It's April! My flight is on Saturday! WOW i can't believe it! My time here in Mexico is basically over and I'll be back in the states by the end of the week! This has been quite the experience here. I've worked, laughed, cried, bled, learned, taught, and had an awesome time. Since I got here I feel like I have changed a lot as a person. I've matured, and learned a lot. My Spanish is awesome now :) I've been teaching English classes every day while I've been here and I have a new found respect for teachers, and language teachers in particular. It is really hard work!

I've found a new love for Mexican food, especially the tacos you can buy on the street. I am going to miss those SO much, but apparently there is a little taco stand in salt lake that has them! so I may be in luck!! Anyone who hangs out with me will probably hear me mention just how amazing the tacos are.

I've worked long days and learned how greenhouses work, learned all about tomatoes (they love tomatoes here :P go figure) and learned to love how hard Mexicans can work. They really are incredible, they can just keep going and going! I wish I could work as hard as they can.



I've been to a whole bunch of YSA dances while I've been here and am now a semi-decent dancer at Salsa, Cumbia, Merengue, and Rock and Roll! Their dances here are soo much fun! everyone dances the entire time and they don't end till one thirty in the morning! Then afterwards everyone goes for tacos!! (Interesting fact: The  Taquerias (taco stands) don't even open till like 8 o'clock at night and don't close till 5 in the morning! Apparently that's when most people here want to eat! It's pretty crazy.

So i went back to the downtown area again and had a chance to take way more photos, with a way nicer camera! so enjoy some of these great photos!! :D

This the Palace of beautiful art from a distance and is even more beautiful in person :D

 This is called the statue of the little horse, can you see how it's kinda a horse??

 the bigger half of the main cathedral of Mexico city :D

 A swarm of bees on a trailer. sooo many bees

 I thought this was a pretty cool skyskraper :) although its not one of the bigger ones

 some cool modern art, there are other "chairs" on the other side, its cool!

 An awesome bench!

 Sadly way too many people live like this here in Mexico City, or only slightly better

 Part of the shops in downtown. It's like the riverwoods, with 50 times more shops...which might sound like an exaggeration... and I think I might be a little low actually. It's like the size of Lindon...

An angel statue called the Angel of Salvation. It's pedestal is about 150 feet high

Closer up view of the angel.

Basically this has been such an awesome experience here in Mexico, and I would do it again if I had the opportunity when I get back from my mission. Although, I am definitely ready to come back to the states and get ready to go on my mission!!

 Man it's been forever since I've gotten on and blogged! Since I last blog the students that were here have all left and gone home and have been gone a week! These pictures of the rain were taken at their graduation ceremony and look how much it was raining!! It poured harder than I think I've ever seen it rain

 This puddle is like three inches deep and there is a drain in the middle of it that can't take water down fast enough

 This is the courtyard in the middle of the church that when I got there was completely dry and at the point I took this picture had completely filled up even though there is a drain right in the middle too, the only thing keeping it from overflowing into the building are the two more drains at the edges near the doors

 These are the graduates from this past generation! Man aren't they a good looking bunch

  This is when it was hailing the next day! You can't really see the hail but they are coming down in about the size of BBs.

 So these are the tacos that are absolutely delicious here! This particular taco is called Pastor con Queso and this is how basically all the tacos come. A plate full of meat with a handful of small corn tortillas. And they are absolutely delicious!!

 This is from the left: Evelyn, Felipe, and Marisol (and the hand is Luis) Felipe was a student and Evelyn and Marisol are employees of the academy.

 Me and Evelyn enjoying our tacos :)

 This is how they cook the Pastor. What it is is basically a leg of a pig that's been skinned and then marinated in deliciousness and then stuck on this rod. That is a very hot flame on the back there that they cook the pig with right in front of you and it is absolutely delicious. It's my favorite tacos by far and it's really interesting to see how they cook it.

 This is Brother Stephen Gibson the founder of the Academy with his wife Bette. They came to the academy to celebrate his birthday! He's a really awesome guy and fun to talk to.

  Luis being Luis while Marisol is taking pictures

 Two of the sisters that came to our nighttime classes. I got to know them and they are really cool

 The Gibson's with Ivan one of our chefs here at the academy

 From left: Jeremi (the director), Sis. Gibson, Bro. Gibson, Gandhi, and Jacobo. Gandhi, and Jacobo are my two main students that i am teaching english to.

 This is the Tiangis Market. Basically Tiangis means that it's a mobile market. It is literally in the middle of the street and is in a different place every day. This particular one is always right by the academy every wednesday so we almost always go on wednesdays. The reason its all pink is because the tarp over our heads is red and the sun is out shining bright. This market is really really cool and they sell basically anything you could ever need. DVDs are 10 pesos (like 90 cents) with any movie you want, and yes they are totally pirated but they work really good.

 This is the mall that i went to yesterday with Luis. It is huge!! and it's not even close to the biggest one here! it's five levels if you count the movie theater top level and is just huge.

 Yes it keeps going around the corner for quite a while...

 They have a CineMark in this mall and the ticket counters look just like the ones from home!

You buy your tickets from where I took the picture and then have to go up the stairs to the fifth level to the movie theater.

 Almost all of the stores have English names because most of them are from the USA

 Here you can see four of the levels with that fifth one being the movie theatre that you can't see

 Pretty sure this is Sarah's dream restaurant because these are only dessert crepes and waffles and they will put just about anything on them. Very delicious!

 We have a Dairy Queen! :D

So i'm just gonna post some random interesting stuff here in Mexico, random things that are kinda fun :)

 This is Adrian being Adrian. He basically wants to be american and he's pretty awesome

 These are mine and Luis's beds. I'm the one on the right, ya know the messy one

 This is what we had for lunch today. Those green bean looking things are actually called nopales (prickley pears) and are not very good haha even if they do look like green beans they are NOT. The meat is basically beef but it is seriously lgood and that was potato soup with bacon! can't complain about this meal!

 They sell coke in 2.5 liter bottles here!! sweet huh!! they also sell them in tiny little mini bottles, and every possible bottle size you can imagine!

 Some of the students playing monopoly, we've got them addicted to it now that we taught them business rules and how to win. Beto who is in the tan polo almost always wins. The kid is a stud!

And whenever the students have any free time you always always see them on facebook. That's one thing that is definitely not different here in Mexico.

So now it is February 16th and I can't believe I have been here over a month now! There have definitely been some big ups and downs while I've been here but overall it's been pretty great. While I've been down here I've been exercising again and getting in shape like I use to be and I'm starting to look a lot better :) I'm also learning how to play guitar! I can play Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi, and Stuck like Glue by SugarLand and then I've been working on chords but it's way fun! I'm really enjoying it and finally I am making some progress and actually being able to play somewhat! This weekend we are going to see the pyramids!! I'm really excited! Check out how huge this one is!!

And yes those tiny little specs on the stairs and on the left in the open are people.

This is how it compares to the Great Pyramid of Giza!

Yeah I'm pretty excited to go see them on Saturday. I'm actually going with Jeremi and his Dad who will be in town, so it should be a really awesome trip!

Other exciting things...um...a lot of the students dressed up as characters a couple of days ago when they went out selling, and actually did a pretty good job of making their costumes! (I've been trying to upload a picture of them for like an hour but the dang computer doesn't like me and won't upload them. so i'll try to put them up later)

I've been teaching Danny, the bishop's son, English for two weeks now! He's a lot of fun and quite the handful, it's really hard to get him to focus on learning when all he wants to do is just talk. He kinda listens to me and will repeat the words I tell him to but I can tell that he really isn't paying any attention and just wants to play. So what we are doing is playing some baseball every Tuesday as a reward for studying and practicing his English! He really likes this idea, cause he absolutely loves baseball!

Till next time guys!