field trips

the reenactment of garifuna settlement day

the boat bringing in the students performing

me and the crab

me and daniel (not in my class but certainly my favorite)

the buses parking on the coast

my class on the beach

dangriga

this past week my class, as well as the other STD 5 classes, went on a field trip to dangriga.

the map to the right is a map of belize. the white lines are the major highways in belize, so as you can see the quickest way to get from orange walk (at the top) to dangriga (on the coast) is to go to belize city, then belmopan (the capital) and then to dangriga... making it about a 3.5 hour bus ride with bathroom breaks. i had my "emergency" kit ready with:

2 rolls of toilet paper (for when we stop and there isn't any in the stalls), pepto bismol, emetrol, tums, first aid kit, bug spray, sun block, gum, and deodorant. and while some of the items on the list may seem to be a bit silly to have been included, i would like to say that all of the items were used.

the trip and all its chaos

we had to meet at school at around 4am. i made powder buns (belizean type of roll) for everyone on my bus and had snacks, 60 bananas, 108 shilling waters (water that comes in a bag), and snack packs for the kids that told me needed some snacks for the bus. so needless to say, i got dropped off in the middle of the night at school with a TON of stuff. i reached to the school around 4:05 and there were probably 10 students and parents already waiting, but no fellow teachers had arrived yet. students started to flock around me as parents tried to decide if they should leave their children with me and the watchman for the school or wait for an actual teacher to come. most of them left within about 7 minutes of me arriving without the presence of another teacher. i had my check list of students and parents who would be going from my class as well as from the other teacher's class who would be sharing my bus.

4:30 (our stated time of departure via notes sent home to the parents) came quickly and we probably had about a little over half of the students. there were 2 teachers present at this time, myself and miss shenese, along with ms. debbie (the principal) and ms. perla. i would say that the majority of the students remaining arrived before 4:45, but still we did not have everyone. my class was all there apart from one student: tyron. tyron was the first person in my class to pay for his field trip and had been really excited about going on this field trip since we said that we were going so i started calling his mom. 1, 2, 3, 4 times.... no answer. i left messages. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 times.... what do i do? we had decided that we were leaving at 5:00am with or without the last 2 students that were remaining. and so i did it. i called a 10th time with no answer and crossed my fingers that tyron would come just in the nick of time. he didn't. first discouraging moment of the day.

we left school with 24 people represented from my class on board and accounted for, 1 no-show and 1 to be picked up about 10 minutes out of town at a bus stop. about 5 minutes into our trip we got a phone call saying that one of the students that we left had arrived and the principal would drive him to meet the bus. for a moment my heart leaped with joy that tyron had made it, only to be informed that it was not tyron but rather the only other student that we had left. what are the odds? i guess 50/50.

now if you had a group of students awake before the crack of dawn, sitting on a bus for a three hour (minimum) bus ride for a field trip, you may think that the kids would sleep for a good amount of time. and you would be wrong. so wrong. the kids on my bus were not only wide awake but as a constant reminder that they were awake and very aware of what was going on, they would let out a resounding "WOOOOOOOOOOOOO" whenever the song changed and it was, once again, a song that they loved. and they loved every song the whole entire way to dangriga.

without getting into too much detail, there were many kids who started crying cause they felt sick or had to go #2 and couldn't hold it any longer. and of course who else to go to in this moment of need but miss rachel. so i was overwhelmed with children who were homesick, car sick and had stomach pains from who knows what reason.

the school that was hosting the garifuna settlement day reenactment was right on the beach. literally. it was beautiful. but of course kids near water is an instantaneous urge to go swimming. i understand that need i think better than most. the nearer to water i get, the more insatiable the urge to swim... and the buses back up to park about 5 feet from the water. keeping the kids out of the water proved to be a constant battle that lasted the entire time we were there. and battling students is one thing, but battling parents of students is another game entirely. let's just say that some parents think that they have the right to do and say what they please. and at their house, they do... on a school trip, they don't.

the reenactment was beautiful. the boat came to shore from the sea just like when the garifuna people first came to belize and the kids got to dance and see the garifuna cultural display and eat food all morning.

on the way back we stopped at the blue hole. not to be confused with the blue hole that is off the coast and you can scuba dive into... the one on land. we also stopped in belmopan (the capital) and made only 2 emergency bathroom stops on the way home.

my belizeans

with a new addition to the torres/liu family, i would like to dedicate this post to introducing you all to my belizean family... yes, it is my final time here, but better late than never!

alyssa (halloween)

anora and ethan

yvette

rafael

nayely and fabio (in their halloween costumes-gangsters)

ida

osmani

luanne (lu)

celebrating luanne's birthday

fiona, osmani, ethan, alyssa, ida, lu, yvette, emy, julianni, nayely

(in order of faces, left to right)

brendan (titi, or nunuz)

fiona and baby ayden

these are my people here in belize.

i love them.

less than 2 weeks til i'm back with my family family!! can't wait!

the language

grading papers here in belize has been somewhat challenging for me. the kids write how they speak. and they speak in a language that is all their own. i wanted to share some of their essays with you just for some laughs, but also to show you some of their writings. you may think that I was typing too fast and that I erred in grammar or punctuation... but no my friends. this is the real, hilarious deal.

i Want to be a football player And I want to uch drum. I want to be a drive. I want to be Prime minister to. I have a nice pRado. I want to have a big House. A house that has a football field. Cuz I will a football player. yes.

I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a song writer and a dancer. A teacher or a police woman. And my dream of dream are to marry a handsome man and to have a hot car and to be rice or an millione. and I want to have twin girls. I want to live in the USA or at Guatemala.

I whant to be a football player when i grow up. I whant to go to USA. I whant a BIG house with a pond in front of my house. I like to have a girl friend. I like to have a good car. I would like study from football player.

and i would like to say that i do believe that this last one plagiarized a line or two from a song... i think my dad will appreciate this one, seeing as it's one of his favorites.

when i grow up

When i grow up i whant to be a millionare so fricken bad. i whant to be on the Cover of forks magazine and get my picture taken wit the queen. My name will be in flashy lights. I want to study in states and i whant to be a construction to build houses and painting And i whant to be a conducter and Engineer. And i whant to have a nice car and a ninja. And we all lived happily ever After.

some more common terms that they use here in belize:

favor

Your daughter favors you. --> Your daughter looks like you.

carry

Will you carry me to school? --> Will you take me to school?

this week:

monday and tuesday are review days for the semester (next week is finals week)

wednesday is my field trip to dangriga! successfully planned!! :)

thursday is children's day! a day to celebrate being a child!

friday is garifuna settlement day. no school!

11 more school days.

18 more sleeps.

love you all.

xoxo

daily joy

this is the sign in the bathroom at school.

makes me laugh EVERY time i see it.

they call it a "popstickle" here. reasoning: it come on a stick.

this was at one time an awesome looking football ball.

now it's quite used and abused, but loved nonetheless.

i hope that everyone is having a great week.

i have 28 days left here in belize... almost surreal.

i just thought that i would share some of the things i see on the daily with all of you.

love love

xoxo

ayden

"it is the nature of babies to be in bliss"

-- deepak chopra

there is a new addition to the family. baby ayden.

i'm in love.

i got to be on hospital duty for a few hours and spend my time just holding the baby and staring at him in amazement. i could stare at a baby for hours and be perfectly content. they are just so incredibly tiny and fascinate me. it feels like they are just too precious to actually hold and that they might break if you make any sudden movement. looking forward to my next few weeks as an honorary babysitter... when my insomnia may actually be put to good use!

me and ayden

eyes open

preciousness

granny ida

just born- 8lbs

it looks like james cameron was directing in the delivery room, but it was just the light for the baby beyond the half room drapes... hospitals go out of their way to assure quality privacy

"babies haven't any hair; old men's heads are just as bare;

between the cradle and the grave lie a haircut here and there"

-- samuel hoffenstein

something borrowed

my kiddos

jair and emily

me and dorita. you're not supposed to have favorites, but...

cupcakes for days

another fav: arturo

costumes

frankenstein

remember my infant II class? well here they are again! with some stickers i gave them!

they look so happy to be at school, right?

snow white looks ready to fight

hilcias. what he was, i'll never know...

thank god for mr. mucul and his camera's memory card and his willingness to lend it to me.

while i think it would have been infinitely cooler to be the transformer bumble bee, i settled dressing up as the regular kind yesterday. the bug kind. or insect. or whatever. you know what i mean.

yesterday was our halloween festivities at school and i made my class cupcakes, dressed as a bee, and all around had a pretty wonderful day at school.

the day started out with an assembly. like all the other times we've had an assembly, it's outside... and hot. the students got called up by level for those who came to school in their costumes and paraded around the school in a line. the lower grades went trick or treating in their classrooms and the older levels were for the most part, of course, too cool to wear their costumes to school. the others were shameless and wore them anyways.

my kids were pretty excited about the cupcakes. usually when there are baked goods at school it's a fundraiser and they need to buy them, so they didn't understand why i would want to give them cupcakes... and for free. i explained it's because i love them. they worked hard that afternoon and wrote letters to their pen pals. a 6th grade class at my mom's school has been corresponding with my class. i am going to get the opportunity to talk to the 6th grade class when i return to the states and my kids are excited for me to meet their friends. : )

after school i went straight to the hospital because fiona had her baby. little baby ayden. i got to spend 3 hours with this precious little boy, but i will post something about that later today or tomorrow.

after i finished my time at the hospital i went to the "halloween disco" at school. always an interesting experience to see kids who are middle school aged at a school dance. i think it was a semi-unsuccessful fundraiser for our sports committee... but the kids that went had fun. and we made sure that they all got home safely.

i will try and write a lot this weekend and post some recent pictures since i have the memory card until monday... then i'll be back to my camera-less self. it's a person i don't really enjoy.

only about a month left here in belize...

love to all.

xox

the best way to get noticed at parties

living with my host family in belize i have attended more than one dinner or party that i wasn't specifically invited to. the family just brings me along and explains that i am doing my student teaching and living with them hence, part of the family. so yesterday it wasn't too atypical for me to go with the family to belize for a cousin's house warming/birthday party.

*when i say go to belize, it may confuse some of you who are thinking, wait... aren't you living in belize? belize is divided into 6 districts: belize, cayo, corozal, orange walk, stann creek and toledo. you can check it out on wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Belize

but back to the story. i am clearly white, much whiter than 100% of the people i meet here in belize and so my goal of trying not to be too much of a spectacle at parties like this is always a bit of a problem. people stare at me, i'm sure, trying to figure out who i could have possibly come with. and while being there with my belizean family makes me feel welcome, at the same time i feel like the soundtrack that is playing in the background is the muppets "one of these things is not like the others..."

this party was not a small gathering by any means, but rather a bash with a band and loads of people. at least i knew i was probably not the only random person there. i always try to make a point of meeting the host and thanking them for allowing me to come along, but finding omar (the man who owns the house and whose birthday it was) in the sea of people was a bit more difficult. i went inside to use the bathroom and when i came out i was momentarily distracted by my host family waving at me. i tried to use signals to communicate that i would go and get some more drinks for everyone and when i turned i tripped and fell down a flight of stairs, nearly knocking over a crowd of people like they were bowling pins, and i was the ball. omar included.

i frantically stood up, mortified at what had just happened. everyone was staring. knees scraped. ankle rolled. death of my pride. mortified. omar helped me to my feet and in an effort to make a laugh out of the whole situation i quickly said, "i thought this would be the best way for us to meet, omar, it seemed entirely appropriate and since i didn't bring a gift... i though i could leave you with something to remember me by." we both laughed. mine was an awkward get-me-the-eff-out-of-here, laugh and i was counting the seconds until i was able to exit stage left and take my seat. omar told me that he nearly had a heart attack watching me fall, and then it certainly would have given him reason to remember me.

after assuring everyone that i was indeed alright i sat down and tried to wait it out while everyone else found something more important to think about, other than my debut as a stair dancer. the rest of the day was lovely. food, dancing and good company.

so, moral of the story... always try to walk with your head held high, cause it's almost certain the moment you look anywhere else you'll miss the flight of stairs anxiously waiting for you to fall down them.

homecoming count: 40 days.

xoxo

letters

i realize that it has been a while, and i blame it on the fact that my camera is out of commission. my memory card broke somehow and my parents so kindly sent me 2 replacements in the mail... which got stolen straight out of the package. here's the background to that story:

more excited than a child on christmas eve, i check the post office daily here in orange walk when i know i am expecting a package from my parents. i'm not sure who gets more upset that my package hasn't arrived yet, the postman or me... cause he really hates seeing me get sad that my mail has still not come in yet. but it really makes it all worth it on the day the package actually arrives, it is worth all the waiting...

so on monday when i arrived, the postman excitedly told me that my package was in. we were both ALL smiles. but, when i saw the package i knew something wasn't right. the package had brown tape on only the right side of the package. now for those of you who know my mom (or brother, or me, or my dad) know that there may be some OCD tendencies... no offense to any party involved. just the way it is. and i know that if my mom was going to tape one side of the package, she would have taped both sides. sign #1. the post office was closing so i took my package, unopened, in a hurry and walked to the park. at the park i sat myself down on a bench and giddily opened my package. sign #2. as i pulled out two shirts that were scrunched and jammed in the box, i thought... yup. my mom would have certainly folded these. and the envelope was open. someone had stole my goods.

anyways, it was the start to a somewhat weird, somewhat terrible week for me. a large mix of things. but friday is nearing, and tomorrow always has the potential to be the best day ever! AND today i got a letter from a little boy in my class. we have a letter writing station and they can write letters and mail them to relatives or give them to their classmates... but this little guy wrote his to me! instantaneously made my week seem a-ok!

dear miss rachel,

you have been nice since the first day of school here at L.G.S. you always try your best to have fun with us here in class. i know that you can't be in all the same places at once, and you are going home in 7 weeks to the states but i wish you could stay here with me forever. we will all miss you when you go but you can send some letters to us if you want to. i'll write back. i hope you will be happy right there with your family and your brother like you are with us while you are here. i also hope you enjoy your delicious pizza like you told us you have in states. enjoy.

love,

arturo

another equally lovely letter i received from a student a few days ago...

dear miss rachel judge,

how are you? wish you are great and thank god you are still here with us. my friends say you look like hannah montana and that's great because you are MY teacher. you look beautiful with your hair and your eyes and the way you dress you look so great and pretty. so how do you feel to teach us? i bet it's hard sometimes. everyone doesn't like to listen. i am happy that you are my teacher because you are funny, kind, and beautiful. so good luck with your trip home and can you write back as soon as possible?

love my heart,

dorita

it's hard to say you've had a tough week when you have letters like these from some pretty super kids! i really do love it here. and i love teaching these kiddos. LOVE it!

over and out.

xoxo

this is for you, kid.

allie galway.

besties since we were in the same story time class at the local library.

williston park, new york.

age 4.

new years eve. 2008/2009.

nyc. big timers.

despite miles or time zones, years spent apart or years growing up together, we have stayed in touch through it all. and by some strange stroke of coincidence, we have done many of the same things through out our lives. a tribute to why we are such good friends. we can pick up our friendship right off where we last left off anytime we're together... and it's always a sad thing to say goodbye. but we actually never say goodbye. it's always a "see ya later". but i digress from my main point of this entry.

the other night i was talking to allie online. to quote my aunt meme "technology makes the world a small place when you feel so far away". she was having a fabulous night in milan and i was sitting in my room grading papers in belize. and we started talking. here is a clearly meaningful conversation that only took up about 3 minutes. it was like a rapid fire series of questions.

allie galway, my love, this one's for you.

AG: so, i have to ask... is there a boy in belize?

RJ: no. definitely not.

AG: hahaha yyyyyy?

RJ: belize is not sexy in the way i'm sure milan is, miss italy.

AG: ehhh. italy is not always sexy

RJ: well the men here are short. and they cheat on their wives.

AG: SAME! and they wear tight pants

RJ: they don't wear tight pants here. too hot. but they wear jhorts which is equally bad. jhorts, of course, being the infamous jean shorts

AG: socks with sandals, or no?

RJ: it's too hot for socks. and they are ALWAYS sweating.

AG: ew. smelly? so it's not like dirty dancing havana nights? at all?

RJ: most of the time, yes. or overpowering with cologne. and it's dirty alright... but not in a good way

AG: this is WAY better than your blog, no offense. it's just the straight up unromantic answers.

RJ: well thanks. i'm really excelling at unromantic. it's a strong point in my life at the moment.

so... for those of you who found that conversation to be much more exhilarating that my blog, this one's for you. : )

also, i would like to just say that i have met some wonderful men here in belize that do not fit my aforementioned description of the men of belize at all. i exclude anyone i've written about in my blog from these generalizations.

love,

me

be careful what you wish for.

today i learned first hand that you need to be careful what you wish for. as you know, they speak english here in belize, but they also speak some spanish and some creole. creole is not the louisiana creole that some americans would associate the word with but rather a jamaican-like "hey mon" type of creole. lately i have been wishing that i was using my spanish more and becoming conversationally fluent in both spanish and creole.

well people, today i got a new student in my class... he most definitely only speaks spanish. so i guess i will be using my spanish more!

i would also like to take this moment to share a story with you about my continuing relationship with ethan...

ethan is kind of a punk. he's always pushing buttons and getting into mischief. so when i came home from school for lunch and he refused to let me in the door, pressing his face against the glass and making kissing faces, i found it entirely appropriate to greet him with a "what's up punk?" as i walked in.

what happened next took me off guard. that little voice that bellowed from my 5 year old friend responded quickly with a "what's up bitch!"

i stood there somewhat in shock and with no hesitation said, "what did you call me??"

ethan looked confused. "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. oh. nothing"

i told him not to ever talk to me like that again.

alyssa had overheard him say it to me and told her mom that ethan had cussed at me. he immediately apologized and we moved forward.

halfway through lunch he tells yvette, "but mom (which he calls his aunt when his mom's not around), she called my a punk". yvette then asks me what happened and i told her that i simply said "what's up punk" to him and he called me a bitch.

everyone at lunch started laughing. they told me if i was going to talk like that, i shouldn't get offended when he calls me a bitch.

ok. what? how are the words punk and bitch even in the same category? well. they aren't. i didn't know what was going on. i did nothing wrong. why was everybody making such a big deal about this?

later that night yvette was telling those who has missed out on our lovely lunching about what ethan and i had said to each other. so i pressed the issue....

"what's wrong with what i said? he is a punk!!"

yvette looked at me a little confused as to what i was talking about. so she explained.

here in belize the word punk is a derogative term used to describe a person who is homosexual. and when someone says the phrase "what's up punk?" the other person usually responds with "what's up bitch".

oh. ok. i get it now.

so...

ethan knew that i wasn't being serious, clearly, and he then thought that if i was joking it was ok to say the common response.

lesson learned.

here's my belizean phrase of the day:

bleached out- staying up all night

love,

me

xoxo

independence day

braving the rain with yvette to see alyssa's float.

turns out she changed sides so we were on the wrong side of the street.

gabriel's magic. one of the designers in town had elaborate costumes.

osmani and ethan watching the parade.

my free beer from the guys on the float.

floats with kegs of beer were pretty popular!

someone was repin america. awesome!

the police keeping people entertained.

this little guy was winning hearts all day long.

independence day in belize is september 21st. (last tuesday)

the way that belize celebrates their independence is MUCH different than our typical 4th of july. on september 20th, the kids go home from school and most of them go straight to bed or rest until the night. at around 10pm there are speeches that are made and there is the singing of the national anthem, along with carnival rides and a big festivity that leads up to a midnight display of fireworks. the fireworks last for about half an hour and then once the fireworks end, a block party begins. the streets are blocked off and people stay out all night visiting with family and friends, dancing, listening to bands, and celebrating their independence.

the way that we spent the day of the 20th once i got home from school went kind of like that... kind of. when i got home from school around 4pm, yvette was cooking like crazy for that night. she had to cater for 100 people that were going to be attending the festivities as guests of honor. so we made cakes. we made shake and bakes. we made ceviche. we were over flowing with styrofoam plates. we cut potatoes. chopped potatoes. and cooked until 11pm. around 10:45 i snuck upstairs to shower, or bathe, as they called it here. they never say shower. but as i escaped the kids twisted my arm into taking them down to the fair since the parents were all busy with cooking and helping. so i showered quick, quick, quick and took the kids to the carnival rides. we were there until midnight and we watched the fireworks there. i saw a bunch of my students at the carnival who were shocked to see me in "street clothes". kinda crazy. around 12:45 we walked back to the house, i put on some make up and got dressed up and we went out. left the house around 1:30am... anora, nayely and her boyfriend fabio were going to take me out for a belizean-style independence day. we went to a club. it was small and not very crowded. it wasn't yet late enough to be going out. ha! around 3am me and anora left the club to go pick up gran ida and take her home. then we went back to pick up nayely and fabio, who had had enough for the night and we took them home as well. as for me and anora, we forged on! we went to another club and this is where the majority of people in orange walk were still hanging out. we arrived at 4am. danced for hours. at 6:30am we were walking in the door and practically collapsed. went to bed for a few hours and then woke up to prepare myself for the parade. the parade didn't really start until 4pm, but i didn't know that. we ate lunch and got changed and made our way out to the street corner where we waited almost an hour before we saw anything at all. the parade is made up of floats from major companies or organizations in belize. some major dance groups and bands come to march in orange walk's parade from all over the country. the parade lasted about 3 hours and although it was cloudy and overcast the entire day, only rained for the last 20 minutes!

i had an amazing time dancing and celebrating with my belizean family!

thanks guys, for an amazing couple of days!

love to all that are reading!

i miss you.

love,

me

an american in merida

anora, me, yvette and of course ethan.

ethan whistling for a cab for the six women he was traveling with. HILARIOUS!

got us a cab every time!

beautiful old catholic church.

i don't really know what this building was but red, white, and green was everywhere, i'm telling you!

this is what happens when you feed the pigeons. the square.

la cena en la calle.

my host family.

in order L to R: nayely, yvette, tia chum, alyssa, anora

down in front: ethan

me and ethan at the zoo. : )

the zoo.

apparently you shouldn't feed the hippos...

monkey see, monkey do

the seat ride.

yvette and our hats.

amazingly beautiful maya influenced art in the center of an intersection. of course, i needed to get out and take a picture.

in belize, you don't really want to go to the doctor for anything serious. no major surgeries. no complicated illnesses. so when nayely's allergies were eluding all the doctors in belize, itmeant that we had to take a trip to mexico! : )

yvette, tia chum, anora, ethan, nayely, alyssa, and me were the ones going. the plan was to leave orange walk on thursday night around 8pm. friday (the 10th) is a national holiday in belize, so there would not be school. let me take a minute here to tell you about this holiday before i continue with my mexican adventures...

the battle of st. george's caye day

combatants: the spaniards and the baymen

dates: september 3rd - september 10th, 1798

what went down: the land (what's now belize) was, of course, being fought over. spain had a whole lot of territory in central america and just assumed the this land should be part of their area as well. the baymen disagreed and were willing to fight for it.

what that meant: as far as i can tell, not a whole lot changed after this battle. they fought it out for a little over a week, the spaniards retreated, and then for the most part didn't try to mess around with belize anymore. but nothing really revolutionary changed.

anyways... so bottom line, thanks to the bravery of the baymen we had no school that friday. so we left the house at 9pm, because in belize an hour late is sometimes considered early. we drove to the belizean boarder and i had to pay the silly exit fee ($37.50bz ~ $18.75us -- also side note here- pretty much anywhere you go in central america there is an exit fee). i got my passport stamped, which never fails to excite me. and then we drove to the mexican border, where i got my passport stamped, AGAIN! from the mexican boarder we had to drive about a half hour to the bus depot. just after we crossed the boarder there is this little place that you have to stop. now for the record, i've heard that most people don't, but we were rule followers. i wish i had a picture of what happened here. we pulled off to the side of the road and paid 60 pesos (12 pesos = $1.00 in american money) for these men to spray off the tires. making sure our belizean germs don't make it into mexico. weird. from there we went to the bus depot and boarded the midnight bus to merida, mexico.

we got to merida around 6am. checked in to our hotel and rested. we reconvened for breakfast around 9, went to the doctor with nayely at 10 and were done and ready to tour around by 1pm. we got some lunch, some hats (gigantic sombreros!), and walked the square. mexico was quite festive this weekend in preparation for september 15th when they will be celebration their 200th anniversary of independence and their 100th anniversary of revolution! the streets were lined with vendors selling everything red, white, and green. it made me really miss the fact that i missed the 4th of july this year. how did i spend my day? well, the night of the 4th of july i played infinite rounds of solitaire with my american flag print cards and listened to miley cyrus' party in the u.s.a. on repeat. pathetic? it wasn't the worst night i've ever had. : ) but back to the streets of red, white, and green... i used my spanish more that i have in a long time.

the rest of the weekend was filled with a little shopping, eating, and enjoying the sunshine! we went to the zoo, which was hilariously fun. we got to see lots of animals and there were plenty of signs advising us on how we should behave with the animals-- big on depictions, just in case you didn't understand the spanish. all in all, the zoo was pretty great!

this american enjoyed her time in merida.

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