The Scouring of the Shire

It's been a long time since I've written on this blog, and now I think it needs some concluding, or at least more concluding than I was able to give it when I simply announced the "Well, I'm back." So, since I am not a hobbit, and my story does not end with a trip to the Grey Havens, I will continue with more of an epilogue.

I'm sure at some point I'll look over these entries and marvel at them a little. For now, I think I'll just let them sit and marinate. I can't even remember what I must have written in many of them. But I have some perspective. A summer and most of a semester at SU has revealed all the changes that were only beginning in Mexico. I find myself starting sentences with, "Well, when I was in Mexico..." to explain myself. Sometimes it's to explain something that happened to me, but a lot of times I have to explain why I'm not reacting like I did. Sometimes it's strange. I feel like a broken record, but after some time of saying it my attention has been drawn to it.

Now I look back on those four months and see a turning point. It's the point where Frodo accepts responsibility for the Ring at the Council, where it was no longer a task thrust upon him, but something that he elects to follow through on. Mexico is a trial, but one that I can look at through a mirror and say, "Yeah, it was good that I did that, and you know what else? The hair cut's not half bad." While I was there I wasn't sure I was going to be able to say that.

I think I learned lessons that I would not have been capable of learning in any other way than that. There were no short cuts. No one could have told me their stories about them and said, "Take it from me..." They were lessons I had to learn the hard way, through repeated attempts to continue in the old way only to finally become fed up with it and forge a new path.

And being back has been hard. It's been most of my meals alone in a crowded cafeteria. It's been weekends doing homework for lack of anything better to do. It's been occasionally wishing things didn't turn out this way, but knowing that in the end it's better.

But it's been okay.

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? ...But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you... But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

Sometimes you just keep plowing through. And eventually, I imagine, I'll look back on even this semester and be able to draw little links. Little plot twists and character developments that have fashioned my "present." And I'll be better for it.

This semester, I'm ready for graduation. It was something I never would have expected ever. And maybe I've even excepted the idea that change could even be a good thing. And that's a core change. A core change for the better. And I'm glad. It's a light that shines in the darkest of places.

So I hope that I won't be stuck mulling through the effects of the change forever. That with graduation will come other changes that include new people, people who know me as I am now instead of people who know me as who I used to be.

And I'm optimistic. Graduation is like moving. You can change your name. You can go from Katelyn to Kate--or vice versa. There is hidden opportunity. And so, a deep breath, and we keep on moving.


“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Well, As most I think are already aware...I'm home now. After some split second decision making that I'm probably becoming notorious for, I ended up with a plane ticket for 12 hours later on Thursday at 7 AM. Unfortunately, that didn't leave me with much time to say goodbye to people. But I hope everyone stays well down in Merida (for those who stayed and for those who live there too).

It's very nice to be home, although the semester isn't actually over now. Still have papers to write and all sorts of fun academic stuff like that. But just figured I'd make a closing note here so that everything ends up complete and no one is hanging around waiting for other adventures in Mexico that..well...aren't going to be happening.

Cheers!
Kate

¡¡¡¡INFLUENZA!!!!

Hey Guys. So. Some of you may have heard about this little thing going around…swine flu… Hahaha So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. Just wanted to let you know I’m fiiiiiiiine. Aside from my toe getting into a fight and loosing today, I’m pretty much dandy. We’re actually out of school now until the 6th of May. The Mexican government shut down all schools. I’m hopin’ that means we don’t have to make anything up. I’ll probably have to e-mail my professors and ask them to pass along that information we need to writing the essays. Otherwise I’m probably going to generally be board but doing what I do best: wasting a lot of time on the internet. I’ve actually recently just been let in on a pretty decent site for watching movies. I’ve seen the Professional (1994), Lucky Number Sleven, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal in the past week or so. (I see the lightbulb going off…ah…so that’s why she hasn’t been updating the blog…) yeah… I’m hoping to watch V for Vendetta soon. =)

Anyway, you all take care. Please do not kiss, shake hands, or cough on me for the next little while. I would appreciate it if you’re sick that you keep your distance. I don’t want them to suddenly decide I can’t go back to the States or some other nonsense like that because I’ve gone and gotten myself sick. That just wouldn’t do. I only have 20 days left here, my little paper chain is getting shorter. This little window of self-imposed house arrest is going to make my “doing everything I want to do before I leave Mexico” a little more difficult (Campeche may no longer be an option) but hey, we’ll see what I can do.

Cheers!
Kate <3

VIP Movies

Thursday is just your average day of the week. It’s the day before Friday, so it kind of has that “wanting-it-to-be-the-weekend” sentiment, but it’s really not close enough to the weekend yet for any sort of real feeling of relief. It’s a lot like Tuesday in that it’s in between the milestones of the week. Except that here, for a while, Thursday is actually a very special day.

After classes were over (and after a hour of conversation just for Spanish practice) Chelsea and I went to Altabrisa for a movie. Why on a Thursday? I’m glad you asked. Thursday at Altabrisa is half off the price of VIP movies. That means for a VIP seating, it’s only 55 pesos. Now, first off, you should realize that this is less than you are going to pay for your average matinee movie in the States.

VIP. So we walk into the movie theater. We walk up to the ticket counter and buy our tickets. We’re kind of early, like we’re going to go walk around the mall a little before hand, but we figured we’d just get our tickets. Good. Call. It’s assigned seats. At first, I’m scoffing a little. Why assigned seats? That’s silly.

Well, We walk in and there are a series of little restaurants/concession stand and a menu. Yes. A menu. On this menu, you can order sushi, chai lattes, popcorn, soda, milkshakes, smoothies, a baileys café. Yeah. Hard core.

So we walk into our theater and take our place in our spacious leather seats complete with foot rest/reclining capability. Yeeeaaaaaah now we’re talking. Then a guy comes up to us. Would we like anything before the movie starts? Suuuure. I’ll have one of those chai lattes. This guy was miiiiighty intense. I paid, and then someone brought me my latte. Prett-tty sweeeet. And we were basically super super comfortable for our wooooonderful viewing of Fast and the Furious. =D

Conclusion? The Movie Theater in Mexico clearly trumps theaters in the USA where everything is overpriced and generally uncomfortable anyways. Why do we pay ridiculous amounts of money to them. Mexico Movie Theater = better choice haha. VIP = best choice.

Kimbalá

So two weeks ago or there abouts now I went with my Rural Anthropology professor to Kimbalá which is a small town just outside of Izamal. Starting Friday and ending Monday they were having a sort of “town party” where they had food stands set up and things for sale, a game of darts, and, the more spectacular events of dancing and la corrida de toros (which in the Yucatan is more like a bull fight).

When we got there, they had strung together this stadium type thing where everyone was gathered and in the center were the bull and several bullfighters teasing the bull. Several times he was put back into his cage, and then let out again so they could continue to harass him. Lucky for me, they had already killed one bull before I got there and weren’t going to be killing anymore. The meat, however for the first one, was strung up outside. Hence your lovely picture there at the top of the page.


After the bullfighting, we learned that the dancing didn’t actually start until midnight, so we took a very quick trip over ot Izamal to see the city which was very pretty. It was interesting to see people still out and about at eleven o’clock at night. Either way, after we just took a circle around the painted centro, we went back to Kimbalá and got seats for the traditional dancing.

Groups were introduced one by one and the head couple for each group was lead around by a host couple. They began dancing and it was neat to see. There was a large variety in age groups from very young to quite old. Everyone seemed to be having fun.

We headed back to Merida and got back in around 1 or 2 AM. It was definitely one of those really special things that we got to participate in because most times people wouldn’t be aware of the festival, etc. We were sort of special to get the invitation just because my professor was doing a study in the pueblo.

---->o Cancun o<----

We arrived in Cancun much the same way we did to Playa del Carmen. There was a poorly dubbed movie playing and then we all got off…well…a few people got off including us. When we got off, we looked around and didn’t exactly see any beach, nor did we know where we were going but figured we could just head in the direction of the beach and go from there. So we asked for the general “is the beach over thatta way?” and started walking.

And we walked for a while…through what seemed kind of like a small neighborhood and then along a street where we thought we had a general idea of where the beach was. So then we dropped into a hotel and the guy said he would only charge us 800 pesos a piece…which we said we’d pass and kept on walking. Then we began to realize where we figured the beach was there was a building standing over there. And then it wasn’t really looking like we had any idea at all where the beach was. So we stopped into an OXXO (the Extra was a few more blocks down the street and not worth the walk so that we could just say we went to the Extra again). In the OXXO a guy told us to catch a bus (the R-1) and that the futbol stadium was in that direction.

So we went and waited for the bus, and just when we were about convinced that we had misunderstood where the bus passed, one came by and scooped us up. And we rode the R-1. And rode the R-1. And then we got down into what’s known as the Hoteles area of Cancun. Everything is humongous, and everything is similarly *EXPENSIVE* well…admittedly we didn’t check at the Hilton or Mayan Palace or (…you get the point?) We just looked out our window of the bus rather helplessly and wondered where we were going to sleep tonight. I was kind of at that “this is too funny” point where I wasn’t exactly worried so much as just thinking creatively (we could totally just…sleep on the beach…wait til we get kicked off and move on down the beach…). So then the bus driver told us “everybody off, I’m turning around, this is the end of the route” and we asked him generally where the stadium was and he said it was waaaaaay back there. Back in the city. So we just stayed on and were on that bus for about 2 hours. The bus driver gave us the heads up on when to bajar, and we talked to some guys in the tourism industry and got a map for the area and where the stadium was. Then we went hotel shopping…again.

The whole hotel shopping didn’t take very long. There was a hole in the wall hotel right there across the street with rooms for 395 pesos a piece (no AC). So we got a room for two nights and settled in for the next little while. By this time, it was late afternoon and we both took showers. Chelsea was a little homesick and didn’t feel like doing too much but we went out and got dinner not far from the hotel. We had tortas al pastor with virgin piña coladas that were fantastic. We, because we spoke Spanish and the manager was really nice, were given the menu with the lower prices which we found to be pretty amusing. I also rather inadvertently ended up buying this soccer jersey, and then going back and changing it for a different one which was a rather stressful hour or so.

I think we went to bed pretty early that day.

The next morning, we went over to the Cheddraui (sp?) and got granola bars and yogurt drinks which we took to the beach and ate. The beach was beautiful. We set up camp under this thatch umbrella and stayed for most of the afternoon. The water was red flagged where we were, but there was a yellow area not too far from us (so for a little bit I went down there and played in the waves). Laurie met up with us later in the afternoon. Somehow she managed to find us (we couldn’t really give her good directions since we weren’t entirely sure ourselves).

We packed up shop and went to Chilis for lunch which was delicious. Love Chilis. And then we went back to the room, showered. Laurie and I went out briefly shopping again though I don’t think I got anything besides this sweet bread thing. Then we went and got our piña coladas again (since they were so good and they were so nice). And then we headed out for the GAME!

We had only a small amount of trouble getting there. Just the normal asking, then asking again, then asking again. And then we were kind of on the wrong side of the stadium so we had to walk around.

We got in and, as it turns out, I can’t read (still) and it was general admission seating but because we got VIP tickets the seats were still really good. So we settled in and commenced routing for the red white and blue team since the first jersey I had bought was for the Chivas and it was red white and blue. And they scored! So we cheered. And then we looked at the scoreboard and it was a point for the other team. So we were a little confused. And then they scored again and we were even more confused though we finally put it together that the other team was in fact the Chivas. The Cancun team also had red white and blue jerseys and that’s why we were having trouble distinguishing from those fans. Then we had it though and we learned some cheering techniques.

The guy behind us was so stereotypical it was hilarious. I think he knew all of about 3 words, none of which am I going to repeat here. He also kept ordering beer…though it was for other people too I think. Interesting tidbit is that they also sold vodka at the game and the guy in the seat next to me had a “barra libre” wrist band (open bar). Crazy stuff.

The Chivas weren’t going to be showed up 2-0 however. They scored the next two goals and we were able to cheer for the right team with the confidence that we were in fact doing so. You see, we were cheering for the Chivas basically because Gustavo likes them.

The game ended with a tie 2-2. We basically had a blast though and it ended with enough time for Laurie to get to the bus station and go back to Playa del Carmen so she didn’t loose her money for the night.

Chelsea and I then went to sleep, and the next day got our stuff together and went to the bus stop that was within walking distance. We bought our tickets back to Merida and sat down to have breakfast that we bought at the Cheddraui and ate. We had half an hour.

When it was time as shown on the ticket, we went and asked someone (the lady taking tickets) if they had called our bus and she told us that it wasn’t here and that we were to wait in waiting room one and kind of gestured to the side. So we went and sat down and waited. And waited. Then Chelsea realized there was a separate room. So we went in and the guy who looked at our ticket didn’t say anything so we sat down. Then, being 15 past the time on the ticket, I asked someone. Apparently that bus had left fifteen minutes ago (imagine that). He told us to go and try and get the tickets switched for the next bus.

We went back to the ticket counter and explained what had happened, being sure to say that we had in fact asked for information but weren’t given the right instructions. In the end we still had to pay again (and these tickets were really expensive) but only half the price.

Finally on the bus we were offered a free soda and headphones. The first movie was Freaky Friday which I declined to watch (not a fan of Lindsey Lohan) and then the second was Cars which I hadn’t seen so that was cool.

We arrived in Merida and my host parents were there to pick us up. They brought a card for me and a package that Chelsea had been expecting (given to them by Diana). And effectively that is what we did on our vacation! =D

Cheers!
<3>

:* Playa del Carmen *:

We got [back] to Playa del Carmen pretty quickly and with no drunken sombrero incidents. The plan was pretty much to find that Extra where we could get the tickets so we walked around and asked directions, then asked again, and then some people seemed to generally gear us in the right direction but maybe not with the right number of blocks so we did some back tracking and were sad to find that a hotel that would give us “just a bed/mattress” was going to cost us 550 pesos. We kept walking, kept walking and came across another hole in the wall type place (though this one had a box light with the word “hotel” on it). We went to check out how much it would be and they told us 250. Sweet!

We ditched our stuff (it wasn’t much to look at, especially cause the maid was in there cleaning at the time) and continued our pursuit of the Extra. Upon arrival, (yay we did actually find it!) we asked about the tickets and they confirmed that in fact the tickets were sold there they just hadn’t arrived yet. Okay, we thought, we’ll just hang out and have some lunch and wait for them. It was about lunch time anyway.

So we ate pizza in a way that was particularly reminiscent of our failed attempt to go to the Disco oh so long ago only we weren’t dressed up fancy. Same kind of pizza though. And after a while of eating, the tickets were still no shows. We figured we’d come back.

I believe that Chelsea actually said she was tired so we made our way back to the hotel and took naps. I actually ended up sleeping much more than her even though I wasn’t the one who felt so tired apparently. Who knows what the deal with that is. But after we got up, we walked back to the Extra who still didn’t have tickets.

We spent the day doing a little bit of shopping. Chelsea got a purse which we later discovered was the culprit for her suddenly pink shorts and trying-to-turn-pink white jacket. I got video taken with this adorable little monkey named Lola (who's in the picture at the top). For dinner we met up with Megan and Laurie who were also in Playa that day. Originally we were going to try to find a place with live music but finding that, the time we wanted, and within relative price that we were willing to spend, we were out of luck but dinner was still nice. Afterwards, with Lauie, Chelsea and I went *back* to the Extra. This time they had the tickets! WOO!

As it turned out, what we would have spent in Merida for general admission tickets we were able to get VIP tickets for. So we got VIP.

Upon return to the hotel, I tripped. Well let me backtrack a little. Chelsea had been tripping over the sidewalks all day as we walked along and did so right in front of this group of Mexican guys which we found to be rather hilarious but she never actually fell down. So we were walking, checking to see if maybe there was another hotel because *OUR HOTEL WAS ANT INFESTED*. YUCK. Bleh. So we were checking out our options when I tripped beside this Marquesita stand into the mud-slime-guts of the gutter. Thing is, there probably really were guts that I tripped into; I’m pretty sure there was a butcher shop like right there.

But anyway, we made it back to our hotel. I looked at the yellow stained walls, the ants crawling around in the bathroom (The ants go marching eight by eight HURRAH HURRAH). And contrived to rinse myself off (because I don’t think I would have felt much better if I had actually showered. And so much for my jean shorts.

After that experience we decided we’d head out to Cancun early and just hope we could get a good place. So we went to bed, and then in the late morning walked over to Wal*mart where we ran into Megan and Laurie and informed them of our change in plans. We also bought granola bars and yogurt drinks which made for a very tasty breakfast on the ride from Cancun to Playa del Carmen which we just hopped on the bus for.

Cozumel * " : .

And as it turned out, splitting off early from the group was definitely the way to go. We took a cheap taxi to the ADO station and hopped right on a bus leaving to Cancun

(like…literally…we bought tickets and the bus was held until they could finalize our transaction that’s how important we were). Unfortunately we weren’t able to use the student discount, but that’s okay. We figured we’d just keep that possibility in mind for later.

So we toodled along until we got to Playa del Carmen (now you’re probably thinking…why did you title this Cozumel if you went to Playa?) Well, to get to Cozumel (since it’s an island) you have to take a ferry, and the ferry is located in *drum roll pleasssssssseeeee* Playa del Carmen. So we walked among all these vendors and stuff with eyes the size of plates and then got to the ferry which was going to be leaving in an hour. That worked out fine for us because we were then able to go look around a little bit (even though we were going to be coming back) and made a discovery!

We walked into a store (with the best exchange rate in town it boasted) and asked about getting those blasted tickets for the futbol game which were so elusive. Well, no one really knew, and then they asked another guy who said “yeah they sell ‘em over there by the extra” (err…he said that in Spanish) “You have to be there early though like three days before the game” So we’re thinking, Excellent! That’s just when we’re planning on getting back from Cozumel and such we’ll be here!

So with that bit of information we boarded our ferry boat to Cozumel where there was a college aged guy in a sombrero who was quite enthralled with his Corona auctioning off said beer to the passengers. Some people did play along, but the guy decided that his Corona was worth more than the 100 pesos or however much he was offered and drank it himself.

When we got to Cozumel, we were decently hungry. We began walking around to try to find a) our parasailing place b) a place to eat and c) a hotel, ideally near said parasailing place. We came across a good place to eat (that was cheap) first and had a feast of quesadillas, hamburger, enchiladas, and fries (well…I had the enchiladas, and Chelsea had the burger). It was quite excellent and, figuring we were pretty close to our parasailing place (or at least within walking distance) we also stumbled across a sign (and by sign I mean there was something painted on the back of a building) saying there was a Hotel Pepita “just around the corner”. So we were like “sounds like a good place to check out” and we did it was only going to be 350 pesos a night. Sweet! We say to ourselves especially after we saw the room where we had a little fridgerator and shower and all.

We settled in and called the parasailing place setting up a time..or...well…trying to set up a time and decided we’d actually just stay in Cozumel for two nights instead of the originally planned just one night (we had no idea how excellent of a decision this was until we got to Playa but more on that later). So we walked over to the Super [grocery store] and bought some bread (actually they were like little loaves like we ate in Tecate which probably that doesn’t make any difference to anyone reading this…) but yeah that bread was 1 peso a piece and some ham (that was actually turkey but tasted like ham…) and cheese and some coca light etc. So we got some food.

We went and looked for some beach I think…but there wasn’t very much beach to be found (odd, right?). But there was some shopping, I felt pretty familiar with the area since we’d been there over the summer and we took some photos. Basically that was the day.

The next morning we got up, I called the parasailing place and we got right to the parasailing business! We took a taxi down to Playa Mia (and the taxi driver accidently undercharged us he explained) and we got on the boat and watched some other people parasail and then it was our turn. I actually took my videocamera up with us so I have video of it it’ll just be some time before I can actually upload that.

Parasailing was quite a bit of fun. It didn’t really hold too much of an adrenaline rush like I’d hoped, but it was still really pretty to see everything from up in the air. =) Pictures are currently on facebook. Hopefully I’ll have that video to you all fairly shortly.

When we finished, we were taken off the boat by another boat with two other people. They got dropped off at another beach that was further up the way and Chelsea and I decided we’d just get off here too. As it turned out, we didn’t have to pay to stay, and while we were supposed to eat at least 10 dollars worth of food, we didn’t, and Chelsea also didn’t pay the 10 dollars that you were apparently supposed to pay to play on the big blow up toys. And by didn’t I mean of course we paid…0 =D

So we spent the day there and then took a taxi back to our hotel area which was now the same amount as the first taxi since we were further up towards where we wanted to go. =) So that was all good. =)

Most of the rest of the evening we spent relaxing. We ate our sandwiches for lunch and ate dinner out at a place they kept asking us to come to. =) I actually got myself a hoodie while I was there. Not because I was cold, but because I think I’ll wear it a lot when I get back to the States (well…for winter anyway haha).

The next morning we got up and went down to catch the ferry early to go to Playa del Carmen!

More pictures can be found here:

The Inframundo Trip

Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, y Cancun

***>One month from today I'll be on my way home<***

Inframundo: Tulum, Mexico & Surrounding Areas

Hello Ladies and Germs! I now present to you the long awaited next installment in my life in Mexico. On Saturday morning I got up, realized I’d not packed a few key things (like my swim suit) and shoved them into my overly full backpack. Not long after that, Chelsea’s mom picked me up and we went down to Los Arcos and met up with Diana and the rest of our Inframundo group (but Diana wasn’t actually coming with us).

Fourteen of us piled into the van with all our backpacks secured to the roof with bungee cords. Guillermo was our guide (who apparently is also the subaquatic archeology prof. So we went off down the road and stopped at an archeological site where it was reaaaaaallly hot (I think this was a day where the weather was supposed to be 112 according to google) and we actually rented bicycles and went through the place. After that, we went a little farther down the road and swam in a very cool cenote.

When it was time for the cenote to “close,” we all hopped back into the van and headed for our home base: Tulum. Our home for the next couple days were cabañas on the beach. It was a pretty nice set up, though we only had electricity from 7 PM to 6 AM and never hot water but it was good. In the afternoons it was only a short walk down to the actual ocean. Laurie and Megan slept in their hammocks and Chelsea and I slept in the twin beds.

In the morning, everything was very lax which was very nice and not what I expected. While we had a schedule everything wasn’t super rushed. We were treated to a breakfast of donuts and apple yogurt and then we got into the van and went to another archeological site. On the way there we were stopped by the police who thought Guillermo might have been running some sort of prostitution gig because there were what appeared to be only girls in the van and a male driver. But it was cool we convinced them that we were students and just on a trip.

This particular archeological-ruins site looked like something out of a movie like the secret garden or maybe even some deleted scenes for Pan’s Labyrinth. It was really beautiful. There were trees growing out the rock-work and everything looked untouched. I vaguely was expecting fairies…or at least CGI ones.

This was also the place I think where there was a very tall wooden watch tower. I climbed up it (after the wooden picnic table right next to it collapsed rather noisily), and it took you up above the tree cover. (I thought of you, Dad). It was quite a site.

This day I don’t think we went to a cenote, we just went back to camp early. We brought out our cloth to the beach and hung out there for awhile (with sunscreen). That evening we decided we would all go out to dinner as a group which was nice. We went to an Italian place in Tulum (and got stopped by the police again but I’m not sure what for this time) and my order was actually kind of forgotten…but eventually I got my food and it was all good.

The third day we went to (guess) another archeological site. This one though had the possibility of seeing animals. Well, we didn’t see any big ones, just a gigantic amount of mosquitoes. So that was rather unhappy, but Ariana taught me a song in german about mosquitoes. That was fun.

We were all glad when we finally left and we went to a magnificent cenote. There was a tree that I jumped off of on the ledge. There were quite a few people there and we explored a little cave first but it was really nice and pretty.

The next day we were apparently supposed to get up early but we weren’t informed of it. The schedule was going to involve going to Tulum (the ruins) before heading out back to Merida. Chelsea and I were actually kind of sick of seeing ruins though, so we opted out and decided to start our own part of the vacation right there. =)

SpriNg bReaK 20o9

Hey to those of you still keeping up with this =)
As of half an hour from now (don't you like how last minute I am...don't even ask about when I finish(ed) packing...) I'm off for our excursion trip and then going to be futzing about in Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, and Cancun. I should be back on Easter though. =)
Either way, don' t be looking for any updates during the week 'cause I'm not going to have internet access, that sort of thing. Hope all is well!

Cheers! <3 Kate

March 28, 2009

My bad, this is so late. The thing is the weekend actually kept me quite busy. But on to the interesting part of the weekend which would be Saturday afternoon where in we went to the cenotes!

Chelsea and I met Megan at the cathedral and took a little walk over to catch a combi which cost us all of 14 pesos for an hour ride to Cuzumá. When we got there, we were let out and there were a bunch of people with bicycle taxis waiting for us.

Chelsea and Megan each chose different bicycle taxis, but they fit two people each, which left me with the exceptionally difficult job of making a decision. The kid behind Chelsea was…exactly that, a kid, but normally I would ride with her. Megan helped out and said she would go by herself so I sat with Chelsea. Well, the two of us laughed the entire way at ourselves, the entire way being 5 km with this poor kid who was pushing us. We weren’t really sure if he was going to make it. But surprisingly, he managed.

When we got to the end of the road, we hopped into a cart with a pony that began the trek to the first cenote. We got to spend 30 minutes at each cenote which I think was actually just enough.

The cenotes were so interesting because while it was sweltering outside, when you went down into them they were so much cooler, then plus the water it was very refreshing. The water was so clear you could see straight to the bottom. Absolutely beautiful.

While we were there, there were also a couple of daredevils who climbed up some of the rocks and back flipped into the water. We clapped…so I kind of felt like a bit of an enabler but it was actually really neat to watch while I was glad for the first time that my guy friends from home weren’t here so that I didn’t have to worry about them getting similar ideas into their heads.

With that said, we made the rounds to the other two cenotes, all of which had a different appearance and charm before heading back to the bike taxis where Angel (the boy) and the other guy waited for us. They drove us back (this time Chelsea and Megan rode together with the other guy so it wasn’t quite as difficult for Angel, and we made it back, took a convi and came back to Merida.

You can find the pictures here on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028672&id=47802150&l=bd46b25b55

Cheers! <3>

March 27, 2009

Today I played hookie from school. It was only one class and I’ve yet to miss so I thought I’d take a three day weekend and save myself the 16 pesos to get there. So the morning was spent relatively lazily in my room reading, e-mailing, etc.

After lunch, Chelsea and I went on a wild goose chase to find tickets to a soccer game. This was kind of not smart of us because it was over 40 degrees celcius (over 100 degrees out) and we were walking around trying to figure out where we were going. Also when we got there just before 4 the place was closed.

Then we went to Grand Plaza where Chelsea got her hair cut and dyed grey. No, it was not supposed to be grey, they were supposed to make highlights it just turned into a disaster. But it’s all good, we got it, because, thanks to prior disastrous highlighting experience, I knew enough to get them to change it. Now it looks quite nice and the cut is really cute.

Since it was 8:30 by the time all that was finished, we went to the food court and got dinner. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich…and ended up with some sort of burger. Yeah…I…don’t entirely get it either. We’ve really have excellent luck the two of us. The good thing is that in the end the hair turned out alright. =)

On the other hand, I just got an e-mail telling me my coke points are going to expire. Despite the large amounts of cocacola I’ve drank down here, they don’t participate in this points awarding system. So. You know, if you don’t happen to have a coke account yourself, but happen to have a code laying around that you feel like passing off to me so my points don’t expire on the 3^rd, that’d be pretty super sweet of you.

And I think that’s about it. Haha. Would reaaaaallly like some super sweet streak of good luck right arouuuuunnnddd now. We’re going to visit some cenotes tomorrow and hopefully nothing bad will happen. We’re going to cross our fingers (and not get them slammed into car doors or anything like that. We’ll make sure to take extra caution since the way things have been going of late haven’t proven to be particularly auspicious). I’m actually not as bitter as I probably sound. I’m kind of looking at the day as a “wow, it really didn’t go our way, did it?” and laughing to myself. So no worries. But really. Hope things go well tomorrow.

Cheers <3>

March 24, 2009

The goal for the day was to do laundry. That, at least, was achieved. The other, somewhat secondary goal was to find tickets for this soccer game in Cancun. That was not achieved. Chelsea and I went to this place in Plaza Fiesta where supposedly they would sell them but they didn’t. On the other hand, Chelsea did some investigating/asked someone else who gave us another location that we just have to find at some point. We can go check there then at some point in time.

Unfortunately, it was a work day. I actually set up the hammock in my room and got to work (now some of you think I’m being sarcastic but no, I sat in the hammock and read for 2 hours until I got a phone call from Mandy saying that they were going to the Centro for banana splits if I wanted to come along. It was kind of her birthday yesterday so I did. That kind of was a 3 hour trip (2 hours in the bus, 1 hour there…ah so pathetic). That kind of left me doing homework til 2- 2:30 in the morning. Which was a little unfortunate but that’s okay.
Cheers <3 Kate

March 23, 2009

Woo. Monday. Actually I’m pretty sure I was relieved that the weekend was over, even if that meant the beginning of the week. Weird right? Yeah, it’s cool, though.

The morning started out with a lovely weirdness between me and Pichel who I inadvertently ran into when I was trying to buy a can of tea, and by ran into I mean we made eye contact and I was pretty much just at a loss for what to do so I just nodded in acknowledgement. Well what was I supposed to do?

In the end, we resolved things…I think. And I’m pretty sure we can still be friends…even though he apparently isn’t going to be getting back to his house each day until 2 AM until sometime in july. Today excluded. I’m sorry honey, but I have a headache tonight… *cough* I mean I’m sure that’s entirely the case, but whatever ^.~

Ehm, so I did Mayan Civ homework in Cavernas…and then realized I did it wrong and had to redo it before/during Mayan Civ. It’s cool though there were no problems. During our break in Mayan Civ though I felt like soap opera/ telenovela because I was suddenly the center of attention explaining the drama between Pichel and I. It wasn’t really drama at this point, but it was something of an involved story, ne? Hehe pretty funny.

Anway after class we met up with Saidi and Oswaldo and decided we were going to go to the Soriana and get kraft macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. We brought them back to my house and ate them. It was pretty cool, not like…super cool, probably not quite as neat as your thinking but hey at least it was something.

That pretty much took up til like 9:30, and then I fooled around on the internet, talked briefly with Lee on AIM and J too. J I actually ended up calling. I’m pretty sure he’s going to be the best judge of my Spanish…and it didn’t sound supppppper terrible when I was talking with him surprisingly. Conclusion? It might have something to do with my confidence level, who knows. I mean, I feel like maybe it’s slipped a tad, but maybe it’ll go back to normal at least when I get back to the United States. Ugh so inconvenient though, for real. Anyway so we talked for an hour. And now it’s time for bed. I’m not going to be a very happy camper I’m going to have a lot of work tomorrow. And I seriously need to take my laundry to the laundry mat. I’ve been saying that for half a week now which is a super-bad sign. Yeah. I know I’m concerned, too.

Pues I think that’s about it. I hope all is well at home. Dad I still didn’t get that e-mail sent. Maybe tomorrow. Quite possibly more likely Thursday. As you can see I was quite busy today. My dying Spanish takes precedence just because it’s more of an immediate concern. Hehe.

Love to All,
Kate <3

String of Bad Luck

. . . I’m not really even sure how to begin this post, except to kind of repeat the title. It would seem that I’ve contracted a case of bad luck. Friday night, after posting, I went to go to Alta Brisa. I can take 2 buses to get there, it’s relatively close to my house (not walking distance, but like, still fairly close). So 2 buses, the circuito metropolitano, or the 52 norte. The 52 norte would only cost 3 pesos because I have my student ID. Well I just missed it when I walked out to the bus stop (by like, 2 seconds missed it). But that’s okay. Then another one comes by 10 minutes later. … This apparently is not like all the other 52 Norte Buses, as it turned and started taking me in the opposite direction.

So we went for a few minutes I had no idea where I was. Then we pulled out onto Prolongacion Montejo, which is a main street. I got off there, knowing that other 52 Norte buses (the normal ones) go by there. So I kind of dallied a little, but it was getting dark, and I didn’t fancy just waiting on the side of the road so I began to walk in what I knew was the direction of home. Finally I sat down at a bus stop with this other lady for 20 minutes waiting for a bus. No dice. I have no idea what happened to the buses during this time, but they were clearly missing. So I got up and started walking.

45 minutes after getting off the first bus, I’m on the main road that runs by my house, finally a 52 Norte bus passes. Well… it did just that. Passed me. I flagged it, it kept going. Seriously? Like for real?

Eventually I made it up to where my house is and took a circuito though I got off a tad early (it’s hard to gauge that in the dark) and got to the mall. Well at this point, I’m super late, there’s nothing really to do, we sat down, I ate a little because I was just so off kilter, and then we turned around and all went home.

Saturday.

Get up at 4 AM to see the equinox. This is supposed to be the change in bad luck. Get up, out of the house, we’re good. Get to the place we’re supposed to meet up with this group Merida Como Te Quiero which is going to take us for free at 4:45. Chelsea and I grab muffins from 7/11. We’re supposed to leave at 5 AM. …We left at 6:15. The sun came up. We didn’t see the equinox event.

Instead, we walk around the ruins which not too many of us had much interest in doing, but it was okay actually ‘cause we made the best of it. Took some pictures which can be found here : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028462&id=47802150&l=81b63ad7f4 The story is kind of told in the captions on the photos there too.

After Dzibilchaltun we went to the beach. Well we stopped in Progreso for 30 minutes, where we were told we could grab something to eat so we did, and then got back on the bus where they gave us a sandwich *hangs head* fail. We were under the impression we were going to get food from them a little later, at say…2. Otherwise we wouldn’t’ve eaten anything.

So then we went to the beach. And that was pretty good for the most part, but in an attempt to save myself a little bit of typing, I’m just going to copy/paste an e-mail regarding the tale at the beach:

Scott: Lol what about taking pictures with random girls? Does that happen to you a
lot?

My Response:
No, I can't say it happens to me a lot. It was really weird. We were just chillin' on the beach and, (something that is quite common) someone came over and started chatting me up, and I lied (I know I'm sorry >.< but sometimes it's just so much easier than explaining "no i don't want to date you, you're 30 some years old" etc) about having a boyfriend in the states, and eventually he left. Then, the unusual began. The kid, pretty cute, came over and asked for a lighter while Laurie and I were sitting there, and we didn't have one, but Chandra, the other girl who was still in the ocean I knew would have one so I let him borrow hers (in retrospect this in and of itself was out of character for me, why would i help someone out with their cigarette problem...? don't let that get out). So we went back to talking when he returned to his friend and towel which were fairly close to us. And not very long later, like 5 minutes, he came back and asked for it again, then he asked for my name, and I told him it was Kate, thinking this is the same general chat up, whatever. He goes back to his towel.

Then I hear "Kate!" And i turn, and he and his buddy hold up a beer can, offering it, and I say no, not a fan, and time goes on. Then they came over when Chelsea was at the towel, Laurie had gone with Chandra somewhere, and asked Chelsea to take their picture with me. Odd much? Yeah. Well then there was like this swarm of people over when they returned to their towels, and they all proceeded to hang out til it was near time to go, at which point they were like "can we have a picture?" And then there were three pictures taken, 2 with 2 guys and 1 with only 1 guy. Kinda felt like i was in a zoo.

I mean, I asked at some point I was like "what's the deal...why do you want a picture?" and they're like "as a recuerdo" like a memory token... It was *really* weird. So yeah. If you come across some weird photos of me with strange guys...now you know the real story. Hopefully they won't show up somewhere and end up haunting me. That would be bad.
/end correspondence.

So that was the beach. Then we came back, I got dressed, uploaded my photos from my cameras to my computer, made it so they were all facing the correct directions then somehow accidently deleted them all. Yeah. So then I did it all over again and recommenced the editing process. I got a shower, ate a little dinner, and then that’s when I started talking with Saidi and Oswaldo (well…mainly Oswaldo since apparently Saidi and I can’t communicate well on the phone). They were asking why I hadn’t called, which, I had said I would when we got to El Centro but we never actually went since we got off at Grand Plaza shopping mall to go home. So they were supposed to come with us to the beach but didn’t even after they made a big deal of saying they were going to (which Laurie will vouch for). They were like “yeah let’s do something tonight” so I told them about this Salsa and Sabor thing we had already bought tickets to. Sweet. We’ll meet at the Cathedral at 8:30.

Chelsea and I got to the Cathedral at about 8:35, Saidi arrived at 10 til 9. And finally we got in touch with Oswaldo, they were waiting for the bus, didn’t end up getting there until 9:30 (the thing was supposed to start at 9).

In the mean time, we were talking with Saidi, and she commented about how she has a hard time understanding me, and as we concluded, it’s because of the way I’m not pronouncing the R. Something has changed since we first got here, because she was saying she remembered how it wasn’t so hard to understand me before, and now it’s really hard. And I agree. My Spanish sounds horrific now (for some reason mom it didn’t sound so bad most of the time while you were here, I don’t know why). But it really grates on my ears to hear myself talk, and similarly I think it is the R. Like, I have a hard time saying “padre.” Yeah. I sound like I’ve taken Spanish for 3 years…even though I’m sure I sounded a lot better when I was in Spanish III.

So with that in mind, 3 hours of sleep, having gotten up at 4 AM, I was, as I put it then, a little “desanimada” Pretty sure I didn’t want to do anything. And it sucked because Chelsea and I had already bought tickets. But at least if we didn’t go we wouldn’t have to spend money on a taxi to get home. Eventually it was decided we would just leave. I had Saidi treating me like I was 2 years old. It was time for bed.

We got on the 52 Norte. Remember how I said it was 3 pesos with the student ID? The bus driver was just like “5 pesos” and I was like “what? Why isn’t the student ID valid?” And he gave me some answer I didn’t understand that was really short, so we had to pay the 5 pesos. Now, 2 pesos really isn’t that big of a deal. But after a day like this, surely you can see where that would be some icing on the cake. Freakin’ A.

And that’s that. A lot of bad luck, some of it’s done and over with but I still can’t speak Spanish. Anyway, enjoy the pictures at least I suppose. I think I’m going to ask Diana about the Spanish thing.
--Kate.

PS: check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_E9SBfWPNg

March 20, 2009

Well, I don’t have a whole lot of really interesting stuff to report. In other the news, Pichel suddenly has a girlfriend and I’m kind of under the impression we’re not so much going to be doing a lot of the hanging out. So that’s…rather unfortunate. And weird because I found out via facebook which was just…funny, really, when it came down to it last night.

Annnnyway. I think the whole napping thing is reaaaaally gonna have to stop. Actually this week I think my sleep schedule has just been off but as I’m writing I’m a little groggy with sleep. Oswaldo and Saidi invited me to go to the movies but I don’t think I’m gonna go because I don’t have a ton of money just hanging around for the rest of this month, ya know what I mean, bean? I actually just had to recharge my phone again last night, which was amusing because I got caught in the middle of a txt messaging conversation without any minutes left so I had to walk over to the Extra at like 11 o’clock and get more minutes. I actually ran into the guy who served us at the Antesala (since that’s on the way and he was cleaning up shop). We’re basically pals now. Or at least I’m recognized. Unfortunately it’s like 2/3 times I’ve worn sweatpants while being here and it’s been those two nights. Oh well, not like I need to make an impression. Don’t you guys go getting your hopes up he’s probably old enough to be my dad. Just seems like a nice guy. As for Saidi and Oswaldo, that’s okay, I don’t really feel like going to the movies anyway, though I do sort of feel like getting out of my room since, besides class this morning and lunch this afternoon that’s where I’ve been all day. Hehm…

Chelsea’s host mom has an art exhibit thing that she’s going. I’m not sure if it’s kind of more of an invite-only type thing; Chelsea asked if I was invited and I had no idea. See here’s where you need that other person who’s doing something interesting on a Friday night (but not too late ‘cause I don’t wanna be dying tomorrow).

In the course of this week I think I went from really being like 'yeah mexico is pretty sweet, this is what it was supposed to be like' to particularly homesick this morning. Thing's have pretty much leveled off at this point, I think we're good. It's kind of unfortunate though because I was something of a fan of the enthusiasm for being here. Mighty, mighty unfortunate. Well not like all is lost or anything like that. I mean i'm still looking forward to stuff, it's just now all like big "going and doing" type things instead of the day-to-day interaction stuff which is normally where I get my kicks lol.

mmmmm yeah so I think that's about all I got for ya. Just lettin' you know i haven't abandoned you (or writing) altogether, hehe. Cheers~

Hope all is well in the U S of A.
<3 Kate

March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patricks day. Apparently that is so totally not a big deal at all here. Much more popular in the states. But clearly, as a very Irish person (my last name being what it is etc). Annyway, originally the plan was to try to find this crazy place that I’ve never seen but have heard of called O’Taco (like O’Reilly in case you didn’t catch on). Supposedly they serve Irish Tacos. I’m pretty sure no one in Ireland knows what an Irish taco is, but either way it would’ve been fun.

Unfortunately, however, no one actually knew where exactly it was. Somewhere in Pensiones apparently. Not exactly the most helpful thing in the world since that’s apparently a very large neighborhood type thing. So instead we just went to a place in El Centro.

It was really cool though because Pichel brought two friends, and Mallory, Mandy, Laurie, Chelsea, Nandini and Gustavo were there (sorry if I’m forgetting some one). But we just chilled there for a few hours talking, it was nice to meet some more people and you know…actually speak in Spanish. Over all I’d say it was a very successful day. =)

<3 Kate

Holbox

Holbox was basically a blast. Some of the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here in Mexico. We hopped on the bus at 11 and arrived at 5:30, took the half hour ferry and go to the island which basically wasn’t awake yet. We stayed at a super cheap place (haha) and hung out on the beach the first day. I would highly not recommend not putting on sunscreen, and similarly I don’t recommend falling asleep on the beach. What I highly recommend again even more than both of those is doing them both together like I did. So after Saturday there was no more beaching for me but that’s okay I still had fun.
On Sunday we rented a golf cart for two hours and drove around. There are actually no cars on the island, so if you want a taxi there are actually golf cart taxis haha. In our little bout with the gold cart though I almost killed us at one point I think, but we were good. One of Abimael’s shoes liked the island so much it decided to hop off and stay at Holbox (chuch!) and Mallory got sucked into the rankest smelling mud-swamp that looked like solid ground until she marched over to take a picture and sank in up to her calves.

Somehow on Monday I ended up sleeping *all day.* We got back around 12:30, I took a shower, grabbed a quick nap, had lunch with my family, fell back asleep at 3 until 11:30, grabbed some cheetoes to eat, went to sleep again at 12:30, woke up at 4:30 with a nightmare, went back to sleep til my alarm went off at 8. Was a ridiculous amount of sleepin’. But the weekend was really awesome. It was neat to bond with some of the people on the trip because I don’t think I’ve really done that up until this point.
This is a really brief overview of what I did (sorry to disappoint). I think I just don’t really feel like writing right now, so I’m just keeping it really brief. Hope you all had a lovely weekend, but here are a couple of the pictures I was able to take while on the island and my camera was functioning as it was supposed to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028348&id=47802150&l=01d271d3ca
Cheers <3 Kate

MiniVacation

Hola a todos~ I realize i'm late already on a couple posts (so much for that two day streak of being on top of that) but you're also not going to hear from me for a little while longer because we have a three day weekend and are going to Holbosh a little island on the tip of the Yucatan. So i'll be gone this weekend, no updates, pretty much entirely out of touch. I hope you all have a lovely weekend (and you can pretend your in mexico relaxing on the beach).

Les mando un besito,
Kate <3

March 11, 2009

Woot! Today officially marks half way day. From here on out it’s downhill..or…more days behind than in front (and of course that oddly happens as I’m starting like it more…well that’s the breaks). But! Let me thank everyone just over all who sent me letters/pictures =D I <3 you all very very much . =)

So today was one of those not really good at waking up type days. I set my alarm for quarter of 6, didn’t realize even what was happening when it first went off I was totally disoriented. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 6, turned the water on in the shower so it’d be warm, and went back to sleep for 10 minutes and finally couldn’t put the day off any longer.

I had waffles with jam as I walked out the door. I bet most people don’t think of waffles as an “on the run” type of food because the syrup would be too messy. Good thing I like mine with fruit, not syrup.

And I pretty much mind-slept through migrations class, though I made somehow enough comments that she never once prompted me for an answer. Which was good because I wouldn’t’ve had one. Lucky me.

Then I finished some cavernas homework because that was definitely a need and I ate lunch where, apparently sitting alone is my key to meeting Mexican guys? This was actually just creepy. I was sitting in the courtyard eating my lunch and I kind of glanced up as someone walked by and he kind of did that head nod thing, and at first I just glanced back down at my food not to be rude but more because the action hadn’t registered, but noting that I was being acknowledge I looked up again and kind of half nodded/half smiled which was apparently an invitation which, hey whatever, right? Actually not really. Not really at all.

But he was like “are you from the USA?” (in spanish) and I was like yeah, and then he made himself at home on the bench next to mine and asked me what part. So I answered question as need be but it was one of those creepy interrogation-conversations I’m really sick of. So yeah luckily Chandra came over and saved me…sorta. But he came back and then asked us if we liked cenotes, and we were like yeah, or more like Chandra said yes because I’d had enough of him. At that point he started telling us about a cenote that’s really close to the school that’s kind of part of the archeological site something or other and LSD. … back up. LSD? And I looked at him like…are you for real? (not are you for real as in excited, as in, did you seriously just ask us to go to some cenote and do LSD?) I’m pretty sure that tops the charts in my “creepiest things I’ve ever been invited to.” So I curtly explained we weren’t interested. And Chelsea came over and he asked her if she liked cenotes and she said yes and I interjected that she didn’t like LSD however. When he was leaving though he made sure to call my name and say bye. It was weird. Blah.

Anyway on to better parts of the day. Cavernas (turned in the homework), and Spanish. We finished Amores Perros. Alright, having seen it in two settings I think my thoughts on it are a little skewed. At the end I liked it a lot more (see Andy I’m not an entirely uncultured person) but somehow I feel like to have a really accurate opinion I’d need to see it all in one sitting. Either way it was well made. I unfortunately had a headache during Spanish though.

Then I came home, well, I walked to three different places to get more minutes for my cell phone and then came home where I got to open my presents and cards =D That was really really cool. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t’ve asked for anything better. Pretty much the best.

And then I hung up with my parents and went to the movies with Mandy and Saide. We saw He’s not that into You which is freaking hilarious! Oh man that was soooo good and Mandy’s such a trip (not an LSD trip, just funny as all get out…just so we’re clear haha). Hehe but I definitely had a good time with that. So did Saide. And then we teased Mandy some and that was a good time too. Got these smoothie things from Cinnabons. Yummmm. And now I’m home. Except for, you know, the school part, it was a good day. Oh and sorry to disappoint all my awaiting readers, no, my movie plans were not (never were) with Pichel, lol. These were made a little earlier in the week because to go to the movies is half price on Wednesdays. Good thinking on our part. Like… 33 pesos or something like that. That means like…just barely over 2 dollars. Yeah. Fantastic movie theater. About 2 bucks. Be jealous.

Well, much love my dears! =) Cheers!! Kate <3

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.

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)

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

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

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

March 04, 2009

Well, a lot of musings for this date have already been processed, so about the day I’m going to keep things fairly short.

I did not want to get out of bed because it was COLD! I wasn’t even all that tired it was just freezing outside of the blankets. But I did. And it was cold enough that I had a scratchy throat.
Went to school, pretty uneventful. First class was Migrations. I decided afterwards I hadn’t probably paid enough attention because I wasn’t angry when I left. I did partially present on a text though, and by partially I mean I was cut off by time. After that was a quick rush to create/finish a powerpoint for Cavernas and that all went fine. Presented in that class too.

I got out semi-early from Cavernas and ran into my bus-buddy. Basically was just a brief chat before I had to go to class again that said ‘well I went out with friends yesterday’ and I said I only did homework though some people from IFSA and I were going to a movie later so I invited him to tag a long with us. We exchanged numbers but he had political things to attend to in el Centro. He said he’d let me know if he was going to join us if it ended early or something.

After that I went to Spanish which I thought was going to be long but we got out early and it wasn’t so bad. Caught the bus to Plaza Fiesta where Ariana, Chelsea and I had ice cream cones and then went to the house in time to read a tad of Maximum Ride before heading out to Gran Plaza to see the Changeling. I need to write Craig about that. It’s not at all like the other one the only bit of which I remember is jumping out of my skin when Ms. Dale came over the intercom.

Aaaaand that was the night. We stopped at cinnabon before leaving and chatted for around an hour. It was me Megan and Ashley which was nice. I haven’t hung out with them very much but they’re pretty fantastic. Hehe Megan’s computer knowledge made me feel pretty at home, so many of the guys being computer geeks and such.

So that’s where I’ll leave it. Pretty good day, I’d say. Went to bed and ta-da!
Cheers! <3 Kate