Beer Can Chicken and Changing Families

Sorry it's been so long since I last updated. A lot has happened since then too!
Mike left Sunday, January 28 and that night when we got back to the house Lieke and her Dad came over to see the house because it's Lieke's third house. After the house tour they were sitting at the table and talking. I left the table for a minute and when I came back to the kitchen the first thing I hear my host dad says is:
"F*** you." I was really shocked by this. Why would he say this in front of Lieke, her Dad, his wife, his 12-year-old daughter and me? Granted he doesn't know English, but he knows what that means.
"What did you say????" I asked
"F*** you chicken." I was still very confused. Why would he add the word chicken? Who was he calling a chicken? Then they explain that earlier in the day Lieke and her Dad ate Pollo Violado (it directly translates to Chicken Rape). Still confused they explain what it is; I come to the conclusion that they're talking about "Beer Can Chicken." WOW, I haven't eaten that in a long time.
I started school again on Monday. It was boring. I got to change classrooms again, now I'm back in my old room. It's better that way. Especially with Lieke not in school (she went on a two week trip with her dad) it was nice to be with kids I knew and it's better to build on these relationships. I'm finally feeling like I'm part of the class. I was put in a group for one of the classes and that's cool. I'm not sure how much help I'll be, but that's ok.
Thursday I changed host families. It was very difficult, I had really grown to love and become apart of my first family. I have moved about 7 blocks away, I'm on the same street (different street name though). It's a nice family and a nice house. My host parents are Susie and Pedro Chapa and they have three kids. Cristy, 17; Pedro, 15; and David, 9. They own a family business with Pedro's 3 brothers. It's a furniture store chain in Nuevo Laredo (the city right across the border from Laredo, TX), two stores in Sabinas and one in Monterrey. Cristy studies at a university in Monterrey and comes home on the weekends. I share a room with her, she has a lot of stuff and I have a lot of stuff. Together we really have a lot of stuff. We're working it out. This family doesn't speak English. That's GREAT for my Spanish. I haven't spoken in English all day, I'm thinking in English though, but that's only because I'm writing in English right now. It's a little weird though because I'm going through the culture shock of language now. All the other exchange students went though not being able to speak their native language in August. I'm doing it in February. It's ok though; I'm doing just fine.
This weekend I was actually in Sabinas to go around and around and around. That's pretty much all it was. I went with a new group of girls, Cristy's friends. They're cool.
Sunday I went to Monterrey to watch the Super Bowl. I spent the day at Jean and Liliana's house and at night Liliana's niece invited Elin (the girl from Sweden) and me to her friend's house to watch the game. There were about 12 girls there and I was the only one who knew what was going on in the game until the third quarter when another girl came who liked football. The second the game was over the TV was turned off so the karaoke could start. I'm a lot like my mother in the singing aspect so I apologized several times for my singing. We spent the rest of the night with karaoke and pool.
Monday I didn't have school because it was "The Constitution Day of Mexico" YAY for the constitution! I stayed at Jean and Liliana's house all day. Jean took me to a fruit/vegetable market and an arts market, just to look. He made a delicious lunch of soup, meat, veggies and stuff like that. I helped Lillian correct some English papers :) YAY, I was thrilled to do this. It made me miss my days of high school newspaper.
Later in the afternoon "Los Philipps" (Philipp from Germany and Philipp from Austria) came over to help Lillian with some German things and Jean made us crepes and they were delicious. I went back to Sabinas Monday night.
Tuesday was my friend Vanessa's birthday and a surprise party was held at her house. It was a lot of fun to go. It gave me a chance to see some of the girls from my class outside of school.


Girls from my class, Vanessa is the one in front with the brown coat and long brown hair.

School has been pretty uneventful and boring. I have a new schedule. This semester I don't have Philosophy or Biology but I do have Arts and Humanities and Chemistry. Normally I'd be thrilled about the Arts class, but the teacher doesn't know what he's talking about. He asked me where the Mona Lisa was and where Picasso was from. So it's hard to take a teacher seriously when he doesn't know the subject. I don't like chemistry. Although, we haven't had it because the teacher's been sick and in the hospital. So they just let us out. However, tomorrow he'll be there.
The weather has been getting nicer and nicer and that puts me in a better and better mood. Today it's 80º and breezy. I'm actually sitting outside in short-sleeves writing this (sorry for those of you in the north!) I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm getting adjusted to my new house and going to aerobics again!
This weekend one of my friends from Germany is going to be in Monterrey, I hope to go to see him, but it depends on a place to sleep! Well, stay warm up there in the Arctic!
My new address here:
Jane Newton
c/o Familia Chapa
Calle Zuazua 855 pte. Colonia Valle del Sol
Sabinas Hidalgo, NL 65200
phone:52-824-242-3945
You can still send packages to Laredo, I'll be going there with my first host mom whenever she goes, here's that address to send me stuff too, because I love mail...
Jane Newton
c/o Laura Alanis
8915 McPherson Rd. #30
Laredo, TX 78045
Gracias...