Wow! It has been quite an eventful week here in Merida. I'll try not to bore you all with an extremely long post but so much happened this week to tell you all about!
Monday, was a normal day with classes and homework. I was really excited when I was able to laugh at a joke the professor made in class because I actually understood it not just because everyone else was laughing..a lot of times, we, as Americans, don't get the jokes made in class because they are references to Mexican politics or some other aspect of the culture that we just don't quite get but it felt good to actually know why the joke was so funny. That night, I went out for a nice long run and saw one of the most gorgeous sunsets here. I'm not really sure why, but pretty much every sunset here is beautiful although Monday night was exceptionally gorgeous...it makes for some great runs and I can't help but praise God for His works of art.
Tuesday was another day of classes. After Spanish class that night, Gaby, Emma and I went to the salsa dancing class we normally go to and then I headed to the gym to bike and lift weights. The gym here is pretty different than gyms back home...all the equipment is super old and there is no air conditioning. I usually opt to go for a run as #1 it's free and #2 I like running more than biking #3 it's fun to explore new places but for some reason, my legs had been feeling kinda tight the past few days so I decided to bike to see if it would make them feel better. I'll appreciate the gym and modern equipment we have even more when I get back to the states!
Wednesday, my host mom and I went out for breakfast with another host mom and her daughter. Both of the host moms are a hoot and we had fun talking with them. Our underwater archeology class was canceled so we had the afternoon off. After our International Relations class, several of us met up and went to a mall about a 40 minute walk from my house and ate Chinese food for lunch which was incredible, shopped a little, and then went to a movie. It was nice to spend a day doing something other than homework. That night, I got to skype with some friends in Minnesota which was great and made my night and it was so good to get caught up on what was going on in their lives!
Thursday was another day of classes. After Spanish class that afternoon, I had met with my tutor and we studied for a test I have coming up. I just about died though because I had been in class for a straight 4 hours and then spent 2 hours going over my notes with her. It was good to review but my I thought my brain was going to explode! 6 hours of straight class in Spanish is pretty tough!! Hopefully, I will do well on the test! :)
Friday, I had my Mexico-US relations class in the morning and then came home and did some reading by our pool. My homework here consists of a lot of reading and studying my notes which is nice as I can bring them pretty much anywhere. I love being able to work on homework by our pool where I can enjoying being in the sun, hop in the pool when it gets hot, and do homework at the same time..life doesn't get much better than that!
Saturday, we had to be at Hoy en tu Comunidad an hour earlier than usual so that meant waking up at 4 in the morning and heading to the bus stop. The village we went to is 3 hours away from Merida so we needed to leave earlier in order to get there on time. It was an amazing day. The village is ranked as the 3rd poorest in Mexico and 90% of the population speaks Mayan. Most of the children can speak both Spanish and Mayan because school is in Spanish so they helped us translate quite a bit. I picked up on a few basic phrases like what is your name, my name is..., how are you feeling, where does it hurt, but it was quite the adventure trying to communicate with people there. I tried a new fruit there called Ciruelas. They are a small yellow fruit and taste a lot like mangos and were soo good! I spent the day working with the kids. We started the day talking about nutrition and hygiene and gave them free toothbrushes and toothpaste and had them practice brushing their teeth with us and then we played games for the rest of the day. I taught them how to play SPUD which I just called BASTA (stop) because I wan't quite sure what other name to call it. We also had a relay race, played tag, and jumped rope They seemed to get a quick out of it and I enjoyed playing with them just as much as they did. It was fun to spend the day getting to love on a ton of children. They were all precious and it was really hard to be there knowing they needed so much more that we could give them in only one day. The toughest part of the day was after we had packed up. A few of us decided to go for a walk around the village while we were waiting for the doctors to finish up the last consultations of the day. On our walk, we got a chance to see more of the village. Most of the houses were just huts with thatched roofs and didn't have electricity. The only library in the entire municipality had only one wall of books. While it wasn't the poorest place I have ever been to in my life, it's one of the poorest I have seen so far here in Mexico. The part that broke my heart was that we were only able to be there for half a day and I know that there is so much more to be done than just give medical exams and play with kids! It was a really good reminder of how blessed I am and how much I have in comparison with so many others around the world. I wish I had the words to describe more of my experience there but I’m still sorting through everything and trying to figure it all out. Hoy en tu comunidad has been such a great way to get to know more about the culture here and to be able to see what the villages are like and how the majority of people in the country live.
That night when we got home, Shannon and I decided to go for a run. We were just going along, enjoying our run, and discussing whether hell exists (she wasn't quite sure that it did) when all of a sudden we hear this horrible noise followed by whining. We quickly realized that the car behind us had hit a stray dog! It was the saddest thing to hear. Several blocks later, I went to hurdle a cement block that was lying in the street (here in Mexico there are always things everywhere so I didn't even stop to think that it might actually be blocking something) and landed on a slab of wet cement. Talk about leaving my mark here in Mexico! The entire right side of my body was covered in cement. The hilarious part was that we were still pretty far out from my house so I had to finish our run in cement. It must have been quite the sight! I actually felt worse for messing up the freshly paved sidewalk than for myself. When I got home I had to try to wash everything off including my shoes which still have bits of cement attached to them because I couldn't get it off. It was a pretty exciting run.
When I told my host family what happed later at supper, they couldn't stop laughting. First I can't figure out how to unlock their door and then I come home covered in cement...they are going to have some good stories to tell their other host students! :)
We had pizza for supper which made the night a little bit better and then my host mom and I stayed up talking about pretty much everything under the sun. One of the stories she told me was how the word gringo came to be used. According to the story, during the Mexican revolution, there was a famous castle in Mexico City known as Chapultepec Castle. During the revolution, it was a training academy for the Mexican army and was full of young cadets. One night, for some reason (I’m not sure why) all the officers were gone and only the cadets were inside the castle. Well wouldn't you know it, the American troops decided to attack Chapultepec that night. The poor cadets did all they could to fend of the soldiers but they didn't have enough training to really fight them off; the only thing they could do was shout "green go" (as the color of the uniforms of the American troops were green). Their shouts didn't do very much good though and most of them were killed trying to defend the castle. In Mexico City, there is a famous park called Chapultepec Park where there is a memorial to them and the name gringo has been used ever since to refer to Americans. I love hearing Silvia tell stories and I really enjoy our late night conversations. It's fun to have someone here to talk to and learn from!
Sunday morning, Shannon and I met up early to go to Celestun. It is a wildlife reserve/beach about 2.5 hours away from Merida. I really enjoyed it because there are virtually no tourists and the beach is pretty deserted. We took a boat tour and saw a flamingo sanctuary, a petrified forest, swam in a fresh water spring, and just enjoyed cruising around in a boat for 3 hours. After the tour, we came back and layed out on the beach, ate our picnic lunches that we had packed, and did homework. The water was beautiful and it was fun to spend a day exploring a new city. We got home around 8. I showed and ate supper and then headed to bed as I was exhausted from the long weekend.
Today, I had class in the morning and then came home and have been working on homework. I plan to take today easy and just stick around home to get some studying done. Tomorrow we don't have school so some of us are planning on heading to the beach to chill for the day.
I think that's about it from here. Hope that gave you all an idea of what my week was like. I wish I had more time to write more, but I should get working on some homework. I miss you all!
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