A Walk in the Park

After the primary program

Today was the Primary Program in my ward.  It went pretty well.  I conducted (as in the musical portions) the entire program.  There was a lot to do getting ready for the program over this past week.  Last night I was up late working on bookmarks that we handed out to everyone who came.  Of course, I had help or I probably wouldn't have gotten to sleep last night at all.
After church, I went with a friend to the Central Park.  On the way there, we saw this car show, so we stopped to take a look at the cars.  It was pretty small, so it didn't take long to see all the cars.  Then we continued to the park.  There was a show going on for the kids when we got there.  Mainly we just walked, talked, took pictures, and enjoyed the nature.  They have ducks and geese on the water, they have some ostriches and a giraffe named Modesto.  I have to say that it made me sad to see the ostriches and the giraffe there.  They don't look very happy.
Afterward we made dinner at my house.  It was simple, eggs and tomatoes, re-fried beans, and biscuits.  Sometimes the simple meals are the best.

Car with a mini car under the hood

Pimped out tricycle

One of those cars that can extend upwards

A hippie van, would've been cooler if it had been painted
like the Mystery Machine, but still cool.

Duck on the pond, not sure why the feathers start
to stand up on the back of their necks, but I
saw several ducks like this, or with more
exaggerated feathers

In front of the pond

I got my ducks all in a row, how about you?

Poor, lonely Ostrich

A partridge in a pear tree . . .

Why do I like to climb so much?

This duck is standing on the water!

At the park

Me and my friend.  For some reason my face looks
really skinny to me in this photo . . .

Here's a homeless guy I saw on a park
bench . . .j/k

Marshy land

Modesto and another ostrich

Modesto again

Making re-fried beans

Gizmo wanted to eat dinner, too

At the Market

I went shopping today with a friend.  We went downtown to a market. I was looking for some Christmas presents to get people, but I didn't mind getting a few things for myself.  It was odd to be walking downtown because my friend seemed to know everyone there.  I saw some fun sights while we were walking.

A necklace I ended up buying for myself.

A man dressed up as a monster outside of a store

Birds that didn't seem to be afraid of anyone . . .
except perhaps of me.  If anyone else walked near
them, they didn't move, but when I tried to get closer
they kept moving locations.

A Day of the Dead altar for all of the dead in Juarez

Produce market

Halloween

Tonight I went into El Paso with some colleagues for dinner.  We ended up going to New Mexico for dinner.  And before you say anything, New Mexico is only maybe a 20 minute drive.
One of my friends' boyfriend flew in for the weekend.  She had a little wine at dinner, so she asked me to drive her car to the airport.  I drove there and then back to Juarez.  There was a Halloween party going on tonight at the Consulate, so we decided to go there, at least for a short period of time. I thought I wasn't going to stay very long, but I love to dance, so I didn't leave until they literally shut the music off.  I got a skull bracelet for a dancing prize.  Of course, by the end of the night, everyone had been given a bracelet, so I guess its a little less exciting.  It was still fun.  Now I am really tired and tomorrow should be a fun day.

Dancing the night away

My dancing prize

En el centro

The concert

Tonight I had an errand to run.  The primary program in my ward is coming up this Sunday and I was put in charge of getting the bookmarks printed.  We're going to be giving out bookmarks for everyone to be able to remember the program.  I designed them, and then tonight I went to print them.  I got help from a friend because I wasn't sure where to go.  The first place we went to didn't look very good when it printed.  So I asked about a laser printer.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me to go to Office Depot, but that's what we ended up doing.  They have a laser printer and it only cost 1 peso more per sheet of paper, which was well worth it for the better quality.

Once we had the bookmarks printed, we went down town.  We were going to see this train engine that they have there near the museum of the revolution in the border.  To our surprise, there was an event going on right there.  There ended up being a concert, different types of music and some dancers.  I met a famous actor (well, I've never heard of him) name Fernando Rico.  I also saw the cotton-candy pole dancer that I first saw at the Mana concert.  So I got a picture with him.  It was already starting to get dark, so that one didn't turn out very well.  We basically just walked around.  We tried taking some pictures, but I guess we'll have to go back when it is light outside.

Fernando Rico and me

Me and la Yuri (not sure how that is spelled)

Large crowd of people gathered

Dancers on the stage

Statue down town

Horseback riding :)

Look, no hands!  I should be a stunt rider!

Pastel de tres leches

The family that put on the party had this
cute little Chihuahua named Llallis

Tonight I went to the surprise birthday party of a guy in my ward.  I've eaten a lot of cake since I've been in Juarez.  It seems like we always have cake for something at the Consulate.  Lots of people equals lots of birthdays, I guess.  And then there are the farewells . . .

In any event, I've been surprised at the odd consistency of cake here.  Last time I had it, I was talking with one of my colleagues and said, somehow the cake is oddly dry and oddly moist all at the same time.  I couldn't figure out why.  (I'm not saying its not good, its just an oxymoron).  That is, until tonight.  Tonight I learned that the reason for this strange combination.  First of all, the cake comes out dry.  I'm not sure if that is just the type of cake they make specifically, if its the altitude or the climate here, or what, but the cake comes out dry.  Then they pour a liquid called jarabe sabor tres leches all over the cake that is made of three different kinds of milk.  I think it is evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream.  This liquid gives it the moist texture.  I actually thought there was liquid in the cake the last time I ate it, but that didn't make sense to me.  Now it does.

We ate pizza, the cake, and then watched a movie.  It was a nice night.  Luckily I had seent he movie before, so I didn't have to worry about it being in Spanish. 

Pouring the Jarabe over the cake

Whipped topping/cream cheese mix for the filling

Juarez Competitiva

Tonight I went with some members of my church to the El Paso del Norte Cultural Center here in Juarez.  At the cultural center, my church had a presentation as part of this ongoing program called Juarez Competitiva.  The show went through the premortal life, earth life, and even premature death.  It involved some scenes on the stage as well as some musical performances.  They had all the missionaries from this area participate.  That may have been a bad idea because not all missionaries know how to sing, but I still enjoyed the performance.

Premortal life

A few singers in front from my stake, missionaries fill
in the back

Funeral of a young man

Missionaries with a farewell song

In the center, there was a mural competition, here are some
of the murals

Night of Terror

I went out tonight.  I thought it wasn't going to happen, but it did.  I ended up meeting a friend at the mall.  There we went to the arcade.  Its been a LONG time since I've been to an arcade, not that I went frequently as a kid or anything.  In fact, it was so infrequent that I'm pretty sure I remember the last time I went, which may also have been the only time.

The line to the 7 Doors of Terror

Anyway, we played some games.  I tried one of those dance games.  Now, I consider myself to be a good dancer, but I can tell you that I really sucked at that game.  Part of it was because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.  The other part was that the song that ended up playing (I didn't know it) was way to fast.  So, I don't know when I'll be trying that again.  We played some other games before playing a couple rounds of pool.  I lost . . . but the first time was only because we were playing the dumb rules that you have to bounce the ball off of the wall to hit the 8-ball in.  I may be able to get the rest of them in, but that I could NOT get.  And then I accidentally hit the white ball in, so I lost.  And the second time was close.

Waiting with the tickets, don't I like
thin?  If you want to lose weight, braces
are a GOOD thing :)

Then we went to the haunted house that is in the mall.  It is called the 7 Doors of Terror.  Standing in line was interesting because periodically we would see a group of people come running out, screaming, usually after hearing a chain-saw.  When our turn finally came up, we had to go single file.  There was a group of teenage girls that ended up with us in the haunted house.  The girl behind me made me laugh so hard.  She was holding on so tight that she was practically pulling my shirt off.  I don't scare easily . . . or really at all unless I scare myself.  That probably doesn't make sense.  But the point is, I don't get scared in Haunted Houses.  But I was impressed.  I thought they did an excellent job, and I laughed the whole way through because of the screaming teens behind me.  There was one point where they go so scared, they broke away and ran forward because we weren't going fast enough.  Then when they stopped and calmed down, they made me and my friend go first.  It was quite entertaining and a lot of fun.

Me and my friend

After that we went to a bar for drinks.  I got . . . grape juice.  My friend got . . . orange juice.  So we were in good company.  We played some music on the jukebox and then went out to the terrace to talk.  While we were sitting out there, this guy came up with an electric box with two metal handles.  When my friend explained that it was supposed to send electricity through you, my first thought was, that is crazy.  I'm not going to purposely get shocked.  But it supposedly feels good and he wanted to do it.  So he paid the guy and handed my one of the handles.  I figured it would be a light tingle, kind of like the time that my friends and I did experiments with an electrified motor home.  That didn't hurt (though we tried to see if certain things would make it hurt more . . .)  But I was wrong.  Instead, it reminded me more of the time that I had something plugged into an extension cord, but only half way, and touched the other side of the plug (not on purpose).  It hurt.  After a second, I said, "No, no me gusta!"  The man shut the box off, but my arm still hurt for a while after that.  Actually, just thinking about it is making my arm hurt again.  But my friend likes it.  He said that afterward his muscles feel so relaxed.  I don't get it, but I know that I will never try that again.

Birthday Party

Birthday cake!

Tomorrow is my friend Daniela's birthday.  The lady that she has been staying with here in Juarez invited several people over for a birthday dinner.  It was great.  The food was excellent (enchilada's, a macaroni dish that I think had some kind of chiles or hot sauce, and refried beans - to drink, lemonade, mandarin koolaid, and tamarinda, which was good), it was nice to be with friends and just have a good time.  Though I have to say that sometimes listening in Spanish for so long gives me a headache.  Then we had cake.  It was a lot of fun.

The birthday girl

Food is almost ready!

Dinner is served!

Ready to blow out the candles!

Blowing out the candles

Mordida, with protection from a knife
so no one tries to smash her face into the cake