Viva Mexico!

These past couple of days have been really fun! Yesterday, we had Monday classes even though it was a Friday because there are no classes Monday. Generally, we have no Friday classes. After class, we hung out with some of the local students for about an hour. One of them was named Tony, and he offered to take us for a ride around the city, but we didn't go. We eventually got back to nuestra casa (the house in which we are staying...our house). By we, I mean my roommate Rebecca and myself. We chilled for a while until lunch. I worked out and took a shower. Then we had lunch with Gladys, our tia Mexicana, and after lunch we talked a while. Eventually, our other roommates, Lauren and Alyssa, got back, and after a little while we went to el centro historico (in English, the historical center) and walked around and shopped a bit. The centro here is awesome. People sell stuff there and tons of people walk around and hang out there. Yesterday was "el dia de los ninos" (the day of the children), and there were festivities for that. While we were walking around, a man tried to sell us a hammock. He talked to us for a while first, though. He told us about the traditional village he lives in, and how he makes hammocks with his wife..he showed us a picture. And he told us about the festivities in the traditional villages right now. He talked about religion and other things. He was way nice. His name was Gregorio. After talking to us for a while, he kept trying to sell us a hammock, but none of us had any money. We told him that, and he kept lowering the price. He went from 450 to 200 pesos for a really big hammock by the end. It was a fun experience. After that, we went to this little restaurant across from the big Cathedral in the centro, and we ate on the balcony overlooking the centro. It was awesome. Then we went and Lauren and I split some sorbate. It was really fun. The sorbate is really, really good there. After we had sorbate, we met the rest of our group in front of the Cathedral and walked over to the temple and institute building for a dance. It was so much fun! We met some of the local people, and we learned how to dance a little :) It was awesome. Dances here are better than in the states, I think. One of the guys at the institute dance named Alan taught me a little salsa. He was funny. Another one named Gerson was pretty fluent in English, which he learned from watching movies...crazy! He helped a lot of us girls get cabs home. In the cab, the driver's name was Tony. He lived in the US for a while. I sat in the front seat, so I talked with him the whole time. He kept on pointing out bars. When we got back, Gladis was locked out because she forgot her key. She's a principal at a high school, and she had been at a fiesta for el dia de los ninos. A very short while after we got back, our mama y papa got here. They are so nice! Our mama Mexicana is soo cute. And our papa is cute, too. He's quieter, but seems really nice. I'm having a hard time writing about this in English right now for some reason. I think I'm kind of writing more in a Spanish style right now. Anyway, our mama, her name is Francis, and she is so sweet. She was just fussing over us and making sure we had everything we needed and everything. I just love her. It was pretty late when they got back, so we all went to bed shortly after. This morning, they had the best french toast I've ever had in my life waiting for us for breakfast, and then we went and met the rest of our group to go to the ruins called Dzibilchaltun, where we had a tour and then got to swim in a cenote, which is a natural water formation almost like a natural swimming pool. It's really cool.


After that, we went to the beach in Progreso. The host families were all there, and they gave us snacks, and we swam and chilled and went back to the house for lunch. Conner, one of the guys in our group, played his Ukalali a bit. It was funny. Eventually, we left, and our madre bought us popsicles. And since then I've just been chilling. And now time for dinner :)