tc: this is magical!

you're going to hate me. photo overload. hey! you asked for it!!

okay. so i honestly cannot BELIEVE how quickly time goes here. it's insane. literally insane in my membrane. i've almost been here for three weeks. mind blowing.

all i have to say is that life is absolutely magical and i feel like the happiest human in the whole whirld (ahem. whit? alliteration much? love hugh.)

so. after the whirl wind of goings and comings from the airport and packing, i was yet again sitting in an airport terminal holding this ticket in my happy little manitas.

it was real. it IS real.

(i seriously walk around pinching myself ALWAYS because this is suuuuch a dream to me.)

absolutely ecstatic.

anyway. a bunch of other teachers and i landed and were picked up from the airport with a group of missionaries.

we drove through the crazy city admiring...pretty much everything.

until we got there.

the famous B on the hillside!

this was my first site of my new home for 12 weeks:

(this is the benemerito/ccm from the entrance)

i walk down this street errrrr time i go home. that blue beauty on the left there is mine!

cute. i live in casita 14!

our living quarters. where i presently sit messaging you.

this is my room and my roomy lauren--who is absolutely amazing, the salt of the earth, and definitely a kindred spirit.

this is the building where i teach in the evening...

...and the building where i teach my morning district.

morning district classroom.

it's total cash because these rooms are way nice and built for a class of, what? 30 alumnos? yet i've got 10-ish missionaries in there. it's quite spacious.

here's the vista outside my classroom:

(the thomas s. monson building. this is where the missionaries have trc and email and such.)

looooooooooooove

directly outside my classroom!

this is what's called the "zona rosa."

i love studying out here. this is also where we do progressing investigator.

these are my cute sisters in my a.m. district...

and some of my elders. :)

i totally put them on the spot yesterday for a teaching activity where they have to really channel the spirit and teach together....

blind folded.

of course they did a rockin' job. the Lord's prepared the finest missionaries ever!

this is the teacher's zone.

this is where i get to renew some covenants err sunday...

with cuties like this one.

i melt when they speak spanish! love it!

ha ha of course. my barrio (ward) is named after her. literary geeeeenius!

so that's what i do. that's where i love. i LOVE the CCM. it truly is such a sacred place where we are taught from on high. I know that this campus has been prepared for this since it opened. there's an incredibly special spirit here!

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on tuesdays i have the whoooole day off. to do whaterrr i desire.

apart from the normal preparation day things like laundry and cleaning and garb, i spend the day running around the city absolutely loving my life.

to DEATH.

one time we went to the museo nacional de antropología...

...and i died.

loved it. holy hugest, longest thing of my life, but wow. what culture.

americans are so boring!

here are a few neat things that i enjoyed:

preparation day two weeks ago we went to chapultepec, which is a sick castle in mexico city. it started pouring rain once we got there, but that didn't dampen my experience one bit (pun); it instead amplified my joy.

viva!

i must just give a shout out to douglas weatherford and my other amazing maestros who taught me the history behind the monuments, buildings and artworks. i am absolutely RELISHING the experience because of it!

aaaaah mi sor juanita inez de la cruz. LOVE her stuff!

stop. also a huge fanatic of him.

pride. águila devorando a una serpiente sobre un nopal.

such history.

preparation day this last week was PHENOMENAL.

get this--i was set apart as a temple worker in the mexico city temple!

stop. see ya later.
dreams really do come true.

then we went out with the cutest mom and her son kevin from the barrio. they showed us all around!

including this MALL (can you fathom the architecture?!).

and over to Polanco...where a bunch of jews live. literally. it didn't feel like mexico; it felt like europe! we didn't stand out here--which is a always a plus.

we then we to a little place i'll call ciudadela and wow. you. would. have. DIED. all of you. those cups that i love? yes, i'll be purchasing a cachorro of them. thank you very much. anyways, this place was like the best flea market of the world. HUGE.

this was our vista at the end of all the shops:

just beautiful.

and then? a comer! YA. see ya later. taquitos en mi boquita!

and then we passed some ruins to get a popsicle. ha ha. LOVE THEM! (popsicles and ruins, too, but mostly i was referring to the people pictured here ha ha.)

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here are just a few random pictures i'll post for the sole purpose of making your mouth water/make you feel jealous/entertain you.

hi. this is a churro relleno with zarzamora (blackberry) and cream cheese. not my favorite, but some of you out there hachoo kaylynn hachoo would sell your firstborn for it. we know where your priorities lay: tabitha....cream cheese....?

tough call.

thinkin of kay and maril in bakeries like this!

and then dying when i eat celestial ice cream! this is a mexican seed called piñon. think of a pistachio meeting a sunflower seed with creamy coconutty strawberry ice cream. mixed with nicotine and celestiality. makes me shed tears of joy and dream about having more.

okay welcome to the most AMAZING thing on the planet: tacos al pastor. (do you see the pineapple above the meat?! the drippings make the meat so ridiculously rico!)

i die.

would you like it with queso? YES YOU WOULD! it may make you sick though. beware.

buuuuut as we alway say down here, vale la pena! aka it's sooo worth it.

on friday night we had a stake party. we danced,

we ate elote (my first one!)

(i mostly did it for two of my companions that always gave me garb for not trying it. but here's the recipe and you tell me if i'm crazy:

1: corn on the cob.

2: mayo.

3: cheese.

4: chile.

RIGHT?! not the hugest fan. but it was worth the experience.)

then we got to see the whole procession with the flag and felt a little strange saluting our heart, but asi se hace en méxico! (kinda like how we put our hand over our heart, you know? during the pledge? only saluted-style. same diff.)

and then a LEGIT cultural dancing presentation! i was taken back to my days in orchard with mallory keith and our big skirts. wait, why were we honoring asians and latins in the hope of america pageant? cultural diversity in the promised land, perhaps? please, someone help me remember how my huge, yellow, frilly mexican skirt tied into that program.

and then last night was BOMB.

in case you didn't know, it's mexican independence day. TODAY.

so we did as mexicans do and we've been celebrating all week. ha ha! last night we had more flag procession things, more rad-tastic dancing (complete with fireworks, machetes, rooster-moves and the "Army of Helaman" song).

and yes, the missionaries were present.