A whole whopping novel

Well April flew by too! We ended our school with Zoey and I completely giving up on a friday attempt at class and instead just having a big party and easter egg hunt. It went well if quite hecticly. Then on saturday, they invited the whole school out to pizza, so Jon, Zoey and I went. It was fun, the kids really are sweet once you aren´t trying to worry about the amount of English they are learning. I miss them….

Sunday I started my stint babysitting in Lo de Marcos. The first day Jon drove up with me. It was so nice driving! The way up there is gorgeous, cutting through a jungly hill with peeks at extensive mountains going off into the distance on one side, and the ocean on the other. Then I met ZiZi and her mom. No abhorrence of babysitters  in sight! ZiZi was a little shy, but once she saw that I could play like the best of them, we had a really good time. The first day I spent almost all 4 hours in the pool. I didn´t even notice, but the next day I was incredibly sore. All in all the week went really well. Dana and Jordan came up one day and hung out on the beach with Jon while I worked, and then we had a FABULOUS dinner at the next town down, San Pancho. I learned how to pass cars, and that driving through downtown PV is HELL.  All one ways, left hand turn lanes jump from the far left lane to the far right in a block, and tourists take their sweet time walking directly in front of your car. On Thursday Jon met me after work, and we had dinner with ZiZi and Kendall. It  was really fun and nice to have dinner conversation. Friday I said goobye to them, and headed back to return the car and head to Mexico City with Jordan and Jon.

Mexico City has been awesome.  We got here at 6pm Friday, got home to meet Wendy and the cats, have dinner and relax. Blaze ignored me at first and then we were back to normal. I ditched Jon to sleep with Blaze in my bed, and he doesn´t hate me for it, so ten points Jon! Saturday, we went to the Anthropology Museum. It was nice having read more into the Mayan cultures, I felt like maybe I am retaining some information. We speed toured the thousands of rooms, and then had a quick lunch at the restaurant. The museum is located in a huge park, like Central Park almost, so afterwards we went on a walk through it towards La Condesa, one of the areas Jon and I are thinking of moving to. It was a long walk, but we found some cool places. Then we met my sister, and she took us on a speed tour of the downtown monuments via the main road. It was a full day, but I felt like I got to know where some more things were.

Yesterday, we went back into the city for Easter church. Jon and Jordan valiantly made it through the hour and a half service, I think mostly because midway through, Jordan and I left to go hide the eggs. We hid about 180 for 12 kids, so I think everyone was satisfied. When church let out, it was a mad dash, but luckily we had a few good spots and I managed to help some slower moving adults find eggs for themselves too.  And I managed to squirrel away three for us too.  After church we headed to Coyoacan, another neighborhood we were interested in with a weekend crafts market. It was nice walking around and it even started sprinkling a bit which felt incredible. On our way home, we attempted to see the oldest pyramid, a circular one on the south end of town, but after several failed attempts at finding a way in we had to be satisfied with a drive by view.

 

Today we may try to drive to the dormant volcano crater by my dads house, or possibly just enjoy the fact that we have nothing we have to do, and nowhere we really have to go. We shall see.

(INTERNET was out so i saved that last one in word.... heres an update...)

On monday, we ended up going on a little day trip to the hacienda, an old hacienda from the colonial times, converted now into a retreat center which my dad is the president of. It was gorgeous there, and we walked around for a little while and enjoyed the orchards and views. Then we drove on to a couple more towns further down the road, one of them a cute little mining town. 

Yesterday, my dad had to work all day so he dropped Jordan, Jon and I off downtown and left us to our own devices. I beguiled the boys into going to the Templo Mayor, the original Aztec center of Mexico city, built over by the Spanish, and then uncovered during some road work and when they began to build the metro. It was the greatest thing I have ever seen. It might not be big or grand, but it blows my mind that the whole downtown area covers an entire civilization´s core. I got even more excited when I saw that they have a program going on with the school I want to take classes at in the fall. I guess every time there is construction in the vicinity of the known boundaries of the aztecs, the archaeologists get first dibs in digging around to see if there is anything under the house or street or whatever it is they tore up. I CAN DO THIS! AHH! it drives me crazy that i have to wait though, I want to be working on it RIGHT NOW. Anyway... after making my way through the museum while Jon and Jordan waited outside, I remet up with them. We walked around for a little then split while they looked at the monuments and I shopped.

We had a nice dinner with Wendy who was so kind as to let us stay the night with her. It was fun, and I am definitely looking forward to living around family here again. 

Today we went to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. The boys were pretty impressed, and I had fun seeing it again after having visited numerous times when I was little. We got a lot of good pictures this week. Saturday is picture day.