Finally another post! I think Heather has reminded me three times now and she’s not the only one. The past week or two have been crazy busy but fun! My classes are low-stress so I have a lot of time to go out and have fun. So what have I been up to? Well, I will start with the excursion two weeks ago. We went to Cuzamá, a pueblo. Near Cuzamá is an area with three cenotes fairly close to each other. We rode in horse-drawn “trucks” to each cenote. The trucks operate on something similar to a train track.
The cenotes were BEAUTIFUL! Cool, fresh, deep water. They were absolutely perfect! There is an underground “river” that connects all of the cenotes in the area, so the water is fresh and clean. In fact, it’s cleaner than the faucet water in Mérida. We can’t drink the faucet water here because it’s not sanitary. Even the locals get sick from it. Anyway, the cenotes are absolutely astonishing to see. They’re generally under the ground, in cave-like areas. The process of getting to some of them is terrifying. Steep rickety stairs, or a long, long ladder that leads down to black nothingness
This the next picture is of David and I. David has these giant sunglasses to wear over his regular glasses and we switched. I think they look better on me.
After eating, we went to shop a little bit more. We went to one store that was FILLED with stuff for tourists. Which works well for us because we’re looking for gifts and keepsakes. As always, the shop owners were super friendly and one tried to convince me to try a drink they sell. He started by asking me if I wanted a sample. It seemed shady so I said no. The standard of clean is different here, and a random drink is definitely not something to trust. The man was super surprised and told me it was free. Still uninterested, I asked him if it had alcohol. He said yes, so I had a perfect excuse. I told him I don’t drink. He then went on about all of the benefits of this drink and how it cleans out your stomach and intestines and then told me that he doesn’t drink either but this drink is different. So I said no and walked away. One thing I’ve learned is that you just have to walk away and pretend like they don’t exist. Because the people selling stuff here will bother you for EVER if the think there is even the slightest interest. At one point, I was second guessing the meaning of “no” because they don’t seem to understand it haha. But seriously. It’s super annoying. They are everywhere and they don’t go away easily.
Another funny little tidbit is the following picture:
A couple of guys from church wanted to go with us to Valladolid, so I asked profe and he said yes! It was great having some Mexicans on the bus because it forced us to speak more Spanish. Plus, they’re super fun. One of them taught me some slang phrases in Spanish so I decided to return the favor. I taught him to say “don’t get your panties in a twist!” I told him it means calm down, don’t stress, and you’re overreacting. It was SUPER funny because I got him to say it to multiple people in the group and of course they laughed. Later I explained literally what it means and what “panties” are. I've taught the phrase to several of the locals and they love it!
On Saturday we went to a hammock factory and later to Izamal. When I heard “factory” I thought that meant machines and people to run the machines. Wrong. It means that multiple people congregate in a large building and make hammocks by hand. It was cool to see. The university has connections with the owner of the factory, so we got super good prices for the hammocks. In El Centro, they cost around 100-200 dollars but in the factory is was more like 35-45 dollars. It was sweet! So I bought three. :)
In Izamal, we climed the ruins and then went to a convent. It was interesting.
We had to climb up super steep steps to get to the top of some of the ruins. It's not too bad going up (just tiring), but going back down is terrifying! It's really steep and really far to the bottom.
Later that night, I went out with a couple of friends. First we went to a supermarket. When I was checking out, I couldn’t find my money so I started to take stuff out of my purse, including a water bottle. The cashier thought I had stolen the water bottle so I had to wait while they confirmed it belonged to me. While we were waiting, I noticed that it was a bottle for apple soda…but it had water because I had refilled it. After pointing that out, they let me off the hook. We went to the supermarket because I wanted to buy whipped cream for a game that is really hard to explain in a blog. My Mexican friends had never heard of whipped cream and thought I was crazy when I was trying to describe it. It was funny to watch when they had no idea what to do with the can. It was expensive and thus is not very common here in Mérida.
After playing with whipped cream in the park, we went to Marco’s house for his brother’s mission call opening. Here, the process of opening a call is a bit different. They have a “noche de hogar” (FHE) in which there is an opening hymn, opening prayer, spiritual thought, advice from each person who has served a mission, and finally they open the mission call. Enrique is going to Monterrey! Another one of Marco’s brothers opened his call yesterday and he’s going to Guadalajara. Anyway, when I showed up at Marco’s house with James, Marco, and David, they weren’t expecting me but they still were SO welcoming! Everyone was super friendly and so nice. They are really patient with my lack of Spanish skills. Marco’s mom even fed me haha. She had made some spaghetti and gave me a plate too. She was SO nice! They told me multiple times that I was welcome in their home, etc… They also invited me to their ward on Suday, so James and I went. Their ward is a bit bigger than mine and it has a lot more young people. I really enjoyed it! I wish I had started attending it earlier in the program because now I only have one Sunday left. : ( I plan on going this Sunday. Today, I’m going to the temple with their ward.
So anyway, on Saturday after the mission call opening, we went to David’s house. By “we” I mean Marco, Yorch (the brother going to Guadalajara), David, James, and I. We talked, watched a few videos, and then David pulled out his airsoft rifle and camo. They dressed James in it and then had some fun:
Although there’s no way I’m posting the pictures, they also got me to wear the stupid camo haha. The guys here are super fun. I’ve decided that Mexican boys are way more chill, relaxed, and a lot happier than boys from the US. They just enjoy life, which I think is awesome. I mean there are definitely some cultural differences I’m not a fan of. For example, they are really late. Not everyone arrives late all of the time, but it’s generally acceptable to arrive late. There have been times I’ve waited over 30 minutes for my ride to arrive. Yesterday, I was in a park with a few friends and one of them said that he had to leave at 11:00 to make it back home because he agreed to skype with a family from his mission at 11:30. At 11:35 he was still in the park without a worry in the world. Also, they have this weird thing against entering people’s houses. Because I’m not the owner of my house, they won’t enter it with me. They wait outside. When we go to my house, we hang out in front, outside of the gate and if they’re thirsty or something I have to bring their drink outside. But it’s a two sided thing. I asked my mamá if I could invite a few friends over to use the pool and she told me girls only. Once, one of the guys in our program came over and was talking with Mari in the front room and my mamá acted super weird about it. It took us a while to figure out why. Another difference is their shameless declarations of “love.” I’ve now been told six times by Mexican boys that they’re in love with girls in my program. Even though they know that they will be rejected, they still tell the girl. One guy told the girl that when he and his band are famous and they travel the world, he’s going to “find her and maker her his girlfriend.” When he told me that he said that, I laughed. I couldn’t help it! It was so ridiculous. I asked him how well he knows this girl and he told me that he knows almost nothing about her. So I asked him how he can know he’s in love with her and he told me that he just does. I advised a couple of guys NOT to tell the girl…we’re not used to their way of saying it and I know some of the girls would feel super awkward and not want to be around the guy anymore if he romantically and seriously announced his undying love for her. It’s just weird for American Girls when a guy they have only talked to once or twice gets so emotional about how “in love” he is. I think don’t think the words “in love” and “enamorado” translate well….
Speaking of Mexican boys, I have two new hermanos!!! Beto and Jonatan. Beto…well, he’s Beto. Difficult to describe haha. He’s a good friend who is super patient with my horrible Spanish and has a car. Jonatan is my “hermanito” (little brother) because he’s younger than me. And I’m his “hermanita” because I’m smaller than him. We’re hermanitos. :) Jonatan received a call to Arizona! He’s going to be speaking English. But he said that he only has 15 days in the MTC, which I thought was super weird. Apparently his mission is short on missionaries. Anyway, they're a LOT of fun! Jonatan is the guy in the green and Beto in red.
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