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.