One More Month!

Hey there everyone!
As of yesterday, I have only one month left here! Looking back, one hand, I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone by, and yet in other ways, I feel as though I have been here for way more than 3 months. It's strange to think that in 4 short weeks, I'll be making the adjustment to speaking completely in English, living again in the cold, and being back the States. I look forward to coming home (and surprisingly to the snow) but, I also know that there will be many things I'll miss about my life here....joking around with my host dad, sleeping in hammocks, seeing iguanas on my walks home from school, being honked at whenever I walk somewhere (ok,I actually probably won't miss that), conversations after super with my host mom, and so much more.
Last Sunday, my family took me out to eat at a Chinese buffet which was delicious. I don't care what people say about Chinese food in Mexico being made of dog meat..This stuff was delicious.  I got a kick out of how similar it was to Chinese restaurants back in the States..I never expected that going to a Chinese restaurant would remind me of home! After lunch, my mom, Silvia (my host sister) and I went shopping. We had fun just walking around and looking at everything and found this sweet jewelry store that we all loved. Later that night, I headed to the cheap movie theater close to my house to watch Sammy en el pasaje secreo (Sammy and the secret passage) all by myself. Originally, I had plans to go with two friends but stuff came up for them so I decided to still go. It was an animated movie but it was good practice for my Spanish and was cute. I got several strange looks from the other kids and parents who were there to see the film; they were probably wondering what in the world I was doing there! :)
Monday we didn't have school to celebrate the Mexican revolution (which was actually on Saturday but if the school wants to give us Monday off, I'm not complaining!). I spent the day working on homework and swimming in the pool. It was nice to have an extra day to get a head start on some stuff!
Tuesday, I had class in the morning and then had lunch and Spanish class. We played a Mayan trivia game and I was surprised at how much I knew about Mayan history....I guess we picked up quite a bit from just being here in the Yucatan! After class, Gaby, Sarah, and I headed to Gran Plaza to hang out for a while. We got ice cream (there is an awesome stand in Gran Plaza that sells really good ice cream) and then the best part: we went and saw puppies in the pet store there! They were adorable and it was really hard not to want to take one home with me.
Wednesday, my class in the morning ended up being canceled so I spent the morning at school working on my final paper for International Relations. I then had underwater archeology where I gave my final presentation on Mayan gods. It went pretty well and it feels good to have it done and over with. We got assigned another 6-7 page paper for that class which I was not too excited about but there wasn't anything I could do but accept and it try to get it done. That night, after my run, we ate supper, worked on some homework and went to bed.
Thursday, I skipped my morning class so that I could sign up in time for classes for next semester. I was happy to be able to get into pretty much every class that I had wanted and think I'll enjoy all of the my classes. I spent the rest of the morning finishing up my paper for International Relations. Thursday we celebrated a bunch of birthdays in Spanish class which was a nice break. After class, I met with my tutor and we corrected my paper. After that, I dropped my stuff off at the house and went out for a run which was absolutely gorgeous. I am going to miss the sunsets here so much!
Friday, I had my Mexico-US relations and we had a good discussion about some of the problems in Mexico right now which left me feeling a little depressed thinking about all the problems in the world. It makes me thankful that I serve a God who has all the answers and is bigger than all the problems plaguing the world today. After class, another gal and I went to go buy tickets for a concert that is coming here to Merida: David Bisbol and Louis Fonsi. I am super excited to go and can't believe that I will have the chance to see David Bisbol in concert! After eating lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on some reading. That night, I met Pearl and Dez for pizza al pastor (which is right up there with tacos al pastor) and then we went to go see Harry Potter which was fun although I never have really been that into the movies or the books so it wasn't as exciting for me.
Saturday, I woke up and headed to the beach which turned out to be quite the adventure because Saturday was the celebration of the Mexican revolution so a bunch of the streets were blocked off but eventually I made it there and met up with Sarah, Gaby, Shannon, and Des who had gotten there before me. Eventually we had our fill of the beach and headed back to Merida. Later that night, Sarah, Des and I headed out to noche mexicana to check it out. It happens every Saturday night here and we figured that we should probably go at least one time while we are here. The city blocks off a section of a main street here and there are stands with all sorts of crafts, food, and there is a stage with different dances going on.  It was a fun place to walk around and just chill at.
This morning I woke up and decided to tackle my underwater archeology paper. I know that as school gets closer to the end (we only have 10 more days left), I will get busy with studying for finals and papers and stuff so I thought it would be smart to get it done. As for the rest of the day, I don't have any big plans. It will be nice to just have a day to get caught up on things and organized before the next week starts!
Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to Thanksgiving!