January 6, 2009

Today is el Dia de los Reyes Magos. I feel like it might actually be Christian’s birthday, too, but I’m not sure about that. In either case, this morning my family gave me a gift of galletas (cookies). That is the typical sort of present on el dia de los reyes magos.
It was off to school really early this morning. 6 o’clock came ridiculously early and we were out of the house at 7. This morning was chilly, which means that all of you would be wearing shorts but in my t-shirt in jeans I would have liked a light weight sweater for a little while if I hadn’t left it here in the room.
Orientation was…orientation. I don’t remember really what we talked about. Most of it was probably common sense. We did a couple “case studies” wherein we read about people who did stupid things while they were on the program (one girl got so drunk she came in, was hungry made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but left the jar open and the stray cat she brought home got paw prints of said peanut butter and jelly all over the white furniture).
At this point is when I reached into my purse for my saving grace of which I have little left. Caffeine Gum. I went from struggling to keep my eyes open to quite wide awake and generally just a little happier. I probably need to watch my caffeine consumption to make sure it doesn’t drop to low with all this water-consumption.
Lunch was easy, and we had plenty of time to socialize and stuff. After lunch we took our Spanish placement tests. I’m not sure exactly what they were trying to test in the beginning. I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting the answers right on the first page. As it went on guessing became a little more difficult, but I don’t know. Some of it was vocabulary based, and the test wasn’t exactly what I would call extensive. Who knows how that went. I suppose I’ll find out relatively soon.
After the test, we had a lecture on the Maya. Basically an entire overview or their art and culture. Focusing on that was a little difficult, like it was really easy to space out, but it wasn’t particularly difficult to understand if I paid attention. I had an answer about the Rosetta stone and something else.
When I got home, I had dinner that was something a kin to a really nice Smart Ones that was nothing like tv dinners. Kind of like a dish that seemed sort of “specialty” with yellow rice, potatoes, chicken, and roasted red peppers. After dinner, I finally managed to unpack.
I would like to inform you that I have a problem (besides just a general inability to pack). There is absolutely no reason for me to have 5 pairs of pajamas down here. Now, some of you are thinking, honestly Kate, are you just now coming to the conclusion that you have a pajama obsession? Well…I don’t know it’s complicated. In either case I really don’t think I probably need 5 sets of pajamas but I’m not complaining now that I have them down here.
In the evening, my host family had over a bunch of family and friends over to come over and eat la rosca del ray which is something like a coffee cake with some type of fruit strips and almonds on top. If you get the muñeco, you have to throw a party on the 2nd of February. And a muñeco is a little plastic baby Jesus that’s baked into the cake. =)
Well, I miss you all; I’ve thought of many of you often. <3 Kate

January 5, 2009

This morning as waking up before the alarm, which I suppose was a good thing even though sleeping through the night was a little bit rough. I got up at 9, though, because my host mom was planning to take me down to the center of town at 11 to show me around before she dropped me off at the campus.

I had a breakfast that consisted of raisin bran and some milk, and then an apple which I put in my purse but never ate. The apple i had the night before wasn't that great though, and I'm also a little more fond of pears anyway, so I asked if I could have one of the many pears that were sitting below the apples on the stand on the table. Well, that brought a laugh. Those pears aren't real. In either case I ended up with the apple and I got to laugh a little at myself first thing in the morning.
So my host-mom, my host-dad, and I walked up the way a little bit past the German food restaurant to catch the bus. Public transportation is pretty neat. It’s going to cost me 3 pesos (which is about a quarter give or take a little bit) for each bus ride. The bus did, however, sound like it was going to fall apart but no one else seemed to be worried about it. I also was rather quick to blame it on the roads which I named twice as bad as Pennsylvania roads. I actually, though, upon reflection, think it was more the bus, or maybe just one of the roads we were on because when they picked me up in the car I didn’t have any thoughts about Pennsylvania roads at all.

We walked around the center; they showed me this old cathedral, the governor’s office, the Colon bookstore and a famous ice cream/sherbet shop and then we walked over to the campus which is not a centralized location. That basically means that unlike SU or Etown or wherever, everything is not in the same place. There’s a different campus for the Education school, for the Anthropology school, for the Engineering school, etc. They all run entirely independently too and could be working on a different school calendar. It’d be like if the Sigmund Weis school of Business, School of Natural and Social Sciences, and School of Arts, Humanities, and Communications were on separate campuses doing their own thing (and yes, I did have to look up what the actual names for the different sects within SU are).

So orientation is…well…very much orientation. Lots of talking. We got two orientating handbooks, a little notebook, a map of the city, and a little cook book. I’m informed that we’re going to be taught how to actually cook some of the Yucatecan food which could be pretty neat. Maybe my cooking skillz will drastically improve between now and when I get back and suddenly we’ll have gourmet meals every Friday night come the Fall (don’t get your hopes up).

We have a lot of holidays, which I can’t say US colleges have. Our Vacation looks like this:

February:

2^nd (Monday)

23^rd (Monday)~ Carnival

24^th (Tuesday)~ Carnival

25^th (Wednesday)~ UADY’s Foundation

March

3^rd *(Tuesday) ~ Cepeda Peraza

16^th *(Monday) ~ Benito Juarez

April

6^th-16^th Easter à the 13^th-16^th we’re doing excursions as a group though

May

1^st (Friday)

5^th (Tuesday)

15^th (Friday) ~ Teacher’s Day

And of course then I come back the 23^rd of May.

But that’s that. We went to lunch and ate panuchos, salbutes, loganiza asada, and codzitos. I’m going to spare myself a little bit of time by saying the loganiza asada looked like something out of John Dies at the End (bad thing) (and that’s exactly what I thought when I saw it on someone else’s plate) and it wasn’t particularly tasty. It looked like a huge worm of some sort had crawled up onto the plate and died. Or maybe Louie ate some red kool-aid powder and now it was coming out the other end. In any case, I found a picture on the internet, but I don’t think it quite does everything justice.

I have sort of made a friend. Her name is Chelsea and she lives just a few streets over. She’s staying with my host-mom’s older brother and his wife. I think the two of us are going to get along pretty well. She’s studying creative writing/English at a school in Tennessee right near Memphis (she’s actually from Maine though).

Skipping ahead, tonight for dinner I had a tamale and fantastic iced tea (which was probably something like Lipton’s lemon tea like I used to have at Ms. Angies at small group). It was a lovely dinner because it was familiar. Tamales I’ve had in Tecate each time I went, so I knew exactly what to expect when I ate it and it didn’t disappoint. And it was pretty good, too.

Instead of living in a mansion, I think I actually live more in something akin to a Hotel. Something like the Tipton I’m going to say, only there’s no Mr. Mosby or crazy twins running around wreaking havoc. I have access to a pool which someone comes to clean on Thursdays at 2 or 3 am. I have wireless internet. I have someone who comes in on Saturdays and cleans the bathroom in my room and changes the sheets and towels. There’s someone who comes in during the week and does the dishes. It’s also extremely nicely decorated so I’m going to go with very nice hotel.

And since I’m quite tired, I’ve had more water today than even yesterday, I’m going to go to bed. I actually, for the first time probably since ever, I wanted water. I’m beginning to fear about this whole water business. I don’t think I could handle being someone like Lee whose drinking practices include water, water, water, energy drink, and water. Well, at least I had tea at dinner. And this Jamaica drink at lunch. Hopefully all is not lost. =D

January 4, 2009

7:30 AM ~ Is that really my phone? Roll over. Yeah I guess it is. Well 5 minutes more isn’t going to throw anyone off in the shower.

8:40 AM~ We left pretty much on time, no problems. Two suitcases, my laptop case which somehow managed to way a ridiculous amount and my backpack which wasn’t very space effective in terms of the box I was carrying in it, but that’s okay because that’s something I’m leaving here so that means more space later…hopefully.

I’m not sure exactly what time we got to the airport though I don’t think it’s exceptionally important. As my mom has already told the tale I don’t think I need to elaborate too much on the whole switching around clothes and things from one bag to the other. Funny, I didn’t think I had over 50 pounds in either of them but hey…

Airport breakfast of Quizno’s mesquite chicken something or other sandwich and I sat and waited for the plane. On the first flight I managed to finish the M or F book. The flight was really smooth, and entirely uneventful.

I got to Houston airport and had to ride a train to my new terminal. I considered wasting some time and riding it around for awhile just to see the rest of the airport since I had so much time (we may have arrived even 20 minutes early from the other plane and my lay over was already going to be long). But alas, I figured the thought of doing it was enough. Dad, I can hear you saying “I bet you did [consider riding that train around]” and laughing a little. =)

And I’m not supposed to have any crazy stories yet. I’m just supposed to report that I made it through the airports, got into Merida no problem and my family is second only to my real family at home, but we had a little bit of trouble in Houston.

A grande chai tea, a venti serving of internet surfing, and a small 15 minute conversation with my dear friend Will Conway, I’m starting to feel a little bit of pressure for the whole “making sure I get on the right plane, don’t forget anything, you can’t miss this flight.” Better get some food, it’s about 5:40 local time and boarding is at 6:20. No problem. Hook myself up with a bbq sandwich and wander back to E-14 which has never really been that far away. Boarding, or finishing boarding, really, for New Orleans is a little suspicious though. They must have great turn around time on these gates. So I take one of the many recently vacated chairs and pull out my next book.

But the panic something-just-doesn’t-seem-entirely-right-with-this-situation feeling still hasn’t passed. Looking around, when I said “many recently vacated seats,” I meant all but like, 7 of them were empty. That’s a little too empty for a plane that’s supposed to be leaving here in a couple of minutes.

So I stand and wait in line behind this couple who wants to get to New Orleans but their flight was delayed. And they really need to stay with their luggage insists the lady behind the counter, and “that’s really not a problem for us” which transforms into “that’s fine” in a forced polite tone that no one really feels “I’ll just write a letter then.”

Finally it’s my turn. I move up to the counter and the lady looks kind of tired and surely I don’t want on that plane, too, right?

“I just have a question…the flight to Merida is still out—“

“C-43”

“C-43” Just making sure I got that right. E-14 does not equal C-43. C is a completely different terminal. As a matter of fact, I came in through C and rode a train to get over here oh so many hours ago.

Oh Crap Oh Crap Oh Crap…!!! C-43. C-43. Walking. Walking. These moving sidewalks that Will’s never been on? Whoever invented them did it just for people like me.

I can’t remember exactly what I was thinking between E-14 and C-43, I reassured myself that talking to myself was not a sign of mental instability and when I didn’t have to take the train that I was going to be just fine.

In the end, I don’t know how I missed that. Maybe it was changed before I even got there. Who knows.

The flight to Merida was uneventful as well. I actually had an empty seat next to me which was comfortable because then I was able to use that tray for my cup of water and cup of diet coke. The sip of diet coke after that cup of soda was the best tasting diet coke I’ve had, but then it steadily declined back to never-had-anything-over-pepsi diet coke. I’ve had more water today than in the last 3 months easily.

Customs was pretty easy. They asked me how many computers I had which I only have this one, but I think there might have been some confusion with that DVD burner which was making my laptop case so heavy. Either way they didn’t seem too concerned. And yes, all of this stuff is just for my own personal usage, thank you very much.

Walking through the glass doors though (it’s almost like getting out of a quarantine or something which I suppose isn’t too far from the truth) was a little overwhelming. Suddenly there are a bunch of very unfamiliar and eager faces staring at you, watching you. I didn’t see my name immediately, but there just a little farther back was my host-mom and host-dad with their 15 year old daughter who looks more like 10.

They took me home in their very nice car, explaining different streets and things along the way; it’s probably vaguely similar to that Bel Air- Frederick trips from the other summer. If they say it often enough I’ll start to remember it though there was nothing quite as amusing as the “glad I’m not them” bit of that trip.

I suppose this would be an appropriate time to point out I'm pretty convinced that we're living in a mansion sculpted from a really nice magazine...they said they'd show me the upstairs tomorrow (yeah...exactly). They also have this really adorable dog that seems kind of pomeranian-ish. Her name is Biko (if I slip up and call her Meeko though I don't think anyone will notice. :) My host family has already commented that we’re buddies. Which we are. I see Biko every time I come in and out of my room.

I do have internet connection, it’s wireless, and my room is fantastic. I have my own separate quarters with a bathroom and everything. Unpacking will hopefully happen soon enough. They even put a little container of jelly beans next to my bed side table, “for when you get homesick” my host-mom said. Jelly beans, I think, are perfect. These are pictures of my room =)