Mexico in a Nutshell

Here it is, my last blog post from Mexico. I honestly can't grasp the reality of the fact that I am only a few hours away from leaving this place. I feel like I just got here, like I came for a couple of days and now they're telling me I have to leave already.

I have been so blessed here. I wish there were a way for all of my friends at home to meet all of my friends here. You should all just take a trip to Oaxaca :) But seriously, it has been a fantastic experience. I feel like I've gained a whole new family (not that I was lacking in family before!). I even have an obnoxious 14 year old little brother to pick on here! I wish going home to my blood family in Arkansas didn't mean leaving my heart family in Mexico. I am thankful that I can still hope to run into them again someday :)

I wish I had a way to explain my experiences here to you all, but I can already tell that words are going to fail me. Suffice it to say that God has blessed me tremendously, and I will never be the same because of the time I have spent here.

To end it all, here is a little summary of Mexico :)


Mexico in a nutshell.
-Getting stared at
-Speaking Spanish
-Missing people at home
-Making new friends
-Delicious tacos
-Crazy bus/taxi rides
-Human frogger
-ESL
-Tourists
-Topes (speed bumps)
-Uturns
-Tutoring
-Dogs and cicadas
-Cass Hogar children's home
-Stomach problems
-Skype
-The Tule tree
-Chinese circus
-Bloqueos
-The seminary
-Dora the explorer
-Eating tacos and grasshoppers
-The beach
-Game nights
-Hierve el agua
-Adventures in cooking
-Going to the market
-Never having change to pay with
-Hammocking
-Nacho Libre
-Community
-Monte Alban
-SHARING THE GOSPEL

For EARL

In light of the fact that today was graduation day for, I don't know, EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW, I've been catapulted into that awkward state of being which is known as reminiscence. AKA, feeling kinda sappy. Lucky you! Haha, if you don't want to read any of my weird memories, feel free to exit this blog immediately.

So yes, the good ole days of college. (I'm allowed to call them the good ole days, because I've been a graduate for an entire 5 months now. At least, that's my justification.) I remember a lot of things, but today I especially remember 3 crazy, strange, and fantastic people. That's right; Amy Davis, Rebecca Brack, and Lisa (the freak) Kieklak.

Now, some of you probably know these girls/women/whatever we're supposed to classify ourselves as now. I only knew one of them, until that one night 4ish years ago when we all ended up in the Reid Bible study freshman year of college. From then on we were pretty much super glued together. We had become EARL. (Cheesy, I know, but who can resist an awesome acronym when it's just handed to you?)

Over the next four years we had some awesome adventures, some not so fantastic days when we all lived together, and some really, really awesome nights of "spontaneity". We had our failed attempt at a blog, our rainy day scavenger hunt, our runway epicness, the KNIFE video, and about a billion other things.

Now, things are changing. We won't all live in the same town. Half of EARL will have husbands. Eventually, someday (hopefully soon, Lisa) we will all be college graduates. But, as this semester has already proved, w  all know how to use Skype :)

Thank you, my EARL friends, for the blessings you have all been to me. I am so grateful to God for bringing us all together when we all needed each other. Love you all!

P.S.
I can be your friend...la la la.
Let's get down to business...to defeat...the Huns.
Princess Melvin Sprite Your Face
Pranking people.
Whistling "s"
Arm wrestling.
Andes mints
Eventually, someday.
Ferret.
Spread the jolly.
Nikpmup

It's Exactly Too Much

12 days from this exact moment I will most likely be freaking out. Why? Because I fly to the USA in 12 days and 11 hours. Approximately. The question is, what will I be freaking out about the most?

Here's the thing: I miss home. I miss my family, my friends, my car, all of that. However, the closer I get to being able to see everyone again, the more it hits me that going home means leaving home. In the past 4ish months here I have gotten comfortable. I know my neighborhood, the bus system (which wasn't an easy accomplishment!), I have a church home, I have my favorite places to go; I'm settled. But now I have to leave it all. Argh, why must life be so confusing???

I know it's time for me to go home. I have things to do and a LOT of people to see. It still makes me sad though. I wish Arkansas and Mexico were walking distance from each other, that I could easily jump back and forth between the two places that I love so much. But, I have to accept the truth that God has blessed me to get to stay in Mexico for the time that I have Benn here, and I have no reason to complain. Not a lot of people can claim two different countries as home, but now I have that privilege (or at least tell myself I do). So I thank God for that. I guess that's worth having to be doubly, confusingly freaked out :)