Los primeros días

I arrived in Mérida late Saturday night and was met at the airport by my host mom, “Mama Bojo.” I am staying with the Bojorquez Molina family. Mama Bojo and her husband Roberto are just a few years older than my own parents (so young!), and their children have all finished school, started families, and spread out across the globe: Mexico, the U.S, Spain. Roberto owns a local Italian restaurant, Restaurante Bernardi (I’m told we will eat there sometime later this week!).

Since I was pretty tired from my long day of traveling, Mama Bojo gave me a very quick tour of the house before showing me my room and letting me get some sleep. My family has una casa abierta – an “open house” – with a sort of interior courtyard and many large windows that open to el aire fresco. My room is pretty wonderful...take a look!

View from my little balcony! The 2 o'clock rainclouds are gathering -- it's the rainy season here (la época de lluvia).

Sunday was a long day of orientation activities. At nine in the morning, Mama Bojo drove me to IFSA-Butler’s Mérida office (just a 15 minute walk from my house) where I met up with all of the other students to review information about health, safety, and academic expectations during our time in Mexico. We took a break at 1 pm to go home for lunch; I ate with one of Mama Bojo's neighbors, Silvia, who is also hosting a student. My favorite part of the meal was the horchata, a sweet, iced drink made from rice, almonds, and tigernuts – the perfect way to cool off during the hottest part of the day!

After a little siesta, we headed back to la oficina at 4 for even more orientation. This segment focused on host family relationships, and was actually pretty entertaining. Basically, we listened to two hours of anecdotes about what NOT to do as a guest. I figure as long as I don't come home intoxicated at 3 am, make myself three PB&Js, leave the food out and the front door wide open, pass out on the couch, and let a stray cat wander in and track peanut butter paw prints all over my family's pristine sofas, I'll be OK. (Yes, that actually happened once and no, the family never hosted again.)

Today I woke up early to go for a short run before the day’s activities began. Mérida has TONS of parks – literally every five blocks or so – and it was so nice to enjoy the outdoors before the heat set in. At 8am our group headed downtown to get our bus transportation cards and our IDs for la Universidad Autónoma de Yucantán (UADY). At 10am we went on a guided bus tour of historic downtown Mérida. I’ve already written too much, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking:

La casa de Montejo (the founder/conqueror of Mérida)

The largest avenue - Paseo Montejo - is lined with mansions  of various architectural styles: French, Moorish, Spanish colonial.

Some of the mansions have been converted into museums...

...but this one is still a private home!

Franciscan church

Fountain in the "New Maya" style

We stopped to visit this building -- it houses some type of Catholic religious order...not nuns...and the women don't actually live there...this was at the end of the tour and my brain was getting tired...

Chapel

                                               

And under the garden of this building...

...is a cenote, a underground pool of fresh, crystal clear water. Mayan priests would bathe here. 

How about we wrap this post up! After the tour we all returned to our homes for lunch (Mama Bojo made incredible mole, served with corn tortillas, rice, and beans) and rest. We met back at la oficina at 4 pm to take our language placement test (blegh). Classes start tomorrow at 8 am, so I'm off to bed! Now that you're all up to speed, I'll try to keep my future posts shorter and more focused ;) ¡Hasta luego!