Hola From Mexico!!!

 Hola from Mexico!

I am already in love with this place and these people. I can't even hope to begin to describe my experience thus far, but I will do my best!

January 5th, 2023

Travel day! I couldn't sleep at all the night before traveling, so I did some yoga and journaled. I got dropped at the shuttle at 4 am, and then I was off to Vegas! I got to Vegas around 5 am. I was super nervous that my bags would be overweight, but they were right on the dot! I went through security, found my gate, and waited for my flight! Honestly, the whole day of travel was pretty relaxed. Everything went smoothly and I felt so FREE! Something opened up inside me as I was flying over the ocean. I had never flown over the ocean before. I had never seen how far it stretches and how vast it is. Obviously, I wrote a poem. 

The Ocean

She speaks 

In hues painted 

Blue and gold

Kissing the clouds

Salt brushing my cheek

She tells of a journey

That's yet to unfold

And here I am now

Far above her water

Seeing her fully

It is the first time

I've never known her

Didn't see her greatness

Now I understand

Why she is man's mistress

I've fallen in love

With the sight of the sea

She's taken me in 

She's engulfing me

She dares me

She taunts me

Exposes my fears

She tempts me

And tells me

"Don't worry

My dear"

If she took me in

I couldn't be sad

She is too lovely 

And now that I've seen her

I'll forever be mad

I'll always be chasing

The high of her dare

Trying to emulate

Her powerful stare

Yes, 

I love the ocean

and all that she is 

Take me on a voyage 

To hear her song

Her call to adventure

Let me leave the world

To its wrongs

I'm the moons child

And the oceans my muse

And one day I'll die

In her watery hues

- Ivie Noelle

Many flights and layovers later, I got to my final destination, Queretaro. I flew solo the whole way while the rest of my group met up in Texas to fly together to Queretaro. It took them awhile to get through TSA, so I waited in the lobby and my host family, Sergio and Lulu found me! Sergio speaks a little English, and Lulu doesn't really speak any...That didn't stop either of them from making me feel so welcome and loved though! Lulu brought a scarf with the pattern of the American flag and she waved it around proudly! The rest of my group arrived, finally got through TSA and I get to meet them! We all clicked right away. There are 7 of us in total. 2 boys, and 5 girls. Us girls loaded up in the car with Sergio and Lulu, and the boys got into the van with our luggage and Sergio's son, Armando. We all the talked and got to know each other on the car ride to SJI. I knew right away that I found my people. Our humor and interests are all very similar, and everyone is so kind and funny. At about 11 pm, we got to SJI and Sergio and Lulu took us out for tacos! We were all very glad. Up to that point I had been living off granola bars and fruit snacks...I was ravenous. I got a plate of sautéed veggies, corn tortillas and the best cheese I have ever tasted. I seriously want to go back and just order a plate of cheese. My veggies included cactus, and it was very good! about 1 1/2 hours later, we went up the street to our new home! 

(From left to right) Lulu, Josh, Allie, Kayla, Cailey, Alli, Ivie and Mica

 (Sergio is taking the photo)

We had a tour of our house, and I noticed the lazy susan piled high with fruit right away! It is a beautiful house. 2 stories with a rooftop deck.  Lots of plants and art. We brought all our stuff inside, made room assignments, got ready for bed and finally fell asleep around 1:30 am! I am rooming with Alli and Kayla, and I have the top bunk! 

I wrote this at the end of my journal entry that night: " I really am excited. It's real now. I'm here. It's thrilling! I like everyone in my group. The home is unbelievably amazing. It's going to be a life changing experience, and I am ready for it!"  

January 6th, 2023

 I woke up in the wee hours of the morning, before anyone else and was faced by my biggest fear about this whole trip....would I have hot showers? Anyone who knows me well knows that I need my showers as hot as humanly possible, so the prospect of nearly 5 months of cold showers was frightening. I am very happy to report that the shower runs hot (albeit, not as hot as I'm used to) and I am a happy girl. My housemate, Josh, said that when he heard me singing in the shower he couldn't help but smile in relief as he thought to himself "Oh good, the showers are hot. Nobody would sing in a cold shower". Around 12 Mica, our head teacher who has spent the last 8 months in SJI with the program gave us an extensive city tour! It is beautiful here. The buildings are so colorful, and it smells good everywhere. I love how all the shops have open fronts, and I love how friendly the people are. There are stray dogs everywhere, and I just want to LOVVEEE them. They're not gross and mangy, and they're not aggressive. It's taken everything in me not to pet and cuddle them. Everything here is just beautiful and detailed. The doors, fences, tables, streets, everything is detailed and beautified in some simple way. It's not the sparkly, grand, showy 'beauty' of the US, it is simple and delicate. There are lots of fun bakeries, cafes, and shops that I am excited to go to. There is also a HUGE Catholic cathedral like 2 blocks from our house. I am definitely going to make time to go to mass. We stopped for smoothies on our way back to the house, and they were delicious. I don't know how we would manage to do anything without Mica. He knows everyone in SJI and has a great reputation....He is also the only person in our group who can speak fluent Spanish. As we are all fond of saying; "We were one person away from being totally screwed!"

For dinner, Sergio took us to a yummy restaurant, and I got cheese Enchiladas! I can handle spice better than anyone else in the group, and I would like to thank my brothers dares and tricks for that. If Adam hadn't made me suck on Jalapeño seeds since I was 4, I wouldn't be able to enjoy all the spicy salsas and sauces. On the way home, as we were stopped at a light, a fire dancer came in front of our car and performed for us! It was very unexpected, but VERY impressive!

We had some free time, so I journaled and just spent some time with myself and talking with my roommates. Around 9, Sergio brought home Kings bread and we commenced celebrations for 3 Kings Day! It is a holiday to celebrate the 3 Wise Men who came to visit Christ after his birth. It is the final day of the "12 Days of Christmas" Celebrations. The 3 Kings bread is a wreath of bread with dried fruits on top...there's a catch though. Each loaf of bread has tiny, baby Jesus' baked inside. Depending on the size of bread, you can have anywhere from 2-8 Jesus'. We had a pretty big loaf, so ours had 6 babys in it. In Sergio's family, the tradition is that you cut the bread youngest to oldest and whoever gets a baby in their slice has to buy everyone tamales on February 2nd. Sergio's Son, daughter in law and grand children celebrated with us, but they decided to let the teachers go first. I'm the youngest in the group, so I went first. I didn't get Jesus in my first slice, but at the end I wanted a little more bread, so I grabbed a small slice and there was a Jesus! Me and 5 others now have to buy everyone tamales on the 2nd. There were lots of laughs and jeers, and Sergio made a point of teasing us about being parents and needing to "clothe" our babies. 

(I was also gifted last years baby Jesus, so I am now a mother of twins.)

After we had eaten our bread, Sergio turned on 'Cotten Eye Joe' and had us dance! He said that he has had every group do that dance, but that ours was the most enthusiastic and energetic! That prompted his grand daughters to get up and dance, and they were AMAZING! They memorize dances for fun, so that had incredible moves. This prompted us to all dance and we had a 3 1/2 hour dance party. I partnered danced with Sergio, Performed 'Gaston' with Josh, Taught Mica to waltz, did the splits without stretching, learned a traditional Mexican line dance, Cheered everyone on, lost my big toenail in a tragic foot stomping incident, and had the best time of my life. I've never laughed or danced so hard!  We didn't even get to bed until 1:30 am, and we were POOPED. 

January 7th, 2023

On Saturday, we went back to Queretaro to go to Walmart, the shopping center, and the mall. We crammed into the car and got on the road. Somehow, I am not scared of the seemingly lacking road laws. Everyone expects everyone else to just go, so it works. The people here can parallel park into spaces that I wouldn't think possible. Honestly, it's impressive. Anyways, shopping was pretty uneventful. I love my group. We're constantly joking around, and we all have been saying how we all feel like it's been so much longer and that we feel as though we've known eachother forever. We feel like siblings. Mica is our dad. At the mall, I had a huge milestone moment! I ordered my lunch completely by myself in Spanish! Mica was nowhere near! I am very, very proud of myself! Sergio brought us to the movie theater (It was the biggest and tallest theater I've ever been in!) and we saw Avatar. 10/10 would recommend it...bring tissues though...you will cry. On our way back to SJI we stopped for Ice Cream, and I cannot even begin to describe how delicious it was. I got Creme Con Murrel (Blackberry and Creme). I will be going to that Ice Cream place FREQUENTLY. We then went to the local women's team basketball game, and I met two of our students! They were ADORABLE and it was fun to hangout with them. We talked and laughed and I learned that one of their favorite princesses are Cinderella. I showed them pictures from when I played Cinderella, and I think I broke their brains. They were both really silly and kept trying to trick us and prank us. I am SO excited to meet the rest of the kids. People here have a hard time saying Ivie with their accents, and have begun to call me 'Merida' b/c of my hair. So, I guess I will be teacher Merida for the next few months. We stopped to see the City Center all lit up, took some pictures, and then we went home and started the "Wednesday" tv series as a group. Only two of us have seen it, so we decided to watch it all together. Once we finish it, we will watch 'Stranger Things", because only 2 of us have seen that! We then got ready for bed and turned lights out!

My first meal that I ordered without help! 

January 8th, 2023

Sunday arrived! I slept in, then did my daily meditation, yoga, journaling and alone time on the deck. It's my favorite moment of each day. The sun feels so good, and I love hearing the roosters crow as I spend some time to re connect. On Sundays and Wednesday there is a market in town...I was anticipating a farmers market type thing, but over night the city totally changed. Each road had dozens and dozens of booths. Clothes, churros, shoes, drinks, dried beans, fresh herbs, really anything you can imagine...Even puppys and birds! It was honestly magical to walk through it, and get lost in my senses as I took it all in. I bought myself a beautiful, handmade dress, held the puppy's ( it took all my willpower not to buy one.), and just had fun with my group. I really want to buy myself a Rosary while I'm here, but I didn't find one that spoke to me. We hungout it the City Center grass area for while, and two kids started 'attacking' us with their robotic dinosaur. I pretended to due, and that made them laugh. After a couple hours of wandering around, we went back to the house and had some down time, then Sergio invited us to his room for Pizza and a movie night! We watched "Knives Out". It is hilarious to watch anything remotely scary or 'creepy' (not that I would call Knives Out scary..) With my group. They get frightened so easily. It's hilarious.  Apparently, it's super popular here to put Ketchup on pizza? I did not partake in that tradition. They did include a SUPER spicy sauce with the pizza, and that was really good! After the movie, we had a teacher meeting and ended up watching another episode of "Wednesday"...This one ended in a cliff hanger that drove everyone crazy. 

P.S. There is a Harry Potter themed cafe a block away from our house called "9 3/4". We haven't eaten there yet, but we walked around inside and I am obsessed. The owner was super nice, and he has a son who is in the English program! I am excited to meet him. 

There is a pretty basic overview of what I've been up to! If you can't tell, I am loving it here. The culture, people, music, everything is amazing. We've had lots of meetings to prepare to start teaching, and we've had so many amazing conversations. It really is feeling like home. Don't worry, I am wearing sunscreen every day and I am staying safe! I will do my best not to pet the stray dogs, and I'll try not to have too much fun ;) 

Love, 

Ivie Noelle