Hola!!

Driver’s Ed was a blast! I took it at the local private Christian school with 20 other kids my age. Most of them were a year younger, but there were 5 other sophomores, and one of them was homeschooled like me! Oddly enough, I had sat next to him during my PSAT two weeks before. He was nice, but he always pushed the desk in front of him halfway across the room to be funny. I would not have had a problem with this, but, being a homeschooler, I had to sit in front of him on most days. I found him less than entertaining. Our instructor was great. He was actually the school’s chemistry teacher, but he taught Driver’s Ed on the side. His five grown children provided him with lots of good driving stories with morals. We were constantly warned not to drink and drive, not to take drugs and drive, not to take drugs and drink and drive. We learned about parking. We learned about U turns. We learned about driving in snow and rain and night and fog. We watched sad, violent car crash videos. We learned about the sordid costs of insurance. We learned about how immature and self-centered our age group is (He didn’t have to tell me that. I had first hand experience from the kid behind me). We learned about tires. We learned about all sorts of different drive-y things, but the hard part is yet to come. The actual driving is scheduled for late December. I’m getting into a little white car with a little white sign on the top and I’ll be driving in the evening, during the Christmas rush-hour, with two passengers, on the freeway, on my second day behind the wheel. Phew!

Mexico: is awesome. Always has been and always will be. Whenever we visit, I always notice something new that American should have, but doesn’t. This year it was the panaderia. They have Mexican bakeries in the US too, but they’re not real Mexican bakeries. They are posers. They don’t have wonderfully greasy fresh-from-the-oven, sugar-coated donuts, churros, enpanadas, cake or puffy bread in America. America just has Dunkin’ Donuts and garlic bread. What’s up with that?

America also doesn’t have good tortillas, good carne asadas, good guacamole, El Pollo Loco, 45 cent giant glass bottled Coke, Toronja, LaLa Leche, good tamarind candies, saltine crackers in adorable packages, or Wiwichus. Wiwichus are a Pepsi-sponsored Mexican toy. They are little white plastic snowboarding men with funny interchangeable snowboarder hats. They come in clear plastic ornament balls, with festive gold strings attatched. Their catchphrase? Wiwichu a Meri Creesmas an a Japi Nu Yir. Spelled just like that. Coca Cola has stiff competition going on here.

The cousins are great 🙂 I love them all to pieces. There’s Brandon (aged almost 2), then Luis Leonardo (3), then Marlon (4), then Valeria (almost 5), Lynnsito (5), Jorgito (9), Laurito (12), Dayanita (14 yesterday), Christian (14), and last of all, me (15). It makes me kinda sad to come here and be the oldest cousin. I remember being the entertainee, not the entertainer! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE playing with my cousins. They are all really creative and smart and fun and beautiful and handsome… but nostalgia sets in. I feel old. 😀

I will keep you posted on what we are doing here! Mostly we’ve been eating and sitting pretty and hanging out with family. We did go to Wednesday night Bible study the other day. That was great. I was again reminded that no matter where you are, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina, or Mexico… meeting and the spirit of God is always the same.

They say ‘amen’ here though. I like that.