First Day!

Today was the FIRST day of classes at the UNAM of the year 2011!!! Peter, two other RUF students, and I spent about six hours putting up flyers advertising for English Club and RUF activities. All I can say right now is...I am tired and what a BIG campus!

Me at the UNAM!

Service Team Retreat

This past weekend we had our Service Team Retreat. The Service Team members are students at the UNAM that have stepped up to serve and "lead" in the RUF group. The members help with set-up and clean-up for all events, contact and advertisement, leading small groups, planning social and service activities, and discipling others in the group. We had the two-day retreat to make sure we were all on the same page for the new semester, as well as a time of spiritual growth for the service team members. The two themes of the retreat were "leadership" and "prayer". We spent time discussing these topics from a theological point of view as well as a practical "how can we implement these in our lives" point of view.

Two of the girls from the Service Team, Monse (above) and Karina (below). The Service Team consists of five girls and one guy, myself, and Peter.

"Read your Bible and pray everyday, pray everyday...."

Remember this song??? Well, we have not been singing it here, but this past week we did have a one day workshop on "How to read your Bible". The workshop was for the students that are members of the service team of the RUF group...most of which will be leading a small group Bible Study this semester.

We learned about, and then put into practice, three steps: observation, interpretation, and application. Pray that the service team can put into practice what they have learned and also teach it to others!

Ice Skating in El Zocalo

For one of our weekly CURyCLUB activities in January, we went ice skating in El Zocalo, the central plaza of Mexico City. The rink is only up every year during from mid-December to mid-January and thus is very popluar. We had to arrive at 9 am to get in line in order to be able to skate at 4pm. I guess in a city of 25 million people you just have to learn to wait in line!!

Can you find me in the pictures???

Acapulco

For New Year's I was invited to spend a long weekend in Acapulco, Mexico with Alheli and her family. Alheli is a member of the RUF group. We welcomed in the New Year on the beach with a traditional dinner of Cabrita, then fireworks, and 12 grapes (you eat the grapes at midnight and for each grape you make a wish for the up-coming year). The rest of my time consisted of spending time at the beach, playing volleyball, swimming, eating, and dancing. We had a great time!
Me and Alheli at the swim-up pool restaurant

Doing the Mexico Balloon dance

Seafood dinner out with the whole gang

Dancing with a Street Proformer

Eating our 12 grapes on New Year's

Acapulco, Mexico

Our Hotel "The Grand Mayan Golf and Beach Resort"

Christmas Costume Party

The Wednesday in between Christmas and New Year's we had a CUR Christmas Costume Party. Everyone came dressed in a Christmas related costume. Lizeth and I made truffles, snack mix, chocolate covered pretzels, and lasagna to eat. We also both dressed-up as angles (which we found to be very fitting!...ask my mom). We also played charades, other games, and read the Christmas Story from the Bible.

Feliz Navidad....from Mexico!

In Mexico the night of the 24th is more of a celebration that Christmas day itself. Uziel (a friend from RUF) and his family invited me, along with 3 other English Club members from other countries, to celebrate Christmas Eve at their house. Only one of the English Club members that came is a Christian, so it was neat to be celebrating Christ's birth with them (which was something new) and with a Christian family. It was the perfect traditional Mexican Christmas celebration.....

Uziel and me...we have a "fun" relationship :)

Uziel's sister and mom, with all the food that they had been cooking all day. We ate Pozole, tacos al Pastor, ensalada, fruita, a Japanese dish (brought by the Japanese English Club guests), and drank Punche.

Uziel's two nieces and me. It was fun to be celebrating with a family!

After dinner we went on the roof and broke a pinata.

Grab the candy fast!

Zury and me

Then we all danced Salsa, Kumbia, and Duranguense on the roof!

A normal picture of Uziel and me.

Karl (from Haiti), Kikamu (Japan), Ayumu (Japan), Uziel's dad, Uziel, Me, and Uziel's two sisters

Then we finished the night (about 3am) with the rest of the neighborhood with sparklers and fireworks in the streets!

We all spent the night at Uziel's house. Because ALL Mexican celebrations go late into the evening, the tradition is that everyone spends the night and then everyone eats a "breakfast" (at like 1pm..haha) of the leftovers together in the morning. So, on Christmas morning we watched movies in bed until the "recalentados" (leftovers) were ready.