He tenido la mejor fin de semana, fue muy divertido. This past weekend has been super in many many ways. Thursday started the epicness with a group trip to a cocktail bar called Bananas and then finished with poco loco. I really like a lot of people who are in the program, and I'm referring to Americans. They really make it so much fun and it's convenient because we all just help each other out and stay together. I have been loving all the food that my host mom has been giving me: arepas, pasta, pan de dulce, everything. I was surprised that they eat pasta a lot here I don't know why.
Anywho there have been a lot of Alvaro's friends in and out of our apartment the past couple of days. All week Krista and I have been hearing them practice their cello or violins because they have a big concert today (Sunday evening) that we all are attending. It's kind of nice to wake up to classical music that's actually really good, I mean they really practice a lot and truly love their instruments. Sometimes their music even enters my dream and I won't realize it until I wake up haha, crazy. I have been genuinely loving Merida more and more the longer that I am here. I can't believe that I've been here for 2 weeks. I don't think I've ever gone on a family vacation that has lasted as long as two weeks. Seriously though, my time here makes me want to travel to other places in the world so badly. I need to see Europe and Asia and definitely do some volunteer work in Africa. It's so cliche but the world really is incredibly vibrant. You don't realize how differently people live until you actually immerse yourself in it. Again I'm glad I took this oppurtunity and I would love to come back in the future.
Back to my weekend... Friday was a typical tourist day. A group of the girls in the program with a hand full of guys went to a really nice pool at a hotel in Central Merida to sunbathe and tomar el sol o broncear. Right as we put our towels down on the chairs and begin to lay out, it rains. I often forget that right now is Merida's rainy season but unlike the midwest it rains, stops, and goes back to beautiful weather. We finally got a good hour of sun and all of us girls were relaxed and happy when the strangest thing happened. Let me just add that at this point us gringas are used to being stared at. You walk down the street, people stare. You go to the grocery store or any public place, people stare. This day at the pool was no different than any other day that we've had in Merida, and of course people were staring. We receive attention because there are no blondes in South America and for some strange reason there are a lot of blondes in the program and EVERYBODY loves to notice us. Ok, so the staring at this point is not a problem, completely normal. The strange part was that a group of younger Venezuelans asked each one of us girls individually if they could take a picture with us. I'm not kidding all of us girls took at least 5 pictures with different youth members who were also at the pool that day. The group of boys would stand at the end of our chairs, while we were laying out, and ask to take one picture with us. Most girls, including myself, agreed but we soon realized that after one picture was taken, all of the other boys would need a picture with us as well. It was so weird. It was as if they had never seen girls with different hair before, let alone girls in general. My friend Zoe was laying upside down just sleeping and sunbathing, and she opens her eyes to find Venezuelans leaning over her asking over and over "Puedes tomar una fota conmigo!?!". I finally asked one of the boys why they all wanted pictures with us, and he said that it was because we were just so beautiful. He then continued to ask me how and why we all were so beautiful and I just said "No se, no hay una respuesta."
My friday concluded with Venezuelan pizza and a lot of lotion on all of the sunburn that I ended up having, even though it was for the most part cloudy that day. Saturday was very relaxing and included a trip to the mall for some good old shopping and then off to the Venezuela v. Canada Soccer game. The biggest difference that I saw between Venezuelan and American sports arenas is that the Venezuelan stadium didn't have half as many advertisements, and it also sold hardly any food. The soccer game was very fun and energetic and although I've never been to an official soccer game it was easy to follow what was happening on the field. The futbol game took up most of my Saturday night and I didn't have the urge to go out since the next day I would be paragliding. Speaking of which it was EPIC. Once some pictures are uploaded I will for sure post them on here. You literally fly, you are strapped to the front of a pilot and run off of a moutain until your parachute catches the wind, then you coast up in the sky and see a view that you'll probably never experience again. OMG. LOVED LOVED IT. It was very epic, but once you are floating in the sky it's more relaxing. I'll def upload those pictures once I can and post them but as for now necesito ducharme. In a little bit I'll be off at Alvaro and Diego's orchestra concert, then I'm looking forward to some nice peace and quiet while I write my spanish composition that is due tomorrow. Hasta pronto mis lectores.
Most of these pictures are from the first weekend: Camping and the Moutains.
p.s. feel free to leave comments :)
Glad to hear you are having fun and LEARNING. Also, as a journalism major, I must point out your epic use of the word "epic". Your writing is more as a columnist rather than as a reporter.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing more pictures. Does your host family have access to your blog? Are they going to visit Elmhurst? Have you started a small softball game down there? I bet you could make the Venezualean national softball team. Think about it Amelia. Also, stay out of Columbia.
Dad