Me gusta los pinguino

Remember how I watched Dora the Explorer one morning in Mexico? And remember how Dora taught me how to say, "I like the penguin" in Spanish? Well guess what, later that night my friends were ecstatic when they found me these little suckers at the market -

Yep, that's right. Penguin cupcakes. I told the cashier "me gusta los pinguinios" as I bought them and she laughed and nodded. Basically what this means is that she understood me. One star for awesomeness right there please. And get this, the next day I went to the zoo and asked if they had any penguins at the gift store by saying, "donde esta los pinguinios?" The cashier answered in the negative and said "no tengo pinguinos."

I think this means I am bilingual now. Thank you Dora.

Beautiful Mazatlan Mexico

I was surprised at how fast I fell in love with Mexico. My good friend used to tell me about how the culture there was extremely friendly and loving, but I had no clue truly how great the people were until I arrived. Everybody went out of their way to talk to us and be polite. Part of me says this was because we were the "rich" American tourists, but the other part thinks that people are just straight up good.

True Mazatlan has its share of crime and drug wars, but with our resort being in the golden zone, I felt 100% safe. I think that the people realize that their work and economy depends on the tourists coming in and being protected. This being said, it was the perfect trip because the town was deserted due to warnings from the US about traveling there mixed with a bad economy. This all resulted with us getting things for very cheap prices and having catered service. I would do it again in a heartbeat as well as recommend others to go. I'll blog more about our fun services and experiences, but for now here are a few ocean pics from the balcony at the Royal Villas Hotel.

Loves

I hablo Spanish?

Hello bloggie buddies!
Guess what? I'm in Mexico!!! The pictures probably won't come in until I get home next week though. The pictures will also be few as I forgot the battery charger for my camera. That's ok, it's not like i am a good photographer anyway.
So far while being in Mexico, I have found that 9th grade Spanish was actually somewhat beneficial. I was able to ask what my cab drivers name was, if he lived in Mazatlan, and tell him that he was a good driver.
Another big Spanish help was watching Wonder Pets this morning on Nick Jr. in Espanol. From this I learned how to say -

I like the penguin
Hedgehog
I planted the cactus
and Teamwork

My goal is to find a little shop and ask if they have a penguin for sale and tell them that I like the penguin all in Spanish. Maybe I will come home with some cool glass figurine now? I'm crossing my fingers.

Loves!!!

Awkward Massage

Get this, yesterday I went with my 3 bff's to UCMT to get a massage before we all leave on our Mexico trip tomorrow. To start out, the masseuse kept chewing on something that sounded like hard candy. Nothing like trying to relax with "crunch crunch crunch" in your ear. But whateve, I tried to let it go. Just as I was starting to get used to the crunching, I notice that the pressure on my beck kept getting lighter and lighter. After a few minutes of crappy pressure, I opened my eyes and looked up at the woman giving the massage only to see that she was asleep! I just laid on the table looking at her wondering what I should do. Finally I made an "uh" noise and she woke up and started to massage just as if nothing had happened. Did I bust up laughing periodically throughout the rest of the massage? You better believe it! Awkward? I think so.

And to all of your mommies out there, happy mothers day. You know what I love about mothers day? That my dad still gives me chocolate even though I don't have kids. Woot!

Loves yo

The walrus who sat on me

I have frequent shark dreams. Usually in these shark dreams I am swimming in the ocean and then the next thing I know, I'm looking face to face with a shark. It's awesome! Well last night I had a walrus dream that was a little less thrilling. In this dream, I was sailing on the ocean when all of the sudden a crazy bad storm hit. I fell off of the boat, swam to shore for what seemed like forever, and when I finally reached land I was exhausted. Now when I say exhausted, I mean the can't move, can't speak, can't do anything type of exhaustion. So when I tried to move every fiber of my being to get out of Mr. Walruses way, I couldn't because I was just plain old stuck. So what does the walrus do next? Well the little bugger sat on me. And in the dream, I was just like, "whoa, this sucks. I can't move at all." And then I proceeded to wait out the walrus sitting on me. But then panic sets in. How long can a walrus survive sitting in one place? What happens if I don't get food or water? Could he eat me? Now you think the dreams about the crazy ax man murderer chasing you are scary? Try having something that can weigh as much as 2,700 lbs holding you hostage. When I woke up it took me the better half of 5 minutes to not feel extreme walrus anxiety.

This dream may go down as the most bizarre dream so far in my existence.

I drew you an amazing artistic picture of the horrific creature so that you could have a visual of what this experience was like for me.

Done and Done

I was ready to sit down last week and write this big long "school is finished and I am a grown up now" post, but then I told myself that I couldn't blog until I cleaned my room. And then it took me like a week to get the gumption to clean it (am I divulging to much about my cleaning habits? probably). Anyway, this sorta resulted in the fire dying about the school thing. But with that being said, I am done. Finally done. Yep yep yep, I'm a grown up now.

So what does all of this mean? It's SUMMER! Oh. My. Heck. I'm excited! My Summer plans?

Asian week in Utah (I'll explain later)

Mexico

Asian week again

A little Boston for a couple of weeks

A little Montana for the 4th of July

Apartment hunting in Riverton (leaving Utah Valley and crossing my fingers that SLC will be better?)

Lots and lots of lesson planning

Reading

And what am I reading? Well, this.

So far my Summer list consists of A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations both by my man Charles Dickens, A little Leaves of Grass (one can never get to much Walt), My Antonia (maybe this will be the year I actually finish it?), and last but not least, the oh so famous Gilead. I also plan to read The Outsiders soon because that is the first unit I will teach as an 8th grade teacher. Gosh, I am going to be an 8th grade teacher. Wow, it still seems so surreal just typing it. But definitely a good surreal at that.

Do you have any fun Summer plans and a stack of books to read?