Posts (page 2)

Okay so our first Saturday here was, well, absolutely amazing!  We went to the cenotes that are outside of the city.  A cenote is basically a naturally formed underground lake that is gorgeous, the water is crystal clear and you can see all the way to the bottom, which for most of them is between 20 and 60 feet down.  When we first got the the little village we hopped into these 4 person carts that were pulled by horses and went another 20 minutes intot basically no where, and we ended up at this cave.  So we saw pictures before of what cenotes are but the pictures do not even come close to describing what they are like.  It is the most amazing thing in the world to be in a cave full of water, which is really warm by the way, and be able to swim in it and jump off of ledges and rocks into it, and actually see all the way down to the bottom!  On the way to the cenotes and to the village we also saw lots of cool things, including plants and birds that we have to know for this upcoming week, so exciting!!! but yeah we drove though little villages and towns were there werent that many cars and the taxis were carts on bicycles and stuff like that.  The buildings, especially the churches, were really pretty cool in every town and so were the town squares.  I have never seen anything like the cenotes before though, i never knew things like that existed.  I really wanted to jump into the water from the opening in the top..... but robert dawley didnt think that that idea was a good one, so i couldnt.... oh well.   So that was yesterday, and today was just a lazy day so a bunch of us went to the beach and just hung out..... i got burned on my right arm.  so after the beach we just came home and now i am writing my blog and working on my presentation.  That is all for now and i will be writing again soon. 

Wow so much to say about Mexico.  It is AWSOME!!! We got here on Sunday at like 8:30pm (9:30 PA time) after 18 hours of traveling, it was terrible.  We got to the airport at like 5:15 and our flight didn't leave till 9, that was really enjoyable. Then we got to the airport at around 12 or 12:30, it took an hour to two hours to get through customs, and then we had a four hour bus ride to Merida (we flew into Cancun).  before we left cancun we ate and this little restaurant buffet style and it was some of the best food i have EVER had.  Everything down here is soooo much different but all the food is great!!!  I hate eating tomatoes and melon at home, but down here i eat it with everything, i guess that is cuz that's what our host mother gives us for breakfast and the tomatoes, well they are in everything down here.  Well back to the first day.  After eating we got to take our 4 hour bus ride to Merida and during the ride most people either slept or studied because our wonderful teachers thought it would be a great idea to give us a quiz on Tuesday haha.  Well once we got here I was a little nervous because I didn't know how bad hearing spanish for the first time was going to be, and boy was it a shocker.  My host mother is one of the nicest ladies in the world, but she speaks really, really, really fast and when i heard it for the first time I thought that this was giong to be a test, but it turns out that it is not that bad.  Being exposed to spanish 24/7 is really good to get you used to hearing it and into speaking it.  My goal by the end of this trip is to be able to speak spanish very fluently.  i was a little worried that i would lose the spanish when we go into the jungle for 5 weeks but i was happy when megan jessi dani and I decided that we would only speak spanish to eachother while we were here.  So back to my days.  We got home, had a small dinner then I showered and went right to bed because I was so beat.  We got up at 6:30 on monday, what a treat, because class starts at 8.  Our host mother drove us the first day and showed us where we were going to get the bus and also what bus to take.  We got to the school and went through orientation and then went to class.  I got put into the advanced spanish class.... hahaha i don't know why..... but it isn't bad at all and I think that if I want to become fluent I should be in that class.  So the rest of the day was fun and then after class we went home and got lunch.  I completely forgot that lunch is the big meal here, and dinner is just like a snack.... it took some getting used to.  but anyway we did the same thing on tuesday except it was Akash's birthday so we went out around 7 to eat and what not.  The restaurants here are so cool cuz a lot of the them are all open, its really nice and like I sasid before the food was AMAZING!! But anyway we came home at like 12, then went to bed, got up for school, and then took a tour of the city afterwards today.  That was pretty cool, and some of these houses down here are HUGE!! and most of the houses in the newer part of town are really big!  But anyway now i am sitting in my house writing because I found out yesterday that my host mom has wireless!!! it is so useful.  Alright well that is all I have for now and I will be posting soon enough.

I never actually thought about how hard it would be to pack enough clothes for 3 months that all fit into a suitcase and will weigh under 50 pounds.  To tell you the truth, its not the clothes that are really the problem.... its all those wonderful other things that our amazing professors told us to get that are the pain in the ass.  However, considering that I do go to Ursinus College I have at least some intelligence and decided that those bags that you put clothes into and then suck all the air out of them would probably come in handy, so I decided to do that.... which helped a hell of a lot.  Enough with the packing though, I am really excited to get this trip going, not so much for the god forsaken barn, but to get into Mexico and live in a different country.  I really hope that i know enough Spanish to get by considering I haven't had it for a year, but I am sure that i will manage.  I can't say that I am not going to miss anyone because I am, not family (haha jk), but my brothers at school, the rest of my friends, and yeah my girlfriend too :-p.  Alright, well thats enough writing for one day.... back to trying to squeeze everything into my suitcase and finishing my AMAZING powerpoint presentation!!!!