Tuesday, March 10, 2009

March 10, 2009

Mk, well it’s quarter to nine and I’m just getting home… haha. We’ll get to that. But lets jump backwards, shall we?:

Today is Tuesday. The only class I have is Rural Anthropology (for which I wrote that lovely essay last night). So I went to class, met Chelsea at the bus stop and we went to the computer lab, printed cosas, and then were on our merry ways to class. Well, actually while we were getting on the bus she said she was planning on taking the bus to el Centro to see where she had to get on in the morning and también she wanted to see if she could drop her stuff at the hotel before her parents arrived. So I was like “sweet, maybe I’ll come with you” and she was like “okay just lemme know after class” so we went our separate ways.

In Rural Anthropology I decided that I no longer have to take notes on anything that is not going to be relevant to my final paper. Today was not relevant to my final paper, so I doodled in my notebook instead. I worked on that essay; that was enough Rural Anthro for me.

Affffter class I went down and hung out. Chelsea came out of her class, I told her I’d chill til she got out of her next one at 2. And I tried to go to the computer lab to hang out, check out some info on Dzibilchaltun but that was a waste of effort as the internet is slow as grass growing. So I gave up and went to find Nandini and Gustavo in the library. Well, then what you’ve all been waiting for happened.

Yep, you guessed it, ran into my friend. So he was chillin’ with some chicas but came over and greeted me, asked what I’d done over the weekend and continued to explain that he hadn’t ended up going to the beach party after all and that he’d tried to send me a text message but it wouldn’t send, and then proceeded to ask if I’d like to get café some time or see a movie to which I heard myself respond ‘yeah sure just give me a call’ only in Spanish. Funny how sometimes your mouth gets ahead of you with things like that where all of a sudden you haven’t really thought through all the implications of stuff like that. Oh…Well…

So I went to the library. And I actually talked with Saide and Oswaldo for a tad bit and they laughed at me. I’m never going to know now if they’re laughing at my expressions or at my bad Spanish. Apparently when trying to convey the scene I made tripping my way out of the bus yesterday, I was quite amusing. But then also when we were talking about good grades. Who knows.

Actually from there I went and talked with Diana about going to Dzibilchaltun which Chelsea and I are going to do for the Equinox. Should be sweet, even though it’s at like… 5 AM or some other nonsense like that.

And then I went back to campus, had a hamburger because I wasn’t going to be home for lunch (I did actually call to let them know I wasn’t going to be there) and met up with Chelsea, she got a ham and cheese torta. And then we went out to the bus, and by went out to, I mean we walked out of the building, saw the bus was there, and then ran rather awkwardly with our backpacks where we met up with Pichel who was also going to el Centro but to get a book from the library.

So Chelsea and I sat together on the bus, but Pichel showed us where Chelsea’s hotel was (even though we kind of went in a circle but we figured it out relatively quickly). See mom, those couple of times I got us all confused going in the wrong direction, even people who live here get confused.

And at that point, we walked over to where the 52 Norte camion was, and Pichel had invited me to come to the library with him to look at this book and then get something to drink afterwards, so I did. Chelsea needed to pack and stuff ‘cause her parents get here tonight.

So we went to the library and it was generally uneventful. Looked through some art books and doodled a little while Pichel glanced through a particular book. Really didn’t take very long, and then we went to this little hole in the wall place that ended up being one of those really cool places and had limonada. It was actually like, super close as in on the same street (other side) as the hotel was. Too bad I didn’t know about it. Oh well.

We traded stories about scars and that sort of thing. Not started by me, mind you, although I have tons of those (scars and stories for them). I was actually surprised, he noted the cicatrizes that I have on my chin (I’m pretty sure no one has ever picked those out before, I’ve had them like…basically my whole like, I don’t see them when I look in the mirror, who knows). Actually his stories were much more dramatic than mine, but I probably trump in number (I certainly didn’t share all my stories, we’d’ve been there all day, right?)

Anyway, so after awhile we left the little place, and walked a bit and then kind of chilled on a park bench for awhile, until all of a sudden it was somehow 8 o’clock and more or less time to go home. Aaaand that was basically my day. Tomorrow for breakfast I get to have waffles, my host mom was making them when I got home and I got to have for dinner what we had for lunch which was immensely tasty.
Cheers Amigos~
Kate <3

PS: You guys are now 2 hours ahead of me because of your springing forward. We don’t cambiar horario until some time in April. =D

Blogging

Note: I've just realized how...revealing blogging can be. For like.. the second time. And it's scary. I'm not really sure how people blog all these intense thoughts they have. That's what diaries with keyes are for. And that's all I have to say about that. Cryptic, but that's okay.

Monday, March 9, 2009

March 09, 2009

So instead of being exceptionally lazy this morning as my first class is at 12 I decided to get up an hour before I really had to. Somehow I had actually decided to do this when I went to sleep last night but I’m not really sure why. Either way, when I woke up before my alarm I just waited until it went off and got out of bed, did the whole shower thing and got dressed, and then something amazing happened: I went and made a fantastic breakfast.

Peanut butter was recently re-added to the possible eating items, and I decided to make myself peanut butter toast. And you’re probably thinking, what’s so fantastic about peanut butter toast? The answer is nothing. The fantastic part is that I didn’t stop there. I decided, yo, I’m going to make myself a smoothie. So I put everything in a blender, everything being some cantaloupe, a couple strawberries, and a banana with a little thing of vanilla yogurt and ice spun it up and it made a glass of very tasty smoothie which was an excellent way to start of the morning.

Then I went back, finished getting’ ready and was off to school. Guess who I met at school? Stephanie (the girl whose parents ended up contacting me instead of her). Anyway apparently she only stayed with my host family for two months, apparently she and my host mom didn’t get along so well.

So I went to my first class, and then had lunch, and then it was time for the wonderful Mayan Civilization and Culture test. Woo. First test in Mexico. Actually I didn’t really like so much that we were going to have a test because usually the first one is more of a “find out what the tests in this class are going to be like” and then go from there. Can’t really do that here because there aren’t very many of them.

In the end it was a very fair test, only like, a good part of it (almost half) had to do with some information I hadn’t thought was exactly important (nor was it spelled out for us) so I didn’t really know it…I made a guess…but I think I guessed wrong. I think I did better on the identifying terms part. Hopefully. Otherwise I’ll be up a creek.

Chelsea and I then dropped by plaza fiesta, I needed to get money out of the bank for this month, and I came home and here we are. I’m now going to steel my determination to write this essay and then by the time I get it done probably go to bed. Wish me luck. *muah*
Cheers! <3 Kate
(check it out I was actually on time for once)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

March 08, 2009

I’ve discovered why I’m waking up so ridiculously early in the mornings. It’s the exact same problem as I was having last semester only I fixed it last semester. This semester I can’t. That sunlight just comes right through the shades like it’s nobody’s business. I need to get like a scarf and tie it around my eyes so I get a solid night’s sleep instead of having the sun getting all hot and bothered because I’m not out of bed yet (haha, get it? Hot and bothered? That was a joke… ‘cause the sun’s hot… okay yeah moving on…)

In other news, I did homework. Well I feel like I didn’t really get on the ball about it immediately, but I did review for my Mayan Civ test and started my rural anthro essay. The essay is due Tuesday so I still have tomorrow to work on it. I wrote a page and a quarter but I got in 5 authors which is the requirement so now it’s just a lot of flushing…lots and lots of flushing out.

Around 5 or 7 something like that. Maybe 6? Chelsea called and we went to this place called the Antesala which is a little café reaaaallly close. It’s adorable, and quite possibly a new favorite place. It was just a really nice ambiance. I’m pretty sure it’s almost coffee-shop-esque, just with the quaintness being replaced kind of with nice-ness. I don’t know how to explain it.

But we studied Mayan Civ for a bit until I was restless and had had enough. Then we were going to go back to our houses, so we spent 30 minutes standing by the street talking about Mexican boys (haha) and decided to grab some popcorn and a drink from the Extra and head to her house to chat (at which point the conversation was a little less light but that’s okay).

And that was pretty much today. I’d say over all it was a relatively uneventful weekend. I think a breakthrough was made on the “why do I feel like this conversation is not quite hitting on but definitely not just friendly” question. The answer is there’s a difference between an interrogation and a conversation, a conversation being when there’s an equivalent exchange of information (everyone knows the law of equivalent exchange, right? (sorry sorry, another lame joke)). But yeah, it doesn’t make your skin crawl if you’re having a normal conversation with a guy if you’re getting information in exchange for yours. When it’s just a lot of questions about you, then it leaves you feeling a little creepy like you were just checked out or something without the overtness of it. I don’t know it’s just weird. If it ever happens/happened to you you’ll/d know what I was talking about.
Cheers <3 Kate

March 07, 2009

Good morning! …That’s going to have to tide us over for most of the day. Today was supposed to be one of those really good days that I was only thinking might have some minor draw backs depending on how things went. As it turns out, nothing went at all, which just left me restless and incapable of productivity. Lemme explain:
*cough* I was supposed to have plans. That is to say, last night, in all the bowling figuring out type thing Pichel had invited me to come with him and some UADY kids to a party near Progreso in the afternoon. So I’m thinkin’ sweet, Hawaiian beach party in Mexico. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Get up 2 minutes before my alarm went off (note: 9:58) pick the room up (ie put laundry that I never put away on the shelves) and generally just got ready, had a bagel for breakfast. Actually once I was entirely ready I was fairly impressed. It was about noon which was around when I was expecting the phone call that was going to tell me when/where we were going to meet up so we could go. And then I had lunch at 2 with my host family… and tried to watch a movie around 3:30. At 4 o’clock I couldn’t stay in the house any longer so I went shopping.

Mexico has a gazillion shoes. Unfortunately, as is somewhat typical with me, I couldn’t find what I wanted. Actually I found a pair of boots that I really liked, only I needed them in a size larger. What luck. After hitting up one mall I went to another one and had no luck too. All the while, I had people (read: pig-headed male shmucks) staring at me, and honking horns, and “hello” (which note, is not hola). By the time I made it back to my room I was high strung (though Will did give me permission to kill a couple people).

Chelsea also on my way back called to see about going to Chris’s birthday party. At the time I really didn’t feel up to it, long day, disappointing day, bleh. I was actually glad I went though.

So we’ll skip to there: We got there and things were really chill. Sit back, chatting, good time. It would’ve actually been totally fantastic if I hadn’t gotten this txt message saying to call my mom. And then there was a little back and forth that I feel kinda bad about now because I thought I was being pranked when it was actually a Dad trying to get in touch with his daughter. =(

But we stayed til around 12:30 and then got home, and that was pretty much the day. I was definitely glad I went to the party though. I’m pretty sure that was the highlight for the day =D

Cheers, Kate <3

Saturday, March 7, 2009

March 06, 2009

This week has been all about not wanting to get up in the morning. That alarm went off at 6 and I just really wanted to roll over, turn it off, and pretend I didn’t have class. Especially migrations class. But I did manage to pull myself out of bed somehow, and even made it out the door in a timely manner with my bagel.

And then I waited. Waited. And waited some more. 20 minutes later, the bus *finally* came. I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait that long, actually. So I got on the bus, and then got off at Plaza Fiesta, and guess what? I waited. And then after a little while, say, 10 minutes? The bus came by. And kept on going. Didn’t stop. Yeah, talk about not cool. But Chalet, who’s in my class, was sitting at the bus stop too and I asked if she was going to take a motul or wait for the bus. She said she was just going to wait for the next one. So I sat back down and began waiting again. Then guess who showed up? If you can’t guess, then you clearly haven’t seen the pattern of this week outside of me not wanting to get up each morning. Of course it was my bus-buddy, Pichel.

And he was walking across the street with this other kid who I recognized from my Rural Anthro class, and they were about to get into one of those motuls when I looked up from my book and I guess he saw me. (Side note: I’m actually quickly converting into Belle from Beauty and the Beast…and I don’t mean that in the egotistic sense so much as the parallel is the brown hair and the constant nose in the book). So he walked over and said good morning, and in the end we ended up taking a motul and he showed me some T-shirt designs for the UADY he’d come up with (like specially for the anthro school). They seemed pretty neat so I’ll probably get one. Who doesn’t love school t-shirts (btw, t-shirts here are called “playeras”). And then this kid is like super busy, not really sure if I’ve mentioned that. But he was saying stuff about the weekend, some party that a lot of uady kids were going to be at near progreso during the day on Saturday and something going on in the evening though he didn’t think he was going to go, etc. Points though for liking the SNES.

And then I went to school, and, you know, in accordance to my new Belle (we should note too that Belle does not equal Bella in this equation, just in case there was any confusion with that comparison to my life) my new Belle habits, I read while I waited for class. And then I was suddenly exceptionally glad I came to class because Mirian was there instead of the normal prof. So I knew I was in for a good class. And it was pretty decent; I finished my presentation which wasn’t as spectacular as the first half, but hey oh well.

Then class was over, we went and got some fotocopias and went to wait for the bus. I dropped by plaza fiesta for a little bit to get something to drink. I found out what the Crystal Negra flavor was. It had been bugging me for awhile that I didn’t know what it was, but I had been too hesitant to try it. Turns out it’s grape soda, so no worries we can drink that if we want.

And then I came home, had lunch with the familia, etc. And that’s pretty much were all the exciting stuff ends. Well I did talk to my friend Craig for about an hour and that was exciting (so I take that back). After that that’s where all the exciting stuff ends. I pretty much read for the rest of the day/night. I finished the 3rd Maximum Ride book and started the last one, almost finished it before I went to bed.

There was one point in the evening where I was talking about going out. I wanted to do something fun like karaoke though but people had already decided they were going to go do bowling so meh. I really was about to go, I even txtd Chelsea and Pichel to see if they wanted to come, but then in the end, after calling and talking with Chelsea and she was doing Hoy en Tu Comunidad tomorrow so she didn’t really feel much like goin’ out I decided I can do bowling whenever I want. Not that I have anything against bowling so much as it just didn’t seem that appealing at that point. I’ll spend the money elsewhere, some other time hehe.

And that, my dear readers, was my Friday hehe.
Cheers! Kate <3

Thursday, March 5, 2009

March 05, 2009

Oookie dokie. Didn’t wanna get out of bed this morning even though I was basically behind from the time I got up. Alarm went off at 8 after a really rocky night’s sleep. I kept waking up thinking I was late, panicking. Don’t know what the deal with that is.

So I managed to get myself out the door eventually, much later than normal. But I actually caught the bus because someone else hailed it at the corner just as I was coming up, and then again the second bus just as I got off the first bus. Sweet.

I read a little while I waited for class, had class which was super long. Only an hour into the class I thought I was going to go insane. There was also this persistent beeping that I think was really trying to drive me into the looney bin but hey. Everyone wants to visit there once.

After class was a nice break. I talked with a lady from Louisiana which was fun. And she said she’d give me a ring when she and her Mexican friends went out so I could have Mexican friends too (hahaha). And after a little bit my bus-buddy (which I suppose I should just start referring to him by name, it’s Pichel (Will, I know you’re not reading this, but Andy, I think you might be, and while Pichel is not equal to Pierre I feel like they kind of sound similar enough, right?)

So Erin and Pichel joined us right around the same time, and Chandra left to go do something else. But we chit chatted and so on and so forth. After that we went to Spanish which was a downer which is quite different from normal.

We watched Amores Perros which deals a lot with dog fights and I can’t stomach that very well. Not very well at all. Ugh. But enough of that. After school Chelsea and I went to Wal*mart which was alright, got some stuff I needed. After that I came home, finished the Maximum Ride book, and Chelsea is currently over here [begin magic jack plug] using the Magic Jack to talk to her friend in the States.

Hope all is going well up North hehe. Cheers! <3 Kate