I have officially been here for a week! Yesterday, I went with the ward to the temple. The Mérida temple is set up the same as many other small temples including the Columbus and Louisville temples (as far as I could tell). It was really nice. Having something constant and familiar makes a BIG difference! I was able to talk to some of the ward members which was fun. There is a 13 year-old girl, Juilette, who is SO sweet! I talked to her for a while and I found out that her 19 year-old sister, Alexandra (she goes by Ale), goes to our university (El Modelo)! Both of them are super nice. When the bishop (who was doing confirmations) asked me my last name, it took a while to explain how to pronounce it. Finally, he was like, “Oh! Como “Ralph Lauren!” So I found a universal way to explain the pronunciation of my last name. Also, everyone knows Britney Spears so I’ve found it’s easiest to say “Brittany…como Britney Spears.” Anyway, in the bathroom in the temple, there is a little sign that tells us to flush our toilet paper instead of putting it in the trash! It was cool. And another thing…..the showers have HOT WATER!!! It was my first hot shower since arriving in Mérida (which seems way longer than a week!) and it felt sooooo good. All of us were in HEAVEN! The temple is super pretty and it is definitely a little escape from the city surrounding it. The city is dirty, smelly, and polluted, but as soon as you walk through the gate onto temple grounds, it’s literally a breath of fresh air. It's beautifully white and in perfect condition. Definitely the prettiest building I have seen thus far in Mérida. Don't tell the Catholics. They LOVE their cathedral in El Centro. It is a super pretty historical building though. Anyway, the temple was way refreshing. :)
After the temple, we went to La Serenata. La Serenata is a cultural event that occurs each Thursday in a park near El Centro. There is traditional music, dances (such as the Jarana), and lots of Mayan vendors selling things such as bracelets, fans, food, and traditional Mayan clothing. The vendors are SO annoying. They practically pounce on you as soon as they see you with tons of handmade stuff. And when you say no, they persist. They try to show you more stuff. They try to convince you that you need their stuff. I've learned that you can't smile and say "no, gracias." You have to be obviously apathetic and ignore them after saying no once. At first, I felt kinda bad because it's their way of earning money, but they are really annoying. When we see a group of them, we do our best to avoid them but they always seem to find us. We must stick out or something. ;] One of the vendors had her daughter helping her sell stuff, so the little girl (I think she said she’s 7 years-old) was LOADED with random crafts and going around trying to sell them. I have a confession. That tactic definitely works on me. I could NOT say no to the cute little kid! She looked so tired and discouraged. So I bought 3 bracelets for 10 pesos (about 30 cents each). Anyway…back to La Serenata. It was really cool and I definitely want to go next week. There was one dance in which they put bottles of water on their heads and then danced. It was amazing to see what they could do while balancing those bottles! At one point, they were spinning really quickly for what seemed like forever. I can’t spin like that WITHOUT balancing something on my head!! I didn’t have my camera with me so no pictures this time, but hopefully next week.
Today, we went to Dzibilchaltún, one of the Mayan sites. I really enjoyed it but it was HOT! So so so hot. Here are some pictures:
First is the tour guide showing us a cistern. It goes down pretty far, but I couldn’t tell how far because it was so dark. We’re pretty sure the tour guide is una mariposa (slang for “gay.” Literally, it means “butterfly.”) He is super knowledgable and teaches at the Universidad Modelo. He definitely knows his stuff! He taught us some Mayan words and phrases. He can read and speak Mayan which is really cool.
The next picture is of three neighboring ruins. Many years ago, they were houses for rich Mayans.
A Catholic Cathedral...the reason it's open with no door is kind of interesting. The Spaniards didn't bathe very often so they smelled BAD. The Mayans were super clean and bathed three times daily. So they couldn't stand the European stench and refused to go into closed, stuffy cathedrals with them.
Another ruin...underneath this is a burial are for some rich guy. I can't remember his name but it is written in Mayan.
The largest ruin, a temple:
The stairs are super scary...really big and really steep!
Next is the whole group. All thirty students, our tour guide (who is a professor at the university), the Director, his wife, and his three kids.
Next is the whole group. All thirty students, our tour guide (who is a professor at the university), the Director, his wife, and his three kids.
After seeing the sites, we went to a “cenote,” which is a natural pool of water. Often they have underground rivers that run underneath them so you’re not supposed to dive in the deep parts because you can be taken by the current…through the underground river, where you will most certainly drown. But anyway, the cenotes are my favorite part of Mexico so far. It was amazing. The water is perfectly cool and refreshing. And it’s SUPER clear. From far away, it seems greenish-blue, but that is the color of the bottom of the cenote and the water is so clear and you can see the bottom super well. After climbing the ruins, and walking around in the super hot sun, it was absolutely perfect. Not that it means a whole lot, but the water in the cenote is cleaner than the water from the faucets in Mérida from which we shower…we were there for a while but I could have stayed for hours longer! I am super excited to go to more cenotes here in the Yucatán!!
After the cenote, we went to Progreso beach (my third time in one week!) where we had lunch, socialized, and swam. Several of the host families own beach houses and one of them let us have our get-together at her place. So all of the host parents came, and we had a lot of fun! For almuerzo, we ate “tacos al pastor.” Like everything else here, they were amazing! The “al pastor” part has to do with the way the meat (pork) is cooked. It's roasted by fire from a strange roasting thing that spins the meat while the fire cooks it. I took a picture of the guy they hired to cook and serve the food. This picture demonstrates better than I can explain how it’s cooked:
I’m slightly embarrassed yet satisfied to say I ate eight. Eight tacos…judge not. I’ve decided it’s a good representation of how I eat here. The food is so good and they give us so much that I overeat enormously at every single meal. Our mamá gives herself normal portions, and to us she gives waaaaay more! I mean, it’s super good, but I’m definitely a member of the “clean plates club” so I always eat all of it. Which is a TON!
At the table, some of the students played the cup game.
After Dzibilchatún, we went home and soon afterwards, we went an institute activity. I haven’t gone to institute yet, but I really want to. The activity was SO fun! There were movies (Toy Story 3 and Tangled), tons of games, food, and lots of socializing. At first, it was kind of hard to mingle because we’re so different and it’s hard to connect with locals. It’s much more comfortable to just stay with our group. But, that kind of defeats the purpose of attending the activity so I found a couple of people playing Jenga and joined them. It was fun! Later, I DOMINATED in foosball with a guy named Fernando. He says it’s okay to call him “Fer.” He is from Mexico, but has spent the past years traveling and playing music. He’s a musician. He seemed cool. We totally beat like 9 teams at foosball before someone finally beat us by one point. We also played Pictionary with another guy…I can’t remember his name but he fits the single’s ward stereotype of the super friendly guy who is a little strange but knows absolutely EVERYONE! Finally, I played Chinese checkers with a group including this super nice girl named Mildred. It was way fun! I plan on attending one of the classes next week. Not totally sure which class because I’ve taken all of them already at BYU, but it’ll be great.
After the activity at “el Instituto,” we went home and on the way, I sat next to a Mexican guy. So I started talking to him and asked him a few questions for one of my classes and he told me he is from Cancún and is studying at El Modelo also! He was on his way to meet some friends at a club and get some drinks. While on the bus, we decided to go to a gelato place that the director’s wife told us about. So we got off by the Carl’s Jr and went to the place she thought it was. We definitely didn’t find it. So we started walking home and decided we still really wanted ice cream. So we went into an Oxxo (pretty much a 7/11) and bought some ice cream from the little freezers there.
Today, I burned...more than I have in a LONG time! But it was way fun and now I have some sweet tan lines to add to my collection. :) Tomorrow, we're going to Uxmal so hopefully I will have another update by Monday!!
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