Hola Amigos!
I've officially been in Merida for five days, and I'm just starting to feel like I can navigate the city and start to find my way around. Between the different colonias or neighborhoods, the bus system and no street names things can get a little confusing around here.
For starters, the streets in Merida run on a grid system and all of the streets, except for three, have numbers instead of names. Odd numbered streets run east-west , even numbers run north-south, and the numbers increase as you move north and west. Sounds easy right? Well it is, as long as you're only talking about one neighborhood. The problem is all the different neighborhoods have their own separate grid systems. So there can be like, eight different calle 25's or street #25's.
None of the neighborhoods are all that defined either, except on the street signs. They all kind of run together so unless you can find a street sign, you're not really sure if you're still in your neighborhood or not. And even then some of the neighborhoods have new subdivisions, so for example my colonial is Col. Miguel Aleman, and a few blocks over is Col. Nuevo Miguel Aleman (meaning new Miguel Aleman), which can also be confusing, especially when you're riding a crazy bus system with no real stops and trying to read the street signs as they fly past (the names of the neighborhoods are written very small under the street number).
Addresses are kind of easy though, once you find the neighborhood, they give you the street and the two cross streets its in-between. So for example, my address is Calle 21 entre 22 y 24, or Street 21 between 22 and 24.
The bus system though is another story. There are no bus stops in Merida. Its not even guaranteed that the bus will even stop, as Luke and I found out the other day. I'm not really sure there are real bus routes, even though they say there are supposed to be there is hardly any time the buses follow the same route twice. Luckily all of the buses go through el centro, the downtown area at some time except for three of them, which all say circuto something and circle through the neighborhoods, but they're easy to avoid. If I want to know where the bus is going I usually just flag one down, wait till they open the door and yell where I want to go (usually el centro or Colonial Aleman) and wait for them to either drive away or nod and stop for me to get on.
To stop the bus, you have to flag it down, from anywhere on the street, like a taxi but they don't always stop (like we discovered the other day- Luke was literally waving his hands over his head and the guy drove right by us). Then you have to jump on quick before they drive away because they won't wait long for you. Once you're on the bus driver starts driving right away (I've experienced a few rolling stops getting off) so if you don't have your money ready you'd better hold on- it’s a bumpy ride. The buses are only $6 pesos for a normal ride and $3 for students with a student ID, but only if the bus driver feels like giving you the reduced fare (some sort of disagreement between the reduced fare the government set and the bus companies I guess). When you want to get off, you just have to stand up and tell the driver you want to get off (I usually just yell aqui or here, and they stop eventually), and then get off quickly.
The next step is to figure out how to get around to other neighborhoods. I have a feeling that’s going to take some trial and error. Luckily all the buses make circles so I'll eventually end up back where I started… I hope.
I have really gotten the hang of el centro and Col. Aleman (my neighborhood) though. I can find the grand plaza, the big markets and our bus stop easy enough downtown, and in my neighborhood I know the area around our park, the way to Luke's house and how to get to school. A little limited but we're exploring a little by little (we found our neighborhood's water treatment center today- fun I know).
Hopefully this weekend we can get some exploring in on our free days on Saturday and Sunday, and I can get some more pictures of the city! I'll try and get some more pictures and another post about the city this weekend- it’s a beautiful place, with soo much going on and people everywhere! Even right now at 8:00 pm, on a day so "cold" (a.k.a. 60 degrees- people are seriously wearing hats, coats scarves and mittens. I wore shorts) some places cancelled school (if only they could see Chicago right now) I'm sitting in the small park in my neighborhood ( using free wifi provided by the city), and there are people everywhere- food venders, carnival rides, kids skateboarding, playing soccer, everything. People seem to spend more time out of their houses here.
But more about that this weekend- time to go to the Disco (club)!! I promise I'll have a least one number to add to my shot count. Buenas Noches!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Fotos!
Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days. Enjoy!
The open-air courtyard of our hotel on the first night.
Christmas decorations are all over the place.
Shot of the city from the top balcony of the hotel.
Another shot of the city from the balcony.
The Hotel courtyard from the 2nd floor balcony.
Don't remember what this building was for, but its some important government building. Plus its really pretty.
The Cathedral of San Ildefonso from across the Plaza Grande (big central plaza).
La Calle de las pinatas or The street with the pinatas- its the only way I remember where the bus stop is to get back to my neighborhood from el centro or downtown.
Luke and I in front of some of the huge Christmas decorations in the park in our neighborhood (we live about five minutes walking distance from eachother).
But thats all I got for now! Tomorrow and Wednesday the city celebrates Three Kings Day with a giant cake, and then Friday we're heading to the beach for the day, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have some more pictures for you and another post. Hope all is well with everyone!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Bienvenidos a Merida!
Goodbye USA, Hola Mexico!
I landed last night in Merida around 10:00 and checked into the Merida Mision Panamericana Hotel in the downtown. The area is having a bit of a cold spell and it was only 65 degrees last night, and only hit 73 today, which is apparently terrible weather. After -1 in Chicago I'm obviously not complaining.
For anyone curious on what the heck I'm doing in Mexico in the middle of winter (besides taking an eleven week vacation), I'm taking classes through a DePaul program at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in the city of Merida till the end of March. Merida is the biggest city on the Yucatán , and is about 3 to 4 hours west of Cancun. The city is an old Spanish settlement and has a ton of really pretty colonial-style buildings with narrow streets. All of the streets are on a grid system, so its pretty easy to navigate, and are centered around a huge plaza in the middle of the city. I didn't take my camera out today, but I'll be sure to get some pictures to post soon!
While I'm here I'll be taking two Spanish classes, a Mexican history class focusing on the Yucatán peninsula, and a anthropology/service learning class through another university, Universidad Marista de Merida. For the Spanish classes we'll have tutors, and the history class involves a couple of weekend and day trips to different cities and Mayan ruins around the Yucatán peninsula, which seem really cool. I'm still not too sure what the service learning class will be like, other than we work at a center in one of the poorer communities in the city, but we'll find out when we visit it on Wednesday. I only have classes Monday through Thursday, so we'll have plenty of time to travel around the peninsula while were here.
The group that I'm studying with is pretty small- there are only eleven of us, which is actually kind of fun. So far everyone seems like they're getting along, and we've been talking about traveling together on our free weekends. Each of us is staying with a different host family or "mamá" throughout the different neighborhoods in the city, none of whom speak English. I moved in with my host mom, Violeta, tonight and she seems really nice. She's a bit older, I think in her late sixties, and has five kids and nine grandkids. None of them live with her, so its just us in the house, but she babysits two of her grandsons a couple of times a week so I'll get to meet them soon. She's a vegetarian (which I guess is rare for Mexico, given the amount of meat people eat here), which is perfect since I don't eat a lot of meat any way, and even better because most of the food here consists of lots of meat, tortillas, beans, and maybe a few vegetables. Hopefully all the fruits and veggies here will balance the food out for me. So far we've been able to communicate pretty well, and I can understand almost everything she says- it’s the responding and holding a conversation that’s the hard part.
The house is small but really cute and has an amazing garden out back. I have my own room and bathroom, plus there are two other rooms, a living/dining room and little kitchen. The houses here are all really close to the street in the front, but have high walls and fences around the property. The backyard and garden is almost as large as the area the house sits on, and has a pool (which she doesn't use, darn) a pack porch, patio, garden and fountain/pond. She's also a yoga instructor and has her own studio in a building behind the house, so hopefully I'll be able to take some classes!
Today was a busy day, with orientation this morning, a bus tour of the city (on an open air bus called a Wawa- pretty cool), a three course lunch at an authentic Mayan restaurant (lunch is the main meal of the day here), a walk through the central plaza and downtown area, and moving in with my host mom. Needless to say, I'm exhausted! Tomorrow our host moms are showing us how to take the bus to the university, then we're taking our aptitude test for our Spanish, and after is a little welcome fiesta with the mamás. Hopefully I'll be able to explore my colonia (neighborhood) a little bit too with one of the guys who is living only a few blocks from me.
I'll post some pictures, more about the city and the cool festivals going on when I'm here in a few days. Hope everyone is having a good year so far, and good luck to everyone at DePaul starting their classes tomorrow!
I landed last night in Merida around 10:00 and checked into the Merida Mision Panamericana Hotel in the downtown. The area is having a bit of a cold spell and it was only 65 degrees last night, and only hit 73 today, which is apparently terrible weather. After -1 in Chicago I'm obviously not complaining.
For anyone curious on what the heck I'm doing in Mexico in the middle of winter (besides taking an eleven week vacation), I'm taking classes through a DePaul program at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in the city of Merida till the end of March. Merida is the biggest city on the Yucatán , and is about 3 to 4 hours west of Cancun. The city is an old Spanish settlement and has a ton of really pretty colonial-style buildings with narrow streets. All of the streets are on a grid system, so its pretty easy to navigate, and are centered around a huge plaza in the middle of the city. I didn't take my camera out today, but I'll be sure to get some pictures to post soon!
While I'm here I'll be taking two Spanish classes, a Mexican history class focusing on the Yucatán peninsula, and a anthropology/service learning class through another university, Universidad Marista de Merida. For the Spanish classes we'll have tutors, and the history class involves a couple of weekend and day trips to different cities and Mayan ruins around the Yucatán peninsula, which seem really cool. I'm still not too sure what the service learning class will be like, other than we work at a center in one of the poorer communities in the city, but we'll find out when we visit it on Wednesday. I only have classes Monday through Thursday, so we'll have plenty of time to travel around the peninsula while were here.
The group that I'm studying with is pretty small- there are only eleven of us, which is actually kind of fun. So far everyone seems like they're getting along, and we've been talking about traveling together on our free weekends. Each of us is staying with a different host family or "mamá" throughout the different neighborhoods in the city, none of whom speak English. I moved in with my host mom, Violeta, tonight and she seems really nice. She's a bit older, I think in her late sixties, and has five kids and nine grandkids. None of them live with her, so its just us in the house, but she babysits two of her grandsons a couple of times a week so I'll get to meet them soon. She's a vegetarian (which I guess is rare for Mexico, given the amount of meat people eat here), which is perfect since I don't eat a lot of meat any way, and even better because most of the food here consists of lots of meat, tortillas, beans, and maybe a few vegetables. Hopefully all the fruits and veggies here will balance the food out for me. So far we've been able to communicate pretty well, and I can understand almost everything she says- it’s the responding and holding a conversation that’s the hard part.
The house is small but really cute and has an amazing garden out back. I have my own room and bathroom, plus there are two other rooms, a living/dining room and little kitchen. The houses here are all really close to the street in the front, but have high walls and fences around the property. The backyard and garden is almost as large as the area the house sits on, and has a pool (which she doesn't use, darn) a pack porch, patio, garden and fountain/pond. She's also a yoga instructor and has her own studio in a building behind the house, so hopefully I'll be able to take some classes!
Today was a busy day, with orientation this morning, a bus tour of the city (on an open air bus called a Wawa- pretty cool), a three course lunch at an authentic Mayan restaurant (lunch is the main meal of the day here), a walk through the central plaza and downtown area, and moving in with my host mom. Needless to say, I'm exhausted! Tomorrow our host moms are showing us how to take the bus to the university, then we're taking our aptitude test for our Spanish, and after is a little welcome fiesta with the mamás. Hopefully I'll be able to explore my colonia (neighborhood) a little bit too with one of the guys who is living only a few blocks from me.
I'll post some pictures, more about the city and the cool festivals going on when I'm here in a few days. Hope everyone is having a good year so far, and good luck to everyone at DePaul starting their classes tomorrow!
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