My Mérida Meanderings

Una Despedida (A farewell)

9:51 PM |

Well, it’s been a while since I got back from Mérida, but I realized I never added a last post to share my final days and wrap up the blog. So here ya go! Last post:

Classes ended well and I’m definitely going to miss my teachers! They were so great! I’ve had some awesome Spanish teachers at BYU but it’s definitely different when it’s a native speaker teaching you. Here is my Spanish 205 teacher (Mariana) with all two of my classmates and I:

Mariana is on the far right

And my conversation class teacher (Addy) and I:

Addy is super fun and definitely taught us the truly useful things when it comes to getting by in a Spanish-speaking country. Some of the things she taught us were……uncomfortable haha but it was good to learn them anyway.

So in my previous post, I talked about La Michocana and our dear old friend Jesús. Well, I got a picture! Here we are:

He’s a crack addict and I’m pretty sure he thought we were really annoying as we asked him what each of the different things were. But we’re gringas. We had never heard of “chaya” or “paletas de tamarindo.”

Also, I previously wrote a little about my hammock. Well I got a picture in it:

Now that I’m back, I SERIOUSLY miss sleeping in it. I’ve been trying to figure out how to set it up in my little apartment but I don’t think it’s going to end up happening. :( I can’t install hooks in my weak, thin walls and hammock stands are EXPENSIVE! I thought about somehow hooking it outside of my window and then maybe on my dresser or something but every time I think about having that kind of set-up in my tiny room, I laugh out loud. Haha.

So now I’ll talk about my last few days in Mérida. First of all, I didn’t sleep much the last two weeks I was there. I got tons of sleep my first few weeks…but then I made friends haha. The last week in particular, I didn’t make curfew once. By a lot. I feel kinda bad about blatantly admitting that. But it’s true. Program rules said we had to be home by 12pm each night (except Friday, which was 1:30am). My mamá was super easy-going and cool so she told me I just needed to send her a text if I was going to get home late. So that’s what I did every night for the last week. In fact, here is a picture of James and I giggling as we point to the clock in el Centro that proves we were out late:

The next day (still during the program), he posted it on facebook. I told him that was a baaaaaad idea and he took it off until about a week ago. He’s not as experienced with sneaking around and breaking the rules as I am. Rule #1: don’t blatantly advertise what you’re doing! I could make a book or something. That is definitely NOT a good thing… While I'm making confessions....I went on a date. Dating is strictly prohibited so I didn't tell ANYONE about it during the program. It wasn't a REAL date in the fact that Beto and I have no romantic interest whatsoever with each other. But it was a date in the fulfillment of the 3 P's. It was paired off (just the two of us), paid for (he bought me a bottle of water and entrance into the Carrera's), and planned...sort of. We invited other people but it ended up just being the two of us to go. So we made it a date. We went to the carreras again (the drag racing). It was fun! Except Beto spent the entire "date" going on and on about how he's hopelessly in love with a girl in my program hahaha...here we are:

Another confession...actually, let's just keep that one quiet. ;)

Anyway on Monday (of my last week), I went to the Canul home for FHE. It was fun! I really really like that family. They’re so welcoming and really good people. I stayed there….for a LONG time and got home super late. Then went to class the next morning. On Tuesday night, David, Yorch, Markz, James, Laurel, and I went to the beach. At midnight haha. It was really cool. The weather was awesome and watching the ocean as it stretched into darkness was sweet!

So by the time we got back, it was LAAAATE! I got about 3 hours of sleep that night. The next day, I went to a mall with James and Jonatan. It was super fun! I LOVE these guys!!

The mall totally had an ice skating rink INSIDE of it!

For lunch, James bought us pizza from Los Trompos. He had some left over pesos haha. I definitely did not. We got pizza al pastor, which means it had meat al pastor on it. It was phenomenal! We ate the WHOLE thing! Meaning, we jokingly got Jonatan to eat the last few pieces even though he was already stuffed. We told him, he’d have to eat a lot of food he doesn’t like on the mission! James also packed in a few extra pieces. :)

That night, we went to the chapel for a final institute activity. They planned it specially for us. It was super fun but SO flippin sad! It was where we said goodbye to our friends. I was so sad to say goodbye. Even now, four weeks later, I’m feeling super emotional just by looking at pictures and reminiscing for this post.

That night, I went with Jonatan and Beto to buy a rose and deliver it to the front porch of a girl Beto likes. It was really fun haha. When Beto tried to deliver the rose undetected, Jonatan kept making noises and throwing stuff. It was FUNNY! Beto is such a payaso (clown) that he laughed as he kept trying to get close enough to the house to drop off the flower. Then, we went back to the church and spent some more time with friends there. Finally, people started to leave and I went to hang out with David and the Canuls again. They wanted to see us off at the airport the next morning, so they offered to take my roommate and I, which I though was awesome. My mamá was super grateful for that too because we had to be at the airport at 5am and it’s hard for her to get up and going so early since she’s elderly. After a few hours of hanging out, it was getting kind of late so we decided to stay up all night. At that point, we only had a few hours left anyway. So we went to a bus station to say goodbye to a few people from my program (they were going to another part of Mexico before heading back to the US). Then, we drove around the city blaring music. Then, we picked up James (he had been hanging out with a GIRL!) and went to buy a GIANT hamburger to share from a street vendor. James liked this girl and our Mexican friends egged him on like you would not believe. They convinced him to tell her the four magic words: "Solo vine por ti." (It means "I only came for you.") and four more magic words: "por ti, dejaría todo." (for you, I would leave everything.) Well...it turns out they're not so magical after all. Or maybe you have to be Mexican for the magic to truly work. Or maybe they're just super creepy. Either way, poor James got rejected. Pobrecito. Anyway, here's that giant hamburger I was talking about:

After a significant amount of chatting, eating, and enjoying one last night together, we realized it was 4:00am. Time to head back to my place to pick up my baggage and my roommate! I was super sad to say goodbye to my Mexican home and mamá. After we loaded our stuff and started to drive away, I realized I didn’t have a picture of my host mom! Que triste!! At the airport, Yorch told me that he left me a surprise in my back pack. I later found a book and letter. (I asked him once about books in Spanish because I'd like to find some good ones!) He’s so nice! He, David, and Markz were super amazing and I didn’t have to carry a bag until we got to the point where we said goodbye. That was so difficult! I’ve always hated goodbyes.

Being the funny, amazing, wonderful person he is, Markz tried to lift the mood a bit by pretending to try to run after us, past the point where you are required to have a ticket in order to pass. You can see Yorch and David had to hold him back. ;)

Now for the final part of my trip…the original travel plan was to go from Mérida to Houston to Salt Lake City. I got to Houston okay but while I was waiting for my connection there, the airline official said they were overbooked and needed some volunteers to take a detour. She said the volunteer would receive a $300 credit to Continental Airlines. So I ran. And being the first person in line, I beat EVERYONE. So I received my voucher and my new flight plan was Houston to Phoenix to Salt Lake City. Not too bad, right? It only meant I’d be traveling for a few hours more. BUT, the plane to Phoenix arrived late and I missed my connecting Delta flight. Delta didn’t want to help me because they said it was Continental’s fault since their plane arrived late. So I ended up running back and forth between the two terminals (Delta at one terminal and Continental at the other) to figure out what I was going to do. But the terminals were far from each other so I had to catch a bus to travel in between them. Luckily another girl from my program, Brianne, was with me. We were told we could fly stand-by on the next Delta flight to SLC and we were given a $12 meal voucher. But there was no guarantee we’d get onto that flight. Well, Brianne made it on. And I didn’t. And the next flight was at 5:00 the next morning! Que horror, no? Keep in mind, I didn’t sleep the night before. And the night before that, I got 3 hours of sleep. And for many nights before that, I got home way past curfew and then got up early for class the next morning. So I was super tired and starting to stress a little. That's what I deserve for breaking the rules. Expecting to stay the night in the airport, I went back to the terminal with Continental to talk with the customer service guy who had helped us before. He was super nice and got me a free hotel room. And there was a free shuttle to and from the hotel. I was so grateful for his help! I didn’t have a toothbrush, clothing, or anything like that because my bags had been sent along to SLC. But it was super nice to have a warm, comfortable bed. You’d think I’d immediately crash, right? Well, I’m not that smart haha. I ended up skyping with a close friend from Mérida for several hours before going to bed. So I got 3 hours of sleep that night. I needed to be at the front desk at 3:30am for my shuttle to the airport. I arrived at 3:32 and missed the shuttle. :( So the hotel worker called a cab for me. I thought it would be a cheaper cab, right? Nope. It was a luxury sedan and cost $18 to go less than a mile to the airport. Insane, huh??? So I got to the airport and on the plane and finally arrived in Salt Lake City! Then my friend, the saintly Jackie Eborn gave me a ride to Provo. I got back a little after 11am and was at work at 12:15! I worked til 4pm and then went back to work 8pm to midnight. I was SO EXHAUSTED by the end of that shift haha. But anyway, that’s getting into my life back here in Provo so I will end this post before I go into the less interesting, less fun, less exciting life to which I have returned!

Me sleeping in the Houston airport haha

It’s now been just over four weeks since I got back and I still miss it SO MUCH! I spent all of my free time of my first few days back skyping with friends from Mérida. I’m so grateful for my time there and the friendships I made but it’s been hard being back. I spent the first week back constantly sad and nostalgic. I cannot believe how long I’ve been back already! I’m trying to come up with money to return to Mexico and hopefully will return before TOO long! I miss my mamá, the food, my hammock, my room, my teachers, the climate (crazy huh!?!), the beach, the buses, deal ole’ Jesús, and most of all my friends! That list could have been infinitely longer but I will end this post and my grand adventure with one sentence.

I love Mexico.

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Just a Few Stories

1:53 PM |

This post is going to consist of a collection of short stories and photos. The stories are in no way connected, but they’re fun and/or interesting. :)

In my last post, I talked a little bit about the supermercado. I’m going to describe it a little bit more. Basically, it’s like K-mart. It’s a grocery store with some random stuff like clothing and toys. One thing that’s interesting is that you can’t bring in backpacks or grocery bags. You have to leave your stuff at the “paquetería.” There, they take your stuff and give you a number so you can retrieve your items after shopping. The reason I went to the super was to buy a few ingredients for a dessert I wanted to make. Here is what I discovered: they don’t grow strawberries here. They import them from the US and they’re super poor quality. Not sweet or juicy. Also, they’re surprisingly expensive. Mérida has TONS of delicious fruits in hundreds of varieties so I was surprised to learn that they don’t have strawberries. Also, it took me like 15 minutes to find the sugar. It’s stored in weird plastic bags…definitely not what I was expecting. Another thing, they don’t have Nilla Wafers. How sad is that?

About a week ago, my mamá made us “huevos divorciados.” (divorced eggs) You can see from the picture how they got the name.

Another interesting little tid bit is that most businesses here offer delivery. Not just pizza restaurants, but almost EVERYTHING you can imagine. Stores, pharmacies, pet food shops, even Carl’s Jr!

So a few of the girls in my program created a “love chart” at church one Sunday. I think they meant to keep it a secret but word got out and traveled fast. There are definitely some problems with “chismes” (gossip) and stupid drama in the group. That’s one of the reasons I prefer to hang out with the Mexicans. So anyway, this love chart contains the names of every person in the program and has lines (bold, dotted, etc…) to describe flirtations, predictions, and observations of what’s been going on romantically in the group. At first I thought it was funny…..but it’s probably something that shouldn’t have gotten out. I could give details about the chart, but I don’t think it would be appropriate to post for everyone to see. Something I thought was awesome was that I’m not on the chart! I’m the only person they forgot haha. They even included our professor. It just goes to show how little time I spend with those girls. I’m not in their classes and I hang out with locals so they forgot about my existence haha. :]

Next, I want to tell you about a creepy little shop in Progreso, the town with the beach. It’s supposed to be a little touristy place but it is super sketchy. Outside, they sell animal bones and teeth. Inside, it’s not very well lit, it’s dirty, and there are stuffed snakes hanging from the ceiling. I don’t mean plush, cute stuffed animals. I mean that they took out everything that was inside of the snake and then stuffed it. The texture is really unsettling because the taxidermist didn’t do a very good job on the preservation part.

My friend David, has a truck and one thing I’ve learned is that trucks are the best vehicle to have in Mexico. Why? Well, it’s because you can take all of your friends with you in one vehicle! They just stuff everyone in the back of the truck. (They don’t have seatbelt laws in Mexico.) When I ask David who is going with us (to the beach, to an activity, etc…) his answer is always “whoever we can fit!” Which means anyone who wants to go because we can make people fit like you wouldn’t believe…

Another little cultural difference….I’ve noticed multiple times that when someone asks for a drink of your water or to borrow something, they reach for it and take it as they ask. There’s an assumption that you WILL give it to them. The people here are a lot more giving and nice and they don’t say “no” when you ask for something. It’s quite a bit different from the US because when I ask someone for a drink from their water bottle, there’s a good chance they will say no because they don’t want to share germs or they’re just really stingy. Just an interesting observation. :)

Speaking of cultural differences…..I went to an Institute dance last night. Now if you know me well, this is somewhat shocking because I generally avoid dances like the plague. I enjoy planning them and working at them (like I do for my job) but they are definitely my least favorite social event to attend. I don’t enjoy dancing and I am BAD at it. So I didn’t really want to go to this dance. But I only have a few days left in Mérida and all of my friends were going. So I thought I could go, chat with a bunch of people, and avoid the dance floor as much as possible. But if I had to dance once or twice, it wasn’t the end of the world, right? Well. Here, they don’t just dance. They DANCE! They have actual dances like merengue and salsa. And pretty much everyone dances. I mean, there are a few people sitting along the wall, but it’s generally just to rest between dances. The way the DJ arranges and changes the songs makes it really hard to escape if you are coerced into dancing. Trust me I know. Another little detail…..they don’t turn down the lights. It’s bright and everyone can see everyone. I find dancing in dimmed lights uncomfortable so the thought of the lights being left on made me wonder again why I decided to go. But no worries…I had a couple of friends at the entrance, getting people to sign up for institute before letting them into the dance. So I decided to help. Pretty soon, Beto found me, grabbed my hand, and tried to pull me into the dance. After resisting and telling him “ahorita?!? No, más tarde!” (right now?!? No, later!”) multiple times, I finally agreed to go. I would like to emphasize that I said NO very firmly and forcefully withdrew my hand from his grasp. But I felt really bad and reflected on my first dance as a 14 year-old. I had no idea what I was doing and felt really uncomfortable because I was 14 haha. My friends got this guy to ask me to dance but I told him no and ran away. I felt really bad afterwards for rejecting him. More than six years later, I am still plagued with that guilt. So anyway, back to the present. I didn’t want to tell Beto no, so I went. It was fun but I am SO SO SO bad at it haha. I could see people around kind of chuckling at the gringa haha. After like two songs, I got away and found a place to chat/hide. But then David found me. At that point, I was NOT ready to go back out to dance so I refused haha. This happened several times with David. Then I ran into this kid, Juan, who I talked to at the last activity. He’s an investigator and it was his second activity. I told him no but he kept persisting and I have a guilty conscience so I said yes. I thought it was never going to end. Juan wasn’t the problem…I just really didn’t want to dance. He’s cool and I like hanging out with him. Finally, I said I wanted to use the bathroom. He wanted me to stay on the dance floor with him. I said more forcefully, no because I had to use the bathroom. He followed me to the bathroom and entered the men’s room. I was thinking, okay I can just stay in the bathroom forever. But it was super hot in there and I was sweating, so I decided to leave super quickly and find someone else to talk to. Well, he found me and wanted to dance. I said “not now, but how about later?” But he kept asking! It was super annoying. He would not take no for an answer. So I said I wanted a drink. We went to the drinking fountain and after, he said he wanted to dance. So I said that he should find someone else and get to know them since we were already friends. He didn’t like that idea. So I said I had a friend for him and I desperately searched for someone else from BYU. He didn’t like that idea either. So I told him I didn’t like dancing and didn’t want to dance anymore. He kept persisting. At this point, I didn’t feel like being nice anymore. I was so flipping annoyed. And I remembered my friend David. I told him we would dance later and then danced with Juan. And I felt SUPER bad. It’s bad enough I rejected him, but then agreed to dance with some other kid like ten minutes later. So, I tried to explain it to Juan and said I needed to find David. Juan still wanted to dance. So I repeated it with obvious annoyance and then went to find David. I couldn’t find him but I saw my friend Enrique helping with institute stuff at the entrance so I joined him. He received his mission call to Monterrey last week. We chatted for a bit and he practiced his English. Juan came back wanting to dance. I began to wonder if “no” really does translate into Spanish or if every Spanish teacher I’ve ever had has been lying to me. Long story made short, the dance finally ended and I was pissed off. I couldn’t figure out why these guys couldn't take “no” for an answer! What part of “no, I don’t want to dance” doesn’t make sense!?! Am I really THAT hard to understand?!? Well, I talked to my friend, Carlos, after the dance and he really helped me understand better. He speaks English really well and dated a girl from California so he understands the cultural differences. He explained to me that when someone from Mexico goes to a dance, it’s because they want to dance. And that’s their primary reason for going. People don’t go if they don’t want to break out their moves. So my presence made everyone assumed I really wanted to dance. It didn’t make sense to them that I was saying “no” because I showed up. Obviously I wanted to dance with them. But from my perspective, all I wanted to do was practice my Spanish and avoid any form of dancing. It’s just a little cultural difference, but I was on the verge of anger by the end of the dance. I just wanted to be left alone haha. I haven’t been that frustrated since the first Sunday here when we were trying to get to the Stake Center and had some serious communication issues with Amira.

Along with the saying "no" thing...when someone says "no" here, many times they don't mean it like we do. If you invite someone to hang out and they say that they can't, you have to convince them to come. You have to tell them how much fun it will be and that they will be missing out. After doing this for a while, the person usually changes their mind. It annoyed me at first, but now it's funny. But when I say "no," I mean it. If I want to do something, I will do it without being convinced haha. Just different.

So moving on to something wonderful about the culture…there’s a chain of ice cream shops here called “La Michoacana.” It’s pretty much the best thing known to man. They sell “aguas” (which are kinda like juices), ice cream, paletas (popsicles), and other awesome treats. I quickly discovered that I absolutely love the horchata de coco (a sweet milk-based drink) and the paletas de crema (specifically the kind with kiwi and strawberry). They’re located all over the city and it just so happens that there is one between the bus stops on the way to/from the university. We’ve become good friends with the guy that works there most often. His name is Jesus and I’m pretty sure he’s gay. He has some awesome flowery shirts though. Anyway, I think he looks forward to the frequent visits from the gringas. Hopefully I'll get a picture with him before leaving.

So I’ve mentioned before how safe Mérida is. It’s the safest city in Mexico. I’m always surprised by how people don’t worry about their safety. At all. Girls walk alone at night and people leave laptops, purses, and other valuables in plain sight in their vacant cars. Well, I found out why it’s so safe. First of all, it’s not near the border and not in the path of drug traffickers. But there’s something more. Something I think is super interesting. Because it’s so out of the way of all of the drug cartel problems, the drug lords own homes in Mérida and it’s where their families live. It’s known that the families stay in the safety of Mérida while the Drug Lords take care of business in the more dangerous parts of Mexico. So how does that make Mérida more safe? Well, the Drug Lords give enormous amounts of money to the local government to keep it safe. If something (like a rape or robbery) goes down, the police get on it and the culprits are severely punished. In comparison to the rest of Mexico, Mérida has money. It’s relatively clean and super safe thanks to the drug trafficking business. And the drug lords keep their “business” far far away from Mérida in order to keep their families safe.

Now for something really sad….in one of my classes, my profesora was telling us about the minimum wage in Mérida. She told us that it is 45-50 pesos (about $3.80 - $4.20). That’s SO little. I don’t make much more than minimum wage in Utah and sometimes I just barely make rent but I definitely make more than $3.80 per hour. Even with the difference in the cost of living here, that’s not enough to support a family! It’s not even enough to support yourself. But then my profesora said something astonishing. It’s not 45-50 persos per HOUR. It’s 45-50 pesos per 8-hour WORK DAY. Imagine working all day and only receiving $3.80. That’s not even enough to cover lunch in the US. And the jobs are HARD! They don’t have the same laws to protect the workers so the jobs here expect a lot from the workers. Definitely worrisome.

Ok last story for now….I went to a little restaurant with some friends last week. It sells the best panuchos and salbutes EVER. They’re huge, tasty, and cheap! They only cost 12 pesos each (about a dollar) and one is plenty for me! But like I said, it’s a little, unheard-of place. The tables and chairs are outside and there is a little sink in the area as well. So I went to wash my hands before eating. The sink was kinda dirty, but such is Mexico. The standard of clean is just different. After thoroughly washing my hands in the sink, we ordered our food and soon began to eat. When I was almost finished, we noticed a HUGE cucaracha (cockroach) on a wall. The mesero (waiter) took a disturbingly dirty cloth and smashed the crap out of the cucaracha against the wall. He twisted the rag, squishing the guts and making sure the nasty thing really was dead. Jill and I watched in horror as he went to the sink where we had just washed our hands and rinsed the guts off of the cloth. The dirty contents of the cloth got all over the sink, touching the handles and everything we had just been touching. I almost couldn’t finish my food.

Well, that's it for now. It's now Sunday night and I leave early on Thursday morning to return to the US. I am SO SAD! I have no idea how I'm going to leave this place. I seriously wish I could stay longer. Or better, I wish I could live here! Provo seems so dull in comparison. This evening I went out with some friends and it hit me that I have to say goodbye to them. But for now, I don't want to think about that. I'm going to enjoy my last three days!

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"Don't Get Your Panties in a Twist!"

8:19 AM |

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

Last weekend, we went on two excursions. One to Valladolid on Friday and another to Izamal on Saturday. Valladolid was cool! According to the program rules, we had to stay in groups of three or more, so I joined a couple of people and we went exploring. I bought some things and then went to a restaurant to eat. It was a picturesque café inside of an old hotel. I ordered “chile relleno de queso.” Basically, it was a big green pepper filled with cheese surrounded by a creamy broth. It was GOOD!

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.

(when I say David, I could mean four different people. There are two Davids in my program, the director’s name is David, and I have a Mexican friend named David. Hope you don’t get too confused!)

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:

Tommy “Halfmaker.” Definitely a knockoff. To the hispanohablantes, “Hilfiger” sounds like “halfmaker.” After shopping in Valladolid, we went to a nearby cenote. It was phenomenal as the cenotes always are.

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.

Then, I went with James and my hermanito (little brother) Jonatan to eat at a little restaurant. We ate tortas and they were delicious! Tortas are sandwiches made with French bread.

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:

They were totally making fun of us haha. The gringo jokes are loved by all. You can see that Marcos and David couldn’t keep straight faces during the picture. James even got knighted!

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.

Ok well that’s it for now…I’ve got some funny short stories I want to share, but I think this post is PLENTY long enough. Peace out!!!

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My Mérida Meanderings

Updates and pictures from my study abroad to Mérida, Mexico in Spring 2011

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