I wrote this on Wednesday but couldn't post it until today:
My brain is tired! After only my second day in Mexico, my brain is exhausted from all the learning, but I am having such a blast as I meet new people, experience a new culture, and learn a new language.
Whenever I see or hear a word that I don’t know, I try to ask Mark what it means as soon as possible, so my vocabulary is gradually expanding. In the next few days I am going to try to get out into the streets and speak with natives as much as possible. Each day I will have several phrases that I will try to use repeatedly, but I think that with the amount I know I can also just have some general conversations with people without too much trouble. People are so friendly, so as long as I say “Soy de Estados Unidos. Quiero aprender Espan~ol” or something similar they are happy to have a conversation with me and try to be cognizant of their rate of speech.
After sleeping only an hour and a half in the Mexico City airport on Monday night and going straight from the airport to visit the ancient ruins at Monte Alban, I crashed yesterday at about 4:30PM. I slept until 9:00AM the next morning, although I was awake for a few hours in the middle of the night. Even after all the sleep, I am ready to crash. Today was a full day.
Mark and I went today to see “hierve el agua,” which literally means “it boils the water.” To get there we had to traverse a 7500 ft. mountain via a dirt road. The views were spectacular; the ride was bumpy. It was well worth the trip.
Whenever I see or hear a word that I don’t know, I try to ask Mark what it means as soon as possible, so my vocabulary is gradually expanding. In the next few days I am going to try to get out into the streets and speak with natives as much as possible. Each day I will have several phrases that I will try to use repeatedly, but I think that with the amount I know I can also just have some general conversations with people without too much trouble. People are so friendly, so as long as I say “Soy de Estados Unidos. Quiero aprender Espan~ol” or something similar they are happy to have a conversation with me and try to be cognizant of their rate of speech.
After sleeping only an hour and a half in the Mexico City airport on Monday night and going straight from the airport to visit the ancient ruins at Monte Alban, I crashed yesterday at about 4:30PM. I slept until 9:00AM the next morning, although I was awake for a few hours in the middle of the night. Even after all the sleep, I am ready to crash. Today was a full day.
Mark and I went today to see “hierve el agua,” which literally means “it boils the water.” To get there we had to traverse a 7500 ft. mountain via a dirt road. The views were spectacular; the ride was bumpy. It was well worth the trip.
One of the sediment waterfalls.
The more impressive "sediment-fall."
For centuries natural mineral springs have been bubbling out of various holes in the side of the mountain. As a result, solid waterfall-like structures have formed from sediment deposits. It was quite a hike. When I get a faster internet connection, I will upload whole albums of this expedition and my trip to Monte Alban yesterday (pictured below).
Some of these structures date back to over 500 years before Christ. These ruins were truly incredible to explore on Tuesday.
We arrived back from hierve el agua at 4:00PM to our house in Mitla, which is known as the Miller House. It is a large house that used to be owned by a family of translators who were some of the first to work among the indigenous population near Mitla. Now the house is owned by SIL and has been divided into three apartments used to house various translators when they are in town. Soon thereafter we left to go and have dinner with Tim and Rebecca. This couple used to live in Tlapa. They work with the Southern Baptist Mission organization. Tim is involved in training church planters to use a method of evangelism that utilizes story telling. They lived in New Orleans for many years, and we had some wonderful jambalaya.
Tim and Rebecca...sideways.
The whole dinner party!
Car rides seem to be particularly informative for me because I sit in the front with Mark and question him about Spanish and other things for most of the ride. Mark and Esther have forgotten more than I’ll ever know, so I figure if I keep my ears open I will learn a ton.
Well, I am exhausted. I am supposed to jog with Mark tomorrow at 6:45, so I will call it a night. Hasta luego.
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