Panut Butter cookies rock the world

Well, I didn't go to Monterrey to see my German friend. As it turns out he couldn't come to Monterrey and when I woke up on Saturday morning I didn't feel the greatest anyways. I spent most of the day in my bed and at night I went to Lieke's house to hang out. I hadn't seen her in 2 weeks, so it was nice to talk to her again. Sunday I didn't do much of anything either. I spent most of the day in my bed chatting on the internet. Then at 4:30 my family asked me if I wanted to go to Monterrey to drop Cristy off at her school. I said sure and we all went to Monterrey. It was so strange because it reminded me a lot of my last night in the United States. We went out for a nice dinner at a Chinese Restaurant and then to Cristy's school. Everyone was really quite and then saying goodbye was like take care, be careful, study and things like that, and then see you next Friday. Then, we drove back to Sabinas.
School has been uneventful. Nothing really new. My chemistry teacher calls me "Newton." I find this very funny and weird. My first host dad calls me Miss Newton and he says it in a weird voice too. The way my chemistry teacher says "Newton" sounds a lot like my host dad. It's hard for me not to laugh when he does this. I'm not entirely sure why he calls me Newton either. I think it's just because he doesn't know that my name is Jane. Who knows...
Tuesday was my friend Jeremie's, from France, birthday, he also loves peanut butter. So, as a birthday present I decided to make him peanut butter cookies. I invited my friend Vanessa over and we made cookies. Very yummy. Valentine's day I went to Monterrey with Lieke and her host brother. He wanted to see his girlfriend and Lieke and I went to have a romantic dinner with Jeremie. The cookies were a hit. I also found out that Jean and Liliana love peanut butter too. For dinner we ended up going to the mall across the highway from Jean and Liliana's house to the Chilis there. It was a good Valentine's Day.
Friday the 9th of February I ate salsa during lunch. This was a grave mistake. I didn't feel well on Saturday because of it, then it didn't help that Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I continued to drink pop and coffee and eat things with lots of fat, sugar and flour (like peanut butter cookies). I was supposed to go to Laredo on Thursday with my host mom and cousin, However, due to my stomach disagreeing with practically everything I had eaten the past 4 days I had another upset with my gastritus. So I spent most of Thrusday in my bed too. I slept, I drank tea, and I ate oatmeal and apples. I was feeling much better in the night.
Friday I left very early for Monterrey. My host dad was going in the morning and I decided to save myself a $6 bus ticket and go with him. I was extremely tired but, not important. Lieke invited two girls from Saltillo to come for the weekend: Sietke is from Holland and Linda is from Sweden (Linda came to Sabinas for the New Year). Friday during the afternoon Jeremie's host mom a part in a conference or something and they needed help, so Lieke, Linda, Sietke and I went to help. There really wasn't enough to do. Siekte, Linda and I mostly sat around the whole afternoon.
At 7 we went back to Jean and Liliana's house and we were starving. So, Jean made us chicken and rice and there happened to be chocolate cake too. It was very good. The three girls went out at night. I didn't on account of the fact that Saturday very early in the morning I was going to a conference with Jean and Liliana in a city about three hours away. The girls tried to convince me to go out, I just didn't think it was the best idea. They were going to be out late. They called me a wussy, they'd be home about three. I needed to wake up at 5. So I stayed at home, went to bed shortly after midnight and at 4:05 the girls came rolling in. I'm really happy I didn't go, because Jean came and woke me up at 4:50.
I slept the entire way to Ciudad Victoria. I literally woke up, we went to eat breakfast and then went to the meeting. The meeting was held in a hotel that was located in the main plaza of Victoria. When I got there none of the other inbound exchange students were there and when the meeting started I decided to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was rather disgusting and as I was coming out of the bathroom I was voicing my opinions of the bathroom a loud, yet to myself. As I did so the girl from Poland, Kashia turned around and was like "JANE!!!!!!!!!!" and ran over and jumped up and down and hugged me. I was happy to see her, but she was just really happy to see me. With her were the girl from the US, a boy from Brazil, and a boy from Switzerland. We listened to the meeting and it was essentially the same thing I heard in Tampico in October, in Michigan in July and in Rockfalls in March. The five of us stood up and talked about our experiences so far in Mexico. The best part was hanging out with each other.


Holly (US), Rafa (Brazil), ME!, Lucin (Switzerland), and Kashia (Poland)

I was supposed to sleep in the hotel but Kashia invited me to sleep at her house so after the meeting her host brother came to pick us up and we chilled at her house for a while, ate dinner and then got ready to go out.
We went to a disco called Scheib. It was very cool and included a live band and girls got in free before midnight. So I'm happy we arrived at 11:52. I thought going around and around and around was a Sabinas thing, but it's not. We went around and around and around for about an hour before the disco. It wasn't the same as Sabinas though. In Sabinas they go around in the main street and wave to each other, here they just go all around and don't use the same route.
At the disco Zoe from Hungry and Anna from Germany joined us. It was really fun to see them and just hang out together.


ME! Kashia, Anna (Germany) and Zoe (Hungry)


Lucin and me at the disco

Ciudad Victoria is the capital of the state of Tamaulipas. It's a very historic town and doesn't have too many modern buildings. Although, they do have a McDonalds. HAHA. It's very pretty, but it has the same problem a lot of Mexican cities have, a lot of garbage on the streets and grasses. It would be a whole lot prettier without all the garbage around.
Sunday morning I went with Jean and Liliana and the group psychologist (no the psyc was not for me) out for a brunch buffet. I chose to eat a lot so then I wouldn't have to eat anything until I got to Sabinas at 8 that night. So I ate a lot, more than I care to share. I felt full and ready to go. So we start on the road and I immediately fall asleep. Then, at about 2:30, Jean decides he's hungry. So we stopped at a restaurant and ate again. I only ate two tacos. I was done and that was it!
I let the psychologist try my peanut butter cookies, and they were a hit with her too! Apparently Liliana's daughter really loves Peanut Butter too. So I had to share my recipe!
I took the 5:30 bus to Sabinas and arrived at 7:30. The bus ride was good because the movie was good. Often times they show really bad movies. Once they had a Chinese war movie subtitled in Spanish another time a horror movie and the last time I rode the bus it was a bloody Vietnam war movie. Gross. This time is was "So I Married an Axe Murderer" with Mike Myers. Very nice, I enjoyed it. When I got home, I didn't eat anything...
On Monday Linda and Sietke were still in Sabinas so they went to school and after two hours of school we decided to go to my house and make peanut butter cookies and scotcheroos. YUMMY is an understatement. After our baking escapade we walked to Lieke's house (35 minute walk) ate lunch there. Luckily I left before the desert so I could go to my house and eat more scotcheroos. I walked home, another 35-minute walk. Then at 4:30 I went with my host mom on a walk for an hour and then at night I went to aerobics. I hope I worked off the scotcheroos!
Tuesday I went to Monterrey in the afternoon with my first host mom. I took the scotcheroos and cookies to Liliana.
My school is in exams so sometimes they spend half the day on exams. At which point Lieke and I can leave. So Lieke and I walked to her house (like 50 minutes) ate ice cream and then walked back to school (another 50 minutes). Completely awesome. Then yesterday my host mom and I went for a two-hour walk. We took a new route and she took me to a place in Sabinas I had never been before. We climbed a lot of stairs and she took me to a point where you could see all of Sabinas. I'll have to go there again and bring my camera. It was pretty because the mountains are in the background! Then at night I walked to aerobics but the instructor didn't come, so there wasn't a class, at which point I RAN home.
I've decided I'm going to start running. I did yesterday and I'm going to go tonight too. That may be as far as I get with my running kick, but at least I did it.
I've been working a lot on my presentation. I have to give it tonight! I'm a little nervous, but I'm excited at the same time.
Sorry I'm so bad about updating. It's just that life has become so normal; I forget that I'm in a different place...
I'll try to do better!