Sick Day
So today is my first sick day of the trip. I started getting a sinus thing yesterday when we went to the beach in the afternoon (we just went and chilled for a few hours...oh, and saw more flamingos fly by). Then, after waking up at 5:30 this morning to eat breakfast with Nate, we had Huevo con Chorizo and we've had it before but for some reason this time it really didn't sit well. I went to bed and set my alarm for 7:30 to get to class at 9:30, but felt really sick when I woke back up again and decided it'd probably be better not to go to school. I was right! At 10:30 or so, well...let's just say my stomach didn't like breakfast being in it anymore. That's the first time in 5 years, including 2 years in Mexico! Hahaha. I went back to bed immediately and slept all day so my body could get a chance to fight whatever I have and I don't have to miss more school. I only missed two classes, but tomorrow we're supposed to go visit either the Governor or a Deputy of Merida as part of our culture class, and I don't want to miss that. Luckily, my "mom" Margarita had some Gatorade in the fridge and I've been sipping it and laying in bed all afternoon. I also took a Dayquil I brought and that's helped curb the low fever and the sinus stuff. By tomorrow, I should be in tip top shape (crossing my fingers!). But hey! Look on the bright side, I updated my blog finally! I realized it's probably better if I don't update two weeks at a time, so I'll make sure to do better next time, even if they're just a few minutes without all the pictures! Thanks for reading!
Thommy's Mission Call
Last night we went to a ward FHE where Thommy, a kid in the ward, opened his mission call. Guess where he's going?! Guadalajara! He's going to the "west" mission (it's just called the Mexico Guadalajara Mission) that now includes all of Colima, which used to be part of my mission! I was so excited to hear that and when he announced it, he said that he only knew of a couple people going there, including me! Haha. I didn't get much of a chance to talk to him afterward, but I'll see him in the ward this Sunday at least and I'm excited to tell him all about it!
For family home evening this week, we invited the girls over to our house and cooked some arroz con leche - a lot like risengrot. We had a pool party while we waited for it to cool down and really just had a fun, relaxing evening.
Fireside with Elder Cook
The reason we were running to get back in time from Chichen Itza was because Elder Cook and President Johnson (Area President) and Elder Villalobos (Area Seventy) did a fireside for the YSA in Merida. We got there just in time at 7:00 on the dot and were on the first row on the elevated stage at the back of the stake center. There were probably 500-600 young single adults and it was really fun to see the strength of the youth in the area. Each of them had their wifes there as well and they all told the story of how they met. It was pretty funny and cute because the women went first and then the men got their "rebuttal" as Elder Cook said. It's always fun to see general authorities in a more relaxed setting and see their personalities really come through. They emphasized doing the small things that will lead to happiness, most of all praying, reading from the Book of Mormon, and not missing the sacrament for even one week. He left us with an apostolic blessing which was very comforting and exactly what I needed. We got home late that night because the bus routes stopped running as much, but we went home uplifted and enlightened!
Chichen Itza - one of the 7 Wonders of the World! This was quite a fun trip too and really interesting to compare to Uxmal, as it was built in the Post-Classic era of Mayan culture. In about 100 years, they built the whole area up, and it's huge! In fact, there are about 5 layers of buildings under the ground that they filled over and made all the ground flat before building the final stage with the modern Castillo that everyone recognizes! Chichen is known for the Kukulkan cult, which greatly emphasized worship of the "feathered serpent", also known as Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs, rumored to be a fair skinned, bearded god that descends from heaven....hmmmm....sound familiar?? Haha. Anyway, it was like a dream come true to finally visit Chichen Itza and it was way fun! It's 10 times more touristy than Uxmal and there are tons of vendors so I picked up a couple things after bartering them down to more than half of what I was originally told :) In the pictures, you'll see a couple thrones, the ball court, the wall of skulls, the famed emerald cenote that they'd sacrifice people in, a market, a palace, and an observatory. We had to basically run through the whole tour to finish in time because it was so big! Really cool. :D
So I'm not sure which day this was, but one afternoon last week we took a trip to go see the museums that had been closed on Mother's Day. There was a ton of modern art and we joked about how abstract we felt leaving the museums, but it was still pretty fun. We also visited the opera house and the security guard let us peek in even though it was closed - it was huge and very impressive! Just next door is the University of the Yucatan, with some more fun architecture and arches. On our way back, the Church of the Trinity had just opened to prepare for evening mass so we slipped in a got to see that quickly without disturbing anyone. It's been fun getting to see aspects of Mexican culture that I haven't seen before!
As part of our cultural experiences, we went to visit a town just outside Merida called Komchen that was having it's annual fiestas. They get their families together in big groups and have a big family party and then they have a bullfight as well, which we got to see. While we waited for the fight to start, our local guide took us to one of the family parties and showed us their family flag with their saint that blessed their crops stitched on the middle, kind of like a coat of arms, to show their religious and farming background. We also went to a cemetery, which was very humble, with tombs above the ground like they do in Mexico. Some had more ornamentation than others, but some were very old and even had bones collected in buckets because the tombs had fallen apart over time. After the bull fight, we didn't stay for the whole time since it was getting late, so no killing of the bull, which I was kinda glad for, since we were pretty close, or as one of the kids on the trip said, "The splash zone". The toreros (bull fighters) were actually quite young and I was surprised at how good they were - only one really got bumped just a bit. During the bullfight I noticed where Francisco De Goya got his inspiration for his paintings about the bullfights, with the nobility and prowess of the bull. Cool experience :)
Wow, this was one of the most magical places we've been. Celestun is right on the northwestern tip of the Yucatan peninsula and was just magical! We took a boat ride from the sandy shore over to an estuary where cormorants, flamingos, and other birds can be found year round! We rode through mangroves where they frequently see jaguars and crocodiles (although we didn't that day) and swam in the salty/freshwater river right next to an ojo de agua, or a freshwater spring so powerful it disturbs the surface a few feet above where it is! I love it here!
La Hacienda Yaxcopoil was founded in the 16th century and was once more than 27000 acres of ranchland and henequen production, which was what created the affluent economy of the Yucatan during the 19th-20th centuries. One of the locals in the city of Uman told us there are 17 local haciendas in the area, but this one was the biggest and most productive. Yaxcopoil (Yash-coh-poh-ill) in Mayan means “the place of the green cottonwood trees.” It was really fun going to the hacienda because it was like being transported back in time, seeing how things used to be run and how the culture and environment made Merida such a rich city for many years. Plus, it was such a picturesque place! Loved it! The big cathedral you see in the pictures is from the city Uman on the way where Nate served for one of his areas on the mission.
We took a night on Thursday the 12th to go to the Yucatan serenades that they put on for free every week (and have been for the past 46 years, but we definitely got more than we paid for ;). A group called the Juglares played and wow, did they play! They were really fun to listen to! But one of the coolest parts of the evening was that the Ambassador from Cuba was there along with an ex-president of the PRI political party here, sitting less than 20 feet from us. There were also a lot of young athletes from the National Olypmics sitting right behind us! There were camera crews and photographers everywhere. Since we had gotten there so early we got great seats (except for when the cameramen stood in front of us because we had the best view haha) and while waiting I got to try these rolled, toasted crepe-like things with queso de bola (tastes like sharp cheddar cheese) and nutella (surprisingly good combo!). Great evening in the park!
Also, I'm just going to add here a couple pictures from the Jarana and Vaqueria dances that we went to a few weeks back. They're traditional dances they do every Monday and we went with Professor Laraway and his family for FHE. Enjoy!
On Mother's Day here in Mexico (May 10th), we went to visit a museum, but it ended up being closed, so we went to the Governmental Palace. As you can see from the pictures, they have these huge murals depicting the history of the region. Muralism is a huge part of Mexican culture and politics. They have quite profound messages about the good and bad through the independence of Mexico and the Caste Wars to the contribution of their great leaders in history. The Franciscan architecture is beautiful as well and I got a couple pictures of the houses on the roads on our way to institute that night! Enjoy!