Recent Happenings

So, the Tucson tragedy has been all over the news. A man about my age brought a gun to Safeway and shot a congresswoman, killed 6 people, and wounded many others. When I first heard the news, my housemates and I were at a brunch with a JV from Alaska and her parents. We watched the news intently at the restaurant, and have followed the story since then on the Internet.

I was having a difficult time describing how I felt the other day, but I'll try to put it into words here. At first, it felt very weird. I didn't know any of the victims or the shooter, and the grocery store was up in the North of Tucson, which is not that close to us. Not to say I didn't feel very bad about the shootings because I did, but it didn't feel like it happened that close or that it could have happened to me.

Then, in the following days, when we learned more about the victims and I thought more about some of the things we have done here (like going to protests) I thought--wow I could've been at something that could have broken out into violence. And that 9 year old girl that died could have been one of the 9 year old kids that I teach at this school. That's when it started to feel more real.

Then the other night, I had a nightmare about everyone I saw had a gun and was trying to shoot me. It felt very real in the dream and when I woke up and went to work I found out about the protests that were going to happen at little Christina's funeral, so it wasn't a great day. (luckily the Westboro church will not picket her funeral because they made a deal with a DJ for airtime, but they are still picketing the other victims' funerals, which is ridiculous and makes me sad/mad:(

Yesterday, we went to go see Obama speak at the U of A. Jen and I didn't get in because the line had about 13,000 people in front of us and only 12,000 could get in. We ended up going to the stadium right next to where Obama spoke and watching it on the jumbo screen in there. (with about 13,000 more people) This is when I felt the most connected to the Tucson community. I loved Obama's speech and it made me tear up several times just thinking of how devastating this is for the victim's families and for the community. But we will stay strong and Tucson is a great town. Like the president of the U of A said, it's a city that feels like a small town. Some people on CNN are saying it was strange there was so much clapping at the speech and it should have been more of a memorial than a pep rally. I felt however, that the speech was very appropriate and the clapping was all of us joining together to agree and applaud what he was saying. It didn't feel like a campaign speech to me at all. I thought it was amazing and I was so glad I went.

This weekend, after the tragedy and before Obama's speech, I drove up to Phoenix to see the parents and for the Oregon game. They didn't get me tickets, but it was still fun and we went to the official tailgate party. It was a much needed break from all the sadness in Tucson. It was great to see the parents and they are coming back in February!

I think today, after hearing Obama's speech about us coming together, I am feeling a lot better. I continue to pray for the victims and their families as well as the family of the shooter. Gabriel Giffords is recovering in the hospital right now and I hope she makes a full recovery. It's such an inspirational story to see her recover. When Obama said she opened her eyes for the first time yesterday, I was so happy.

Update for my previous blog: I put photos on Facebook from Guatemala: HERE

I went to Guatemala!!!! And now I'm back at work...

So, Guatemala was definitely an experience. It was my second trip there, but VERY different than my first time visiting in June. For starters, we spent an entire week in Antigua, a cute little touristy town that has great restaurants, cobblestone streets, and is surrounded by volcanoes. (<---) The vacation started out very relaxing, going to nice restaurants for lunch and dinner, and eating out A LOT! It was pretty much the opposite of JVC where we eat out like once a month. (seriously) And I got a pedicure.
Awesome.

My mom, dad, Sean and I took Spanish lessons at La Union Spanish school in Antigua. My teacher, Dalia, was great. I'm very much a beginner in Spanish, but started to understand a bit of what she was saying. We went over the basics like Ser and Estar, conjugating verbs, and learning vocab as she spoke to me in Spanish. The lessons were really cool cuz it was one-on-one the entire time, just having conversations in Spanish. I got a book too, which I will be studying with this year along with Rosetta Stone to improve my Spanish! It was fun also because we played games like Scrabble in Spanish and Basta! (Categories)

My favorite thing we did while there was we took a trip to the volcano Pacaya. We got to hike up a bit and see an amazing view of Antigua and like 4 other volcanoes. On Pacaya we roasted marshmallows because there was so much heat coming from the little caves. I have pictures I'll post to facebook. It was the best day!!!

On Christmas Eve, we went to eat at a very nice restaurant and I had pumpkin ravioli (yum!) or maybe that was what I ate at another place..hard to remember, but it was good food whatever it was! We went to a Christmas mass in Spanish and I was kinda lost. And by kinda I mean really. Those words were not covered in my lessons at La Union haha. I pretty much spaced out. It was a long service. But nice. In Antigua, at midnight on Christmas Eve, they set off tons of fireworks like it's New Year's Eve. So, we stayed up til midnight and ran outside our little guest house we were staying in to view all the fireworks around us. It was really cool!

We left the next day in a micro van to drive 8 (ish) hours to San Martin, Erin's site with Peace Corps. This is when the trip took a serious turn. Erin's house is not someplace I would want to live. It's great that she can do it, but I like having a shower and not being afraid of getting sick if I use a little bit of the water, and stuff like that. It was totally fine for the visit (except I was like deathly allergic to her house and woke up several nights having a hard time breathing), but I wouldn't want to live there for 2 years. I'm so proud of my sister for being able to cope with all the things she does. She's amazing!!!

The coolest thing we did in San Martin was take a hike up to the ruins. I wasn't prepared for a hike, I wore my Converse sneakers, but then Erin reminded me the the kids from her village that were going with us were wearing old sandals and they would love to have my shoes. So, then I felt bad for complaining! The cutest little girl, Stephanie, follows Erin around the village and she came with us along with 2 other girls and a boy. The ruins are mostly covered in grass, but the view from the top shows all of San Martin, so it was really worthwhile to go up there. We brought a little frisbee and Sean and I played with Stephanie. I took some pictures (and she took one of us!) that I'll put up too.

After 3 days in San Martin, we were ready for the next place, so we went to Todos Santos, the town closest to Erin on the way back towards Antigua and the capital. It's about half hour/45mins from San Martin, but much bigger and touristy. It's famous for the people wearing traditional Mayan dress and the men wear red pants with stripes and white hats. I really liked the red pants and want some for myself!!! At this point, my mom and Sean got pretty sick. Mom was the worst. We spent two days in Todos Santos, just hangin out, going to the market, and eating Guatemalan food at the comedors. We had some blue corn tortillas that tasted sooo good!

On New Year's Eve day we left at 7am to take the long ride back to Antigua. The ride wasn't quite as long this time, but still it's a van ride. It's MUCH nicer than taking the camionetas (chicken buses) all the way back! whew! We got to Antigua in the middle of the day and Erin and I went for a run. It was hot and my stomach was hurting, so it didn't go that well for me. Then, for lunch we went to a delicious crepe place where I had my favorite--banana and nutella with vanilla ice cream!! yummmm!

For dinner, we went to the nicest (and expensive!) restaurant in Antigua. On the way there we almost got hit by the fireworks as there were men with crates of fireworks on their backs shooting them off into the crowd. It was cool/scary!! And the crowds were huge for 7pm! The restaurant didn't have anything vegetarian on their special New Years Eve menu, but they did have one mushroom thing left that my mom ordered. I wasn't feeling that hungry and neither was she. We ended up sharing it even though I didn't eat the mushrooms. They had decorated our table really nicely and put real fireworks on it, so of course we lit them at the table! They were only sparklers and the waiter looked at us weird, but whatever. We aren't fancy enough for them anyway;)

And then........later that night I started to feel worse and worse....and I decided to take a nap before the crazy New Years fireworks. I ended up falling asleep until midnight when the insane amount of fireworks going off woke me up. I tried to shake Sean awake, but he didn't wake up, so I ran upstairs as fast as I could to catch the fireworks from the roof. It was really pretty. Everyone was shooting off the HUGE ones on their own so it was all over the city! The view up there was amazing. We had watched the sunset behind the volcanoes up there earlier that night and I loved it. But when the fireworks were going off I did not feel well. I decided to go back to bed when they died down a bit.

At about 5am I woke up and felt even worse..and then the puking started. I won't go into that...but it was nasty...

I was sick the rest of the next day and was really worried I'd get sick on my flights home, but I didn't! And today, I'm feeling MUCH MUCH better!!! yay! I'm back in Tucson and at work. (It's lunch break, so I can blog hehe) Being back at work feels like I never left. We have new software and headphones for the kids to use, which is super helpful. The kids talk to each other less when they are plugged in! Phew! And I forgot how absolutely adorable the little ones are! I still have no idea if I want to be a teacher in the future, but who knows! Maybe!

My New Year's Resolutions are:
1. Run my first marathon in June (and then another in December)
2. Learn Spanish and use Rosetta Stone
3. Learn how to play the guitar (for reals this time!)

Soooo hopefully I stick to those. I haven't really started them yet, but it is only the 4th day of the year:)

1/2 Marathon and Christmas Picture!

We finished the half marathon yay!! My time was 2 hrs and 3 mins! I was aiming for like 2:10, so I'm really happy with my time:) They put up some pictures on the Internet of me running....I copied them, but not going to order them so that's why they say "PROOF" on them haha. It was a great race! Supposedly downhill, but it felt flat most of the time until the end when there were a couple small hills. But they came at the worst time (like mile 12!) so I was exhausted. My other goal for the race was to run the whole time without walking, and when I saw those hills I was like "oh crap.." but I did it! I ran them! Even though I was going about walking pace, I still did it:) yay. Jen and her friend Alicia also ran the half marathon with really good times! After the race we all got free massages and then headed to a cupcake place. My cupcake was cinnamon-y like a snickerdoodle. DElicious !!!

Jen and I now are thinking of running a FULL marathon! Crazy right? ;) We've both never done a full, but there is an awesome one (Rock n Roll) in San Diego in June that we are considering. And it ends in Sea World! Sooo that's what we're lookin at...

Yesterday, we had our support people (Ann and Cece) over for a little Christmas party. It was fun! We did white elephant gifts (I got mine at Goodwill for $1) and had some cookies, chocolate, wine, you know the usual;) We also took our Christmas picture which we are going to send out! Here it is:

Casa Nacho Christmas!!!! I'm holding Alejandro, our new prickly pear cactus, Erin has antlers, Jen is holding a wreath (REAL!) that Jeff's parents sent us, and Jeff is holding a pretty stocking that Ann let us borrow! That wreath smells awesome btw.

So, that's us! All ready for Christmas! I'm leaving this Saturday for Guatemala! 3 more days!!!

Holidays!

It is time for the holidays!! For Thanksgiving I drove over to Palm Desert to hang out with Mom, Dad, Sean, Grandma and Grandpa! That was really fun :) Except then we went to Vegas for Sean's 21st bday and in the course of one night I lost my purse which had my phone, credit card, camera, and license in it....AND on the drive home I accidentally locked my keys in my car when I was 3 hours from Tucson. Soooooo I decided that I just fall apart when I leave Tucson hahha.
It was really nice to get back to Tucson and see my community members again and sleep in my bed! (not that couches aren't awesome;) I had only been gone for 5 days but it felt like a long time to be gone! For Christmas we are going to Guatemala for 2 weeks...that's gonna feel like forever I bet!!

In our house we are celebrating the Christmas season by handmaking cards and watching holiday romantic comedies:) the bestest! Jen and I have been making cards from construction paper, ribbon, and glue. I'm making cards for my co-workers with little peppermint chocolates on them~ we watched Love Actually and The Holiday. good stuff! We might decorate a little bit, but no Christmas tree for the house :( (too expensive!) But Erin and Jeff planted some things in our garden so that's exciting!!!

Work is going pretty well. For the 7th and 8th graders, I'm having them each research Christmas traditions in a different country. We're making Word documents with pictures, citing our sources, and hopefully printing them out when they are done...I'm low on color ink...but anyway....oh the 6th graders are making Christmas cards in Word. The younger kids (2nd-5th grade) all have blogs now and they are really excited about them! They love to comment on each other's blogs (usually things like "nice!" and "cool!" haha) And then the really little kids (pre-k thru 1st) are just mostly playing educational games that I find online for them. And doing some typing practice. So that's fun...

On Friday I got to be a chaperone for the first time in my life! We went to a high school with 17 K-4th graders to a Christmas party. It was held for those kids whose families are the most in need. They each got presents from Santa and got to pick out a present for someone in their family as well. It was really cute! The high schoolers also did crafts and played sports with the kids, sang choir songs and put on a few skits, as well as had a dance party with the kids! They were sooo excited when Santa finally came out to give them their presents! It was great too since there were so many high schoolers I really didn't have to do much. The kids were a little rowdy on the bus, but I decided to just play I-Spy with the 2nd graders sitting next to me instead of "shh-ing" them every two seconds. As long as they were sitting down, I just let the kids be kids.

I think the only real problem I'm having is that I'm a little too nice sometimes. I don't really want to punish the kids or be mean to them, so when they don't follow directions or chat with each other I just tell them to stop, but don't really do anything like yell or take their computers away. I think if I did take the computers away, they would just talk anyway. Soooo besides that, work is going well! They eventually listen to me :)

Only a week and a half left until I leave for Guatemala! Exciting!!!

Breathing Peace

Hello there again! Well last week was a short work week! Veteran's Day we all got off from work, so we decided to work on our garden! We borrowed a pick-up truck from Cece's dad and went around to different spots we found on craigslist for dirt, pots, and pallets for the compost. We also stopped by Ace Hardware to get potting soil, top soil and manure (we kept saying "that's horse shit!") haha. We constructed a compost that's right under our kitchen window, so we can just open the window and throw compost out into it. That's right, we're that bad-ass! We tied the pallets together with old plastic shopping bags. Doing the REUSE part!

(<---me+compost) On Saturday, we had some more time to work on our garden. When we went to actually dig it though, it proved to be more difficult that expected! The ground here is close to rock hard so it has to be pick-axed first, then dug up. It was very taxing on the pick-axers (I stuck to the shovel most the time, because I learned that I suck at using the pick-ax!) After digging, mixing in soil and manure and covering, we ended up with a garden that is about the size of a grave (it kinda looks like one too....oh well!)

<--Me, Jeff, Jen, and Erin with our garden (compost is behind me, kitchen window right above!)


Saturday night, to get ready for Sunday, we went to a gathering at Southside Presbyterian church (where the Sanctuary movement started!). And that is where I saw Father Matt! It was good to see him again and we talked a bit! He got to meet my community members as well! They had a free lasagna dinner and then a get together that included singing, prayer, reading and tai chi! I really liked the tai chi. Never having done it before, I didn't know what to expect, but I really liked the whole "breathing peace" idea. Coolness. So, what we were preparing for was Sunday when we drove to Fort Huachuca to protest torture and war. It was my first protest in a while, and definitely the biggest I had been to. There were about 100 of us protesting together in song and prayers for peace. Very awesome.

On the other side, there were counter-protesters who were very rude! They swore to us, told us to leave the USA and move to Afghanistan or Iraq. They kept telling us "torture works!" and shouting "USA! Support the Troops!" I don't think that promoting peace is anti-American, but they seemed to think so! Anyway, it was a very interesting experience to say the least!
Now, I'm on my last full week before Thanksgiving break. Next week I'm working Mon-Wed with a half day Wednesday and then driving 6 hrs to Palm Desert for a family Thanksgiving! woo! This week so far has been a good teaching week. I had a great class with the 2nd graders, teaching them computer terms and they had to search for them in an online picture search. Overall, things are going pretty well!! :)

Halloween/Dia de Los Muertos!

Heeeyyyy! So our Halloween weekend here was really fun! On Friday night we went over to the Mennonite volunteers' house in costumes! I was a unicorn (child's costume), Erin was Bob the Builder, Jen was a cow and Jeff was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (yes he wore a blue dress!!) Unfortunately, Jen has all the pictures from that night and hasn't posted them on Facebook so I don't have them, but they are on her blog if you want to see (here) Saturday and Sunday of that weekend were pretty lazy days. We slept over at the Mennonite house Friday night and ended up staying a lot of Saturday just hanging out and watching movies (Anchorman!)

This weekend was the Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) parade. One of the two houses from Phoenix came down to stay the weekend and that was really fun! There are 5 of them and they all really cool people (and funny!) On Saturday we went on a hike in Sabino Canyon to 7 falls (more like little ponds, but that's ok!) I took like one picture of it on my phone -- wow I need to get better with pictures here! Anyway, um that hike was really great! I love nature, it's so nice to get out of the city! Even though Tucson isn't a big city, it's still concrete and cars I like to get away from!

On Sunday was the parade! People dress up as skeletons and parade down 4th ave. through downtown. We actually didn't dress up, but some of our friends did. Even though we weren't dressed up, we still walked in most of the parade! At the end there is a huge show/concert/acrobatic thing. It was hard to see so we went to a nearby parking garage to watch from there. There was a giant paper urn that they burnt and a big crane with a jellyfish type thing and people hanging off...craziness! I got a couple pics of that on my phone too so I'll upload those soonish! The people we were marching with for a bit (Casa Mariposa) made a video of the parade (here)
So, yeah it was great. They made a big thing with butterflies on it-one for each person who died crossing the US-Mexico border this year.

So, those were the last two weekends. Other stuff that's going on-Nora, our site coordinator, is visiting us for a week from Santa Clara. She meets with each of us and our supervisors, then we have a retreat day on Friday. Also, Veteran's Day is Thursday, so I've got a three day work week!
And, our house has started to play this awesome board game called Settlers of Catan. It sounds kinda silly, collecting resources like sheep and wheat, then creating settlements and cities. It's kind of a cross between Risk and Monopoly, but it's really cool!

Yeppp that's my life right now! I've been running to train for the half marathon, but I fell on our hike on Saturday and when I ran today my leg still hurt :( but hopefully it feels better soon and I can run more than 2.5 miles like I did today! haha. It's also actually getting cold in Tucson! The high today was like 69! crazzyyy

End of October!?!

October is coming to an end--Halloween is on Sunday!!! Looking back on the month, I have definitely done a lot and at times it felt really slow moving, but now that the month is basically over, I'm thinking, where did the time go? Last weekend on Saturday I was walking back home after a concert at Plush with Jen and I was thinking--wow I don't want this year to end! It needs to go slower!!! But then there are those days that you just want to end--like any time I have to teach the 3rd graders *shudder*

I also still wish I knew my housemates better than I do. We did start having a good convo during Spirituality night on Sunday. But it feels the opposite of Freshman year in college where I felt like I knew everyone so well after a month. I do feel like I know my community pretty well, but sometimes I think--wow I really don't know that much about them. We have only known each other since August. I should probably make more of an effort, but sometimes after work it's nice to just hang out and talk or read a book. (I finished the Dragon Tattoo books btw!! very good~!!!)

So anyway, life goes on. Saturday we tailgated the U of A vs Washington game with some ACE people, which was an interesting expeience. I'm definitely glad I didn't go to a huge state school. It's kinda fun for the whole football atmosphere but I think that would get old really fast.I've also found (from what I've seen) that a lot of the U of A girls are a lil skanky. Jen was joking about wearing a red dress to the tailgate and when we got there we not only saw girls in short red dresses, but also girls in booty shorts and cut up t-shirts and so on. I mean, every school has got some girls like that, but this school seems to have more...?

Oh and I've decided to run the Tucson Half Marathon in December! I'm out of shape, but slowly getting back into it. My roommates think I'm a natural runner because I can run 4 miles without training. But that's completely opposite to how I think because I compare myself to my mama and sista who are super good at running--and me--not so much! haha. I did make it 4 miles yesterday with average pace at 9:48 so that was pretty good after only running once in the last week! I'm starting to run after work now which is nice (and the temperature has cooled off enough that I can actually do that!)

Oh some pictures from JVC orientation are up on Flickr at this link (Click)
This one is of the Santa Clara University group!
This is the whole group! I'm in the back mid/left
This is our CASA!

So, yeah. Oh and I got an aweessommmee package from the parentals yesterday that included candy, cookies and bike lights which are key because we can now ride in the dark~!!! (still need a 4th bike, but will hopefully get one soon!)

Peace Out