Saturday, September 11th

We went to Desierto de Los Leones again today, we ended up getting a little more excitement then we had planned, and not in a good way.
We were going with about 11 other families, most of which we didn't know. We arrived at the meeting place at about 12:00. I found Miah's mom and asked her where Miah was, she said that she had taken a walk into the forest. So I walked straight down into the forest to go look for her, I gave up that idea pretty quickly since the forest was huge. I decided to keep going anyway and explore. Ethan, Tomas and Miah's little brother Noah followed me into the woods, Ethan and Tomas didn't follow for long because they thought that they had seen a spider and went back. Noah kept going with me. We walked for a while, climbing through the underbrush and crossing back and forth across the river that we were following quite a few times. Probably about 30 minutes later we decided to head back because the parents might worry about us, we turned around and headed back the way we had come. We happened across a path and followed it for a while. Then I realized that we were on the wrong side of the river and we wouldn't know when to leave the river and go up through the woods. So we worked our way down off of the path and after a lot of hard work, we found a place where we could cross. We started heading up the hill because we had come down to find the river. We went that way for a LONG time and the brush was just getting thicker, that was when we realized that we were completely lost. We tried to keep going, I knew for a fact that we had to go up, but it never occurred to me that we might be on the wrong bank. XP As we climbed I heard Noah start to sniffle, and before long he was sobbing and panicking. That boy has a wild imagination. "What if they leave without us? What if we die of hunger? What if a bear comes and eats us?" That's all I heard between sobs as he followed me. I asked him if he really thought his parents would leave without him and then told him that it takes weeks to die of starvation and there weren't any bears in these woods. He continued panicking. At this point I started worrying too, we had been gone for a long time and I was sure that the parents had noticed by then, but it was a big forest. Then Noah started yelling for help without listening to see if they called back. He started up a stream of, "MOM! HELP ME! I'M LOST IN THE WOODS! FOLLOW THE RIVER AND THEN GO UP!" and he repeated this every few steps. I had to tell him to be quiet so that we could listen for them calling back. I was terrified and Noah's panicking wasn't helping, I also started to get very upset, but I didn't panic. After a while I heard a faint voice coming from down and to the left, aka, the opposite direction that we were going. By now, Noah didn't trust me and I had to convince him to follow me in going the opposite direction that we had been going, even though he could hear the voice too. "What if it's not them?" "Well we know that it's a person, a person will most likely have a cellphone." "Do you know how to ask that in Spanish?" "Yes." "How will they know where to find us?" This went on and on as we slowly worked our way towards the voice. When we finally got close enough to hear them clearly, I could see that it was my dad and Mr. Marcus. We made our way towards each other and then they lead us back, we meet up with Noah's dad and my mom on the way. I broke down when my dad reached us. I had been trying to hold it in, but I couldn't anymore. We had been gone for a good 2 hours if not 2 1/2. When we got back to everyone else, I washed my filthy hands and many scratches, had some water, ate a bit, and just rested for a while. While we had been in the woods, I wasn't hungry, thirsty, cold, or tired, just scared. When we got back, I suddenly realized that I was all four! I took a break for a while and calmed down while Miah told me what had been going on at her end.
When Ethan and Tomas came back without us, they had told everyone that Noah and I were waiting a little ways down the river. But when we didn't come back after a while, the kids started worrying. They all went and told the parents that they didn't know where we were and made them come down. Then the parents got worried. They split up to look in different directions, calling for us the whole time. It took them a long time to get close enough to where we could hear them! Miah said that a lot of the kids were panicking just like Noah and the adults started getting really worried before they found us. After we got back, everyone calmed down and we had lunch.
A while after, almost everyone went to tour an old monastery, I was still not feeling my best but I was better, so I went too. Miah and I had fun joking about the monastery being "fascinating" and my "excellent" sense of directions. When we finished with the monastery, Miah and I went up the street to look at some little stands that were selling hats and we each got one. My family left right afterwards and we headed home.

Monday, August 23rd

Sorry that I didn't post for so long, school has been keeping me busy then the Internet quit and then I kinda got traumatized XP (see Saturday's post).

School started on August 23rd, a lot earlier than most schools in the U.S. My school is called Eton, it's pretty far away from my house and I have a long bus ride, but I get home in the afternoon at a decent hour. The school put me in 2nd grade....just kidding XD. It's called 2nd de secundaria (2nd of secondary) in Mexico the grades go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, etc.... So I'm really in 8th, they just call it second!

The girls in my grade are pretty easy to categorize. There's the huge group of about 20 Mexicans, the two Koreans, and me. I have become good friends with the Koreans, Jany (pronounced Hani) and Lora. They are like me, actually trying to learn in school instead of texting each other from under the desk like a lot of the popular Mexicans. Jany and Lora are Koreans by birth, but Mexicans by culture. The have both lived in Mexico for most of their lives and speak Spanish fluently.

I only have 3 English classes and there aren't any native English-speakers in my grade, so I pretty much speak Spanish all day. I'm not sure that there are any other Americans in the school. My classes in English are Social Studies, Literature, and Composition. My Spanish ones are: Math, Fisics, Civics, Spanish, History, Tutor, Computers, and PE. But not all in one day, obviously, they're spread throughout the week. Mexican middle school isn't like in the States, we only change classes twice, for English and Spanish classes. Instead of us changing classes, the teachers do!

I really like Eton and I'm glad that I chose to come here. I feel like I'm learning a ton of Spanish, but it's not really boring or hard! In other words, life is good right now! :)

Sunday, July 25th

Today we got pulled over for the first time since being back in Mexico. My mom, dad and I were on our way back from the theater (where we had seen Shrek 3) and my dad made an "illegal" U-turn. There was no sign saying that you couldn't U-turn, but there was no sign saying that you could. There was another place to U-turn up ahead and that was where you were supposed to turn. I'm going to explain something before going any farther. The police in Mexico City don't get paid very much, so when they pull people over they ask for a "mordita", in other words, a bribe. They give you two choices, you pay them now and go on your way, or they keep your driver's license, give you a ticket, and you have to come back the next day to fill out paperwork and then pay. As my dad said, you either pay in money, or you pay in time and money. With either option you can be sure that the money you pay isn't going to go to the government, the officers will split it up between them and keep it. So when the police pulled us over, my dad played new-to-Mexico gringo, he pretended to only know a little Spanish. While the police were trying to explain something that we understood perfectly (but pretended not to), I was sitting in the back trying as hard as I could not to burst out laughing! It was very funny watching my dad work to get the perfect balence, knowing enough so that eventually they would make themselves understood, but little enough so that they had to work pretty hard and repeat themselves a lot. My dad was aiming to make them frustrated so that they would let him off easy, it didn't really work. So after quite a while of listening to the officers try to explain, we paid them and they let us leave.

Tuesday, July 18th

We went to the zoo today with the Michaels! It was really fun and we took lots of funny pictures (you can see them on Picasa!). We took the public bus to get there, my family rode it by ourselves because we were going to meet the Michaels there. My mom was a bit nervous because it was only our second time and she was doing it herself, but thankfully we got there okay. We had a great time and we only lost Nate once! When we were done with the animals we had to walk down a long street to leave the zoo, and there were stands selling things down both sides of it. It took us a while to leave, we bought a few things on the way out. When we left that street we headed toward the bus stop, but on the way we stopped to take some pictures of a few statues....Do these look familiar to anyone? If they do it's because they're in our house! The bull is in the yard and the mermaid (yes that's what it is) is in the entrance! The guy who made them is very well known and some of his work is in famous museums. We have famous artwork in our house! :)

Saturday, July 17th

We had an adventure today! :) We left the house at around 8:30 to go to some caves near Taxco (the silver town), the drive took about 2 hours. The caves were called Cacahuamilpa and they were HUGE! We had to go with a tour (I guess they didn't want anyone wandering around by themselves), I didn't like being with the tour because we stopped in every cavern for about 10 minutes so that the guide could point out all of the shapes that the rocks made. But his voice echoed and we couldn't understand anything he was saying. For the first about 30 minutes it was really cool to look at all of the rock formations made by the dripping water, then my foot started to hurt, Abby's stomache hurt, and we were all tired and bored so we turned around and went back. On our way back we passed an open auditorium with a free concert so we sat down and listened to a few songs. It was two people preforming, one with a guitar and one with an accordian. They were really good, but it wasn't exactly my style of music. When we had rested for a few minutes we walked the rest of the way out. It was amazing coming out, after staring at rocks in the darkness of a cave, the plants outside seemed much greener and more brilliantly colored! Then we drove into Taxco, which is a town that is famous for its silver. Abby and I each got a ring and then we headed to lunch. It's funny how much I remember that I thought I had forgotten, we had eaten at this same restaurant a couple of years ago and my mom had eaten something that made her sick, thankfully none of us got sick this time! I also remembered that we have a picture of us next to an Aztec calendar and another next to an old tree, we took another picture next to the same calendar and tree, it's amazing how different we are!!

Then:Now:

(Oh, and we are sticking our tounges out for a reason, it looks like the face on the calendar is doing it, so we didn't do it to be weird or anything. Just clearing that up! :))

Then:

Now:

(I'll post the rest of the pictures on Picasa soon!)

After our brief shopping trip we got in the car again to go see some ruins, but we were to be disappointed, and a bit frustrated. We got there 5 minutes too late to go in! So we got back in the car and went home. I slept most of the way back, which was good because I need to catch up on my sleep after staying up late with Noelle a couple days in a row. When we got back and as soon as the little ones were in bed, my mom, dad and I watched Part 2 of the first Lord of the Rings.

Friday, July 16th

Sorry for not writing, our Internet went out a week ago.

Last Friday I left for a Spanish camp, I stayed there until Sunday afternoon. I really liked it! I went to this same camp last time I lived here, but I didn't like it last time. While I was there it rained almost constantly the whole time, by the end I was tired of being wet! The camp was mostly a lot of phisical, outdoor games. My favorite part was a midnight walk that we took, but we weren't allowed to use flashlights! I arrived home on Sunday and went almost straight to bed.

On Tuesday Noelle came over with her family, we played Wii and then attempted to make fudge. The result looked like mud, tasted like chocolate syrup, and smelled like buttered toast! When she left I went with her to spend the night at her house, then the next day she went back with me to spend the night at my house. We made cookies, built a fort, and watched a part of Lord of the Rings. We slept in our fort that night and it was incredibly comfortable! Then yesterday Noelle's family came over again and we all took a bus to the Museum of Anthropology. The museum was pretty interesting, but we got tired quickly. When we were all ready to leave we went to a restaurant for lunch and then went to Ciudadela. I have no doubt that we would have bought a lot more than we did, but the problem was we didn't bring much money. We used most of it on bus fares, getting into the museum, and eatting, we spent almost all of the rest (which wasn't very much). When we got back to the house, Abby went with David to their house while Tomas and Noelle stayed at ours to spend the night (again!). We played Wii, made pudding, and watched Harry Potter before we went to bed. This morning they left at 11:00 to go back to their house and bring Abby back.

Earlier this afternoon a guy came to fix the Internet, finally! Then Abby started to feel bad, so far she's watched The Garfield Movie and two of the Harry Potter movies.

Tuesday, July 6th

Today Rachel came over and stayed almost all day, we played Wii most of the time. In the time Rachel was here I managed to get hurt quite a bit! When we were preparing lunch I slammed my thumb in a drawer and it started to swell up, while we were playing Wii my toe started to hurt, (I have no idea why) and then right before she had to go she tried out the exercise machines and I jumped over one to get out and managed to bang my knee on it! Ugh. Rachel had to go around 5:00 because after that our driver had to take the car to pick up my dad. She was going to stay longer and then once our driver got back he'd take her home, but it would be pretty late and her parents didn't want her to. It turns out it's a good thing she had to go, because on his way to pick up my dad, Gilberto had a car accident! He's fine thankfully, and the car only has a few dents and scratches, but Rachel would probably be stuck at our house for a LONG time! My dad had to get a ride home from work because the paperwork for the crash took hours to finish. When my dad got home my mom said jokingly, "So much for our brand-new car that we were trying to keep nice. We don't keep new cars new for long!"