Update and more Experimentation

So, I actually reserved my spot on an Antarctic Cruise!  I won't be going until 2013, but I am really excited to finally be doing that, especially since I've been wanting to go to Antarctica for 7 years now.
I've been really tired at work this whole week.  I've been having a hard time getting to sleep, though I'm not sure if that is because I have too many thoughts on my mind, or if I'm coming down with something.  Both might be the case.  I also may be tired from losing weight/aka not having as much caloric energy.  My weight loss has slowed down a little, but still . . .

Pear and plum mixed with plain yogurt, really good.

Looks absolutely disgusting, doesn't it?  This is my
second attempt at using salad.  It is mixed with mashed
potatoes, and despite the look, it actually tasted
really good.

More Food Experiments

My salad mush

This has been an interesting weekend for me, and not just because of the dance.  The list of food that I can successfully eat is growing, slightly, but growing is better than shrinking, right?  Especially since I've already lost around 5 lbs since I got my braces.
So here is the food I can eat: mashed potatoes, applesauce, peanut butter, stuffing, scrambled eggs, burritos (the one I had, was with eggs), and finally salad . . . but a really weird version of a salad.  I used my food processor to chop the lettuce and some radishes, then added ranch dressing.  It looked disgusting, but tasted ok.  Well, it tasted ok in the beginning.  The bottom of the bowl was gross, though.  Anyway, I guess it is back to work tomorrow.

Dancing Time

Having fun at the dance

I went to a YSA dance tonight.  It was supposed to start at 8:00.  First I went to eat at the mall, Las Misiones, across from the Consulate, to eat dinner with one of my co-workers and her mom.  All I could eat was soup, and it was good, but I really wanted to eat something else.  Oh well, at least it was something different than I've been eating lately.
Anyway, I went with a few other girls to the dance.  We arrived around 9:00, but still there weren't very many people there and it wasn't too lively.  Still, we danced, we talked, we danced some more.  Around 11 I needed to take one of my friends home, and then I returned to the dance.  I was shocked to see many more people in the dance when I returned then when I had left.  And the dance felt much more lively.  It was great.  We ended up staying until just after 1:00.  And now I am tired and really need to get to bed.

Everyone dancing to this children's song, I guess it
would be like the hokey pokey for us, or maybe
the chicken dance.

Concert

Releasing balloons at the start of the concert

I went to a concert with some other officers tonight.  It was of this local band called HiSeahorse! or something like that.  There was a second group, Nortena, on after that.  They had food vendors and other vendors (I was able to get some presents that I was looking for).  I liked the music, but the first group sounded basically all the same for all their songs.
I did meet some locals, and one woman told me that I look exactly like a singer from a Mexican pop group called OV7.  Since I am not familiar with this group, there's no way for me to know for sure.  But I did find a picture of that group.  You can judge for yourself.  But that could possibly explain why a weird old guy kept taking my picture/videoing me.  It was odd because whenever I told my friend and he would glance over there, the guy would start to pan his camera.  But maybe he thought I was that singer.  That makes it a little less creepy.  But there is no way to know for sure.

Concert

The second group was just instrumentals.  Neither really the type of music I like to go to a concert to hear.  But it was still a good experience.
Oh, yeah, and my friend had his car broken into while we were at the concert.  Someone popped the lock on the passenger door and apparently tried to hot wire it.  They didn't seem to have taken anything, though.  It was an interesting and fun night, despite the downer ending.

Huge crowd of people at the concert

Watching the concert

Do I look like any of these people to you?

Braces

Mashed potatoes, doesn't look appetizing, but
it was actually really good.

I got braces yesterday.  Yeah, my mouth is now full of metal.  I should have them for about 18 months, so most of my time here in Juarez.  The only bad thing about it, besides the irritation on the inside of my lips, is that they put some bonding agent on two of my back molars so I literally cannot chew anything.  So, yesterday for my new diet I made mashed potatoes with chicken and cheese.  The chicken chunks were difficult to eat even though it was shredded chicken.  I have a feeling that I'm going to lose a lot of weight because even what I can eat is slow eating.
I went shopping in El Paso today and was surprised to see a monster truck in the parking lot.  It was definitely odd.

Monster truck, well, sort of

Mexican Night

Posole base

My church had a party night to celebrate Mexican Independence Day.  Each ward had a boot where they sold food.  Then there was music, dancing, bull riding (on a mechanical bull), and at the end of the night, karaoke.  My ward sold Posole, which was a big hit.  They were thinking of selling Menudo, which is almost the same as Posole, but Posole uses meat and Menudo uses tripe.  At least that is how I understand it.  Posole has white hominy, meat, and chilis in a broth.  It is served with various toppings like cabbage (or lettuce), radishes, onion, lime, oregano, and tortilla chips.  It was really good.  I'll have to learn how to make it.  But I'm still waiting for the recipe for enchiladas potosinas.
I learned a little bit of Latin dancing, but I think I will need a lot more practice if I will ever be good at it.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself while getting a taste of Mexican Culture.  It was a good night.  And I'm glad for the 3-day weekend.

Our decorated booth

Dancers

Me and some of the members of the ward

Complete posole

Mechanical bull

Karaoke

I got a little Mexican flag painted on my cheek

Mexican Independence Day

For the past couple weeks, people have been selling
lots of things to get ready for Independence Day

Tomorrow is Mexican Independence Day, we get the day off, so that'll be nice.  We also had a party after work.  It actually started at 4:00.  There were decorations, food and music.  It was pretty fun and the food was good.  We had tacos al pastor, which seems to be the party favorite around here, and there was also elote.  I'm not sure if that is just the whole corn on the cob with chili, or if that is also the name of the corn dish I had which has corn kernels, butter, cheese and chilis.  It was surprisingly very good, despite how it looked when all mixed together.
They also had a contest with this toy that seemed a lot like a Japanese toy that I first saw a few months ago in DC.  There is this cup shaped box (its not hollowed out though) with a hole on the bottom tied to a stick with a string.  The point is to get the cup on the end of the stick.  Anyway, it was fun.

One of the other officers brought in these pastries yesterday.
They are called conchas, or something like that.

All decorated for the party

The corn dish