Week 7: Todavía, después de México, no puedo bailar

So I'm nearing the end of my journey here, so I made sure this weekend was chock-full of fun!

Thursday we had a talent show for our group. Our directors invited the whole ward, and I guess they all invited their friends… Because the chapel was over-full and a good amount of people were standing! I don’t really have any talents that are show-able, and some other girls felt the same, so we got together and did a yoga skit… But people laughed, so that was a success!

Friday we went as a group to a Henequen factory. We saw how they make Henequen out of the plant. The best part was this Mayan man that was just adorable! He told us about Henequen and how to plant it and whatnot. Then he did this awesome secret handshake with a few of us and said a couple salutations in different languages! IT WAS SO CUTE! I wanted to just take him home with me…

We went to the cenote there and swam for a bit. It was so much fun! There weren’t very many people and it was super cool!

That night we finally made it to the juego de pelota! IT WAS SO COOL! It wasn’t exactly what I thought, but I got this really cool video of them playing hockey with a ball on fire:

And us with the players!

Afterward, Kate and I went out for dinner with Kevin and Emilio. We got sushi! I got California rolls with salmon in them… But the salmon was raw. It was gonna be my first time eating raw fish… I just tried not to think about it, and it wasn’t terrible. Not my preference since slimy isn’t really my thing, but I ate it!

Saturday was SO much fun! We went on an excursion to some caves that the ancient mayas used back in the day. Like the women who couldn’t have children would climb through the caves in order to worship a god in a specific area of the caves so that they would be blessed with fertility. They had to travel through these really, REALLY tight and narrow passages that, for us, were impossible to get through without help. Don’t ask me how they did it just with lighting from torches! 

We had to wiggle through a lot of narrow and tight spaces on our stomachs, quite literally like worms. Inching myself along and getting scraped wasn't exactly the most fun...

We also climbed up ropes, slid down rocky slopes, and saw a bunch of sculptures! It was totally worth all the bruises and battle wounds! We got really muddy and smelly and it was super duper scary, but it was really the coolest!

Later that night, we went Mambo Café to dance, FINALLY. Emilio took Kate, Anita, Eric, a chica here named Ale, and myself. We had been wanting to go so much!

At the beginning there were free salsa lessons, so we jumped on in and learned some salsa moves. After a decent amount of people came, we got paired up with partners. My partner was a guy named Alberto and I think he was about my age, maybe a little older. I apologized in advance because I knew I was gonna have problems. I don’t know hardly anything about salsa, so I was kind of struggling. He was a good teacher though, and super patient!

After the lessons ended, he asked me to dance some more and we probably danced for a good half hour. I felt bad since I was still having issues, but he was super nice! Then Emilio swooped in to “save” me, which was fine since I didn’t want Alberto to feel obligated to keep dancing with me haha.

Later on, close to midnight, there was a live Cuban band, and DANG, could those guys dance! It was crazy! Mambo was tons of fun, and I’m so glad we got to go!

Sunday was our last time at church here in Mérida... It was a little sad! 
We got a picture of most of us in front of the sign:

After church Kate and I decided to go to the beach. Sundays at the beach are crazy! They have a huge stage set up with a DJ and dancers… Not to mention the beach was the most crowded I’ve ever seen a beach crowded before. Given beaches in Oregon aren’t visited super often… But for 4^th of July they’re pretty crowded!

Sam and Mario met us there, and we stayed long enough to see the sunset, and got some pretty great pictures! It was so gorgeous!

When we headed back to the bus stop to take us back to Mérida, THE LINE WAS SO LONG.  There were switchbacks and it wrapped around… We ended up being in line for a little over an hour. We had some good bonding time though!

Today I got a super long e-mail from Elder Gibby! I was so super excited because since I wasn't in class today, I got to read the e-mail RIGHT when he sent it! :D

So Elder Gibby was an assistant for 3 days! They taught, organized, and did normal assistant stuff for the most part. While he was there, he found out that the rumors of American girls coming to Oaxaca are true! They're coming starting in October. Sooo, it's a possibility I might get called there, but he said he wouldn't wish that on me. And if we were in the same mission, we couldn't write each other at all! I'm pretty sure I won't get called there, but even that .009% possibility stresses me out a little bit, you know?

He also had the wonderful experience of eating tacos made out of cow brain! Not as savory as tacos arabes, I'm positive. He says that he's developed a new talent of swallowing whole bites of food without chewing. I think it's come pretty handy with the icky foods he's had to eat.

He doesn't eat much in Oaxaca since the food is so… Different. He's already lost 25 pounds. Aren't missionaries supposed to gain weight on their mission?? Crazy boy.

Awh, I can’t believe I’m leaving in less than 48 hours…

I’ve made so many amazing memories here, and I’m not ready to go back yet…

735 Days Left! :)