Viva Merida!

This past summer, I traveled to the Yucatan peninsula with other members of the Spanish club for a nine day trip. (When I wrote "Yucatan peninsula," I said it with an accent in my head.) Best. Nine. Days. Of. My. Life. Seriously, though.

At first, I was a little nervous to leave the US with minimal contact with my family and friends back home. My friends promised to text me every day I was gone and that we would talk over facebook, but I was still nervous. I packed up my suitcase and met everyone at the school. My roommates for the next nine days were Rosaline, Olga and Cecilia. Instantly we became the four tightest roommates anyone could ask for.

When we first arrived in Mexico, the fast paced Spanish speaking intimidated me. The only Spanish I had really been exposed to was our classroom Spanish--and it sounded NOTHING like what I heard. I could pick up on bits and pieces, but my understanding increased as the days went on.

In Mexico, we did several things. We visited several ruins sites like Uxmal, Pelenque and Chichenitza. This was my first meeting with an ancient civilization, and it was pretty cool. After all, seven in the perfect number ;). Our tour guide Elias was our informational guide. We visited a beautiful cenote, swam in a waterfall and walked through a rainforest. We went to Isle Mujeres and swam with dolphins and met some hicks from Postville. Over the course of the nine days, we spent lots of time sweating, laughing, being homesick, swimming, packing, repacking, shopping, singing, and having random 2 AM talks. I thought that as soon as I got to Mexico, I'd want to come home. On our last night, our room talked about ways to come back.

Mexico held many AMAZING experiences, but interacting with the Mexican people was the best part. I think one of the best nights of the trip was our Saturday night out in Palenque when my roommates and I chatted up some Mexican boys. They were trying to sell us jewelery, but we made friends with them. Although I didn't recognize what tense they were using or if the words were feminine or masculine, I could understand what they were saying!! It was SOOOOOO incredible. They said that they loved us a lot (haha) and that we were pretty, but they also asked how long we were there, where we were from, etc. My roommates laughed a lot while I struggled to translate, but it was fun. I did have to say, "Mas despacio por favor!!"

In Merida, Rosaline met Jose. We're are legitly friends with someone from Mexico!! It was fun to be able to talk to these people in a completely different language. It really makes you think about how some people are limited to meeting those who speak their language, and it's disappointing! All of those nights of studying verbs and vocab paid off.

Mexico exposed us to a completely different world. The culture was completely different, and WE were the oddballs. Speaking in Spanish allowed us to open ourselves to a completely different world. We really are more alike than we are different! I LOVE MEXICO!!