"It's okay to have butterflies, just as long as they fly in formation."
      (Random quote from my student planner!)

    Sorry it has been so long since my last blog post, but I have been kind of busy. Here are some highlights and some things that are just memorable to me even if they weren't all that great.

• On Thursday, we had a PE teacher who is about my height and a demon when it comes to exercises. She had us stretch (okay that wasn't so bad but read on); we jogged around the concrete area that doubles as a play place and as a driveway (again, not so bad I mean hey, I ran a half marathon). Then came the more painful part: We had to do frog jump and jump very far across the concrete thing-a-ma-jigger. We also laid down on our backs, put our legs straight up and had to touch our toes twenty times. The MOST painful thing was doing twenty burpies. If you don't know what those are, here is a brief explanation: you jump up with your arms over your head and then squat down and shoot your legs out into the plank position and do a push-up. Those were so hard. After, we walked very slowly up a rather small hill. My legs were so worked that when I had to actually use my muscles to get up that sucker it felt very peculiar as though worms were moving around inside of my thigh muscles. We did some flexibility stuff and stretches and then slowly and painstakingly walked back for a snack in the kitchen before our next class.
• One small victory was that a girl in my class said goodbye to me!! That sounds small, but it made me feel good.
• The next couple days were very painful for me and everyone else. Our legs hurt going up and down the stairs. Over the weekend after my legs were mostly recovered, we went for a run and at the top of a church behind it there was some exercise equipment that we used for a bit before returning home.

At the top of the stairs leading up to the church. Below us you can see San Cristobal.

We....ahem...exercised?!

     Right now I am listening to Cold Play and I can really see how music makes you feel good. I am very happy to be writing right now and my day just got a lot better!

     Okay now to a description of Monday:
     We had the flag ceremony, as is customary for Mondays. It isn't greatly interesting but hey, if it kills time it works for me! :) In the last class, Spanish, Karla (the best teacher in my opinion) was dictating things to write and I was having trouble keeping up. When I was confused I would look up to see if anyone at my table would help me and Lorena (the one who said goodbye to me) told me the words I was missing. At the end of class after I thanked Lorena for her help as we walked out of the door, and she said "You're welcome," and then a minute later when she headed towards the stairs and I walked the opposite way and she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. That made me feel more included as part of the class and cheered me up a quite a bit. 

    After I did a bunch of homework, I got sort of stressed out and I just couldn't take it. I missed my friends and I desperately wished for the familiarity of something in my life. On top of that I was nervous about going swimming the next day as I hadn't done it before. I was terrified for soccer because of my lack of practice and the idea of another new thing in my life. I had a long cry and felt better after it. I miss all of the people reading my blog a LOT, and after our year in Mexico I will be very happy to see your familiar faces.

   Today when I entered the classroom I sat at a group with all the girls next to Lorena and then Maya came and sat on the other side. Maya is still nice, she just doesn't hang out with me as much anymore. We had double physics that way and then I walked down to breakfast with Maya and Paola (a new girl who is very nice to me). During breakfast Lorena would come up behind me and the other girls and put her freezing fingers on our necks. After breakfast she gave me a big hug and for a moment we tapped random rhythms on each others backs as we hugged.
     I swam and it was pretty fun even if after my hair had almost the consistency of cotton candy. We played water polo after and I was on the same team as Favio,Toño and Evodio. We ended up tying 2-2 and I scored one goal for my team. I got dressed and then went and ate watermelon for my snack before we went back to class for a two-hour lesson on social intelligence. Most things I already knew but it wasn't too bad. For five minutes we went outside as the teacher explained something to two people. (Our teacher's name is Griselda and that kind of reminds me of the gristle on steak.) Lorena walked out with me and we sat down together. She asked me why I was so flexible when she recalled PE class. She asked if I took yoga or something as she made a funny arm pose.  At the end we wrote on the board things we liked and didn't like about the class. Afterwards, Griselda did her own list and one of the things she said she didn't like was that she can't communicate with me (or as she called me,  "the girl who speaks English"). She said she doesn't know how much I understand blah blah blah...... I was thinking: Lady, I understand a whole lot more than you think I do. (Okay that wasn't meant to sound so rude but you get my point). At the end of class I told her that I understood pretty much everything she said. She replied, "Oh really? Okay that's good, thanks."
   We went to a restaurant nearby and ate some food and checked about homework before we changed in the car and went to soccer practice. At first I didn't see anyone I recognized but then when I got there Fernando dos said my name and gave me a big, genuine smile. He is really friendly to me! I was kind of disappointed in my ability to play today but oh well, I will get better.
   I went home and started working on my blog entry for today! I really enjoy writing and coming back to it feels awesome!
Good Night!