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!!