My week in Farmington, New Mexico!

So this week has been great! Monday was our travel day and we made it to Farmington at little late and a little tired and a little hungry, but ready to meet our new family and roommate!

We arrived in Farmington around 7pm-ish and first found our roommates. Yulin from China was my roommate this week and the Bedford Family was our host family. We found them from our "host code" we were assigned. This time the host code was food. We were given the name of a non parishable food item and our goal was to find the family that held the actual item. Afterwords, the food was donated to one of the non-profits that we worked with throughout the week. So we made it home and had some dinner, then chatted till about 11:30pm about everything and anything and nothing. It was really nice. Our host family is a family of four with two girls, Veronya (9yrs.) and Claire (5yrs.).

The next two days were spent doing community impact where we worked side by side with highschoolers from the area at local non profits. The two places I worked at was Desert View Sexual Assault Services and P.A.T.H (People Assisting the Homeless). We started our days with icebreakers to help get the students comfortable with working with us. At each of the places we did a lot of painting and at PATH we did some remodeling. At the end of the day we had accomplished a lot and it felt great to make a difference that we could see.

Thursday was our first official show. We rehearsed all day. And the night, in my opinion went very well.

Friday was our day of regional learning. We went to the Navajo Reservation and visted Shiprock and the highschool in the area. Shiprock is a giant vocanic rock in the middle of nowhere that the Navajo Nation believe was sent to them by the spirits and therefore it is considered very sacred. It was breathtaking. We finished our afternoon with a presentation in Navajo dance and culture. Two Navajo princesses spoke (they will also be traveling with us next semester) and the Vice President of the people also was there to speak. We got back to the center that UWP hung out at and had a long round of reflection about where we feel we are at now in our UWP experience. That evening we got home and had some dinner and then our host dad invited us out to a local country dance bar. Our host mom didn't go because she was feeling under the weather, so the three of us got ready and left to tear up the dance floor. We got home just after 1:30 from having a night of sooo much fun. I two stepped for the second time in my life, and got to see Yulin experience A LOT of fun firsts. It was a great night and sooo memorable.

Well, we had to be up early for Saturday morning but surprisingly I was wide awake and full of energy! Saturday also consisted of rehearsal as our second official show was Saturday night. Saturday's show didn't go as well as Thursday's and I was pretty disappointed in my performance. However, the vibe I got was that it wasn't just me so I think we all need to work more on how to stay more focused and keep our energy up weven when our butts have been kicked. I did m,y second interview yesterday too and interviewed a wonderful girl that I hope will have the opportunity to travel with us soon.

Today, Sunday, was a pretty chill hang out day. Our host mom made us blueberry pancakes- I had 4- and then we all just kinda sat and chatted. My host mom and I shared pictures and Yulin and our host dad shared in depth conversation. We hung out some more then decided to checkout Farmington and some shops. We ultimately ended up at the mall because all the shops in Framington are closed on Sundays. While I was disappointed that I might have missed out on souveneir shopping it was really great to see how a whole town still values the "day off." Regardless, the mall had what I wanted. After the mall, we raveled back up to Colorado to visit a town called Durango. This is where my host dad grew up. Wow. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and eventually snowy, but still really beautiful netled in a valley in the mountains. We finished out our evening with dinner at a Southwest Mexican restuarant. I had a Pina Colada, Fajitas, and we all shared a really yummy desert. Oh, how I love food!!! I fell asleep on the way home bu not before we chatted and giggled a bit.

Tomorrow we leave Framington and our family and head on out to Arizona. And like Denver I know it will be hard to say goodbye. I had a lot of fun in New Mexico and loved my family for everything they shared with us. Thank you Bedford Family!!!

Again I'm in the process of uploading more photos so i will have them up when I can. Till then enjoy the one's I've posted!!!

Now I'm off to pack and get to bed. We leave tomorrow at 7:30am for Tucson, Arizona!