The time has come...

Ok, it has definitely been awhile since I added to this site, and with good reason. I've been busy! After a great trip home for Thanksgivng where I got to see my sister Diana as Belle in Provo High's 'Beauty and the Beast', and enjoy lots of turkey and a large variety of pies, I came back to Puebla. Funny thing was, the whole time I was "home" in Utah, I kep referring to "home" as Mexico. I guess this semester abroad has realy gotten the better of me. Anyway, we have spent most of our time since I got back to Puebla doing homework (a much needed activity). It seems that most of our friends have left Puebla, or have gotten jobs and now have more impoprtant things to do than come visit the gueritas three times a day, so it has been a good opportunity to get things done. We went to the Planetarium that is near our house, and the IMAX feature they were showing was about Zion's National Park, and talked about Mormons. We thought that was interesting, and slightly ironic. We also went to a great market where I couldn't resist snapping photos of all the chickens. Live ones, dead ones, baby ones. It was very entertaining as it turned out, to me as well as to those around me. We went to a stake center to teach a workshop for the institute, and either their was a large miscommunication, or else our popularity has seriously waned, because no one showed up! It was a bit of a tragedy, but with a silver lining, because the next day (when we would have been teaching) I was able to catch the 6:30 bus to Querétaro, where I am currently staying with my friend Adriana (a companion from the mission) and her husband Sergio. We have had a great time. On Saturday we went to a little town called San Miguel de Allende, where we had breakfast, and then wandered the town's large market and enjoyed the picturesque setting. Afterwards we went to Sergio's aunt's ranch house not too far away from thw town, and enjoyed another meal, and good company. Sergio's grandpa is from Idaho, and his whole family is bilingual, so it was a fun combination of English and Spanish. Sunday we went to church and then enjoyed dinner at Sergio's parent's house. We ended the evening at the Christmas devotional, which was great, except for the parts we couldn't hear because the sound went out. But we didn't miss any of the music, and that was beautiful. Monday I took a trolley tour if the city and then in the evening we all went to the local fair that goes on once a year. I went on a ride that nearly made me loose my dinner, and observed the largest cows I have even seen. All in all, it was a pretty eventful night. I will head back to Puebla some time tonight, where I have two days left to be a Poblana before heading off to Cuernavaca, Acapulco, and many other exciting places. In a little over a week, I will be back in Provo, back to real life. This semester has been like a dream. There have been hard parts, but mostly good parts. I feel like it's still summer (because of the weather, and because I have so much fun here) and it may be a bit of a shock to go back to cold Provo. But I think I will survive it, and it will be good to get back to real life. And now for a brief photo history of the last few weeks.

Me, Kizzy, Dee and Katie (L-R) on one of the many days the four of us played in Puebla. This particuar day we went to Julio's house for lunch, and later went out dancing for what was
probably the last time .












Two "Future Missionaries" we befriended at Church. In response to us asking if we could take a picture of them, they smiled and said "Gracias Hermana".















Julio and Kizzy getting their dance on, at one of our many in-house dance parties.













This is the day we squeezed nine people into a two-door sudan. Here you see the six girls in the
back seat (stacked two deep). From left to right you see Alma, Sheila, Iris, Diana, Kizzy and me,
Sarah.