Gwen arrived late Wednesday night. Thursday she observed Tim teaching his class in the afternoon, then after school Gwen and Tim went to downtown Merida to go out to eat and look around the downtown. They went to the free art museum and walked around the Grand Plaza. Thursday evening Tim and I had to go back to school for the back-to-school Parent's meeting. All the parents came and the school director made some remarks before all the parents went to their kids' respective classrooms. So Tim and I had 30 or so parents in each of our two classes. We had 20 mins with each group and presented on who we are, what our goals are for the school year, discipline, etc. There were time for questions and the parents were very invovled. The night was very encouraging to see how many parents are genuinely interested in their kids lives and specifically in how they are doing academically. Afterwards I was trapped for about an hour for parents wanting to specifically address their child, and I have a couple meetings set up for next week to talk about specifics too. However, I got stressed when some parents were telling me their students are completely in over their heads and lost because it is too difficult, and others were saying their kids are bored because its so easy. It is very difficult with such different levels coming into the school year. About half my students know ZERO English, and the rest vary from knowing very little, to being conversational. I am going to break them into 4 groups based on ability and do lots of group work and give them different things to do and focus on so that all can improve.
The rain stopped, but the clouds stayed, which made for a much more pleasant day at the beach. From about 3-7 we swam, played football, collected shells, saw a beautiful rainbow, and had a wonderful day at the beach! And no sunburns!
On the way home from the beach we drown on Paseo de Montejo - the main strip in Merida - where all the fancy and expensive things are. We got out and walked around a bit. We saw some henequen plants - which are responsible for making Merida what it is today. Henequen plantations are all over and were grown and processed into hemp used to make clothing and hammocks. Here is what a plant looks like:
We took some pictures of the monument of the flag.
This monument took one man 40 years to make and is extremely complicated. Then we stopped at Emilio and Eva's house to pick up some maps of the city and state they bought for us. We ended up staying and chatting for about an hour. It was great that Gwen was able to meet them!Saturday we slept in, Tim made Gwen and me pancakes, and we left for Chichen Itza at noon. We went in two cars - Gwen, Tim, Kari, Jeff, Erick and her two kids Renata and Alejandra, Angelica, and Tim's student Makayla. 
We arrrived in the city of Chichen Itza and ate lunch at a local lunch place - delicious and traditional Yucatecan food. Then we realized we didn't really have time to go to Chichen Itza - it closed in about an hour. So we decided to go to a centoe about 3 mins away instead... and we certainly are glad we did!
The water surface was about 100 feet from the ground, but the water depth was 150 feet. The water was INCREDIBLY clear! When people dove down you could clearly see them all the way down. 
There were lots of black blind fish that looked like mini cat fish swimming around. And there were roots from trees and plants above that had reached into the centoe for a water source. We stayed there from about 3:45 till 7. It was so much fun! We jumped off of the steps lots. Here's Gwen:
Here's Tim jumping from about 10 feet into the 150 feet deep water below!
Kari and Jeff were a bit more risky and jumped from 40 feet above, right by the sign that said Do Not Jump from Here! It was awesome - take a look! Can you find me? I look very tiny!
After the cenote, we went to Chichen Itza for the light and sound show that started at 8. 
They projected lights onto some of the Mayan ruins, mainly the large temple, while explaining the history of the different buildings as well as the history of the Mayan people. It was interesting!
After 6 parent-teacher meetings, lots of notes home, and trying hard to be more firm, things are going better. And, there is a girl who was the 3rd grade English teacher at the school last year but this year couldn't because she is in college - anyways, she, Stephanie, is volunteering at the school 3 days a week in the afternoon. I expressed my need for help and my behavior problems to her and she volunteered to help. So she has observed me 3 days and then we had a long meeting discussing what I'm doing right and what I could do better. Basically she said the biggest thing is that I need to be more firm. So I've been trying really hard to put into practice all of her suggestions and it seems to really be helping so far! Also, tomorrow she is going to teach my afternoon class so that I can observe and get some subtle tips from watching her! So I've very excited about that and am already feeling like "okay, I can do this, things are going to get better!"
The picture below is Kari with 5 of her students, Tim, and Jeff (another American teacher) with 2 of his students:
By the way, Tim and Jeff are becoming such great friends! The support eachother and pray together, laugh together, call eachother "dude" all the time and generally love the other's company. They are planning to get together for a giant pizza and a football game as an escape from reality and to have a US day! 
To celebrate their little-deserved, but very-appreciated victory, Jeff, Tim and I went to jump on the bouncies that they church had rented with our students! At one point there were probably 25 kids and the three of us bouncing away! 
It was really great to be able to just have fun and spend some quality time outside the classroom with our students. Speaking of which, our friend and fellow teacher Ericka is taking us to Chichen Itza (one of the 7 wonders of the world) next Saturday with her two daughters (Renata is in my class, and Alejandra is in Jeff's class)! We are very excited to go - but even more exciting is that GWEN will be with us!!! Gwen is one of Tim's best friends from college who is coming to visit us next Wednesday and will stay till Sunday! Tim and I are both very very excited to have her here and have our first visitor!
The cenote was awesome, filled with stalagtights and stalagmites. 
At some points the water was only chest deep, but then would suddenly drop off and go to 150ft dept!
All the cenotes in the Yucatan are connected through underground rivers, so scuba divers dive down into those 150 deep places looking for the underground rivers. Already thousands of cenotes are known in Yucatan, but it is suspected that hundreds of thousands more are yet to be discovered. 
Then we went out to lunch before heading to the cave. The cave opening is in a family's backyard property. So we just drove up, knocked on the door, paid $0.75 each to enter. 
It was an other-world type of experience! 
There were bats flying everywhere. At one point we had to squeeze through a 3foot x 3 foot hole. 
We also came across a cenote deep within the cave. 
Overall, it was a wonderful trip and we had a great time getting to know Fernando better! He is a wonderful christian man with a very interesting story that we are slowly learning about.
But while there, we randomly eat at now 4:35pm. Then Fernando remembers that the centote and ruins close at 5. So we plan on going to Uxmal which is a MUCH bigger Mayan ruin site with a very large central pyramid. But on the way we stop at a cenote which is 30mins on a bumpy dirt round from the high way. We go in the bat filled cave and look at the crystal water, but don’t swim. 
Then we continue towards Uxmal, but stop at an old hacienda – which is a old plantation for hemp. It was gorgeous. 
We finally make it to Uxmal at 8pm for the light show that starts at 9. We get there and it is closed, a heavy storm had passed through and blew out the electricity. So, we start on our way home (we are now 2hrs out). We then stop for dinner at this tiny town called Muna.
very much like those from the Flintstones- about 10 mins to the very outskirts of the town to a Mayan village. Our church has a satellite church there. Ruth gave the service and Tim, R, and I taught the 15 kids (ages 1 to 15) Sunday school. It was a wonderful and eye-opening experience. The people there were very hesitant and nervous around us at first, but by the time Sunday school was half-way done the kids were hugging us and wanting their picture taken. 
It is amazing, in the town of Hocobá NO ONE has beds, everyone uses hammocks because most houses are only 1 room, so they hang the hammocks to sleep and move them in the morning to live, sit, cook and eat. The director of missions asked us to prayerfully consider joining the Hocobá mission team because there are currently only 5 members and at least 2 people need to go every week. We are very excited about this and want to go back – and the kids want us too – when we left they kept asking when we’d be back! 
This past week we had our first 3 days of teacher orientation. It went well and we had fun meeting all of the other teachers at our school. The school has 300 students this year- which is incredible because it is only the 4th year of the school and last year they had 150 students. Therefore about half the teachers are new to the school so we are not alone in that. This week orientation continues but will be more focused on how to teach English, as well as time to set up our classrooms. I was getting pretty nervous about teaching realizing that I have to both manage a classroom of little kids while still trying to make sure they are truly learning English, but I got my teachers manual for reading yesterday and after reading through the first couple weeks of lessons I feel like “okay, I can do this.” Tim and I just have the attitude that it is going to be hard for the first couple of months, but with prayer, patience, and time we will get better and better at teaching!
Though it was at a distance it was still very cool! After swimming we came back, took showers and hung around before the event at 8pm. San Felipe is a small town with only 1 church (previous to our church having a branch there that within the last year started). The main church there is Catholic and there has been lots of conflict since we put a branch in San Felipe, we are not welcomed there and we’re having difficulty gaining members. So, they had an event in the main square (which happens to be right across the street from the catholic church). There were Christian clowns who were wonderful and used humor to talk about Christ. And there were some other dramas and short talks. 
He did a great job!! And with no music! After church a couple of families invited us to go out to dinner with them. It was so much fun getting to know more people from our church. And at the end of dinner they just said that they really want us to feel welcomed and at home in our church and in Merida and if there is anything we ever need to call anytime. Me and Tim still are in awe of the generosity and kindness of everyone we’ve met here! We love love love everything about our church, the people, and Merida so far!! (besides the heat- 98 to 101 everyday so far!)