El Centro

Wednesday morning we had our first class field trip. Every week we get to go out for a few hours in the morning to explore a different part of Merida. We met in our classroom, but immediately went downstairs and met up with Danni, Alex, and their intermediate Spanish teacher. We walked around the corner to the bus stop, and we had our first experience with the public transportation of Mexico.  Buses here vary widely, from air-conditioned with cushioned seats to open windows and metal seats. The price to ride anywhere in town is $7MXN, which equals about $0.56USD. Pretty cheap. The exchange rate right now is about $12.5MXN = $1USD. It makes for some pretty crazy prices For example, I went to Walmart tonight and spent $336. In USD, that is only $26.88.

We went downtown, to El Centro, as it is known here. I did not take as many pictures as I should have, but I will probably go back sometime. We got there and walked for a few blocks until we arrived at the Palacio del Gobierno, or Palace of the Government.

The courtyard of the Palacio

El Palacio del Gobierno is located downtown near the Plaza Grande. We walked around and took pictures there for a few minutes, waiting while one of our teachers and one of the students went to look for Debora, who dropped her bag on the bus and was unable to get off with the rest of us. We had been walking for five minutes before anyone noticed, but thankfully we all had our Mexican cell phones with us and they found her quickly.

Our next stop was the Ayuntamiento, or City Hall. There were people everywhere, and our teacher explained to us that every Wednesday, the mayor is in front of the building talking to people who have questions or concerns.

View of the Ayuntamiento from the Plaza Grande

We went inside and met a group of Mexican students and our tour guide, Raul. He led us on a tour of the area that lasted almost two hours, completely in Spanish. I was pleased that I could understand him easily. The history was absolutely fascinating! In the patio of the Ayuntamiento (which is inside), we started our tour by hearing that we were exactly on the site of a Mayan pyramid. It was torn down by the Spaniards when they arrived in the Yucatan, and the stones were used to build the cathedral.

View of the cathedral from the balcony of the Ayuntamiento

The balcony of the Ayuntamiento

 We continued walking to the Casa de Montejo, the family that led the conquering of the Yucatan. The façade of the building is the only original part left, but we spent some time listening to Raul explain some of the different architectural features.

la Casa de Montejo

 From the Casa de Montejo, we walked to the Cathedral. Built in the late sixteenth century, the cathedral served as both church and fortress. It was built strongly in case of a Mayan revolt. This cathedral is the oldest on the whole North American continent.

The cathedral, that is, THE cathedral.

In addition, it is a huge building! In the morning, there were a lot of tourists and a few worshippers. When Stephanie and I returned later that afternoon, there were some thirty people scattered throughout the church praying or worshipping.

 Our final stop on the tour was right where we began, in the Palacio del Gobierno. It is distinguished by the murals lining its walls, which were painted in the 1970s by Fernando Castro Pacheco. I loved looking at all of them, reading the plaques, and hearing the tour guide's interpretation of them.

This is one of the two large murals on the lower level. The first represents the life of the Maya before the arrival of the Spaniards, and this one depicts how their lives changed following the Spanish invasion.

The staircase murals were also fascinating. This one, in the center, represents the Mayan belief that men come from the corn. The corn plant is painted with beautiful detail on this large mural.

This is the mural to the left. It depicts the Mayan fear of the night, with the jaguar, death, hunger, and war all portrayed as coming from the night. See the crescent moon in the upper right corner of the mural?

This mural shows that with day comes all good things. Prosperity, the Arts, and the finer things of life are shown here. The sun in the upper left corner shows that this is only during the daytime.

 There were multiple murals on the walls of the upper level. There was also a room of history, lined with still more murals, all painted by Pacheco. My favorite of all was the mural of Fray Diego de Landa. In his left hand, he held a flaming torch, and at his feet was a large fire in which could be seen burning books. In his right hand were a book and a pen. This is the story the guide told: Fray Diego traveled through all the Mayan villages in the area and burned all their writings of their culture and villages. He believe this was an important step in evangelizing the Mayan culture. Some twenty years later, however, he thought better of his actions and wrote down what he knew or could remember of the culture. So it is that because of him, we know almost nothing of the ancient Mayan civilizations, and it is also because of him that we know what we do know.

Other murals had interesting stories as well. The final one we looked at was two feet walking along dirt road. These feet signified the amazing resilience of the Maya. Despite everything they endured from the Spanish, the Mayan were not conquered or defeated. They are alive and well today. One third of the Yucatan Peninsula is Mayan.

Long and drawn out post, I know, but it was truly interesting to me. This blog is as much a journal for me to go back to as a blog for you to keep up with me. Look for my post tomorrow night or Saturday about our trip to Celestún and my move to the house of doña Carmencita! Questions? Leave a comment below!

Classes

On Tuesday, vacation ended and our Spanish classes began. I am in the Advanced class with Jasmin, Katie, Regan, Debora, Bailey, and Nicole. Our teacher lives here in Mérida, and she has studied in the United States as well. Of course, she speaks to us only in Spanish. At first it was challenging to keep up with her, but after only three days, we can understand her much easier. We began classes Tuesday with introductions and expectations for the class. We had an exam so she can see at which level of Spanish each of us is. We did several activities, and ended the class talking with the teacher one by one. I was last, so I was late for lunch :)

Wednesday we went downtown for our first field trip. Every week we will have some type of educational excursion. Our trip to the Centro deserves its own post, and I will add pictures as well. Thursday we studied out of our books and did oral activities. For a break, we played Scrabble...in Spanish! Believe it or not, it was my first time playing Scrabble, and I didn't think it was fair that I was alone and the other girls had partners! :)

Val and my teacher are working together to challenge me still further. I have always pushed myself to learn as much Spanish as possible, and teaching Spanish I last year really helped me reinforce my own Spanish. During this spring semester, I spent 40+ hours in the Mrs. Morgan's Spanish III & IV classroom in Mitchell High School. I like reading Spanish books in my free time. For all these reasons, this class is not difficult enough for me. I love our oral activities and learning more about the culture, but I already understand the grammar and much of the vocabulary.

Because the goal is for each student to learn as much as possible, Val has arranged an extra class for me. Beginning next week, I will be taking a class in Latin American Literature. My homework will be reading and writing about the literature, and in class I will be listening to and talking with the professor. I am truly excited about this class. I will still be with the other girls part of the time, but I will have more homework. Verbally expressing how I feel about the literature I read for this class will push me to a whole new level of Spanish.

It is hard to believe that our first week of classes is over! We have classes Monday through Thursday, so only three weeks remain! Tomorrow we have a field trip to Celestún during the day, and when we get back, I move into my new home with doña Carmencita. Saturday we are going to the beach during the day, and in the evening we have a convivencia (fiesta, party, gathering) to meet our new language partners. These are students from the local universities who will spend time with us during our time in Mérida. We may visit their families, meet their friends, or hang out in their favorite places.

Leave questions or comments below, and look for another post soon about our field trip to El Centro (downtown).

Weather, Health, and Food

One thing that is constantly on our minds here in Mérida is the weather. It is comparable to the hottest days of August in South Dakota: sunny, humid, and HOT. I haven't looked at a thermometer, but the hottest part of the day feels like upper 90s into the triple digits. The afternoon sun is the worst, but it is already eighty degrees by the time we wake up in the morning. By 7 or 8 PM, the worst of the heat is gone, and the nightlife begins in the city. When we go out together, we typically wait until at least 8 or 9 PM. I think it is fair to say that even the nights rarely get below seventy degrees. On Sunday night, a rainstorm blew in, and then it might have gotten down to 70 or 65.

It has been really difficult for me to adjust to the heat. The first two days, I slept a lot. Here siesta time is widely used. Partly because of the heat and partly because of the nightlife, almost everyone goes home between 1:30 and 4 PM for lunch--which is the biggest meal of the day--and siesta time. Here at Central House, we have classes until one, lunch at one, and free time in the afternoon. The Global Health students meet again at 4 PM, but we Language students have the afternoon to do homework and spend time with our host families. Of course, we can go out as well, but we are expected to spend some time each day in our Mexican homes.

With so much heat and humidity, it goes without saying that we need to stay hydrated. We all have water bottles that we keep filled every day for classes. Most of us already have the habit of taking water with us when we are going out as well. At meals we have a lot of beverages and fruit to help us replenish fluids and vitamins. I love trying the different types of beverages. In addition to cold water, which is always refreshing, at lunch and supper we have fresh-squeezed lemonade. Two traditional beverages I have tried here are horchata and jamaica. Tamarindo is also a popular drink, but I have yet to try it. What do they taste like? That is a little more difficult to answer. Horchata is a white beverage, which some drink in place of milk. I know it consists of water, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla, but there is something more that makes it into "horchata." Jamaica is made from boiling hibiscus flowers; it resembles a sweetened tea. I just decided I am going into the kitchen before supper for a lesson in Mexican food and drink, because I realized that I really do not know much about it!

Some of the food we have been eating is very traditional as well. I will add some pictures here and captions explaining them.

This is how the table is set for us for the midday and evening meals. We almost always have some type of bread, on which we can spread margarine, peanut butter, jam, or Nutella.

This is our typical breakfast spread. Count them: there really are 10 different fruits to which we can add yogurt or granola, if we choose. The only fruit I don't love is mango. It is really different in taste and texture than anything I have eaten before. But I keep trying it, because it is mango season right now, so we have mango every day. Monday morning we had all this plus French toast, and Wednesday we had all this plus pancakes. The other mornings we have had a sweet bread with our fruit and granola.

Dinner, the evening meal, is a light meal here. I was late to the table Tuesday night, but I still got this picture. In the foreground are Jello cups, next is a platter of salbutes, then pitchers of lemonade and horchata, then a soup made from vegetable broth and tiny balls of pasta. Salbutes are a traditional Yucatecan food. A salbute is a fried corn tortilla topped with turkey, onions, lettuce, sweet peppers, and whatever other toppings or vegetables are on hand. As we were exclaiming that the onions--a pink color much lighter that our red onions--tasted sweet, Val explained to us that they are regular white onions soaked in the juice of sour oranges to make them sweeter.

This was our lunch today, Thursday. The dish in the right foreground is cauliflower baked with cream and topped with cheese. Not sure how healthy it is with all the extra stuff, but it did taste good. The dish to the left is carrots, cauliflower, and other vegetables. It was created especially for one of the students, who is a vegetarian. Next you will see a big bowl of salad, which we eat almost every midday and evening meal. Besides the standard lettuce, the ingredients vary widely. Wednesday night there were kiwi and strawberries, and today we had grape tomatoes, baby corn, walnuts, and dried cranberries. The pitchers are filled with lemonade (hidden) and agua fresca de sandía (watermelon juice). On the tables we had a platter of ??? It was meat wrapped around vegetables, which is a poor description. When they set it out, my camera was already back upstairs! I will see if I can get a name and description from the ladies who made it.

 Some of the other things we have eaten since arriving include baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and salad for lunch Monday. Tuesday's lunch was sliced pork, a vegetable squash casserole, and salad. Wednesday we ate chicken tortilla soup. Dessert is typically a Jello cup or a plate of fresh fruit, but Wednesday night we had flan. My only other experience with flan was at Corona Village in Mitchell. Sarah, I am sorry to tell you that your flan doesn't compare in the least to what I had last night. Absolutely delicious. If I bring home one recipe from the Yucatan, it will be flan.

Questions about the food here? Wondering what else I have tried or what I have eaten away from Central House? Leave a comment! And watch for the results of my kitchen interview! :)

Orientation II

After breakfast Sunday morning, we met in the palapa for our second orientation session. Val explained the street system to us and talked about money. After about an hour of classroom time, we gathered water bottles, sunglasses, and sunscreen and headed out onto the streets. We walked for about an hour and a half in a big circle around the neighborhood. Val showed us several landmarks and several popular places to go. We saw beautiful buildings, amazing flowers, and a Mayan sacred tree. Pictures to come, I promise! Most of these were along my route to my homestay, so I will see them every morning for three weeks.

We returned to the house just after 11 AM. Hot and sweaty, we washed up and collapsed into a comfortable chair to relax until lunch time. I escaped to my room, where I had over an hour of quiet time before heading back downstairs to join the others for lunch. We were gone from 12:30 to 3:00 for lunch and another walking tour of the area. We saw some more homestays, other popular hangouts, and the Mega, a giant superstore like Walmart. Mega is one of the places we can withdraw Mexican pesos with a debit or ATM card. Some of the students brought only American cash, and they will go downtown tomorrow to exchange it at a casa de cambio (exchange house).

Mega

After returning to the house, most of us took a quick shower. We had just been walking in the heat of the day, and the cool house felt amazing. Although we do not have air conditioning, every room is well-ventilated. The house is built for the tropics, and it is surprisingly comfortable. I returned to my room again to get some quiet time. I already love spending time with everyone else in the group, but I am used to Sundays being quiet days to go to church and spend time with my family.

At 5:00, the 9 Language students met in the palapa for another orientation session. Alex, Katie, Debora, Nicole, Bailey, Regan, Danni, Jasmin, and me. Val talked about our homestays and what each host would expect of us. At 6:30 we met in the dining room again for a delicious meal of lasagna, cheese bread, and tossed salad. (See, Dad, no tacos!) After supper, we had free time again. Some of the students went back out to explore the neighborhood, and Val went to the airport to pick up the remaining five students, who were flying in from Texas. One of them, Amii, joined Katie, Kayla, and me in our room. Amii, Buck, Maria, Eric, and Sioned are all in the Global Health program. The other students in the Global Healthcare program are Tristan, Taylor, Lauren, Kayla, Stephanie, and Hailey.

Today is another day of orientation. It is up to us to catch the Texas students on what we have learned so far! Val will lead us through more exercises and group sessions as well.

Casa Central

This post is about the Central House, which I will be living in until Friday. It is really a beautiful home, and we already feel very much at home here. I could describe the house for days, but I will let the photos do the talking.

This is the entrance to Casa Central that we use. I took this picture standing in the middle of Calle 20, a fairly quiet side street. The gate is locked after midnight, but we can ring the bell and Frankie will let us in at any time.
 

A giant rubber tree just inside the entrance. Val said it is about 150 years old.

This is the grand staircase. Most of the bedrooms are upstairs, but the boys are downstairs just off the dining room.

This is the first hallway upstairs after the grand staircase. The bathroom is to the left and my room (pictured in the last post) to the right. Another student (not from our group) is staying in room 4 for the week. When she leaves, her room will become a classroom for a few weeks.

This is the bathroom. The toilet--and wastepaper basket--are right behind the door, the sink is to the right, and the huge shower is through the next door.

This is the view from my room of the other bedrooms on the second level. As you can see, it is open to the lower level as well. To the left of the picture, where you can see the light coming in, is the door to the balcony. My window opens onto the balcony as well.
 

This is the balcony. Perfect for relaxing late at night or sunbathing mid-afternoon.

This is the view looking down from my hallway.

And this is the sitting area at the bottom of the grand staircase. It is the part of the main floor that you cannot see on the above picture.
The open door on the right leads to the front porch and another gate. This gate used to be the main entrance, but now faces onto a very busy street (Calle 31). We use the door next to it, which leads to the other entrance on Calle 20 (which I showed in the first photo of this post).



This is the front porch I just mentioned, looking out from that big open door. The gate you see is what used to be the main entrance. As you can see, this porch is perfect for a sunny day, because it is shaded and breezy.


I walked over to the gate and took a picture looking back towards the house.

This is the dining area. You can see it from my room. The hallway just visible to the left leads to the boys' bedrooms and bathroom. To the right is the kitchen. The door in the center leads to another patio and the palapa.





The patio. I walked through those doors, off the patio, then turned around and took a picture. It is pretty, but sunny.



And this is the palapa, just off the dining room patio. The palapa is just what it looks like, a screened, covered outdoor room. It would be comparable to a screened-in gazebo. We will be using it for a classroom and meeting place.

 



 And that is most of Central House! There are offices, classrooms, and staff rooms as well. Frankie, the doorman, was watching me take pictures. He explained the house is very old, and used to be a governor's mansion. He was very pleased when I replied, ¡Me encanta! (I love it!)

 

 

Orientation I

Orientation I

Finally I am posting from Mérida. We have been here less than 36 hours, but so much has happened already! At this point I can’t do more than give a quick bullet list of what we have seen/heard/learned/done.

 

·       Jasmin and I met up with 11 other Central College students in the Houston airport, just before boarding our flight to Mérida. Tristan, Taylor, Alex, Bailey, Hailey, Nicole, Debora, Katie, Stephanie, Regan, and Lauren.

·       We landed in Mérida just after 9 PM, a little ahead of schedule. We stayed together as a group, chatting and getting to know each other. We waited in line to go through the first checkpoint, where the agent checked and stamped our passports and the tourist visas we had filled out on the plane. Then we claimed our checked baggage and waited in line to go through customs. Our bags went through an x-ray machine, the customs agent checked the customs form we had filled out on the plane, and we had to push The Button. If the light turned green, we were free to go through the big glass doors into the airport terminal. If it turned red, our bags were searched. It seemed to be a random search, and I was thankful my light turned green!

·       We met Val, our program director, and Ángel, the driver who took us to Central House, or Casa Central. We dragged all of our luggage upstairs to our comfortable rooms. If I had thought about the stairs, I might have packed a little lighter…

This is my room for the next week. My bed is the one in the far corner...look, Mom, it's the only one that is actually made! And I did it myself!

 

·       We had a light supper around 10:30. PB&J sandwiches, fresh fruit cups, and chips with salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo. Yum!

·       We met Danni and Kayla, who had flown into Cancun and taken the bus to Mérida. Kayla told her story of being dumped on the curb by her taxi driver, who didn’t know how to find the address of the Central House here. She was crying on her suitcase (literally) when she heard, “Do you speak English? Do you need help?” A Mexican family took pity on her, picked her up, called Val, and dropped Kayla off at the Central House. Kayla laughs about it now, but she is annoyed that she still had to pay 80 pesos for that cab ride!

·       Val started our orientation process by talking briefly about the following things:

o   Mexican time: everything is much more relaxed. Although we will operate on somewhat of a schedule, in general México is much more relaxed than the U.S.

o   our schedules and what to expect from our classes: I will talk about that much more in later posts.

o   the water situation in Mérida: we need to drink bottled water while we are here.

o   the toilet situation: toilet paper doesn’t get flushed. There are wastepaper baskets beside most toilets. Val challenged us not to forget: she said we will be surprised how automatic it is to drop the toilet paper into the toilet. The reason for this is houses here are built on a septic tank; there is no public sewer system.

o   what to do when we get diarrhea (not if): do you want to hear about that?

o   and too many other things to list here! She gave us our phones which we will use to keep in contact with each other and any new friends that we make. My U.S. phone has received a few messages, but it is really slow. I think I will have to be satisfied with email while I am here.

·       After supper, I used Val’s phone to call my family and let them know I arrived. I had sent a text when we landed, but I wanted them to know that we got to Central House safely.

·       We settled into our rooms, showered, unpacked a little, and crawled into bed. A few adventuresome individuals went out and walked around a little! Kayla, Katie, and I finally turned our light out at 1:00 AM, and I think we fell asleep almost immediately.

·       Sunday morning:

I set my alarm, but I turned it off without realizing it (I am good at that). I woke up with a start at 7:15. Immediately I realized that I really was waking up in México; at that point, there was no going back to sleep! Outside our open windows, we heard a cacophony of birds, breeze, and traffic. We face right onto a busy street, so we hear traffic going at all times. Some of the other girls took a shower, but I took advantage of the quiet hour before breakfast to read my Bible and pray. I knew it would be a busy day, but I wanted to keep my Sunday as normal as possible. At 8:30 we met in the dining room for a delicious breakfast including fresh fruit, yogurt, and sandwiches. Then we had a few free minutes again, and we met in the outdoor classroom, or palapa, at 9:30 for Orientation II.

 

Please leave a comment or a question if I can explain something in more detail for you! I found out that I really can't text to the U.S., so I will be checking my email and my blog comments frequently. Calling the U.S. is also very expensive, but Skype is free. So Skype me! :)

Flying!

4:30 PM CST

After two good flights, Jasmin and I are waiting in the Houston airport for our final flight. We left Sioux Falls about 6:35 CST this morning and landed at 6:50 MST in Denver. After a long layover, we boarded again at noon and departed at 12:36 MST for Houston. We are on schedule to board at 6:40 PM CST, depart at 7:15, and land in Merida at 9:18.

Countdown!

Eight more days!

It's hard to believe how quickly the last two weeks have flown by! My semester ended at DWU May 1, and now half of the month is gone. Next week Saturday, Jasmin and I will be leaving for Mérida. Busy working at the greenhouse, the nursing home, and the ambulance, I have not yet found time to start packing my suitcases.

Today, for the first time, I felt nervous about going. Not too nervous, but a few butterflies. My biggest fear right now is forgetting my passport. I do not have the best record for remembering this rather important document. In the last four years, I forgot it on two of my five trips to Canada. Anyone wanna call me at 3:00 AM next Saturday? Ask me if I have my passport. Then call me again at 3:30, just in case.

Val posted packing lists, budget guidelines, and calendars on our discussion board. It's been really helpful in knowing how to prepare and pack. Somehow I will get everything done...maybe. My next post will be from the airport on Saturday!