A look from the other side of the camera

The theme of my blog this year seems to be firsts, so here goes one more.  Today I had my first modeling experience.  Yes, me.  modeling.  Not at all what I expected to be doing on a normal Wednesday night. 

Anyways, the people at my work asked me to model for a salon because the salon wants to put an advertisement in our magazine but they don't have anything designed.  I agreed to go get my hair stylized so that we would  have pictures to include in their advertisement.  Little did I know just what I was getting myself into.

I've been to a few of the events with my work, but I've always been the one helping take the pictures, not the one in front of the camera.  However, the whole modeling thing started out pretty easy.  First, they took pictures of me getting my hair straightened.  Then the owner decided that we should get pictures of everything the salon has to offer so I got a manicure and my makeup done. Everything was smooth sailing up until this point.  Then it started to get a little weird.

I had to pretend like I was getting my hair washed and shampooed, even though we didn't do the real thing.  Then they covered my hair in plastic wrap and stuck me under a dryer so it looked like I was getting my hair dyed.  Finally, to top it all off, they had me lay down in the waxing room so they could pretend to wax my eyebrows and my upper lip, all the while snapping away pictures.  I really hope they don't end up putting those pictures into magazine.  At least if they do, I won't be here to see the magazine come out!

My Lesson of the Day: If there is any model out there who can make getting their lip waxed, I would like to meet her.

Are you reading what I'm reading?

Throughout my time here in Mexico I have seen a lot of funny signs in spanish.  For example,  a sign next to a cenote said "If you don't know how to swim, don't get in the water."  Another personal favorite are the signs on the side of the road that instruct drivers to "obey the signs."

However, nothing can top the number of signs I have seen here in English.  Before I write down some of the best that I have seen, I want to first let you know that I am in no way trying to make fun of those learning english.  There are great number of people here that speak english better than even I do.  That being said, most of these signs do make me laugh because they are written poorly in english.  Secondly, I want to add that I have photo proof  of all of these signs.  I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried!

Ok, here it goes.

Inside of a cenote, a sign in spanish saying "dear visitor, wet stones are slippery.  Walk at your own risk"  was translated into "dear tourist,  wet stone are slepering.  thank you."

In the same cenote another sign in spanish saying "walk at your own risk" was translated two different ways: "precautions tourist, take care of your self" and "friend visitor, walk easily."

Walking up the stairs of a hostel, the low ceiling read: "Be careful.  Down Head."

In the bathroom, a sign telling people not to throw toilet paper into the toilet (yes, you don't throw it in the toilet) was translated to "Do not pull out the garbage in the toilet."

At the waterfalls there was a sign that read "Dangerous not to swim."  It was right next to the spanish version saying "dangerous to get in the water."  It was a little confusing to those who were bilingual and very dangerous to those who only spoke english.

Finally, my favorite of them all was not really a sign at all.  It was a list of rules that we found on the back of our hotel door.  I'll type out the list word for word, letter for letter and let you decide for yourself what they are trying to say.  Honestly, I can't even figure out a few of them.  Here they are, the hotel's rules:

1. The guest don't get in alcoholic drunks into the room.

2. The hotel is not responsible about values objects or documents lost into the room if these aren't protected on the hotel's reception.

3. If the guest is surprised doing a bad use into the room; painting walls or breaking an furniture, it will pay.  Please avoid us to report to you to the municipal's autorities.

4. If the guest lost the room's key, it cost will be $65 pesos mn.

5. If the guest take any thing of the room, like: towels, sheets, etc., it will pay double of its price and will be notified to the municipal's autorities.

6. If the guest smoke or inhale any toxic substance, will be reported inmediately to the municipal's autorities.

While all the rules are good, my personal favorite is rule number 3.  

I realize that some of you may not find these mistranslations funny at all.  I however can laugh because I know that I make the exact same mistakes when I translate into spanish.  The only difference is that I would check to make sure I had everything right before printing it on a large sign.

My Lesson of the Day: Some things just aren't easy to translate.

A despedida and a couple of caves

Saturday night we had our despedida, which is our farewell dinner with everyone in the program.  All of the students, the families and the teachers are invited to come to a dinner/dance/farewell to our time in Mexico.  This year marked the 30th year of OU's Programa Mayab so we had an excuse to celebrate a little more.

It was really nice to get together for dinner with the whole family and to see everyone from the program.  You can tell how much the families enjoy getting to spend time together.  I also enjoyed getting to see my mama and papa from last year, who I don't get to see nearly enough.

We spent Sunday by our newly filled swimming pool with all of the relatives.  We ate a picnic-style lunch and baked in the hot, hot sun.

Today (Monday) was a national holiday, which means no school or work in my case.  We decided to spend the day going to the caves of Calcehtok, which is Mayan for serpent's neck.  There are about 30 caves connected by intricate passageways, making these caves the biggest in all of the Yucatan.

The caves are located in the middle of nowhere, only marked by a small handwritten sign.  A guide can be found near the entrance and they are completely necessary if you want to make your way both in and out of the caves.  (Our guide told us a story about three guys that thought they didn't need a guide and ended up spending 3 days in complete darkness, during which they went crazy.)  We were certain to get a guide.  There were only 5 in our group so we joined up with another group of people to make 14 in all.  The guide

asked us which route to take: easy or extreme.  We chose extreme.

The first decent was pretty easy and very beautiful.  We took some before pictures to remember how clean we were going in because we knew we would be dirty after 3 hours in the caves.  If only I had known then how dirty we were about to get.

After getting further down into the caves, we lost the sunlight of the entrance and had only a flashlight each to guide our way through the complete darkness.  The guide took us deeper and deeper into the slippery cave system.  The further and further we got into the cave the more difficult each passageway between caverns became.  

At many points throughout the trip we had to squeeze between rocks, army crawl under passageways, climb up ropes and slide down muddy slopes.  It was certainly an adventure.  There were a few times where I didn't think I was going to make it through some of the

 passages. However, I would squeeze through only to have the guide tell us that the next passageway would be even smaller.  

All of the caves were really beautiful.  We saw cavern after cavern where our guide pointed out shapes formed by the naturaleza.  We also got to see many bats - some of which were vampire bats - a lot of their guano and a bunch of things left behind by the mayans who once inhabited the cave. 

Our guide also told us a lot about the Mayans who used the cave and the rumors of the Aluxes who still reside inside.  We weren't lucky enough to see any of these Aluxes, but who knows if they are out there.  

After 3 hours inside of the caves, a lot of our group was ready to head back up to sunlight.  The guide gave us three options:  1. we could take the tourist route  2. we could take an easy route OR 3. we could take the macho route.  Guess which one we took?

The macho route was also the quickest so we picked it.  It involved having us squeeze through what was the smallest passageway thus far.  And I mean squeeze through.  I really didn't think any of us would make it through but low and behold, we did and from there we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

My Lesson of the Day: I am definitely not claustrophobic. 

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th has always had that unlucky connotation.  I'm not sure whether it actually is unlucky or if we just have a certain movie to thank for its unluckiness, but regardless, we all associate Friday the 13th with bad luck.

I, however, have had the luck to spend the past two Friday the 13ths here in Mexico, where they aren't unlucky at all.  Thats right, our neighbors to the south believe that this fatefull day only falls on Tuesday the 13th, not Friday.  Isn't it funny how a different latitude can change all your luck?

If you need further proof that Friday the 13th is not unlucky, here in Mexico we filled up our pool today.    After spending almost 3 months down here and countless days lying out beside an empty hole in the yard, Margarita decided to fill the pool.  Why haven't they filled up the pool by now, you ask?  Well the answer is simple: here in Merida they believe that it is too cold this time of year to fill up their pools.  It is winter after all.  Even if winter means temperatures in the 90s.

My Lesson of the Day: Winter is winter which for me has always meant no pools.

Facing my fear

Yesterday (Thursday) I did something that I vowed I would never do here in Merida:  I drove a car.  And yes, on the street.  

It all started out like a normal day at work.  I was working on some of my projects and then I decided to go on some sales with two of my coworkers.  We headed off to the mall, which is where we were trying to sell ad space.  I know what you're thinking, and yes, my job is very tough. ;)  

Anyway, we spent the day at the mall and when it came time to leave, I had the keys in my hand.  I was joking around about how I was going to drive back and I got in the front seat, expecting to see a stick shift but much to my surprise it was an automatic.  I was really just kidding about the driving thing up until this point.  Then I realized that both of my friends were sitting in the car - seat belts on.  

I figured I might as well face up to to my fear of the Meridan streets and I stuck the key in the ignition.  Plus I figured that if I managed to find the only automatic car in Merida, it must have been a sign.

So I took off down the street and I drove all the way back to the office just fine.  I only gave my friends a near heart attack 3 times.  Really the driving wasn't too bad at all because it wasn't very far, it wasn't busy and I didn't drive very fast.  But let me tell you, those glorietas are not easier than stoplights!

My Lesson of the Day: When coming to a glorieta, there is only one rule: its my turn!

One monday, two worlds

On Monday we decided that we wanted to do a little shopping and take advantage of the exchange rate, which is now 15.5 pesos to the dollar.  First however, I took Linda to the marketplace to get some fresh fruit and of course to experience the Mexican marketplace.

We only ventured a little way into the marketplace because the fruit section is towards the entrance.  But even walking into the marketplace is like walking into a whole new world.  There is table after table of fresh fruits, spices and vegetables.  As you venture onward (the marketplace encompasses a whole city block) you encounter booth after booth of different or sometimes the same things.  There are several booths devoted to religious statues and

 many devoted to making tortillas and serving food.  As you walk around the market most of the outside booths are for non-edible items such as the traditional panama hats, books or shoes.  Then you head onwards towards the grain section, which is in very close proximity to the live pets section.  If you keep heading onwards you get to the back of the market, which is the meat section.  You can smell the meat section way before you actually see it.  The smell is revolting and unlike anything I have smelled before.  There you can get fresh - and I mean very fresh - chickens, pigs and other types of meat.  At one market there were people walking around 

with 7 or so whole, feathered but dead chickens dangling off each arm.  I've also seen people walking pigs on leashes that I imagine can only end up in one place later.  It is my personal belief that every person should experience the meat section of a Mexican marketplace because it either makes you appreciate what you eat or turns you vegetarian.  However, I decided to spare Linda from the meat section and we headed back out while we still had enough appetite to eat our food!

After having lunch at my house with the family we headed further North of the city to  my favorite shopping plaza: 

Altabrisa. Throughout the years the growing trend in the North is becoming more and more Americanized.  There have been several malls that have popped up, Altabrisa being the newest of them all.  This mall is extremely nice with high-end stores, some of which are too classy for even the Cincinnati area.  We shopped around for awhile but many of the stores were still too expensive - even when taking the exchange rate into consideration.

On our taxi ride home from the mall I joked around with Linda that in one day she was able to the two extremes of the Mexican culture.  We went from spending the morning in the crowded downtown marketplace to spending the evening in the high-end shopping mall.  You don't get much more different than that!

My Lesson of the Day: Distance doesn't really matter when separating two completely different worlds and as much as I hate this fact, its a sobering experience to see both in one day.

Cenotes, beaches and a familiar face

As I wrote before, one of my best friends, Linda, came down to visit me for her spring break.  I was eager to show another person around the Yucatan and show them all about my life here in Merida.

She arrived late on Friday, but not late enough to miss out on the night life here in the city.  I took her out for a few drinks at a cafe and then we headed to one of the many discos or anthros here in the city.  For her first mexican disco experience I chose Amarantus, a small but fun club thats not too far away from my home.  One of the things that amazes me about the clubs here is that they are all open bar.  You pay about 5 dollars and then drink the rest of the night for free.  (For guys it is a little more expensive to enter.)  They bring bottle after bottle of liquor to your table with various mixers and then you get to do the rest of the work.  No lines, no waiting at the bar, no paying for every drink. 

After a late night out, we woke up on Saturday and headed off to Cuzama, the site of three cenotes.  We road 

on a horse drawn truck to each cenote.  While this trip marked my fourth trip to these cenotes, I am still amazed at their beauty and mystery.  I wonder if I will ever tire of going there.

Saturday night we went out to one of the nice Mexican restaurants in the center of town for dinner and drinks.  After a long day of swimming in the Cenotes we turned in at about midnight, which is pretty early for a Saturday night here in Merida.

On Sunday we headed to Progresso, the nearest beach town.  While it doesn't 

quite compare to the Caribbean beaches, the beach at Progresso is still very pretty.  The water has a blue-green color that is unique to the area.  The palm trees and palapa huts (a small umbrella-like structure with a roof of palm leaves) make the beach atmosphere ideal for relaxing and taking in sun.  We also went out on a banana boat ride, which is tubing on a huge, yellow, banana-shaped raft that can hold up to 12 people.  The waves were decent sized.  I fell off twice, but so did just about everyone else.  It was an exciting end to our day at the beach.

From there we checked out Merida en domigo (on Sunday).  Every sunday the main square of town comes alive with people selling things, shopping, eating, dancing and enjoying the last day of the weekend.  We did some shopping at the small stalls before calling it a day.

My Lesson of the Day(s): Some places only get better the more you visit them.