if i don´t update this soon, i´ll forget everything i´ve done (so this is going to be really long)

new experiences i´ve had recently:

last friday i spent the night on a couch in a hospital in puebla. brenda had been in the hospital for almost a week at that point with stomach bugs that had caused an ulcerated colon (actually she´d already had that without knowing it and the other problems exacerbated it to the point that she realized she had it). mel and i stayed overnight and watched a couple of hours of grey´s anatomy with her. in an update on that situation, brenda was released from the hospital yesterday and then this morning, she took a 9am flight back to chicago, so she can recuperate at home. we´ll miss her!!!!!!

also on friday, i went to the fayuca for the first time. that´s spanish for black market. brenda´s a big beyonce fan, so we bought the movie dreamgirls (yes, it´s still in theaters. yes, it´s bootlegged.) to cheer her up. pretty much, at the fayuca, you can buy pumas for $30 and louis vuitton watches for $40. they´re all probably fake and/or stolen, but whatevs.

saturday was dubbed international barack obama day, as that was the day he announced that he´s running for president. to celebrate, some of us went to the cholula house, cooked lunch (leah made thai peanut soup and i made coconut curried lentils - it was all delish!) and we toasted him with $2 apple wine. we were torn between toasting him with champagne because he´s classy or beer because he´s a man of the people, so we settled on cheap wine.

sunday, i laid out by the pool for awhile and got my first mexican sunburn ... on the backs of my legs. nothing to complain about. i read the book ¨the bookseller of kabul¨ almost in its entirety that day, and i´d recommend it to anyone i normally recommend books to. yesterday i read magazines outside for 20 minutes and managed to burn my back... which leads me to believe that the back 1/2 of my body must not get enough sun and that i should do something about that soon. with sunscreen on, of course.

and on sunday night, leah and kelly and i walked to the centro and went to a catholic church on the zócalo. it was a franciscan church and the priest´s preaching reminded me somewhat of the way joe nuxhall announced baseball (lots of long pauses, just long enough for you to forget someone was ever talking, and just short enough that you´re startled when he starts talking again). it was a cool experience overall, though. catholic church here is pretty different (aka more laid back) than in the states.

nutella is super cheap here, so we keep buying lots of it. at karma bagels they serve it on a bagel with strawberry slices and it pretty much tastes like heaven. you can also eat it with peanut butter on a tortilla or on top of saltines with chocolate chips, or you can use peanut butter for that, too. if you go to nutellaUSA.com you can even find tons of recipes! i never knew that spreadable food was so amazing!!!

while i´m on the topic of food, i should mention that i ate kiwi ice cream (really it was more like icy sorbet) when we went to morelos a few weeks ago and it was fabulous. if anyone finds kiwi ice cream in the states, buy it, eat it, then tell me where you found it so i can do the same when i get back. also, i´ve discovered that i have a love for tostadas de pollo, which is basically a mountain of goodness on top of a crispy tortilla. this mountain involves chicken and beans and lettuce and avocados and sour cream and when you mix red and green salsa on top, it´s basically the best. and 3 of them only cost $2.50 (US).

two days ago i got bitten by a peacock and yesterday a bird flew at my head and i had to duck and cover, sufficiently looking like a huge loser. i was pretty annoyed with the peacock, seeing as i´m the only person who actually likes them here, and then it has to go a take a bite out of my foot while i´m sitting innocently at lunch. oy vey.

aaaaand i gave leah a haircut earlier this week. she now has 4 different layers and i´m not gonna lie, i did a pretty good job. but now i need a haircut...

and krista had her first intramural fútbol rápido game this week, so i now know what people yell at soccer games here. (¨go krista yeah!¨ didn´t suffice.) the game was basically like indoor only ... outside. and since it was at night, it was pretty chilly, which was the perfect weather for a soccer game. fun times were had by all (even us lamers in the stands).

there was a chance that i could see the red hot chili peppers in mexico city for only 350 pesos (that´s only $35!!!!!), but we´re going to be in oaxaca the weekend of the show. this is the greatest tragedy in my life right now. however, speaking of the chili peppers: they definitely cleaned up at the grammies last weekend, which was a-maz-ing! now if only i could see them live.


as for the future:

this weekend, we´re travelling back to mexico city, this time to see the lady of guadalupe, THE ZOO, la plaza de tres culturas (the three cultures being the aztecs, the spanish conquistadores, and the people who live in mexico city now), and diego rivera´s most famous murals in the palacio nacional. the weekend after that, i think i´m going back to the city to go to a soccer game with krista and one of our suitemates (the one who was a hooligan!). it´s pumas v. chivas, and apparently that´s a mighty large rivalry. should be an amazing time. and also, we´re in the process of planning a spring break trip to puerto escondido. more info to come on that soon. :) life is good.