February 1, 2009

FEBRUARY!!! Yay! One month down (or 4 weeks if you want to look at it like that) and 19 more days to go until Mom comes =D So that was exciting. 4 more months sounds like a long time, but somehow rolling out of January and into February makes it seem like time is passing. Like when you lay in bed and look at the clock and watch the numbers change…Anyway it seems to mark a certain amount of time passing. So 4 more months/ 16 weeks (for those of you who have more trouble with math than I do).

This morning I got up all bright and early to go to church at 7 AM. I’m not really sure why it was decided that we would go to church in the morning when there was an evening option, but that was indeed the way things were decided and we did in fact go.

Chelsea and I popped onto the 52 Norte and road until we got to calle 50 at 51. We needed to get to calle 74 at 49. So we walked, and walked. I think I’m going to really need to invest in a pair of flipflops for skirt wearing because as comfortable as the heels I have are, walking long distances isn’t really the best.

But we finally made it to church if not a little bit late, and we sat down behind Arianna and Mandy who managed to be on time. …and we sat down for…choir practice…? We got in, and the woman singing at the front leading (who mind you wasn’t exactly the next Madonna) was teaching the congregation to sing the song…and I don’t mean like I’m going to sing it then you sing it, she was literally showing them how to go up and down with their voices… It was…really odd. Then we sang a different song and she told us we did a good job and there was nothing to correct! …seriously? …like…for real?

Then the pastor came up to the front, and he seemed like he’d be a pretty lively speaker…and the message…if you can consider it a message…was…I’m not really entirely sure what to say about it. Not substantial? Maybe that’d be the best way to put it. To give you an idea, the service lasted for an hour. In that hour, the first half was probably spent learning to sing, and then there was praying over the kids when they exited for their own program, and then the message and then offering. That doesn’t leave much time for talking. I should also mention we four gringas were the only people between the ages of like… 16 and 35. Yeaaaaah.

After that though, because it’s Sunday this is sort of a special affair in Merida. They close down the centro in terms of automobiles and set up vendors in the street and that sort of thing. I didn’t actually buy anything. While we all looked around I didn’t think Mandy and Chelsea were really shopping. They were saying that we’d have plenty of opportunities to buy this sort of stuff later. Which is probably true. Eh, oh well.

So we made a round of El Centro and sat down for what we thought was going to be a Mayan dance of sorts. As it turns out, we sat down for a puppet show. This was entertaining for a little while, as in, in the beginning, but we were kind of tired and so we left before the show was over.

Chelsea and I then got on the 52 Norte where we were told our student IDs weren’t valid on Sundays when it comes to the buses, which means we either ripped the original bus driver off or we were ripped off. We were also ripped off when we bought some churros which is annoying. Note to self: do not converse in English while buying anything.
For lunch my family brought home Kentucky Fried Chicken, haha. So that was alright, and I shared the part of the cheesecake Diana had given me (oh let me sum up here really quickly for your sakes, on Friday a small group of us went to Diana’s (the resident director’s) house for dinner and it was really good she fixed us curry and for dessert we had chocolate cheesecake) with my family and they all enjoyed it.

Basically after that I fooled around on the computer a little more. Watched a small portion of Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog and took a nap for an hour. I have been trying not to make a habit of napping while I’m here. I’ve done a good job of it over all, but today I gave in.

Aaaand this is being posted rather early (as you may or may not notice via the time stamp) because we may or may not go out tonight to this place called Kyu {I don’t know about you guys but this makes me think Japanese not Spanish} which is supposed to be really cheap for girls on Sunday nights and since we don’t have class tomorrow it’s the perfect opportunity to try it out. So we’ll see. I’ll talk with Chelsea and see what’s up.

I’m reallllllly getting sick of cigarette smoke. The smoking population here makes SU look like a sterile doctor’s office. It’s *everywhere*. Bleh. I think I’m going to end up with a black lung before I leave without ever needing to smoke myself. Isn’t second hand smoke worse, too?

Anyway. That’s about all I have for today. I ate all my cashews. I really need to stop eating so terribly. As I’ve been eating much more than I should/need. In part I think it’s because I’m not entirely in control of what I’m eating, ie, food is being prepared so I eat what I’m served, and then sometimes you just want something that’s ‘normal’ or that tastes particularly good when you can have it since you don’t always have that option. Bah…I should probably end that reallyyyy quickly. We’ll see though, it’s kind of hard. Pues, Cheers! <3 Kate