Farewell, Youth Ambassadors!

Hiiiii! today was the goodbye-breakfast with all of the 46 youth ambassadors, culminating the youth ambassador exchange program for the summer. ;(( I had a wonderful time these past two weeks with the new friends I made from the lovely 10 sister cities, and I will miss each one very dearly. Thanks to misty + all the parents who helped out and to all the ambassadors for giving me a new perspective on everything...and always a great laugh! I will always keep these memories true to my heart, and I hope we can keep in touch and someday be together again! again, if any prospective YAs have questions, email me at raeraeaaron@cox.net or text me at 6023218409 and I will do my best to help you out. bye !

here are a few photos from these last two weeks and the top one is our last group one from today:)

city hall

disneyland

mexican food

halloween celebration

adios from méxico

I'm here to say my final goodbye from Mexico. The sun has set on day 21, our last day as Youth Ambassadors to Hermosillo from Phoenix! these past three weeks have been unbelievably, incredibly awesome, and I am so beyond lucky to have had this experience. 

Before I jump into my last post/update of this afternoon, I want to say thank you. First, to everyone reading this...there's no way I would have updated it if it were only for myself (lazyyyy), and I hope you enjoyed it and were able to get a feel for the experience I was having, from sitting on the couch complaining about how bored I was, to raving about the food, people, and fun activities in which we participated. Sorry for typos and confusing posts...I never proofread, so it may have been dyscombobulated at times! Next, I would like to thank Phoenix Sister Cities for giving me this opportunity to immerse myself in a fabulous culture in a welcoming sister city that is not only close literally, but that has a strong bond with phoenix respect the usa as much as we respect our neighbor to the south. Thanks, Laurel and Haley, for being the most funny and all-around best friends I could have met this summer (LOVE YOU GUYS). Lastly, thank you to the Silvas, my outstanding, caring, and hilarious host family who accomodated me and made these three weeks the best and best and best ever. Zyanya, I don't know if you're reading this, but I could not have wished for a better counterpart, and I can't wait for our program in phoenix to start next week! 

Here it goes: This afternoon, when Zyanya woke up (well she was never really sleeping), Luisa opened a bag of chips and put them on the table. I have always criticized smokers and such for voluntarily doing something that hurts them, but now I sort of understand. The chips they buy are SUPER PICOSO (super spicy) like reaalllyy spicy my head is on fire hot. But somehow they taste good, and I continue to eat them, slowly of course, and then go running across the kitchen to the water jug to chug some water, which never helps, but distracts me. I really just need to not eat those so I don't have to suffer ugh. Anyway, then we went into the family room and turned on a movie called Wake Up, which was the weirdest movie I have ever seen. It was about a man who was seeing the supernatural and spirits so weird my gosh. So then luisa of course opened a bag of non-spicy chips! Why couldn't she do that before when I was dying?? Oh well, it all worked out. We watched for awhile, and then luisa's mom picked up luias and haley. Zyanya and I hung out for a few hours, until we left to eat (I can't call it lunch it was 5pm) at Chilli's (yes, the chain there are a billion chain restaraunts here, and they have BLOCKBUSTER it still exists!! I even took a picture but then realized how silly that was). Anyway, after we ate, Luisa's mom took us over to a friend's house (I remember him from zyanya and pamela's party) where we met laurel and pamela. It was super fun, we hung out for awhile the three of us americans, and then went swimming and talked to all the other kids. They give us a bunch of attention, and are all super fun and nice. And the home was beautiful, right near the park where we ran last week, and everyone was having a lot of fun. They enjoy asking us to pronounce words, and like to test our vocabulary. They always expect laurel to speak spanish, and then are surprised when I know the words...it's so weird, since we told them she doesn't speak it and i do! Some kids I can understand perfectly and some I can't understand at all. Also, when they make jokes, I'm completely clueless, so we just try to laugh along and see if they explain it. They could literally be saying anything ahhah. At 10:45 we left, which was super early for us compared to usually, but we had a good time. 

It was kind of nostalgic that the national soccer team finally lost on our last day, but it was a blast watching the games with them. I definately have a permanent place in my heart for the Mexican soccer team, especially Ochoa (the goalie, so cute). I hope they do better next time, but now I can still cheer and hope for the USA to win on tuesday...oh gosh. 

I had many highlights of this adventure, and I will say this trip accomplished everything it was designed to, and for me personally, it accomplished even more. I expected to have fun, share american culture while learning about mexican culture, and build friendships that will last forever. We definately accomplished all of that, but I learned so much more. First of all, people are people. No matter what culture and nationality they associate with, the color of their skin, their sex or age, we all have feelings and expression, and can relate to and communicate with one another. Each person I spoke to was different from every other, and what I've realized is that it is ultimately the individuals who compose a city and a nation, but that no single stereotype or description can capture the spirit of a people. What I have found, in this beautiful culture, is that what matters the most is that we each be the best we can be and enjoy what we have, because there is no best culture or best land, but there are great people in many places...the ones who embrace life and enjoy spreading happiness to others. This program has shipped American teenagers, 23 of my favorite people, all over the world, and by the end of this summer, each of us will have new friends, new stories to tell, and a new realization of what it means to be a citizen of this earth, connecting globally and thriving locally. 

Thanks, again, for reading my blog and hopefully learning/experiencing this great city of hermosillo with me! I am trying to get zyanya to keep a blog, which would be fun for you to read, but it would be en español haha. future ambassadors, if you have questions about yaep or hermosillo, please feel free to contact me raeraeaaron@cox.net ;)

Signing off from mexico for the last time. Adios!!!!

ps I always say I will try to post pics, but I never do, so if I get around to it, maybe I will next week when I'm home. but then again, don't count on it. 

¡el ÚLTIMA día!

WOWW TODAY IS OUR LAST DAY IN HERMOSILLO!!! It felt like three weeks for sure, but I can't believe it's actually over. We made so many great memories and learned so much through our immersion ! 

Well, why stop now—I still have today and anoche to cover! Yesterday, in the afternoon, Macrina, Zyanya, and I walked to the Soriana (mega grocery store outside their community) so I could buy a mexico team shirt (and one for laurel), but they only had men's XLs, so we ditched it and tried two other stores, too, but neither of them had what we were looking for, so we bailed and went home. Zyanya fell asleep in the car, so I felt bad that she had to come! Also, at the third store we tried, we parked right across from a yogurt place called Joy Cherry and I really wanted to go because it was so hot out, but I obviously wasn't going to ask that would be so rude ahh. Afterward, we went back to the house and hung out until 8:40 when luisa's friend came with luisa and haley to take us to Cristina's surprise going-away party. The party was really fun, and I love cristina, so I will miss her. Her mom is the german one I was talking to at the prom, and cristina is moving to germany where her mom's family is for a year (I may have already said that oops), which is going to be such an awesome experience! 

i spent most of the night hanging out with haley, since neither of us recognized many people that we knew, but it was a small gathering, and no one was really dancing (which was fortunate for us!). They played mostly american music (miley cyrus and bieber and other pop), which is comforting, but funny that we're the only ones who know the lyrics to some of the songs! We ate nachos and pizza (well I didn't eat pizza since it was pepperoni), but I wasn't very hungry anyway. We left at 12:30 to make sure we wouldn't be too tired for a run to raise awareness for something—I think drug abuse?—but we didn't go becaue it was so early this morning, and it's our last day. 

This morning, we have just watched soccer. Mexico should have won, but unfortunately it was a loss, and we all ate breakfast at 11am and now are just moping around and hanging out. We don't have any plans for today (OUR LAST ONE), so haley has been hinting around that we should see a movie or go somewhere, but zyanya is sleeping on the couch and luisa is watching vines, so maybe later? I hope! Okayyyy well, here are some general thoughts about the trip for fun, and I will compose my last post tonight. 

Also, I wanted to mention the fact that when we pull up to a stoplight, homeless (maybe just very poor) people and children are performing tricks lick juggling, or just selling food to make money. It's crazy, I've never seen that before! Zyanya always gives them coins, and when Luisa's mom was walking past two homeless men after the factory, she gave them each a pastry, which is so kind. Some people are ignorant, but not our host families. 

Some Mexican things I'm going to miss:

-speaking spanish and spanglish (zyanya and i have mastered spanglish), all of their adorable and amazing friends, Rhon (the dog), Macrina's awesome food, running in the beautiful park across from Regis Prep, family fútbol games (even though mexico just lost WAAAAH), the kiss on the cheek (people here actually acknowledge each other with more than an awkward wave or handshake), getting away with being a clueless foreigner, getting in the car and having no idea where we're going (not that I have anything against surprises), and no scorpions (somehow they don't have them here but there are tons of cockroaches idk). 

Some things I'm looking forward to in the usa:

-hot showers (and water pressure), american dessert (brownies specifically), speaking english (love spanish, but yeah, I miss it), cold soda and drinks, air conditioning (surprisingly, I miss the cold front that overcomes me when I step indoors in the summer in the us), eating three meals a day (no more morning feast and lunch at 4 haha), data roaming, being reunited with delilah, and food without spice (yes!)

HALEY IS AWESOME

bye for now! ciao! 

zyanya and sahroma were just a bit disappointed at the end of the game :(

mario sent me this of rhon haha

from last night! cristina is on my right, then haley, luisa, and zyanya !

just because ;) zyanya is sleeping beauty 

Friday continued

Whoops, I meant to finish friday earlier, but I became distracted and ended up doing my laundry and packing my suitcase (which wasn't too hard, since I never really unpacked)! Now, we're watching Up in spanish while waiting for the pizza we ordered for lunch (yes, it is 4:40), which actually became a bit of a hassle, since they're used to piling meat toppings on, and all I can eat is cheese with vegatables. Apparently it's uncommon here to just eat cheese pizza, so Mario compromised by adding tomato and pinapple with extra cheese. I guess I will have my first pineapple pizza now! It was nice of them to order that, I never knew pizza-eating norms were variable from country to country!! 

Now for yesterday: we started off the day early, leaving for a flower factory, La Fama de Molina (i think), at 8:50 for our info session and tour. The factory is the oldest in Hermosillo, and is the largest flower-supplier in the area. We learned that it even supplies flour to Cali and Az. Anyway, the whole experience from start to end was amazing, and I think it definately ranks at the top of the list for my favorite activities here. We met the Hermosillo committeman whose family is an owner of the company, and who is friends with Anna Elena. We took a tour of the whole factory, and were able to see the old machinery that will become a museum in 5 years, and the new machinery as it was producing and refining, packaging and wrapping the flour. IT WAS SO COOL! And hot, super hot and embarrassing how much I was sweating ahh! The tour ended in the school where the factory educates people to work in the bakeries of supermarkets and employs adults with down syndrome and women who are either abused...darn I can't remember. There, we didn't get to see anyone baking the pastries that they use the flower for, but they allowed us to try different pastries that had just been baked, and we also took some back with us. I have definately not tasted many pastries quite as amazing as those. 

When we got back, we hung out for awhile, and I did some work, until we left the house at 5:30 with Laurel and Pamela, to head to one of Luisa's mom's friend's houses on a ranch to go swimming and hang out. We drove out of the city the same way we did to go to Ures, the pueblo where we ate lunch last week, but when we were turning off the highway onto a dirt road that leads to the ranch house, Macrina accidentally turned too early, and we unfortunately edned up driving down the dirt road into a ditch! It was actually a wash, with a steep dirt road cutting across it, but it was too steep to drive out, so after trying to push it for awhile, and then again with the help of Luisa's mom and her friend, they finally took laurel and me to the ranch and waved down a tow truck! What bad luck! It was funny, though (not so much for macrina ;( or for her car), and we were joking that it builds character and creates some funny memories, which it definately did! 

Laurel and I were still able to hang out with Haley and Luisa's family at the ranch home. It was very beautiful, house and pool, and they had a newborn horse and an adorable dog. It was a really nice time, and I'm so glad we were able to go! 

Luisa's mom then dropped Laurel and me off at Zyanya's to change for the going-away party Zyanya and Pamela were throwing (zyanya to cuernavaca and pamela moving to Chihuahua). It was really fun, and sad at the same time, as their high school chapter is ending and this is their last party all together:(. Although, tonight, there might be a surprise going-away party for Cristina, who is moving for a year to germany! I can't believe it! WEll, that's it for yesterday, and today was pretty relaxing, not much happening. We may head to Liverpool so I can buy a mexico shirt. Adios, amigos :)

this is the beautiful ranch home

dos días de divertirnos! t-3 to PHX :(

I have been way busy for blogging, but I'm now devoting this time, and I'll start with Thursday, then Friday!

Throwup Thursday (it's a good thing!)

We started off the morning watching usa come centimeters from elimination from FIFA. This time we actually in every way lost, but the funny part is that a loss somehow was still a win, because we're advancing! WOO USA. I've been unsuccessfully looking for a MEX team shirt this whole month, and now that Cris said he found one in Israel, I think I better start looking harder! hahaa anyway, I was still happy and it was nice that the silvas were watching it with me and cheering for the usa...Zyanya even got up early with me, even though she fell asleep on the couch, which I don't blame her for. 

At 2:30pm, Macrina drove the bunch of us over to la Econectura, which was a super blast. I'm still honestly not sure what it is myself, but I'll do my best to explain. After driving out of HMO and down some dirt roads that wove through farms and ranches (what's the difference?), we ended up at a beautiful red-orange building, which was a hotel. By then, I was practically asleep from the ride, and when i got out of the car, I was so dizzy I probably looked so confused! In the vicinity, there were cows, sheep, horses, and two ponds. We ate lunch at a beautiful little table by one of the ponds, which was really delicious. everyone had chicken and I had fish, and both were great! We then went into a pool that looked like a water fountain, but that actually had a slide that funneled into the pond. We all hung out in the pond (it was a big pond, but I always kept my feet in close, because it was so murky that we practically couldn't see our hands right under the surface) for about two hours, which was a blast, because the water was warm and there were paddle boats, a floating trampoline that we catapulted off of, and paddle boards to keep us busy. Laurel and I tried to get onto sarhoma's paddle board, but once we were all on, it started sinking (maybe fewer burros for me), and when laurel and I tried to get off, it flipped and we all fell in...pobre sarhóma! 

At 6pm, we all changed and were able to horse-back ride on two horses that they brought from the barn. I love horses they were so cute and sweet!! We each rode the horse down a little trail by the pond and back. The guy who was leading my horse was really nice, and he tried to speak english to me, even though I was speaking spanish. I think a lot of people have trouble understanding my spanish, while others want to practice their english. 

We hung out after that in a little playground area and on a field until about 8:40 when we packed up and headed back. Haley was doing backbends and tried to teach us, but I really think my back would have snapped in half I'm so inflexible! We were eating some chips we brought, but they were so spicy that my mouth was burning like crazy oops maybe I should have taken a hint from the big chillie on the front of the bag. I don't have any pictures of that because my camera was broken, which is really a shame, but I will try to steal some from laurel and haley's phones. The good thing is that now my camera is fixed (thanks to LUisa's sister and mom!), so if we do anything exciting today or tomorrow I will document it. 

I will start a new post for friday (yesterday) just in case it deletes this :)

día 18! Muchas actividades en la ciudad hermosa

I'm blogging and watching the usa-germany game, so this may take awhile! If we give up another goal, we're eliminated oh no! GO USA! Speaking of soccer, I really want to buy a mexico soccer shirt, and macrina said she knows somewhere that we can get one yessss. 

At about 5pm yesterday, the six of us and Macrina headed to the plaza saragosa for the trolleybus tour. Our tourguide was very nice, and spoke in english for Haley and Laurel. She tought us a lot of history about the city and the plaza! she also asked us some questions about phoenix, which I thought was cool, since she was also wanting to learn. Fernando, the young man who lead us around in the morning, also came, and was very nice. It's weird, because sometimes it doesn't even occur to me which language people speak, since I'm getting used to speaking in spanish! At first, I was nervous to speak in spanish in fear of embarrassing myself or in fear that they wouldn't understand me, but I think I'm improving. 

We rode around on the trolley for awhile, and the tourguide made sure we stayed ingaged by giving us periodic quizzes—she wasn't about to allow any afternoon siestas on that tour ;). it was a great activity for the last week, because we drove past many places that I had already visited, but hadn't completely understood and I was able to get a sense of the layout of the center city since I'm very location and direction-oriented but haven't been able to use GPS (I always go back to the house and try to locate everything on the map by where we drove, but things don't exactly look the same from above and street-view, so it hasn't been a success). 

At one point, we jumped off the Trolleybus at a shop in a skinny, old-looking street with the word "Coyotas" written on the walls and store signs. That part of town retained a lot of history from the people who originally inhabited parts of hermosillo, at a time when there was actually water flowing through the city! One of the rivers used to mark the border of the city, but once it became easier to cross, the city expanded. Anyway, when we got out, I was not prepared for the delishous smell and sight of the cookiies (ahh don't remember the name) that they cook there! She showed us the huge oven where they cook them (up to 10000 a day during the holidays when they use all 3 ovens), and we had a chance to buy some to try. We were all sweating as if we had swam in a river (we apparently came 20years late for the river), so most of us tried the ice cream one. I had vanilla, and it was the best thing I have ever tried from a bakery in a long time. It was pretty big, but I pretty much had no choice but to eat it all, or else I would have had melted vanilla ice cream on my arms (so much for that cross country diet, but it was totally worth it)! 

Once we finished the tour, we had 40min to kill until our dinner reservation at a patio-restaraunt scheduled for 8 (which we were actually on time for!!). We walked around and went up into the plaza that commemerates hermo's 200th anniversary (the one macrina and mario took me to a few days ago). We ended up spending most of our time in the gift shop, which is the same one as before, so I had another chance to observe the crafts after learning about the history some more. I bought a dream catcher with beads the mexican colors (red, green, white) and a small drum key-chain for my bro louis (hi, louis, if you're reading this, but I kind of have a feeling you're not!). I also helped Laurel buy hers, since the employee didn't speak english, but the lady told me 60pesos and of course I totally butchered it and told Laurel 70pesos, so that was super embarassing! The other day, a friend accidentally said his daughter was 80 instead of 18, which was funny to me (well we were all laughing) especially because I always confuse my nubers in spanish haha. Then, we went back to the top to take pictures during the sunset, which happens to be one of Misty's challenges yay! Sunsets here are pretty like phoenix's. 

Dinner was fun, also. It was more relaxing, because we were just eating and hanging out. We were so thirsty! I definately need to remind myself to stay hydrated ugh. I sat between haley and laurel, even though I was really hoping we would stop segregating ourselves at meals between the phoenicians and hermosillians! It's tough, though, with the language barrier. We were joined by pamela's family and zyanya's family, plus Anna Elena who organized it (I believe!) and a committee member who is going to bring us to a factory next week. He was very niice and had good english, except I tried to make a joke, and I don't think he understood it, so that was awkward for me and confusing for him ahah! Later, at like 10, a man started to play live music on a stage behind us, which was nice. He was actually quite talented! Anyway, today we are going somewhere for many hours, so I'll talk about it when I get back :).

I uploaded my photos to z's computer so I could take pictures yesterday, but my hard drive said the card was full, but then said there were no photos when I tried to empty it, so I might not be able to take any more photos with the storage issue on my phone:(. I was thinking about getting a disposable camera, but then again, mine wasn't able to get developed last time because the machine messed up, so maybe i'll just enjoy the memories for the last few days! 

okayy bye hasta la vista! 

I forgot to talk about lunch yesterday, which was delishiously amazing as always, but here is the dessert of carrots and apple! it was interesting (good, just new for me) and Macrina kindly told me how to make it at home. I think I"ll try, maybe with Zyanya's help ! 

conocimos el alcalde!!

Best luck! Two days ago, I didn't get to take a picture of lunch because I didn't have storage on my phone, but when we ended up eating the same thing yesterday, so I took a pic that time, one of my lunch with chicken and one of Macrina's with beef and sour cream. 

I can't remember the last post I did...I guess I should check on that so I don't skip or repeat! Ok so after lunch yesterday, at about 5, we met the crew at the art museum of sonora to see the art and so Edith (luisa's mom) could photograph Luisa and Haley since she's a professional photographer. I'm not sure which was the main reason;). 

The museum was not at all what we had expected. First of all, it was HOTHOTHOT in there...I thought museums were supposed to be cold!! And, the art was very modern, mostly sculptures and some sound effects with videos. Macrina and I for sure didn't appreciate the art, I mean I may be missing something, but a pile of sand on a table with more sand in piles on the ground just doesn't do it for me like a great painting does. At one point, Zyanya and I walked into a room that looked like it may have been under construction, but then again, the broom and trash on the ground may have been art work I guess I will never know. It was nice of them to take us, though, and I hope they took some cool photos! As we were all heading into the last exhibit, I was walking at the back of the group with Luisa's sister. Right before we passed through the door, the old woman working there shut the door in front of the two of us (without bothering to say anything)! So I said, in spanish, excuse me may we please go in? And she said no, since they were closing in 10 minutes. It was so weird...we were all in a group and she cut off two of us ! It was kind of funny when the woman was standing there outside the door with us while everyone else walked around. Finally, she left (clocked in, I guess) and another employee let us in, which was nice haha. 

Then, we stopped off at a shop for tea. It was good tea, but there was stuff floating in it, so we weren't exactly sure why and just drank it. I guess some tea is made that way? We were all a bit tired, and it was already 8:40pm when we headed back. We were going to swim in Luisa's pool, but we were tired and decided not to. 

Macrina took me to the park again today! I had a great workout, and it was nice and peaceful, since the parents who drop off their children at school across the street are no longer there at that time. I ran for 30min and started to stretch in the middle as I waited for Macrina, and on our way back, she said we only worked out for 30min, which surprised me, because I thought she was trying to get back to make Mario's breakfast. Maybe I'll run for longer next time now that I know! I'm glad we got to go, though. 

As usual, I shower and wait a few hours until Zyanya wakes up around 10:30, and we go eat breakfast. Today we had our fruit and yogurt with pizza. I was SO hungry, because last night I only had a piece of bread for dinner, so I pretty much hadn't eaten since 5pm until breakfast :(. We watched a really cute movie last night in spanish! I surprisingly understood most of it...movies definately help me learn the language. 

During breakfast, Macrina was looking at her phone to find out the plan for today (the activities that were planned for most of the trip were canceled or pushed back), and she recieved a message that we would be meeting the mayor at 12!!! So, we changed and I wrote a card in spanish to accompany the gift (suns signed Dragic jersery). SpanishDict is a loyal friend of mine, but I thankfully didn't need to rely on it very much, since my spanish has improved. I hope he likes the card it was pretty nice;). Anyway, we were in the car running super late, but by the time we got there it turned out to be fine. We met up with anna elena, who is very sweet, and showed us around a bit and explained the situation and what would happen. we took a bunch of pictures (ahahh im so un photogenic!!) with and without the mayor. He was super nice, but I think he was sad, because someone from his department had died yesterday and the mayor had just met with his son :(. He was a VERY nice and genuine guy, and anna lena translated his words to english as best she could for haley and laurel, since they don't know spanish. i'm so so glad I do, though, because it was and has been a huge help here (and lots of fun) to be able to speak and understand conversations...and understand the mayor directly. We saw the statue that the phoenix committee gave to hermosillo as a sister city gift, and it was pretty, so we took a pic next to it! I had a chance to wear my new, favorite white shoes, so that made up for the fact that we were all sweating in the heat. It was a reallly fun and cool time. the mayor complimented my spanish! I guess all those spanish sessions have been worth it, finally! Yay! He did speak some english, but wasn't very confident and was limited, so he stuck to spanish, which was probably a good idea, especially since the only english-only people were laurel and haley (there were other employees in the room who probs didn't speak english). 

After, we walked around another government building for about 30minutes, taking pictures and exploring. it was GORGEOUS! the building was white and ancient from the outside, and had outstanding murals that related to Sonora on the exterior walls and ceilings of the courtyard, done by a famous artist who has passed away. We explored the room where the mayor's large meetings are, which was adorned with detailed decorations and portraits lined the walls with the faces of previous mayors (I believe). We also walked onto the balcony that the mayor waves to the people from (I'm guessing, I mean what else would he do up there!). That was it, and it was a nice time! 

Now, we are back at the house. Zyanya is sweeping the floor, and macrina and sarhoma are cooking. Maybe they will let me help, but I think I would get in the way and mess up the food haha we'll see:). Tonight we will head back to the plaza at 6pm to ride the trolley. 

Fun stuff! Stay cool! 

view from the church at the park where I run 

letter i gave to the mayor. Hope there aren't too many mistakes omg