7/4: Our Independence Day Celebration in Merida! :D

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! :)

Before I get into our mini-Independence Day party, I have to talk about the cool stuff we talked about in class today. See, on three days of the week every week I have a class I have the option of attending (aka it's not required for my level) called Yucateca Culture, and today it was especially awesome. We talked about the number system and writing system the anciant Mayans used (among other things, but I don't remember those as well because I was feeling kinda tired). I got a few of his slideshow images below.

The teacher even drew some of the Mayan characters up on the whiteboard, and he drew them so effortlessly I was floored! I wish I could draw that well, especially with a dry erase marker.

And now to 4th of July celebration stuff! ...Well, obviously since we're in Mexico, there wasn't any sort of party already going on to celebrate America's birthday. However, since we're a group of Americans (and one Canadian, namely Laura Payne [not Laurita]), we decided that we had to do a little something for our homeland while away from it. One of the guys found out that the local LDS institute was doing salsa dance instruction at 6 pm Merida time, so we decided to go to that then go buy American food from McDonald's or somewhere similar.

The plan was launched perfectly... except for the fact that Natalie and I overslept when we took a siesta after classes. See, classes ended at 1:30 today, and we had quite a bit of a walk/bus ride home, so we had a late lunch and slept. Unfortunately, though, I woke up shortly before 5 pm, the time our group was supposed to meet up, and Natalie woke up almost at 5 pm. We had issues with getting a bus AND getting my phone to work AND trying to actually get inside the building, so we didn't actually arrive until it was almost over. It was disappointing; it looked really fun. Maybe another week I can make it on time. I mean, just look at these pictures I took! Salsa dancing looks so fun, right? :)

The institute building is right next door to the LDS temple here in Merida, and both are an easy walk away from el centro. So, we walked to el centro and split up to get food from McDonald's and Burger King. I chose to go with the McDonald's group. Over there I found out that the food, even with the peso to dollar conversion, McDonald's food is just as expense in Merida as it is in the Orem/Provo area in UT. But hey, for the 4th of July it's ok, I think. :)

The McDonald's building itself was really small, like most of the stores in el centro are. We decided our group was too big to eat there so we bought the food to go and went to the park to eat it.

The group of us that went to McDonald's that day - plus the McDonald's workers that were there helping us out with our food (yes, my group is awesome enough to ask people that help us out to jump into our pictures :) )

Rachel (with her back turned), Ryan, Laurita, Laura, Morgan, and Cody after we all ate our fast food

Just chillin'

Chillin' some more :)

We went as a group to look at a few stores after chilling in the park, and we met some cool Mexican guys and hung out with them for a while, too. I couldn't understand a lot of what they said, but it was great listening to them talk with the others (mostly Ryan). Oh, and one of the stores we went into was Mayan themed, and there I bought a beautiful doll wearing a Mayan/Mexican style dress. I'm still trying to think of a good name for her... right now I'm thinking of calling her Maria Lucia, after my host mom, but I'm not sure on that, yet.

Anyways, yea, 4th of July was a great day! :)

Hasta la vista, ya'll!