So on Friday November 6 (also Savannah's Birthday) Adri and I went up to Puebla to hang out with them all weekend. After a stressful day of getting ready to go we got on the bus at 8:15 and made the trek up there. The bus ride was great until the very end where we had a a sad turn of events. Right before we got to Puebla Adri got up to use the bathroom. We pulled into the bus station before she was done so I sat and waited for her. When she finished we grabbed her stuff and then we had to look for one of her rechargeable batteries that we had dropped. Some of the men who work at the bus station came on and helped us look for it. Once we found it we grabbed the rest of our stuff and got off the bus. Someone had moved Adri's luggage and so we had to wait for the man to go and find it. Once he got back we were getting ready to go and Adri turned to me and said "You grabbed my iPod right?" "Ummmm no, you put it back your bag!" "No I didn't I put it behind you on your seat." "What? Oh crud!" Adri and I got back on the bus and after searching through everything including her luggage we determined that her iPod was gone. When she got up to go the bathroom she set it down behind my butt on my seat. I didn't ever see it there and so I just sat and waited for her. I thought she had put it back in her bag. I guess someone swiped it or something. Adri was super bummed and I feel terrible.
Once we finally decided that we were just going to go and not look for the iPod anymore we caught a taxi and headed to the ILP school in Puebla. Oh my gosh, Puebla is freezing cold. I thought I was going to die, even with my hoodie on and my long pants I was still freezing. As we were driving north it just kept getting colder and colder. I am going to freeze when I come home! So like I was saying, Taxi... thankfully Rachel had written down some pretty good directions to the school... the frente Papa John's Pizza is what saved us... because this guy didn't know where he was going really. He finally figured out where Papa John's Pizza and there we could see the school across the street. Carly and Emily were waiting for us and made us grilled cheese sandwiches, brownies and ice cream. It was awesome!! Adri was super bummed and didn't feel like doing anything and so she decided to stay home for the evening. I went to the dance with Emily it was a blast. When we first got there we found Lauren and LJ and I met some of LJ's friends who are studying in Puebla for University. There was 6 white girls and a gymnasium full of Mexicans. I met all of the Puebla girl's friends and it was just fun. Then just to make the night the best ever the DJ turned on POKER FACE!! I don't think there was one Mexican in that room dancing. All of them were watching the 6 of us girls dance like total maniacs, loving life in the middle of the gym. Tons of people had their phones and cameras out filming us and laughing at us the whole time. We didn't care... we could sing along!! It was great! Then we went back to typical dance music you would hear down here. Salsa, Cumbia, Merengue, Duranguense, Quebradita, Banda, Bachata... the list goes on and on but those are the ones I have learned so far. I am not that great at all of them but I do know the basic step and I am continuing to learn. I love dancing!! Oh and of course the Mexican line dance. I knew that one too and it was awesome. Its too bad because the Puebla girls only get dance lessons when they see Teo every month or so. I get two or three dance lessons every single week and so I have been able to learn a lot. That is one thing I am going to miss a lot when I come home is dancing!! I have all of the music and so I can teach people back home but it just will not be the same. Bachata is my favorite dance, at least this week! If you were to look it up online you would find some pretty dirty videos of people dancing but it doesn't have to be like that. Cumbia I love a lot too and Banda and Duranguense. Okay who am I kidding, I love all of them! I know Merengue the very least and Quebradita probably the least after that. I still have 5 weeks though to continue to improve.
I was asked to dance by this one young man who was very sweet. He spoke English very well and he reeked of sausage or something. It was kind of disgusting. He was so awkward too and I couldn't figure out why he was so nervous. After we danced for a while... pretty sure we were dancing a version of Cumbia (not sure, he wasn't a very good dancer) he told me that he had gotten off of his mission that morning and just been released. No wonder he was so flippin' nervous, he was holding a girl's hand while dancing, trying to have a conversation with her and I was one of the only white girls in the whole room. His one cousin was so angry the whole time we were dancing. After a few dances with this guy he called his cousin over and introduced us. I danced Durenguense with his cousin who was a very good dancer. I think he was surprised at how well I knew how to dance this style, it was awesome! I loved it. Unfortunately this young man who's name was Viktor (I can't remember sausage man's name) didn't speak English at all and so it was so difficult to communicate while dancing because I couldn't play charades. After a few more dances Emily, LJ and I went out to get some water and Viktor and his cousin came out to talk to us. The recent RM was talking to us and said "Before my cousin never want to learn English. Now after one dance with you he wants to learn English so bad!" We stood there for a while longer and listened to some funny jokes he told us in his broken english and then we all went back into the gym to dance some more. I was asked several times by this guy George to dance and we danced Bachata (which he wasn't very good at). I taught him some of my favorite steps and we had a good time. He was very patient with me. At one point he kept trying to teach me this one turn and I could not figure it out. I was getting frustrated and he was obviously feeling the same way... at one point the music kind of changed and so I just started dancing like a total weirdo. He kinda looked at me like I was a total freak and then we started dancing again. Haha typical Sarah!! Puebla is so different from Tehuacan. I think we were asked on like 5 or 6 dates that night... never in Tehuacan. We just had to tell guys over and over again that we weren't allowed to date which was a nice excuse to have. We got a ride home with one of the girl's friends... well we actually got a ride back to the school and all the girls just walked home from there.
When we got back from the dance, Adri and Carly Laga (there are two Carlys in Puebla) and Ameila were telling us about their adventure that night which involved some cat calling, the men following them, some colorful language and then running from the men. Freaky! I'm grateful I wasn't there. Actually this entire weekend Adri and I just kept saying how grateful we were that we were living in Tehuacan. There has never been a time where I have felt so freaked out that I needed to run away from someone. It has been a major blessing to be here where I always feel safe and comfortable. Adri and I ended up staying up until 3:00 am talking to Carly Laga, Amelia and LJ (the three girls not coming to Teotihuacan the next morning with us) and then we went to bed for a few hours. We were up at 6:45 and tried to be out the door to catch the 7:40 bus in the morning. I'm pretty sure we actually ended up catching the 8:20 bus which was alright with all of us. Then we were off on our adventure!!
Teotihuacan is so beautiful! As soon as we got off the bus we could see the ruins in the distance and all of us agreed that it was worth the trip! We spent the entire day there shopping and bartering and enjoying the sites. Yes its true... I ran to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.... as did Carly and Adri. It was tough with a backpack and parts of if are super steep but we did it. I will admit I did have to take a few breaks... I couldn't run the entire thing in one go, my butt would have fallen off, with the breaks it was killing me. Sitting at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun was probably one of the highlights of my trip so far. It was so beautiful and it was so neat to be sitting somewhere where I am sure Lamanites and Nephites lived. It is so neat to be able to see some of these historic sites with the knowledge that I have about the Book of Mormon. As we were sitting there we laughed and joked and it was hard not to be grateful for all of my blessings as well as be boggled by the beauty of the world our Heavenly Father has created for us.
We ate our lunch while we were up there and Carly was enjoying her Oreo cookies. She turns to me and asks "Do you have Oreo's in Canada where you come from?" I think I started laughing before I could even answer her question. Then Emily followed up with "Or do you live under a rock?" Carly assured me she was just teasing and wasn't actually serious! I was laughing so hard. Then Adri kept cracking jokes left right and center. My cheeks and my stomach hurt by the time we started walking back down the steps.
We did a ton of shopping at all the little stands that people had set up all over the site and I could not get over how good Emily and Lauren are at bartering. Seriously they got one guy down to like 60 pesos from 400. It was ridiculous!! But awesome for us because they would just buy our stuff too! I don't think they would sell it to us if they were not making any money so it was okay with me because I bought a lot of stuff and got it cheaper than I would have if I had been there by myself. It was just a super fun day!!
When we got back for Teotihuacan we went for dinner at Applebees for Carly's birthday. I was feeling very sick but it was still awesome to have some great salad and pasta. It was a good night.... then we slept at the school and went to church with the Lauren and Emily.
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