Since Mexico

A few highlights since Mexico:

We moved the week that we got back (which was crazy getting everything together so fast) into my sister Melissa's home. They were extremely kind to let us move in on such a short notice. Thanks to that we have been able to save a lot of money for Ricardo's treatments in December, and I am confident we will get everything taken care of.

It has been really fun living in American fork close to two of my sisters and my grandma and grandpa crooks and several aunts and uncles. i really love it here! Ricardo has been doing great with work and should be publishing his first paper as a co-author by December--it is about nuclear energy if anyone is curious feel free to ask him questions :)

I have been in school, enjoying it quite a bit. I like my classes and should be graduating in August!

We have been enjoying going to BYU football games, looking at all the fall leaves, and enjoying life.

Last day in Mexico

We drove back on sunday and had another of carmelita's great dinners. Monday we had a going away party that Alejandra planned. Several of Ricardo's friends came and we had dinner and then a party. They also did a birthday party for me and for another friend, Pepe since our birthdays were both pretty close. It was fun hearing "Las mananitas," the Mexican birthday song (and they sang the american one too).

We really had a great time in Mexico, and as of right now, we have our plane tickets to go there for Christmas :) So we will miss all of you here in the U.S. in december, but we look forward to seeing you all for christmas in Mexico!

last day in Queretaro

Ricardo's parents came the second day we were in Queretaro, and we had a fun breakfast together. Afterward we went to San Miguel de Allende, a nearby City. We saw a beautiful cathedral there. It was kind of cool because a coupld weddings happened while we were walking around the city and one of them the whole wedding party were riding horses and the bride and groom were in a carriage. It was also a very beautiful city, more like Queretaro than Mexico city I would say in how it looked and the pace of life. Uncle Arturo told me that it is a very American city in some ways because there are a lot of Americans that have moved there. We had lunch in a restaurant outdoors that was very beautiful and a band played a lot of traditional music from all over Latin America. I thought it was fun because when the traditional Mexican songs would come on all of the family would start singing--it was really cool to get a good taste of their traditions and songs. We spent most of the rest of the day walking around sightseeing, shopping, and eating churros con chocolate (which is very good). It is really interesting to see how the mexican culture mixes a lot of the spanish influence with a lot of the native traditions. One of these things is "el dia de los muertos." They have these dolls all over Mexico, I believe they are called catalina dolls, and they are skelletons that they dress up in all sorts of costumes. It is really a rich tradition there, and I can tell, both from looking around and from talking to Lulu, that they think of death there in a different way--more humorous and less scary.
Well, one last mention about Queretaro, it is beautiful, and if I ever moved to Mexico I would probably want to go there. I really enjoyed that city a lot and how laid back the people are. A couple more things...Queretaro is also where Ricardo's dad grew up until he went to college. Also, ana laura had the cutest Bassett hound puppies...oh it was tempting to buy one.

So...a few months later I will finally finish our story of going to Mexico. So our last weekend we spent in Queretaro with Ricardo's family and his uncle, aunt, and cousins. It was kinda cool because Ricardo hadn't seen his uncle's family for maybe 19 years or so. We had a really fun weekend. When we got to their lovely home we had a nice lunch with Ana Laura and Mariana, who are Ricardo's cousins who he also hadn't seen for a long time. I thought it was really amazing how many fruit trees they have in their yard too. That evening aunt Lulu and Uncle Arturo took us to see the city. We saw the huge aqueducts that were built by the Spanish. I forget the names, but I guess a spanish Lord fell in love with a nun from Queretaro who ran an orphanage (if I remember right). Queretaro is quite a distance from any real source of water, so she told him that she would not take her vows and would marry him if he would build an aqueduct to get water to her orphanage. Well, he built these grand aqueducts, which can still be seen today, and as for the nun--well, she stayed a content nun the rest of her life :) I really enjoyed seeing the aqueducts. The city had a very different feel from Mexico City. We saw several old churches, each one had its stories. The streets there are very narrow and there are hardly any stoplights because they try to preserve the original look of the city. It is very beautiful and quaint, and people really seem to live a slower pace of life there. When you reach the city center there are outdoor restaurants with bands and mariachis playing, and local craftsman selling their mexican dolls and the like. They even had a frog exibit, which was quite funny. My favorite frog was one that was dressed like the angel of independence that is downtown in mexico city--but of course it was a frog :) I loved the crafts and couldn't help but bring a few home with me :)
We had a very fun dinner that night at a restaurant in the city. Lulu and Arturo's family was all there, including his daughter's Mariana and Ana Laura, and Ana's husband Carlos. We really just laughed a lot during the dinner and that was really fun. I forget how this conversation came up, but while Ricardo was in the bathroom, we started talking about who was going to have the first baby out of the cousins that had gotten married within a couple of years of each other (Ana, Alejandra, or us). Well, evidently Carlos is from a large family and he wants to have I think 8 or so kids. So I was telling him that I came from a big family and had also wanted to have several children. The funny thing is that Carlos kind of teases Ana, his wife, about it because she really doesn't want that many kids. He seemed to be doing so well at persuading Ana that I asked him if he could maybe have a talk with Ricardo :) Ricardo didn't think that was all that funny when he found out. One more humorous thing about the baby talk...well, I guess at Alejandra's wedding or sometime around them, the parents got together and made bets about who was going to have the first baby, and they decided that they were going to pay $700 to whoever had the first baby (yes, american dollars). Well, Ricardo still wasn't convinced that was enough money for him to change his mind about waiting a little bit to have kids. Well then Arturo mentioned that they were thinking about making it $7000! I told him that if they made it $7000 they could choose when we would start, haha. I have to say though...I think Ana and Carlos are going to win the prize ;)

LDS Funny Stuff

This is Ricardo and Alicia begged me not to write this here but I couldn't resist. We went to the Anthropology Museum today and it was amazing. I was the main photographer most of the time and we have amazing pictures. We'll post some here later but the funny part is that after we came home, we discussed for a second how the Nephites were related and I asked Alicia if she knew when the Nephites were wiped out. She said..."Probably around 2000 A.D." I was like "Wow, they must have been a modern civilization, they got wiped out like 9 years ago". We just laughed after she realized her mistake.

Monday Aug 24

So I am here to testify that Montezuma indeed got his revenge on Ricardo and I. Let me know if anyone knows a dance or something we can do to appease him. I think that our stomach's are not used to (or are no longer used to) the food they serve here. Very tasty, but very spicy and different. So Ricardo and I spent the whole time between last night and tonight rotating between the bed and the bathroom. I think I slept a grand total of 16 or 17 hours last night and today. Hopefully tomorrow will go a little better.

Sunday

Sunday we went and visited Ricardo's aunt Lucero. She is very sick and I am glad that I got to meet her. I was surpised when she pointed to a picture that was on her desk and it was of Ricardo and I at our wedding. It's fun to realize how much people here care about us even though we live so far away. Her aunt also has the mom, dad, and grandma dogs or Ricardo's dog Yuki. Ricardo scared one of them and they just growled at him the rest of the time we were there, it was pretty funny.

After we left ricardo's aunt we went to an argeninian restaurant called Rincón Argentino. I have no idea how his family eats food like that and stays so skinny ;) They serve churiso argentino which is a kind of pork cooked with cheese and these huge steaks. Those were probably some of the best steaks that I have ever had. Unfortunately I was still full from the breakfast I had (which, kind of funny, but that is the spiciest breakfast I have ever had, for sure). In these pictures: 1-Ricardo, Alicia, Alejandra, Mauricio. 2-Lupita, Ricardo's mom. 3-Ale & Mauricio. The rest of the pictures are also of the restaurant.


After lunch, which is the biggest meal in mexico, we drove to see Ricardo's high school. The fence around it was so high that I couldn't see much, but it was still cool. It is right next to Torre Alta, a huge apartment complex with I think more than a hundred floors. in my opinion you would have to be crazy to live in the top floor of that building with all the earthquakes they have here.

Next we drove to see some really good family friends, Fabrizio and Silvi. They live in the apartment complex that the US embassy rents out and it is the same complex where Ricardo's family lived for a long time when he was growing up. They have a huge doberman, which you will see in some of the pictures. Fabrizio gave us a tour of the complex and gardens and then we sat down and had some bread and tea. (No worries, Fabrizio assured us that they made a strictly herbal tea for us. It was really good, it had almond and vanilla leaves and some other fruit leaves). Their family is very european-Silvi is from switzerland and Fabrizio is from northern Italy. I thought it was funny when Ricardo told me that Silvi talks to their daughter in French, and her husband in Italian and then they live in mexico and speak spanish. Anyhow, we laughed a lot there because Fabrizio is very funny. And, yeah for me, I actually understood some jokes in spanish, lol. In the pictures below: 1-Silvi, Alicia, Ricardo. 2-Ricardo Sr., Fabrizio, Silvi, Lupita. 3-Their dog

Saturday,
We slept in, which was nice since we have been tired--I think it's the altitude, it's almost 7000 feet here from what I hear. So we had lunch with Ricardo's sister Alejandra and her husband Mauricio. We had a really great time talking about Ale's wedding and many other things. Carmalita is the family nanny and cook. She is a really sweet and funny woman and I have really enjoyed talking to her. She is kind of like Ricardo's second mom. She also has made some great food. I have tried fideo, empanadas, chile rellenos, enchilladas, chilaquiles, and few other dishes. They are all so tasty. Fideo is a kind of soup that has fideo noodles and tomatoe sauce, and a bunch of other spices, it's really good :). Chiles rellenos are giant chille peppers stuffed with cheese and eggs with a tomato sauce over the top. Empanadas are on a hard, fried tortilla. Then you put a spicy chicken on top, lettuce, refried beens, cheese (it's a different kind i don't remember which), and salsa. I forgot to mention that there are several kinds of salsa here. Some are dark, almost black, some are green, and some are red. I think red is usually the spiciest but sometimes I'm wrong and I'm in for a surpise :) Ricardo doesn't like spicy food, but his dad and sister do and it has been fun exploring just how spicy food can get. Enchilladas are really similar to empanadas, but they are on a regular corn tortilla and the meat is different and less spicy. They also serve them with real cream (which ricardo says is way better than the sour cream they serve in the US, I like them both).

Well, saturday afternoon we went to a huge outdoor mall. It's new since ricardo lived here last and it was really fancy. They had an audi exhibit while we were there and it was pretty cool seeing the different models of the audi car. We were walking around outside of a Swaravski store and some guy must of thought Ricardo's dad was someone he knew. It was really funny though because he came from behind his dad, and as he got to where he dad was he turned and looked him in the face from about 2 inches away. I thought he was going to kiss him for a minute. It was pretty awkward but it looked so funny that we are all still laughing about it. Ricardo and his mom got me some really pretty mexican jewelry. I have seen a lot of jewelry here that is made with stones, especially with turquious. They also use other stones that are unfamiliar to me, they're all pretty though. Saturday I tried this new bread for dinner, and Carmalita and her niece Ale noticed that I liked it so they bought me more of it the next day. It reminds me a lot of the bread they served for breakfast in europe.

Around the City

So our first night we went to "Que Lata" and had tacos al pastor. They are nothing like tacos in the US, that's for sure. They twist different spices and pork around a big pole and roast it over a fire. Then they just cut it right there and stick it in a corn tortilla (which taste nothing like the corn tortillas in the US) and bring it to your table. It's pretty cool. It was really fun seeing how different "tacos" are from what I thought they were growing up :) It was also really fun getting to know Luis, a good friend of Ricardo's.

Friday
We pretty much spent today at the doctor's office. It was pretty amazing that we went to the doctors office at 9am, he had an endoscopy at 2pm (scheduled the same day), and we had another visit with the gastroenterologist at 8pm. Pretty fast service, it was nice. The doctor said that he has Barrets disease (really bad acid reflux) and a hernia at the bottom of his esophagus. Everything went well though and we feel good about the treatments Ricardo is on. It does sound like we will be back here for christmas though because the doctor will need to see if the treatment worked or if he has to have surgery.

ps. Ricardo's uncle seems like a great guy :) It was fun meeting him.

First Impressions, Continued

So, I was talking about the driving in Mexico City. I don't know how to describe it very well, it's something that you just kinda have to witness, but maybe the best way to picture it is this: Imagine 4 lanes of traffic merging into one lane with no notice, and all the streets are packed. Or, imagine driving without stopsigns on crowded streets that crisscross. Another interesting thing is that in Mexico City they didn't construct the city for as many people as live here now so they kind of just stick streets wherever. So, the final product is a million really small streets that wind around and up and down hills. You honestly could never label a street north or south because it changes from second to second. Alright, enough about the traffic.

It was really cool seeing Ricardo's grandpa's house. He had told me a lot of stories about the house because he lived there for a while. He had mentioned that it is a 5 story house, so in my mind I kind of pictured like a huge mansion with a grandiose yard with trees and big fountain. Well, it looked nothing like I thought. I guess wyoming has trained me to believe that there is a lot of space :) There really wasn't that much of a yard, though there were trees, and it was very beautiful. It just is different because due to the lack of space people stack their homes basically. So his grandpas house is more of a house with 5 split levels. Also all the buildings are built with a lot of cement and rock (probably partially because of the earthquakes, nothing else would last very long) and they are very collorful and boxy (I don't think I have seen a peeked roof yet, everything is done in squares and rectangles). Okay, one more interesting note about how people build here-Mexico City is pretty much built in a valley but as the city has grown it has just expanded up the mountain side. So where his parents live and lots of other places in the city, they build one apartment complex, then cut a piece out of the mountain and put another building and then do the same all the way up the hill side. everything is very stacked.

Well, enough about describing the city, his house is very nice. They have a beautiful garden out back with a small track that goes around it. It is in the city but really feels like you are away from the city because there are so many trees and huge walls that separate it. Ricardo says that most of the buildings around here have been built in the last three years. Here are some pictures of this.

First Impressions, To be Continued

Today we finally arrived in Mexico! It was a long night at the airport in dallas. We discovered that all the cool restaurants are on the side of the airport after you check in, so we had a lovely dinner of chips and candy from the vending machine...mmmm...needless to say Carmelita´s cooking tasted amazing by the time we got to Ricardo's house. We had a little scare because they almost didn´t let me get on the plane to Mexico since my maiden name is on my passport and my ticket was purchased under my married name. God was watching out for us though, and it all worked out. At 4:30am we were finally able to check in and we gratefully crossed over to the nicer area of the airport and had breakfast at Friday´s. The flights were all great, and we got to Mexico nearly on time. It was so great to see Ricardo´s dad jumping up and down and waving us to him as we left customs. It was so fun for both of us to see Ricardo´s parents.

I have a few first impressions of Mexico City, ¡Que loco! Tambien, ¡Que bonita la ciudad! Driving was like nothing I have ever seen before, not even in paris where I first witnessed the idea of a flexible number of lanes depending on how many cars you can squeeze in. It appears to be some sort of organized madness, but thankfully his dad and mom are great drivers and I felt perfectly safe even though I had no clue how people don´t kill each other while driving like that.

1 week away....

This is Ricardo, Alicia is already in bed....actually, I'm not sure what I'm doing up at 2 AM other than watching TV lol. We are 1 week away from going down to Mexico. It's an exciting time especially for Alicia because she wants to go and be able to fit in with the family and the culture. She is trying really hard, practicing her Spanish and just getting used to the idea of not having to do the dishes or the laundry for the next couple of weeks....it'll be a load off our backs but she doesn't know how she'll react to it. She'll be just fine.... It is actually kinda funny...my parents are worried about her hanging out with non-LDS people who will probably drink alcohol and smoke and don't want her to feel weird or out of place while she is worried about fitting in....I think I'm just relaxed because I know everything will work out just fine and no one has to worry about anything at all.

On other news, Alicia is finally done with school for the semester. She mentioned tonight that she got a 98/100 on her Spanish homework portfolio. That is awesome, Im so proud of her, she's improved a lot, even if she doesn't realize it right away. Also, I'm about to finish co-authoring my first academic paper ever. It is a paper about nuclear energy(boring for some people but not really....not if you've been doing the research since December lol) and how stupid it'd be to build new plants because of the high costs especially when compared to alternatives like renewables. K, sounds boring but I've been putting a lot of hours into it and hope that we have it submitted before Wednesday next week so at least that'd be done. I'm glad to know that there's another 2 or 3 papers in the works and hopefully that should boost my application to get accepted into either a Master's or Doctorate program in the near future.

So about our fun activities so far this week....well Alicia was really busy all week working on her school stuff so we didnt do anything exciting. I got to watch a lot of TV and play videogames...not that exciting anymore....at least not without her. I watched A Haunting in Connecticut yesterday...I remember I read a book about that case when I was like 10 years old...it was nice to see it turned into a horror movie but they made a mess out of a good "real"??? (who knows) story and turned it into a super exaggerated horror movie which didn't make me jump once...I was falling asleep lol but still pretty decent.

Today, we decided to hang out as soon as I got done with work. I picked her up on campus because she was finishing one of her papers and then we went shopping for new outfits for her, more professional looking since she is now getting a business minor and hopefully going into the HR field. BTW, she bought an awesome blue shirt at Limited/Express...cant remember...but it looks really good on her and she loves it. It makes me happy to be able to make her happy.

And that's about it. We have the Stubbs family reunion this weekend, which Alicia swears is a lot of fun. Maybe tomorrow night (Thursday)... we'll get to hang out with Alicia's sister, Chelsea, since she's coming all the way down from Cody. We'll see, it should be fun either way but mainly I'm just excited for the trip next week....we'll keep ya posted with pictures and stuff so don't worry.

Mexico here we come!

So today was a wonderful day! Last night we had decided that we were going to buy tickets to Mexico and wanted to get the best deal we could. Well, I noticed that they had several seats available on the cheapest flight but that they were only selling the tickets one at a time. So, I persuaded Ricardo that this was the most logical thing to do--and we tried to purchase two tickets that way. Well...long story short, only one ticket went through and we had two more tickets pending, so we were out of our minds trying to figure out whether to buy another ticket (which they had raised the rates $150) or try to pay $100 to cancel an extra ticket. Whew, long evening.

Well, this morning I felt the Lord answered our prayers and, for some amazing reason, there was another ticket on the same flight, in the seat next to Ricardo, for the cheap price! Yeah! Mexico, here we come :)

Tonight we went to eat kid's meals at the creamery (great deal if anyone is curious) and then, since Ricardo couldn't handle the waiting anymore, went to buy him a couple of James Rollins books The Last Oracle and Sandstorm (he loves that writer and has convinced me to read one of his books before Twilight, which he thinks is crap). Afterward we went to see the new Star Trek movie. And, it was amazing! We think it was a great idea of restarting the franchise that way.

And, that's it for the weekend so far.....