AmalieLiz's Xanga

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:36:54 GMT

I´m a slacker. Check this out... ñññññ ¿¿¿¿¿ so exciting.

Hmm, some updates:
-we left Mexico City after 6 days and went to Queretaro to visit Clay´s sister and her boyfriend. The first day we(Steph) bought a puppy in a mercado that we were told was a 2 month old mini poodle, but we are pretty sure it is 3 weeks old and more like a cocker spaniel. Anyway, we occupied our days in Queretaro playing with him/taking him to the vet to find out he has a stomache inflammation illness because he still needs his mama´s milk.

-next, we went to a city, Gaunajuato, which has been my favorite place so far. It´s this old colonial village with underground tunnel roads and beautiful architecture. We stayed in a hostile and explored the town. This place was like straight out of a fairytale. If I´m ever a convict running from the law, I will be sure to hide out there..or somewhere else...

-now I find myself in Cuernavaca, living with an older mom and dad, their 30-ish year old daughter, and 12 year old grandson, as well as a roommate from South Carolina, which I was not expecting, pero asi es vida. I´m at an intensive language school each day from 8am-2pm with 4 other classmates, so I´m sucking up all the attention from our teachers and frying my brain each day.

-my english has regressed

-the food has taken a tole on my stomache, and plays the part as a constant laxative, which is awesome.

-I now must flag down a taxi and get home for the comida, my large meal of the day which is sometimes mexican food, but occasionally things like alphabet soup, pizza, and spaghetti, because I think mi mama wants me to feel at home. If she only knew I´d prefer the comida mexicana.

Hasta luego.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:07:38 GMT

Gracias Ernesto para su extension de camera y su amistad.
http://xfb.xanga.com/971c06e732c35143895786/q106422205.jpg

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:42:31 GMT

24 hours spent in D.F.(Mexico City) so far:
Well, well, well, Mel and I traveled for 12 hours beginning in Phoenix where we sat at the airport alongside her dear grandma while she questioned us on the attributes we look for in a husband and Mel informed her grandma that she is "sex machine." Then came a lay over in Houston where we spotted Clay. That little schemer told us he couldn't get on our flight and that we would just have to search the massive airport in DF once we arrived.

After a night spent in a Holiday Inn (compliments of Papa Bear) we grabbed a taxi this morning and endured the chaotic streets of one of the most dense cities in the world. After an hour drive and feeling like I was going to throw up for the last portion, we arrived in Colonia de Presedentes, a very impoverished community but filled with character...winding streets with tall colorful apartments intertwined with hanging laundry and roof top plants. Very picturesque. We're now staying at a community center in an upper apartment that provides outings and medical services for the neighborhood children. This afternoon 54 kids came over and we boarded a bus and headed to "La cuidad de ninos." This is every child's dream come true and mine (and Mel's but not Clay's). It's this indoor adult world designed for children where they receive fake pesos and can walk throughout the town spending and making money at various places like a hospital, salon, "Wal-mart," etc. I had four 7 year old girls in my group that were just as overstimulated as me. They rambled on and on with me in Spanish and even though half the time I had to reply with "no entiendo" they decided I was their best friend by the end. Afterward, we took them back, where they returned to their homes.

This evening, Clay, Mel, and I cooked fresh chicken, squash, and onions that we bought on the street this morning and sat up on the rooftop overlooking the city and attempting to star gaze at a starless sky thanks to pollution and bright lights. We are more or less not supposed to leave our locked down apartment because of the "dangerous hood" but we endured the friendly neighborhood and went to a pandelaria (bakery) and the shop owner is having us over for dinner Thursday night. So in a nutshell, this place is growing on me faster than I would have expected. God really has provided us with smooth sailing so far. Hallelujah.
Oh how I wish I could post pictures (if only I had brought me camera cord) of mangy dogs, precious Mexican children, and beautiful city lights.
Buenas Noches.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:08:27 GMT

Dear Spencer (and Carrie),

I am sorry that I have not provided you with any reading material as you sit at your desk pretending to work, but secretly checking xanga for an update. What a miserable summer this must have been. I, on the otherhand, have had a splendid one, beginning with...

the cruise that mom and dad took Andrew and me on. It pays to be single and continue to mooch off of the parentals while spending quality time with them of course.
Climatic moment: sharing our dinner table with Larry. Larry is an expert cruise attendee that was currently on his fifth one with his son (age 5) celebrating his graduation from preschool. As Larry shared all the secrets of the best places to eat and times to do so, excused himself from the table to dance with the servers and cooks after the finale dinner, and doted on his intelligent son that has successfully passed preschool, I decided that Christopher Guest should make a new mockumentary on avid cruise goers. Unfortunately, no pictures of the infamous Larry were taken...only half the Orr family. We missed you.

Next was my favorite trip of the summer: Yosemite. The fun began when we set sail in the mom-o-van that dad somehow entrusted us all with, that we soon named Patricia. She kept chugging along through Vegas, Death Valley and eventually got us lost in the outskirts of Yosemite where she was stuck in sand...and then dug out. This trip consisted of many hikes: moonlit night hikes, sunrise hikes, "all-day along a river hikes," rafting (which became a joke since there was no current), swimming in ice cold lakes, ending with a drive to see the biggest trees on the planet in the Sierra National Forest and then a trip to a ghetto casino in the Mojave Desert where we went swimming to rid our bodies of 6 days of dirt with chlorine, danced it up in the lounge, and played a 5 cent slot machine- also the day you called to tell me that I'm going to be an aunt!!! (as I wore our childhood pink 80's dress since the color theme of the drive home was pink and brown and everyone was instructed to change in a gas station early that morning). I wish I could post all 459 pictures from this trip...

Then Melissa and I roadtripped out to Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico to visit Molly/Molls Balls, Clay, and Alex, where we were forced to learn to wakeboard. I fall somewhere between amateur and professional, slightly closer to the amateur end of the spectrum. Post wakeboarding = an extreme whiplash feeling to the entire body, so we visited some natural hot springs along the Rio Grande. More memories were experienced 2 hours west of the lake in Capitan...no great stories here except one night when we feasted at a random family's house with 7 children. Their motto is "Book or Broom." They must be reading or cleaning at all times; no other media besides books. They also took turns standing up at the dinner table and quoting famous people. The dad wanted Mel and I to quote something and questioned our educational background when we said we had nothing to offer (other than the lyrics to songs like Sir Mixalot's "I like big butts" which would probably be slightly inappropriate). With that to say, I was very enlightened by their traditional values.

Last but not least, I made an expedition out to see BeccaJane & Friends, Inc. in Saint Diego where we relished in old times...getting sick off candy from the Sweet Factory, rummaging through thrift stores to prevent global warming, (F.Y.I. The production of clothing uses an unnecessary amount of the earth's natural resources when more than enough clothes exist to just keep passing around and sharing.), starting a running team called "Team Panda Robot Suicide Force" to train for an actual half marathon- dad already registered us so there is no backing out this time, and cooking the L parents some gourmet food...all accounting for me wanting to live there again.

So while I wasn't off playing, I actually did do some work at Papa Bear's office...changing lives by shredding paper, rearranging furniture, cleaning out refrigerators, addressing envelopes and instilling the concept of RECYCLE into the office, except Pops still ignores the recycling bin I brought in so I have to filter things out of his trash can. But working there was surprisingly fun and educational at times. And then I completed my last and final days of nannying Tori and Nikki. Hopefully next summer when I have a college degree I won't fall back into that employment. Nik's best quote of the summer occurred yesterday when a friend of mine came over to their house to drop something off...Nik told my friend that her mom was actually at a movie by herself at the time and not at work because "She needed some alone time. She has been really stressed lately. She's been divorced twice."

Love,
Amy

P.S. I will try to keep you more regularly posted while I'm in Meh-hee-co.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 03:50:00 GMT

Happy Birthday Dictator Carrie. I mean, princess.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 06:30:08 GMT

During a wedding last night:

"So you need to compliment your wife on her cooking. Let's say she is cooking a steak dinner, " -priest

...a bridesmaid then faints and has a seizure...

...10 minutes of silence in the audience while workers call an ambulance...

"Ok folks, I think we're alright. Now we can get back to my favorite topic, steak dinner." -priest

followed by Kyle, sitting next to me shaking his face covered by his hands, while my mom and I cackle simultaneously, followed by my dad pinching my leg and giving me the disapproving glare, followed by me squealing "ouch" followed by an even more disapproving face and squinty eye brows from my dad.

After 20 more minutes of sheer rambling by the priest, he says to the groom, Ryan Coykendall (pronounced "Kway-ken-doll"), "Please repeat after me, I, Ryan Coykendall (prounouced 'Coke-in-doll')."

Ryan then pauses and says, "umm, I, Ryan Coke-in-doll?"

After the 1 hour ceremony, full of advice on marriage by a priest, he walks over to the open bar where my dad and I are standing to order a whiskey. good times.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:47:54 GMT

Leaving a dinner theatre with the family and passing a funeral home:

"Kids, that reminds me, your mom and I have already paid for our funerals there so you won't have to worry about any of the costs." -dad

"Are you being buried or cremated?" -Andrew

"Cremated. It's cheaper. That pizza was really great at dinner." -dad

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:19:00 GMT

-Molls Balls has been on crack for two nights now.

-My eyes feel like someone rubbed onions on them.

-Get your rosary off my ovary. I thought about that bumper sticker today.

-I can see the carpet by my desk for the first time this semester and it makes me want to sit down and do yoga in this huge 4x4 foot square.

-I'm doing a really good job at procrastinating my study abroad essay right now.

-I love the Grand Canyon and my dad. I'd like to live there for a good year and become the next John the Baptist living off of locust and honey.

-I just tried to appeal a $60 parking ticket today by writing the judge and telling him how my legs were sore from the Grand Canyon and I wasn't able to ride my bike and was forced to illegally park in a teacher's reserved parking spot. My bad. I added that $60= two weeks of groceries.

-Some good quotes from Molls Balls:
"Do you ever wish you were a bird?" -Emily
"No, but sometimes I wish I was a Black woman. Does that count?" -Molls

"I think I will wear my shoes to the movies tonight to break them in for Mt. Elden."-Molls

-Irrational fear: waking Melissa up while she doesn't hear her alarm clock and then her slaughtering my throat.

Well, I officially neglected my paper and now I'm off to see a movie so Molls Balls can break in her new hiking slash running shoes. Holler.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:46:06 GMT

My sister is smarter than yours...

Spencer: Hey, when we are in Boston this weekend we will be right next to Harvard. We should totally look around.

Carrie: What! Harvard is in Boston?

Spencer: Umm, yeh.

Carrie: Oh, that's right. I remember now, from Legally Blonde.

Spencer: Yeh, I'm pretty sure that's what made Harvard famous; Elle Woods graduating.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 22:01:11 GMT

Why Clay hates coming over but secretly loves it...

We decided last night that we should paint each other's souls and Clay quickly said, "no." Well, out came the paints and the candles and he was forced to paint my soul, while I painted Melissa's and she painted Clay's.

     Top: Clay's interpretation of my soul
     Left: Mel's interpretation of Clay's soul
     Right: My interpretation of Mel's soul