El Cuyo- Lets all be dirty!

The weekend after Carnaval, February 19th-21st, we decided to take our first solo trip without the program to a place called El Cuyo, where Leah's host family has a beach house. El Cuyo is an itty bitty town- and I mean itty bitty- on the very northern part of the peninsula (a little east of Rio Lagartos if anyone is interested in google mapping it). It was about as far off the touristy, beaten path as you could get. We really wanted everyone to come, but Rachel, Andres and Kevin decided to hang back in Merida for the weekend, so there were only eight of us. Even though it felt like we were missing part of our lil family, it ended up being a pretty interesting and smelly trip.




To get there we took a bus through the town of Tizamin, just another small colonial town a little northeast of Merida, had some lunch and took another bus to El Cuyo. We had about two hours in Tizamin before our bus for Cuyo left, so we hung out and did some grocery shopping since Leah's host parents told us there wouldn't be a grocery store in El Cuyo. That probably should have been our first hint as to how small it really was.



When we got there, after stopping at least twenty other times at tiny little roadside villages to drop people off, we found El Capitan the caretaker of the house we were staying in and owner of one of the restaurants in town. He showed us how to get to the house, which was past the tiny town square that consisted of a church, a basketball/soccer court and a little criss-cross pattern of sidewalks. The road to the house ran parallel to the coast and was entirely made of sand.



After about a ten minute walk we got to the house which was this cute little place with a porch surrounded by palm trees, a big common room with the kitchen, dining room and living room type area with two day beds, then a bathroom and one small bedroom with two small beds and PLENTY of places to hang hammocks. I guess Leah's host parents, who are anthropologists, used to actually live there while they were writing some of their books.



Right away the girls claimed the living room and stuck the guys in the little room in the back- they were definitely outnumbered so they didn't have a choice. Once we set up a little and put away our groceries, we set out to find some booze for the weekend. By the time we finally found some I'm pretty sure the whole town knew there were eight gringos in for the weekend looking to buy tequila. We also hit up a few small stores to finish stocking up our amazing food selection, which basically consisted of hot dogs, pasta, tortillas, fruit, eggs, graham crackers, strawberry marshmallows and cookies'n'cream chocolate bars for s'mores (they were out of normal chocolate bars and marshmallows- let me tell you, they were some interesting s'mores).



We made a pretty interesting dinner that night as well- spaghetti with hot dogs. And strangely enough we were all pretty proud of it, haha. We also made our own Jamaica that night, which is a kind of tea made out of hibiscus flowers served cold with a little sugar or honey- its sooo delicious and you can find it everywhere here. I will most definitely be hitting up Pilsen when I get home to look for it.



That night we just kind of hung out, had our family dinner, walked on the beach and made s'mores over the stove and played in the hammocks. None of us really understood why so many people here like hammocks until that weekend- I promise you the most relaxing thing in the world is laying in a hammock strung up on the porch under a palm tree overlooking the ocean. Pretty damn great. I plan on buying one before I get home.



The next day we all made breakfast and started to wash the dishes when the water stopped working. None of us really thought much about it, I guess we just figured it would start working again, and if not we would just go talk to El Capitan. So we walked the 50 yards or so out to the beach and layed out for a bit and went swimming. The beach was SO beautiful and completely empty. Well… almost. There was "Naked Man" as we came to call him. Some European guy in the house next door who obviously enjoys skinny dipping and chilling in his beach chair butt naked. It was pretty strange walking out to what seemed like a completely empty beach, and all of a sudden looking over and seeing a naked person staring at you. But other than Naked Man and a few other people, the beach was free of tourists and hotels. There was a small hotel that was being built down the beach from us, but it wasn't anything like a resort.



When we decided to go in for lunch the water still wasn't working and we had a lot of dirty dishes, so someone went to find El Capitan to see if we could get it fixed. And he couldn't fix it. Not having running water wasn't really that big of a deal, except for 1.) we couldn't wash any of our dishes 2.) some of us hadn't showered since the morning before, and 3.) the toilet didn't work. El Capitan said he would send someone on Sunday morning to fix it, and until then he pulled a few buckets of water out of the well. So, we all decided just to be covered in salt water, sand and smell together. It was quite the bonding experience.



Saturday, after spending the day at the beach, we walked into town to try and find some more hot dogs to cook over the bonfire we wanted to build and found the entire town at a Quinceñera or hanging out in the church yard. We couldn't find anymore hot dogs, but for the second night in a row the entire town had to have known what we were looking for . That night Luke and Joel made a bonfire and we made s'mores and roasted hotdogs on the beach. It was pretty perfect.



The next day El Capitan tried to fix the water again, but no luck. So we resorted to rinsing our dirty selves off with cups of water from the water we could pull out of the well, and washing our dishes in the ocean. Naked Man (not naked this time) and his family were watching us wash our dishes, and we had to look pretty ridiculous. We had all the dishes spread out in the sand or on towels and were washing them in the waves. A lot of them had been sitting out since the morning before so there was a lot of caked on food. We had to use shells and scrub them with sand to get them clean. It was very Swiss Family Robinson of us.



When we finally left El Cuyo, which was very sad- we all could have easily stayed there for another week in the hammocks, and got back to Merida we were all SO dirty we couldn't stand it. I walked into my house, said hi to my host mom and went straight for the shower.



But I think out of everything we've done, the trip to El Cuyo was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was nice just getting away and finding a beach that wasn't swarmed by tourists. After that weekend, we traveled almost every weekend after, so I have plenty to tell you about still!



Up next: Chiapas!

Family dinner! From left to right Bea (furthest left), Bianca (closest to camera), me, Leah, Missy, Jeff, Luke and Joel

Our amazing dinner

Leah, me and Luke hanging out in one of the hammocks.

Bea and Joel in the hammock. We all really liked the hammocks.

Our little casa- hammocks, palm trees and all.

The view of the beach from the house.

Bianca and Leah at the beach- one of my fav pics!

Luke playing on the pier.

Sunset at El Cuyo!

Getting down to the wire...

EEEeek! I officially have one week till I leave and I STILL have SO much to post! I'm having a blogging marathon today, now that I'm done with classes- woop! But here goes… expect lots of info, and pictures if I can!!

Here are some pics of Carnaval:

One of the floats on the last day.

Elias, Terecita and Glendi in their costumes before we left for the parade

with the kids from Emiliano Zapata Sur.

People dressed in huipiles dancing la jarana at the traditional night.

Some dancers during the parade

CARNAVAL!

I am officially a negligent blog writer. Things have been so crazy here, between traveling, being sick (yay stomach virus!) and homework it has been hard to find the time to write. But I just realized that I never filled you all in on Carnaval!

One of my host mom's friends told me once, while talking about the different holidays, that "En Mexico, todo dia es una fiesta," or "In Mexico every day is a holiday." Carnaval was no exception to the rule, but it was a little more tame than I expected it to be. Though we did get a four day weekend out of it (no classes to party? I knew I'd love this place).

Carnaval was a lot like Mardi Gras(thanks for the spelling, Lani!), with a parade every day followed by music and events in the streets, and I'm pretty sure it’s the same weekend, February 12th through the 16th. But in some ways it was more family oriented and really commercialized. It started Thursday, and lasted through Tuesday afternoon but I didn't go check it out for the first time till Saturday night.

That Saturday Bianca had us over to her host mom's house for a little party before hand with homemade lasagna- which was amazing. I was seriously missing real Italian food with actual seasoning, not just puréed tomatoes passing as sauce. We all dressed up to go too, which apparently is a really gringo thing to do, as we didn't see very many locals dressed up as all, but we still had a good time. Most of us just found cheap plastic wings and were all sorts of fairies, butterflies and bugs. After gorging ourselves on lasagna and margaritas, we headed downtown a little after the parade was supposed to start which ended up not really working out. By the time we got there all of the seats were taken and it was really hard to see anything except for the floats. But it was still fun to be able to walk around, drink on the street and see all the vendors.

The parade passed down the main street, Paseo de Montejo, which is a huge avenue with a bunch of old mansions, colonial buildings and monuments. They had the whole street closed off with the parade on one side, and room for street vendors, taquerias and such on the other side. A big group of gringos dressed up in costumes and dancing down the street definitely got some attention though. Especially because we were the only ones dancing… I think we're all getting used to making fools of ourselves the majority of the time.

After the parade we headed out to the clubs which were SO packed, so that part of the night was kind of a bust. I did up my tequila shot count to 13 though, and discovered the perfect way to balance them- a healthy serving of fresh churros straight up from a street vendor . They definitely were the only thing that kept me from getting a little tipsy that night, and not for lack of trying either.

The next day, Sunday, it was super rainy and we had a ton of homework, so I just stayed in for most of the day and watched a movie with Bianca and Leah. It was pretty nice to finally have a day where there wasn't anything I had to do.

Monday,the group decided that taking the kids from the Emiliano Zapata Sur soccer team to the Carnaval parade that night sounded like a good idea, which in theory it was. Except for the fact that it started pouring rain as soon as we left. We met them all at the center in Emiliano Zapata Sur (Side Note** I'll have to find a map to post so you all can get a better idea of the city) and paid for the bus for them. We had about eleven boys from the soccer team anywhere from 9 years old to 12, and three of the kids from my computer class, Teresita, Glendi and Elias came too.

Once we got them all on the bus and into el centro it was crazy trying to keep them all together. Trying to tell a bunch of kids weaving in and out of crowds to stay together, stop fighting and get out of the street is a lot harder to do when you have to do it in Spanish. But eventually we made it to the stands and even found a group of seats (the rain was good for something I guess, it kept the crowds away). Then we bought a bunch of garbage bags and made little ponchos for all the kids, which didn't last long after the little monsters decided to rip them off each other, but I guess they didn't mind the rain too much. Most of them were pretty well behaved, though, except for a few who I thought were going to kill themselves goofing around on the bleachers. But when people started throwing things like cups and food into the stands from the floats, they were super excited and were diving into people to try and grab everything, and even knocked a group guys over. Actually, that was pretty funny.

The only other problem that we had with them was their tendency to throw up gang signs every time we tried to take a pictures. A lot of them told us their brother are in gangs, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these kids end up in them too. Its just kind of a way of life for them.

Every night of Carnaval had a theme, and that night's was traditional, so it had a lot of women wearing huipiles, traditional dresses that Mayan women wear that are made of long white cotton dresses with no shape to them, with embroidered collars and trim. All of the dance groups were dancing la jarana or a variation of it, which it the traditional dance of the Yucatan. Most of the people in the dance groups don't usually wear huipiles, like a lot of older Mayan women do in Mérida, but when they use them when they perform .The kids weren't too impressed with the actual dancing, because a lot of them knew the dances the groups were performing, and some had grandmas who danced the dances or actually dress in huipiles every day, but they definitely loved the half naked women dancing on the floats. It was an interesting contrast to see the Coca-Cola or Sol (a popular beer here) girls dancing around in skimpy little costumes on all the floats right above the groups of women dressed huipiles.

It was cool to be able to take the kids to the parade, though, because coming to Carnaval is something that a lot of their parents can't afford to do with them. We paid for all of their bus fair, and for most of their food. I didn't really have any idea what their families' economic situations were until we got to the Carnaval and some of them had money to buy food from their parents, other kids pooled the few pesos they had saved up themselves to buy things as a group, and some didn't have any at all to spend. It definitely makes you think about how spoiled kids are back home.

It was also nice getting to know the kids in my computer class better. They are such sweet kids, I'm really going to miss them when I get back. Its always nice getting to the center, even when I'm not having the greatest day, and I see them waiting and they are always excited to see us. Plus, they were the best behaved on the trip. Take that soccer team.

Tuesday, the last day of Carnaval, the parade was at noon, so we decided to get there around 10 to find seats. I went and met up with Omar, our program coordinator's assistant who we're all starting to get really close with, Bianca, Missy, Dianelli (one of the tutors) and her sister and tried to find free seats- which didn't work out too well. People were saving seats as early as 9 so by the time we got there it was hard to even find paid seats, which we eventually did find for $28 pesos ( like $2.50 US) and they were actually pretty good.

Just my luck though, when I left in the morning it was rainy and cold, and by 11:00 it was hot, sunny, and I had forgotten my sunscreen. I used my umbrella for a bit to stay out of the sun, which a lot of people do here, but once the parade started everyone was on their chairs and I didn't have a choice but to bear it. Up until this point I hadn't really gotten a tan, but that day definitely made up for it- I got such a bad burn I had sun poisoning the next day. That was three weeks ago and I'm still trying to even out my farmers tan from my t-shirt, and I just stopped peeling last week. Needless to say, I haven't forgotten my sunscreen since. It did eventually turn into a tan though- I'm actually starting to tan pretty well. I didn't think it was possible, but I guess two months in the sun will turn anyone tan.

Once the parade started we were all up on our chairs watching all of the dancers and floats go by, it was really pretty. They were throwing food, cups, and other things off of the floats, and between Missy and I (she's Chinese and English) we stood out just a bit and got a lot of things thrown to us. I have to say though, the people here are crazy about their free stuff- especially the giant plastic cups they were throwing out. Bianca made the mistake of putting her cup down by her chair and it disappeared. We're all pretty sure the little old ladies next to her stole it. The parade had such a strange mix of people in it. There were a bunch of different dance groups, some with kids or teenagers doing salsa or some other dance, and then the huge commercial floats from Coca-Cola or Sol with go-go dancers in thongs. The whole parade was really commercialized, more so than a lot of parades I've seen in the U.S., which was really surprising to us. The strange mix of the half-naked dancers, men and women, and the number of families in the crowd really caught us off guard as well.

Overall, I did really enjoy Carnaval, and it was really nice just to have a weekend to enjoy the city, even if it was super crowded. I think we were all expecting it to be more of a party like Mardi Gras, and I think a lot of Mexicans expected us to act like it was- my host mom's son-in-law told me as I was leaving the house at 9:00 am not to get too drunk at the parade, "Only have four beers." But we behaved ourselves, even if we looked like freaks in fairy wings.

I have soo much more to tell you about that I've done over the last few weeks! We've been traveling a lot with the group and on our own since the program is winding down. We rented a beach house one weekend, went on a class trip through Chiapas and Tabasco, went on an "adventure tour" at a nature preserve last weekend, and this weekend I'm off to Playa del Carmen and Cozumel so expect a LOT of updates!

I can't believe I only have a week and a half left of the program and less than three weeks till I leave- Eeeek! I am starting to miss the little things from home, but I really don't want to leave. Mérida has really become a home to me and I'm so sad that the program is so short. But I guess I have to get on with school and try and graduate in five years, which may be harder than I thought since I'm leaning towards adding another minor in Community Service - surprise Mom and Dad!

Vermin Update:

So you all remember my little friend Ramona right? The rat that lives in my kitchen? Well, I haven't seen her in a while (though I have seen a little gecko who I named Lizardo), and thought she had found someone else to terrorize for a while.

Well I was wrong.

She decided to jump out of a bunch of cardboard boxes at me before she ran under the fridge. I think I scared her too, cause it looked like she triped a little bit coming out of the boxes.

I think I might invest in some rat poison.

2012: It’s the end of the world… Again.

This summer, while on the Chi O EBoard retreat with some of the girls (a sorority thing for those of you who are confused), I remember talking about the end of the world and 2012, which is supposedly when the world is going to end according to the Mayan calendar and I promised my Little Sis Lauren, who was a little concerned (hehe), that I would find out the real story for her when I got down here.

Well, good news Lauren! The world probably isn't going to end in 2012. This time.

If you haven't heard, the circular Mayan calendar is supposed to end sometime in December in the year 2012. If you don’t know anything about the Maya, one of the reasons they are so historically significant is because of their extraordinary achievements in astronomy, mathematics (they were the first ancient civilization to come up with the concept of zero, which is apparently a big deal), and their extremely accurate calendar and time system. All of this transferred into their religion and religious architecture. For example at Uxmal, the main pyramid is perfectly aligned so that on the summer and fall equinoxes the sun is perfectly aligned in the doorway at the top. Or probably the most famous example, at Chitzen Itza, on the solstice at sunrise and sunset, the layers of the pyramid are aligned just right so that it the light reflecting on the stairs gives the illusion of a snake ascending or descending the pyramid as the sun rises or sets.

Anyways (can you tell I've been paying attention in my history class?), the Mayan calendar is so accurate, that some people believe that because the calendar ends, the world does too. Really, it’s a fun myth to think about, but then it just seems silly after you learn a little bit about the Maya and their religious culture.

The Maya, or at least some of the religious sects of the Maya (they all had different gods depending on the location or group of people- they weren't a big cohesive culture, but actually a bunch of different city-states), believed that the world existed in stages, and that it had been through four stages of destruction and rebirth. They believed that they lived in the fifth and final age, and that their destruction was eminent. They also believed that the only way they could prolong their time was through the intervention of the Gods, who they tried to please and worship by human sacrifice.

So, every 52 years, which was the Mayan century or something like it, they thought the world was going to come to an end unless they could convince their gods otherwise. In order to keep the Gods from ending their world, they would have the New Fire ceremony where they would have ritual sacrifices, dances, music, break all of their dishes (to signify the destruction of the works of man or something like that) and put all of the fires out in the cities. Then, if they were lucky, the sun would rise the next day signifying that the Gods gave them another 52 years, or it wouldn't and the world would end and they were all screwed.

Obviously, the world didn't end, and odds are, its not going to end this time either. Although, there have been a lot of crazy natural disasters the past few years. Maybe we should through a party, find someone to sacrifice and break all of our dishes too. I volunteer my parent's house for the New Fire party (sorry Mom, looks like you're going to have to find some new plates).

But if the world does end, Kevin Gorey (one of the guys on the trip) and I already have our houses picked out of the ruins at Tulum- we figure they've stayed in tact for this long, odds are they'll still be there then too. Plus they have a great view.

Real, Live, Mexicans!

Hola! (Or as Joel likes to pronounce it- Holla! Like holler, get it?)

I'm not sure who it was that said it, but I was explaining how I get to take an actual class with Mexican students to someone from home and they asked me, "real, live, Mexicans?" So, in honor of that, here is a post all about real, live, Mexicans!

Although I still haven't gotten used to the staring, heckling and harassing on the streets, most people here are genuinely very friendly and nice. The whole city has a relaxed and calm feeling to it, and the people are no different. I've gotten to meet a lot of different people though my host mom, Violetta. There are always people in and out of our house for yoga classes, and she has a group of friends who she is teaching how to be yoga instructors, so they're here often. I think sometimes I scare her students who haven't met me though, cause when they see me in the house or in the garden they always act really surprised and kind of giggle before they say hello.

I've gotten to meet Violetta's family several times too. She has them over once a week for lunch (which is the main meal) and if I don’t have class I eat and talk with them for a while. It can be kind of overwhelming though, since there are usually her daughter and her husband, two of her sons and their wives, and five of her grandkids running around. I've started to talk to her granddaughter more though- she's 17 and speaks English pretty well, so she speaks in English and I speak in Spanish. Its good practice for both of us.

Other than people around the house, I'm starting to meet people at school too. About a month ago, Beatriz, Joel and I started taking a normal class with Mexican students at the University. It’s kind of like a basic freshman writing class that you would take in the states. The information that we're learning isn't new or anything, like how to write a good essay, but its still pretty overwhelming. The teacher, Maestra Betty, is also our teacher for our private class with just the three of us, which is nice because she has a good idea of what we'll have trouble with and what we can or can't do. The problem is she's just as relaxed with this class as she is with us, so the students are kind of rowdy. We also have to work in groups a lot, and of course the three of us weren't allowed to be in a group together. But luckily on the first day, Stephanie, one of the girls came up to introduce herself to me and invited me to be in a group with her. Turns out she lived in Waukegan for 7 years and moved back to Merida after a couple years at a community college after getting an offer to teach English classes here. She speaks perfect English which is really helpful for when I get lost in class. The rest of our group is really nice too, and they're really good students which is a plus- Beatriz and Joel didn't get placed with the best groups so they're kind of frustrated and lost with what we're doing.

We just had two new international students join our class last week too- two sixteen year old boys that is. They're here with and exchange program and have been living in Merida for six months already. One is from Germany, and the other is from Portland, Oregon, and they both speak better English than I do. It’s a little embarrassing.

But as far as my speaking skills go, they really have gotten a lot better. I've gotten to the point where I can understand almost anything if they speak slow enough, and I can pretty much hold a basic conversation without a problem. I run into trouble, though, with vocabulary a lot- so many of the verbs have so many different meanings I'm not always sure what words to use or how to use them. A lot of the time I feel like I sound like a six year old because my vocabulary is so basic. On top of that, I think my English is taking a serious hit. You know it’s a problem when you can't think of a work in English, but can say it in Spanish without a problem. Maybe by the time I'm done here I'll be able to speak broken Spanish AND broken English. Perfect.

Besides school and home, I've also gotten to meet a lot of people at our service site, CEMADE, which honestly I'm not sure of the full acronym in Spanish, but it stands for the Marista Center for Economic Development. In our computer class alone we usually have a pretty good mix of adults and kids, and I have a lot of fun with them. The women in our class, most of who are pretty shy, are so nice and really patient with us, while the kids are so funny and add a lot of energy to what would otherwise be a really boring two hours. I definitely have favorites though. Three of the kids, Elias, Glendi and Teresita, who are all siblings ages 13, 11 and 9 (I think?) are so sweet. The younger two girls are so cute and try to help me with my Spanish a lot, while Elias, their older brother laughs at me most of the time when I try and talk to him, but he's such a sweet kid and its really cute to watch him look after his sisters.

A couple of the women bring their kids in with them for the class too, and its fun to see them interact. For the most part the kids have had a little bit more experience than their moms, so its funny when they try and show them how to do something. Its cute getting to see them together learning something new. They all seem so close with their families. We had them do a typing exercise a few weeks ago when we were teaching them Microsoft Word and had them write about themselves and their families (Rachel's brilliant idea), and everyone wrote about how much they love their families and how well they live.

Its really obvious that family life holds a much higher importance, in general, here. Even my host mom sees one of her kids almost every day, and her grandsons spend the evenings here at least twice a week. I think part of it is for economic reasons, because people can't really move out of their families house unless their married due to the cost, but they just seem to enjoy their time together more. In our computer class there is a group of people who are all related in one way or another- two of them are sisters, one is their sister-in-law, two are their kids and another is their sister-in-law's sister, and all of them work together and help each other out- and it seems like they really have a good time doing it. Just one of those cultural differences I guess, but its kind of nice to see.

Coming up next: 2012- is the world really going to end? And CARNAVAL- not as crazy as you think it would be.

El Caribbe!

Hiiii! Sorry its been soo long since I posted- I know some of you like to slack at work and read my blog instead, so sorry to keep you waiting (I'm looking at you Sarah Shields).

I've been so busy trying to catch up on my homework from last week and getting ready for my midterms and finals next week (12 page paper on the conquest and colonization of Mexico anyone?) writing for this has been kind of low on my priority list.

But now that I finally have a few minutes, I wanted to fill you in on the trip we took last weekend! We had a four day trip to the Caribbean coast with our entire group, Omar (one of our program coordinators- aka Professional Gringo Babysitter), Professor Morra-Torres (our history professor from DePaul) and his family, and our tour guide Miguel.

The purpose of the trip was to visit a few ruin sites, since that’s what we've been studying in our history class, and to see first hand some of the differences between the Rivera Maya on the east coast of the peninsula vs. where we are in Merida on the west side. They call the east coast "Rivera Maya" because it has become such a huge tourist area in the past few years. For example Cancun, Isla Cozumel and Playa del Carmen are all part of the stretch.

We started out last Friday morning and headed to Chitzen Itza, the most famous Mayan ruins site which is in the central part of the peninsula. Compared to Uxmal, a large ruin site close to Merida that we visited the weekend before, Chitzen Itza was sooo touristy. But I'll explain more about the ruins and tourism later- that’s an entire post on its own.

After a tour and some free time at the ruins, we headed to cenote Ik-kil for a swim. Cenotes are freshwater underground sink holes that are all over the peninsula. Some cenotes are completely underground, but this one had an opening to the surface with a couple of waterfalls and a ton of plants and roots growing down into it. Ik-kil is pretty touristy too, since its so close to Chitzen, and they carved a staircase down through the limestone along the side of the cenote down to a platform with an area to jump in. We got to jump from a pretty high platform too, since Ik-kil is around 90 ft deep- it was so cool. The water is crystal clear too so you can see all the catfish swimming down in the water around you.

Once we left Ik-kil, we headed to the town of Valladolid, which is the third largest city on the Yucatan peninsula after Merida and Cancun. It’s a really small colonial town with a cute central plaza and some nice local hotels, but not much other than that. It’s a really popular place for locals who work in Cancun and in the rest of the Rivera Maya to live away from all the craziness.

After one night in Valladolid, and a run in with a giant mutant grasshopper in our bathroom that we eventually named Chewy (I swear the bugs here are out to get me), we headed to Tulum on Saturday. Tulum is another big tourist location that wasn't very important historically, but is most significant Mayan settlement actually located on the ocean. In terms of location, I think Tulum was my favorite site we visited. Its built on some cliffs overhanging the ocean and its absolutely breathtaking. The beaches there were gorgeous too- I got some amazing pictures. When it came actual structures at the site though, it was kind of unimpressive (and sorry Dad, I couldn't find the "wilson house"). There were a TON of iguanas there though- they are a natural destroyer of the ruins and love to burrow and live in then. Some of them were pretty monstrous too.

From Tulum we drove up through Cancun and listened to Miguel talk about the evils of tourism (we decided that he just doesn't like change) to the ferry to Isla Mujeres. Isla Mujeres is a REALLY small island not to far from Cancun with some supposedly nice beaches (though we didn't get to see them) and shops. The island is really colonial, like a lot of small towns, but has really small, narrow bricked streets and most people drove around in gold carts or on scooters. We stayed there Saturday night, and went out for Leah's 21st birthday at a really fun outdoor bar on the beach. They had a live band and Omar tried to teach us how to salsa dance (tried being the key word- we weren't that great).

On Sunday went snorkeling on the reef between the mainland and the island. The reef was beautiful but the weather kind of sucked. It was the one day that it rained ALL day, and it was kind of chilly (try not to shoot me Chicago people, but it was only low 70's- yuck). We were supposed to snorkel at a couple of sites and visit the northern beaches, but the rain was so bad we just ate lunch and headed back to the hotel for the day. We were all kind of miserable after snorkeling though, since we only wore our bathing suits and towels, and had to ride on a little boat with Captain Blackie (he was a treat, let me tell you- someone should have laid off the bottle) in the rain, and then had to sit at an outdoor cafeteria type thing in our soaking towels and bathing suits while we waited for lunch. It was kind of a bummer.
It was really Leah's birthday on Sunday, and the day had been kind of miserable a few of us decided that we wanted to throw her a surprise party that night. So we decided we wanted to go buy a cake and a piñata for that night. Turns out it was a little more difficult than we thought, since it was Sunday and raining (which meant no tourists) so most of the shops were closed. But we were pretty determined, so Rachel, Bianca, Missy, Kevin and I decided to brave the rain and search the island for a piñata.

It was still raining pretty hard, and none of us had umbrellas, so we asked the hotel for a few garbage bags (the big industrial-sized ones) and had a trash-bag poncho fashion show- we looked like a homeless Ku Klux Klan. Its really hard to explain how hysterical it was so see a bunch of gringos walking in a single file line through the flooded streets wearing garbage bags (in more ways than you would think possible) asking anyone we could find where we could buy a piñata. It was even better because there was NO ONE out on the streets- we looked a little out of place. After much searching and asking around, however, we found out that the only place on the island that sells piñatas was closed, so we settled for sparkling cider instead (faux Champaign anyone?). But she was definitely surprised so it was all worth it.

Then finally on Monday we left Isla Mujeres and headed to Ek'Balam, yet another ruins site. This one was way less touristy and had a really strange mix of fully restored and completely unrestored ruins. The fully restored parts were interesting because they rebuilt everything the way it would have looked- stucco and all (back in the day all of the ruins would have been plastered with stucco and painted different colors), but it seemed kind of artificial. There was a HUGE temple there that you could climb, by far the tallest we saw, and you could see the peninsula for miles. The unrestored parts were pretty neat too. Even though they just looked like BIG piles of rocks with trees growing out of them, it was cool to see how they would have looked when they found the ruins.

Overall, the trip was exhausting, especially cause I was still kind of sick, but it was a lot of fun. The best part was being able to spend time as a group because it was just the eleven us and Omar. We're all kind of turning into a little family, which is kind of cute. We're like a big group of siblings, especially Luke and I- the group calls us brother and sister. He has an older sister my age and he totally reminds me of the way my little brother Jonathan acts. Too bad we don't have a mom for me to complain to when he's trying to aggravate me on purpose- which he does frequently.

This week we have midterms for our history class and finals for the first stretch of our Spanish classes, and then next weekend is CARNAVAL!! Carnaval is a huge festival kind of like Marti Graw (why do I have no idea how to spell that?).I am SOOO excited for it! Its such a big deal here we even have Monday and Tuesday off of school the following week. Apparently everyone dresses up in costumes and just drinks and dances on the street. I think I'm going to be a bird with Bianca- yay feathers! Some of the other people are being butterflies and cats, so we'll have quite the zoo going on- I'll be sure to have pictures!

On a side note- I got my hair cut and colored here at a really nice salon for less than $70 dollars! It would have cost me twice that in the states, especially considering the place we went to. Between the weather, the lifestyle and the cost of living, I'm starting to think I need to find someone who will pay me to live here permanently...

Hope you all are enjoying the snow up there- I'm starting to get a little bit of a tan down here :)

Rat Update: As of the other night, it was still living in the kitchen. Omar and I have decided to name it Ramona, since it looks like shes going to be around for a while. I've started reaching around the corner to turn the light on, and waiting till I hear her scurry under the fridge before I go into the room. Oh Mexico.
 

Representing Chi Omega at Chitzen Itza- hey what can I say, its tradition :)

Rachel and I jumping into centoe Ik-Kil. Soooo fun!

The group swimming in the cenote.

The ruins at Tulum overlooking the Caribbean.

Climbing the cliffs at Tulum

My favorite beach shot from Tulum. The best part: no color enhancement necessary.

BIG Iguana at Tulum. Omar named her Bill.

Bianca, Rachel, Missy and I in our garbage bag couture.

The ruins of Ek-Balam and the Yucatan peninsula from the top of the main temple.

Insectos y Largartijas y Ratones- Dios Mio!

Translation: Insects and Lizards and Rats- Oh My!

In light of my most recent run-in with the above mentioned, I figured now would be as good a time as any to devote a post to one of my least favorite parts about Mexico: bugs, lizards (aka reptiles- thank you Joel), rodents and other creepy crawly things.

Now obviously there are bugs and rodents everywhere, and Chicago is no exception, but thanks to that wonderful thing called humidity, the Yucatán just happens to have more than its fair share. If you didn't already know, I have a minor issue with anything that has more than four legs, multiple pairs of eyes, antennas, stingers or pinchers- I wouldn't go as far as to call it a phobia, but lets just say we're not friends. Anything with scales and forked-tongues falls into the zero-tolerance category as well. Not to mention that rodents in general, especially rats, give me minor panic attacks.

First of all, now that all my irrational fears are out of the way, let me just start by saying that Mérida was built on a GIANT ANT HILL. "Well, okay," you're thinking, "they're just ants- how bad can it be?" WELL, I wouldn't mind them so much if they weren't EVERYWHERE. There are hormigas, aka ants, everywhere- in my kitchen, on the bus, in my school books (that’s what I get for doing my homework outside), and even in my coffee (I swear they jump from the trees). It doesn't help that the kitchen in my house is sort of an indoor/outdoor room- there aren't any screens on the windows, just glass shutters, and a huge door that isn't sealed at all opening out to the back patio. This wonderful arrangement, while giving a pleasant view of the garden while cooking or eating, also lets in a variety of guests- but mostly ANTS. There is a constant stream of them coming in the door, up the counter, and to any sort of crumb, plate or other edible thing that they can find. Besides the ants, you can also find a wide variety of fruit flies and gnats covering any food that isn't eaten, covered or refrigerated. Needless to say, I don't eat anything that is left out for too long.

While the ants may look kind of gross, they are nothing in comparison to the MOSQUITOES. I've never had so many mosquito bites in my life- I am now officially a mosquito buffet. No matter how many times I put on bug spray it seems like there is no stopping them. I think they have some sort of supersquito here- they're a little bit bigger than then those at home, impossible to swat, and leave the biggest, creepiest, itchiest bites I've ever seen. I'm just waiting to catch some strange disease from one of them.

Then we have the lizards- they don't really bother me all that much, since most of them are under 5 inches long and kind of cute. But they can scare the crap out of you when they scurry under your feet and you thought they were a leaf. Even the iguanas are kind of cool, except they make some crazy noise that sounds like someone is tapping their keys on the window.

Speaking of noise, the birds here are crazy. Have you ever heard of the theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds? Well I have to say I completely agree with that theory. The birds here sound like the Raptors from the Jurassic Park movies. Its taken some getting used to.

And now to the story of the night- rats and other rodents. I hadn't seen too many around, except for an opossum running across campus at school, until Monday night. I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water and there was a RAT sitting on the kitchen counter. I had a momentary brain fart and all I could think to was "Violetta there is an animal in the kitchen!" (In Spanish obviously). She didn't seem to mind it too much though, and explained that it comes around when it starts raining outside. I still couldn't get past the fact that there was a RAT IN THE KTICHEN. As of Tuesday night it was still there- I saw it run behind the fridge.

In other news, I've been out for the week with what the doctor described as "massive" sinusitis- aka a really bad sinus infection. At least now I have an explanation for my never-ending cold and tiredness over the past two weeks.

I hope you all are enjoying your pest-free winter! I'll try and get some pictures up from my trip to Uxmal last weekend up tomorrow. This weekend we're headed off to a four day tour of the Caribbean coast of the peninsula , so I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories!


Hasta luego!

Playing Catch-Up...

Hola amigos!

Sorry its been a while since I've posted- I've had a crazy week!

This past weekend ended up being a lot of fun. Saturday I went with the group to this club called Amaratus and it was a blast. Though I didn't add to my tequila shot count, which is embarrassingly low, we may need to start a group count of the number of bottles of vodka we consume while we're here.

On the weekends most of the clubs just charge a cover and then its all you can drink once you get inside. And if you get there before 11:00 the cover is even cheaper. So we headed to the club around 10:30 and when we got there it was pretty empty but a ton of people were waiting in line outside. Jeff, the other blonde of the group, and I got in first and were waiting around the entrance for everyone else when the club manager walked up to us and asked if we wanted a table. Table service is usually better here because you don’t have to fight with the bartenders over how much tip you're going to pay them (they won't give you your drink sometimes if you don't tip them enough). We were just expecting some generic table, when she walked us up to the VIP area elevated above the bar with a view of the entire club.

Not gonna lie, we felt pretty special. Being a blonde here does have its perks I guess.

We worked out a deal with our waiter for a 400 peso tip for the night (but he ended up getting a lot more after we downed three bottles of vodka at the end of the night) and he brought us all of our drinks and bottle service until the end of the night. Needless to say we all had a pretty good night, and the club manager gave me her number to call ahead for a table next time we wanted to come back (that and I think she had the hots for Jeff).

Sunday we all took it pretty easy and went and grabbed some pizza- some of us are really starting to crave some good'ol Chicago deep dish.

But remember how I said I felt like I was finally getting into a routine? Ya... that was a lie. Now that I'm actually and officially into my routine I'm exhausted. Mondays and Fridays aren't so bad, since I only have class from 7:15-9:30, but Tuesdays - Thursdays are insane. I have class on and off during the morning, and usually don’t have time to go home for lunch because we have to head to our service site in Emiliano Zapata Sur which takes about an hour to get to, including the trip to el centro to grab a bus.

Between all my classes, an early start time, the heat (its finally getting hot here! Yay!) and all the travel and work at the service site I don't know how I'm going to make it through the week. Everyone has to do the service and travels to the center at least three times a week (twice for service and once for our anthropology class), but I feel like those of us in the advance class have a little bit more to do. We start classes almost two hours earlier than the other groups and go everyday during the week. Plus, today we started taking normal class at the University with "real live Mexicans" as my friends like to say, so not only do we have work for that class to do, the three of us also meet with the teacher for forty-five minutes after to work on our own things.

I didn't expect this trip to be a total vacation, but I am honestly surprised by the workload we have. Aside from the ton of reading we have to do for History, a three to five page paper and several readings in Spanish due every week for Anthropology, and all the studying for our Spanish classes we have our service activities to prepare for. Even the service assignment (I'm teaching a computer class) is a lot more work than I expected.

I guess overall this week was just a little frustrating. Even though it feels like I should have a lot of free time we all spend so much time traveling around and have so much homework that by the end of the day I'm too tired to do anything. Obviously its an academic program so I was expecting a lot of class work, but it seems like a lot for a trip where we're supposed to be "immersing" ourselves in the culture. It also doesn't help that all three of the classes we take are taught by three different institutions, so none of the professors really have any idea what our course work is like in the other classes. Its looking like the only time I'll have to "immerse" or explore the area is on the class trips. Who knows though, hopefully I'll get used to the routine quickly and be a little more productive during the day.

But tomorrow we're off to Uxmal, a Mayan ruins site! I should have some cool pictures by the end of the weekend, but until then here is a link to the Bed & Breakfast Kevin and I are staying in for spring break:

http://www.casaesperanza.com/

It looks beautiful in the pictures, but trust me, its even prettier in person! It’s a little B&B owned by a Canadian couple who have lived in Merida for eight years. I met one of them, Claudette, the other day when I stopped by to check it out and she was so friendly. One of the other girls on the trip came with me and she and her boyfriend may rent the other room while we're there, so the four of us would have the run of the place. The picture of the courtyard on the main page definitely doesn't do it justice- the place is huge. My favorite part though was the two great big, friendly labs that were running around- it seems like its going to be a lot of fun!

Time to head to el centro for some homework and michiladas- yuum. Hope you all had a fabulous week!

PS to my Chi O's: I'm loving the spirit day pics. Keep em coming!

"I Lobe You!"

Hola Gringos!


I can't believe my second week here is almost over, its all going so fast! But it looks like our little vacation is officially over: we all just realized how much homework and readings we have to do over the next few weeks, and let me tell you its no small amount. Guess we'll be studying on the beach instead of drinking on it. I'm really falling in love with this city though. There is so much to do and just so much life going on its really hard to focus on anything else.

I especially love the people watching… although most of the time is watching people watching me- and when I say watching I mean staring intensely. I guess you could say I kind of stick out here. The city, and most of Mexico for that matter, is really homogenous. Kind of the exact opposite of Chicago. The fact that I'm white and an American makes me stand out as it is, but once you add the fact that I'm a blonde and taller than half of the population people tend to pay special attention.

When you think of "extra attention," you think of maybe a passing glance or double take, but no. The cultural norm of "don't stare" is obviously an American thing, cause no one here seems to know about it. I mean these people STARE. I can stare back, wave, say hola anything- they just keep staring.

My friend Luke gets a pretty big kick out of it. He is from El Salvador and pretty much blends in here, so he has a different perspective on things. Usually, he's the one who notices and gives me a "Dude, those ladies are staring at you hard core." We spend a lot of time traveling to el centro together or hanging out in out park, so he gets it a lot too. People usually give him weird looks like "What is that Mexican doing with that Gringa? Little kids are the best though- they just stare, smile and giggle.

It is kind of amusing when you can't even walk down the street without people yelling things like "hello pretty lady!" and even "I Lobe You!" (yes Lobe not Love- with expressive hand gestures and everything), but honestly it starting to get a little tiring. When I'm walking with Luke I usually don't get it as bad, since they think I'm with him, but when I'm alone people can get a little overzealous. Usually I just ignore them, but when they start following me down the street or patting at my bag it starts to get to me (don't worry I'm not wandering the streets alone at night or anything, this always happens during the day with a lot of people around).


I have to admit, its really strange being a minority for the first time. The bad part about it is that people know I'm American, and that I don't speak the language that well, and know they can screw me over or mess with me, because there isn't really anything I can do about it. The worst part is knowing I'm being screwed over or messed with and not knowing enough of the language to stand up for myself. Hopefully once I get a little more fluent, which is a long way off, things will get better.

But until then, I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it. I think its high time to playing back- maybe I'll start making faces or doing a little dance… I'll keep you updated.

Until then, enjoy the fotos!

El Dia de los Reyes celebration with roscas.

Note the Gringos in the bottom left corner.

Just a passing shot of my walk to el centro from the bus stop.

One of the government buildings in the Plaza Grande.

The university campus in el centro.

Las chicas (minus Rachel- sad day) at Progresso!

La Vida Diaria

Buenas Tardes Amigos!
I'm sitting at a café right now called The Italian Coffee Shop- sounds really Mexican doesn't it? But don't worry, we found an authentic one last night called El Hoyo in the Lonely Planet guide book Kevin got me (thanks!). It has a really cool open-air courtyard and a weird pit with a tree growing out of it that you sit around- I'll get some pics next time we go.

Now that we're getting into our classes and are a little more oriented in the city, things are starting to fall into a routine- which is nice. I'm really starting to like the daily routine here, its much more relaxed than at home and with a lot more free time. Although I'm kind of spoiled- I don’t have to work, cook, do my laundry or clean so I'm sure the people who live here don't all have it as nice.

On a typical day, I get up around 6:00 am (and for anyone who knows me well knows this is EARLY for me) and Violetta has my breakfast waiting around 6:45 (rough life right?). To get to school I have to head out to catch the bus around 7:10 and it only takes me about 10 min to get there once I do. I'm lucky that I live so close to school- some of the other kids have to take multiple buses and it takes half an hour or more to get there. Lately I've been taking these creepy vans called camionetas which are just another form of public transportation and take you to the same places as the buses. The difference, though, is that when you flag them down they stop and the door swings open and you have to jump in- its kind of like being kidnapped.

Class is pretty relaxed since there are only three of us with a tutor. Starting next Wednesday though we start regular classes at the University with the local students. I'm a little scared, but I guess the class is kind of a remedial class for students who did really poorly in high school, so it shouldn't be too bad. On days when I don’t have history, which is on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:30, I usually head home for a nap or a run, or I stick around school to use the internet.

Violetta usually serves lunch around 2:30 if she's home, or she leaves it on the stove for me. Lunch usually consists of vegetable soup, salad or avocados and tomatoes, and some sort of meat dish with either rice, bread or tortillas. Yesterday I had chicken mole- yum!

On most days after lunch I head to el centro and meet up with the other people in my group at a café or bar to hang out and do homework, or we walk around to see the sites or browse the markets. Then I usually head home around 8 or 9 for a little snack, then homework or free internet in the park and an early bedtime (thats what happens when you have early class). Most people don't really eat dinner here because lunch is such a large meal, and if they do its only a small snack. Its nice though because you don't get that full feeling at night and when you don't have to go home or to a restaurant for a few hours to eat it frees up more time in the evening to do things.

I like the daily routine so much think its going to be hard to readjust once I get back. Its really nice having the evenings totally free to do whatever I want. Plus being waited on all day isn't bad either.

This weekend it looks like the weather is finally going to get nice so we're off to the beach Friday and the Discos at night! Saturday I'm going to try and explore a little, and Sunday we're going to Merida en domingo, which is when they shut down the streets around the Plaza Grande for vendors and such. I still need to bring my camera around with me to get pictures of it all but I promise I'll get some up soon!

Hopefully in the next two days I'll get some pictures up, and tell you a little bit more about what its like being a foreigner here- its pretty interesting, especially when you happen to be blonde and taller than a majority of the local population. I hope everyone is having a good start to their week!!

My First Week!

Well, I've officially survived my first week in Mérida! I can't believe our first week here is over. The days here seem so long (it doesn't help that my classes start at 7:30 am) and I feel like I did so much, but this week flew by.

We started our week off with the host moms showing us how to get to school on Monday (it was really cute- a bunch of little old ladies walking their college students to school) for our placement test for our Spanish classes. I thought I did well on it, but not as well as I actually did- I got placed in the advance class with two other students.

We were split up into three levels: basic, intermediate I and intermediate II. For now the only people in any of our classes are DePaul students, and it will stay that way for the basic and intermediate I groups. They only have to go to class Monday through Thursday 9-11. For my class, intermediate II, which is only Beatriz, Joel and I, we have about three weeks of grammar, vocabulary and comprehension classes which are Monday through Friday and go from 7:30 am -9. After the 26th of January the three of us will start taking regular classes at the university, which I'm pretty scared for. Plus they start at 7:00 am, which I am not too happy about. In Chicago I'm not even out of bed by then. I really like our teacher though, even if she does get really frustrated and laugh at me a lot- my conversation skills are a little lacking. Its been fun getting to know the other two kids in my class a little better too.

After our test on Monday, I headed to el centro with Luke and his host mom Elsje so she could show us how to get there on the bus from our neighborhood. We explored the plaza grande a little bit and checked out a free art museum before trying to find our way back to la calle de las piñatas or the street with the piñatas and our bus stop. Then later that night Luke and I explored our neighborhood a bit and walked around for a while.

On Tuesday we started our second class, which is a history class on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30-1:00 with Prof. Morra-Torres, a professor who is here with us from DePaul, about Mexico and the Yucatán. It seems pretty interesting and we get to go on some cool trips to check out Mayan ruins all over the peninsula. Our first trip is in two weeks to Uxmal, a site pretty close to Mérida. Then at the end of the month we're off to the Mayan Rivera (the Caribbean side of the peninsula) for the weekend to visit some sites there.

On a sad note though, my mom called me in between classes on Tuesday to let me know that my grandma had taken a turn for the worst, and it would be only a matter of time until she passed. For those of you who didn't know, my grandma had been sick for a while with intestinal problems and refused to follow her doctor's advice and visit a specialist. She became so sick and frail that my uncle finally made her go to the hospital in the beginning of December when they found out she had colon cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor not too long after, and made it through the procedure. Unfortunately though she never recovered her ability to breathe on her own, and after almost two weeks of being intibated and having a machine breathe for her they removed the tubes and she passed away later that afternoon.
Everyone here has been really great about it and very supportive. Its been really hard being here away from my family and everyone, especially yesterday which was her funeral, but I know she wouldn't have wanted me to come home and miss out on anything here. She was an amazing person who lived an incredible life and I'm going to miss her so much, but now she's in a better place.

Needless to say I didn't feel like doing much on Tuesday, but I didn't want to sit in my room alone and wanted to get out for a bit so I went back downtown for a while with everyone to check out the celebration for el Día de los Reyes, or Three Kings Day. Its usually celebrated on January 6th with rosca, a sweetened bread sometimes with dried fruit and cheese. It kind of reminds me of coffee cake. The fun part though, is that in every rosca there are three little plastic dolls, symbolizing the three kings, and if you get a piece with a doll in it you have to throw a party on February 12th. On the night before Three Kinds Day, a bunch of the big hotels throw a street festival with a TON of rosca, and for $25 pesos, which go to some charity, you get a cup of coke and a piece of the bread. The rosca was laid out on tables for at least two blocks, and there was music and vendors and all sorts of people there.

Wednesday we had class as usual and the weather was the nicest its been all week so I went for a run in the neighborhood park. That night we visited the site where we will be doing our service, a community center called Emiliano Zapata Sur, which is in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. There we'll be split into four groups, and doing different activities like helping start the organic garden, coaching kids soccer teams and teaching computer classes. I'll probably volunteer to do the computer classes cause its looking like no one else wants to do them, and I do have some mad Excel and Access skillz (props to E-Claire Rosenberg for teaching me everything I know). Starting this week we have another class on Wednesday nights at another university for our service learning/anthropology course.

On Thursday we had an orientation at UADY downtown, which has a pretty cool campus in el centro, and afterwards lunch with my host mom and her family. One of the professors at the orientation was actually my host mom's daughter-in-law, so we were both really surprised to see each other when she came over. Violetta, my host mom, had two of her sons and her daughter, their spouses and five grandkids over. It was definitely overwhelming and after about an hour and a half of it I had to go into my room. A few of them spoke English and would try and talk to me a bit, especially the professor and her daughter, who spoke very good English, but after a while everyone just started talking in Spanish all at once and I couldn't understand anything that was going on. I'm pretty sure that I got dissed by her eleven year old granddaughter too when her son-in-law asked me if I understood a lot of what they were talking about, Jimena (the granddaughter) looked at him, made a face and answered "un poquito" which means a very little.

After that exhausting few hours and a little nap (I've been taking a nap almost everyday- trying to speak Spanish all day is pretty tiring) we all went out to the Disco or club that night. I'd never even been to a club in the U.S. but the Disco was pretty interesting. It was a lot of fun though and the people there loved us. I got asked out to dinner by two guys, which obviously I said no to (but Kevin wouldn't mind too much right?) and I haven't married a "Spaniard" yet- no worries fam. (P.S. my shot count is up to two!)

Friday we went to Progresso which is a small port town about half and hour north of the city. The beach looks like its going to be a lot of fun once the weather gets nicer- there was no sun and the water was freeeeeezing. But there are a lot of beach-front restaurants with tables on the beach that you can sit at and be served drinks and food all day, so I promise I will be hitting that up quite a bit.

We went back to the city in the late afternoon and went to a bar called the Mayan Pub, which is a lot like the bars in the U.S. Most of the places here are clubs and have a cover- there aren't a lot of places where you can just walk in and have a few drinks, but Mayan Pub is one of them. It has a big outdoor space in the back with huge trees. Its kind of like drinking in the jungle. I had a drink called michilada, which was tomato juice, hot sauce, lime and beer in a glass rimed with salt and it was delicious. I've officially found my Mexican drink of choice.

And finally yesterday I slept in and pretty much stayed around the house during the day waiting to hear the details of my grandmas funeral. It was a pretty rough day, but I got out with some of the other people and we went for pizza (yay comfort food!), plus I got to talk to my fam and Kevin quite a bit, so that helped. Then they headed out to the Discos whileI stayed in for the night and drank chocolate and ate rosca (I've had so much of it this week I understand why they only eat it once a year) with Violetta and some of her friends from yoga which was pretty funny.

Today looks like its going to be pretty low key- just homework, running and then back downtown for Mérida en domingo which is where they close off a bunch of the streets around the plaza for vendors and everything turns into a huge market.

I hope everyone is doing well and that all of my Chi Omega chicas had a good initiation weekend! I'm so sad I'm missing it, but I'm sure you're all doing a fabulous job- and congrats to the new initiates!

Getting Around

Hola Amigos!

I've officially been in Merida for five days, and I'm just starting to feel like I can navigate the city and start to find my way around. Between the different colonias or neighborhoods, the bus system and no street names things can get a little confusing around here.

For starters, the streets in Merida run on a grid system and all of the streets, except for three, have numbers instead of names. Odd numbered streets run east-west , even numbers run north-south, and the numbers increase as you move north and west. Sounds easy right? Well it is, as long as you're only talking about one neighborhood. The problem is all the different neighborhoods have their own separate grid systems. So there can be like, eight different calle 25's or street #25's.

None of the neighborhoods are all that defined either, except on the street signs. They all kind of run together so unless you can find a street sign, you're not really sure if you're still in your neighborhood or not. And even then some of the neighborhoods have new subdivisions, so for example my colonial is Col. Miguel Aleman, and a few blocks over is Col. Nuevo Miguel Aleman (meaning new Miguel Aleman), which can also be confusing, especially when you're riding a crazy bus system with no real stops and trying to read the street signs as they fly past (the names of the neighborhoods are written very small under the street number).
Addresses are kind of easy though, once you find the neighborhood, they give you the street and the two cross streets its in-between. So for example, my address is Calle 21 entre 22 y 24, or Street 21 between 22 and 24.

The bus system though is another story. There are no bus stops in Merida. Its not even guaranteed that the bus will even stop, as Luke and I found out the other day. I'm not really sure there are real bus routes, even though they say there are supposed to be there is hardly any time the buses follow the same route twice. Luckily all of the buses go through el centro, the downtown area at some time except for three of them, which all say circuto something and circle through the neighborhoods, but they're easy to avoid. If I want to know where the bus is going I usually just flag one down, wait till they open the door and yell where I want to go (usually el centro or Colonial Aleman) and wait for them to either drive away or nod and stop for me to get on.

To stop the bus, you have to flag it down, from anywhere on the street, like a taxi but they don't always stop (like we discovered the other day- Luke was literally waving his hands over his head and the guy drove right by us). Then you have to jump on quick before they drive away because they won't wait long for you. Once you're on the bus driver starts driving right away (I've experienced a few rolling stops getting off) so if you don't have your money ready you'd better hold on- it’s a bumpy ride. The buses are only $6 pesos for a normal ride and $3 for students with a student ID, but only if the bus driver feels like giving you the reduced fare (some sort of disagreement between the reduced fare the government set and the bus companies I guess). When you want to get off, you just have to stand up and tell the driver you want to get off (I usually just yell aqui or here, and they stop eventually), and then get off quickly.

The next step is to figure out how to get around to other neighborhoods. I have a feeling that’s going to take some trial and error. Luckily all the buses make circles so I'll eventually end up back where I started… I hope.

I have really gotten the hang of el centro and Col. Aleman (my neighborhood) though. I can find the grand plaza, the big markets and our bus stop easy enough downtown, and in my neighborhood I know the area around our park, the way to Luke's house and how to get to school. A little limited but we're exploring a little by little (we found our neighborhood's water treatment center today- fun I know).
Hopefully this weekend we can get some exploring in on our free days on Saturday and Sunday, and I can get some more pictures of the city! I'll try and get some more pictures and another post about the city this weekend- it’s a beautiful place, with soo much going on and people everywhere! Even right now at 8:00 pm, on a day so "cold" (a.k.a. 60 degrees- people are seriously wearing hats, coats scarves and mittens. I wore shorts) some places cancelled school (if only they could see Chicago right now) I'm sitting in the small park in my neighborhood ( using free wifi provided by the city), and there are people everywhere- food venders, carnival rides, kids skateboarding, playing soccer, everything. People seem to spend more time out of their houses here.

But more about that this weekend- time to go to the Disco (club)!! I promise I'll have a least one number to add to my shot count. Buenas Noches!

Fotos!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days. Enjoy!

The open-air courtyard of our hotel on the first night.

Christmas decorations are all over the place.

Shot of the city from the top balcony of the hotel.

Another shot of the city from the balcony.

The Hotel courtyard from the 2nd floor balcony.

Don't remember what this building was for, but its some important government building. Plus its really pretty.

The Cathedral of San Ildefonso from across the Plaza Grande (big central plaza).

La Calle de las pinatas or The street with the pinatas- its the only way I remember where the bus stop is to get back to my neighborhood from el centro or downtown.

Luke and I in front of some of the huge Christmas decorations in the park in our neighborhood (we live about five minutes walking distance from eachother).

But thats all I got for now! Tomorrow and Wednesday the city celebrates Three Kings Day with a giant cake, and then Friday we're heading to the beach for the day, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have some more pictures for you and another post. Hope all is well with everyone!