Shout Out from Mexico to Those Who Should Know

I know that most of you are already aware, but for those of you who missed part or all of the memo: John and I have moved to Mexico! :) 

John got accepted to do a Study Abroad at the ITSEM Monterrey campus (aka Tecnologico de Monterrey). He wanted to do this since before he met me and since this is his last semester he figured he'd better get on it. 

My parents are serving an LDS mission in the temple here in Monterrey, so we have been able to spend some time with them.

We arrived safely and well last Thursday, Aug 5 after a long day of traveling. We took a flight to San Antonio, TX and then a bus to Monterrey. We won't do the opposite trip back -- we'll fly to Vegas then his Dad will drive us home.

My parents were able to get us an apartment (from one of the other senior missionary couples who went home a few weeks ago) and it is SO much nicer than I was expecting: pretty much the Mexican equivalent of our apartment at his Mom's. 

We'll be here just for one semester, until December; we'll most likely come back on the 12th. John will graduate at USU about a week or so later. :)

Just thought you'd like to know what's up with us. :)
Love you all,
Brindalynn

P.S. Our phones have been disconnected while we're gone and I left mine home, so you won't have any luck calling or texting me. You can email me ( BeeAreEyeIn@gmail.com ), I will be on facebook probably as much as before (as soon as we get settled in), you can call our Skype number from any phone (will be given as soon as I have it), and we should have a texting number on John's ipod touch (also will be given as soon as I have it).

Greetings from [little] America! #1 (John)

John's week update for family:


¡Que tal familia mía!  ¿Que me cuentan?

We've been here a bit over a week now, and we're still loving every moment.  We're having a great time, and feeling less like we're in Mexico than in Southern Texas on the border.  Monterrey doesn't have the flea markets and medium grocery stores everywhere, the seemingly disorganized but yet-so-effective mini-busses, or specialized little stores lining the streets that sell just pens and paper, or just computer cables.  Unfortunately American capitalism has taken hold, and giant megastores (eg, new Walmarts) like HEB, Soriana, and Walmart itself have overrun the medium-sized and effective grocery stores that I was so used to seeing in other parts of Mexico.  We do have mini grocery stores about the size of a normal living room, with three aisles of the bare-necessities, in case you forgot something on your last trip to your local megamart.  When I asked multiple taxi drivers if they new about a "computer mall" here (a conglomeration of hundreds of small booths each specializing in a specific area of technology, seen in Mexico City, Puebla, and Bangkok Thailand) these drivers referred me to Office Depot or Walmart.  I don't want that junk!  I want Rodrigo tucked in the back of a dark mall who carries every kind of usb cable known to man at Hong Kong prices, and nothing more!  I digress.

We got here a week ago Friday, at 12:30am.  Our trip started last Thursday morning at 7am with dad taking us to the airport.  We then flew to Denver for a short layover, then on to San Antonio.  There we grabbed a taxi to the dingy SAT Greyhound station and caught a bus headed for Laredo, Texas.  Three hours later we were there.  But our connecting bus was not.   We waited 30 minutes when it arrived and we boarded.  We proceeded to wait another 30 minutes on board.  However, we were informed that this bus would not be heading straight for Monterrey, as we expected, but would transfer in Neuvo Laredo, just across the border.  Oh great...I'm taking my wife straight into the war zone.

The border crossing was eventful.  First they stopped and all the Americans on board got off to buy a tourist visa.  Painless and quick (relatively, took about 15 minutes for the 8 or so of us to go through).  Then we drove another 100 yards to a station with a tall canopy and an office to one side.  The bus stopped, and a lady official got on with the bus driver.  I heard him say in Spanish, "that one in the back with the hat.  He looks lucky."  She pointed at me and motioned for me to follow.  Confused I grabbed my passport and headed off the bus where I followed her and the bus driver into the windowed, empty office area.  In the middle of the room was a pole with a button on it and two lights--a system I'm familiar with from the airports in Mexico.  It seems to be their way of creating random inspection so that bias or corruption doesn't come into play.  You push the button and if you get a green light, no inspection.  Red and your personal belongings are no longer so personal.

So, I approach and push the button.  Green.  Alright, that's it, then?  They ramble in Spanish to eachother and I'm free to go.  I ascend into the bus again to a group of apprehensive travelers.  The man in the front seat asks in accented English, "just tell me: was it good?"

"It was good!" I respond.  A cheer from the bus goes up as I walk past people eagerly shaking my hand, "Mano santo!" (Holy hand!).  "You just saved us a lot of time," thanks another homeward bound Mexican.  My lucky button push saved the whole bus and their belongings from a laborious inspection at 8pm.

The transfer was done quickly in Nuevo Laredo, and we were on our way with some apprehension about when we'd get in, since Brin's parents didn't know exactly when to expect us.  A call to their cell phone at midnight when we got in notified them of our arrival slightly earlier than we were fearing, but an hour later than expected.  Luckily they got there quickly...the dirty Monterrey bus terminal is not a place I enjoyed hanging around at midnight.

Our apartment here was the apartment of the previous mission doctor for the Monterrey east and west missions (I guess enough missionaries get sick down here that they call a full-time doctor on a mission here!)  Ricardo and his wife Mari-Carmen, the owners, apparently worked very hard to fix up our apartment just perfectly.  We had placemats on the table, a 5-gallon water jug to get us started, sheets and brand new pillows on the bed, A/C turned on, apples on the kitchen counter, and pictures hung purposefully around the apartment.  It is not the typical Mexican-quality dwelling I had braced Brin for, but much, much nicer.  At $5000 pesos a month ($420) plus utilities, we are more than satisfied with this two-bedroom, spacious apartment just 1.2km from campus (15 minutes walking).

All except for the dogs.  There are three dogs in the area (plus the owners' little yapper who lives downstairs) which like to bark randomly at 10pm, 1am, 6am, or 9am...whichever happens to be the point of my deepest sleep.  I'm ready to shoot 'em.  Prior to that step, however, I've downloaded an app on my ipod which simply emits a tone anywhere from 200hz to 20000hz.  I stop hearing it about 16000hz, but those awful mutts will not.  I'll need some good speakers which can blast 'em, though.

The Saturday after we arrived we went with Brin's parents to a friend's birthday party.  They served mole verde (chicken covered in a green chile and ___ sauce...mole!) and fruit salad and cake.  I was stuffed when we left.  Then the rumbling began.  My stomach rumbled until about 6am the next morning, when Moctezuma had his revenge.  Most of Sunday I was ok, then in the evening I threw up twice and communed a bit more with Moctezuma.  Hopefully that forged my stomach against all future bacteria!  (One can hope.)

This Wednesday we went to the temple, which was a very different experience here.  It's a beautiful building, right on a major highway, though not many locals (read taxi drivers) know where it is.  The rooms are just big enough for about 40 patrons at a time, so when 48 showed up (3/4 of whom were women) they added folding chairs in the front...a very common occurrence, I'm told.  It's interesting to see one of these new smaller temples around which concept the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temples are designed, but those two are about three times the size of this one.

Classes are good.  The campus is a relatively small area (two city blocks) with about 16,000 students on campus here.  They have another 15,000 or so students spread around 22 smaller campuses around mexico.  ITESM (the Tecnologico de Monterrey, or simply "the Tec") is a private university considered by some to be the most prestigious college in Mexico.  We'll see if that holds true.  My four classes are going to be quite a load I can tell with a full-load of assignments in my first week.  I'm used to USU where teachers start assigning weighty homework around week two, maybe.

Love you all!

--

John and Brin

P.S. The mangos here are DELICIOUS!  The pineapple was pretty amazing too.  The Ranch dressing bought at the store here?  Not so much.

Our Life Right Now: Summer in Emmigration

John and I are living in his Mom's basement apartment while he spends the summer in an internship with the church. It's actually a pretty good deal. They have a nice house and they hardly ever use the downstairs anyway. During the summer they use their motor scooters more than their cars, so I have Carol's car to use when I need it. Living with the in-laws hasn't been so bad. It's still not something I would recommend or do for a long period of time, but as far as that cliche situation goes, we have it easy. :)

He loves his internship. He gets to learn and he's finally getting to the point where he can say he knows what he's doing. He also likes the fact that his job has a spiritual side to it and all of his coworkers are guaranteed strong members of his church. We are blessed that it is very likely he'll be able to go back once he graduates this December. We don't know for sure, but his advisor is doing everything in his power to make sure John will get a job offer come January. 

The church would be a great place for him to start out. He likes it there and it has a lot of job security. It's one of the few jobs out there that actually cares about family life and is reasonably flexible for important events. We'd get good benefits and a decent salary. They'll pay for him to go to Graduate School, which will be very nice. He still aspires to something more, especially in pay, but he doesn't necessarily need to (or would get to) jump right into his dream job. But for now, this is pretty fantastic.

I am spending my time reading (the way-too-big stack of books I got from the Library that now I have to read before we leave), cleaning (sometimes. I do the dishes and the laundry, but much more than that tends to get neglected a tad bit more than it should), cooking (John complained that I haven't cooked anything since Logan. In my defense we don't have our own stove and oven...but I've been stepping it up, or trying to), baking (that one's easy for me to do. We got a bosch from the wedding, thanks to family, and I grew up baking more than cooking so it's what I know how to do. I'll bake for any excuse...John's getting a tummy from it, he says, but I say it's because he's always at the computer and isn't in a swimming or Frisbee class anymore), watching movies (mostly with John, though. I have watched a little TV here and there, since they paid for Direct TV and all on the big screen TV, but there's hardly anything on and I feel like a waste of space when that's all I do so I don't do it much), running errands, cross-stitching (currently put on hold for reading), surfing facebook (which I've cut down quite a lot, thank you very much), intending to write letters (to my missionaries and to Waanda at camp. I have envelopes all packed with pictures from the wedding, but I have yet to finish making them ready to send), keeping company with a Maltese (who got hit by a car 3 weeks ago, but it doing miraculously well, only having 7 broken ribs to deal with), entertaining nieces and nephews (but John gets sick of having them overnight. who knows how he'll be able to stand our children :P ), and spending time with friends when I can. Soon I will be packing.

This fall is John's last semester of college to get his Bachelor's Degree, and we will be spending it at the ITESM Monterry campus in Mexico for a Study Abroad through Utah State. John speaks Spanish extremely well (many Mexicans don't believe he's not Hispanic), but I don't speak it a drop. He was able to convince USU that he would be able to take upper level classes instead of the usual Study Abroad courses. Only a few more things need to be finalized and he will be golden for his last semester.

We leave on the 5th of August. They actually wanted him there on the 2nd of August, so we were going to leave on the 28th of July, but then he found out that classes don't start until the 9th of August and they wanted him there for a whole week of Orientation. He didn't find that useful because he's not like most Study Abroad students, plus he hates Orientations. We'll be there so he can make the last day of Orientation to make them happy. So we got another whole week to play here in Utah, which we were both happy about :) John will be able to spend his birthday with family, etc.

Airplane tickets are ridiculously expensive. John was expecting to pay around $800 for both of us roundtrip. Instead, it was looking to be about $1300. We tried our best, and in the end we have flights to San Antonito, TX, and then from there we will be taking a bus to Monterry. It's a little scary to be thinking about crossing the border like that when the airplane makes it so easy, but John's confident we'll be fine. Let's pray he's right, eh?

My parents are there on a church mission at the temple. My Mom is super excited to have us come. I guess we'll be spending time with them there, even though finding time when we're all free might be hard. We'll see :)

I don't know what I'll be doing with myself, but I'm trying to pack prepared. It'll be hard to find books, which is a killer, and I can't bring that many with me, so we'll see. I am planning on bringing things for cross-stitching. Right now I'm making a Calendar. My sister-in-law has one that I've always loved, but it's made out of yarn and plastic canvas. I'm kind of figuring out as I go along how I'll put it all together, but I expect to have fun. I've put it on hold until Mexico while I read a bunch of books I got from the Library.

John's going to download some of his step-dad's movies on the computer so we'll have a few English ones when we go. We're hoping our internet connection will be good enough to support streaming netflix. We figure $8 a month is worth it to have English entertainment even if we never get the hard-copy one mailed to us. Maybe someone else can utilize that, eh? 

Family Update - John and Brin June 2010

John and I will hopefully be happily making new friends tonight during the family chat, so we won't be able to make it. :(
As for what's new for us: not a whole lot that I didn't cover in my last update, but I'm sure I can find something to share.
John likes his internship, after getting used to it. He was hired on to be a developer but has spent the last few weeks in quality assurance writing a test program because the
team they put him with needed that. However, he should be switching to programing this week or so, which will make him happy.
He likes the people he works with and is enjoying working for the church. He had a meeting with his supervisor and from the way this guy was talking, a job when John
graduates looks very promising. The church usually does hire on their interns, and even though they are in a hiring freeze, hiring interns is a way to bypass that since they're not "new" employees. Though John will probably look for other jobs, we are excited for his chance to work with the church longer.
We still have not heard back about Mexico and we're still tossing the idea back and forth, but at this moment we're heavily leaning towards going. We will let you all know when we know.
While helping Marcela's kids enjoy themselves at Discovery Gateway, I decided to apply there. I haven't heard back from them yet, although the girl I talked to made it sound very  promising. John and I dropped by to see how my application as coming but they didn't have anything to tell me, so we'll see how that goes.
John and I have joined his mother's ward and are enjoying it. Many people know who we are and are very welcoming. There are a few younger couples in the ward although we
haven't had much of a chance to meet many. That's where we're going tonight, to "Sunday Night Sweets" a couple in the ward put together for the younger couples in the ward, so we're hoping to make friends. We like friends. :) We invited one couple over for dinner sometime in the next week. They're expecting twins soon, so I'm hoping I'll get to
help her out with that.
I am happily making John fat by making him treats with my lovely Bosch and other food he likes (I made up an amazing taco soup recipe), while he goes to work and so no longer works out.
I woke up one day with a strong desire to run a 5K. Sometime soon we're going to buy nice running shoes so our feet don't die while John helps me work up to that. In the
meantime I'll use the elliptical taking up space in our living room.
Once again, we welcome visitors in our gorgeous canyon home. I had Jenny and Gideon over for a few days and absolutely loved it. John is a bit more skeptical about having kids over, but as long as he gets his sleep he's up for it.
After having complained that he's been rocking the cradle since we started dating, John has changed his tune once he realized that I only have a few more days left of being a teenager. He now insists we make good use of these last chances we have, whatever that means :P
Love you all! <3 :)

Family Update - John and Brin May 2010

My family has a family chat every first Sunday of the month, and usually we post updates on our family site. I don't do so very often, but this is our update for May.

As a couple of you know, John and I got married March 12 (or maybe you all knew, you were there after all). We moved up to Logan so John could finish up the semester. Though we originally thought it would be easy to find a place to stay, it was actually really hard. Luckily John found a guy in his ward who was living alone in a studio apartment and was getting really sick of it. John was able to make a switch with him, giving him John's private room with 5 roommates, and us our own studio apartment.

It was quite roomy compared to what I was expecting (like Teresa and Mike's studio apartment, which is practically a couple of closets stuck together), and though neither of us would choose to live there again if we had the option of somewhere else, it served us quite well for the 6 1/2 weeks we were there. See facebook for a photo tour :)

The Lord blesses newlyweds a lot. John was able to apply for FAFSA retroactively for the 2009-2010 school year, and we were given grants generously, including one because of his major. I wasn't able to, since I had already applied for FAFSA and even though my status had changed I still couldn't. For John, however, even looking at the FAFSA had been a waste of his time previously, but now that he's independent it was very worth it. With grants from last year and next semester, as well some scholarships John is likely to get, we feel very blessed :)

John has an internship with the church at the tech department in Riverton. He just started his first day this morning :) He will be programming, what exactly he would be told when he got there. They listed the church website, missionary organization programs, and um...other stuff as options. :)

If it goes well we are hoping they will offer him a job when he graduates next semester. He figures they put a lot into an intern so it's unlikely they'd just forget about him once the internship is over. He thinks he'd like working for the church, at least for a while, and it would be nice to know that there is something for sure waiting after he graduates. We will see.

I did not go to school last semester, and I will likely not continue for the foreseeable future. I'd like to take night classes or maybe audit a few sometime, but for now I'm just staying home, making John food, and hopefully getting a job soon so I don't go crazy. However, being married is a lot easier than being single, as far as staying home all day with little to nothing to do, and being in Salt Lake is a lot easier than being in Logan, as I have more friends (and family) to spend time with down here, and it's summer so not everyone is busy being productive.

We moved down to Salt Lake for the summer last week. We are living in John's mother's basement up Immigration Canyon. Yes, I know, living with the in-laws should be avoided, but it's actually a rather good deal. We will be here only for 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 months, and it's really hard to find someplace that will rent for less than 6 months, especially when the exact time we're staying is unclear. We have been and will continue to move around quite a bit, so getting our own furniture at this point is a much bigger hassle than is worth, so we need a furnished apartment. Here, we get our own very nice apartment for a third of what we'd pay for the cheapest unfurnished apartment we'd be able to get.

There is a whole apartment sectioned off relatively easily; just throw a deadbolt on a door and it's ours. We have our own front door and kitchen (though we are missing an oven, which is a downside), not to mention fireplace, big screen TV, parking spot, leather couches, ping-pong table, extremely generous and obliging landlady...etc. Plus everything else we share, including hot tub, cute little stream, gorgeous yard, trampoline...it's a nice set up. Nieces and nephews are welcome to stay over and play sometime :)

The reason we are unsure of how long we will be here for the summer is because John applied for a study abroad for the coming fall semester. He's always wanted to do one and he figured that his last semester is a good (last) chance. He's (practically) obsessed with Mexico and one of the best Universities down there is Tec de Monterry, which, coincidentally, has its base campus in Monterry, Mexico, quite close to where a certain senior missionary couple happen to be serving. Also coincidentally only 5 hours away from the beach...but that's a different story :P

There have been a few problems with safety concerns, as there are drug wars going on in that area. The school safety people are concerned and if they say no then he can't go (unless he forfeits their support, which would be silly because then nothing he did down there would count for graduation at USU). So far it hasn't been that bad; John hasn't been too concerned, but the last travel warning included Monterry specifically instead of just mentioning happenings there. So we will see.

The school had to wait to send his application until he was sure he was willing to take the risks, so hopefully they sent it last week. Once it's sent it should take 4-6 weeks for them to reply, at which point we will know if we can go. If we can, we will be down in Monterry from July 30 until late November/early December.

I have no idea what I'll do down there since I can't speak Spanish. John is hoping we will be able to find some family who wants an English-speaking nanny, so maybe that will work out. If not, I guess I'll just spend 4 months in the temple keeping Mom company :P However, despite the daunting idea, I'm really excited to go down there if we can. John registered for classes as if he were going to school in Logan next semester -- they'll be automatically dropped if we do go -- so if it doesn't work out we'll just be in Logan for fall semester.

Planning -> Stress -> Too Much Negativity

I love wedding planning. It may be a bit pathetic, but I had been planning my wedding with John for months before we were engaged. I want it organized and well taken care of. In that I realize that it can't be perfect, so I'm still relatively flexible. My parents are on a mission to Mexico so my Mom isn't helping me plan my wedding. John told me before we started dating about some talk heard that said that guys simply don't care about wedding plans, and he completely agreed. It takes too much effort to include anyone else in my planning, so I pretty much take care of everything by myself. For the most part, anyway. But I'm totally cool with that. I don't have anything else to do and I thoroughly enjoy organizing everything. I'm the one who knows what I want anyway, right? Wonderfully, I don't get stressed much. Like, pretty much not at all. Except for today. We got started on our invitations way too late, so they got here late and everything added up today. I didn't have time to get everything done at a reasonable time, so I left for Logan later than I wanted then got caught up with printing insert invitations which took four hours longer than I had planned on, plus the printer went ker-plop when I was by myself. Not exactly my best day. I just wanted to get to Logan and enjoy myself, promptly started with a hug from my favorite person. I wanted to go up to Logan, obviously to see John, but also for my Logan Bridal Shower and Brittney's Toga Birthday Party. Thinking about this in all my stress got to me. Logan is not exactly my favorite place anymore. There isn't anywhere I feel welcome except with John, and even with him I just want to get away. This hits hardest from my old roommates, girls who were my best friends last year. Over the course of last semester we got continually further apart. Largely my fault because I spent all my time with John. Even when I was home, I just wanted to stay in my room by myself. I felt I had become the engaged roommate long before I was engaged and therefore I slowly stopped existing until I didn't matter anymore. Now it seems to the point that not only do they not care about me, they resent me coming to visit. The first time I came to visit for the new semester, I was so excited to see them. I thought that I could make new what had gone wrong the previous semester. It even seemed like they were going to be excited to see me too. But I walked in and they barely even acknowledged my existence, regardless of my excited greetings. So I kind of gave up. Except for Park. She's pretty much the most amazing girl ever. Brittney is my hero. I'm not the only person she rescues. And, of course, thank goodness for John. It's amazing how much better the world feels when you're wrapped up in your lover's arms. Except we're not lovers...yet :P
Oh, and Thank Goodness for Jerrica and her roommates, who took me in because as much as I love Britt, I couldn't stand to be in that apartment. Plus I was locked out of the building and Britt didn't have her phone on her.

Christmas Gifts

I love giving gifts. Something about thinking about it, and then buying or making that perfect gift absolutely thrills me. I especially love to give gifts at times when they aren't expected, at least as much as other times. When a friend has had a bad day or a special success, those are the best times to drop off a batch of cookies or a thought-out card. Random Holidays are the best. Through Jr. High and High School, Valentine's Day has been my day for friends. Easter can get rather cute. Birthdays are also fun, and I hope to someday be consistent in keeping up with my family members' and close friends' birthdays, just with something small, at least. With all sorts of presents, I've spoiled a few friends when I've had the chance.
Money is an interesting thing with presents. Time as well. When I've had money is when it's been the easiest to keep up with all the presents I've wanted to give. Time is something hardly anyone sees they have enough of, myself unfortunately included. So these past years I've given barely anything for Christmas. This year is especially bad, I've only gotten one thing.
Haha...I like that present. :) I figured if I'm only going to get one gift for one person, it'd have to be my fiance, right? So I got John a gift. But I can't just get him any old thing. For one, he hates random useless crap. So none of that. And another, I like to be thoughtful with my gifts, if I can. Since I can't afford to get just anything off the shelf this year, and I'm only getting one gift, then it better be something good, right? John is cute. Sharing what my gift is would be highly inappropriate, so I won't. ;) But it's a beauty, and I laughed a good long while while I was buying it. :) Maybe I'll be able to get pictures of him opening it. That would be fantastic, considering his likely reaction. =D
I like the idea of cards. It's something easy, thoughtful, and consistent. I like writing, anyhow. So it works :) For birthdays it doesn't require a whole lot...for the most part. Just motivation to get it done, and a bit of time and a few materials. That's what I'm giving for Christmas this year. Lovely letters to those who mean a lot to me. I'm an ultimate procrastinator, so pretty much none of it has happened yet. We'll see. I still have a few hours, right? :P Haha...
Merry Christmas, my dear loved ones.