Hot and Cold

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but it seems that some kinds of heat are better than others. For example, when some people get cold, they like to take a hot shower, run a hair dry over their hands, or turn up the furnace. For me, the best heat is from a space heater. For some reason crawling into bed at night with the space heater on makes me feel so cozy, but there's only one problem; I'm one of those weirdos who likes it to be cold while I sleep. Don't worry though, I've found a solution. A little while before going to bed I crack open the window to let my room get cold and right before snuggling down under the covers, I turn on the space heater...leaving the window slightly open. That's right, I sleep with my window open and my space heater on. It's a little strange I know and maybe counter intuitive, but it makes me sleep so much better. Does anybody else have some weird sleeping quirks?

Sweet Saturdays

What I loved about today:

Driving with the windows down and feeling the fall breeze.

The red trees in the mountains.

Going to the farmers market.

Eating carmel apples.

Not having tuberculosis.

Starting a new book.

Shaving my legs.

Listening to the Beatles.

Me gustaria una Gordita, por favor...

Lanae and I have found the best restaurant for Mexican food (yes another post about Mexican culture). It's called TacoRiendo, which is a pun on the Spanish word corriendo which means running. Today I had the most amazing gordita EVER. The tortilla was like a tortilla on the outside but bready on the inside, the carne asada (steak) was so flavorful, and the crema and queso was nothing short of divine. The place is on State St. in Provo just north of DI and right next to Tesoro. If you want to go, call me!

Back at the "why?"...I mean Y!

Returning to the good-ole boring campus of BYU is not easy after an exciting summer filled with Mexican fun. I've never claimed to be a "true-blue cougar" and must say that my return to Provo has not been a joyous occasion for me. However, one thing that has certainly improved my return to Happy Valley is hanging out with the people from my study abroad program! We've found some awesome, authentic Mexican places to go eat and had fun reliving our viaje. It has now been 1 month since I came home. Never would I have guessed that after 4 weeks I would still not be able to let it go. My point in saying all of this is...I miss Mexico!

Sell-es-TOON

On Saturday our group went on another excursion. We met at 9:00 and drove to a beach in Celestun where we took a boat ride to see the Flamencos (flamingos) in their flocks on the river. After that, we took our boat through some smaller connecting rivers that were enveloped in "el bosque", the forest. I like to use the Spanish word bosque better than forest because the forests here aren't like the forests I usually think of in the Western United States, so bosque to me sounds like a whole new word with a new meaning. So now there are forests, woods, jungles and bosques. After swimming for a little while, we rode back along the shoreline to the beach we had originally started at. The water of the usually calm Gulf of Mexico was a little rough going back which made our ride quite uncomfortable and full of violent turbulence as our boat would continually crash down on every other wave. All in all it was a great day and my butt recovered.

Makin' Amigos

On Monday night we had our first "Noche De Hogar" or, Family Home Evening. We went to the home of one of our host family's and swam in their pool, jumped on their trampoline, ate treats and then had a lesson. It was really fun because a few guys from the ward came and we taught them how to play Marco Polo, a game that never fails to procure a great deal of laughter. On Wednesday night we met up with them again at an ice cream shop in downtown called Colon, famous for its coconut sorbet. After walking around for a while we came home and had another one of our host mom's delicious meals and called it a night.



Yesterday after school we went to Itzimna, a small colonial town about an hour away from Merida. There is large convent there where they used to hold open-air masses and train priests. Apparently this convent has the second largest courtyard in the world for open air masses, second only to that of the one in Rome. While we were there we also went to some of the ruins, a really interesting museum with modern artifacts, and ate an awesome dinner of queso relleno, panuchos, and banana con leche. To wrap it up, we returned to the convent for the sound and lights show, took some cool pictures of the cathedral lit up in the night, and headed for home.

Bienvenidos a Mexico

Today we went to some ruins near Merida called Dzibilchaltun, meaning "the place of writing on stones". It was really interesting and there was a small temple there called "El Templo de Siete Munecas" or the house of seven dolls. It was very hot today so we were very excited after the ruins to go to our welcoming party at a house on the beach. One of our directors from the University here has a home right on la playa del Progreso. The water was incredibly warm and my favorite part was that all of the houses on the beach have small pools the size of hot tubs but deeper with fresh, cool water to wash in after being in the salty water. It felt absolutely divine.



This was the cenote at Dzibilchaltun. They have found many sacrificial items in it such as pottery, jewelery and human bones. This was one city where they are sure that the winners of the Mayan ball game were sacrificed rather than the loser.

The Temple of Seven Dolls

These were probabaly living quarters.

The Gulf of Mexico and the Beach of Progreso.