Midterms

I should be working on homework right now, but I'm not really in the mood. Plus I haven't updated my blog in forever. So this works out.
This past Wednesday marked the halfway point in my first semester here at UDLA. I can't believe how fast time is going by. I think I have like 8 weeks or something left, then finals. Craziness. I can see why people would want to stay for two years. I've been giving it some thought. I'm still 50/50 about whether or not I would want to stay. Not like it's a decision I have to make any time soon, but still, worth some thought every know and then. I feel like I could really benefit from another full year at UDLA. The classes here are wonderful. I don't know if it just happens that I have really good classes this semester and maybe i would hate all my classes if i stayed, but I think overall the education system is great. Plus my Spanish skills would be wonderful. If i stayed I guess it would mean you all would have to come visit me :) But there's reasons I would want to go back to Boston, too. who knows...

What else is new...surprisingly not much. I'm feeling more comfortable in classes and stuff, and enjoying life here. Oh! This is cool: I tried out a church this past weekend, and I think i'm going to start going. I found this Christian group on the internet called 'El Pozo'. It's kind of affiliated with UDLA, but not directly. I went on Tuesday to their small group, which actually turned out to be an open mic night this week, but usualy it's a bible study. I ran into this man named Tom, and we got to talking, and I told him how I was looking for a church and hadn't had much luck locating one. He 'happened' to be the pastor of a church plant in Puebla and invited me to check it out on Saturday. He and his family live right next to campus, actually in the same complex as a few of my German friends. He and his wife and 4 sons are missionaries and have been in Mexico for the past 16 years or so. There's a large church they helped start in Puebla, and from that they're planted 5 other churches, the lastest being the one he invited me to. He offered to give me a ride, so I went to his house and we drove over to the church. Service is held in an old pool hall thats in the process of being converted. They've made good progress over the past 6 months. It's one large room with 3 more small rooms added on and two bathrooms. It looks pretty good for what it used to be. There were about 20 people total there, 8 of them being children. There was one other American couple (who have livedin Mexico as missionaries for 26 years), two Mexican couples, another couple (American wife, Mexican husband), a sweet woman named Dulce, and myself. We worshipped toa few songs off of iTunes, had time to pray in small groups, then Tom gave a short message. It was very interactive, though, which was cool. And he did it all in Spanish, and I'm happy to say I understood practically everything he said. It also helps that he speaks at a pace I can understand. He talked about one of my favorite scriptures: Matthew 6:25-34. Good and powerful stuff. After that we took Communion and had some time to socialize. I got a chance to meet everyone, and got some contact information. Everyone was so friendly, making sure I had a ride home, inviting to their places saying I was welcome anytime, telling me to email/call them if I had problems or just needed to talk, etc. It was great to be back in touch with other believers. I think I'm going to keep going. The Christian group El Pozo usually goes to this church, so hopefully I'll have a chance to make some friends with students my age. yay God!

What else...um I can't really think of anything else super exciting to share. I'll post again if I think of anything good.