Facebook tiempo para fotos!!

Hey guys!

Gotta go take a shower now, but I wanted to tell you to check out my facebook cause I'm uploading photos there of the trip this past Sunday. I went with the Mountain Hiking Club from Tec to these mountains called Mitras about 30-40 min drive from campus. It took us about 11 hours to climb up and back down. It was definitely intense for me, but so worth it. The view was gorgeous. So I'm loading as many pics as I can. I'll try to get some more up from the past month as well. It just takes some time to upload them. So when you get a chance....check out my facebook page cause a picture says a thousand words! lol :D

www.facebook.com - Bethany Nanni in case you forgot ;)

love and peace,
Bethany

Algunas fotos ahora...

We're gonna go backwards from what you see because that's more like chronological order.

1) a few weeks ago was Andrea's 23rd birthday from church.

2) Chinese New Year celebration! - typical food and throwing of food into the air (not at each other or anything) like in Singapore

3) Some of us sporting our cute Chinese New Year's red bag which every Asian kid knows as MONEY! but for us poor college students it means candy lol

4) Went to the mall this past weekend with Choua from Michigan and we found this amazing tea place so I bought some amazingly good-smelling tea. Can't remember what it's called lol

5) Going Mexican style - my class decided that the best way to leave the museum would be for everyone to go together instead of split up into taxis. We figured it would be cheaper to just get everyone in the prof's truck

6) this is me with my amazing tea that i can't remember the name of....oh yeah! Crime of passion - quite amazing

7) this was in the main department store in the mall. you know how at some department stores in the States they have like chocolate areas or sometimes coffee? well, here they had a nice chocolate stand, nice cookie stand like from a special bakery and then they had this huge section of open mix of food - these were nut mixes, but the craziest thing was all the random looking fruits and candies they had. The people here like to have spicy things like chiles in their lollipops!...and just about everything else lol

8) yes, I found this amazing store in the mall that had TWO beautiful sections of Lord of the Rings merchandise that I thought I could only find via SkyMall - the airplane magazine. I might be getting something - we shall see.

9) the beautiful view of the city from this park last Saturday night. gorgeous view. the pic doesn't even do it justice.

love you guys. good night for now. and yes, somehow, i'm getting to bed late, but body is still waking up early. i don't think i can ever train myself out of it lol. hope to talk to you soon. if you're reading this, then you should know that i would love to receive an e-mail or comment or facebook message from you because i want to hear how you're doing pleeeease.

with love y un beso,

Bethany

Muy rápido

Sorry this is pretty late. This is crazy short as well. Hopefully I'll be able to write more tomorrow night. The morning will be crazy, but hopefully i can write tomorrow night after my Mexican cooking class which is pretty fun - in Spanish though so I have to make sure I'm not making huge mistakes and setting things on fire and what not.

But things have been good. Spent this past long weekend here in Monterrey and spent time with people from church which was great. Went to this cool park Saturday night that had a beautiful view of the city. I'll have to put up a pic soon. Also, went to church on Sunday and celebrated Sergio's birthday at a cool restaurant real close to church. Monday went to Huasteca which was basically mountains and very beautiful. I have a beautiful pick that Oscar took of me with the peak. Me and him climbed pretty high so that was fun. And got to go to a restaurant afterward with the big group. The food was great and most of the people there were young couples so I got to hold this 6 mos. old precious girl named Elizabeth. She was so sweet! And I loved talking with her in Spanish lol. Very sweet people. Very thankful for them.

So have projects this week in classes not too bad. Bought a Monterrey Tech cap today as one of the items that I need to go camping this weekend. Hopefully it will work out cause I'm ready to hiking in the mountains! woot! lol. But got to go shower now cause I don't smell so great after working out tonight :P. Hope all is well with everyone! Please let me know how you're doing. It really means a lot to hear from you guys :). Let me know! Love you and talk to you soon.

un beso y amor,
Bethany

Un día tarde...Lo siento! :D

So....I'm a day late on this past week. This weekend was pretty packed crazy...that's my excuse...wimpy I know :).

But so second week of school was good. I didn't get all my classes situated until today though which was good. I'm now taking two courses in Spanish and two in business courses in English. The classes here are definitely a lot more laidback and a lot easier than in the states. I'm also very blessed to have the particular classes that I have. They haven't given barely any homework so it's helped me concentrate on getting other things done like visa stuff and enjoying my time here with friends and not feeling pressured to do things. It's been nice to be surrounded by Spanish, but I tell you, it sure does wear you out! I come home just ready for bed most of the time...but then it's funny because they stay up later so I'm ready for bed and their ready to eat and talk! lol. I know some people from Germany especially have had trouble with the time-schedule transition because they want to go to bed early unlike the mexicans. Pretty funny.

I really like my Cultura de México class. The teacher speaks at a decently fast pace, but not crazy fast. The class is really fun. We just did presentations about stereotypes - from our countries and what we think of Mexico. It was actually really cool to hear everybody's views and about all the different places that people come from. My Superior Spanish Grammar class is difficult because the professor speaks pretty fast and it's a challenging spanish grammar class to begin with, but she doesn't give a lot of homework so that's good. My business classes have been really easy so far. The one I have on tuesdays seems like it's going to be a little more mind-challenging which I'm excited about. It's about International Trade Agreements in Mexico which is something we touched on in a class I took back in spring of last year at UT so it should be good to expand on Mexico in particular. The teaching and learning style is very different here. They don't force you to do anything. It's all your responsibility, but the class works way better when everyone comes prepared.

So now for the weekend....oh craziness :P.....

Friday I ran around doing visa stuff and just stuff that needed to get done. The night was relaxing since I stayed home as well and talked with my love :). Unfortunately, we didn't get to have our marriage session which reminds me - prayers for Kyle and his job. I know it's been very frustrating and time-consuming right now for him so prayers that God will protect him and his company from the hits.

Then Saturday, woke up fairly early and went to a Teotihuacan exhibit at the museum inside Fundidora Park. The park is more like a huge area of land with all sorts of buildings and such on it - museums, parks, arena and all that jazz. It was really beautiful and not that expensive. Then we got some lunch - unfortunately, still haven't had tacos outside of the house. Of all things I thought it was funny that we had pizza and that last time I went out we had basically US food. Pretty funny. Came home and went to HEB where it was great fun trying to explain to the lady about my insurance in which I still am going to have to reimbursed for - oh well. But yeah, and then of course, Hilda and Oscar prepared carne asada - steak! like they do every saturday. Apparently it's very popular in Monterrey to make a lot of steak. That's cool with me ;).

But me and some of my host family kids didn't eat until after we got back from the play. It was a comedy completely in Spanish. It was difficult to stay focused for that long especially at night when you're tired, but the actors did a great job. I really enjoyed it.

So then the next day, Sunday, went to church at 12:30 and afterward, went with a lot of people to Chili's (another US restaurant) for one of the girl's birthdays. It was awesome how so many people came. But me and 5 other girls split some food and it was pretty good. But we didn't want to eat too much cause not too long afterwards, we had a huge party (40 people) to celebrate the Chinese New Year which is today! So came home after Chili's and had to rush to get back up to school so we could all start taking taxis to the restaurant where our crazy hosts had rented the entire upper level. It was so fun! Our hosts planned all these fun activities and traditions to celebrate the Chinese New Year and I really enjoyed it. But that is why I'm pretty tired today. And also.........

Happy birthday to my love today!!! :D

Love you guys. Getting really tired though so I'm gonna head off to bed. Buenas noches por ahora. Talk to you soon.

un beso,
Bethany

ps: there's a lot of peacocks, deer and ducks on campus. No joke it's crazy awesome!

Después de mi primera semana en el Tec

Hey you guys,

I feel like I've been really busy with stuff this past week it being the first week of classes. Still trying to drop some of my classes it's been so crazy, but all good :). I'm taking two classes in spanish (Mexican culture and Superior Spanish Grammar - scary sounding but awesome professor) and two in english (Negotiation Strategies of Latin America and Competition in Latin America). I really enjoy the laidback teaching style here, but I know my spanish courses are going to wear me out because it's so draining to translate. It's the same way with my host family, especially my host mom Hilda. She's great and loves to do whatever she can for you, but she also loves to talk and help you learn Spanish....a lot :). But it's so draining and so good at the same time.

But yeah, I'm excited to keep practicing and improving my Spanish. I just get more excited about learning the language and culture and hopefully being able to translate and/or teach it at some point. It just keeps feeling more right. We'll see how I feel a couple months in lol.

But Friday, I went to a BBQ with people from Monterrey Tech and ....you'll never believe it....Texas A&M!!!.......who attend a church here in Monterrey. The church is a bit of a drive, but not a problem when I split a cab fare with a couple of other girls. But anyways, my friend from Singapore introduced me to a few of the people from A&M this past Tuesday. She had attended the church the prior Sunday and I started talking about faith and BAM! God did His amazing works and connected me with a church! Meeting the people from Tech and getting to know a lot of the people from A&M better was amazing. I got to see them at church today and see officially what the service was like. It was all in spanish, but they actually gave some people headphones for English translation. It was just a guy from the church translating for them. One of the ladies from church gave me headphones but I was like (in my head later) "dude, I need to learn this language!" So I listened to everything without the headphones. It was tiring, but I understood most of it thank God (literally :D). It was amazing.

But yesterday/Saturday, I went with about 30-40 people from Tech to the Grutas de Garcia, or Garcia Caves, which are a lot like the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico if you've ever been there or heard of them. I loved seeing Carlsbad Caverns when I was little with my uncle so I thought it would be cool to go see some more. And it was very beautiful. Mostly, it was hard to take pictures cause I have a really old, hand-me-down camera (generously given, but not great for this kind of lighting). But after seeing the caves, whoever wanted to could choose to walk down the crazy long trail back to the bottom of the mountain. AND OH YEAH! It pretty much felt like I was in Lord of the Rings which has been a dream of mine for years. Yes, I know.....I am a dork. I thought we passed that already? lol. anyways....

So I walked down with some people from Singapore and Korea that I met on the way there. It took a good 25 minutes at least winding back and forth across the mountain. But we made it and it was a heck of a lot of fun. Pretty sure I'm ready to sign up for the either the mountain climbing club or the hikers club now.....no, I promise I'm not kidding :D.

So that has pretty much been my week. I do want to ask for prayers for me and Kristofer. I know these past couple of weeks have been hard for us to connect our hearts and spirits especially. We know only God can help us with that especially now. Prayers for Kristofer's perseverance from God and good health. God did bless him with quick healing last week, but it was pretty sick and it hurt that I couldn't be there.

I also want to ask for prayers for my parents and family. Our dog Dixie of 13 years with us died yesterday morning. She brought so much joy and peace into our lives without asking for anything in return, only ever desiring our love. So we pray that she's having fun running around there in peace now without any pain. Just prayers that my family would be comforted, especially my mom. And prayers for God to continue to provide for my family as we trust Him with our lives. Thanks for all your prayers, support and most of all love.

love you guys. tty soon!

besos y abrazos,

Bethany

Las aventuras de este fin de semana

Hola muchachos!



I'm sitting here with my roommate Megan and my housemate Vivian as we're all again being dorks with the little time we get on our laptops to rest. This weekend has been pretty crazy, running around doing a lot of stuff.



Friday - was crazy. The international students had stuff to do all day from I think 9am to 10pm. I left the last event early because I was just wiped out. But yeah, we had a lot of meetings about immigration, student organizations, activites in Tech, gym stuff and about all the cool things that the international programs office has planned for us. There are so many amazing trips that I'm still not sure which ones I want to do or costs or anything. But they have so many trips planned for very good prices for what they do for you. And after they had a student get-together where they had really cool Mexican dancers from Tech and a band. Something that I didn't expect was the amazingness of the fine arts program at Tech. I expected that it would be mostly just business courses and engineering courses and clubs because it's a technical university. But man, their fine arts program is like a professional university or really even studio of its own. But yeah so Friday was fun but definitely this week has been tiring.

Saturday - was not what I had planned to do but it was good. Me and a guy I met on the airplane ride to Monterrey on Tues (we both figured out that we were going to the same place so we talked most of the way there and I got to see some cool pictures he took in Spain last summer I think)....away from that seguay now....we both needed to go to Walmart so we met up after our meetings in the morning and went to Walmart with his roommate. It was pretty fun when they started asking me what kinds of things they needed and what kinds of things girls like guys to have at their place. So I helped them with that and got a few things. Oh PS....you basically take taxis everywhere around here which is so different from what I'm used to but it hasn't felt weird or anything......But yeah so we took taxis to and from Walmart back to their apartment to drop stuff off so then we could go to Telcel so I could get my local phone working. And though I didn't understand all of what the receptionist people said, I got most of it and was able to communicate partially back what I wanted to do. It's been a huge blessing being able to communicate and learn things quickly. I wish I could explain fully how much God has blessed my experience here so much. He continues to reveal amazing things and His comfort and love above all else. And it has definitely been an amazing time to lean on Him...especially when it's hard or I start feeling alone. He has been such an amazing comfort and has not let me fall...He has kept me so close to Him and it has been such a blessing. He's put me in a beautiful dream place so far and just blessed me with an amazing host family who is basically like my family - not strict but has certain rules. Expects responsibility for the all the freedom given which has been amazing. (I don't know how many times I've said amazing yet lol). The fact that I'm surrounded by mountains and get to go to see all these amazing sites and have these experiences. Everything is a new adventure that I love because I'm either seeing new things, meeting new people, practicing my Spanish or learning something new. And God has protected me physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I do ask for continued prayers for that. I know it's absolutely necessary because too many ways that satan can mess with my mind or I can just slip out of the comfort in Christ without really checking on that. So prayers for that protection and comfort and me to continually check up on that. So.......un-seguay......We went to Soriana across the street which is like a huge grocery store. And everything there smelled so fresh. So me and John split a pastry because it was way too tempting. Then we went back to his apartment to get my stuff and I took a taxi back to my host family. Hung out there for a while with the host family. And the cool things about saturdays is that the dad cooks steak every saturday out on their grill. It was soooo good. And as a host family gift I gave them a Brad Paisley CD for a Texas kind of thing. So also it's tradition for them to listen to music fairly loudly while they're preparing the steaks and eating. So while the dad was preparing the food, we danced to some Brad Paisley! :) lol. That was definitely amazing. But after hanging out at the house, me and Megan went out to event with a lot of the other international students. It was hosted by Tech and it started at 10pm and lasted until 2am but me and Megan left earlier. I don't know how these people do it here! lol

Sunday - woke up around 9am and got ready for church. Had some breakfast and by the time everybody was ready to go, we were pretty late. So we got there for like the last 5-10 minutes of mass. I was sad about that, but the church was gorgeous. It looked like an old colonial cathedral so I'll have to figure out how I can get my pictures up online. Then, me, my housemates, and most of the host family went to these 2 nearby museums about the history of Mexico and something else. There were so many religious sculptures, paintings and what not. So it was cool to see that. Then, we ate at this tamal place (tamale is apparently not a word for all those TexMex restaurants out there lol). It was really good. When the dad came to pick us back up, we went to Walmart and then came home. And now I'm here and need to do some stuff for the first class day tomorrow. Man, it does not feel like I have class tomorrow. I think it's cause UT classes don't start for another week. And it feels like I'm on vacation or camp or something.

So that's what's been going on so far. Please continued prayers again for safety and God's comfort and continual presence near to me. Hope everyone's doing well. tty soon

un beso,
Bethany

Sorry I can't write much at all tonight. I have to wake up early and it's already almost midnight. Definitely been a tiring but always good day :).

Today was cool because I got to see more of the campus and take some pics which I'll have to figure out at some point how to get them on the internet. But I did already put them on my computer so I have more memory space on my camera. But the campus is beautiful. So much green everywhere which I loooooove. And the coolest part is seeing the mountains from whatever angle you're looking from. It's so gorgeous down here. I love it.

But I did do something not so great today. I totally forgot how many pesos in cash I had with me at the time. I thought I had enough, but apparently not because I had to take several items out of my bags. That's wasn't so fun, but he mom told me not to worry.

That's what I like about this place. Everyone is relaxed but very kind and helpful.

Totally starting to almost fall back from sleep-needing so I'm headed off. Have a wonderful night, everyone! Talk to you soonish

wiht love,
Bethany