Whew! I cannot believe how fast this past week went by! It feels like just yesterday that it was Sunday and we were coming home from Playa del Carmen!! After the break, it was a little tough to go back to school and do homework again but hey that's what I'm here for :). I really can't complain though because all of my classes are interesting and I have so many amazing opportunities here to practice my Spanish and get to know the culture that I would never have in the States.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day. I just had my communications class in the morning and my Spanish class that afternoon. Every week, my host mom makes one traditional "yucatacean" dish for me to try. This week we ate a soup that literally had everything in it-beans, pork, hotdogs, potatoes, zucchini, squash, carrots, onions, some things I didn't recognize, and even bananas! It was pretty good although I wasn't a big fan of the cooked bananas. After our Spanish class, Emma and I headed to a salsa dancing class we've been going to after our Spanish classes on Tuesday and Thursdays. It's super fun because it's kind of a dance/exercise class and the teacher is super energetic. I like it because you don't dance with partners and instead learn how to dance the steps on your own. Compared to everyone else in the class well, let's just say that I have a lot to learn but I'm having a blast with it and I'm hoping that by the end of the semester, I'll at least know how to get by! We're hoping to get a group together in the next few weeks and put our practicing to the test by going to place where you can salsa dance...We’ll see how it goes when we actually have partners!
Wednesday morning, my host mom informed me that we were going to the casino to eat breakfast. Now, I don't know about you but a casino is not the first place I usually think of when I want to eat breakfast but being the good host daughter I am, I just went along. It turns out that there is a casino close to where we live that serves free breakfast every morning. We met up with the rest of the family (my 2 host brothers and their wives) and ate breakfast and sat around drinking coffee and talking. The atmosphere was really fun and my mom told me that they go there a lot just to eat and hang out because the food there is really good and cheap! Defiantly not what I was expecting but it was a lot of fun and a good way to start the day. Classes went well and we watched an interesting video in underwater archeology about how shipwrecks are located..I know it probably sounds lame but it was actually really interesting. That night, we had our program meeting where we had our first salsa dancing/cha-cha-cha dancing lesson. Our teacher just about had us all in tears laughing when he told us how to dance "sexy." He very calmly explained that if we had no idea what we were doing (he probably was watching me), all we simply had to do was touch our thumb to our middle finger, assuming the "sexy" hand position, and move our arms a lot..lol I'll try that one the next time we go out salsa dancing!
Thursday, I decided to get up early and bring my laundry to the lavandaria to be washed. I had learned about one that was a lot cheaper but was farther away from my house but I decided to go check it out anyways. So, there I was walking down the street, not really sure where I was going, carrying a trash bag full of my laundry. I got some pretty curious glances from people on the street but I found it eventually with the help of a man who was sitting on the street and dropped off my laundry. Classes went well and I picked up my laundry after they were over. I then went for a run in the rain which was fun until I got to the streets where the water was up to my knees and couldn't run anymore and had to turn around...just another thing to add to my list of interesting things I've done since being here in Mexico. Hurricane Mateo is supposed to hit close to Merida so we are expected to get a lot of rain over the next few days. My family enjoyed telling me all about hurricanes that night at supper. It was fun listening to their memories of times they had to wait out hurricanes as a family although I will be more than happy if I make it the whole semester without experiencing one!
Friday, I had class till 11 and then went to Plaza Fiestas to do some homework and headed home. I spent the afternoon doing homework and relaxing. That night, a group of us met up to go the casino to eat supper. We just ate and talked and then came home early because we had Hoy en tu Comunidad the next day.
Saturday morning, I woke up to my phone ringing with Sarah on the other end wondering where I was (we were supposed to meet up and walk to the bus station together). Turns out that my alarm never went off so I literally rolled out of bed, got dresses, grabbed an apple, and headed out the door. It was a pretty rushed start but we made it there with time to spare! Hoy en tu comunidad was a lot of fun. I started off working with the kids but then it looked as of we could be more helpful working to take blood pressures so that's where I worked the rest of the day. It's getting easier the more I practice and I really like learning from watching the other doctors work. We had a lot of time to just sit around as for some reason, not a ton of people from the town showed up. I don't know if it was because it was supposed to rain that afternoon or if there just weren't that many people or what, but we ended up with a lot of time to just sit around and talk. Emma and I struck up a conversation about what we believe and it was really interesting talking to her. We also got to talk and meet more of the students there. Some of our friends invited us to go with them to visit some ancient ruins and a cenote for a weekend(One of them has an aunt who lives close to a place with ancient ruins who we can stay with) so we are looking for a weekend where we can all do that together. I am still amazed at how generous and welcoming people here are. I love how my friends here constantly give us hugs and always are inviting us to do something. We have a lot of fun joking around together and they enjoy helping us practice our Spanish. After getting home on Saturday, I just worked on homework-I have a presentation for my Spanish class so I tried to get that done and then I went to bed.
Today, I woke up and decided to go on an adventure to find a church. I had looked online and found a church that I was interested in...The only problem was, it's pretty far away from my house. I got directions from the ISFA office on Thursday and set out this morning to find it. It was quite the adventure and test of my Spanish but after 2 hours, I made it! The church service was neat and it was such a blessing to worship with other believers in Spanish. I talked to the pastor after the service and he told me that there aren't a ton of churches like the ones I am looking for where I live. It sounds like this one was the closest and with it being 2 hours away, I'm thinking I probably won't be able to make it every Sunday. I was a little bummed but I'm thankful that I have internet here that I can use to stay plugged in and I'm still planning on looking around. I got back to my house around 2 and talked with my family and teased Carlitos (the grandson) and ate lunch. The rest of the day, I just plan on doing more homework and getting caught up in all of my classes.
Hope everyone who is reading this is doing well. I miss you guys and appreciate all your prayers and support!
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