Finally here...

Jan 14, 2008 at 8:27 PM
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This will be the first (and very beastly) post about my life while I am in studying abroad in beautiful Mexico. So I finally arrived in Mexico about a week ago and have already experienced and seen so much that I hope I will be able to recount it all soon.

The past week and a half has been absolutely crazy and I can not believe how much we have done since the morning of January 2^nd when everyone first arrived at the Barn and our semester abroad officially began. During our time at the Barn there was a lot of preparation for the semester ahead of us. We dove right into lecture on amphibians and reptiles as soon as lunch was over and began our series of pre-quiz quizzes the very first night. Over the next days spent in the Barn we were woken up early in the morning and spent the majority of the time was devoted to working on our tropical biology projects and learning our taxonomies. It was a very intense way to begin the semester starting the day after new years and to leave home, family and friends so quickly after a break of only a little more than two weeks and already be working on one of the major projects of the semester, but I am glad that we had the time to begin working on it so that way I can use my time in Mexico to experience new things and go out and see everything and do as much as I possibly can. The four days in the Barn also allowed me to get to know everyone else going on the trip, because we were together all the time and were always busy. In the little free time we had at the barn we went on hikes with the Dawleys around the barn area where we learned the tropical biology essential skill of walking across a frozen pond. The trek across the pond was probably one of my favorite parts of the Barn experience and is a good representation of this trip for me. I want to push my limits and do things that I normally might not and just experience all that I can and all that is offered to me. One of my other fond Barn memories was when a member of the family vespertilionidae (a plain nosed bat) got into the Barn and flew through the living room while we were watching the movie “Sin Dejar Huellas” in the dark causing the majority of the room to scream and Robert to put together his handy net.

Our time in the barn came to an end at 3:00am Sunday morning when we departed from Mensch Mills, began our drive to Ursinus and then to the airport. Leaving the Barn filled me with a mix of emotions. I was overwhelmed and excited, exhausted but hyper, stressed out but still calm in some ways. I could not believe that the day had finally come and that I was actually leaving…I was going to Mexico…I was studying aboard… I was leaving home for 3 months…I am going to be doing amazing things and seeing sites I never thought I would…these are the thoughts that rushed through my head as I sat there silently on the bus rushing down a dark road in the early hours of the morning bringing me closer to the biggest adventure and challenge I have ever undertaken in my life. Change has always been hard for me and this was going to be huge. One of the strangest things about going to the airport was the drive on 476 south. To get to the airport from Ursinus we essentially had to go through my home area. It was very strange to be on the road and see the exits that I had been familiar with my whole life, including the exits that would take me to my high school, and exit 9 for my town, Havertown. It was weird to be passing everything that was so familiar to me and know that I was leaving it all behind. I have never been this far away from home and have never been away from home for this long.

After we got to the airport around 5:30am I felt better. It finally hit me that we were going and that this was actually happening and I was filled with more excitement and anticipation. At the airport everyone waited by breaking off in to groups doing their own thing, we grabbed food, people made phone calls, some slept or studied, and a group went over to terminal B where their was wireless internet. When it came time to board the plane everything about it just felt surreal. I was ready to go when we plane started to leave the gate but was quickly dismayed when the pilot announced that we were to be delayed and that we would just have to sit on the ground for a few more minutes. When we were given clearance for take off I was relieved and looked out the window as our speed increased and we finally lifted off the ground. To me there if nothing like the take off of a plane, it’s my favorite part of flying. As we ascended into the sky I took my final glimpse at Philadelphia.

The flight went well and I used the time to rest, study taxonomies and look out the window. At the first sight of the Mexico mainland I could not believe how beautiful the blue ocean looked and I was amazed at how green with trees the land was with little disruption of roads. It was strange to compare the way Mexico looked to way that Philadelphia looked as we flew over it. It was in the plane flying over Mexico that I realized that we were finally there, this semester that we have been preparing for was actually happening.

The air was warm when we got off the plane and embarked on our three month adventure. It took a while for us to gather our luggage and get through customs but once we reached our bus we were on our way. On the bus we met our tour guide Hugo began to tell us about how Cancun had been a mechanically picked tourist location. We were taken to a restaurant in the city of Cancun, not the beach location. It seemed unbelievable that I had woken up in the barn in the middle of a Pennsylvania winter and was standing in the warm tropical sun in Mexico just hours later. The restaurant we went to for lunch was beautiful with an open courtyard in the center and had a buffet with a variety of Mexican dishes to try. I had some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had at that restaurant.

By the time we finished lunch and loaded back into the bus everyone was exhausted. I passed out before we even left the city and did not wake up until the sun was almost setting and we were well on own way traveling on the highway to from Cancun to Merida. The whole bus was silent and dark and everyone I could see drifted in and out of sleep. The highway was different from any highway I had ever been on in my life. The highway was narrower than they are at home and all I could see from the windows was just dense trees. When the sun actually set it was pitch dark out with no lights on the road except those coming from other cars. The darkness seemed really intense as we continued to our destination.

When we reached Merida I did not know how to react or what to expect. I was excited to finally be there but I was also nervous about meeting my host family, and worried about being able to find my way around this strange new city that I knew very little about. It was surreal when we actually pulled up to Pasejo de Montejo, the main boulevard of the city, where we were to meet our families. The Pasejo looked like a winter wonderland, even though it was 70+ degrees, and decorates with so many lights and decorations for Christmas that is was simply breathtaking and amazing.

When we got off the bus there was a crowd of families anxious to pick up their students and calling out names every time someone stepped off the bus. I was glad to receive a warm welcome from my host-mom Senora Gomez and her grandson Felix who immediately gave me and Danielle a welcoming hugs and helped us load our luggage into the car. Senora Gomez reminded me of a kind grandma as soon as I saw her and I was instantly relieved to some degree. I was even more relieved to learn Felix was fluent in English which helped compensate the fact the Senora Gomez does not speak any English. Instead of taking us right home Senora Gomez and Felix took us on a brief driving tour around the area by our house and tried to tell us good places to go. The car ride was a little frustrating as I realized just how rusty my Spanish was when Senora Gomez would try to talk to us and we would try to respond. I had been so exhausted from the whole day that I just couldn’t switch my brain into Spanish mode and had trouble trying to communicate in Spanish.

Our house is a nice size and Danielle and I share our own room and bathroom. Our house also has a pool and a nice upstairs balcony that is just beautiful at night. After we had taken our stuff to our room, we continued to make conversation with our new family over pizza for a few hours. We talked about where we were from, our families, what we like to do, showed them pictures from home of our families and learned about them. Senora Gomez is a widow with three grown children and nine grandchildren, two grandsons live in the house and go to school in Merida. Once again dinner was another challenge in Spanish speaking but we were able to communicate and understand each other for the most part. By the time we had made it up to our room to go to bed we were exhausted and easily fell asleep. That was probably the first time I’ve ever been able to fall asleep fast in a new place, even though my mind was full of thoughts of disbelief that I was actually in Mexico, not even those thoughts or questions about the rest of the trip could keep me from falling asleep.