The fastest week in the history of weeks

Lunes, 14 de enero 2008 a Viernes, 18 de enero 2008

            So this was probably the fastest week of my life—it feels like yesterday we were relaxing on the sunny sands of Progreso and cruising its non-existent waves on that absurd banana boat (so much fun!).  Inevitably, Monday (boo Monday) followed last Sunday, and we spent culture class learning about the origins of Spanish language, including its various influences (Greek, Roman, barbarian tribes, the Moors, &c), and how the local dialect has been affected by a large number of Mayan words (for example, Dana tells me that the Mayan “izitchi” = “barracho” in Español), which our host grandmother sometimes tries to teach us, but we usually forget. 

            On Tuesday (TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!), we spent the afternoon being eaten alive in the Botanical Gardens in the northern part of the city, taking ridiculous pictures of one another with the plants and seeing first-hand the flora that we would be tested about on Thursday.  I got home around *3:30 and prepared for my Spanish midterm (!!!) on Wednesday.  The culture class did not consist of a trip on Wednesday, but we did learn about one of the local dishes, called “Panucho”, which has a very interesting and a very good taste (we made and ate some too…yummm.)  So yeah, there was this little luncheria that was just about to close for the night when a customer entered, starving and looking for cena (a light-snack dinner, served around 9 o’clock at night).  Though the restaurant was pretty much out of prepared things for the evening, the cook (nicknamed Chucho) had a brilliant idea: use the leftovers of chicken, egg, onion, and whatever else was sitting around, fry it up, and serve it on whatever bread he could find.  Thus was born the “Pan of Chucho”, or as known today, “Panchucho.”  And now you know. 

            Thursday was another fun day of learning about Maya culture and wandering around downtown with my conversation class.  We first visited a big store full of all sorts of things, including jewelry, the ubiquitous terra cotta (???) face masks and statues of Chichén Itzá, handmade clothing, and all the rest things made from henequen.  We went to two other stores, tucked between mom-and-pop restaurants and other business in the side streets off of Zocalo (the big main square), and also made a visit to a jeweler that sold maquech.  What are maquech?, you may be asking.  Well, a jeweler with a lot of patience and very steady hands spends hours gluing jewels onto this maquech, fastening a gold chain and pin to it, and very carefully delivering it to the seller so that it can be sold for $200 pesos (~$20 USD).  So what’s the big deal?, you may also be asking.  Why pay so much for a pin?  Well, this maquech is made from a living, breathing member of the Coleoptera (??) family—that’s right, a maquech is a big old beetle with jewels glued to it.  Women can wear them to high society events and pin the bugs in place on their outfits, allowing them to wander around the confines of the gold chain like a cow on a picket line. 

            A little perturbed, but still fascinated, we were even more perturbed and fascinated the next day at the Archaeological museum, located on the Paseo de Montejo (Merida’s main boulevard) in the old house of the governor.  Ascending the marble stairs, and seeing the soaring ceiling inside, it was almost impossible to keep in mind that someone had actually called this spectacular mansion their home about one hundred years ago.  In any case, I can say that this has been one of the most enjoyable museums I’ve ever been in, with interesting exhibits and detailed explanations of things I actually care about.  For example, we saw skulls of upper-class men (and maybe women, too) who had had their heads reshaped—from birth, a child would be kept not in a cradle or hammock, but a contraption much like a sandwich pressboard, with gradual pressure slowly flattening and reshaping their developing skull to achieve the desired higher, oddly-shaped forehead.  We also learned of the incredibly accurate Maya calendar, their burial rituals, and even how they numbered things—a really cool system of lines and dots (one dot = 1, one line = 5) that, when stacked up in ascending values of multiplication (1^st row = x1, 2^nd row = x20, 3^rd row x400, etc.), can be used to represent huge numbers.  We also found out that Maya people regarded cenotes as entrances to the underworld, and sometimes sacrifices of pottery or food (somewhat common) or even people (!—not as common) would be offered to the gods by sinking them to the cenotes’ depths.