Um. Last Day Of School.

Happy Thursday!!! This is my last full day of classes EVER. Just final periods next week. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!

Got all my ministry units cleared. That's a fun story, if you ever want to hear it.

Just need to pass some classes, finish some papers. Probably not in that order. The movie is cut, hours away from picture lock and starting sound. Should be done on time. Looks nice. My acting scene is average. My half-way-done Sr. Sem draft came back with good marks, just need to find some more references to fill it out. No idea if my HEROES paper is ever going to make sense. My script is outlined, I just need to sit down and write it. I'll be spending the rest of tonight and next Wednesday finishing all my sound projects.

For some reason wasn't scheduled to work yesterday--but I went in to ask for it off because TFT Senior Banquet was yesterday evening. It was lovely and full of deliciousness and funny.

Working Friday and Saturday for some reason, leaving Sunday open for Mexican Christmas (since Thanksgiving this year was already pretty Mexicoed out). Also have a "Remembering Mexico" meeting Saturday afternoon. Yay.

Saw MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA yesterday or the day before and DUDE was it funny. King Julien. Disgustingly cute baby Alex. Alec Baldwin.

Oh yeah, so I went to Mexico.

It did rain on Wednesday on the drive out of LA, and that night, which was in fact very muddy. There were lightning storms all over. A couple of potentially catastrophic driving situations. I copiloted, and I had to deal with some of the most entirely useless maps ever created. Left late, got there after dark. The ground is hard. It was cold at night, but nice and hottish during the day. Thursday it drizzled a bit, but after that it was clear.

6:30 AM, wake up! Breakfast at 7 and chapel at..8? We left for our site at about 9. We were supposed to be out there until 6:30, back for dinner at 7 and chapel at 8:30, but we ended up staying for dinner at the orphanage and one night half of our team went to church with the older boys so we didn't get back to camp until like 10. Lights out at 11! Or as soon as possible, in my case.

Our site was Bethesda orphanage in Mexicali. (The camp was in Ejido Cuernavaca, about 25 minutes south-east.) The kids were great! There was Matilda and Jose and Estaban and Itzel and Carlos and Oscar and Mauricio and Jose and Julio and Juanita and Jessica and Rigo and Jose and Samuel and Raul and a few more whose names I didn't learn. That list, though, is approximately youngest to oldest, starting at 4ish and going up to I think 18. I spent most of my time with middle Jose (he drew lovely pictures on my hands) and Rigo (he's pretty good at the DRAGON BALL style of drawing).

We'd planned things to do, story, craft, snack, game, but basically we threw that aside and played with them. They ended up having school from 1-4 (the young ones, 1-7 for the older boys), so we had some down time, too. By down time I mean, time to buy paint and paint the orphanage. We went to the park, we played fútbol, we decorated cookies and shirts, we learned about Noah. One day we went and saw NAVIDAD, S.A. at a movie theater. It was cute.

I also helped make tortillas on the second day, which was great because I didn't have to interact with the kids. XD Not that I hated interacting with the kids, but after the first day, not really being able to talk to them (it seems everyone else had at least taken Spanish in school) but having to be social made me remember my introverted side and I severely needed the time to recoup. So the painting day/hanging out in the kitchen day was nice. And then on Saturday most of the kids had gone to other homes that they have (like aunts' and stuff??) so it was pretty low-key. Watched Julio and Carlos and Jose (and Calvin, one of our own) play marbles. What an intense game. Tried to talk with "the older boys" (they're like 13 and up, so) and didn't suck at it. Thanks to cognates, Spanish is not an outstandingly foreign language. So it's more like I listened to other people's conversations. And then I talked to Rigo a bit about tv, haha.

They really wanted us all to come back. I can't, not on a missions trip because I'm graduating, but it would be pretty cool to roadtrip down there again some day.

Sunday it was up at 6:30, packed up and magically on the road by 8......waited in line at the border for over two hours.....drove at an average of 10 MPH in Thanksgiving weekend traffic through Palm Springs for four, five, six hours? At that point, if we had kept up that pace, it would have taken another five hours to get home. Luckily right about then it cleared up and we were home in like an hour. So we got in at around 6, I think. It was a long day.

I love indoor plumbing.

Okay, I'm going to go learn some stuff. Hopefully. Instead of working on papers last time I was at the computer, I ended up reading Greg Beeman's blog (the HEREOES behind the scenes) instead, and had a very very compelling feeling that that was actually what I was supposed to be doing in that moment. Reading about how it's done. One day I want to read a blog about that, except that it's written by a good friend, or about a show I have a hand in. That's my dream.

Also, HEROES this week. WTF, mate?? I knew it was coming, but COME ON. Not like that, guys. That was Not Cool. All you're doing is validating every complaint I've ever had about you. Every single one.

What a creepy night of tv that was, too. Even most of CHUCK wigged me out. What a creeper you've become, NBC.

-Steph