my birthday in november..same day as brittanys

This is the cutest and saddest birthday cake I’ve ever eaten.  It’s a cheesecake with strawberries and whipped cream. It’s from my family here in Mérida because they’re not going to be with me on my real birthday. They told me to eat a lot so that I could keep the flavor with me until April. I’m really glad my papá shoved my face in the cake because it prevented any tears from leaving my eyes. I cannot believe I’m really about to leave this place forever. Well, sure I can come back to Mérida. But the experience of really being a daughter and part of this family…that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to revisit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

thanksgiving in mexico

Here is my most recent funny story.

( I haven’t written for some time,  but when I found out that Grandma Marlene checks my blog daily / really often, I decided to write another post!)

Last night in honor of el día de acción de gracias or thanksgiving , some of us students from calvin got together and cooked an entire thanksgiving meal for 24 people.

One of the things we cooked was stuffing, relleno. It was really tasty the night of the dinner, but over time for some reason, it started to get really soggy. Well I brought some home with me excited to have my family here try some “Traditional American Food”. Since everyone was sleeping, I put it in the back of the refridgerator, showered in icy cold water (which im finally getting the hang of), and went to bed.

Today, after a nice little nap in my hammock, my family woke me up to eat.

“Oh, I have some food for you guys to try!” I tell them.

“Oh... the vomit? Your mamá asked me earlier if maybe you came home last night and got sick in a bag and decided to put in the refridgerator” my papa tells me.

 

So of course my papá was kidding, but it really did look like vomit today! My family plopped it out on a plate and took the smallest bites I’ve ever seen them take of any food. “oh, yeah it’s pretty good.”

 

After eating lunch my dad took out some postre, dessert, from the fridge and my hermano who hadn’t touched his food wanted some. “No” my mom said “you didn’t eat your lunch, you didn’t try alexa’s vomit, you cannot have dessert”.

 

It has become the joke of the day.

 

And yes, vomit is now the mental image of American Thanksgiving for my family.

 

Haha, not really. But it made me laugh pretty hard, all of this.

 

Love you all!!

 

Alexa

Vamos a ver chac

Hey all, life is real crazy here, I'm doing my best to trust in God and not let my stress control me, and I love Merida. That about sums up my last week and what's to come. Also lots of headaches, but i think i fixed them with some water.

In other news, our maestra here told us not just once, but twice to copy and paste info from the internet in homework. That's never happened to me in my 16 years or so of education. It's pretty funny. But we still have a TON of work to do. 

Also, here is my blog post for the calvin blog. Really you should check it out, it's fun to read what other students have to say. And there are some good pics. Theres a link on the left of this blog:

Hey all!

This morning I woke up shivering in my hammock and actually had to put on a sweater to eat my breakfast of hotdogs, mayonnaise, and coffee. Some later investigation revealed that it was actually about 70 degrees F this morning…Michigan’s sure going to be quite the weather shock for us when we return!

I know I’m repeating some of what others have already said, but as we are approaching the end of our time here, I really want to share a bit about what a blessing our families here in Mérida have been. This story is a bit outdated, but it still remains one of my best memories of my time here. In October there was a 50^th anniversary party for some of our abuelitos (grandparents) here in Mérida, who also happen to be parents of Maria. Well, to our surprise, a few of us Calvin girls were invited to sing a song dedicated to our grandparent (parents) during the anniversary! How fantastic.(Also fantastic is what was written in the bulletin for the ceremony: "The participation of the American Ladies" :] ) We also got to walk down the aisle with our families to begin and conclude the ceremony.I truly felt like I was a genuine part of my family that night. I can’t put into words how incredible it feels to be invited to be a part of something so special. The love that we receive from our host families here is truly extraordinary. We are really going to miss them!

Please keep us in your prayers as we're all trying to balance spending time with our family and friends here in Mexico while working on the many projects, essays, and exams that we have to complete before the end of the semester (which for us is December 2 - and then we head off onto our two week long viaje (trip) around Mexico!). Gracias :)

Alexa Hook