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….