wasn’t going to shout across Paseo Montejo (similar to University
Avenue in Provo, but two lanes bigger). For the past couple days it’s been
awesome!
Okay, my activities starting from Monday!
Monday
Kate and I went shopping with Emilio! We bought some presents for people back home. He bought us some sweets, and I tried
this nasty candy stuff made out of something called chaya. Chaya is a lot like
spinach, but this candy… It was sour and spicy at the same time. I shouldn't have let him trick me into eating it! IT WAS SO GROSS.
Don’t ask me how it was possible for Emilio to pop them like pills. Blech!
So I’ve never been able to eat spicy stuff in my life. That’s always been my brothers’ job, to eat spicy food. I’m a huge baby when it comes to eating something even slightly spicy. But while we were eating our tacos, I decided to be stupid and try to eat a chile! Perfectly reasonable, right? I wanted to see if maybe after being here for two months if my spicy-food eating skills had increased!
And the verdict:
Uh, not so much.
I took a bite
from the tip about an inch or so long. After about 10 seconds, I realized it
was hardly spicy at all, so I decided to take a little bit of a bigger bite. I
chewed, and chewed… Swallowed… AND THEN MY MOUTH LIT ON FIRE.
I thought for a second about running away and joining a circus, doing a fire-breathing act. Not a terrible job, really...
But that thought was cut short. After a minute
or so, my eyes were welling up with tears and I started drooling. DROOLING.
Okay, so my mouth couldn’t handle it, but why did it have to drool?!?
Anyway, that was
a bad idea. The chile-spiciness was still lingering in my mouth an hour later. I think I’m gonna ban myself from ever eating a chile again...
On Tuesday we
went to Progreso! For those of you who saw on Facebook, you know vaguely that
while I was there, I got hit on by a 40-year-old man. I'll provide you with the entire story...
While Gabi,
Kate, Kelsey, and I were sitting on the beach, an American guy came up to us
and said, “You all don’t look like you’re from Mexico!” After talking for a
minute or two, he told us his name was Tristin, and he offered to give us
drinks and take us for a ride on his boat or go jet skiing. Honestly, I wanted
to go, more than I care to admit. Not for the drinks, but because I've never
jet skied before! I knew it was dangerous though, so we told him no, but that
maybe we’d stop by his restaurant later. Heck, I’m not opposed to free food!
He ended up
coming up to us again shortly after with a friend of his, talked some more, and
he told us that the reason he came by the first time was because he saw my
white skin and knew we were American. He wanted to prove to his friends that he
could hit on us because we were his own girls, from the United States like him.
His friend kept
on mentioning how guapa Kate was, and once they found out she didn’t have a
boyfriend, he asked her to marry him! It was super funny! He gave her a promise
ring made out of seaweed and everything! Hahaha.
Tristin then said
that he really thought that one of us would have taken him up on his offer for
the boat ride, and then started talking about… er, things I’d rather not to repeat.
After about 10
minutes after he’d left us alone, we decided to get in the water, and he waded
over to us. We talked some more, and he asked if I'd keep my mind open to
coming back and marrying him. He said I'd have a nice five-bedroom house on the
beach front and could have a margarita in hand everyday… You know, a “good life”.
He then told me that he loved my white skin, that I had a nice butt (except... a little more vulgar), sexy
blue eyes, and a really beautiful, innocent smile.
I guess that’d
be flattering coming from a guy closer to my own age, but a 40-year-old? Uh…
yeah... I think I just might have to pass on that one...
Eventually we
got onto the topic of the Church. He had found out we were Mormon before, and
he told us that he had grown up in the Church but that he wasn't anymore. He
told us that if we drank or did anything else, it didn't matter because God will forgive us. He also said that he doesn’t think that pre-marital sex is bad. After all, “you should
take a car for a test run before you buy it… If you know what I mean."
We tried to
explain our point of view, but he kept talking over us, and eventually told us
that we shouldn't call ourselves Mormon because we don't know the Bible and the
Book of Mormon, we weren’t looking at the facts, yada yada yada. Soooo… we
left.
It just kind of
irked me that all he wanted was to get in my pants, which he made perfectly
clear. A real classy guy. Then telling me I had no idea what I was talking
about when I said what I believed... Jeez. Like he'd know. Stupid borracho. I
didn’t want his dumb free food anyway!
Okay, we all know what my true feelings were...
Wednesday morning was our last day of our conversation class. We went out to a French pastry shop and got breakfast there! Then we went to our teachers house to eat it. It was SO good! And she had the two cutest dogs… I wanted them so bad!
It was sad to say goodbye to Lilia though! I'm gonna miss her!
That night we
finally got to do what we’ve been dying to do for the past 3 weeks! BICYCLE
RIDING AROUND THE CITY. There’s hundreds of people who get together every
Wednesday night and ride bikes around the city for a couple hours.
On the way there
we ended up getting into a little bit of a fender bender. We were driving with
Daniel, and he wasn’t watching the road and rear-ended the car in front of him.
Luckily we were only going 15-20 miles per hour or so. But yeah, it’s safe to
say we won’t be going anywhere with him in a car anymore…
Kelsey and Gabi
decided to go home after that and took a bus, but Kate and I didn’t want to
give up our chance to ride the bikes. This was the last time we could do it
before we went back to the United States!
When we finally
got there, we had about 15 minutes before everyone was going to leave the park.
There were no available bikes left, so we had to go to another place to rent
them. We rushed back to the park, but by the time we got there, the hundreds of
people had already left!
So we rode after
them.
Before that
night, I hadn’t rode a bike in probably… 6 years. So I had some issues when I
started moving. I crashed into a wall. A WALL. You know how people say you
never forget how to ride a bike? I think I might be the exception. Well, at
least for the first 15 minutes. Then I just had problems starting up.
We got
directions from people off the street, asking which way the herd of bikers
went. We finally caught up with all of them at the second park. THERE WERE SO
MANY PEOPLE! It was awesome!!!
After about 20
minutes, they started the ride back to the first park. It was so much better
riding with hundreds of other people! It was a little dangerous, but IT WAS SO
MUCH FUN! I’m so glad I went! I wish we would've gone earlier though, because we could've made so many new friends!
Today was our
last day of class here! YAYAYAY!!! We’re free from homework and Universidad
Modelo! So happy!
Alrighty, so
yes, I did get an e-mail from Elder Gibby on Monday night! He was transferred
into Hacienda, Oaxaca and is in a trio! He’s super happy
though since it’s a lot cooler in his new area!
So I told Adam
about the whole Daniel sitch in the e-mail I sent him this week. I was afraid
he’d be mad I didn’t tell him til now and that I didn’t tell him while it was
happening. I really wanted to wait to tell him though, since I didn’t want to
worry him since he's on his mission. As a missionary girlfriend, I come after God, everything relating to his mission, and his family. I shouldn't take his focus off of his purpose right now. Anyway, he told me he wasn't mad about the situation, and not to worry about it since I’ll be
gone in a week. Huzzah!
Awh man, that's right! I have less than a week left here! That's really sad:( I still have so much left to do...
739 Days Left! :)
