The trip is slowly and sadly winding down

We leave in less than a week! We can’t believe that the time has flown by so fast! We are having trouble remembering exactly the order of the menu this week, so we will start with today and work our way back. Today for breakfast we had French toast and mango yogurt with fresh fruit and coffee. For comida we had chicken in a sauce made of cacahuates (peanuts) and tomato-y something else. It was delicious as always. Yesterday we had eggs with sausage and tortillas. For comida we had something very interesting. It was a bowl with white rice in the bottom. Then Mama put a black bean and meat stew type stuff over it. At the table, we put tons of pico de gallo in it with enough cilantro to make Jillian salivate. For dessert we had what we have named an ice cream loaf. It had a ripple of fudge in the middle and was obviously in the shape of a loaf. Saturday we had an interesting breakfast. We’re not exactly fans of this dish. Thick bread was buttered and on top was a thick slathering of beans with cheese. For lunch on Saturday we had refried beans and beefy stuff for making tacos. Friday for breakfast we had pancakes of course with the usual side dishes. For comida we had alphabet soup first and potato patties with cheese breaded and fried. The idea was to cut up the fried potato and put it in a tortilla with the fixins of your choice. Our brother, of course, ate mostly sour cream. Thursday for breakfast we had breakfast burritos with eggs and sausage. For Thursday’s comida, we had a party at the school for the group of students that left last week. They served some sort of delicious Mexican lasagna in which the pasta layers were made of tortillas. We also had a mixed salad and fresh bread… and of course, we had beans. It was veeeery pleasing. Felipe, our gate keeper contributed to the party with his famous margaritas. We also had a good laugh at one of the school staff members attempting/forcing us to dance. There was a live mariachi band at the party. A really cute little boy played in it, and the crazy staff member made Jillian give the shy kid a kiss on the cheek. We thought he would fall over. Wednesday for breakfast we had ham and cheese quesadillas. For comida we had Mexican barbecue or “barbacoa.” It had a sweet dark sauce on it and Mama served it with white rice. She says our Uncle Victor doesn’t like it much, but we’re glad we got a chance to eat it! YUM!
We’ve been going out dancing with our friends almost every night! Needless to say, we’ve yet to improve our salsa skills. We’re pretty sure that we will make it home with our four left feet still intact. Saturday we went to the market to buy regales (gifts) for family and such. The market in the Centro is really hoppin on Saturdays. We saw a lion in a cage from the circus that has been in town since we got here. We’ve yet to visit. We also saw clowns. Sunday after comida, our mama taught us each how to make our respective favorite thing. Jillian of course made salsa, and Sarah refried her first set of beans. Somos cocineras(cooks)! We got to eat both today, and let us just say the cooking lesson was a success. After comida, we went to Xochicalco with some of our friends. They are GIANT ancient ruins about 30 minutes outside of Cuernavaca. For pictures of the ruins, click this link!
http://somosprimis.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/xochicalco.jpg
They truly are beautiful! We did however get racially profiled when we got there. We had to pay for a ticket to get in because we are not “locals.” We also both got sunburned even after we got made fun of for applying children’s sunscreen by our friends. The sunscreen unfortunately smells like crayons, but we decided it’s better to smell like childhood than to look like lobsters. Jillian had the pleasure of almost peeing her pants after seeing a giant WILD iguana in her path. Also, the drive there was laden with wild horses and burros (donkeys).
We spent our last day with our sweet Uncle Victor. We both said goodbye a little teary-eyed. He told us to keep the toy horse that he stole from the birthday party. We promised. We are however very angry that we didn’t get any pictures with uncle victor. We are SO MAD at ourselves. This just means that we will have to return again.  The thought of leaving on Friday morning makes us both very sad. It is kind of a bitter-sweet goodbye. We will be so happy to see our friends and family, but this place has left a mark on our hearts. See you soon, American fam!
Loooove
Sarah and Jillian

2 for 1 Tuesday and a tub of ice cream

Today for breakfast we had sweet tamales again! Yumm! We had fresh banana, apple, mango, and pineapple, too. Like always we had yogurt and fresh coffee. This week at school has been a little different. There are a lot more people here. They are really nice, and we have had a good time with them so far. Today in conversation class, two women from another class sat in with us because their teacher was at the doctor. We talked about “controversial questions.” First about the new law in Arizona, then about nuclear energy, then about children working as soldiers in other countries, then affirmative action. Very interesting. The women that sat in (we think they were both professors) said that we are both very insightful and wise for our age. One of them even made a point of coming up to us after class and complimenting us again. She was not surprised to hear that such well-spoken women are the product of a women’s college. It is funny because another professor told us the same thing last week. I guess we are just that big of smarty-pants.  For comida we had potatoes with ham and cheese, some sort of tasty rice with cilantro and other good stuff, and these chicken nugget things. They were handmade, battered, and fried by our mama. It had a sort of strange, but awesomely delectable, creamy texture to it. She tried to explain how she made them, but we really didn’t understand. They were yummy nonetheless. Mama also surprised Jillian with the spiciest salsa yet! She also explained how to make it, so Russellville crowd, get ready to eat. After comida, we attempted to escape the heat of the day by taking a nap. We crashed for a while, woke up, and took showers to rid ourselves of the sweat sheen. It rained yesterday, but it didn’t seem to help with the heat as much this time. After our showers, we took a cab to the plaza laurel. It is like a mini shopping center really close to our house. This is where the delicious pizza is. Tuesdays they serve 2 pizzas for the price of one. We met our new friends from Colorado there along with our friends from Minnesota, Michigan, and Texas. What a fun group of girls. We ordered 4 pizzas, and we ordered almost all of them half and half so that we could try a bunch of different kinds. Needless to say, we ate WAY too much pizza. Luckily, there were a bunch of leftovers, and one of the girls had the brilliant idea of bringing it to school tomorrow so we can split it up for a snack. After pizza, we all had a bit of a sweet tooth craving. We went to the nearby Superama and bought our favorite oreo ice cream and a big bag of plastic spoons. We sat on the steps of the plaza, chatting it up and laughing really hard like a bunch of 12 year olds at a slumber party. We just got home, and we’ve got a little bit of homework to do. Luckily it is for our conversation class, and the assignment is to watch tv in Spanish. Lucky us! Our favorite is the music video channel. We’ll be sad to lose it when we go home. Hasta Manana!

A Stolen Horse and A Stifly Starched Striped Shirt

Yesterday at comida, we had this delectible tortilla soup. We also had potato salad and porkchops. They was really yummy.

Today at breakfast, we had double decker toasted sandwiches with beans and cheese. They were good, but it certainly wasn't our favorite meal. Lunch was much better. We had chicken sauteed in some kind of delicious red sauce, with tomato, beans, tacos, salad and the tastiest cookies n' cream ice cream we've ever had.

Today after school, there was pretty much no traffic. This is unusual because normally, it takes us several minutes to get home due to the traffic at 3:00 (the time of comida and when all the kids get out of school). The reason that there was no traffic is that today at 1:00 Mexico plays England in futbol (soccer). Everyone is CRAZY about futbol here.

Also, we forgot to mention that the other day at the quincinera, our Uncle Victor stole this little plastic horse from a small child. We thought that surely he was going to give it back and so, with a scolding from our Mama about how stealing is a sin, we decided to let it go. Later, however, when we returned to our house, we decided to play cards. In the middle of the card game, what should appear on the table but the plastic horse! Victor thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. Poor little boy! He doesn't even know what hit him.

In addition to this fun escapade, the other night when we went out dancing, this guy asked us to dance. At first, we thought it would be fine and it was fun at first because he was a really good dancer. However, after one dance with him, he started asking us if we have novios (boyfriends) and when we replied that we did not, he wasted no time asking us if we wanted to be his novias (girlfriends). We told him that we, in fact, did not. We then got with our friend Hector and promptly escaped out the back of the restaurant so that the creepy guy would stop dancing with us. We have decided to call him Mr. Stiffly Starched Striped Shirt because he was, in fact, sporting one the other night.

Well, I suppose that is all for today. Hasta pronto!

We're alive!

Sorry it’s been a while! This week has been really busy, and skipping out on the blog got to be a bad habit that was easy to keep up. We have lots of things to tell about! Unfortunately, the weather is one of them. Since it hasn’t rained in the past couple of days, the heat has been slowly and miserably climbing up towards the hundreds. Now we’ll give a quick rundown of the menu from this week. Tuesday we had ham and cheese quesadillas for breakfast again. For comida, we had delicious homemade meatballs over rice. The whole dish was covered in a traditional Mexican red sauce, handmade by Mama. The sort of strange thing about them was that they had hard boiled eggs inside. Before you start gagging, let us just say that it was interestingly delicious. Wednesday we had hotcakes for breakfast and for comida Mama made a really refreshing dish. It was tostada shells with a scrumptious mix of jitomate (red tomato), tons of fresh cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, garlic, and some onion. It also had some sort of pulled beef in it. Mama said it was “carne falda,” which literally translates to skirt meat, so we are guessing it was skirt steak. She also served a creamy pasta salad. Thursday we had leftover jitomate and cilantro mix fried into some scrambled eggs. Mama graciously left out the traditional pepper or chile for the sake of Sarah’s tongue. So nice, our mama. After school we had a giant plate of Mama’s spaghetti with chicken and mixed veggies all together in a flavorful creamy-type sauce. Friday for breakfast we had another ham and cheese quesadilla. For comida, we had puréed broccoli soup and fried empanada thingies filled with chicken. Saturday morning, we had eggs with sausage, and Mama surprised us with Mango yogurt. For comida, we were at a fiesta with our Mama (more info later), and they served chicken that was somehow filled with ham and cheese. It was smothered with a brownish red sauce, but Mama couldn’t really explain was it was made of because we think it is a fruit that we don’t have in America. It was also served with noodles, and mixed veggies. There was also an abundance of pan (bread) with sesame seeds on top. Today, Sunday, we had French toast for breakfast. We hope that comida today is delicious as always.
Tuesday, we were both a little groggy and sleepy, probably from the heat. So, we sat out on our balcony as it got dark, and we girl talked, which is always fun. You can call us lame, but we think this trip has already brought us closer. We also played a friendly game of Shanghai with Mama, who won. She can be quite a little card shark. Wednesday we had quite a cultural experience. We have heard people talk about the movie theatre’s VIP section since we got here, so we wanted to check it out. We watched Robin hood (with subtitles en espanol). The VIP section means that you get to sit in your own GIANT puffy recliner with you feet up. It also means that people run around in funny uniforms and ask if you want food. They had everything from palomitas (popcorn), to sandwiches, to pizza. They also had a full service bar. The movie was fabulous, mostly because Russell Crowe is even pretty when he is in a dirty battle scene with head wounds. Also, the action scenes were great. Just a cultural observational side note: life here is just louder. The movie was REALLY loud, live music at restaurants is so loud can’t hear each other talk, and the traffic is loud with honking horns etc. Thursday, we went to our favorite restaurant nook because they have live bands every night, and Thursday is salsa night! It was so much fun, especially watching the coordinated people of this world dance the most beautiful dance we’ve seen. Also, there is a group of old people that meet up to do this dance called Danzon. It is slow and pretty with lots of turns, and they dance so close together that it is a wonder they don’t step on toes. We’ve noticed that eye contact is not something that people skip out on when they dance here. If you get a chance, look up danzon. There might be some videos on youtube. It is very romantic. We’ve recently come to the realization that we are viewed as somewhat exotic creatures here. It is hilarious to us that anyone would consider pale American girls as exotic. It quickly became a fun game to try to teach the rhythm-less Americans a dance that requires a specific amount of coordination, an amount that we don’t really have. We did, however, have a blast… even with our two left feet. Friday we went back to the restaurant with live music and danced some more. Our left feet are slowly turning right, with the help of non-judgmental, patient individuals. Here in Cuernavaca, you kind of fall into a sense of non-self-consciousness. We think it is because no one judges you here. One of us could fall on our butt in the middle of the dance floor, and either: no one would notice, or they would rush to help us up with a smile. We can’t get enough of this way of life. Saturday we went to a quinceañera for two twin girls. For those of you who may not know what a quince is, it is a huge celebration in Latin-American culture. When girls turn 15, their parents throw them a blowout party, and everyone and their great aunt Sally shows up to celebrate. It is kind of the equivalent of a sweet 16, but bigger and grander. First, they have a catholic mass. Yesterday’s mass had a chubby funny priest that proceeded to joke with the girls and her parents about chastity when the girls are old enough to have novios (boyfriends). Then, there is a party that seems sort of like a wedding reception. The whole place was decked out from top to bottom in bright magenta and teal. The twins wore the same dress in two different colors, magenta and teal. They had a cake the size of Texas, and they served a full meal and of course, plenty of beer. We are starting to understand how Mexico is the number 2 consumer of Coca-cola in the world. Most people we have met drink it with everything all the time. Both girls had a group of boys that were kind of like bridesmaids/ ushers. They wore tuxes, completed with magenta or teal vests and ties. The party must’ve had at least 200 people. One of our favorite parts was the mariachi band who played beautiful music and danced in sparkly costumes. After the quince, we went to the house of the aunt of our Mama. There were aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and everyone in between. We sang Karaoke for the family in English, which was fun. Our only choices for songs were the Beatles, and some typical American hits. We sang “With a Little Help from My Friends,” and “I Will Survive.” It was really fun. They also served tasty food. Jillian ate handmade tamale with red sauce, and Sarah ate one with green sauce. They told her it would be less spicy, which was sort of a lie. They had these onions in a clear sauce that made Jillian very curious. Our hilarious uncle Victor is home for the weekend, and he LOVES spicy food. Yumm. When Victor says something is spicy, it quite possibly could make your tongue fall flat out of your head and burst into flames. He said the onions were spicy, and Jillian curiously took a bite. Spicy it was, but also delectable. The tamale was already very spicy, and with the onions, it was like eating flames. The family was quick to pick on Jillian when her face turned devil red. Sarah has found herself a novio (boyfriend). Unfortunately, he is about 5 years old. One of Mama’s nephews has fallen in love with our blonde friend. He is quite the character, and also side-splitting to watch dance. Sarah, who was wearing 4 inch heels, had trouble fitting under his little arms when he tried to spin her. It was sweet nonetheless. At breakfast this morning, Mama told us that he asked his dad if he thinks Sarah will be his girlfriend when he gets bigger and grows up. So adorable. Jillian danced with Uncle Victor and also the youngest addition to the family, Sebastian. He is about 10 months old, and sweet as pie. He made a great dance partner too. Today we don’t know what we are going to do, maybe another museum or something. Maybe the panaderia for more paaan dulce. More to come later! Love y’all!
Jillie and Say

Rashes, Supermarkets, and A Delicious Pizzeria

Today for breakfast, we had these delicious tomales without filling and with honey on top. Once at school, we noticed a rash all over Sarah's legs. We asked several people at the school what they thought it might be. We finally got our answer: Sarah is experiencing an allergic reaction to a mosquito bite. Apparently, if you put neosporin and calamine lotion on the rash, it will go away. So far, we have not had much luck with these treatment methods. Hopefully, the rash will be gone in the morning. Our grammar teacher, Adriana, is warming up quite a bit. We've even been joking around with her in between classes. Today, three more students came. That makes 5 students total, including us (the two students that were there last week have left already). After school, we came home for comida. We had really good carrot soup and some kind of chicken enchiladas with a green sauce. They were really spicy. Jillian, of course, was in hog heaven. Sarah, however, had to put on a happy face and pretend that she could still feel her mouth. After comida, we took a brief siesta and then headed to the supermarket to pick up a few groceries. On the way back, Sarah was dying of hunger pains after being unable to eat much at comida. We stopped at a pizzeria that always smells delicious. We sat down and spent several minutes trying to decide which delectible creation we wanted to try. We settled on a combination of two. We're not quite sure what was in it, but it was the BEST pizza we have ever had in our lives!!!! While we were eating, we noticed that the owner of the restaurant had magnificent taste in music. We heard such musical geniuses as Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, and Little Feat. As it turns out, the owner is from Canada. We chatted with him for a bit before heading home. That's all for now. We'll be back tomorrow.

Paying to Pee, More Critters, and a Wild Bus Chase

Today was the most eventful day yet, and not really in all the best of ways. Since we were on our own for finding fun this weekend, we decided to go to Tepoztlan to see more ruins. The director of our school told us about it, and our Mama said that Sunday would be the most fun day to go because they do a market on Sundays. Our Mama fed us breakfast at 9am. We had bread that we bought at the panaderia yesterday with beans and cheese on top. It sounds gross, but it totally wasn't. In fact, it was delicious. She served it with this tomato-y sauce that you put on top. We had a new type of yogurt with all kinds of berries in it. She stopped serving papaya, much to our delight.

Mama drove us to the bus station, and we took a bus for 16 pesos each way. It was about a 45 minute bus ride. We got there, needing to pee, and started walking. None of the stores have bathrooms (of course), so we had to pay this nice young man to let us use the only (and most disgusting) bathrooms near. None of the potties had seats, and when you payed your 5 pesos to pee, the man gives you a little wad of TP. It was gross, but needless to say, we hysterically laughed the whole time while holding the lockless doors for eachother.

Then we followed street signs with drawings of pyramids on them up a cobble stone road. There were women dressed in traditional garb selling traditional touristy things. They also cooked the most delicious-smelling food. Unfortunately, we can't eat any of it. To help you understand why, let us tell you something. One of the jobs of the street vendor ladies is to brush flies off of the food that sits on a table by the street. We reluctantly declined each offer. We also saw several pig heads in the mar

ket hanging on hooks. Their eyes were creepily closed, and their ears were rather perky for a dead animal. The mountain that we saw as we came into town and joked about climbing was indeed the mountain that we were expected to climb. We started our journey. We had to rest quite a bit, and during our rests, we came to a funny conclusion. We saw several people go up and down the mountain more than once. We decided, during one of our breaks, that these people must be mutants. Some of them apeared to be part cat, jumping up, over, around, and off of giant boulders. One of them was a grown man that had to be around 65 wearing acid-wash shorts. It took us about 2 hours to hike the entire mountain. We saw all kinds of people doing the hike. Old people, young people, people CARRYING BABIES, and even some not-so-athletic looking people. Every time we thought "we must be almost there!," we would look up, and as far as we could see, there were people hiking up and up and up.

We sang at the top of the mountain one of our favorite songs by Dora the Explorer. It goes a little something like this "We did it! We did it! Lo hicimos!" We started walking towards the pyramid to sit down and eat a snack, when Jillian jumped and swore she saw a giant furry critter. Sarah, of course, thought she was crazy, until a hoard of furry, racoon-like critters scaled the side of a mountain towards us. We took a few pictures thinking it was kinda rare like seeing a deer on the side of the road. Unfortunately, we were mistaken. We popped a squat on the side of the mountain and tore open some granola bars because we were starving. Out of nowhere, another cuddly critter scaled the side of the pyramid towards us. Thinking it was rather adorable, Jillian picked up the camera and focused it on our new friend. Friend perhaps is not the best word for this demon creature. It stalked towards her and she lowered her camera in fright. The scary son of a gun started crawling into Jillian's lap. It brushed its nose against her leg and she could feel its creepy claws on her bare leg. At this point, Jillian was on the brink of tears, and had started to hyperventilate. Right before she swatted the giant creature to make it go away, she heard a voice of reason. Sarah said "Don't MOVE! It only wants your food thingy. Just give it to him, and he'll go away." Jillian obliged enthusiastically by throwing the granola bar (still in the package) behind her with a squeal. By this time the entire group of people (about 60 people perched on the pyramid) was staring and some were laughing. The creepy critter proceeded to rip open the package with his nasty, gnarly, crookedy teeth. One of the others realized that Sarah still had her granola bar, and practically flew up the side of the mountain and teased her until she finally threw the bar in defeat. The critters somewhat resemble coons, but they also look like ant eaters/foxes. Over by a little tienda, they were terrorizing small children for their snacks.

Anyways, we took pictures and started coming back down the mountain in the hopes of not missing family Comida before Uncle Victor left. It took us only 30 minutes to hike down the mountain, and when we got to the bottom, we thought it would be easy as pie to find the bus to go home. We started walking, asked about 6people where to go (only two of which we could understand completely), and bought some french fries in our hungry state of mind. About 35 minutes later or so, we found the bus station. We rode the bus home, and walked from the stop to our house. We had missed Comida, but everyone was still sitting at the table. Mama made burritos with beef in them. She must have grilled them or something because the outside was crispy and delicious. She served it with creamy potato salad type stuff, and rice. We had what seemed to be red Kool-aid with it. Yum.

We think we're gonna play it safe the rest of the afternoon lounging around the house, and maybe going to our favorite cafe with our friends from the other university. Our hungry mindsets obviously don't make the best of choices because it must be the french fries we bought that have made us feel like we do. As of about 15 minutes ago, we have been triggered to think about our choice. We should have known that fried food on the side of the road wasn't a good idea, but it seemed like it at the time because we had been robbed of our only food. Our stomachs are paying a little bit of a price, but atleast the fries were tasty.

Also, the next time we go to the panaderia, we HAVE to post pictures. You go in, grab a tray and some tongs, and run wild through a wonderland baked goods, all of which cost under 50 cents american. We sure did buy a lot of PAAAAN DULCE and thought about the Bagby siblings.

Oh, and also... Guess what, Moms? We are bringing home a surprise. Check out the pictures to see what we mean.

Jagger being a sleepy boy after his beauty salon visit. The Church in Tepozlan

We saw cowboys in the streets.

The pyramids at the top of the mountan we climbed. View from the Pyramids.

Jillian enjoying the view.

Sarah, a true athlete.

This is what we are bringing home to America! PUPPIES! Sarah is the real view here.

Like my new man?

One of the CREATURES.

Terrorizing Children.

There were atleast 25 of these things.
We did it!

Lo hicimos!

Don't let them fool you.

Eating JILLIAN's granola bar.

We got a little excited about our athletic ability.

Are you a King of Sofas?

We know that we skipped a day of blogging, but let us just say that we have a lot to share.
Yesterday for breakfast we had cheese covered potatoes, fruit, and yogurt. Mama still is serving the Papaya. We think she's holding out for us to like it one of these days. Poor Mama. We took our first set of exams, and we think we did pretty well.
We played the Mexican Sorry! game with our curt teacher after our exam. It was fun. After our Coversation test, we showed our teacher pictures from Facebook and told her about them.

For comida on Friday we had spaghetti again, but every time we have noodles, they are completely different... and delicious. These were in some sort of creamy sauce with tomato and oniony flavor. The other thing we had was called "al hambre" or from hunger. It was chicken, bacon, peppers, onions, and a brothy sort of sauce. Sarah picked out only chicken, and you're supposed to eat it on a tortilla with beans. Jillian ate mostly salsa. The salsa keeps getting spicier, and Jillian's cheeks get pinker every time we eat.
After a short nap, we went to el Centro to hang out a little. To celebrate, we had a local fave, a Cubana. It's a corona with tons of lime juice in it in a salt-rimmed glass. Yum.

This morning we ate eggs and ham with fruit, yogurt, and coffee again at 8am. We then went to the piramides de Teopanzolco. They are some kind of Indian ruins. It was really cool. On the grounds, they found the remains of 96 dismembered bodies of women, men, and children along with these weird clay figures also with mutilated apendages. Doesn't that sound like fun? It signifies that there were probably mass human sacrifices held on this particular piece of land. Scary stuff aside, the experience was very cool. Then we took a cab to the Palace of Cortez, and whet to the museum of Cuauhnahuac. It has lots of cool artifacts from the native people and also the Conquistadors. It is held in a palace built by the Spaniards. History tells us that the palace was built on top of a pyramid. The Conquistadors knocked down the temple, and put a palace on top.

When we came home, we had Comida with our favorite Uncle, Victor, and his son Victor Jr., and Mama. We had deeeelicious chicken, with rice, and tortillas. To Jillian's delight, Mama made a new batch of salsa, red this time! After comida, Victor had a good laugh trying to get Sarah to pronounce a name of a Mexican city. You should give it a try. It is called "Parangaricutirimicuaro." Good luck. When Victor handed Sarah the napkin on which Mama had written the town name, Sarah asked Jillian "You don't think this is like Sofa King, do you?" To which Jillian replied "hahahahahahaha."
fter Victor got a good laugh at Sarah's attempts, Victor and Mama wanted to know what "sofa king" is. After a little bit of internal debate, we complied. Hearing our sweet little Mama, and crazy uncle Victor say "sofa king stupid" with Spanish accents, we almost died of laughter. Don't think we are exploiting our Mexican family for humor's sake. They insisted that we tell them what we were laughing about for about 15 minutes. We just caved... much to our delight. Paco, told us yesterday that he would have to teach us bad words to that we could get a full education... We declined. We hope he was joking, but for some reason, we think not.
Our sweet puppy, Jagger, went to the Pretty Puppies Parlor to get a bath and his nails trimmed today. What a handsome fellow. We love him.

More puppy pictures to come.

How Sweet. Jillie helps this man hold his torch.

Sarah meets the Conquistadors... :)

Sarah has many men to choose from here in Cuernavaca.

Jillian rips out the heart of a fossilized man... He was ripped open from gullet to gonads by the Mayans, and then got his heart sacrificed to the gods.

This is the man Sarah chose... Her new novio

This game is a Mayan fave. Unfortunately, the losing team was sacrificed to the gods. Jillian has never been very good at sports... needless to say, her team lost.

Check out the facts about sacrifice in good ole' Cuernavaca at the temple.

This is what remains of the temple. It is now in walking distance of a Starbucks.

Well...

That is all for now. We think it is going to rain... again. Lucky for us, it rained last night while we slept, and it really helps with the heat. The sky is somewhat blackish, entonces, it will probably rain again. The sky's tummy is rumbling with thunder. In the words of the great Garth Brooks, the thunder rolls, and the lightening strikes.

Love, Jillie and Say.

We met all kinds of people today

Today we woke up with no more bites, lukily. We had eggs and some sort of sausage for breakfast. It was good, but not our favorite of Mama's dishes. We also had fresh fruit and peach yogurt with coffee. Mama realized that we weren't eating the papaya today. Jillian choked down one piece, and Sarah didn't even bother. Mama asked, "you don't like this one?" We were busted. haha We told the truth, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

We got quizzed over verb conjugations today in the strict teacher's class. It turned into a sort of fun game. For conversation class, we visted a private university here in Cuernavaca. Our teacher's daughter attends this particular school. We got to talk to some of the students there. It was very interesting and different from the University life in the US. It was really strange for us to see boys at school because Columbia College has warped our minds a little. Communicating with boys, especially in a school setting, has become a pretty awkward for us. We met one boy, for example, who was born in Spain. His parents are from Spain too, but he has lived his whole life in Cuernavaca. Let us just say that Spain knows how to make 'em. He was very handsome, and we were a bit shy when it came to talking to him. We also met our teacher's daughter and her friends. We loved getting to see students just like us but in another culture.

After school we had one of the best comidas yet! It was this sort of brothy soup with onions and cheese in it. Then we had toquitos with cheese and spinach in them. Of course, we each put our favorite combo of sour cream, cheese, and salsa on top. Paco, the cuter son of our Mama again ate comida with us. There is a family joke about Paco because he puts sour cream in/on everything he eats. We teased him today about sharing "his" sour cream with us. Everyone had a good laugh. Then he teased us that babies on a diaper commercial spoke more spanish than we can. He's a pretty funny guy when your not giggling so loud you can't hear him talk.
Of course we are somewhat kidding about our obsession with Paco. Besides, Mama calls us her "hijas," or daughters, and we call her Mama. Entonces, that would make us siblings with Paco. We're in Mexico, not Arkansas. :)

After comida, Jillian took a 30 minute nap, and then we took a cab down to the Centro. We went to the Robert Brady museum. It was SO COOL. He was a very eccentric man who died in his 50s in Cuernavaca. His father owned a some sort of traveling company, so he never really had to work. He spent his whole life collecting interesting art, furniture, and various other things. He has stuff (for lack of a better word) from allllll over the world. He really liked primitive art, so he traveled all over into far-away villages. Let's just say, he didn't spend much time in tourist-beaten paths. We think we are going to go back because there was so much to see!

At the museum we heard a group of people speaking English. One girl and 4 boys. We encountered a funny Canadian tour guide who was telling us all fun facts about Robert Brady. After the tour, we started talking with our guide and the group of students about where we are from etc. The boys quickly pointed out our Southern accents. Two of the boys are from Ohio, one is from Holland, and the other is from Germany. The girl is from Switzerland. The girl was quiet, and went back home after the tour. The rest of us went to a restaurant that is really popular in the Centro especially for students from other countries. We sat around and talked for a couple hours. They are all really nice, and we taught them funny things that southerner's say. J'eet yet? Y'ount too? I ain't talked to you in a coon's age. You're actin ugly. etc. They thought it was pretty funny, and we poked fun when the boys from Ohio said things like "mahnster (monster), Haakey (Hockey), caahw (cow)." The Europeans thought it was all hilarious that kids from the same country poked fun at the same language. They also didn't believe that it's still legal to beat your wife on the court house steps with the good ole' rule of thumb, especially the German guy. So sweet. We still think he thinks we were lying or joking about it. Sadly, no.

We think we might meet up again with them for a movie or something. Don't worry mommas... just friends :)

Now we're studying for our exams tomorrow. eek.

Wish us luck!

Can't believe the week is almost up!

The Coldest Day Yet!

This morning we woke up with no new mosquito bites. Thank goodness! This is probably due to the fact that we went to the pharmacy yesterday and purchased some OFF. We then proceeded to coat our entire bodies in it before we went to bed. Our Mama sprayed RAID on the corners of the room and around all the doors and windows. We also slept with the door closed. Luckily, as the title of this post suggests, it was a very cool night. This morning when we woke up, much to our delight, it was rather cool outside. It has been the coolest day yet (only about 85 degrees). This may sound like a lot, but it is much less humid here than it is at home, so it felt rather delicious. We had pancakes for breakfast this morning along with the most delectable peach yogurt we have ever tasted! I must repeat that ALL of the dairy products in Mexico are 100,000,000 times better than at home. I don't know what it is, but the US needs to catch on before we get home or we will be two unhappy chicas. We also had fresh fruit (like always). Today, Mama added papaya to the fruit tray. We can only describe the taste of papaya as heartburn mixed with vomit. Yeah. Luckily, Jillian has tasted papaya before and she warned Sarah not to put too much on her plate. Sarah, being stubborn as always, insisted on trying it anyway. Jillian was right. It did, in fact, taste exactly like heartburn. After this unfortunate incident, we were not planning on eating any more papaya. Much to our disappointment, when we raided the fridge earlier, we discovered that our Mama has an ENTIRE papaya in there. This means that we will be seeing papaya every day until it is gone. It's a good thing that we have beautiful smiles and are good liars when we don't like things. Commida was much better! We had Mexican spaghetti! It's just like the spaghetti at home except better! It has peas, carrots and corn in it! So yeah...pretty much it was delicious just like everything else our Mama cooks. After commida, we had ice cream (like always). It was the most delicious ice cream we've ever had in our lives! It was neopolitan. Yum! After commida, we went back to the school to swim. The water was really cold and it felt fabulous! We swam for about an hour and then came home and took a nap. Our Mama told us that the pool in our back yard will be ready by next week (it hasn't had any water in it because it is being painted). However, next week, we will probably grow gills from being in the pool so much. We are sorry to report that Paco did not, in fact, join us for commida today =( Maybe he will make an appearance tomorrow.

A Tip from the Wise(ish)

If you plan on coming to Mexico any time soon, the key to avoiding Montezuma's revenge must be to eat a little bit of yogurt (best is plain) a couple of times daily. Sarah and I have yet to have any issues (if you know what I mean).

For breakfast we had these little sandwich thingies with ham and cheese. They were toasty and delicious. We also had fresh fruit, coffee, mango juice, and yogurt like always.

Today was our second day of classes. Our grammar teacher has warmed up a little bit, and we are coming to understand her strict teaching-ways. All you have to do is laugh a little on the inside and sometimes on the outside when you get reprimanded. She tends to smile back. :)

We talked about a lot of interesting things in our conversation class, mostly family dynamics and the behaviour of children. During our ten minute breaks we've been putting our feet in the pool. Tomorrow they said we could swim, which we are very excited about because it is hot. Luckily, it isn't as hot as saturday or sunday. During our twenty minute break we went with the doorman, Rafael, to the bank for the ATM. We paid the school a little bit of our balance, but it is difficult because the ATMs only let you take out 4,500 PESOS a day. For those of you coming in June, try and bring a traveler's check, or American cash that you can change at the airport. The banks are located in a mini shopping center with restaurants etc. When we walked by some patio seating of a resaturant, a lady looked at Jillian and said to her friend "pobrecita," which means something along the lines of "poor little thing." This must be because she (and Sarah a little too) looks like she has leprosy from the mosquitos.

After school, we had comida which consisted of tostadas. YUUUUMMMMM.

It is a cruncy taco shell with sour cream, cheese, delicious chicken in some sort of red sauce, and of course, Jillian slathered her's with green salsa that is even spicier than yesterday's batch. Luckily for Sarah, Mama resisted the urge to put chili peppers in the chicken. We also had salad (lettuce), and some sort of cold creamy pasta. Again, the giggle-inducing son ate lunch with us. Mama and Paco both laughed when we recalled the story of the woman in the shopping center feeling sorry for Jillian. During comida we watched the Mexican version of "The Price is Right!" and "Family Feud."

After comida, we took a cab (for about 2 dollars) to el Centro. We walked around the whole centro, and looked at homemade crafts, jewelry, and again we visited the black market. Sarah bought a watch for about about 10 dollars. (Dont worry Donna, it doesn't look like Jeff's NYC purchase). We also bought a clock for our room so that we won't ever be late for school. We delicious smoothie-type fruit blendy thingies in the centro (don't worry moms, the ice is made from purified water). We saw some people dressed in traditional Mayan garb. They played drums and did this cool dance/ritual thing. We again heard people talking about our bug bites. They think we don't understand Spanish.... however, we do.

Now we are sitting at the house playing with Jagger, the adorable house dog.

Also... Paco just got home from work. Card games with the whole family? Yes, please.

k bye

ATTACK OF THE MOSQUITOS!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

The Mosquitos have gone crazy. They are having a feast, and their favorite dish must be American student. They loooove us. They love us so much that they ate us alive during the night.

Sarah was fortunate enough to receive giant welts. Her bites swelled up. Luckily she didn't have a ridiculous amount. Jillian, however...

Jillian Looks like she has Chicken Pox all over again. Every inch of her shoulders and upper back is covered in little tiny bites. She also has some on her feet, hands, legs, face, chest, belly... yeah... everywhere. Pobrecita. :(

Luckily, we took a sweaty walk to our friendly neighborhood Supermercado to buy some bug spray. This better work. We'll keep you posted.

Giggling School Girls

Today was our first day of class! We woke up around 7:20 (central time), and ate breakfast at 8:15. We had french toast (yumm), fresh fruit, strawberry yogurt, mango juice, and strong Mexican coffee. The coffee here could be put in an IV for us all day long... We wouldn't mind. Then our Mama drove us to school, and we started class at 9. Our first class was a 3 hour grammar class. We get 10 minute breaks every hour. We used our break time to soak our feet in the ice-cold pool. Then we got a twenty minute break before our conversation class. Durring that break, we went to a tienda and bought these little cracker-type thinks called "Doraditas." It is a type of pan dulce, but in cracker form with a little honey or something like that on top. It was SO GOOD, especially with our "coca-cola light."The entire purchase of Doraditas and Coke light cost only 15 pesos, which is a little over a dollar. We went back to school, and started our conversation class. Every hour, like before, we had a 10 minute break. Then we came home for comida. We had a type of noodle-y soup that was kind of like home-made spaghetti-os. We had Toquitos with it, and they were filled with potato. We had the option of putting the really spicy salsa on top, and/or cream, and/or cheese. Of course, Jillian had all three with a ton of salsa, and Sarah had sour cream and cheese :). Like always, it was delicious. Then Mama served us icecream from the shop that her sister works in, and we don't know what it is about this place, but every dairy product is one million billion times better than at home.

We have two different teachers, one for grammar, and the other for conversation and culture studies. We met the grammar teacher first. Based on first impressions, we thought she was super-strict, rigid, and a little on the mean side. Turns out, she is very kind, but she taught at and was educated in a Catholic school, so her teaching methods are very stoic, strict, straight-forward, and a little curt (Like Mrs. Spigner). We like her anyways. Our conversation teacher is much warmer, and is quite like our Mama at home.

The reason that this post is titled "Giggling School Girls" is because we are just that. We were not going to bring this up via blog, but it is a recurring theme at meal time and day-to-day life here in Cuernavaca. Our Mama has two, count-em, two really adorably cute sons. We've yet to meet one of them, but the other seems to appear and disappear frequently, just in time for comida. haha. Also, he continues this disappearing act throughout the day, only to make us giggle like dummies and blush long enough before he disappears again. His name is Paco, and he is tall and verrry guapo (handsome). Word gets around quick in this town, we guess, because today, when our grammar teacher found out that we are living with Rosita, she said "Rosita's sons are very cute, no?" To which we replied "hehehe." She then explained that all of the students that have stayed with Rosita tell her that they are muy guapo. Don't worry, Mommas and Daddy's, Paco is the youngest, and he is 25. Also, he has a girlfriend. His older brother, Manuel, is like 28 or 29, and lives far away. We well meet him this Saturday, and try to keep our tongues from falling out on the floor. From the pictures that we've seen, Paco and Manuel look quite alike. Therefore, Manuel must be giggle-inducing too.

Today is Mexican Mother's Day. To celebrate, yesterday we went for a walk in order to buy flowers as a gift for our Mama. We tried to sneak them up to our room so that we could put them on the kitchen table before Mama started cooking breakfast. She caught Jillian as she was walking up the stairs with them. That being said, she was still SO excited and happy this morning when she found them on the kitchen table. The are now sitting in the den for all to see.
Happy Mother's Day to our mommies back the US.

We're here in Cuernavaca!

It's our first blog post!
It's our third day in Cuernavaca, and we are having a great time! We've decided to post little fun things on a blog so we don't forget all that we've seen/done/eaten. :)
This blog is a way for us to remember each day and share memories with family and friends. We decided it would be fun to post all the meals that we have eaten because they have been so wonderful, and we don't want to forget any when people ask what we ate.

First of all, we got off our plane in Mexico city, and stood in a line for customs for almost an hour. No one spoke English, and it was SO HOT in the airport. Luckily, a creepy, buggy-eyed, green-shirted fellow was nice enough to continuously stare at us and ask us questions. He was also in the "foreigners" line... we think he was italian. haha Anyways, we then met our diver... who also speaks no English that we know of. He was very nice and patient with us as we exchanged money, bought food, and almost peed our pants. We got in the 12-seater van(just for us), and took a pleasant 2 hour drive through giant mountains with our diver who we like to call Earnhardt. He is affectionately called Earnhardt because, like everyone else here, he drives like a bat out of hell. Clearly, this is a bit of an exaggeration. We felt very safe the whole trip, but it is true that everyone is very aggressive on the road.
When we arrived at our house in Cuernavaca, our Mama greeted us with a smiling face, and she hugged our necks immediately, and told us that we are now her "hijas," or "daughters." :)
After we put our things away in drawers and such, we went downstairs for "comida," the late afternoon meal. It consisted of chicken off the bone and delicious rice. Then we partook of deeeelicious icecream with chocolate chips. We slept our first night in Mexico on top of the covers. No one told us this is the hottest season of the Mexican year.
The next morning, Saturday, we ate breakfast. We had pancakes, yogurt, and tons of fresh fruit. We also had mango juice, which was sooo good. Side note: Mexican coffee is delish.
We then went to take our placement tests at the school in which we will be studying. The school is about a 4 minute drive from our house, and luckily our Mama is going to drive us there in the mornings and pick us up every afternoon. The walk is short, but SO hot.
We both will be reviewing evvvvverything in Spanish, including all the verb tenses.
After our exams, we had "comida" again. It was pasta, tortillas, and this sort of breaded and fried crispy delicious meat. We also had hand-mashed potatoes. After dinner, we went to the "tienda," which is like a 7/11 minus the gas. We bought two ice-cold cervezas (beers) for about a dollar each. After we finished them, we played a really fun game with our "tios" (aunt and uncle). The game was basically the Mexican version of Sorry. Our tio, Victor, is hilarious... especially when he wins a game. After he won the first round, he did a funny dance around the kitchen table saying "Soy numero uno" (I'm number one). We also went the the "plaza" on saturday. It's like any other typical American super-mall. There are stores everywhere, and it is HUGE. It looks like the columbiana (or park plaza for you arkansas folk), except everything is in Spanish. I think we will go there to see a movie sometime. At the theater, you have the option of buying VIP tickets. You get the best treatment... we don't really know what all that entails, but we think we might try it out.
After the games, we went to bed. Breakfast today, Sunday, was also great! We had ham and cheese quesadillas (yum), fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee, and juice. This morning, we went to a Catholic church service with our Mama and almost choked to death from inscense poisoning. :) Then we went to the "Centro." It's like the market where you can buy pretty much anything. Sarah bought some tennis shoes for about 35 dollars in the black market. We went to the food market, and watched our Mama buy "chicharrones," which are pork rinds. We had some at comida today. We had this kind of meat that is pounded out reeeeally thin, and then they salt it. Mama Rosita fried it in a skillet, and she had avacado and tortillas to eat with it. Buying tortillas was an adventure too! It's like a drive-thru... but for tortillas! Yumm... A GIANT bag of them costs about a dollar, and they are made by hand. We also ate this stuff (didn't catch the name), and it is some sort of meat spread that is made with lemon juice, garlic, and onion. You spread it on crackers. It is very tasty. At every meal, Mama serves really spicy green salsa. Needless to say, Sarah has yet to sample any. We also had more Coronas today. It takes the edge off the extreme heat a little. :)
Now we are sitting in our room beside the patio... blogging of course.
I think later we will have some yogurt because it is good for our stomachs in order to prevent "Montezuma's revenge."
We will for sure post pictures later. Especially of the Cathedrals in el Centro. They have been around since the 1500s, and they are beautiful!
Wow. It's only been two and a half days, and we already have this much to talk about.
Keep updated. We're sure that there is more to come soon!
Sarah Nan and Jillian Mae