Yo estoy fria.

One of my favorite parts of the drive to and from Ixtlan is when the road winds close to Lake Chapala. Lately on my drives home the sun has been close to sunset which means the sun is in my eyes the whole time, but it also means that when I drive by the lake the sun glints and sparkles on the water. I tried taking pictures today...and was rather unsuccessful. And then I thought that even if I was able to capture a perfect picture of the lake with it's sparkling water and mountainous background it would still come up lacking from what one can see by looking at the view with their own eyes. So I put my camera away and just enjoyed the view myself.


oh dear, that definitely didn't work!


shoot! wasn't even lake in that one!


all sun...no lake


I hadn't even realized I'd gotten an acceptable shot until I got home and looked at them on my computer. Yay! LAKE CHAPALA

My muffler decided it was time for it to fall apart last Thursday. Wanting to avoid getting ripped off by Guadalajaran mechanics I went ahead and drove to Ixtlan (basically without a muffler). Marshall and I took my car to a local guy who works on cars out of his home. Nice and easy quick fix he did, yesss sir! Cut the portion of pipe that had rusted and broke and with a piece of new pipe welded the cut ends. I mean, my car was already bits and pieces put together and then reput together again....now it's even welded together. God will keep that little car going forever!!!...with the help of a few mechanics along the way...ok a lot of mechanics! ;)

Hasta!

Yo estoy escuchando musica navidena.

Thanksgiving with some friends at a classmates apartment. There was alot of food. We were all crowded around the tables. Football was on TV. It actually felt like Thanksgiving.


L to R: Luis, Jose, Ricardo, Diego, Juan, Jose (Lerma), David, Sergio


L to R: me, Lisette, Kristi, Christina
Yes, I was the only nonMexican!


The formal NASA Thanksgiving Banquet was once again way too fancy and only slightly resembled the loved American holiday. And by slightly I mean it was on the 4th Thursday of November. It was still a fun time :)


The food


At the NASA Thanksgiving dinner: Mexican guys, Puerto Rican girls, and me!!
L to R: Legna, Anabel, me, Frances, Ivonne, Walisbeth, Ricardo, Damaris, Diego, Janiabeth, Betsy, Sergio, Eileen, Jose Lerma, David


Hasta!

Yo estoy agradecida por todas las bendiciones de mi vida.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING


I had thought that with the nearing end of the semester things were going to calm down a bit...I was right and sooooo wrong. The second things calm down people try to turn 5 minutes into 5 hours and suddenly you find yourself with even less time than before when supposedly your days were "buiser."
A few of the added events in my schedule recently included Turkey Bowl (football intramurals), Powderpuff football, gathering data for my research and getting it all turned in, and a friend's birthday. But life is good, and I have to be thankful that I had the opportunity and ability to partake in time squeezed out of my days devoted to something other than studying.

Took a short walk last night:


With no Thanksgiving holiday in Mexico it is very socially acceptable to have Christmas lights up the day after Dia de Los Muertos (Nov. 2)




Sitting on the steps after class one day I took this picture. It's funny because I don't remember from last year the trees ever changing colors or losing their leaves, but I guess some do. The grounds keepers and street sweepers are kept very busy these days. As in this picture, he is sweeping the leaves together, but the wind keeps blowing more behind him.

Hasta!

Yo estoy escribiendo.

Last week I was looking forward to this moment. Wednesday's over and with it my second exam of the week, and another Bible study completed and enjoyed. I am now down to two more exams Lord willing. It's a good feeling.

Picked up Marshall from the airport last Saturday on my way to Ixtlan for the weekend. I asked if he'd drive, and then I got to read the whole way! I really appreciated that. Then on the way back on Sunday I gave a ride to Gloria, Claudia, and Ana to Tlaquepaque. As there was no school on Monday they stayed at the Wulf's Sunday night and then were going downtown on Monday. Tlaquepaque is like a suburb of Guadalajara, and I was proud of myself, only went in a circle once finding my way home.

Some of my classmates have found a new favorite pasttime. They pinch my hands and then count how long it takes for blood flow to return to the area. They never get bored. And just in case red skin and bloodless hands weren't fascinating enough add purple lips on top of that and I feel like I'm on display at the circus under the tent labeled "Freaks" No one's mean about it and actually we all end up laughing, like I said, they just find it rather fascinating! It's also just much more prominent here because being caucasian I'd be an oddity even without the lousy circulation.

The final that I had today was in my NFP class (hard to explain exactly what that is). The final is done indivdually and in Spanish. Ironically after I was done with mine, the doctora complimented me on my Spanish, and I didn't understand what she was trying to say..........BaDum Pshhhhh (On my defense though, I'd never heard tu hablas mas espanol used in that context before. I'll know next time)

On a side note, my neighbor is not a good singer. I wonder which of his plants told him otherwise...it should be uprooted.

Hasta!

Yo estoy queriendo cantar.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARRIE!!

All this week we have been starting class at 7 instead of 8. I only made it on time twice. Two out of the three mornings that I didn't I can blame it on my alarm clock though...seriously!! It's the alarm clock's fault it didn't know to ring at 6:00 am when I set it at 6:00 pm.

Christmas lights continued: So I don't have a picture yet. Last night I was going to walk up the street and snap a picture of the house I have in mind, and then realized this may be a bit more difficult feat to achieve than simply taking a picture of a house. They have private security and a strange person sneaking up at night, taking a picture, and then returning from whence came I realized might be construed as a bit odd and possibly a threat. Soooooo....still yet to be continued...

In Pathophysiology this week our visiting doctora is a UAG graduate from 2001. People actually pay attention to her. Now at the end of the week people have started leaving after attendance is taken, but much fewer than normal. She is very free with advice and talking about what comes next for us. When she first started talking about subinternship, internship, residency, fellowship, CDs, letters.....oh what a headache as no one is going to do this for us or even help us in this process. One of the first things UAG teaches you is that you are on your own. Figure it out and do it on time, and don't ask for help unless you want glares and a bunch of lies and round-about answers that don't get you anywhere. She gave a special session on Wednesday then devoted to her experience of how to get in and then how to get out again of the system after graduation here at UAG. I left there feeling not as overwhelmed and more back to the basics of one day at a time; today....study.

Hasta!

Yo estoy lista.......jajaja NOT!!

This was supposed to be a post last Friday, but I ran out of time. Soooo this was supposed to be a post Saturday morning, but the internet wouldn't stay up and running for more than two minutes at a time. So it has at last turned into a Sunday evening post.


Last Friday....when we were supposed to be diagnosing a clinical case in class. This is Edwin.

Saw the first house completely decked out with their Christmas lights on Friday. I'll have to take a picture this year. to be continued...

Went to Walmart on Friday to get some fruit and was encouraged to see that the bakery was back to having its normal pastries and breads on its sheelves. During the Halloween/Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday weekend the only thing you could find in the area was Pan de Muerte (Death Bread). Seriously who wants to eat something called Death Bread?????????

Sung had another potluck Friday night (hence my need for fruit). Instead of tacos he made Korean BBQ. It was delicious. Vero brought the dessert. She tried her hand at a key lime pie. Would have been great except that she skipped the baking part. A fact that wasn't brought to light until about an hour after we'd finished eating and were wondering why the pie still hadn't set up in the freezer. It was hands-down, the best laugh of the night.

Ok, another week ahead....here goes nothin!

Hasta!