Ward FHE

Hula-hoop game

I went to an activity at my church tonight.  It started with a lesson, then we played games before refreshments.  One of the games I had played before, but there were a couple of new ones, including one that tested math skills.  Everyone stood in a circle to a rhythm we counted up from 1, one person at a time.  Every time we hit a multiple of 7, the person whose turn it was had to be silent.  If they said anything, or if someone messed up in anyway, they were out.
The one I enjoyed the most involved a hula-hoop.  Everyone stood in a circle holding hands and without letting go had to pass the hoop from person to person . . . OVER the body.  It was quite entertaining.  Some people got very good at it.  Music was being played, and when the music stopped, wherever the hoop was, that person was out.  If it was between two people, both were out.  It was fun.

Noche de Talentos

Ladies in the ward singing

Tonight the women in my church put on a Talent Show for everyone else.  I didn't find out about the talent show until this past Sunday, which wasn't enough time for me to prepare anything.  Though I did get roped into singing a couple of songs with the other women my age.  I didn't know either of the two songs, had never heard them, so I just tried follow along with everyone else.  Luckily, everyone else was singing loud enough that I don't think anyone noticed that I didn't know the songs.  It was fun, though.
Other women sang some songs, there were some poetry readings, and a theatrical production.  The theatrical production was interesting, about a party where contention sets in.  A food fight ensues, but in the end, peace is found.
After the show was over, there was karaoke.  I wanted to participate, but there were literally no songs that I knew.  Oh well, it was still fun.

Dinner party

Dancing at the party

Food fight!

Peace at last

Kids playing pogs . . . reminds me of
my friends in childhood

Day after Thanksgiving

Getting out my Christmas decorations

I put up my Christmas tree today.  I didn't really put up much of anything else because I ran out of time before the dance tonight.  I also am not sure how to put up the rest of my garland on these cement walls.  I'll have to think about how to do that.  Ulises came over and helped my put up the tree.
Then we went to a YSA dance, cow-boy themed.  The others hadn't arrived yet, so we danced a little, I rode a mechanical bull until it threw me, and by that time the others had shown up.  It was fun, but it just reminded me that I really want to learn how to do Latin dancing, rather than just pretending the whole time.  There was only one thing that was kind of annoying.  They tend to play the same type of music over and over again, so much so that I can't even tell when the song changes.  It sounds to me like one really long song.  But it was fun.

The completed tree

Ulises with my tree

Almost thrown

Wanted: at the dance

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Table

Today was an unsual day.  I slept in until 11:30 and then basically putzed around before making my dessert (pumpkin cobbler) for the dinner with my friends.  It was hard to feel like it was Thanksgiving since I wasn't up early cooking/baking.  I played my wii, played my guitar, and basically just relaxed.
I went to my friend's house around 3:30, but most people didn't show up until after 4:00.  We started eating at 5:00.  The food was really good.  And we had a lot of it.  I ate two full plates of food. . . .  I didn't leave any room for dessert.  At around 6:00, I was starting to feel ready for a nap, but I couldn't leave until after dessert so I could take whatever of my cobbler people didn't want to eat.

Carving the turkey

Ulises asked me to take him to the doctor.  He hurt his shoulder at work today.  So my Thanksgiving Day ended with me in the Mexican Social Security Medical clinic.  It was very interesting.  Ulises asked me how it compared to the U.S.  I didn't know how to respond.  I was surprised how dirty it was, but it wasn't as bad as the hospitals in Russia.  At the same time, I have to imagine that there are clinics like that in the U.S., too, free clinics (not that I've ever been to one to know for sure).  We had to wait, but only because there was a shift change.  So in that regard, it was better than I thought.  I thought we would be there really late, but we left around 9:00.  Luckily, nothing was broken and it wasn't dislocated either, just a severe bruise.
I really wish I didn't have to work tomorrow.  I don't understand why the day after Thanksgiving isn't a holiday, too.

Amanecer

Beautiful roses

I went out tonight with Ulises.  We ended up going to the movies with a bunch of the YSAs (Young Single Adults) from my church.  We had no idea what movie we were going to watch, but we went anyway.  When we arrived, we were told we were going to see Amanecer.  I had never heard of the movie before, but was told that it is the new Twilight Movie (I had never heard the name for Breaking Dawn in Spanish before).  Ulises doesn't really like any type of movie other than action movies, so he wasn't too excited, but he watched it anyway.  It was very different than I expected, and for me it was harder to understand because it was in Spanish.  I can't decide if I am disappointed or not in how it turned out.  Its a good thing I'm not a Twilight fanatic.  But I suppose all the interesting parts of the story will show up in the second half of the movie.

Saturday Night Out

Dog sitting on top of a roof

Today has been a long, but fun day.  After my guitar class, I didn't do anything real exciting until Ulises came over.  We ate lunch and then headed out.  We ended up going to El Chamizal (the land that was once part of a dispute between the U.S. and Mexico that was returned in Mexico decades ago).  I had never really been there before.  We watched a soccer game (I have no idea who won) and then went down town to Ulises's sister's shop.  We had a hard time finding parking, probably because it was a Saturday afternoon, but parked my car in front of one of Ulises's friend's house.  While there I noticed a dog sitting on the roof of a house nearby.  It was quite entertaining to see.
My friend's sister gave me tomales that her grandmother-in-law had made, which were delicious.  Then we went to her house for dinner.  We didn't end up having time to eat there because we went over to one of my friend's house for a movie night.  We took the food with us and shared with everyone who was there.  We watched High School High, which I had never seen before.  It was fun.  I like days like today, nothing too unusual, but still fun.

Bowling

I went bowling tonight with some of my colleagues to welcome our newest officer, just arrived on Monday.  First, a few of us went to dinner at Rudy's (a barbecue place).  I got the chicken, which wasn't as good as the turkey, so I probably won't get that again.

This is hard to see because I took this
picture with my phone, which isn't very
high quality, but in the dance, there was
a Michael Jackson impersonator.
He had the glove, the shoes, the hat,
and in a small way looked like Michael
Jackson, but he sure did NOT dance
like Michael Jackson.

When we arrived at the bowling alley, we saw our friends sitting around a table, talking, eating, and drinking.  Apparently, when the organizer had called to reserve a lane, she was told that they had open lanes.  What the employee of the bowling alley failed to tell her was that it was also league night.  So we didn't get a lane until 10pm.  In the meantime, we peeked in at the baile (dance) that was going on in the lounge.  It was quite entertaining.  There were tons of older people (one of my friends said they were in their 60s, but I would have said late 40s and 50s).  It was all very serious.  Apparently, a lot of people go to these dances to try and find themselves a husband who has papers.  And, I was told there were lots of gang members in that dance.  I didn't notice that, but I don't have any experience with gang members, so I guess I wouldn't.
Finally we got our lanes.  Only 8 of us ended up bowling.  Several people left around the time that we got the lanes.  I ended up playing with the group that bowled better . . . but its a good thing I don't care about things like that because I got the lowest score.  I was just happy to break 100.  The other group had a 4-yr old kid playing.  He was so fun to watch.  It didn't matter how many pins he knocked down, he would go running to his dad so excited.  It was great.  I think that made it a lot more fun for the rest of us.  I like it when games aren't so serious.  A few stayed and played a second game, but I sat that one out.  I was exhausted by then.

It was still amusing to watch him, though.

Getting ready to bowl!  I have no skill
or technique.  But at least I can get the
ball down the lane and knock down
some pins in the process!

I only lost by 3 points (if you look at the next highest score)
but at least I broke that 100 point barrier, and I managed
to get one strike and one spare.

Exhaustion Begins to Set In

This week has been crazy busy at work.  I've been doing over 100 interview a day this week.  In case you were wondering, that is a lot and very tiring.  And that's not even including the non-interview cases that I adjudicated.  At the end of the day, the way to SEE the amount of work you've done, is by the number of visas stacked on your desk:

Visas after a long day

Busy Day in Juarez

Pigeon-toed bug

Today was a busy day.  I am pretty exhausted.  It started like every Saturday, with my guitar class.  On my way back to my house, I saw this VW bug that looked a little pigeon-toed to me.  The wheels were curved in.  It was so odd looking to me, that I had to take a picture of it.

I got home and cleaned my house a little (I haven't been good at keeping up with that), before my friend came over and we made lunch.  Or rather, I made lunch while he helped.  I guess its only fair since he cooked the last several times . . .  But I was a little unsure what to make because in my experience, generally foreigners don't tend to like the same things that I like.

I ended up making lemon-pepper chicken with broccoli and rice, with biscuits on the side.  This is one of my favorite meals, so I figured it was the best thing I could make with what I had.  And I told my friend (Ulises) that if he didn't like it, I was never going to cook for him again.  Not that I was trying to force him to like it, but because, like I said, it is one of my favorite meals, and if he didn't like that, chances are he wouldn't like anything else I would make.

Heart made of chicken . . .

After lunch, we went to see one of my friends play basketball.  It was interesting.  My friend (Kate) plays for Juarez Heat.  One thing she has told me is that she really wishes they had time to practice.  I guess with schedules and everything, they can't coordinate practices, so they just are together for the games.  It was obvious during the game that the other team practiced more than my friend's team.  But my friend's team still won.  So they are good.  I just wonder how much better they would be if they could get together for practice.

Kate had another game later in the afternoon that we weren't able to go to because we went to a play instead.  The play is called, "Por el Amor de Dos."  It is a comedy that is meant to speak out against violence towards women.  It was really interesting.  I didn't understand ALL of the humor, but I consider it positive that I understood SOME of the humor since the play was in Spanish.

Basketball teams

From there we stopped at my house because I had left my guitar in my car, then went to pick up my friend (the one who plays in the basketball game) to go to dinner and watch the boxing match.  Boxing is apparently very big here, and this match was the biggest and most important of the year.  It was between a Mexican named Marquez and a Philipino (don't remember his name).  Since it was such a huge match, every restaurant that we went to was packed with a long wait list.  We were told that people had started arriving 3 hours earlier to make sure they had a place to sit and watch the match.  It was incredible.  We went to several locations and were about to give up.  But instead we went to Barrigas for the second showing of the match.  We ate dinner, and then I took Kate home.  Ulises stayed in Barrigas because the match he wanted to watch (the one between Marquez and the other guy) was about to begin.  After dropping Kate at her house, I went back.

I really don't understand the draw and appeal of boxing.  Its so violent.  I was practically falling asleep in the restaurant.  Unfortunately, Marquez lost.  I don't understand how they figure out who wins and loses, especially because Marquez had more points then the other guy, but everyone was really disappointed and you may even say that they were upset about that happening.

Ulises posing outside of El Paso del Norte
Cultural Center

The story tellers

The guy dressed as a woman to try and understand his
girlfriend better

Finally together having learned their lessons

For some reason Ulises really likes this hat
of mine, with the scarf and my cell phone, the
picture is complete!

Carlsbad Cavern

Pit stop on the way to the Caverns

Today I went with some friends/co-workers to Carslbad Caverns in New Mexico.  It is a few hour drive from here.  We got a little late start because we were waiting for some people who ultimately didn't come, but we still made some good time.  We arrived around 11:30 with plans to leave around 2:30.

Three hours, however, is not enough time to see everything we wanted to see.  Part of our time was taken up by eating lunch when we got there (at least with the couple people I was with).

After eating, we headed down into the caverns.  It was really interesting.  As we were walking down, one of my friends asked me if that was smoke in the cavern.  It looked like breaths.  You know, when its really cold outside and you exhale?  That's what it looked like to me, except a lot of them all together.  So, I presumed that it was something to do with the warm rising air from within the caverns hitting the colder air.  I ended up being right.

Me at Carsbad Caverns National Park

There were some interesting formations down in the caverns.  We only made it to the Big Room, which is basically the rest stop.  There you can also return to the top by using an elevator.  When we finished walking the Big Room, we were already late, so we got on the elevator and rode to the top.  Apparently the elevator is 80 stories tall.  We want to go back to the Caverns another day to see what we missed, and possibly to make the trek to the top.

After meeting up with the rest of our group, we stopped at a little restaurant in town for dinner.  They didn't seem like they were going to be able to handle us, and considering it took 2 hours from the time we arrived to the time we left, perhaps its safe to say that we overloaded their kitchen.  The food was good though, and decently priced.

Then we made the drive back.  I was pretty tired, so I slept a lot of the way.  But it was a good day.

Headed down into the caverns

Me

In the Caverns, close to the top

Whale's Mouth

The lighting was interesting in the cavern

But it was amazing to see what nature creates

Inside the cavern

Reminded me of a hand with the pinky
sticking out

Lion's Tail

As the sign says, Fairyland

I thought this looked cool

You Know You're on the U.S.-Mexico Border When . . .

I'm back in Juarez.  I have to admit, it is good to be back.  On the drive back, we stopped at a McDonalds to use the restroom.  I saw this sign in the bathroom:

It says, please put the toilet paper in the bowl.  What's interesting is that on the other side of the border you will see signs saying basically the exact opposite, to not put your toilet paper in the bowl.  This is how you KNOW you're on the U.S.-Mexico border. :)

Training in Tucson

Greek Restaurant

Today concluded our second day of training here in Tucson.  I have to say that although it is nice to get away from Juarez and do something different for a couple of days, I actually miss my home.  Maybe part of that is worrying about Gizmo being all alone.  But I don't think that is all of it.
Anyway, today for lunch I went with a few of my colleagues to a Greek restaurant.  I got a kick out of the name, so I had to take a picture.

Tucson for Training

Nice large bathroom

Right now I am in Tucson.  Over the next couple days, I will be doing some training with a few of my colleagues.  It is nice to be able to get away from Juarez, not adjudicate for a few days.  I do feel bad for my colleagues back at post, though.  I hear that the schedule is going to be brutal for them because so many of us are gone.  I have a pretty nice room here.  At least it is comfortable.
I went to church this morning and then afterward met up with a colleague and his wife to drive to Tucson.  I was surprised that it was only about a 5 hour drive.  Still, I'm glad I didn't have to drive all the way by myself.  In fact, I didn't drive at all and ended up sleeping most of the way.  I've had a really busy last couple of weeks that has left me pretty exhausted.
After we arrived at the hotel, we got settled into our separate rooms and then went to dinner.  There is this little French restaurant called Mimi's Cafe nearby.  We went there for dinner.  It was surprisingly good and inexpensive.  They have a three course meal option for a reasonable price.  I ended up feeling full, so that was good.  Now I really should get to bed so I'm awake and ready for my first day of my short training course tomorrow.

Good sized room

Birthday Party

My friend and his nephew

So, I haven't mentioned this previously because despite having a blog, I'm really quite a private person.  But I have a boyfriend.  Now, I would appreciate it if you readers wouldn't spread the information around to anyone else who potentially knows me, especially if you happen to work with me.  But its kind of hard to talk about today without having that information out there.
Tonight I went to my boyfriend's niece's birthday party (I'm just going to refer to him as my friend from now on because I kind of dislike the word boyfriend).  I think she turned 7, or something like that.  Anyway, when I got there, I was introduced to all the family that was there.   My friend's oldest sister asked me where I was from.  I said Dakota del Norte, but got the usual blank stare from people.  I started to say that it was almost Canada, but then changed my mind and said its on the border with Canada.  I had already said almost, however.  So the sister said, yeah, its almost the border with Canada.  So I corrected her and said, no, it IS the border with Canada.  She repeated that as well.  Apparently she got offended and left shortly after and my friend's mom left, too.  So basically I ruined the birthday party.  What a great first impression on the family, right?  :)

With the birthday girl

My friend told me that his sister is just like that, but he was surprised that his mom would act like that.  I felt bad about that when he explained to me what happened, but there was nothing I could do about it.  We ate food, ate cake, the kids played on a brinka brinka (those bouncy castles that seem to be at every kids' birthday party) and the adults talked.  I was kind of tired, so finding it difficult to follow the Spanish.  Plus they had music playing in the background, so that made it even harder to hear.  Instead we ended up dancing to the music.  That was a lot of fun.  I really want to find a place to learn some latin dancing.  I'm going to have to put more effort into finding a place of that.

Mexican Consulate

I was chosen to go to a representational event tonight.  I went along with one of my bosses to the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.  That was my first time ever being in the consulate of a foreign nation.  It was interesting.  They had an event to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. It was basically a reception to view the altar that they had.  The altar was for Mario Moreno, a famous Mexican comedian.  I had never heard of him, but it was still interesting to see.  They had people posed with the altar as well.
In addition to the altar, they had some food and chatting.  It was nice to go and see the altar.

Day of the Dead altar

Explanation about the ritual

Explanation about the subject of the altar

Altar