Lunes el 28 de Abril de 2014

Today was supposed to be our first day of school but it's the first day back from spring break and a student from the school passed away in an accident so the cancelled school to hold a memorial service.

We got up much earlier this morning since we were going to be meeting our group downtown at 10:30.  We showered and got ready and went downstairs. To our surprise, breakfast was ready and waiting for us on the table.  Juevos Mexicanos.  They call them that because it has all of the colors of the Mexican flag: tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers.  I should be taking pictures of everything I eat; I'll do that from now on.  As we were eating, Malena introduced us to Samira, her muchacha.  That's a nice word for maid or cook.

It's interesting how it works with the muchachas.  Samira's grandma

was the maid in Malena's house when she was growing up and now she is taking care of her daughter Samira.  It sounds weird but really they're giving jobs to families who otherwise wouldn't have one.  Samira's mom also comes once a week to make lunch for us, just to give her something to do and a little extra money.

After breakfast Malena drove us downtown and dropped us off at La Casa de Monejo.  It's a museum now but it was the original house of the Montejo family that came to Mexico from Spain to conquer the Yucatan Peninsula.

I felt like we walked and walked all day long.  It’s so dang hot downtown! I was for sure sweating through my shirt; but I guess there’s no avoiding that.  As we walked we stopped by a few shops to see what they were selling.  There’s a Little bit of everything here; anything that you would find at Olvera Street, your go-to Mexican bags and blankets and belts, gorgeous dresses and blouses, and also living Jeweled Maquesh Wood beetles with a chain so that you can wear them like jelwelry.

We went to the main catedral where we learned a Little about the Virgin of Guadalupe.  I didn’t know why there were so many names of different virgins if there is only one who gave birth to Jesus Christ.  But it turns out there really is only one.  But each time that she appears to different places of the earth, they give her a new name to differentiate that visión from the others. 

On every other block there is a park or a plaza where you can sit and relax and on SUnday you can listen to music and watch people dance.  I’m excited to see that this Sunday!

When we had had enough of the sun and the heat and the sweat, we hopped on a bus (which costs 7 pesos which is equivelant to about 53¢) and headed home.  Man...I thought it was hot when we were out walking around! In the bus it's 10 times hotter and there's no breeze to cool you off. Also there were no open seats.  It was quite the experience! The interesting thing about this adventure is that we had NO idea where we were going so we all just followed our Professor to his house and our hosts picked us up from there.

But Malena had to work so we went back to Pilar’s house with Melanie and Nannette.  Pilar had made us all lunch-abondigas.  That means meatballs.  They were surprisingly delicious.  The were made out of ground chicken which I didn’t even know was posible and then they were in a chicken noodle soup.  Even though it’s so hot outside, I like eating soup because it’s not too heavy.

After eating our abondigas, we swam, took a nap, and then it was time to head home to have FHE.  Our whole group came to our house for FHE.  We didn’t do much.  I gave the spiritual thought and our profesor spoke a Little and then we played a game and hung out and talked.  I really like our group, so far we all get along really well!