Was this week a fever dream?

Monday, February 13th

Monday was a bit rough. One teacher was sick, and we went to the school extra early to help with an event. I was really tired all day, but I made it through! We went to the Bodega after school, and I was able to buy a lot of stuff for my various teas and such. I've missed all my teas. I will definitely have to modify them a bit due to not having access to certain ingredients, but I was able to finally make my Ginger and citrus tea again, and that made me very, very happy. When we got home, Sergio and lulu were just pulling into the drive, so I raced their car to the garage. It's pretty impressive that I won considering my backpack weighed an additional 30 lbs. I was really bad, and I snuggled one of the outside cats that live in the neighborhood. It gave me a pretty bad rash, but Kayla had some cream that cleared it right up. I have been so good about not touching the stray animals, but I couldn't help it this time. 

(The rash was worth it)

I spent the rest of my day working on Valentine's stuff, star gazed, and did yoga...we were supposed to have a meeting, but it was cancelled due to my sick roommate needing to go into the ER. Those of us who stayed at the house couldn't sleep from all the stress, so we went to Allie's room and just sat with each other. Our roommate was moved to a hospital in Quaretaro with suspected appendicitis. Our head teacher, Sergio and another teacher all went with her. I had pretty lousy sleep that night, and my dreams were all very strange. 

Tuesday, February 14th

Happy Valentines! It's strange when a holiday coincides with a crises. I obviously won't go into all my roommates medical stuff, but everything was at a standstill and it wasn't looking great. I needed to shake off some of my stress, so I went and stress baked (as usual). I made puff pancakes with my sour dough starter, and they were the best puff pancakes I have ever had. The pancakes were really comforting. My mom always makes puff pancakes and a homemade strawberry syrup for holidays, so making it made me feel at home. We were down 2 teachers, but school must still be taught, so we ate our breakfast and went off to school. 

The school was buzzing with excitement and fun. Glenn Doman (our school) doesn't do anything halfway. The whole courtyard was filled with valentine boxes. We bought flowers for Lulu and our cook, Luz. Luz said it was the only Valentine she received all day. Lulu almost cried when given her flowers...Sergio was still in Quaretaro, and Valentines is their anniversary. It was really nice to be able to give her and Luz some love...they are pretty much our moms away from home! Due to being short two teachers, our classes were massive. ILP method is not really meant for more than 9 kids at a time, and in ,any classes, when we have all our teachers, our classes are already bigger than that, so anytime anyone is sick, class is chaos. I feel like we handled it really well though. I ditched my lesson plan and instead I helped each of the kids made cards for the sick teacher. I got lots and lots of hugs on Valentines day and I had fun passing out all the Valentines I had made the night before. Valentines is one of my favorite holidays. I love celebrating the people I love. Our head teacher, Mica, was dropped back off at home, and we were able to send back some things for our roommates who were staying at the hospital. Sergio brought Lulu 46 red roses, each representing a year of them being together. 

(The English teachers boxes)

The rest of my day was spent with myself. I played uke, read, watched a show, talked with family, and just relaxed as I read all the Valentines my students made me. Sometimes the kids make me want to rip my hair out, but they also made it so worth it,

(My truest love is my Calypso)

Wednesday, February 15th

Taken exactly as written in my journal, and I quote; "Wednesday was insane. Nothing worked. None of my classes listened. It was a mess. Preschool was fine, but my afternoon classes just ran around the whole time. I got pelted in the head with so many different things, it was ridiculous." Another direct quote; "After class, I almost cried. I locked the door, then just laid face down on the classroom floor to decompress. Allie cried about juice." Luckily, we were able to laugh about how crazy the situation was. I will say, you know it was an exhausting day because when I got home, all I could do was lay in bed and watch a show. I have a really hard time just sitting alone and watching a show without DOING something. 

(Not me having a breakdown)

(Not Allie crying over juice)

Later that evening, we were invited to go and tour the hotel in San Jose, and we leapt at the chance. We needed to do something outside of school. The hotel was beautiful. There are paintings there that are over 250 years old, there's a huge friendly tree, a pool, and GRASS! It was delightful. It took everything in me to not climb the tree like a child. Kayla and I DID roll down the crass hill, so I can't really say much about not being a toddler. 

(These are just a few of the paintings...they had TONS)

(Walking through the areas being renovated)

(Details)

(I want to be friends with this tree)

(The prettiest view of San Jose)

(I think they should host a ball on the roof)

Back at home, I was completely achy and dreading school the next day. Allie and I decided to skip Spanish class in the morning in hopes of getting a little extra rest. I'm not going to paint it pretty. teaching is HARD. Sometimes, teaching really, really sucks. I just want to write it as it is to remember that it's not all sunshine and rainbows, and everything worth while has super high highs and very low lows. 

Thursday, February 16th

Thursday, believe it or not, was worse than Wednesday. It was a repeat of Wednesday, but somehow the kids had more energy and I had less. It was my first day since being in Mexico that I have actually wanted to go home and give up. Everyone in our group was on edge, there was loads going on behind the scenes that was going wrong, and our roommate was still in the hospital (not with appendicitis though). After school, we went to Quaretaro and visited our roommate in the hospital. We could only go up one at a time, so it took a really long time for us to get though everyone. I had a raging headache, disdain for the whole world, and I thoroughly hated everyone and everything. I decided it would be best if I sat with my head on my knees and refrained from speaking to anyone about anything. I sat like that for over an hour. Back at home, I packed up for our upcoming vacation, and mentally prepared myself for another day of teaching. 

(Grecia keeps drawing crying kittens...)

(Not me dying)

(Mood)

Friday, February 17th

On Friday, I told myself to stop feeling sorry for myself, and to get back to life. I made myself get up early and I did my morning routine. It felt SO GOOD. I had been neglecting it in all the craziness, forgetting that it keeps me grounded in the chaos. Before school, I went down and packed up food to take on vacation with us, then we were off to school. School was still wild on Friday, but I was so excited for vacation that it didn't phase me as much. I was also really able to connect with some of the kids and help them in ways that made me feel like I was really actually making a lasting difference in their lives. I also surrendered a bit and allowed the kids to lead in many ways. If they want to play, then I can always ditch my lesson and make playing a language learning experience. Letting go helped so much. As soon as school was over, we got into a car headed for the city of Ixmiquilpan (do not ask me how it is pronounced). I love long car rides, so I was perfectly content when our 2 1/2 hour drive turned to 6 hours with all the traffic. 

Our Airbnb was really cute, and I claimed the top bunk. We had a swing set in the yard, a window that didn't lock properly, a fridge that froze everything, and a cherry tree. It was dark by the time we got there, but I wanted to do a bit of exploring, so we got in warm clothes and headed off. It was great. Pretty much everything was closed, and it was dark, but it was fun to walk in the cold night air. 

(Late night adventures)

At the house, Allie showed me a new game, I called my nieces and had the best chat with them, then I packed up my bags for our adventure that was coming in the morning. Our wake up time was 5 am, so we got into bed pretty early that night. The bunk bed was very squeaky, and I woke up about every hour because apparently my body hates me. Each time I woke u and adjusted, the bed would creak and wake up my roommate, Allie. Whoops. Like I said, the airbnb was charming.  

Saturday, February 18th

I was so excited that I woke up BEFORE my 5 am alarm. I hopped out of bed and started getting ready. Once I was done with all my personal preparations, I went downstairs and packed everyone a PB and honey sandwich and a couple other snacks. I am officially the mom friend of the group. I always seem to be the youngest member of my friend groups, but also the mom. Anyways, our taxi driver, Juan, came to pick us up bright and early. I really liked Juan. He totally roasted us for not being fluent in Spanish yet. He said Spanish is easy to learn and we could easily have already learned it. He had a fun energy, and played really good music, so I figured he could rightfully roast us. Since there weren't enough seats in the car, I got to sit on laps. We were pretty jammed in the car, but it kept us warm. The drive was beautiful. The mountains reminded me of Utah, and we stopped and saw the most beautiful sunrise. We arrived at the Grutas at around 7 am, and Juan said he would come back for us around 7pm. The real fun then began.

(Snuggled up)

We started at the waterfall portion of the nature park...resort? I'm not really sure what to call it, but it was beautiful. All of the water was super warm. I am not exactly sure what caused it, but it felt great to swim in hot water while the air outside had a bit of a nip to it. The waterfall, Gloria, was beautiful and HUGE. I have had a long time debate with myself about whether or not I would rather be a tree or a waterfall. I thought I had finally decided on tree, but the waterfall made me question that pressing decision. There was an additional cave water fall, and it was lovely. I think it was my favorite part of the whole trip. The steamy cave, crashing echoing off the walls, and the way the rocks were carved from the water was stunning. I just wanted to sing. I did find a little sound proof alcove eventually, and I lived all my Little Mermaid dreams. 

(Her name is Gloria)

(Happy girl)

(This was stupidly fun)

(The water dripping onto us here was FRIGID)

After the waterfall, we went down to the river, and that part really felt like Utah. The grey mountains, warm water and sunshine made me think of home. The water was blue instead of brownish red, but when I closed my eyes, it felt just like sitting in the Virgin river back at home. It was still so early that hardly anyone was out and about. We spent a couple hours in the river area. It was very peaceful. Afterwards, we went and got some food. It was probably one of my favorite dishes I have had in Mexico and I am very upset that I don't remember what they are called. It was a pretty cold and windy day, so it felt great anytime we were in the water, but being in our swimsuits in the cold wind was a bit of a struggle. Around 1, we decided to shuttle over to the thermo pools.

I will say, that if I ever bring anyone here, I will start at the thermos pools and end at the waterfall. The thermal pools were much more resorty, crowded and less natural. They were still awesome, but I think they would've been cooler if I hadn't been to the waterfall cave yet. We spent a couple of hours just sitting and talking in our little pool, then we moved to a bigger one. It was, admittedly really nice to just relax. It was nice to just be surrounded by nature and not go go go. We finally got out of the water around 5 and changed out of our swimsuits. It was VERY windy at that point. We went on a hike along a stream, and it felt like we were in Costa Rica. The plant life was so jungly and vibrant. I wanted to steal so many different leaves and flowers, but I forced myself to settle for a rock. I say a coconut tree and a banana tree. It seems strange that I had never seen either of those before. The banana tree was way different from what I expected. I had an amazing time.

We then got dinner, some candy, then Juan picked us up. The ride home was full of laughter and conversations that should not be repeated. Just let it be known that I apparently have very hot feet. We were all pretty tired when we got back to the house, but I found an iron and was able to iron the water from everyone's towels before their showers. The hot water would only stay on for 5 minutes, and we had to wait 15 minutes between each shower to let it re-heat. It was actually really relaxing to just sit and do such a simple task. Either the bed was less squeaky on Saturday night, or both Allie and I slept like rocks, because we were both out all night. 

Saturday, February 19th

On Sunday, we all slept in. It was lovely. Once everyone got up, we ate, got ready for the day, and checked out by noon. Our hosts were amazing, and we gave them a full 5 stars. They went above and beyond in their care, and I am super grateful for that. Our private driver wasn't coming until later, so we spent our afternoon exploring. We visited two beautiful catherdrals, and just enjoyed the city. Also, the city fountain had the most beutiful statue of an Artimis type goddess. I love exploring cities, and this one was really lovely. I saw some of the most beautiful Sparrows that I have ever seen. I like to think of Sparrows as my good omens, spirit animal, guide, whatever. When I see them it reminds me to be mindful of my journey and to have gratitude, so whether or not it actually means somethig when they show uo in my life, they mean something to me. At the second Catherdral, I also found a single red string on the floor as I was leaving. It fit perfectly around my wrist. I took that as a little nod from the divine as well. Both the significance of the color red and the string were not lost on me. My last little omen was the fountain statue. Artimis is 'my' goddess, so I thought it was really cool that my little trip ended with that particular statue. The whole time I was in the water the day before, I felt very connected to the Divine Feminine, so those little omens on Sunday meant a lot to me

(We had a lady yelled at us and offered us beer from her car while we were here!)

(Artimis)

Our car ride home was much faster, and I pretty much just rested for the rest of the day at the house. I am also happy to report that my roommate got back from the hospital on Saturday, and she will make a full recovery. 

I am growing and learning so much here in Mexico. I AM grateful for the really hard days...it is then that I am experiencing the most growth. Mom, don't worry about me, I am being looked after and watched over, and I haven't even cried. Everyone else - I think I want to end this post with some wise words that my mentor once shared with me. These words have gotten me through a lot, and they put things into great perspective. "The resistance always comes when you are doing something great"

Love, 

Your omen seeking traveler, 

Ivie Noelle