Red Eyes, and Time Changes, and Layovers, Oh My!

Today was exciting to say the least.

One, because I am now OFFICIALLY in Merida.  Two because...have you ever tried to navigate the Mexico City Airport??  Talk about...exciting.  (But I'll get to that part in a little bit).

So, on June 23rd, I hopped on a flight for Atlanta at 11:45 PM with my good friend named Connor (whom I met in our preparation class prior to the trip - and boy was I glad to have someone with me on this 12ish hour trip).  Also known as a red eye flight.  For good reasons.  Let's just say, I managed to get about an hour and a half of sleep on a three hour flight.  Then we landed in Atlanta (here's the picture of the incoming flight. And my complementary blanket):

Here, as we hopped on a subway to get to our terminal, we ran into another fellow student on the same flight as us (her name is Claire - hope I spelled that right).  What's fun about our meeting is that she had been following us because we looked like we knew what we were doing.  What's ironic is we had hopped onto a train going the opposite direction of what we needed, so we ended up taking the long way around (what can I say?  It was 5 AM in the morning - though technically my body thought it was 3 AM, dern time changes).  Needles to say, we arrived at our gate eventually (much cultured from the history of Atlanta we saw as we walked to our gate) and slept.  On the tables.  In front of the gate.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Unfrotunately, I don't think any of us ended up getting any more sleep.  We eventually gave up on the idea and went and found a McDonald's (typical Americans) before boarding our next flight to Mexico City.

Well, on the flight, I watched Cinderella (the live action one.  It was all right.  Kinda slept through part of it), ate a ham and cheese breakfast roll, and filled out the paperwork for customs.  (That was fun, and slightly confusing).  After that 3 hour flight, we landed in Mexico and got to go through customs.  At first, we got in the custom line for the Mexicans (we misread the sign).  Luckily a Mexican walked up to us and was like, "Uh....this line is for Mexicans."  And you're obviously gringos (he didn't say it, but hey, I'm sure he was thinking it, lol).  So we shifted lines, made it through customs (the attendant there was pleased with my Spanish trying thing going on), got my passport stamped, then had to go through security (and also grab our luggage)...again.

This is where it gets dicey.  Apparently they randomized whose luggage gets checked.  Well, Claire and Connor got a green go after pressing the red button.  And I got a red.  So guess who go their luggage double checked?  Yep, me.  So I put my backpack and two suitcases on the lovely little conveyor belt thing.  And got another red.  So they had to open it up and check.  What's funny is the expression on their faces as they found the six ziploc bags of wintergreen mints.  The guy looked at me and was like, "Mints?"  And I was like, "Yes."  Definitely not drugs.  [Side note:  Though my freshman roommates would say differently,   Which makes this even better.  When I was a college freshman, I would sit and eat wintergreen mints like they were potato chips.  Normally I would do so when I was studying.  So one day, one of my roommates was like, "Are you just...eating those?"  And the conversation ended up with all three roommates agreeing that wintergreen mints were Rebecca's Cocaine].

Anyhoo, after all this, we ended up splitting up because Claire had to reprint her ticket.  So I went upstairs (I'd already been cleared else I would have gone with them) and had to go through security twice because I had water in my bottle.  Luckily, I didn't have to go all the way out.  The security person was like, "eh, just dump it in the trash" (I sincerely apologize to the custodian who had to deal with that trash bag).  So I finally made it through (basically winged it.  At one point one of the guys was like, "does anyone speak english?" because he thought I couldn't understand.  I understood, I just couldn't get my poor brain to figure out what to say).

So there I was, alone, trying not to look freaked out that I was alone in  Mexico City airport, completely lost.  (In the Mexico City airport, they only put the place of the flight, not the gate.  At least, for our flight that's how it was.  So looking at the kiosk, it said "T2" and I was like great....where's T2?  Because, on the different directional signs it only had the gate numbers, not the terminals.  *Sigh*).  Eventually, I ran back into Connor and Claire.  We ended up asking a flight attendent person, who gave us the gate number and directions.  The gate ended up being on the opposite side of where we were (of course).

After waiting around, and trying not to look too dead (see this here picture was taken at the Mexico City Airport.  I'm tellin' ya, three hours of sleep makes 12 hours of travel really, really, exciting):

We finally boarded the plane for Merida!  (On this flight, I watched finding Nemo.  And slept a little.  And tried to not panic over the turbulence and skidding as we landed).  Then...we arrived!  (The thing said it was 176 degrees Fahrenheit.  Luckily it was not that hot, or we would have melted.  But it was VERY hot and sticky.  Reminded me a lot of Missouri).

And our Mexican Mommas were there to greet us :)  We had to wait around for the rest of our crew to show up (for me, I just had to wait for my companion/roommate Christina).  Then Connor, Claire, and I parted ways and I left with my Mexican Momma and Christina.

We came to the house (I'll have to post pictures of that on another blog because I didn't take any pictures of the main part of the house today) and were shown our rooms (Notice the cool swan made out of towels, made by the maid):

And met the other members of the family - the husband and two daughters.  Then, before anything else was done, we ate.  (Some delicious rice, sauteed meat - I think it was lamb - and salad.  My stomach was not happy so I just had some rice and meat.  My MM [Mexican Mamma] said that if my stomach was ever upset to let her know, and then she'd make me soup for dinner :) )  Soon, a storm rolled in (it was AWESOME.  Like a true Missouri storm, except the rain was SUPER fine.  It was interesting) and cooled things off (which was nice).  And during that storm, Christina and I got acquainted with MM's two chiwawas (they were super sweet puppies, much different then my grandpa's chiwawa) and other dog (who looks like my dog Kip).  Then we unpacked.  Lazed round.  Went to the bank (Bank of America is awesome because here, I can exchange money with no commission fee at the Banco de Santender).  Showered (a cold shower has never felt SO nice).  Gave my gift to MM (a Missouri mug).  And headed off to bed (well, more like wrote this blog journal entry thing).

Special things of note:  

*Mexico does not have draining ditches.  So when it poured down rain, the street literally became a river.  The cars were passing through it and it covered the bottom part of their tire.  It's all drained now...but I have no idea to where).

*WiFi is awesome.  Because I got to tell my mom I was still alive despite not having cell phone service here.

*The bathroom door does not stay shut when the window is open and it's storming.  It blew open like, three times (well tried to, I caught it each time) when I was using it.  Luckily, it's just a private bathroom in our room.

*Mexican vendors roam the streets.  And even come up to you when you're parked at a red light.  (These are not the vendors with carts.  But vendors with fruit - which they carry in bags - or flowers).  They ain't scared o' nothin'.

*There are basically no official crosswalks in Merida.  Everyone J-walks.

*Mexico time = Missouri time

*Mexico City is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Srsly, looking out the plane window, I was like, "this is the city that never ends..."

*My MM is a nice Catholic, and when I mentioned my Uncle David's passing she was very kind and understanding saying, "At least we know he is with God now."

Well, that's all for today!!  Gotta get up early for my 7 AM class (I am just...really looking forward to being up that early :P) Stay tuned for...tomorrow!

R J Carr