back home… for now

January 27, 2010 – 8:25 pm

Last time I wrote I was in freezing england, and now I’m in Mexico! home, at least for a now and for a little while…

My 1st weeks here have been pretty good, enjoying the sun, meeting old friends, and hanging out with the family!

My dad picked me up from the airport, he was holding a “welcome” balloon and had an Arizona Green tea in the other hand, it was so cute! there’s pictures too, my cousin was ready to shoot a couple, we started the way to Puebla right after, I couldn’t stop talking (poor dad), and finally as we reached he took me to eat one of my favourite things! Tacos al Pastor! you haven’t eaten tacos if you didn’t eat them in Mexico, I can assure you that!

I got to see my best friends, and some old friends as well, we just had a blast as usual, I really wish I could see them more often, I’ll try, but distance is not always a good friend

and finally reached home last saturday, I was so happy to see mom! It’s the longest I’ve been without seeing her, so we hugged quite a lot, I missed her, and she took me home where I chatted away and took a good bath to go to my grandma’s house to see the rest of my family! I got a much needed haircut and then she took my to my godmother’s house I was told we were picking her up… the truth is my mom made a little welcome party,  I can’t describe how nice was to be back, my cousins ran across to give me a big hug! they are all so grown up! in a year they all became taller and bigger, my little nice is huge too! and the godson well, he is tiny but older, he will be trouble I can tell ha ha ha

So that’s it,  I’ve been dealing with school and all that, because I start next week!

right now I’m just getting ready to go to the movies, I’m taking the godson!, I’m still not quite used to be back, but I sure missed it!

By Pulga | Posted in Cool People, Family, On the Road, Student Life | Comments (0)

Shopping… someone stop me!

January 11, 2010 – 11:50 pm

So in around 5 days I’ll be on my way to my home… or almost, let’s just say I’ll do a little stop to visit dad (who is picking me up from the airport!), my best friends, and some lovely family, somehow I’ll have to go around like crazy to meet everyone who wants to see me in one week…. wish me luck.

For those who don’t know I recently moved after living for almost 20 years in Puebla, my mom and brothers packed out to be closer to mom’s side of the family and seeking something different I guess, so naturally I left my dearest and oldest friends in Puebla,  plus some of my dad’s side of the family, mostly cousins! so there’s already two dinners compromised there…

anyway, lately I’ve been shopping crazily :o seriously, I think Paris started it all, and I really just got souvenirs and a bottle of wine (note this is not for me!), but london…. oh boy, I got my brothers and dad some stuff, then mom, then a couple of more souvenirs and then… I got myself a hoodie (with the I love London quote of course!) and a cute and lovely teddy bear disguised as a guard… so IRRESISTIBLE I’ve been drooling over them for a while and it was just about time to get me one right?! I thought ok after all that abstaining the last year I deserved a little Christmas present and after confessing how guilty I felt my mom thought so too… so I’m feeling less guilty, after all is MY money and I worked for it….

anyway surprisingly got out of London with a few pounds in my bank account,  and I spent them boxing day, in a sale, there were some super cute clothes for kids so I got my newest nice a couple of things, and of course the godson who doesn’t seem to scape my mind… I think my mom, brother and him will be the ones with the most presents…  :o

so I got paid (last pay day!) and my dad actually sent me some money as Christmas present, and I got myself a 500gb external hard drive …. (my new baby is called BIGPULGA) so there more spending away! to my defence it was £40 and I need the space… desperately… I took way too many pics this year, that day I also got some jaffa cakes and emergency chocolate for mom!

and I was all good and all until I decided to meet up with Gaby in the city to catch up and get our coach tickets… we visited primark… and I have to say after all that temptation (you may know primark is so tempting most of the times) I got a couple of ties for my brother! I’ve been wanting to get him a nice tie, just because, and after visiting some stores I still hadn’t found one I liked until primark… who’d known!?, but I stopped at Dorothy Perkins and got a necklace I’ve been wanting since I got here (15% student discount!) and then the souvenir store…  some keyrigns a cap for grandpa and hum a hoodie YES, an other hoodie… I think I have a problem, now to my defence I wanted one in that tone of gray and they were £10, I did thought about giving it to my bro… but I already got him a lot of stuff and mom said that if I like it I should keep it for myself….

I realized the the other day Melany my 16 year old cousin would get a terrible lame little present if I compared with her siblings, so I decided to look for some hat, since apparently she is in to hats lately, well I entered to peacocks (mistake) in my look for the hat, so there was a sale, I saw a top, it was £5  (£15 originally) and I had a £2 Boucher, so I tried it, it fitted and before I knew I was paying for it :roll: the good news is, I stopped by claire’s and I found the perfect hat for my cous and quite cheap as well, so yeah I shopped again, and I’m not counting the school material I got today!!!

So I’ll probably be spending the next couple of days, hoping I don’t find great deals or stuff to make my luggage heavier, since I’m already in 43kg (don’t even want to think about me in the airport)

anyway I should probably enjoy the spending since it’s the last I’m going to spend it a while… (I’m broke so I have not much choice anyway)

but I’m oh so happy I’ll see my lovely family and friends very soon!!!!

By Pulga | Posted in Buys, Cool People, Family | Comments (3)

welcome 2010!

January 10, 2010 – 12:47 am

Ok so I planned a big picture post of my 2009, but I have 2 thing against, one. there’s too many pictures and two. I just never seem to find the time…. anyway I decided that instead of giving a image heavy picture post, I’ll post 31 of my 2009 picures!!!

2009 was quite an eventful year for me, for many reasons, after literally years of claiming and dreaming I was going to go to england for exchange, after a full of work 2008, 2009 became the year I was going to make it true…

to be honest I’m not a wealthy person, and lately we’ve seemed to be having money problems, which made, england a big big step and adventure, and after working in the cinema and saving most of the money I made, and with a LOT of help from my mom’s side, not only money wise, but emotionally I made it and in January I went for it and made it to england!

In order to stay for the year I had to get a job, doing anything, so I was determined to get one, I found a babysitting one, the hours were few, but it was something, and in June I was moneyless and advised to get back,  and to be honest I was ok with it, but it wasn’t the time for me to leave!, the family I worked for offered me accommodation and more hours, making my stay possible….

during my 1st part of the year I had a LOT of fun! I met wonderful people from all over the world, and who I plan keep in touch with, the energy we had was magic, we got along instantly and pretty much found any excuse to hang out, not that we needed it because we lived in the same floor, but still, they saved me in a lot of ways like I’ve said before, honestly, they without knowing helped me going trough the hard patches and sadness! they made my first part of 2009 a great adventure!

During my second part, a little boy was cute enough to steal my heart, the little monkey, as I refer to him in this blog to respect his privacy, I watched him grow from a little baby to a strong, independent, stubborn, smart and cheeky toddler, who now knows one of his smiles, hug and kiss can win me over any time, this family made me feel like home, like part of the family and even when we had our patches I’m quite grateful…

2009 was a learning journey, about me, about my independence, other cultures, other people and life in general and I’ll never forget it! SO I’M DEEPLY GRATEFUL FOR MY 2009 and I sure hope everyone has the opportunity to learn in a year as much as I did!

now to the fun part!!! sadly I can’t post EVERYTHING I did but this is a little bit of my year!

2009 Part 1
1. Paintballing with Jo, Gaby, Melinda, Houcine and the Lupton people, it only was 5 pounds!  2. British dinner, we made Yorkishire puddings and invited a couple of neighbours over! in the attempt to imitate an authentic British meal 3. Mexican dinner, Gaby and I took over the kitchen and made the Lupton gang some somewhat authentic mexican food! 4. Celebrated Sn. Patrick’s day with Joannie, Pedro, Melinda, Houcine and Grace 5. Pedro introduced to us girls a typical Brazilian drink! that very night we started our quotes bit in the kitchen 6. Mic invited us to go shopping to celebrate the spring break, we went to castelford and had a lot of fun not only shopping but also taking a spontaneous ride! 7. Before easter, Gaby was kind enough to help us find the little kids in us, organizing an egg hunt!!! 8. 1st movie (of many to come) with the girls in Jo’s room 9. Chinese dinner @ Red Chili in Leeds! Mic and Char helped picking the yummy dishes!

2009 part 2
10.  Visited the chocolate festival and got free desserts at a restaurant!!!! 11. Australian pic-nic celebrating Anzac day with our Aussie friends! 12. Went to the Yorkshire dales with Melinda, Dan and Pedro’s friends since Pedro got hurt and donated his ticket to me 13. Wear something in your head block party! an amazing anti-ball party for the block o at Lupton, we had loads of fun! 14. Mic’s 21st Colorful birthday! 15. Karaoke night, the girls sang Mamma mia while the boys blessed us with I want it that way! we also performed Wannabe, My Girl and I love you baby 16. Our attempt of Otley run, of course we failed but had a great time (well with some drama in between)  17. Melinda and I mixed our birthday bash to celebrate with a birthday extravaganza, friends, cake, piñata and loads of fun 18. My birthday in a sunny british day in the park, also celebrating Steve’s and Pedro’s last exam!

2009 part 3
19. The boys teaching Charlene how to ride a bike! and she doing it successfully that same afternoon! 20. Susy came over to visit! and we went to Scarborough as one of the 1st destinations! 21. Introducing Joannie’s family (who were visiting) the amazing Shaky jakes! 22. My first authentic, trip to London, Susy and I had a blast! enjoying sunny London 23. Mic, Gaby, Jo, Pedro and I went wild, literally attempting Wild Camping in the beautiful lake district! 24. Char and I travelled to Liverpool and visited the Beatles museum!

2009 part 4
25. Moved in to the family house, and celebrated the Little Monkey’s 1st birthday! 26. Got closer to the little monkey, that photo is one of our many visits to the park! 27. Gaby and I learned a bit of British traditions, attending to bonfire night! 28. We Celebrated our friend’s boyfriend birthday with a crazy party full of Mexicans! 29. Visited the German Market in Leeds 30. After a lot of saving, my trip to the pretty Paris! 31. My 1st musical ever, Mamma Mia and I’m glad this was it, it was a lot of fun!

so I did quite a lot huh????  this is 0.01% of the memories and photos I have in my heart and hard drive!

so welcome 2010, let’s live a new adventure every year!!!

By Pulga | Posted in 2009: the journey, Adventures, Babysitting, Cool People, Family, On the Road, Student Life | Comments (0)

a day before paris

December 29, 2009 – 12:02 pm

taken from diary:

Dec 17th 2009: After a long day I managed to finish my packing and be ready at 4, a challenge if you count I had to look after the little monkey for a while morning and afternoon, Mrs M actually asked me to take a taxi to the coach station and also paid for it, she was worried about the weather (since the 1st snow in the season started to fall) she also packed me with some cookies and crisps…. Leeds said goodbye to me with the 1st snow and there I was in my way to London…

I love snow, I don’t drag it like a lot of people do, I just like it, it feels hopeful, nice and refreshing… and since I don’t have it in Mexico I’ve enjoyed it since the 1st time I saw it back in 2005

anyway I took the wrong bus, since mine was 25mins later, but I realized when I had my seatbelt on and my stuff under the bus, anyway it was going exactly to the same place, so I didn’t say anything…

the snow was falling during the hole journey, the streets looked white and beautiful, so slong with the paris excitment I couldn’t help but smile all the way, with a little sleep in between…

now I’m at the hostel in London, and tomorrow morning I’ll be on my way to Paris! I’m super excited!!!!

By Pulga | Posted in 2009: the journey, On the Road | Comments (0)

back and safe

December 25, 2009 – 9:59 am

Yes I’m back!!!!

My trip was an adventure for sure! If you heard about eurostar and all the people who got stuck in paris and london, well yes I got stuck in Paris… I should be posting bits and pieces from my journal with the tons of pics I took!!!

to my surprise I only took around 700 in Paris and 300 in London, which is good considering!!!! and since I had most of my pics on London from the summer there was no need to take pics like crazy…

But the trip was awesome…. GORGEOUS in many ways and so interesting! I liked travelling alone, even when my french sucks and I was pretty much clueless many times! but Paris is quite nice! and cold too, I got loads of snow, but it didn’t stop me from walking like crazy…. I walked a lot! and now I’m happy to be back to the calm life! I’m happy I managed to stay up to my budget and all…

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!

I just had a lovely conversation with my family in skype! and will have an other at night… I sure miss them!

so there’s snow in the ground, but it’s not a white christmas yet since apparenly it has to snow…. I’ll let you know, but for me it’s still a white crhistmas, everything is white and it’s christmas so it works for me :)

take care and have a great day!

By Pulga | Posted in 2009: the journey, Family, On the Road | Comments (0)