¡Bienvenidos!

I realized my true heritage yesterday in our travels. I am through and through a Brown. We get frustrated with inefficient travel time and we like to take charge when no one else steps up to the plate.

Travel started Monday morning at 4 when I woke up from a terrible dream that all possible travel woes happened. But this dream was in Gayleen format so there was a sketchy character that was threatening one of my family member's lives. This took the form of Alli's creepy old grandpa that was on an episode of Criminal Minds stalking on my sister. 


Once my fears were quelled and we got to the airport by way of my fantastic sister Michelle, all went well. We caught our connecting flight in Phoenix and were Mexico bound. The real fun started once we got to Mexico. We were a pretty big group so it would turn out to be tricky to coordinate everything. We flew into Cancún and were going to take a bus to Mérida. Long story short, we bought kind of the wrong tickets and had to let our director know where to pick us up. It wasn't a big deal, our host families just had to re-route their pick up destination. 


After 9 hours of traveling (that doesn't count the tiring time spent trying to figure out how to get where we were going, that is pure air/bus time), we made it to Centro. Our host parents, Carlos and Elisa, were waiting for us with their two precious daughters, Ximena and Elisa. Upon arriving at their house, we met Cici and Dana, their two dogs. I am sold. I adore this family. Elisa told us we are to consider ourselves as part of the family. She then counseled me to take sunscreen with me everywhere I go. Don't worry, I have 7 bottles with me. Not even a little joking. 


I'm trying to put things in perspective here and get the most out of my experience. I have 7 weeks to go to the beach and go shopping, but the time I spend with our host family is priceless and every moment I can be with them and glean from them is precious to me. There are beaches all over the world and just so I can say "Thanks, I got it in Mexico" is no reason to miss opportunities that are all around me. 


We spent 45 minutes playing Telefono Descompuesto (Telephone) with the girls and Elisa and it is something I will always remember, cheesy as it sounds. The girls are rock stars at English so we would mix it up Spanish to English and back. All this while drinking legit Jamaica. 


Bring on the humidity and bugs (and reptiles-so help me-that eat the bugs). I am loving every nasty sweaty moment.