Today we got a lot of things done.
     DAY 3 IN THE CLASSICAL MUSIC AND SLEEP EXPERIMENT 
   Again I fell asleep too late to get the benefit of the classical music! I think I may have to try some other music that I don't know the melody to. Another thought is, I could start the music later and then that way I won't waste the short track of music on talking with my dad before I go to sleep!
      We got up watched an odd Olympic event called Rhythmic Gymnastics; it is a sort of dance that you do once with a ball and once with a hula hoop. It is kind of bizarre to think that it is an event. It is kind of a ballet that involves catching and rolling a hula hoop or bouncing and balancing a ball. The way I am describing it doesn't make it sound as amazing as it really is.
    Anyway, we finally got out of the house as rain drizzled around us. We walked in the rain in sandals and rain jackets. The doors to the climbing gym were closed and we knocked and peeked through the cracks and we were unable to see anyone, so we went back home and read for a while. Soon after, we went out to get our uniform clothes around town. Oscar tried on his clothes of navy blue pants and a white shirt. I think he looked like a missionary. He was offended by my comment, so he tried the same thing when I tried mine on. It didn't work for me because the women missionaries I have seen here wear pants. Here is a picture of me in my "lovely" new uniform without the required tights and sweater:

Me looking stylish as always! (Just joking! Look at the expression on my face prompted by my uniform.)

       We looked around at other store to see if we could buy any other items on our long list of necessary school supplies. We were unable to, so we hurried home to watch the Womens' Soccer final game: USA vs Japan. When we arrived we stormed into our house and threw off our jackets to properly watch the game.

       We surfed through the channels and at first, we were unable to find the game and I was very disappointed in Mexican TV for about 10 minutes until they finally (and seemingly reluctantly) showed the game. I, understandably, was overjoyed to watch the second half. The score then was 1-0, USA's advantage. We had read on the handy dandy cell phone that Carly Lloyd had scored the first goal. As we watched, Carly Lloyd scored the second goal for the U.S. Then, just to make me a nervous wreck, Japan scored a goal, making the score 2-1. At the end there were some spectacular saves by Hope Solo making the U.S. win the gold medal! I was very happy for the U.S. team because they are one of the best teams in the world (unlike the U.S. men's team) and they had worked SO hard to win this. However, the other side of me felt bad for the Japanese women who had worked equally hard and just weren't able to win this time. To make it even worse, the Japanese Olympic officials paid for their men's team to fly business class to the Games...while the women were only flown economy class EVEN though the Japanese women's team is one of the best in the WORLD and even won the last World Cup!!!! I think that is really sad (and not to mention sexist -- and you guys know that I am definitely a feminist!!)!!!

       My parents' Spanish teacher came at the very end of the game and tutored my parents and gave us tips about our journey to Palenque. I knitted for a little while and then went and drew dresses for a little bit while listening to old Sherlock Holmes stories made for the radio. They were broadcasted a long time ago so they have slightly poor quality and ads for Pettry wine and sherry (perfect for before dinner AND after dinner). I was petting Cowjie and had the idea to put him in my shawl and carry him around the way indigenous women carry their babies. Oscar helped me get him in there and then I passed Cowjie and the shawl to him. He was perfectly content that way. Here are the pictures.

The baby Cowjie!!

   

All comfortable!!!!

My parents went on a run and left us at home for a while. They made dinner and we watched some relay races while I ate cheater mac!!! Oscar then had an appointment on skype with his friend Joshua.
Good Night!!!!!

Some parts of today were very disappointing.
       DAY 2 IN THE CLASSICAL MUSIC AND SLEEP EXPERIMENT\
     I started the music track while I read before I went to sleep. I couldn't get my brain to shut off so I fell asleep after the music stopped. I had good dreams last night which is a relief! I woke up feeling more rested than I had before even though Cowjie's yowling woke me up at 8:30 am. I fell asleep after!!
     I woke up, ate breakfast, took a shower and got dressed. We were going to try to get there on time, but there was a really exciting game of team hand ball, so we stayed for another half hour and arrived late. We got there and all the mats were set up which is really unusual because we usually stretch first. Turns out Mario (another trainer, not the Mario from soccer) was there instead of Alejandro the usual trainer. My dad stayed a while reading a magazine on the steps while Mario didn't come out to teach us anything for a while. That was really odd. He eventually came out and did a game or two with us and then kind of disappeared again. We kind of goofed off for a while and then my dad left us with the instructions to give each other routes to climb. We did that for a while and then got bored with nothing new to do. So again we judged each other on our jumps and stuff like somersaults. We left earlier than we meant to because I had looked at the wrong mode on my dad's watch that he left for us.
      We came home and hung out for a while as we ate lunch. Then we packed a couple snacks and got in the car to drive to Tuxtla, as we hadn't been able to change our visas to longer term ones.
        On the drive down we listened to:

•  Foxy Shazam (I like this band a lot; the main singer has a voice that is almost like an instrument). 
• Fun (in reality we only listened to one song of theirs which is really good and catchy even if the lyrics don't make a lot of sense). 
• Weird Al (Oscar's favorite singer; he (Weird Al, not Oscar) takes songs and makes parodies out of them and this one happened to be a Star Wars themed song, imagine that). 
• Last but not least, a little Beatles (no explanation needed! They are so awesome!).

       Once we arrived, we went into a huge building that people here are really proud of. We got there, talked to some people and were directed to another building. We found it and upon arriving were informed that they had closed at 1o'clock, a half hour before we had left the house. That was VERY disappointing. We will have to try again on Friday. We went on another shopping trip at a store eerily similar to Chedraui and ate at McDonalds for some food. I mostly ate a hot fudge sundae and then headed back to San Cristobal.
      I read for a while and then we ate a very healthy dinner to make up for all the sugar and grease that we had eaten at McDonalds. Now I have to hurry and finish this post because it is time to go to sleep!!!!
Good Night!

Today was a very relaxing but interesting day.
      DAY 1 IN THE CLASSICAL MUSIC AND SLEEP EXPERIMENT
       I had a hard time getting to sleep last night because I couldn't get my mind to fall asleep. It just kept thinking of things and I kept wondering if the experiment would work, which is just a bad idea to try to get to sleep. I had no dreams last night (good or bad) but I want to keep experimenting to see if I just didn't happen to have a nightmare last night. I listened to Zoe Keating cello music. Her music is really beautiful and calming.
      We got to the climbing gym on time today. Our trainer gave me routes that were challenging but didn't make me feel extremely discouraged. I think that is a good balance for these kind of things. We were joined by an adult at the end of our lesson and he was nice. We hardly talked at all, but he let us go first a lot of times.
         We left at 11:30 am to watch the Mexico vs Japan semi-final game. It had started at 11 o'clock but we figured that wouldn't give us enough time to climb; also the last part of the game is the most exciting in my opinion. When we arrived home the score was 1-1. Mexico scored another goal  and then in the last minute or so, Mexico scored again which sealed the coffin for Japan (as my dad says). In the end it was 3-1. The Mexican team was so excited, for as they say in the commercials "never have we been so close" (to the gold they mean).
      I drew flags for made up countries and later I read for a bit and then grudgingly went with Oscar to work on the Room of Requirement for a while. We put up some pictures and talked about the room before I left to go read some more. After a short time I turned on the TV and watched some sort of bridal show thing. My dad gave me instructions  on how to help finish the stew that he was making for dinner as he left for his adult soccer game. I finished it, watched a little more TV, and then took a break from that to finish Pride and Prejudice. I read for a long time which was really fun for me. My mom was in a meeting and my dad was out playing soccer so Oscar and I just hung out around home. He played computer and I read. I finished Pride and Prejudice which had a very satisfying ending.
    My dad came home and announced that he had made three goals in soccer!! He did one header that I think sounded really impressive. I hurried back inside from opening the doors for my dad as my mom took my duty of opening them because my favorite gymnast was doing her floor piece. Alexandra Reisman, the captain of the USA team, did a really cool performance to Hava Nagila. She ended up getting 3rd place!
    My parents served up dinner and we ate while my mom surfed through channels. We ended up watching America's Next Top Model, which is extremely stupid but entertaining because it was stupid. Lately I have been listening to a lot of zen and classical music. I really think it helps you concentrate while writing. I don't normally listen to this type of music but I have found interest in it lately.
     We were just discussing why the Dutch like orange even though orange is not on their flag. Does anyone know the answer to that question? I mean sure we could look it up but it is more interesting this way!
Good Night!

Today Oscar and I made lots of interesting games and things.
       I got up and ate some more Mexican raisin bran. I had to do a speedy shower and get dressed rapidly to arrive at the gym at a respectable time (well sort of). We got there, stretched and started climbing. We climbed for a while, but at the end when the teachers didn't pay attention to us as much, we made up our own vault. Oscar was a little discouraged about not being able to get a really hard route so this was the perfect break. At the end of the wall they had a springy mattress as a climbing pad because actual pads are really expensive and too pricey for them to get another one. We would go to the concrete and take a running start, jump once on the bouncy mattress, do a somersault and then stand back up and do the typical gymnast end-pose. It was really fun and then we would take turns rating each other. I would normally get lower scores than him because I would normally crack up in the middle of my somersault and roll onto my back instead of standing up, though Oscar was very nice and gave me extra points for attitude and for trying! Apparently our mathematic skills are lacking since it is summer because we both struggled to add single digit numbers with decimals in our heads!!
   We left the climbing gym and upon arriving home, we made a list of all the things that we needed to do for the kids' room that I wrote about last month. We had to sweep and clean a bit and then we got to put in furniture. We had a big discussion about putting Jedi/Star Wars decorations all over the room. You can imagine that I was opposed to that idea. We plan to finish it tomorrow.
      We watched the Olympics and ate lunch inside and then after everyone else was doing things elsewhere I flipped between two channels. The Olympics and a really cheesy horror show with Melissa Gilbert (best known as Laura from Little House on the Prairie; she is not so little or cute anymore). I would switch back to the Olympics when it got scary. It wasn't really very scary just sometimes it was unclear what would happen next.
    My parents forced us to take a walk to go get some groceries. We weren't happy then but I am glad we went. We walked to the market for some fruits and vegetables and we were amazed by the prices. They were SO cheap. We got a bundle of chard for two pesos (thirteen pesos to a dollar)!!! We went to some other stores and then I was directed to lead everyone else back home. I purposefully took all the Andadors (streets were you are only allowed to walk) that were possible. As we were on my favorite Andador, I saw a boy that looked suspiciously like Mario, our friend from soccer. Turns out it was him! We all said hi and then realized that we live down the street from them. A couple weeks ago we had thought that a boy in a car  was Mario but we weren't sure. He had turned into a driveway down our street! Now we know that it really was him!!
     We walked home, quickly put our trash on the corner, for we had heard the trash reaper (as my mom calls him.) We went home and watched some more Olympics and as the newly set alarm for bed time went on, realized that we hadn't had dinner yet!! My dad is going to start the dinner now! Tonight I am going to conduct a sleep experiment. For the last few nights I have been having bad dreams so I am going to listen to Zen or classical music to see if I have better dreams because of that.
    By the way we watched and cheered for the USA women's soccer game against Canada. They both played SO hard and the last goal was amazing!
Good Night!!

Today not very much happened but that doesn't mean it was a bad day.
    I woke up later today though I would have been happy to sleep in even later!!! I woke up groggily and walked out into our living room. I watched some Olympics which is now becoming the norm and ate some surprisingly good Mexican raisin bran. Nearly all morning and part way into the afternoon I watched Olympics and played on the computer.
  After a long while I actually got OFF the computer, turned off the TV and read Pride and Prejudice (which I had put down for a while to read other books). It was a nice break to go back in time a couple centuries ago and read, which actually uses my brain, unlike TV and the computer. After about a half an hour or so we were called outside to be in some possible photos for the author photo for my mom's book. My mom and dad had been at it for a while and then decided for a change of pace to have us possibly in the photos. We had to do poses in front and behind my mom. If we use those photos then they will blur out our faces a little so that the focus is more on my mom. It took longer to take pictures with us in it because sometimes we would get distracted and my dad has to work with three people instead of just my mom.
    After the light faded making it impossible to do anymore photos, we walked out to go find a dinner place. We ended up eating at a place called Kabob which was a really small restaurant though the food was really good. The pita bread was the best I think because it was puffy and yummy. We walked home and that was almost the end of our not-very-interesting-day. One thing I have noticed about living here is that we walk around a lot more because it is a pain to get the car out so we use it mostly for far away places. We are also pretty centrally located so it makes it easier to get around by walking.
Good Night! Here are some pictures of the zoo we went to on Saturday:

Founder of the zoo

Taxidermy of extremely large female crocodile

Live crocodile sitting eerily still

"Please do not enter crocodile habitat"
Hopefully you understand this sign. If not.....

Two larger crocodiles in the water

Vines going up the tree in an orb-like fashion.

Ferret-like animals

Ditto

Beautiful barn owl

Homemade, actual fruit popsicles

See above for description

Toucan posing dramatically

He is giving us his good side!

Panther (which is really a black jaguar)

Prowling around

Mountain lion

Cute ocelot 

Awwww just like Cowjie

Grey hawk

Interesting fungi (thought you may like that Emery)

Vested Anteater, can you see where it got it's name?

Lizards hanging out

Creepy lizard

He even looked at us!

Pokey tree which is holy to the Mayans (ceiba)

Bamboo in the zoo

I took most of these pictures! I hope you like them!

Yesterday was a very beautiful day.
       I woke up very unwillingly at 9:45 in Tuxtla. I was SO tired but I rolled out of bed and proceeded to slowly get dressed. After packing most things up and taking a load down we walked down the street to a diner where we got some really good food. We went back to our hotel and finished packing everything away and got into the car.
      One of the other reasons we wanted to come to Tuxtla was that, according to my parents' Spanish teacher, Memo, the zoo there is really incredible so we decided to check it out. We drove to the outskirts of Tuxtla and parked in the shade. After getting a little sunscreen on and armed with a camera, we were ready to go!! We walked down a cement path and under fake rock gateway type thing. It almost immediately became darker which was an interesting contrast to the bright sun outside the portal-like arches. There were tall trees and monkeys climbing around above. Then a loud -- practically lion-like--yell came out of the trees. We were startled for a moment and then remembered that that sound was a howler monkey. It is a really cool sound, I think.
     We walked to the front desk, got tickets and a guide, and then set off to explore the zoo. We stopped first at the crocodile part; the crocodiles were very still and it was a little alarming to think that you are about 3 feet away and that they move very fast. We learned from our guide that the turtles in the same pond with the crocodiles are crocodile food. One turtle is eaten every eight days because crocodiles take a while to digest.  When a female crocodile lays eggs, she puts them in a pile. The eggs on the bottom, because of the colder temperature there, become female. The eggs on the top, where the temperature is higher, become males.
     As we went further into the park I really got to appreciate how different this zoo is from others because they only have animals in captivity that are native to that area. They also try to create life-like atmospheres for each animal according to what they are used to. Almost the whole park is shady and cool; howler monkeys can roam free and you hear the sounds of monkeys, birds and the wind through the tall trees more than the sound of human voices.
      We saw some very cool trees; one was a pepper tree though its leaves smell like cloves to me. One tree had vines growing up it like a tangled orb-like thing. We saw a beautiful barn owl (which is one of my favorite animals) that half looked at me so that I could take a photo. We learned that owls can only move their eyes up and down so that is why they have evolved to turn their heads 180 degrees--it'd be a problem if you'd couldn't look from side to side!
    We saw many cool animals; some of them looked kind of surreal. A tapir for example, which is related to the horse, resembles a large pig and has a short elephant-like trunk. This was probably the best zoo I have ever been to. We had popsicles that were homemade and had REAL fruit in them!!
    After eating lunch we set off in our unshaded car, this time to San Cristobal. We drove for what seemed like a short time and were soon home. The cats were happy to see us and we were happy to be home. We vegged out for the rest of the night and ate popcorn and cookies. We watched Seven Years in Tibet and I thought it was a sad but really good movie. We went to sleep VERY late but content.
This was Saturday by the way. I will post photos of the zoo later.
Good Night!

Today we experimented a lot and were sometimes rewarded.
      I woke up at about 9:45; I was the second to get up after my mom. We sat on the couch and watched the Olympics for a long while until Oscar and my dad woke up. We ate toast for breakfast before my parents went for a morning run around the city. While they were gone I Skyped my grandma. We call her Nana and it was really fun to talk to her. After that I had to pack my bag for the night that we were going to spend in Tuxtla.
       As we drove to Tuxtla Gutierrez I asked people different things. The thing I really love about asking people questions of opinion, are that everyone has different thoughts. I like to think about things in a different way. They tend to be random and everyone has an interesting answer.
        Once we drove into the hot, humid area of Tuxtla, we checked into the hotel that we had stayed in before. It is called La Hotel Santa Maria and it is nothing special really, just a hotel with white walls, two queen beds, a TV and a elevated bathroom. The one thing we really like about it is that it is right across from the Marimba park. It is really a nice park with lots of trees and has some stands scattered throughout. Below the hotel there are lots of great dessert places.
      We took a taxi to try and get our tourist visas converted to long term ones- which was the main reason we went there.We were told that this was not the correct place and where we needed to go was closed until Monday. We decided to make the trip another day.
      Since we were unable to convert our visas, we went to a pharmacy to try and get Quick Cast 2 for my dad's finger. We bought something similar that unfortunately didn't work. After purchasing the items we walked to a coffee shop for a blood sugar boost since we were all getting slightly grumpy. It turned out to be a Christian Coffee shop called Proverbs. Those of you that know us, know that we are not religious, so we felt a little out of place. The flat screen TV's were showing Christian bands playing music which was not all that great. We ordered a mango strawberry smoothie, two Cappuchino Mochas and a Oreo coffee drink. The mango strawberry smoothie came first and that was VERY delicious. It tasted a lot like fruit instead of a sugary drink. The Cappuchino Mochas came next and those were the BEST I have EVER tasted. There was a little coffee in it but it tasted the most like chocolate. They had whipped cream and a candy apple red maraschino cherry on top. They gave us a chocolate stick which was covered in a thin crust of delicious bread stuff. Oscar's was the same but had blended Oreos in it.  We all walked home feeling much happier. As we walked I asked some more questions like, "If you had to rename yourself and it couldn't just be a different spelling of your name what would you name yourself?" and "If you had to give yourself a nick name that had nothing to do with your name?"
    We took a small rest at our hotel room and walked out and found out it was dumping water from the sky. We got our rain jackets and walked out into the rain as all the locals stared at us like we were crazy Americans!! Can you imagine that?! We splashed through the rain and the still warm air. We walked to the restaurant where we had eaten before and ate dinner in there while lightning flashed outside.  
         After a slightly disappointing dinner we went back to the section of sidewalk under our Hotel and got some really good crepes with Nutella. We went back up to our room and read for a while before it was lights out. Just so everyone knows, if I didn't mention this previously, this was on Friday.

Good Night!!!