I'm in Mexico. Wait, what?

I'm starting up this blog again, for the soul purpose of documenting my soon-to-be awesome study abroad in Merida, Mexico!

Today was the first day of the six-week ordeal, spent on a plane for a painful amount of time. No, there was nothing like the 9-hour straight flight to Korea (check out my adventures there @ Serving Souls in Korea) but with the early morning takeoff at 5:40am and the two transfers in Denver and Houston, it was almost as terrible. If I'm being honest, the fact that the long flights have free movies, music, and games--plus meals to keep your stomach full--make up for the nonstop sitting. There's none of that on the shorter trips. 

The greatest moment of the trip was when I looked up as I was about to get on my last flight and saw other people from my group. That meant I had friends to go through Mexican customs with! What a relief. :D And customs was not even a big deal.

Here's my first view of my temporary home:

Now, we get to Mexico! I'm actually here, laying in a Mexican home with the fan going and my feet hanging off the end of the bed. The family I'm with seems amazing; the mother is helping us figure things out. She's the sweetest person. :)

I definitely noticed a lot of things that stand out in the culture/surroundings of Merida, Mexico. The purpose of me writing (hopefully everyday) is to both keep a record of my adventures and also to jot down culture differences. Here's the list for today:

• There are venders in the street--guys who will just walk up to your window while you wait for the light and ask you to buy their fruit/flowers/etc.
• The avocados here are huge! The size of about three in the US. And the inside is yellow, like in this picture. The outside is just a soft dark skin, soft enough to bite through, though I don't think they eat it. 
• I haven't seen enough of the city to know if there are any, but so far I have seen little to no sign of actual crosswalks with the walking-man light. It seems to be expected that pedestrians just jaywalk and make sure they don't get hit.
• I don't think carpets are common. The home we are staying at has completely stone flooring, even in the bedrooms. I'm still a little unused to walking barefoot on stone rather than carpet or wood.
• They sleep in hammocks! And not just any hammocks. These are hand-made (I'll have to find out what material), huge, and built in a way that makes them super compfy. They stretch across the bedroom at night, and are taken down during the daytime. Perfect for hot nights when you want a breeze to lull you to sleep.
• Locks exist all over the place: for the closets, drawers, and of course the doors. Also, the windows are covered on the outside with bars, so no unfriendly guest can get in.

• I will add one final observation, but I still don't know if this is an actual culture thing, or if it's just the family we are staying with. Their home is very spacious inside, with lots of room and not a lot of furniture to fill it up. Compared with a typical American home, it seems they have slightly less furniture and slighty larger rooms. So it makes for a lot of space. I'll update further about this once I've visited other homes and seen how they look.

So yes, today was a full day with a lot of new things to see and hear. I am actually able to have conversations with our "mom" but still feel like a simpleton. However, I can tell that it will come quickly. :) Now that I am writing this, I feel excited for what is to come! Although, I'm pretty sure I had a little bit of homesickness/culture shock earlier today. Okay, maybe slightly more than a little bit.

I was exhausted, though I didn't realize it. So here I was going off of adrenaline, and then right about the time it wore off, I saw a friend's post on Facebook that made me go absolutely crazy with despair and a little (or a lot?) of jealousy.Which then started a downward emotional spiral 'till I got to the point that I just wanted to give up and not do anything at all, just lay there and feel sorry for myself until I went to sleep. Talking in Spanish suddenly became extremely hard to muster the will or strength for, and I almost started crying at the ATM when I couldn't remember my pin. This is so not like me that I can only pinpoint it down to one thing: I'm homesick.

But, I also attribute my homesickness to the fact that I haven't gotten any substantial sleep in the past week. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow morning I will be ready to enjoy this ride like nothing else!

Sidenote:
We have a cat. Not only do we have a cat, but she just had three kittens YESTERDAY. !!! And they are the cutest little gatitos in the world! I was happy beyond belief to see them. Also, there are three dogs and a guinea pig. :)