Merida, Week One

So I realize that I probably should have posted over a week ago (sorry, people), but this is FINALLY the first time that I've had a decent enough connection to post.  But while you've probably all thought I'd been swallowed up by the jungle and therefore been unable to post, I've had time to get some perspective on my new experiences and I'm ready to write pages and pages about them.

Well, after spending what I thought were the four longest days of my life in the Rupp Barn in very cold and very rural Pennsylvania, I spent probably the shortest night of my life staying up with our party of five (myself, Katie, Shoji, Emily, and Dana [and Phil too, but he chickened out])--drinking the last of the tea, heating up apple cider, and gorging ourselves on the leftover three-day-old macaroni (not as bad as you would think, even at room temperature).  After passing out in several places along the way (in the bus, in the airport, and on the plane), we finally arrived in Mexico (!) and made it through customs without a problem.  And after meeting our nice, big, air-conditioned bus outside the airport, we also met our wonderfully funny and local host Hugo (pronounced OO-go, like Dana said, for you who don't speak Spanish) and went out to eat at a buffet restaurant that started with a P--but I forget the rest.  Oh well. 

So following this we boarded the bus a Merida and promptly all fell asleep.  However, the majority of us woke up for a beautiful magenta and orange sunset, prolonged by the fact that we were driving directly into it.  However, the beauty was short-lived as we passed a military checkpoint with armed guards and the like, giving us a glimpse of two different sides of Mexico. 

Well, after a long day of traveling we arrived in Merida, where Jessi and I met our host mother Gloria.  She’s somewhere in her forties with a 16-year-old son (Alejandro) and a 12-year-old daughter (Gabi).  As we piled into the little old VW bug, all sitting on each other's laps to drive the 20 minutes across town, I knew it would be a semester to remember.  Our room is somewhat larger than the car (thankfully), and we share a bathroom that’s even nicer than the one at my house (J).  There’s a two-month-old dog named Chíquis (I can only assume that’s how they spell it) who’s very cute and very excitable (as in she pees everywhere).  Our first night here, we went with Gloria and her kids to her mother’s house, where we had some time of “’Cake’ de Los Reyes.”  Apparently, it’s a custom followed here en el 6 de enero (also, the anniversary of the founding of Merida!) to bake a cake (bread?) in the shape of a ring with three plastic figurines in the shape of little people within (as in the three wise men), and whoever gets one must throw a party…or something. 

7 de enero 2008

Our first day of class was a lot of fun—I still don’t know how I managed to wake up and shower, because I was basically awake for about 40 hours in a row with ½ hour naps interspersed throughout before I went to bed.  After taking our placement exams (which in retrospect, don’t seem to have determined our class placement in the least), we heard all about options for buying cell phones and how to go about doing that.  Here are some pictures of our escuela pintoresca:

In culture class, we learned about the street numbering system and some fun things to do while in Merida, other than study, and then took the bus to downtown and visited the bank.  We then made use of the almighty bus again, ate puerco con frijoles, and then set out on the worst translation nightmare ever: buying a cell phone…but I won’t horrify you with those details.  Let’s just say there were four different stores with very little English being spoken in any of them.  As the Spanish phrase goes, Ay dios mio. 

8 de enero 2008

On Tuesday, we took our first taxonomy quiz (Amphibians & Reptiles) and reviewed the mammal taxonomy, which we were going to be tested on the following Thursday.  Spanish class was entertaining, as we had lost two members  in the grammar class (Adios, Dana—fuera mucho divertida mientras ocurró), and gained another in culture (well hi, Dana).  We sat outside in the courtyard, discussed the history of chocolate, and then walked down by La Plaza de Santa Lucías to buy some genuine, authentic Mayan hot chocolate—mmmmh.  Even if it was 90 degrees out, it was totally worth it.  Hot chocolate is actually Aztec in origin (from central Mexico), and was originally made with chili powder in it—but it only got popular when Europeans went and added sugar, which made it tasty, but really unlike the original.  So yeah, as we found out for only 25 pesos, it was incredible. 

9 de enero 2008

Today I switched grammar classes because we went over mostly nationalities and the use of el/la in the other class, which I found a bit too easy.  In culture class, we walked to a local Yucatan music museum…only to find that they now charge admission.  Seeing how we were all broke, we sat on the steps and read through the history explanation of the museum while listening to the catcalls of men as they passed.  After class, almorcamos in a famous restaurant nearby—the arroz con pollo was very, very good, and I’d definitely recommend it (others obviously have, already—read some other people’s blogs for the name of it).  Following lunch, we took a guided bus tour of Merida from 4 to 6, complete with both Spanish and English ramblings explaining the significance of the things we passed.  While I did appreciate the opportunity to see all the important sights in one trip, taking a blurred picture from the windowless, bright blue tour bus is something completely different from getting off, wandering around, taking different shots, and learning the history.  Thankfully, we got to stop en El Parque de las Americas and were allowed to run around for fifteen minutes.  We took several artistic shots, as can be found at the following link:

Overall, we learned many, many things about Merida, though it is impossible to remember them all.  I did learn the origin of the name Yucatan:  apparently, when the first Spanish colonists arrived some long time ago, they asked the first group of Maya they encountered something like ?Cual es el nombre de este tierra?  And the Maya responded something like, …[blah blah blah ]yu cat tán…  Which basically translates to “You idiots, we don’t understand your language.”  So yes, the name Yucatan means something akin to “I don’t know what you’re saying.”  We also found out that Merida is actually named for a city in Spain, and the only other major city named Merida in the world (other than in España) is in Venezuela.  The tour ended near Zocalo, Merida’s grand plaza, which is surrounded on all four sides by some of the oldest buildings on the continent—including the Grand Cathedral (insert year here), the Palace of the Governor, etc.  Following this, we unboarded from the bus and walked back to school past La Plaza de San Lucia, which we would visit the following evening for live music.

10 de enero 2008

Thursday found us progressing in Spanish grammar (yay) and listening to a lesson sobre los travadores, which are your basic serenading trio that can be hired for any particular reason if one wants to serenade a woman, from a sister’s birthday to a wedding proposal to a highly overdone apology.  In the evening, we ventured out to the Plaza of Santa Lucia, and after wandering around for a bit—examining folk art being sold in the streets (paintings of birds on the actual feathers!), buying giant ice cream cones for $2 (dollars), and taking our seats in the crowded plaza to listen to the performers.  While the first speaker’s message was lost on me, I caught the drift that he was talking of how much he loved living in Merida, and how wonderful it’s people were—as the next act showed.  Men in white suits—with pañuelos and fedoras—danced with women decked out in Maya dresses and intricate hairstyles to a traditional song.  It was so incredible, especially when they put trays on their heads and danced, spinning around and around .  Unfortunately, my photos have somehow been lost, but don’t worry—you can check one of the other students’ blogs for that.

11-13 de enero 2008

While Friday was exciting, with lessons in salsa dancing with a local teacher, our first trip to the cenotes was, for me at least, the most inticipated part of our entire trip.  So on Saturday we woke up bright and early to be at the school at eight in the morning in our swimsuits and all-terrain sandals to have our first experience with cenotes.  It took an hour to drive there, and on the way we passed through the towns of Cuzama and Acanceh, which seemed nearly exactly what I had pictured real rural Mexican towns to be: tiny little stucco houses in disrepair, dusty dogs lazing in the streets, people sitting in doorways and on walls, bars and churches on every other corner--though it was the worst instance of poverty I've ever seen, the people were still smiling and laughing as they went about their lives in town.  Arriving at the entrance to the cenotes, we paid $40 pesos apiece (that’s $4, folks) to ride on horse-drawn carts over the approximate mile to the first cenote.  While at first it seemed to be just an enormous hole in the ground, with a set of impossibly steep steps leading down into it, all of our first impressions of cenotes being at the top of our “most anticipated/most exciting things ever done” list confirmed.  I’ll let them speak for themselves:

            Following this incredibly exciting day, we decided to relax a bit the next and head up to Progreso, a beach just a half-hour and a $22 peso ride away.  We spent the day lazing at the beach, tomando el sol y viviendo las vidas de estudiantes en Mexico, the epitome of which was riding a banana boat twice for the sheer thrill of it.  In late afternoon, we all arrived home, exhausted, not ready to begin another week of classes, but still extremely excited to resume our learning about tropical Mexico.