Food, Familia, and a Few Frustrations

(Wrote this yesterday, but just now posting today. Sorry!)

Phew! Even though this first week of classes was only four days long, I am completely exhausted and more than ready to begin my first full weekend in Mérida. My church youth group used to start each meeting by sharing “highs and low;” here’s a (not so?) quick list of some high and low points of my first week:

HIGH. The food! Meals in Mérida (or at least in my host home) work a little differently than meals back in the States. Lunch, for instance, is the biggest meal of the day and is always eaten as a family. It’s also served a little later in the afternoon – I arrive home from the University around 1pm each day and sit down to lunch with my family between 1:30 and 2. On Tuesday, Mama Bojo prepared Puerco con frijoles…and beamed when I ran to my room to grab my camera. I’m usually not one for snapping photos of every meal I eat, but in this case I couldn’t resist:

Mama Bojo repeatedly emphasizes how she wants to expose me to as many Yucatecan dishes as possible. “This meal,” she says at each lunch, “es muy de acá,” – is very “from here.” Yesterday, we had an Arab-Yucatecan dish: kibi and arroz con lentejas. (Apparently Mérida has a large Arab population, but I wasn’t quite able to catch the historical explanation for their immigration…) Needless to say, the late hour, delicious food, and Mama Bojo’s insistence on large servings cause me to completely stuff myself at every lunch. I make up for it at breakfast and dinner, though, which are much lighter and more individualized. My family usually eats these meals separately, fixing ourselves whatever we want, whenever we want. Because of the huge lunch, I don’t have dinner until close to 9 pm, when I eat some fruit and make a sandwich…or warm up some unbelievable enchiladas that Mama Bojo pre-prepared and stuck in the fridge.

LOW. My History of Mayan Civilization and Culture class. It’s not that it’s a bad class, it’s just a little tougher than I expected. I’m taking two classes here at the university, the Mayan history class and an advanced Spanish language class. While my Spanish class is only for students in the IFSA-Butler program, my history class is open to any UADY student – meaning the teacher speaks at a pace and vocabulary level appropriate for native Spanish speakers. This is a little challenging for me, to say the least. After two hours of attempting to simultaneously read Spanish PowerPoint slides and keep up with my teacher’s speaking, I usually leave the classroom with a faint headache. My mood doesn’t improve much when the class’s reading assignments (the last one was 60 pages) eat up most of my afternoon. I’ve reached the conclusion that, if I want to have the time to get to know Mérida like I should, I need to get a whole lot faster at reading Spanish…or be a little less thorough about completing the assignments. Ah, time management! I know this class will turn out to be extremely beneficial to my Spanish – I’m already understanding more of the lectures each day – but at least for now, it’s not my favorite part of the day.

OK, that was a sad, whiny paragraph so it’s time for another HIGH: my Spanish language class! My teacher, Astrid, is fantastic. She’s extremely patient, and has done a great job of creating a classroom environment where everyone can feel comfortable speaking up and making mistakes. Spanish in general has been a HIGH/LOW for me this week. I love the constant exposure to the language, but it’s been frustrating to realize just how far I have to go. While I’m improving with each day, I still have a hard time following everything that my host parents say to me, and my speaking skills are even worse than my listening. My brain feels incredibly relieved whenever I take a break from mental verb conjugations and switch to English with a fellow IFSA-Butler student. I’m trying not to get too discouraged after just one week, though!

One last HIGH. While the whole “Spanish-is-hard” thing can make interacting with my host family a little stressful at times, it has been really exciting to get to know them better over the last week. On Tuesday afternoon, my host dad Roberto took me with him to run a few errands around town. I got a tour of his Italian restaurant (the latest in a series of restaurants he’s owned over the years), and then we stopped by a pandería pick up some bread for lunch. As we drove around, he told me a little more about his family and career. From what I gathered, before he got into the restaurant business he was a guitarrista and traveled with his bandmates around Mexico, the U.S, and France (I think?). He still practices most afternoons after lunch (the perfect background music for my daily siesta!). Once back from our errands, we flipped through his family photo album together, and I pulled up some pictures of my family and friends on my computer. Overall, it was just a really nice afternoon of learning a little more about each other. Both of my host parents seem so interesting – I can’t wait for my language skills to improve so that I can understand more of what they share with me!

That’s all I have for now! My program goes on its first “excursion” this weekend to nearby Celestún, so check back on Monday for a post with lots of pictures of mangroves! :)