Vida

so one of my new year's resolutions , which I recently added is cooking more. I've been doing a pretty good job if I say so myself. Today is another adventure for hot and sour soup . so the colder temps came just at the right time for soup. but not so perfect for my grocery store trek. there were some things in this soup i had never heard of, which forced me to spend more time than i wanted searching the aisles of jewel and whole foods. i started at jewel because i figured if i could get it cheaper i absolutely would. like white vinegar. jewel please. i spent more time than i'd like to admit going up and down (actually just down...verrrrrry slowly) the international food aisle. at this point looking for siracha sauce. no luck. so i headed out with my 4 items. then i started getting super excited for whole foods. whole foods is definitely a special treat for me. i mean trader joe's will always have my heart, but i really do love whole foods. i start by tac

i led my first field trip at work yesterday and it actually went pretty well. i won't lie, high schoolers intimidate me...so of course my first field trip was a high school. but it went really well. i stumbled around a little (i'll admit), but i did get a compliment on my ability to project my voice. good or bad? i don't know. meaning that was my compliment. my voice. oh well. i was a little bummed though because the group we had was from little village and they were just behind in comparison to other groups who come in. i just think it's stupid that where you are born and grow up can dictate the kind of education you receive. but i still had fun with the high school group so maybe their intimidatedness is a little smaller now. i mean seriously. some people still think i look like i'm in high school.

i walked to the gym and sort-of felt springy it was so warm. i looked at my trusty school temp and it said 30. it felt so warm! in honor of the 30 degree temps we're having today i walked to the el. generally i take the bus because it's so cold... so this was perfect. i rewarded myself with a cafe au lait from the coffee place on the corner. and found out a special fact while i was inside... 53 days until spring yes, they have a countdown =)

at work i get to be the educator from adler to do park voyagers ...i am the outreach educator after all. that's what my can't miss meeting was about yesterday and i am officially pumped. we're working with air resistance activities, but i loved hearing about what the other museums are doing for their activities. 5 museums are in the fall and 5 in the spring. we're with museum of science and industry , national museum of mexican art (which is where the meeting was...i just love that museum, even if we only saw the painting studio), museum of contemporary art , and the shedd . so we go out to 5 different parks during the 5 weeks, with two final weeks for a family workshop and hosting a group who will come to the museum on a saturday with their family. i'm just so excited. it's generally in areas that need it and may have never been to a museum before. perfect. and while hearing the other museums present their activities, i can't wait to sit down and read

(that would be zumba) so today is my day off, since i had a meeting i couldn't miss yesterday. so today is the other half of my weekend. so i spent the morning at the gym. i know this could not sound worse to some people, but i love it. i have so many classes to choose from to break up the monotony of working out inside. i started out with some pilates. i've never been a huge fan of pilates, but i wanted to give it another chance. well. i did. and i'm still not a huge fan of pilates. give me some yoga please. then i had about an hour to myself. also enjoyable. as i made my way downstairs for zumba i hear a loud chatter coming from the area right outside the studio. wow! zumba at 11am is popular! who knew? it was full! but so fun. i used to take zumba at a community center in mexico city last year when i first got there. ($10 pesos for one class or maybe 15...regardless) there were quite a few changes this time around, but the essential: fun was definite

so saturday mornings are always a bit of a challenge for me to get up and going. i mean i want to rest like everyone else too. the gym doesn't open until 7 so after one time waiting outside the door for them to be officially open (i wasn't the only one) i've now decided to show up at 7:05. it's just too cold to wait outside. but i honestly can't go any earlier. so i do the bare minimum for my work out and get on my way. usually i run home to hop in the shower and start bus tracking. my bus only comes about every 15 minutes when it's not rush hour. i hop out of the shower and it says 8 minutes. ugh oh. i have 8 minutes to get dressed, look presentable and make my coffee. can i do it? YES it did include running all the way from my door to the bus, but i made it with 30 seconds to spare. success. maybe it's a sign that today is going to be an awesome day!

so i've figured out the volume on my music in the morning usually correlates to how excited i am to go to work. loud volume = don't want to go or i'm on my way home (i just want to be home). quiet volume = i feel like i can handle it and i want to talk to all the bus drivers, etc. today was surprisingly a low volume day. i'm really not sure why. maybe because it's jean friday? maybe because the sun's out? i walked to bus #1 with the sun on me and i actually said out loud, "thank you sun, for shining today." maybe because i'm finishing another book? maybe it's because i get to teach a mission specialist a new cart at work? maybe it's because i have something to do at work? whatever it is it's definitely not because it's 0 degrees outside. this is not an exaggeration, unfortunately. i looked at the school, which has the temp up all the time on my walk home from the gym and it said 02°. brrrrrrrr! as i dreaded emerging from the

if my bday was during baseball season i know what i would do every year. in fact, if it would be acceptable i would do nothing on my actual bday and celebrate in the summer instead. but today wasn't bad. over the weekend i got to hang out with some friends and karen came in town so that was super fun. thanks to all you who made it! super fun! today i got to go in a little late because i had to work late so i hit up some classes at the gym. including a yoga class. but i still woke up at the same early time...silly i know. (that's a bit of a long story) i was planning on watching some oprah in my rest period between the gym and work, but do you remember those converter boxes things that were all in the news in 08? well i'm pretty positive they were put into effect today. see, i don't have cable and i tried my tv without the box thing so i decided i didn't need it and left it at home. now i get a note on the screen that says my tv's not compatible.

today was my first dome day with me facilitating. it went really well and i got to work with some super cute 4 year olds. yea!

well this week turned out to be quite eventful. not all good, but definitely not all bad. monday started out with my face breaking out and becoming quite inflamed. after talking to a few people Emily, one of my wonderful friends, suggested i look into eczema . so i did and i definitely think that's what i have, although i don't think i had an awful case of it. but it wasn't pretty. tuesday was the low of the week. yes, lower than my face totally swelled on monday. my face still wasn't pretty, though. i walked out my door and was greeted by snow and wind perfectly aimed right for me. ugh. then i was basically beyond bored at work, making for a very long day. i do not like being bored. i even asked advice from some of my friends. what to do at work when bored? (don't worry it's better now). then my head started hurting, maybe from boredom. but then i slept 8 hours and i felt AWESOME the next morning! wednesday i got to hit up happy hour with

aw man i feel great! so i finally made it to a yoga class this morning. i meant to go tuesday night, but it was snowing, my head hurt, and i had a sub-par day so i didn't go. basically i was full of excuses. so they finally figured out my hours at work (i'm way over for this pay period) so they decided to have me come in late today and leave early saturday. okie dokie. i made the yoga happen. i really like one of the classes in the bright and early morning friday so i got up to do it anyway and then headed to the yoga class. i haven't taken a yoga class since december and i just forget how much i really do love it. it really helps me work things out that are hanging out in my mind and i don't tackle with openness during my everyday life. but i do in yoga. and my body feels awesome! i seriously felt like my entire walk home was on a cloud (mind and body). i know there are yoga critics out there. and yes at the beginning (it was an hour and a 1/2 class) i looked

so i am blessed with the quality that when i'm tired or i guess just busy, i look bad. this is not me just being self-critical, i'm being honest. i get huge circles under my eyes, dark ones. anyone know how to get rid of those? please let me know. they aren't attractive. the other night i was talking to isaac's dad and he asked me if i was feeling ok. i said yes. isaac explained to me the connotation of the words he used when he asked was that i looked bad. don't be shocked my american friends. this is very mexican. they are very honest or blunt, whichever way you want to look at it. i swear if you got a pimple during the day before you would look in a mirror again a mexican would probably tell you about it first. this shocked me and made me uncomfortable when i first moved there, but now i get it and i may think about it for awhile, but it doesn't affect me near as much anymore. so i explained i was tired and purely blamed it on that. i am generall

so it's been a pretty slow day at work, which i don't like. but i decided to be productive and participate in the suggestions we're making to improve the museum so i walked around and took notes for a couple hours. i'm getting to the point. there were lots of pictures of mexico in the cultural astronomy section (among other places) how they used the sun, etc. for everything in their lives. and i kept seeing Xochicalco, where i've really wanted to go. so i started looking it up (it's work related). and there was an advertisement. drumroll please... volaris (a discount airline in mexico...think of southwest in mexico) now flies to chicago. yippee! just wanted to share.

after cooking a delicious meal last night and jean friday today, i'm feeling pretty good. last night i cooked my first meal using my new rice cooker/food steamer/sauteer/so many uses it's amazing. thanks to jeff and greta for the awesome gift! i was super excited to break it in with mexican rice. and it was delicious. i had a spinach and mushroom quesadilla and my mexican feast was complete! yummy and SO easy! as i quickly learned jean friday does not mean casual friday, i'm starting to master wearing jeans while still dressing up. i'm looking forward to finishing my leftovers of mexican rice for the next few days and can't wait for my next adventure with the rice cooker/etc. sunday i'm planning on making a spinach and mushroom frittata in it!

i got a new winter coat for christmas and it's just amazing. it's sort-of beyond words. my old winter coat was orange (which i still enjoy) and i got it my senior year (of high school) on the clearance rack for $20. this was when my understanding of cold was very different as well. we had an idea i would be heading to a colder climate for college so we thought, 'let's buy a warm coat.' i had no idea how cold, cold could be. it was time. and i won't lie. i really upgraded. it was not cheap...hence the fact that it was a gift. my sister said she was even surprised i got a north face...i don't usually go for the name brand stuff. i think there are off the beaten path ways to get stuff. i explained that i had good experiences with north face and sometimes it's worth it. now i can walk around in this freezing weather a little more comfortably. at least from the waist up. it makes me so happy. most of the snow went away with the blessed warm tem