Days 22–31: Already half way through.

BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN.

that's me right there in the background picture in the water------->-------->--------->--------->

at least that is where its at on my computer. Thought you ought to know.

Anywho. great week.

I had an essay and presentation due last Tuesday so I basically stayed up most of the night to do all of that.  The essay was 5 pages of Spanish about the Mayans but I got an A- on it!  I just had to write another 5 page essay for another class about the Spanish conquests of Latin america.  We'll see.  The presentation didn't go so well . . . better luck next time, eh?  I also only have 2 weeks left of class here and I'm beginning to realize I have  A LOT to do before then, including reading a novel.  Dang it.

Friday we went to Chichén Itzá. I know its one of the seven wonders of the world, but I actually liked visiting the other Mayan ruins more.  This place was super touristy (I know . . . I'm a tourist, too) and it was hot and miserable outside.  We also weren't allowed to climb any of the temples.  I like to think of myself as a traveler, non tourist now haha because I like going to the Mayan ruins where no one else goes and we get to explore by ourselves. Nevertheless, legit temple builders those Mayans.

Those Mayans are control freaks.  This temple had exactly 270 steps because that's how many days they had in their sacred calendar.  (Their agricultural calendar had the standard 365 days).

Friday night, we went back to Mambocafé.  Different band, but just as wonderful as last time.  I love going there to Salsa dance!  The atmosphere is so fun.

With Rita and Laurita.
(Kaitlin and Laura)

Brad

Conny                                                        and Jahaziel

                                                  

Saturday, we went to the Tres Cenotes of Cuzamá.  BEST EXCURSION EVER.  This is where its at.  So cenotes are sink holes that expose the groundwater underneath, so your basically swimming in underground caves.  So awesome.

Our ride to the cenotes.

Ladder down into the cenote.

Seriously, these things were so awesome.  Vines to climb, rock walls to scale.  In one of the cenotes, I found a hole in the rock that took us inside and behind the rock walls and brought us out at a higher point of the cenote.

That's me coming out through the top.

I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to—hence the barbed wire—but some of us brave and stupid people jumped from ground level down into the cenote 55 feet below.  It was like base jumping into a hole in the ground.  This picture doesn't depict how scary and high it really was.  I was the first girl in our group to do it:)

Some more random pics:

Flautas! Probably one of my favorite dishes here.

Temple Trip! I was so happy to be in the temple here in Mérida.  The spirit was very strong and it was cool to experience the temple in Spanish.

Ice skating.

That's all for now folks.  There are a TON of pics up on "face" (what they call facebook here) Check it out.

Days 15–21: The Night Life

Well I guess I'm not really keeping up with this thing very well.  Anyway, this week was great!  Monday we had FHE at the hacienda of the family of some girls in our group.  That was fun and we took a party bus back to our houses.  I feel like at a bunch of the activities, I get to know at least one person better.  It was good.  Especially after spending ALL DAY in the library working on my project.  This study abroad is more work than I signed up for, I swear.

I've been discouraged with my Spanish skills a lot, mostly from school.  I don't speak as well as all of the return missionaries and can't understand everything.  However, Tuesday we went ice skating in the mall and I had to go to the phone store to see if they could fix the cell phone Mamá Pilar gave me to use here, and I realized that my Spanish really isn't so bad.  I was in that store for 30 minutes and I'm glad I was able to communicate.  The employees were super nice.  I may or may not have fallen in love with the smile of one of them:)  Haha he's like 35 years old.  ANYWAY.

The fun really began on Wednesday.  We went to Institute again to Salsa dance.  I got a lot of dancing in and afterwards, we invited a bunch of people to go see a play with us.  A bunch of the kids from institute came with us too.  Daniel, a boy who danced with me a lot, had a car, so for the first time we didn't have to walk all around Centro.  We piled 17 people in that pickup truck I think.

All of us that were in the truck.

 We told the kids from Institute that we wanted to eat somewhere authentic, delicious, and cheap, so we ended up driving 45 minutes out of Mérida to eat the best panuchos ever.  Sooooo good.  It was such a fun night just hanging out with friends who live here and who know the best places to go.  That also meant we were speaking Spanish the whole time which is always a plus.

Apparently THE place to get Panuchos.  I'm so glad we have people to take us to the real spots instead of all the touristy places.

Thursday . . . went to the zoo.  Daniel said he couldn't believe that we chose to go there out of all the cool places we could be going in Mérida.  I kind of agree.

Friday was the best night of my life.  Oh, first you should meet Conny!

with Tom on the left and Brad on the right.  Brad is my new bud.  We understand each other.

I met Conny at Institute one day in the bathroom and thank goodness I did!  She's the reason we have so much fun in Mérida now.  She's so nice, fun, and has a ton of friends.  Meaning that being friends with her gives you a ton of friends too! She's always inviting us to parties and events.  A few of us went to a Salsa club Friday night and ever since then, all I want to do is be there dancing.  We also got in free because they love the pretty white girls to be there apparently.  The music was pulsing, the lights were flashing and then they brought out a live band of awesomeness.  They were just so into their music meaning so were all of us.  I can't explain how great it was to be there, but salsa dancing to loud music with your Mexican friends . . . surrounded by all of the locals having a great time . . . Awesome.

Dang this is a long post.  Saturday we went on another excursion, this time to Celestún.  This was a super chill excursion.  We rode on little boats that took us to see the flamingos and to swim in the cenote.

Saturday night I went with Aaron (a guy in our group), Conny, and Conny's guy friend to see Spiderman at the movie theater.  It was in English with Spanish subtitles.  I think Conny and I make a good team because all of my BYU guys friends like Conny (obviously), but Conny's Mexican friends like me.  Perfect!  (Okay, that's vain of me, but the guys here really do dig the red head, super pale skin thing.  I want to live here forever).

As for today, Church was great.  I could understand everything plus it seems like everything said was exactly what I needed to hear.  I've been working ALL DAY on my dumb essay for class.  5 pages, 1.5 spacing (what?), in Spanish.  Not super fun.

Basically, now that I've been hanging out with so many people from México and understanding more and more and able to communicate, I feel like I really am improving my Spanish.  I love it here so much and only have 4 weeks left.  I don't want to go back.

Days 12–14: Weekend fun

So Friday I really really really wanted to go out dancing to use my new found Salsa skills that I learned at Institute.  We ended up going to this awesome restaurant/bar thing with loud, pulsing music, but there was no dancing.  We danced anyway, probably looking drunk with our waters and coca-colas, but it was fun.  Then we went to another bar and actually danced to a live band playing Salsa music.  Only us gringos were dancing, but some of the people were taking pictures of us.

Saturday, a few of us went to the Institute activity.  It was great.  We played volleyball and I met a lot of fun people.  We made contacts with a few of them and one girl is going to take us out somewhere where there is actual dancing!

We also went to Uxmal on Saturday as a big excursion with our whole study abroad group.  These ruins were bigger than the ones in Dzibilchaltún (omgsh! I just spelled that correctly all by myself).  We had a legit tour guide telling us some awesome things about the site.  We ate in a cool restaurant on site afterwards and I drank delicious Jamaica (a drink boiled from a dried out flower) and horchata. MMM.  There was a light and sound show once it got dark lighting up the pyramids with lights like they do at Christmas with people's houses timed to the music.  It was weird, but hey.    

Some archaeologists think that the stairs are so tall and steep so that you had to look down at your feet while climbing instead of disrespectfully looking up at the gods. I tried to look at the gods but they didn't let me climb that way for very long.

I was bored of normal looking pictures.

Today we went to church in our ward again and tonight I went to mass with Mamá Pilar and Tía Amira.  They had pamphlets with all of the songs and prayers written so it wasn't TOO hard to understand.  I asked them if Catholics pray before they eat and they said that some do and asked if Mormons do (because we haven't been), so I offered a prayer over our dinner tonight.  I don't know if that will become a standard thing or not.  

After church waiting for the bus.
All the Mexicanas loved my skirt, but I got
it at DI for 6 bucks.  So awesome.

Tía Amira on the left, me, and Mamá Pilar on the right.  After we went to Mass.

FiFí

And this was a while ago on the 4th of July.  We wanted to celebrate with American food.



I have a ton of pics on my facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/alannah.autrey
And here's the website where all of the pictures from everyone in our group are being uploaded:  http://byumerida2012.shutterfly.com/

Days 7–11: Getting the hang of things

So this Sunday we went to the ward here.  It was so great!  The spirit is very strong here.  I could understand all of the testimonies and a lot of people in our group got up to bear their testimonies.  It was great and just was I needed.  I was able to participate in Sunday School and Relief Society, too.

This week, I've gone to the beach again.  And last night, we went to an Institute activity to learn how to Salsa dance.  It was so fun.  They hold Institute three times a week and I really want to go to get to know all of the members my age.  I've been learning a lot from little niece Julia and from Mamá Pilar and Tía Amira.  I love our conversations at meal times.  Lots of funny stuff to talk about with so many girls around.

The result from my fight with the hiding rocks on the shore.

School this week has been a little stressful.  In my Yucatán culture class, we have guest speakers and the one we've had this week is hard to pay attention to and understand.  However, I'm beginning to really like my Cultura Latinoamericana class—the one I was so worried about before.  I'm starting to become familiar with the way my professor speaks and I'm getting used to his vocabulary.  There are only 6 of us in the class now and its fun to just talk about random things with our prof.  Today I had to present my exposition about the Mayans.  I worked on that presentation for many hours this week reading the book, researching, and practicing how I was going to say everything in front of the class.  It went well enough and I'm just glad I'm done with it.

Until next time:)