On Halloween I arrived in Merida, Mexico and as my Mexican hostess extraordinaire Lorena pulled us into the driveway of her family home, she exclaimed “welcome to your home!” What a warm welcome to my first stop out of the country.
Before Mexico, however, I spent 20 days at home in Naperville & Chicago with my family and friends (and even some New Yorkers who made their way out to visit-shout out!!) and then four sunny days in LA with Leia. My time at home gave me a chance to unwind and get a feeling for what it’s going to be like not working for the next 10 months. I think I went through TWC withdrawal because I would have sudden urges to answer my phone like I was answering the phone at work- “Sarah Rothman’s office.” Not normal!! I did get to see my former co-workers Zak and Dave in Santa Monica though and pretend like I worked in International Marketing for an evening, so I got a doseage of TWC that should keep my semi-satisfied for at least a few days.
I left Leia’s gorgeous apartment in Los Feliz at 4:15am on Halloween, in order to return my rental car to LAX and make my 7:20am flight to Mexico City. Deirdre met me at the airport there because she was hanging out with her friend Sofia in Mexico City, while I was in LA. We had a 3 hour layover and then got on our Aviasca flight to Merida, where Deirdre’s other friend Lorena picked us up. Deirdre knows both Lorena and Sofia from her time studying and au pairing in Nantes, France. Merida and Nantes are sister cities- so they do an exchange program.
Lorena’s family is so wonderful and their house is gooorgeous! Her dad is a big deal private doctor here in town, so they are definitely not poor! They even have a little scotty dog called Fala-so perfecto. I’m working on my Spanish too- asking a lot of “como se dice” so i can learn. It’s really awesome that Dee speaks Spanish so fluently, but hard because they’ll all be having a perfect convo in spanish and then have to stop and repeat everything in English for me. They don’t do it all the time either, so half the time I’m kinda clueless, but it’s okay… I’m learning! Yesterday we went to Chichen Itza, which is a complex of some really fancy Mayan ruins. I guess they are in the running to be one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Everyone here is very excited at that possiblity. When we got back to Lorena’s, we played beauty parlor for a few hours (last time I’m going to be flat ironing & blowdrying my hair for a VERY LONG time) and then ate dinner around 10pm (normal for here!) at TGI Fridays- it’s the major hangout where all the cool kids go. Then we went to this deos de los muertos party and then to a club called el cielo from like 2-3:30am- it was a LOONG day! But really fun. The club admission is normally $5 (though we got in for free because one of Lorena’s friends Cecilia’s cousin is the owner) and they have open bar all night for $5. Seriously!? My favorite part of being here is living with the family and getting a lot of answers on the traditional life in Merida, such as learning that all of the kids (there are three daughters in her family) will stay at home until they are married. If an unmarried girl moves out on her own, or even with her fiance, it is gossiped about all over town! I am like an old dried out spinster here though, since I am single and TWENTY FIVE. I’m seriously reallly old to be unmarried. Great. They also have a few magazines here announcing people’s breakups and the town gossip- reminds me of Gossip Girl. I guess it’s a REALLY big deal to get your picture taken at the clubs for the magazine- means you’re hot stuff!
Love from Merida. Will write again soon.
xo
Jillian
