Presidente Intercontinental Monterrey

... had signs up for a Monterry-Chicago Fire soccer game. As it would turn out, the two teams were playing in the finals of some minor tournament. The game was in Chicago, but there were no shortage of viewing options in Monterrey, and we settled in to watch amongst a crowd that cheered at all the wrong times :) In a very close game, Monterrey won in a shoot out.

So that was Monterrey. And then we got back on a bus.

... of back alley in downtown Monterrey. It has a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom with AC! All for US$10 per night! Sometimes even though we seem to be taken care of - there's just no peace. Monterrey is a BEAUTIFUL city, although very Americanized. After two more meetings were set up for this weekend, we knew we had to cancel and keep moving. It was confirmed by MANY. The people were not happy, but oh well. On to Tampico!

... to get here. When we arrived, there was a Mexican woman cleaning the base. I have to admit, when I saw how "Americanized" it was - you know, with air conditioning, electricity, wireless internet access, I was a bit dissappointed. We went to sleep and woke up on Sunday morning feelin fully rested. Rob was nervous about preaching in Spanish and had only a couple of hours to be ready. So we spent our time praying an preparing ...

... we were in the city to meet my uncle Packie, who took time out of his busy schedule to show us around and entertain us. It was great to see him and catch up and get to see where he lives and works. He showed us around his schools and we met lots of his friends along the way. We had a few crazy journeys with his mental driving, definitely think he has God as his co ...

... most of the other people were wearing t-shirts and jeans. Got through immigration and customs, which took so long that both my baggage and I almost didn't make it to Monterrey on time. Thank God we did. Monterrey is breaktakingly beautiful. It is surrounded by the mountains, la Sierra Madre. Everywhere you look, there are mountains. You can also easily see the influence from its northern neighbor. Just about everything ...

... its now been three weeks here with my new family in monterrey/sabinas and im loving it! each day its the same, i come home from going out and they greet me in spainish and i smile to myself haha its good. The other day i go to school for half a week to see what it was like, wow! i need to learn spainish, its everywhere and i cant handle not knowing what ppl are saying to me, its so hard in every way! i just get run down mentally jaja like im "drowning in spainish" hahaha

... i seen caves of this size before. we saw stalactites and stalagmites, in one place even the two meeting right in the middle! in one room of the cave there was a hole in the ceiling 200 or so meters up, and below was a stalagmite called the Christmas tree, decorated with lights... it was pretty amazing. Rodolfo, a friend of ours, said that a path that went off from where the guide was guiding us went to a lake inside the ...

... want to take any pictures at because Maria said it was slightly dangerous to have my camera out... it was a huge market though, with everything you could think of to buy. the food smelled so tasty but Maria said i wouldn't survive if i ate some. after that we picked up Maria's friend Sandy and went to another market where there was live music then we went to a large strip mall

... year of high school, so it was good to get back in the pool. I ate lunch at home, which was delicious as always. One of my friends here, Sen, had a birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant at 7. About 12 of us all met up for the dinner, which was very different and good. It was an interesting atmosphere for me. Out of the 12, I was the only English-speaker. There were 2 French, 5 Japanese, me, and 4 ...

... Mum - fresh fruit and coffee (instant nescafe - that´s all people seem to have - with sugar and milk - boiled on the stove as no-one seems to have a kettle either). It was actually very pleasant. Then the day unfolded - we tried to get two big old trucks started using new batteries - no good - maybe we should have got something bigger than AA? The to B and E´s for a big breakfast, I saw some videos of the work of AMMAC (the organisation baudelio runs) and pictures of the ...