Wednesday night I played basketball for my school.
I went to my last Women's Rotary Meeting on the 7th, which is also Kate's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY MINI ME!!!!!!) It was fun. It's so weird for me to go to these meetings. Sometimes I wonder about these women. It's fun to hear them bicker about things especially when it's something very simple.
Lieke's first host parents, Adolfo and Ana Laura, had to go to the airport in Monterrery. Even though the airport is 31 kilometers from Jean and Liliana's house. They insisted. I said that it would be a lot for them. Plus, it's a lot faster and easier just to go in bus because you don't have to worry so much about traffic. Yet they insisted that we go with them. So, we went with them. We got to the airport in about 45 minutes. That is a feat! Adolfo has more of a lead foot than my mother. Then we had to wait for two hours for Ana Laura's plane to leave. By the time we got to Jean and Liliana's house we were dying of hunger. Luckiliy that house is the house of food and it was no problem. Something very sad though, I forgot my cream for mosquito bites, that house has TONS of mosquitos and it's painful.
Pretty Monterrey
At night Lieke and I wanted to go out in a group. So we called Jeremie and his friends and none of his friends were allowed to go out. There was a rumor that the "freaks" were going to shoot out in all the discos. Therefore all the discos were too dangerous to be in. I didn't buy that. So I called Elin (Sweden) and none of her friends were going out. Then Lieke called one of her friends, and he wasn't going out either. We felt very defeated. I was hoping to have the best weekend ever because it was my last in Monterrey. For a final try, I called Liliana's daughter who was in Barrio Antiguo (where all the discos are) and asked her if it was alright to go to El Barrio. She said nothing happened, it was only a rumor and it was full of people and that we should go out.
Then, at that moment, Kathi from Germany came and we all went out. It turned out to be the best night out in Monterrey. A shootout doesn't scare me...
Kathi, Lieke and me at the Disco
Saturday morning we woke up ate pancakes (Jean made them!) and then went to an exchange student meeting. This meeting was the orientation meeting. It was generally like the orientation that I went to in February, but more in depth. A lot of the exchange students came and it was fun to see everyone again. I also got to meet someone very special. I met Manuel. My friend Brittany is in Germany right now (her first host family was my friend Franzi's family who is in my district in Mexico) and her best friend from Germany is Manuel who lives in Ciudad Valles (where I went in March for La Huasteca trip). I was really excited to meet him because I had heard so much about him. He, however, did not express the same excitement to meet me.
We spent the whole day in this meeting. It was a lot of fun to hang out with all the exchange students and to talk a little with next year's exchange students. After the meeting we went to the mall and walked around for awhile and it was a BEAUTIFUL evening.
A beautiful clear day in Monterrey
The exchange students who went to the meeting and a girl who's going to Brazil
Manuel and me
Saturday night was Jeremie's going away party and it was a blast. Most of the exchange students came and we hung out one last time and I can't explain how much of a blast it was.
Lieke and me making fun of Kathi (who is making fun of herself) of a picture she took Friday night.
Sunday afternoon I spent making scotcheroos and Kathi and Lieke went to a black market. We wanted to do something special for our last night together. So, we all went out to dinenr at a restaurant called the Sierra Madre. It's a very good restaurant. It's pretty American, but they had very good pizza. Then we attempted to go see a movie but the schedule didn't work out. Kathi had to leave a midnight to travel all night back to Tampico (7 hours) and so we ended up hanging out in the park.
Caroline from Germany joined us at Jean and Liliana's house. So we woke up and went to the Valle Oriente Mall, which is an upscale, ritzy mall. It's probably the nicest mall in Monterrey. After the mall we met up with Linda and Sietke in the Centro. We ate at Super Salads (like a Panara Bread) and it was a lot of fun to hang out. Afterwards we wanted to take a taxi back to Jean and Liliana's house, however, for some reason, now the taxis in Monterrey have stopped taking more than four people in one taxi. Since there were five of us we'd have to take 2 taxis and Lieke suggested we take the Metro. I had never taken the metro in Monterrey before. It costs about 40 cents per ride. It wasn't as fast as a taxi, but it got the job done.
We arrived at the house to see Sam (Belgium) and Torben (Germany) and Ana Laura (an exchange student through the University in Monterrey from France, I met her right before New Year's) and then one of Liliana's French students and then a friend of Torben, Sam and Caroline's from Mante joined us. It was a full house and lots of talking and hanging out.
All the exchange students decided to go to the Big Flag in Monterrey. It was an amazing view. You could see all parts of Monterrey from the top. However, it was disappointing that the Big Flag was not flying at the time. It's absolutely huge, it's the biggest flag in Mexico.
Exchangers and Monterrey
Lieke and Me and Monterrey
After the Big Flag visit we went to Jeremie's house one last time. We hung out and then the worst part: I had to say goodbye to Jeremie. I cried. I cired a lot. I was very sad. I gave him a going away present and I cried, and then Sietke saw me cry and she started to cry and then Caroline started to cry. Then we had a big group hug. It was nice but awful at the same time. I also had to say goodbye to Torben, Sam and Caroline. I cried, a lot.
I started crying right after this picture
I had been crying. This is in my last moments in Jean and Liliana's house.
Then Lieke, Sietke, Linda and I went to Jean and Liliana's house. We had to say goodbye to them, too! I didn't cry again, but it was tough. I felt so well taken care of when I was with them. They went above and beyond for me and they made my year great.
At the bus station we had to say goodbye to Linda and Sietke. It was terrible. I didn't cry, but it was so much. The ride home in the bus with Lieke was fun. We got to talk about the entire weekend and unwind and talk about our going away party.
My last week to come soon!!!
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