Letter To Self

This is the letter I wrote to myself as an assignment for my pre-departure course through CCA. Look for a response to it after I return from Mexico and adjust back into my life here in South Dakota.

 

Dear Lydia:

            Can you believe I will be leaving for México in just over five weeks? When I decided back in November that I was going to do this, May felt like forever away. The time has flown, and now I am finishing my semester at school and preparing to leave for my four weeks in Mérida.

            When I decided to study in México this summer, I had two main goals in mind: to finish my Spanish minor with the six credits I will earn there, and to gain fluency speaking by living with a family there. My Spanish teacher was the first to tell me about the program, and she encouraged me to pursue this opportunity further. She was so excited when I told her I had decided to apply. For a time, I was only excited because she told me I should be excited. Then when I was accepted in January, I realized that I really was going to go to México, even though May still seemed a long ways off. I really had no idea of what the program was going to be like, but I was starting to get excited about the adventure of it.

            When I think back over the last months, I can see myself growing more and more excited. In March, I got the opportunity to meet and speak with Val, the director of the program in Mérida. We also started an online pre-departure course through CCA, which allowed us to explore our feelings about traveling to another country to learn about the culture there. Val led a group session at CCA, which I watched online. She shared some tips about packing and some advice about the culture and what to expect of the weather, the schedule, and the classes. Suddenly everything was starting to become real to me.

            Last week, I read some of the articles on the CCA blog from students who have studied in Mérida for a semester or more. The stories they shared were incredible! They had so many adventures, and they all grew so much from the experience of living another culture and lifestyle for four or six months. One of the blog entries really struck me. On February 2, 2012, Cynthia wrote,

I should have expected it to be different.  I knew it was going to be different.  And yet I was so surprised that it was different.  Will I ever learn?  Sometimes our strong points can blind us to reality.”

I think this will be the closest to what I will experience when I arrive in México. I have read dozens of articles and looked through dozens of web pages about Mérida and the Yucatán. I know that it will be much different than South Dakota. And yet I expect that I will be shocked by the differences.

            I cannot really say I am apprehensive about this trip. I am an adventuresome, independent girl, used to doing things on my own and taking care of myself. It will be hard being away from my family for four weeks—my longest separation from them has been two weeks. But we will Skype, and I know I will be so busy that the four weeks will fly by. Before I know it, I will be back in the States, and México will be a memory. Sometimes I wonder if I will like my host family, but I know that all of the host families must be wonderful people, if they do not mind opening their home to a complete stranger for four weeks every summer. Honestly, I have never met someone I cannot get along with...

            I am excited to meet the other students studying in Mérida with me and Jasmin. We have had some interesting chats on the discussion board already, and I am sure it will be an interesting group when we are all together! I wonder if we will keep in touch after we leave México. I am guessing that we will. Four weeks together can turn strangers into friends.

            The closer the date gets, the more I realize that my two original goals were not deep enough. Now I want to go to Mérida to experience the culture. I know that is a clichéd reason for studying abroad, and I have used it as a cliché until now. Now I want to see another way of life, and become part of it for a time. I experience different cultures when I visit my family in Michigan and Canada; the differences are wider than some might expect. But to experience another culture while speaking another language will be something new all over again.

            I am certain there is still a lot to learn. When I return from México, I will read this letter, and I will be amazed at how much I do NOT know now. But one thing I do know—I am ready to learn. I am ready to step outside of my comfort zone. I am ready to have my views of myself and my life challenged and even changed. I am ready.

            ¡Hasta luego!

Lydia

Tickets, Planning, and...Homework???

No turning back now! Two weeks ago, we bought our airplane tickets. It was fun buying our tickets together; we were sharing stories of some interesting conversations we had on previous airplane rides. Although both Jasmin and I have flown before, we have never purchased our own tickets. We had to check our flight numbers twice to make sure we were both purchasing the same flight. Then we chose our seats; on our flight from Sioux Falls the only two seats together were right in front of the bathrooms! It just seemed a little sketchy to sit there, so we decided we would take separate seats a little further up the plane...

On March 15, my online pre-departure course began. There is a lot of homework involved with this course! (maybe that is why it is optional, huh?) I am thankful I took it, though, because I learned a lot more about Mexico and Merida during it.

There were three group sessions in Pella, Iowa, for the CC students, and I watched the recordings on the Internet later. I introduced myself on the discussion board, and responded to three other people's introductions. (After we bought our tickets, I posted our flight numbers on the discussion board for fun. Several people responded, and then Val posted that about half of us will be arriving on the same flight from Houston to Mérida Saturday night, May 24. So we are all looking forward to meeting each other in Houston; we can have a big gate party while waiting for our final flight into Mexico!)

I had to research to fill out an assignment called My Country Fact Sheet Assignment. I had some 35 questions about the country I am visiting. They included topics such as the main religions of the country; common or typical dress for men, women, and students; and cultural perspectives on alcohol, dating, shopping, giving gifts, and nonverbal communication (eye contact, handshakes, etc.) There were questions about time zones, the metric system, and weather in the host city/area. We needed to find out the capital of the country (not too difficult), the largest city, the currency used, and the exchange rate for US dollars. We also had to name a newspaper from the country, define the government type, and comment on some of the current issues important in the country right now.

That was a lot of research for one assignment! The other assignments were a Travel Planning Exercise, a Hopes and Fears Assignment, and a Letter to Self Assignment. I just finished my last assignment last night, the letter to myself (check it out on my next post). I had to explore my feelings about my upcoming trip to México, explaining my reasons for going and my goals for my time there. When we come back, it will be interesting to read it again and see how much I have changed.

The Travel Planning Exercise was more suitable for semester students, because our schedule is pretty full for the four weeks we are in Mérida. I had to research to plan a trip to any place I wanted to visit in México. I chose to "plan" a day trip to the Cenote San Ignacio, because I definitely want to visit some cenotes while I am in México. Cenotes are unique to the Yucatán; they are openings through which one can access the underground rivers flowing throughout the peninsula. My teacher has visited some, and her stories and pictures convinced me that I need to experience them for myself!

The Hopes and Fears assignment asked me to list and explain the following: my three greatest hopes or goals for my trip; my three greatest fears about the trip; the three things, places, or people I will miss the most during the trip; and the three things, places, or people I will miss the least during the trip. I realized that I am not really nervous about traveling to a different country for four weeks. I decided that what I miss the most will also be what I miss the least: my family and my work. While I am blessed to live with my amazing family and have jobs that I love, a break from it all will be nice too.

Five and a half weeks to go...but who's counting? :)