no gringo aqui: you've stayed in this land for too long

Last week my family (minus the engaged one) went to Cancun, Mexico! Usually our vacations entail getting a motel in southern Utah and hiking around for a day, but we branched out for once this year. Here's a bit of into about what went on there...

...Cosmetically: The humidity and especially the sea air made my hair so unbelievably curly. On one occasion I took a shower and to blow dry my hair just sat outside on the balcony, where the breeze took care of it. Now that I'm back it's so sleek I can't do a thing with it. I also didn't wear any makeup on the whole trip. It wasn't nearly as bad as this makeup-free week but I was still looking forward to putting on some mascara for church on Sunday. No sunburn to speak of, except for the back of my legs from snorkeling. It ran in the family!

...Linguistically: Being surrounded by people that would talk Spanish to each other brought to the surface one of my bad habits: talking like them. I started saying "Si" all the time instead of "Yeah" or "Yes." And "Bueno". I always winced when I did it in front of the Mexicans, especially when they started talking to me in Spanish and I'd have to really stop for a second to figure out what they said -- I've never had a class. So that was embarrassing, but at least not as embarrassing as the time I slipped some twang into my speech in front of a Texan missionary at the LRC. Or maybe it was that embarrassing.

...Oceanically: We did spend some time in the ocean. At the hotel the red flags were almost always up so we couldn't get in the water there, but when we went snorkeling we were swimming ad nauseum. Mom and I both felt so sick at the end of that. But it was cool! You can see underwater! And one time we did get to go to the beach and get in the water. I was frightened of the undertow but the rest of the family sure had a blast in the waves. And the water was a really pretty blue.

...Excitingly: I'm not a ruins person. Too much walking in the bright sun (without sunglasses). But I do seem to be a ziplining person! But not a diving person. This whole 'I'm not into adventure' thing is nothing new.

...Gastronomically: We only had "typical" Mexican food twice and one of them was definitely made for tourists. After the first day touring ruins I was pretty much resigned to going hungry all week, but we didn't starve. I've definitely enjoyed being back in my house with a kitchen to make and eat food whenever I want, though. Another reason I'm not a big vacation person.

It was a good vacation, but I couldn't live that way, even if I did speak the language. How refreshing to find that out!


"No Gringo"