Holiday Inn Monterrey

... water fountians of different shapes and sizes along the way. It ended in a large park dedicated to the steel industry. Sounds ugly, but there were more free museums, and it was actually pretty (except for the large furnace stacks).

Heading back to the bus stop, and thinking we perhaps should have booked an earlier bus out of town, we started poking around looking for a resturant for dinner. Oddly enough, all the ...

The whole stay here has just been strange. The first morning here I preached in a church - in spanish! First time since 2006! Even though I took out my guages and put in clear spacers, they asked me to take them out, as well as my eyebrow ring. They said I need to be "all things to all men" although that is not what it is talking about. The ministry gave us a nice little apartment for 5 days (full of cockroaches) in a ...

... br> When we arrived at the church, we met the pastor in the back. They told me that I had to speak, yet this was news to me. I declined nicely, and they kept pushing me until Rob said "She doesn't want to!" They had a shocked look on thier face. See, I really felt that I wasn't supposed to.
So we walked into the church, which was more like an overcrowded room. I entered the pew and the woman to the left of me was ...

We spent a great 5 days in Monterrey. A really lovely city, different to what we expected. Its an industrial town so we expected factories etc but they are all in the suburbs. The city is suurounded by a beautiful backdrop of mountains that the locals are very proud of and very much represent their city. However, the best thing about Monterrey was the people we met. Of ...

... d want from the States is here - Chili's, Applebees, Office Max, Office Depot, FedEx, Wal-Mart, HEB, you name it... Also, about half of the TV channels on cable are from the United States. Some are dubbed and some are subtitled. They say that most travelers going abroad for an extended period of time experience culture shock: (1) the honeymoon phase, where you're excited and curious, (2) disintegration, where you experience ...

... the weather was not as i expected and rain was everywhere the car was almost under water, this was the 50 year flood that i ever so carefully time to arrive in, The local river was flooded peoples house were underwater and shops were empting out there stores. Meeting the family was sweet, i still wasnt 100percent with my spainish and here they spoke even faster and was tht much harder to understand, and realised who hard it is venturing into another 'world' alone ...

... talk to people and ask for simple things like more chicken sauce at McDonald's (yes we went.) or directions, in English. everyone in McAllen speaks English and Spanish. Marichu could order food in Spanish, and i in English. it was pretty amazing. we got lost several times trying to find the outlet store. the man at the border asked me if i come through to the states a lot, and walked off with my passport to ask a co-worker ...

... drove to her house to drop off some of my things, a nice apartment 20 minutes from the airport. the rain was furious! it makes Vancouver's rain look weak... puddles everywhere, it was certainly exciting. the difference being, of course, that it's warm when it rains. like a shower outside with thunder and lightening :P after we dropped my stuff off we drove to Chipinque ...

... som var ganska stort. Inte lika stort som KTH, men det kändes bra mycket mer uppstyrt. medd affärer, kafféer, träningslokaler och en massa annat. Det märktes att det är en privatskola som har mycket pengar. Jag träffade ett par av hennes kompisar också och de var också trevliga. Idag ska jag försöka komma in på campus och registrera mej på något sätt. Sen måste jag gå och försöka välja vilka kurser jag ska läsa. Sen får vi se! Hasta Luego!

... I hardly knew. Anyway, it was also I think a small example of how, generally, people are taken in as part of the family. The welcome and hospitality I have been shown was amazing. People I didn't know from Adam (or Eve) gave me their phone numbers and said contact any time if I needed help, I was given food and water and generally made to feel very welcome. Some people expressed great gratitude for me being there, which made me feel a bit weird too. Anyway ...