la vida loca: crocs, floods, and landslides

It's been a whirlwind past few weeks, and I know the coming weeks will be a whirlwind too! I've put off writing for awhile, but I find myself in my favorite cafe Blintz drinking an ice coffee and eating a brownie fresh out of the oven topped with ice cream and raspberry sauce! So, if that doesn't motivate me, the email from my mother suggesting that I blog today sure does (hi mom!) Here is a recap of the rest of March...

On Friday, March 16 my sister Ana Julia graduated from University. Her degree is in Judiciary and Social Sciences. I'm not exactly sure if that means she is a lawyer now or if she's going to study law in the future. I've asked so many times but still confused as ever. After the ceremony they had a huge dinner celebration with about 50 guests at a hotel near Parque Central. It was so fun meeting all the extended family and hanging out with her friends. The celebration continued past 1 am - definitely great bonding time. Saturday we celebrated Kirsti's birthday at Smoothies Rum. We are getting good at celebrating birthdays down here! School at the U as well as Celas Maya continues as usual. I am getting used to many different accents and personalities as we continue to switch teachers at Celas every two weeks. I have absolutely loved every teacher I've had - so lucky in that way! My spanish continues to improve by the day as I practice at school and with my family.

Last Wednesday we headed out on a group excursion to Mexico in order to renew our passports and relax a little (or so I thought). The theme of confusion continued as I'm not exactly sure where we went or how I feel about what we experienced. That being said, it was so much fun crossing the border and being in a different country. Our main destination was San Cristobal de las Casas. The trip from Xela took about 9+ hours in total including our time spent in immigration. The bus ride went pretty well thanks to the Dramamine supply. Crossing into Mexico was interesting as the 50ish year old border agent was feeling extra flirty. He stared at me for about five minutes as I nervously awaited my stamp. When he finally said something to me it was "tu eres muy guapa" = "you are very beautiful". Thank you senor now please give me my passport back! Other people had similar stories, and I think he even gave Brooklynn his number. Oh Mexico. Thursday we headed to the community of Las Abejas in Acteal. In 1997, 45 people were massacred as they attended a prayer meeting by the paramilitary group called Mascara Roja. On the 22nd of every month they hold a commemoration of the events so that they will never forget what happened. We attended the commemoration service which lasted over 2 hours and included a variety of things that I'm not exactly sure about. I suggest further reading about this community and the event. Friday we had the opportunity to visit a community of Zapatistas (EZLN), a community based in the state of Chiapas. The community we visited was located about 4 hours from our hotel in San Cristobal in a pueblo that I did not and still don't know the name of. The visit was very interesting and confusing because I was not really sure what was going on the majority of the time. We had to wait to be let in as the community members discussed our presence. We had to give our passports and state our reason for the visit. I suggest further reading on the Zapatistas and the Zapatista movement as well. All in all a good experience but it left me exhausted and confused.

Saturday was a bit more relaxed as we first headed to el Cañón del Sumidero. It was so fun to be on the water in the sun just enjoying the scenery. We ended up spotting not one but 5 crocodiles on the water! We got back to our hotel about 2pm and it started raining really hard. It even hailed for quite sometime. To our surprise the hotel started to flood... first just minor leaks from the ceiling, but then things took a turn for the worse as the common area started to look like a scene from Titanic. We rushed to help them move the furniture to higher ground and soon realized that one of our rooms (not mine though) was taking on water rapidly. The mattresses were soaked and the floor was covered in water. Some of us decided that we were too hungry so we hailed a taxi, got in, and realized that the streets were literally rushing with water like the river we had been at hours ago. Well the driver didn't seem too concerned about the rain so the seven of us in the cab told him to take us to the main square. After spending about 30 minutes in the cab/boat we were told that we wouldn't be able to drive near the park so he took us back to the hotel where we found mattresses drying on tables in the lobby and people frantically moving from room to room trying to keep their things dry. It was all very "Day After Tomorrow" like. The rain cleared up at about 4 so we all went out in the beautiful town of San Cristobal and did some major shopping quickly before dinner. The stores all had such cool things ranging from posters and jewelry to handmade recycled paper products - FUN!

By the time we left Sunday morning everyone was already exhausted for a 10 hour trip back. Luckily we had just enough time to grab some delicious coffee before boarding the bus. We met our lovely friend again at the border, and thankfully this time it went much smoother. Things got interesting once again when we ran into landslide clean up on one of the roads. We waited over two hours to be able to pass and when we finally did, I looked ahead and saw some dirt trickling down the hill. As we got closer it started to slide faster, and by the time we passed boulders the size of our bus tires were about an inch from hitting our bus. Don't worry mom, we are all okay! But...we were the last vehicle to pass (and barely). Closer than I ever want to be again to a landslide. I wonder how long it took to clean that up...

And here I am, back in Xela my lovely home for only about 1 month more. This week has been weirdly stressful as registration for my senior year (yikes!) was on Monday and I'm having to think more and more about summer and "the future". Saturday we leave on our spring break trip to Honduras and I could not be more excited. When we come back we have more birthdays to celebrate and Xela to enjoy. My dad and older sister Beth have booked their tickets to Guatemala and will be arriving in Xela around May 7. All in all, I am one lucky girl and have every reason to smile.