Random updates.

Updating again!! The world must really be coming to an end, thanks to tropical storm Ida.

I figured I would fill y’all in on a few antedotes that everyone has missed.

With the most recent, tropical storm Ida is dwelling over the Carribean, the rain in Merida the past few days has been torrential. All in all, the sidewalks are slippery, the roads are mini rivers (creeks perhaps?), I need to buy an umbrella, and flip flops and sneakers are equally bad for the rain. I can’t leave my house without being soaking wet. Sometimes it lets up, it just hasn’t happened to coincide with the end times of classes. My aunt and her friend are arriving Tuesday (yay! super excited!), however I am a bit disappointed that I think the majority of their trip will be rainy and miserable. Pray for good weather! On the plus side, it is considerably cooler.

With my traveling, the high altitude of San Cristobal, the temperature changes, and the unbearable humidity I am sick!! Cough, fever, achey, the works. The pharmacies here give out really good drugs.

Test today, presentation tomorrow, two essays for next week, and a presentation next week. Hopefully I can get it all done this weekend.

Día de los Muertos was a really cool to witness. In Oaxaca, every night people were dressed up, many of the women as Catrina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Calavera_Catrina), people with masks would dance, bands played, alters were all over the place. We went to a suburb to go to a cemetery at night. The streets were crowded, there was a play about death and Día de los Muertos (it was creepy) in the plaza, ofrendas in the church, and a ton of street vendors and street food out and about. The cemetery itself was a bit awkward because people were trying to celebrate a solemn, religious holiday (solemn at least in the cemetery) and prepare the graves and there were a lot of tourists walking around, it felt like we were intruding and we decided not to go back to the cemetery the next day but to participate in other events. The cemetery was beautiful however, flowers, offerings, and standard “holy water in the Coca-Cola bottle”.

In terms of other news:

-A pigeon flew into my head and got stuck in my hair while walking through the main plaza one day. There were many old men and school aged children wandering around as I screamed, flapping my arms, trying to get it out. It eventually did, and I resumed walking while everyone else laughed at me.

-My host mom broke her arm, slipping in the bank. She has a women come help her get things done around the house, and still doesn’t let me do anything. She doesn’t like the women because she is very absent minded (yet she seems to like me??).

-I’ve been camping out in a café called “El Hoyo” every other night. Gives me a change of scenery.

-My Spanish is better, and I’ve started hanging out with other exchange students more, so that is a bit more Spanish interaction. It is getting better, just not as much as I would have wished, however, I am confident that after next semester, it’ll be pretty good. Still have a long ways to go.

-Bit homesick, being sick, the weather, pile of schoolwork, and fact that I have 99% of my Christmas shopping makes me want to be home for break!!

-I finally got to watch the world series, but only caught the bottom of the 8th inning, the last game. Not nearly as much fun that way.

Finally

Ok, so I´m sick in a hostal in Oaxaca and have finally decided to update my blog.

Life in Merida is fairly routine. Still upset with the lack of Spanish spoken, and still in love with my host mom. School is not all that challenging, students tend to present and the teachers don´t really teach that much. The educational system is definitely very different, and nothing runs on a schedule. For example, I was supposed to present for my Mesoamerican history class about 3 weeks ago, and have yet to do so. I tend to show up to class every day and find out I´m not presenting.

I love living in el centro, I can go out and find something to do whenever I want to- and tend to frequent a cafe, ´el hoyo´ a bit too much. The heat is no better, still soars up above 100 every day. The men are still annoying as possible.

This week we had a week off for ¨La Semana de Antropología¨ and traveling with two girls, Kristin and Shoshi.

We left late Saturday night, and arrived in Palenque at around 5AM on Sunday. We ended up booking a tour package in Palenque that took us to the ruins....quite extensive....different in style than the Yucatan, a beautiful waterfall, and then a series of waterfalls where I swim, because I wore my suit...but the water was freezing. Ate lunch there, ended up taking a bus to San Cristobal de las Casas. That bus ride, was one of the single most terrifying experiences I think I´ve ever had- luckily, I was too tired to care. You could look out the windshield, and only see grass, you looked to the left, and only saw a giant cliff, and looked to the right, and saw nothing. I´m going to guess we were only on the right side of the road about 50% of the time and everytime we had to pass anything, I was positive there was going to be a headon collision.

Arrived in San Cristobal, checked into the hostal, wandered around a bit.

The first day we were actually there, there were protests going on. Something about 4 men who killed women and children in a pueblito and them being freed from jail. Both sides of the argument were protesting, with people camped out infront of one of the cathedrals. Fun stuff. San Cristobal is known for it´s Zapatista leanings. Essentially, an armed revolutionarly group that has declared war on Mexico, supporting indigenous rights. San Cristobal was beautiful, colorful houses all sitting on hills, there are no hills in the Yucatan. The temperature is considerably cooler-- in was cold! In the 60´s!! I wore long sleeves, jackets, and scarves. When we were there, we did a lot of wandering around, and went to about 50 different churches. We did a fair amount of shopping, found two markets, and a dulceria market. Amazing. Cheap sweets will be the death of me. Started my Christmas shopping in the markets there. San Cristobal was pretty, but in reality, a bit toursity. Not many Americans, but a bit of a European- flower-child Disney Land. Did have some absolutely wonderful crema de calebacita soup while there, it was fabulous.

Left San Cristobal Wednesday night for Oaxaca. Arrived in Oaxaca at 11 am ish the next day, checked into the hostal and took a nap. Later Wednesday, wandered around Oaxaca, the zoocalo, listened to street musicians, found the market, and ate there. Some fried cheese concotion that had a whole jalapeno pepper in it, without knowing, i bit into it. Was left unable to talk or breathe for about 2 minutes, and then finally able to gasp for air, I said something to the affect of ¨pica!!¨ and proceeded to drink all of my soda and eat whatever remaining mole was left.

Oaxaca is famous for mole, chocolate, and cheese- what a terrific combintation!!

Thursday we did some more wandering around getting to know the town. Stopped in the museum in the former Palacio de Gobierno and killed some time there looking at altars, learning the history of the area, and then enjoying the fun interactive anthro museum--terrific!

We´ve been eating at least one meal a day at the market, no menus, tends to be about 30 pesos a meal.

Friday, we went to Tule, to see a very, very large tree. It was interesting, wrote postcards there for awhile, ate ate their market, for 12 pesos. Fabulous.

Saturday, we went to the Zapotec archaeological site of Monte Alban, nestled in the moutains about the city of Oaxaca. Beautiful view, the ruins, green grass in the foreground, beautiful blue mountains and fluffy white clouds in the background, with a view of the whole of Oaxaca. Interestingly enough, the poorer people tend to live higher up, and the city is located in a valley.

Beginning to feel sick, fun little cough thing going on, returtning to Merida tomorrow night via plane (the plane takes 3 hours, the bus about 22).

Hope you enjoy the long awaited blog update....

I need to update!!!

I will update by the end of the day today!!!!!!!!

(Maybe this will keep me accountable?)

Another update...

A few days worth of updates:

Wednesday: I only had class in the morning- Theory of Social Movements which I am most definitely dropping. The class is big- the reading is all theory- and the air conditioning combined with fans makes in nearly impossible to hear people- a few friends in the program are native speakers from Mexico or Cuba, wherever- and they have trouble understanding. Anyways, I ended up flagging down the professor of a Mesoamerican history course to see if I could join- so that’s the new plan. Not as much reading and it’s a freshman class- shot in the dark but I figure, can’t get much worse.

Three other girls and I went to the mall after classes- I’m talking, upscale American- styled mall. I ate 2 tortilla/quesadilla like things- one cheese and one bean for less than $1.50 USD and then we all ordered gelato- nutella flavored for me- for about $4 USD- a good investment. Also, as a side note, they sell individual serving sized packets of nutella next to the registers at all the gas stations- some kind of torture! Anyways, we took our sweet old time wandering around the mall- many of the stores had the same exact things- more so than in the US. I ended up finding a black dress that I can wear out to the discos- maybe I won’t look like quite such a tourist now? Doubtful! The mall was fun- at one point we realized that we didn’t feel at all out of place speaking English, and that we were in Sears- talk about globalization.

That night, after dinner- probably something with eggs and sour cream- we went out to watch the soccer game- Mexico vs. Honduras. Although not exactly a soccer fan, the games are a lot of fun to watch here because everyone goes so insane over them and you can’t help but get into it. After we went out to Mambo Café, a salsa club that had free admission. When we got there we were the only ones there but when the band started playing the place filled up more. The band was from Cuba- they were amazing. The band is huge and the horn section was tight- they dance while singing and rapping and they are pretty amazing. Ended up dancing with a very nice guy that was a good leader and taught me some salsa- it’s not too bad if you have a good leader that is patient! I’m now absolutely determined to actually learn how to dance so am going to take salsa lessons with a few other friends on Tuesday and Thursday nights- I’m really excited!!! Hopefully I won’t make too much of a fool out of myself since I don’t know ANYTHING! I swear to God, any given three year old here could salsa better than I can.

Thursday, my morning class was cancelled so I sat around and did homework all day and dropped off my laundry- it costs about $8 USD whenever I bring it- grr, expensive but there isn’t another alternative. Went to Spanish class and had a program meeting after- nothing too remarkable. On the way home I bought a cute dress from a street vendor for all of 40p (less than $4)- good for hot weather! Got home and Ligia had friends over to play cards so sat around and watched them for a bit before retreating back to my room.

Today only had one class so wandered around el centro for a bit after- found a few nice stores and located an air conditioned cafeteria that I will most definitely be stopping into soon. Sat in the park for awhile and did some reading- very, very slowly. Don’t know how I’m going to get through a few hundred pages this weekend with our excursion. This weekend we are going to several different sites, including Coba. I’m going to get to do a lot of open water scuba diving and am so excited!! We are staying on the beach in Tulum- in my book, the most beautiful place in the Yucatan (that I’ve seen yet).

Going out to another fiesta with other exchange students tonight- hopefully will get lots of Spanish practice in!!

Bailo con Viejos

So to recap: Uxmal, although interesting, was a tad painful given my lack of sleep and the intense heat and sun. Still glad I went to the party because I met a lot of people and needed some social interaction outside the program! Uxmal was beautiful- the ruins are very well preserved (despite the large amount of concrete used in the reconstruction). The view from the top of one of the pyramids was breathtaking- you could see the rest of the site as well as the surrounding town and lots of forest. The down side was that the site was all open without shade, and the guide was a professor from UADY and not too engaging.

After, we went to La Hacienda Yaxocopil- an old henequen plant. The hacienda was beautiful- had a lot of the original furniture from the house, machines, vegetation, it was beautiful. The man who was our guide was really interesting- he worked at the hacienda producing henequen until the plant shut down in the 1980’s. I would love to go back- without a group sometime. They have a room you can rent out for the night- it would be really nice to stay there if I had visitors (hint, hint).

So Monday, I had classes- Theory of Social Movements and sat in on Buseo Cientifico- scuba theory. Saw some people that I met on Saturday night at school- that was nice. Yesterday after I got home for classes- I took a nice long nap, ate, and finished my homework. All in all, not a very exciting day.

Today was interesting through and through. Woke up and was running late- so inhaled breakfast and sped-walked to the bus station. Got to the plaza and was stopped by some hippy-looking boy that struck up a conversation with me- ended up following me to the bus, getting on the bus an talking the whole time- definitely one of the weirder experiences I’ve had since I’ve been here- hmm.

Maya was my first class today- it’s taught in Spanish and English and pretty much made my brain cyclically implode and explode. There are times when my brain just shuts off, and that class was definitely one of them today- no clue what happened- couldn’t process anything in English or Spanish. Normally, I think I’m a decently intelligent human being- but here, I’ve never felt so incredibly stupid for so long!! I feel like I don’t know anything!!

After class, went to the program office, ate lunch, finished homework- took full advantage of the speedy internet and illegally downloaded music- and of course, fell asleep. We watched Payns Labyrinth in Spanish today- no problem understanding it- although, I did close my eyes through a good half of it- it’s scary!!

Came home on the bus- got out of my seat for some poor old woman who could barely walk to she could sit- everyone on the bus stared. Talk about an awkward bus ride- that was really, really weird. My host mom said that there wasn’t anything wrong with it, that it was just unusual and probably more surprising because it was me. Still, 20 people staring at you for the remainder of the bus ride is a bit uncomfortable. Got home- had dinner- relaxed a bit and called home.

Went out to the park in front of my house around 8:30 in search of Mr. Crepe man with his stand. Every Tuesday there is music and dancing in the park- definitely for the older crowd. To make a long story short- I couldn’t make my way through the crowd (all 60+++) to the crepes and stopped to talk to an older gentleman for awhile. Ended up dancing (or rather, he was dancing, I was looking like an idiot), while everyone stared. Not only was I the only person under 60 there, but as I’ve already said- I stick out. So to make a long story short, I ended up being passed around between what seemed like 20 different men and dancing with each of them- I stayed for a good two hours. I now know that I can’t dance to save my life, at least not salsas, rumbas, merengues, cumbias, etc, but wouldn’t mind learning. I also have a small bouquet of flowers that were given to me by the various old men I danced with. All in all, the experience was absolutely hysterical- probably more so for everyone that was watching me. Aside from a few men inviting me to go with them various places and a few creepers- it’s a fun story to tell. Got back to the house and my host mom said “Oh my God! What happened to you?” I proceeded to tell her what exactly did happen to me and she started hysterically laughing at me- apparently next Tuesday we are going with a camera so she can take pictures of my new novios.

Things seem to be coming together for me a bit- although painfully slowly. My biggest frustration now is the language- I’m not a patient person and I feel as though my Spanish isn’t improving at all!! My insecurity with Spanish tends to damper my social interactions and willingness to approach people- although usually if someone starts talking to me, I’m ok. Aside from that, I’m enjoying everything else here- big trip coming up this weekend and then it’ll be Independence Day here- some things to look forward to!! It will be nice when I have some more free time and can wander around the center more and also take advantage of all the museums and free entertainment for students. As long as I can get through next week I think my schedule will calm down considerably- in time for midterms! Oh well, probably be better to keep busy and out and about instead of sitting at home focusing on all the Spanish I don’t know! (Although, a little extra studying wouldn’t hurt).

The weekend...

Ok so phew, I suppose I havea few days worth of updates to catch up on! This weekend was busy- but good!

Friday morning, I only had one class- The History of Mexican American Relations- a lot of Americans in the class too, but also some local students. Our reading and homework depends on our nationality and it looks like there will be a lot of interaction. The professor seems very nice and get this- I could understand everything he said! It was a good hour into the class until I realized, oh hey, I wasn’t thinking “Oh God, he’s talking in Spanish”- I just understood it! The class started about 40 minutes late and our 15 minute break lasted a good half hour…you have to love it. I get somewhere late, thinking I will be “on time” and that’s never the case- I’m still way too early.

After class we all went to the library to try and make photo copies of our books. The students don’t really buy textbooks here- they just copy them and put them in a big book/folder thing. It makes so much more sense and is so much cheaper- if only it wasn’t illegal!!

Waited around for a few hours and left with the other students and our scuba instructor- in his old van- to a hacienda- about an hour from la Facultad. The hacienda is beautiful, several houses and the original machienery, now has a beautiful restaurant and ampitheater with a cenote? There were hammocks overlooking the ampitheater, which has a beautiful old tree in the center, and is set against a backdrop of a beautiful blue sky and old trees- the hammocks are quite comfortable, with the perfect view, and traditional music playing- life couldn’t have been more wonderful in that moment!

Fast forward a bit- scuba diving! The pool was small so we went in two groups of four students each. There is a lot of equipment- the valves (octopus), wet suits, tanks, weights, goggles, lots to keep track of. I didn’t realize how buoyant you are when you are wearing an air tank, wet suit, and the scuba vest- we have to use extra weights to keep us down, as well as working controlling breathing and inflating and deflating our vests in order to add or decrease weight.

The first time I actually submerged and breathed underwater was so strange! Your gut reaction is to hold your breath underwater, but you can’t! With the tank you can actually breathe pretty normally. We practiced clearing our masks of water, taking our respirators out of our mouths and using it again, using someone else’s “safe second”, and swimming around with our giant fins on. It was so exciting!

Wandered around the hacienda after- we ended up taking several hours there and by the time I got home, it was 8ish. Showered, ate, and left to go to a friend’s house. Got ready- flagged down a taxi (that’s one impressive feat) picked up a friend, and went out to a disco. We ended up staying for all of 10 minutes, it was very “fresa” or quite preppy- as it turns out, it is completely unacceptable to go anywhere in Mexico after 8pm wearing less than 4’’ heels. I am very unfortunately going to have to amend my shoe collection a little. As if I need to be any taller when I go out- I still can’t get away with wearing “normal” shoes. That’s a bit depressing. Anyways, we ended up leaving and going to a friend of a friend’s house nearby- another two American students and some local students as well- eventually went out again, to another disco and stayed until the music stopped, 3 am or so?

The next day, Saturday, we had more scuba- so met in the northern part of the city. Went to the hacienda again- this time we were the second group so I took a nap in the hammock- I’m getting very good at taking naps in interesting places. Our turn came around- we practiced taking on and off our masks- definitely weird, you can’t see anything without the mask on and a lot of water comes rushing up your nose, when you put it back on it is filled with water and you have to clear it- not my favorite sensation in the world. I at least don’t need contacts- that was difficult for some of the other people. Our instructor Memo (who is really, really cool- he’s an underwater archaeologist!) also shut off our air so we would know what it felt like when we ran out. It was really fun again- I can’t wait to get into a cenote or something aside from a pool- more to see! I can definitely see myself getting into underwater archaeology- it’s pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of.

Got back from scuba- showered, ate, relaxed a bit. Went out by 10 and caught the last bit of the Mexico- Costa Rica soccer game. I’m fairly positive that the only time Yucatecos actually consider themselves Mexican is when it comes to fútbol. The streets were dead! Mexico ended up winning 3-0.

After the game we went to another exchange student (from another part of Mexico) house. Lots of exchange students from all over Mexico and Spain- lots of practice for my Spanish. It was really great- l met a ton of people and spoke in Spanish all night- with minimal difficulty. Definitely some grammar issues, but no major communication snags. Ended up staying until 4 am or so- not the smartest move considering I had to get up this early. It was just so refreshing to be hanging out with Spanish-speaking students, in a setting outside of the program meetings. Not to mention my Spanish was working to some extent last night.

This morning was rough, needless to say, still glad I went out and met people though. The group met at 8:30 this morning for a trip to Uxmal and a Hacienda on the way. I’ll include more info about this in my next blog tomorrow, but I have to do reading before I fall asleep!!

Very jealous of everyone in the Adirondacks right now- what I wouldn’t give for that weather and a lake. I don’t think I have worn sleeves of any length since I’ve arrived!

So this weekend was better- still not easy, but definitely better, not to mention, I had a lot of fun. There are some times that I am just really frustrated that I can’t get the words out of my mouth the way I would like, and have to take a 10 minute detour to express what I want to. In terms of sticking out- I think people near my house and in the plaza in the morning and afternoon are starting to recognize me and I haven’t been approached as much. Not to mention, despite my SPF 50, I’m very, very tan- which helps make it look like I belong here a little bit more. Still get the honks and stares from men driving buy, but I don’t think I’m going to win with that situation any time soon. Definitely in a transitioning phase- sometimes the amount I don’t know and am clueless is just really funny, sometimes figuring out the slightest things make me incredibly happy, and sometimes, I feel like I’m three years old, lost in a huge city- without a clue what’s going on!

I’ll update tomorrow too….

More of the "hostility" stage.

Today started off horribly. The electricity went out in the night, so that meant no fans, no alarm clock, a ton of rain, and cats fighting right outside my window. Woke up disgustingly sweaty and late. Tried to take a shower- water was cold, dropped my shampoo, slipped and fell on the nice hard tile- damn it!

Got to the bus station sweaty and late, ended up getting on the wrong bus. I take “R- 2 Aleman” to school everyday but ended up getting on “R-1 Aleman”, a bus that was packed, with windows that wouldn’t open- imagine, if you will, 40 people crammed onto a bus without circulating air…gross. So 40 minutes into the bus ride I realized, hmm, I just passed Walmart- that’s funny- that shouldn’t happen. As it turns out, I got on the wrong bus- had to talk to the bus driver- wait another 20 minutes, get off the bus, ask where the stop was, and then wait for the correct bus. I made it to class about twenty minutes late- ugh. Maya was at least engaging today- we seemed to move really quickly- hopefully today was just to give us an idea of what the language sounded like and how it functioned. The pronunciation seems tricky!! Grammar doesn’t seem to hard though.

Had a super long break between classes- took the bus to the program office- ate lunch, did some Spanish homework, and then pulled the tables together and took a nap. Laura and Jen did too- at least I wasn’t alone!

Spanish is boring and cold. The grammar is easy- I just can’t retain it to use it in a conversation! I feel like I need a week to just study our grammar book obsessively and I’d be all set- that unfortunately, is not too realistic. We had a useless, waste of time program meeting after Spanish.

Some of my friends and I went to Walmart after- took way too much time. I bought a watch for scuba diving, folders, a backpack meant for a three year-old, and a CANDY BAR!!! I’ve been trying to find milk chocolate for the past few weeks- finally did!!!!

Taking the bus home was a trip- had to fight my way across a huge traffic circle, only to find out I had to do it once more because the bus wouldn’t stop there. Finally got on the bus home- stopped way short of where I am used to getting off and had to walk pretty far, with all my books, my computer, and groceries- wasn’t fun.

Got home, Ligia made dinner- tortilla, queso, salsa verde, crema, frijoles- I ate it sooo quickly- I was starving!!

All in all, a frustrating day. I know that there are a few other people feeling like this too- one of my friends started crying during the program meeting, felt badly for her, but she’s definitely not alone!! One of the guys also said that he feel s like he is understanding less than when he came- also definitely how I feel!!

I mean, there were positives for today- I got lost and got back home, I got homework done, although it was hard to understand, I found the things I needed, even though it took forever. I really feel isolated because I feel as though my Spanish isn’t improving at all and everyone understands what is going on more than I do. I also feel like I am never going to meet local people because they don’t want to have anything to do with the exchange students, and if they do, I wouldn’t be able to understand them.

The constant whistling and honking is old, and if i go out to eat with a guy and try to order, they always look to the guy to verify that I can have whatever I ordered. Does feminism exist here?

In terms of other akward situtations. If you are a foreigner in Mexico- joining in a protest, you can be deported. On my way to school today, I walked straight through a protest in the plaza, waited for the bus in the middle of it, and did not realize that it was indeed, a protest, until I got on the bus and realized people were holding signs regarding bus fees. Moral of the story, if large groups of people are gathered together with microphones- walk around them, as "hostile" as I am not, I don't really want to be deported!!

I have my first underwater part of the scuba diving class tomorrow, I’m really excited about that. Maybe some time in the water will actually permit my feet to be clean! They are always so dirty here! Ahh!

Thanks for the kind comments, they do help a lot!! Also, apparently an hour long massage is about $30 and there are gym memberships and yoga classes for 80p/day or 500/month. I'll think about it- I could use some stress relief!!