A few highlights since Mexico:
We moved the week that we got back (which was crazy getting everything together so fast) into my sister Melissa's home. They were extremely kind to let us move in on such a short notice. Thanks to that we have been able to save a lot of money for Ricardo's treatments in December, and I am confident we will get everything taken care of.
It has been really fun living in American fork close to two of my sisters and my grandma and grandpa crooks and several aunts and uncles. i really love it here! Ricardo has been doing great with work and should be publishing his first paper as a co-author by December--it is about nuclear energy if anyone is curious feel free to ask him questions :)
I have been in school, enjoying it quite a bit. I like my classes and should be graduating in August!
We have been enjoying going to BYU football games, looking at all the fall leaves, and enjoying life.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Last day in Mexico
We drove back on sunday and had another of carmelita's great dinners. Monday we had a going away party that Alejandra planned. Several of Ricardo's friends came and we had dinner and then a party. They also did a birthday party for me and for another friend, Pepe since our birthdays were both pretty close. It was fun hearing "Las mananitas," the Mexican birthday song (and they sang the american one too).
We really had a great time in Mexico, and as of right now, we have our plane tickets to go there for Christmas :) So we will miss all of you here in the U.S. in december, but we look forward to seeing you all for christmas in Mexico!
We really had a great time in Mexico, and as of right now, we have our plane tickets to go there for Christmas :) So we will miss all of you here in the U.S. in december, but we look forward to seeing you all for christmas in Mexico!
last day in Queretaro
Ricardo's parents came the second day we were in Queretaro, and we had a fun breakfast together. Afterward we went to San Miguel de Allende, a nearby City. We saw a beautiful cathedral there. It was kind of cool because a coupld weddings happened while we were walking around the city and one of them the whole wedding party were riding horses and the bride and groom were in a carriage. It was also a very beautiful city, more like Queretaro than Mexico city I would say in how it looked and the pace of life. Uncle Arturo told me that it is a very American city in some ways because there are a lot of Americans that have moved there. We had lunch in a restaurant outdoors that was very beautiful and a band played a lot of traditional music from all over Latin America. I thought it was fun because when the traditional Mexican songs would come on all of the family would start singing--it was really cool to get a good taste of their traditions and songs. We spent most of the rest of the day walking around sightseeing, shopping, and eating churros con chocolate (which is very good). It is really interesting to see how the mexican culture mixes a lot of the spanish influence with a lot of the native traditions. One of these things is "el dia de los muertos." They have these dolls all over Mexico, I believe they are called catalina dolls, and they are skelletons that they dress up in all sorts of costumes. It is really a rich tradition there, and I can tell, both from looking around and from talking to Lulu, that they think of death there in a different way--more humorous and less scary.
Well, one last mention about Queretaro, it is beautiful, and if I ever moved to Mexico I would probably want to go there. I really enjoyed that city a lot and how laid back the people are. A couple more things...Queretaro is also where Ricardo's dad grew up until he went to college. Also, ana laura had the cutest Bassett hound puppies...oh it was tempting to buy one.
Well, one last mention about Queretaro, it is beautiful, and if I ever moved to Mexico I would probably want to go there. I really enjoyed that city a lot and how laid back the people are. A couple more things...Queretaro is also where Ricardo's dad grew up until he went to college. Also, ana laura had the cutest Bassett hound puppies...oh it was tempting to buy one.
So...a few months later I will finally finish our story of going to Mexico. So our last weekend we spent in Queretaro with Ricardo's family and his uncle, aunt, and cousins. It was kinda cool because Ricardo hadn't seen his uncle's family for maybe 19 years or so. We had a really fun weekend. When we got to their lovely home we had a nice lunch with Ana Laura and Mariana, who are Ricardo's cousins who he also hadn't seen for a long time. I thought it was really amazing how many fruit trees they have in their yard too. That evening aunt Lulu and Uncle Arturo took us to see the city. We saw the huge aqueducts that were built by the Spanish. I forget the names, but I guess a spanish Lord fell in love with a nun from Queretaro who ran an orphanage (if I remember right). Queretaro is quite a distance from any real source of water, so she told him that she would not take her vows and would marry him if he would build an aqueduct to get water to her orphanage. Well, he built these grand aqueducts, which can still be seen today, and as for the nun--well, she stayed a content nun the rest of her life :) I really enjoyed seeing the aqueducts. The city had a very different feel from Mexico City. We saw several old churches, each one had its stories. The streets there are very narrow and there are hardly any stoplights because they try to preserve the original look of the city. It is very beautiful and quaint, and people really seem to live a slower pace of life there. When you reach the city center there are outdoor restaurants with bands and mariachis playing, and local craftsman selling their mexican dolls and the like. They even had a frog exibit, which was quite funny. My favorite frog was one that was dressed like the angel of independence that is downtown in mexico city--but of course it was a frog :) I loved the crafts and couldn't help but bring a few home with me :)
We had a very fun dinner that night at a restaurant in the city. Lulu and Arturo's family was all there, including his daughter's Mariana and Ana Laura, and Ana's husband Carlos. We really just laughed a lot during the dinner and that was really fun. I forget how this conversation came up, but while Ricardo was in the bathroom, we started talking about who was going to have the first baby out of the cousins that had gotten married within a couple of years of each other (Ana, Alejandra, or us). Well, evidently Carlos is from a large family and he wants to have I think 8 or so kids. So I was telling him that I came from a big family and had also wanted to have several children. The funny thing is that Carlos kind of teases Ana, his wife, about it because she really doesn't want that many kids. He seemed to be doing so well at persuading Ana that I asked him if he could maybe have a talk with Ricardo :) Ricardo didn't think that was all that funny when he found out. One more humorous thing about the baby talk...well, I guess at Alejandra's wedding or sometime around them, the parents got together and made bets about who was going to have the first baby, and they decided that they were going to pay $700 to whoever had the first baby (yes, american dollars). Well, Ricardo still wasn't convinced that was enough money for him to change his mind about waiting a little bit to have kids. Well then Arturo mentioned that they were thinking about making it $7000! I told him that if they made it $7000 they could choose when we would start, haha. I have to say though...I think Ana and Carlos are going to win the prize ;)
We had a very fun dinner that night at a restaurant in the city. Lulu and Arturo's family was all there, including his daughter's Mariana and Ana Laura, and Ana's husband Carlos. We really just laughed a lot during the dinner and that was really fun. I forget how this conversation came up, but while Ricardo was in the bathroom, we started talking about who was going to have the first baby out of the cousins that had gotten married within a couple of years of each other (Ana, Alejandra, or us). Well, evidently Carlos is from a large family and he wants to have I think 8 or so kids. So I was telling him that I came from a big family and had also wanted to have several children. The funny thing is that Carlos kind of teases Ana, his wife, about it because she really doesn't want that many kids. He seemed to be doing so well at persuading Ana that I asked him if he could maybe have a talk with Ricardo :) Ricardo didn't think that was all that funny when he found out. One more humorous thing about the baby talk...well, I guess at Alejandra's wedding or sometime around them, the parents got together and made bets about who was going to have the first baby, and they decided that they were going to pay $700 to whoever had the first baby (yes, american dollars). Well, Ricardo still wasn't convinced that was enough money for him to change his mind about waiting a little bit to have kids. Well then Arturo mentioned that they were thinking about making it $7000! I told him that if they made it $7000 they could choose when we would start, haha. I have to say though...I think Ana and Carlos are going to win the prize ;)
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
LDS Funny Stuff
This is Ricardo and Alicia begged me not to write this here but I couldn't resist. We went to the Anthropology Museum today and it was amazing. I was the main photographer most of the time and we have amazing pictures. We'll post some here later but the funny part is that after we came home, we discussed for a second how the Nephites were related and I asked Alicia if she knew when the Nephites were wiped out. She said..."Probably around 2000 A.D." I was like "Wow, they must have been a modern civilization, they got wiped out like 9 years ago". We just laughed after she realized her mistake.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday Aug 24
So I am here to testify that Montezuma indeed got his revenge on Ricardo and I. Let me know if anyone knows a dance or something we can do to appease him. I think that our stomach's are not used to (or are no longer used to) the food they serve here. Very tasty, but very spicy and different. So Ricardo and I spent the whole time between last night and tonight rotating between the bed and the bathroom. I think I slept a grand total of 16 or 17 hours last night and today. Hopefully tomorrow will go a little better.
Sunday
Sunday we went and visited Ricardo's aunt Lucero. She is very sick and I am glad that I got to meet her. I was surpised when she pointed to a picture that was on her desk and it was of Ricardo and I at our wedding. It's fun to realize how much people here care about us even though we live so far away. Her aunt also has the mom, dad, and grandma dogs or Ricardo's dog Yuki. Ricardo scared one of them and they just growled at him the rest of the time we were there, it was pretty funny.
After we left ricardo's aunt we went to an argeninian restaurant called Rincón Argentino. I have no idea how his family eats food like that and stays so skinny ;) They serve churiso argentino which is a kind of pork cooked with cheese and these huge steaks. Those were probably some of the best steaks that I have ever had. Unfortunately I was still full from the breakfast I had (which, kind of funny, but that is the spiciest breakfast I have ever had, for sure). In these pictures: 1-Ricardo, Alicia, Alejandra, Mauricio. 2-Lupita, Ricardo's mom. 3-Ale & Mauricio. The rest of the pictures are also of the restaurant.
After lunch, which is the biggest meal in mexico, we drove to see Ricardo's high school. The fence around it was so high that I couldn't see much, but it was still cool. It is right next to Torre Alta, a huge apartment complex with I think more than a hundred floors. in my opinion you would have to be crazy to live in the top floor of that building with all the earthquakes they have here.
Next we drove to see some really good family friends, Fabrizio and Silvi. They live in the apartment complex that the US embassy rents out and it is the same complex where Ricardo's family lived for a long time when he was growing up. They have a huge doberman, which you will see in some of the pictures. Fabrizio gave us a tour of the complex and gardens and then we sat down and had some bread and tea. (No worries, Fabrizio assured us that they made a strictly herbal tea for us. It was really good, it had almond and vanilla leaves and some other fruit leaves). Their family is very european-Silvi is from switzerland and Fabrizio is from northern Italy. I thought it was funny when Ricardo told me that Silvi talks to their daughter in French, and her husband in Italian and then they live in mexico and speak spanish. Anyhow, we laughed a lot there because Fabrizio is very funny. And, yeah for me, I actually understood some jokes in spanish, lol. In the pictures below: 1-Silvi, Alicia, Ricardo. 2-Ricardo Sr., Fabrizio, Silvi, Lupita. 3-Their dog
After we left ricardo's aunt we went to an argeninian restaurant called Rincón Argentino. I have no idea how his family eats food like that and stays so skinny ;) They serve churiso argentino which is a kind of pork cooked with cheese and these huge steaks. Those were probably some of the best steaks that I have ever had. Unfortunately I was still full from the breakfast I had (which, kind of funny, but that is the spiciest breakfast I have ever had, for sure). In these pictures: 1-Ricardo, Alicia, Alejandra, Mauricio. 2-Lupita, Ricardo's mom. 3-Ale & Mauricio. The rest of the pictures are also of the restaurant.
After lunch, which is the biggest meal in mexico, we drove to see Ricardo's high school. The fence around it was so high that I couldn't see much, but it was still cool. It is right next to Torre Alta, a huge apartment complex with I think more than a hundred floors. in my opinion you would have to be crazy to live in the top floor of that building with all the earthquakes they have here.
Next we drove to see some really good family friends, Fabrizio and Silvi. They live in the apartment complex that the US embassy rents out and it is the same complex where Ricardo's family lived for a long time when he was growing up. They have a huge doberman, which you will see in some of the pictures. Fabrizio gave us a tour of the complex and gardens and then we sat down and had some bread and tea. (No worries, Fabrizio assured us that they made a strictly herbal tea for us. It was really good, it had almond and vanilla leaves and some other fruit leaves). Their family is very european-Silvi is from switzerland and Fabrizio is from northern Italy. I thought it was funny when Ricardo told me that Silvi talks to their daughter in French, and her husband in Italian and then they live in mexico and speak spanish. Anyhow, we laughed a lot there because Fabrizio is very funny. And, yeah for me, I actually understood some jokes in spanish, lol. In the pictures below: 1-Silvi, Alicia, Ricardo. 2-Ricardo Sr., Fabrizio, Silvi, Lupita. 3-Their dog
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