tying up loose ends

My Mexican Parents: Jose Louis and Rosi

Look how tall I am in Mexico!

The Whole Gang

Trent, Diego, Cait, Me, Nelson, Ted and Pau

After being so faithful to my blog for all this time I've been feeling guilty for just leaving things hanging. So here's how my trip ended. My last day in Merida, Diego and I were supposed to go to the zoo so I met him at his school at 10:15 like he told me to. He thought he didn't have classes but he did so during his 20 minute break we just went to the zoo and sat on the bench in front of the giraffes.

Friday was a day of "it's a small world after all." After saying goodbye to Diego at his school I looked across the street and saw Juan, I guy I had just met a couple days before. And before that too. Juan grew up in Xochempich and was at the clinic talking with Dr. Federico the first day that I got there. Then the night we went dancing in Merida, Diego and I went to this restaurant because he wanted to talk to this guy that he knew would be there. It was Juan and we realized that we had seen each other before. And then the day on the street. Is this guy supposed to teach me something? He is an incredible guy. He's an anthopologist with a doctorate who speaks perfect English and recently taught at Indiana University. In January, he'll be teaching at UC Berkley. And before that he has an interview with Mel Gibson to talk about his recent movie, Apocalypto. The movie is about the Mayans and Juan is Mayan. I'm interested to hear about it (we traded emails) and to read his masters thesis about Xochempich. After Juan and I parted ways, I decided I was going to walk home from the zoo (about an hour or so) because I had the time and I wanted to talk a few last pictures. I was about half way there when a van pulled up beside me and someone shouted my name. It was Alicia, a girl I had met when I went to Diego's church with him. She asked me if I wanted a ride but I told her I was enjoying walking and promised that I could ride the bus if I changed my mind. That night when we went for a later dinner at Chilis, she was there! How weird! On that last night Paulina and I went out for iced coffee and then met up with Diego and Nelson for dinner. We drove around in circles for almost an hour before deciding where to go (this is normal for them but it drives me crazy!!!). Ted was in Cancun for work so I had said goodbye to him the night before.

Pau and Diego at Chilis

At 4am on Thursday we woke up and called the boys to make sure they were awake and coming to take us to the airport. When they showed up, Ted got out! He had come back from Cancun. It was sooo nice to have all of my friends at the airport to send me off. I miss them all soooo much already!

Here are the pictures of Pau and I at the airport on the day that I arrived and the day that I left.

above: when I arrived, below: when I left. Yes, I wore the same outfit:)

On the plane from Houston to Merida I was sitting next to an older lady who I could tell was rich and probably divorced. I sneezed and she said, "Salud" which is like "bless you." I said "gracias" and she got so excited and asked me if I spoke Spanish and instead of saying "a little bit" like I usually do, I said yes:) Before the plane had even taken off I knew all about her. She has a huge house in Merida with air conditioning and a pool and she made me promise that I would come stay with her someday. She was serious. We had a great time talking and she said that my Spanish was great (which it's not but it's very much improved). This took my mind off the fact that I only had an hour to get through all the lines in Houston. That's right, in one hour I got off the plane, went through immigrations, collected my bags off the carousel (three suitcases and a backpack...), went through customs, put my two checked backs back on another carousel, went through security where they found a bottle of hot sause in my carryon suitcase that I had forgotten about and aparently had been missed in Merida, and barely made it on to my plane! Whew! For your reference, one hour is the absolute minimum layover time needed when reentering the country!

It's so nice to be back home and spend time with my family and friends. And to eat American food again! And to sleep in my bed! I will be leaving again soon though. I have to be in Chicago by 5pm on Tuesday to start my internship at the clinic there. It's a crazy summer but I'm having a great time and learning sooo much. It's great because many of the clients at the clinic speak Spanish so I'll get to keep practicing! When I get home I'm going to have to find a way to keep speaking- maybe a Spanish-speaking church?

I'll be back soon with stories of Chicago: in the US, but in a world that many people have never experienced. I know it will be a journey.