ooohh mexico, it sounds so simple i just got to go

today i was in one of those moods where you just want to look at old pictures and swim in sweet nostalgia. you see, right now i am in salt lake. alone. working. while all my friends are up at school. my life is not so exciting at the moment. which is fine, but it makes me extra susceptible to getting caught up in old, fun memories. so today, i escaped the biting cold winds of salt lake for a bit and paid a little visit to mexico!

mexico=best. trip. ever. a family friend of ours is part of this non-profit organization that builds houses for homeless families in mexico and needed some hands to paint these houses during my senior year. he called the man who had just taken a group of us to india and asked him if he could round up some teenagers to come down during spring break. a few weeks later, the india crew was on another adventure, piled in a few cars, and quickly on our way south of the border. we all pitched in money for gas and had arranged to sleep on some church members' floors. we spent easter sunday wandering around phoenix and then blasted "mexico" by james taylor nonstop after we crossed the border, hanging our heads out the window and screaming the lyrics.

it cost almost no money, it was spontaneous, and it was with my best friends. we could not have had more fun. waking up at the crack of dawn to paint so we could have more time on the beach and saying things like "we'll sleep when we're dead!" rolling ceilings and cutting edges. taking breaks to lay on piles of garbage and cardboard to get weird tan lines from the splotches of paint on our faces and shoulders. playing soccer with little boys who's families were receiving the houses. laying in hammocks on the beach, eating melted starbursts, and being too lazy to go inside for lunch. drinking 3 pina coladas a day. spending a day at a resort and alternating between the ocean and the jacuzzi 5o feet away. me and sarah being ridiculously excited to order pina coladas at the swim-up bar. having to bring our wallets because we were not staying at the resort and didn't have tabs to put it on. going to the local church one night for mutual. eating fresh shrimp every night and.....pina coladas. eating in a private room at the blue dolphin and loudly singing "the pina colada song" with the restaurant guitarist and not realizing that the only other people in the room were tom wilkinson and his wife.

mmmmmmm....spring break.

ok, got that out of my system.

bye, mexico.

hello again, salt lake.