Sunday, August 22, 2010

I'm Here!!!

Whew what a day! After 12 hours of travel, I have officially arrived here in Merida. My day started off with amazing send off breakfast with the fam…caramel rolls, fruit salad and scrambled eggs. After breakfast, I packed up the last of my stuff, said goodbye to my dad and Reegan (who had a soccer game and couldn’t come with us to the airport) and headed to the Green Bay airport with mom, Tressa, and Carissa. On the way, we saw a ton of tress that had been blown over and all the damage the storm had caused. It made me so thankful that our house was fine and that I was able to head out today!

At the airport, I checked my bag and then said my final goodbyes and headed to the gate. My first layover was in Chicago. I just walked around, ate lunch, and read. While I was waiting for my flight, a lady came up and asked if I spoke Spanish and thinking that I might as well switch my brain to Spanish mode, I told her yes. She then proceeded to explain that she and her young daughter were sitting on different seats on the flight and was wondering who she could talk to to see if they could sit together. I pointed out the lady that she should talk to and she headed that way. Feeling pretty pleased with myself, I went back to reading my book. A few minutes later some asked me in English if I could translate something again. I laughed and told her sure so she waved over another lady who was looking for someone who could speak Spanish. Well this time, the translating didn’t go so smoothly (pride defiantly comes before the fall! ). After a few minutes I finally understood that the lady was trying to call her daughter and was wondering first of all where the phones were and how she should dial the number. I was able to explain to her where the phone was and how to dial the number. The rest of my wait went well and my layover in Houston was only an hour so I didn’t have to wait long. I ran into a few of the students I will be studying here with on the flight. We didn’t have too much time to talk yet but everyone seems super friendly and I’m excited to get to know them more.
We arrived in Merida around 9:30 but it took us an hour or so to go through customs and get our bags checked and stuff. (I would just like my family to know that I had the least amount of baggage of anyone on the trip…winner). At the end of the long process of getting passports stamped, and bags checked, and custom forms checked, there is a button you have to push when you are all done that lights up this huge green light and then two guys open up two huge doors to let you into the rest of the airport (let me just say that that moment was worth all the waiting in line-I had to try really try hard to not burst out laughing because it make you feel like you are super special to be let though but the truth is, pretty much everyone is allowed to enter the country.) Right outside of those two doors was my host family waiting for me.
Before I could even ask if they were my family, my mom gave me a huge hug and welcomed me to Merida. After that moment, I knew I was going to love my family. My dad was waiting just a little further back and was super excited to meet me..it was so cute . They helped me bring all my stuff to the car all the while telling me how excited they were that I was here and how they hoped I would love their family and Merida and have a great time. On the way to our house, they gave me a tour of the city and asked all about me. My brain had to do a pretty huge switch to Spanish mode but it wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be..Probably because I didn’t have to do too much talking. After arriving at my new house, my mom and dad showed me my room..which is adorable and has its own bathroom!!! I love it. I then talked for a while with my parents and my mom told me some of the rules of the house-let her know if I’m not going to be eating a meal with the family, lock the doors when I leave, stuff like that and then I headed to my room to unpack. It’s not 1:30 in the morning so I’m thinking I should probably call it a night as I am falling asleep writing all this!
I am excited to be here and love everything so far! Keep praying that I would meet some other believers as so far, I haven’t met anyone. I know that this semester will be tough without the Christian community I am used to at school but I know God is faithful and will provide and so I’m trusting Him! More later! Buenas noches.

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