9 things about 9/9/09

dear blog,

it's the ninth day of the ninth month of the two-thousand and ninth year. woo hoo

in honor of this day, here are nine things about me you may or may not have known...

1. i bite my nails.

2. i sing really loudly and badly in the car. always.

3. i like dogs. but pretty much hate most other animals.

4. i got a C minus in my first sociology class and yet... i'm a sociology major.

5. i love all seasons.

6. sneezing is probably one of my FAVORITE things.

7. i love old people so so SO much. seriously... its kind of weird.

8. yesterday i made 21 free throws (almost) in a row.

9. laughing is probably my most favorite thing.

love,

rochelle

p.s. i wish i posted this at 9:09 p.m. (and nine seconds)

p.p.s. i saw matthew maddox today. here is an old picture for old times sake. haha (also, there are nine of us)

veranoooo

dear blog,

i was looking through my pictures on facebook, and i realized that i really did a whole lot this summer-- even besides the whole mexico-adventure-of-a-lifetime bit.

here is a list of all the stuff i remember... (not in necessarily in order)

1. moved back home
2. rodeo
3. picked up some british lingo
4. stake dance in lehi haha
5. MY stake dance with harriet, elise, bob and chris... and 7 other people. best. dance. ever.
6. crazy night in bob's truck.

7. ben's visit/ burger supreme.
8. mission farewell(s)
9. california
10. disneyland/california adventure!
11. visit ellen at UCLA
12. family time.
13. blair and matt's wedding.
14. tricia's wedding
15. western watts. never. again.
16. mexico.
17. HARRY POTTER (twice... english and spanish)
18. learned some german in mexcio (barbara hahn!)
19. bowling.
20. NERTZ (mexico and not)
21. fun with sam lyman and girls at my favorite park.

22. kennecot copper mine.

23. my first experience with a family death.

24. dinners with carly hyatt.

25. temple square.

26. father's day at grandpa's

27. bountiful temple

28. walmart runs

29. transformers

30. beeeeacccccchhh.

31. lot's of visits with grandpa.

32. scripture fireside at church history museum!!!

33. lot's of maddie's basketball games.

34. taylor and courtney

35. volleyball

36. swimming

37. np second ward!

38. in n' out!

39. bonfire (s)

40. meteor shower

also... i'm sure theres more... and considering i was only in utah for like a total of two months i feel like that is a whole bunch!

what an AMAZING summer!

here are some pictures :) enjoy.

38.

8.

2.

13.

12.

26.

10.

28.

34.

11.

6./7.

22.

love,

rochelle

p.s. i already mentioned some of these things in a previous blog.... oh well.

ma famille

dear blog,

do you know what i just LOOOVE?

when i come home and everyone is just thrilled and excited to see me. (p.s. this is not sarcastic)

yesterday i was in provo all day, (which is pretty much standard lately,) and my brother richie called me and was like

"rochelle, where are you"

and i was like

"in provo..."

and he was like

"come home"

and i was like

"why..."

and he was like

"because i haven't seen you all week and i miss you."

CUUUUTE!

and i was like

"wait, seriously? you don't need the car or anything"

and he was like

"yeah. i just want to hang out with you."

and i was like

"awwwww! okay i'll be home in an hour-ish"

and he was like

"oh... i have to go to bed then... but i'll wait up! i took a nap today!"

and i was like

"awwwww! okay, see you soon!"

and he was like

"can't wait!"

is that not cutest thing you have ever heard??

and then i came home and everyone was like "rochelle!!" and they came and hugged me and i just felt soooo loved!

and then richie was like "let's go for a drive" and so we were leaving and everyone was like "rochelle, where are you going??!!?"

it just made me feel so good.

it's days like yesterday, that make me happy i go to school so close to home.

it's days like yesterday, that make me so happy to be a part of my family.

it's days like yesterday, that make it worth it to live at home.

happy thursday :)

love,

rochelle

Meheeco.

Dear blog,

1. sorry i've neglected you.
2. i'm home from mexico.

it's strange being back. although i really wasn't there that long, i feel like i was. i was accustomed to my life there. it feels like it was a dream almost, just because my life here is pretty much the same as before i left.

i'm not the same, though.

i really think i changed a lot. i feel different. i look at the world differently.

anyways, the moral of the story is that my viaje was a amazing. i loved every minute of it. even the bad minutes... like when we missed our bus and had to walk more than an hour home at 1 in the morning. like when i was so utterly exhausted and cut my hand open on the fan in my room. like when it was 100 degrees and 100% humidity ALL THE TIME. like hormigas. like taking bus opcion 1 vs. opcion 2. like almost getting heat stroke (haha). like when every creepy old man in mexico decided that they loved me. and like when everyone i know thought that that was the best thing ever. i loved it all.

what did i learn?

sometimes the best way to be a member missionary is to just listen.
always being an example is so important.
don't be afraid to ask questions.
PATIENCE.
it is not always about me. (yeah, i have to learn this a lot)
pluuuus... a lot of other more "personal" things.
oh yeah, and spanish :)

here are some (and by some i mean un monton!) photographical highlights from my trip.

me and sarah vera at progreso

me, hilary, ellis, sarah and jessica at the school pool

amigos at katie's birthday



imelda, sarah, me and h at servicio

el grupo at the convent at izamal

well...

dzibilchaltuuuun!

icecream at motul

(i look like their mother...)

jorge aka the FAN MAN!

our clase

(we were laughing because my camera self timer made a funny noise)

in a ruin at uxmal... it was creeepy in there.

bowling!

el templo! que bonito, no?

tacos yum

ice cream at COLON!

jessica and i at la playa in cancuuun!

going into the "dangerous" cenote.

emerging victorious from the dangerous cenote!

celestun.

ariana! she's so adorable!

izamal

where is this... i don't even remember the name.

chichen itza! one of the 7 wonders of the world!

colson awaking from one of his many naps. BAHAHAHA

love,

rochelle

p.s. my parents are making me real life yucatecan food today, YUMMMMM!

clouds.

dear blog,

the clouds here are absolutely amazing. EVERY. DAY.

i love looking up at the sky and seeing magical marshmallow madness. or deep heavy potential monsoons. or snow covered mountain peaks.

love love love love it.

love,

rochelle

el primer martes

hola mi familia!

hoy teniamos clases otra vez. me gusta mas las clases hoy que ayer. y after clases we had a meeting about our excursions and what not and appartanly because our group is so small we only get to go on two outing, pero the universidad y everyone is excited that we're here so they are going to let us use a bus and get other discounts so we are going to go on 5 o 6 otros excursiones and we only will have to pay about 75 dollars, (american not pesos) which i thought was a good deal looking at all the stuff we are going to do... anyways, hoy comimos watermelon para el desayuno and a fried egg which was really delicious actually. and for lunch i had carne con arroz y platanos. it was sooooo goooood. she cooked the rice with chicken stock i think? idk it was muy rico! y fuimos a la tortilleria(?) so we had these fresh warm corn tortillas that were sooo goooood tambien. also i had this weird popsicle thing that was in plastic like an ottor pop but it was fat and it was creamy and when i was almost done, the melted part was like jello... entonces, mis compeneras de clase querian ir al "centro" which is basically downtown merida i think, so nuestra madre yucateca put us on a bus and we walked around the centro. i felt like everyyonnne was staring at us (because they were) las solitas chicas rubias alli! then after awhile it started raining... and raining... and raining. so much lluvia! seriously, the rain drops were falling harder than the water in thier shower. we were soaked in casi UN minuto! it was glorious, the rain was warm and the air was warm too, so being soaking wet was una temperatura perfecta! entonces we were just walking around in the rain and we found some other girls from our programa so we walked around with them. and then we ran into this old man that started talking to us about how he used to live in the united states forty years ago and how he tutors rich kids in english and italian and french and german and he speaks mayan! entonces the other girls we were with started talking about how they wanted to buy una hamaca (hammock) because apparantly the best hamacas are made here and so the guy told us the best place to get them, pero las chicas were un poquito confused, so this sketch old man with a limp escorted us to the hammack shop where the only people inside were like 6 otro hombres that were also a little sketchy and they took us to this back room with hammocks and tried to get us to buy them... it was a little creepy... entonces regresamos en el camion and the bus driver just kept laughing at us because we were sopping wet. and our bus almost got hit by lighting! and then when we got off the bus, there was literally 2 feet of water in the street and we had to wade our way home. (don't worry, it was still raining) what an aventura, no? i survived my first monsoon! :) bueno, i had a lot of fun today and i'm excited for all of the stuff we have to come! el viernes vamos a la playa y a algos ruinas y vamos a tener una fiesta for the fourth of july! tambien, el novio de carmita, que se llama sergio, told me that he is in a church choir/band thing and i told him me gusta cantar and so he got all excited and wanted me to sing with them on thursday night when they come over for practice... pero no se... we'll see!

anyways, i'm still having so much fun and i am learing a ton! mi accento ya esta mejorando and i get less and less afraid to talk to people.

love/miss you!

love,rochelle

hilary y yo despues de la lluvia!

my first day and a halllffff

querida familia,

llego a mexico ayer a las 3. the flight was 100% full. i sat next to the cutest little couple from espana. there was a bunch of turbulance landing-- fun! and it was raining when we landed. then we had to fill out a questionaire about whether we had the swine flu symptoms and i got a stamp in my passport! and we went through customs & i had to open up my bag because i had a big box of batteries... it really freaked me out. and as soon as we stepped off the plane my hair frizzed out beyond anyone's control. then i switched mi dinera a pesos y compro un boleto to take a bus from the airport to the bus terminal. and then we took another bus from cancun to merida. the bus ride was sooo long it seemed, but i could look out the window the first 2 hours before it got pitch black! its weird how dark it gets without all the light pollution. we drove past une monton of really ghetto/awesome city y muchos muchos really cool arboles. i was still so excited and the trees were so cool that it felt like i was on a ride at disneylandia haha! then we got to merida around 10 and our cute little host familia picked us up. seriously though, the mom is probaly like 4 feet tall. and everyone here is TINY! i feel like an amazon woman ALL THE TIME. carly, you would even feel tall here ;). and it doesn't help that i have a big bush of blonde curly hair on the top of my head/ am the whitest person i've seen yet. anyways our family is so cute! they brought us back and fed us "hot cakes" haha and we just chatted for a couple of hours. and then i took a shower. a cold shower has never felt better in my entire life. then hoy fuimos a la universidad modelo and we had three classes from 8-3:30 ALL in spanish. the first class we uber-boring and i honestly could not even focus enough to care what he was saying. its 395, a culture class about the yucatan, but all the profesor did was read the syllabus and repeat everything to take up the whole TWO HOURS. entonces, los otros clases son muy divertidos! i was nervous that i wouldn't be good enough at spanish, but honestly i think i am more comfortable than most of our group. for lunch tenemos enchiladas de pollo con mole... muy rico! yummm. they were sooo good! it made me think about grandpa turley because he always tries to make us eat mole. haha. anddd i just took a siesta which was glorious because i barely slept the night before and last night we only slept about cinco horas. anyways... i really like it here. a veces i get a little tired of speaking spanish and my brain turns off for un minuto, pero hay mucho tiempos cuando siento como la gente estan hablando en ingles porque entiendo todo que estan diciendo. es muy interesante. y other times, i feel like i can't understand anything. but i am definitely learning! i really like the way the city feels too (not the humidity, or the heat) but i like the kind of run down feeling. and all the houses are gated in and a lot of them are bright colors. idk, i love it!

si tienen preguntas por favor preguntanme! i feel like this email does nothing justice, pero i'm honestly loving everything!

i love you all!

i wish you guys could be here and see all the crazy stuff i have even in one day! haha also, when i tell people that my family is as tall or taller than me (menos uno) their eyes get really big like its the freakiest thing they've ever heard!

hasta luego,

love,

rochelle

p.s. haha no one can say rochelle. carmita wants to call me rosh. lol

p.p.s. aqui son dos picturas de mi cuarto. the one with me is a picture of the beds and the other picture is my roommate and the shelves where our clothes are. there's also a desk and a no se... coffee table thing? pero, es mas largo de mi cuarto en nuestra casa! haha