January 13, 2009

Hallo to everyone. This morning started off a little…well…oddly. Well I guess I should start maybe before I got up. I woke up around 5:40 after dreaming that (long story short) I had killed a helpless jaguar by effectively pealing the skin away from it’s throat like Velcro, which, apparently, you aren’t supposed to do because they don’t live very long after that. So with some very muddled thinking after I woke up, I remembered that I had set my alarm for 6:45, and went back to sleep.
At 6:45 the alarm went off, I got up, did the normal routine thing, tried to put a little extra conditioner in my hair which I’m running out of very quickly, etc. When I made it into the kitchen, breakfast was on the table. It was toast with beans and cheese on it. So I ate that, and looked at my watch. 7:45. 7:45?! That can’t be right. I have to be at the anthropology school at 8! Surely my watch has just clicked over to the section where it’s still on EST. Clicking through my watch settings, I find the EST one, and it is indeed 9:45 by that time. NO WAY~!
Now, something you should know about buses. They don’t really care one way or another if you’re running late. You just have to sit tight and wait. They’re not going to get to the bus stop any faster, and they’re not going to drive any faster just because you can’t do math when you’re tired at night and some how the hour to get up and get ready and the hour to get to the school become one hour and you’re left wondering how you managed to pass both statistics and a Math topics class with As.
I actually met up with someone from the IFSA group waiting for my second bus, and I told him how I was running late, etc. And we got on the second bus, and upon arriving we began to discuss the logistics of going to a class late. Well, it was 8:30 when we got there. That means half an hour late, but classes go for 2 hours. And supposedly people come to class a little late fairly frequently around here. And I remember someone telling me last semester that they went to a class with only like 10 minutes of that class left so I’m really torn about what to do: wait for my second class at 10? Or try to go to this class because it was one I really wanted to go to. Eventually it’s suggested that I just go.
The door was actually open to the classroom when I arrived, too, which was like a “well, here goes nothing.” So I walk in, and apologize. Then I’m asked where I live. Well, I’m not exactly sure what neighborhood I’m living in, so I describe where I live, which is near the round-about called el Posito. So I say this, and then the professor makes a comment, and a lot of people laugh. Something about el Posito---I’m not really sure but apparently that was the wrong thing to say. So I’m sitting there, kind of vulnerable like, not entirely sure what’s going on, and if I’ve totally screwed up or what. So they stop laughing, nad he asked me again where I live. So I’m thinking, oh, maybe it’s totally obvious that I’m some obnoxious American who thinks she can come to school late, so I say that I’m from Maryland. This starts up a whole new uproar, and then he clarifies “no, what state are you from.” Now…seriously. Obviously when it comes to Mexico I’m from the state of Yucatan, and I’ve already said I’m from Maryland. What more do you want. So I kind of repeat “Maryland” with different inflection because that’s about all I have now. One of the boys in the class recognizes it and says it’s up North. Then the professor bids me welcome, which I didn’t understand the first two times he said it (give me a break, at this point I’m just a tad-bit overwhelmed…I mean…seriously).
But the rest of the class went pretty well. I think I’ll keep it. I mean, over all the prof seemed pretty relaxed, that sort of thing. It’s going to be a discussion and lecture class. We’ll see how it goes. The class is called Anthropology of Education. I don’t really know what that means but Education sounds promising.
After that, we actually ended at 9 o’clock. So effectively I missed half the class. Several other IFSA students and another girl from another program were in that class and we sat outside waiting til 10. By 10 o’clock we had all pretty much decided we were going to try out this Rural Anthropology class which is supposedly really easy. At this point I suppose since most of the classes aren’t going to be anything to do with my major that easy is the next best thing.
We waited there for half an hour and a few other students came in, but after half an hour they explained that there was some sort of conference/meeting that all the anthropology students had to go to, so the class probably wasn’t going to happen. So we left too.
Erin and I ran to catch the bus as we were walking out, and it was just starting to rain. While we’re riding the bus to the Plaza de Fiesta I realize that I’ve got a lot of extra time since that second class was cancelled. Brilliantly, now, you can take that either sarcastically or not sarcastically, I decide I’m going to do a little exploring when I get to the Plaza de Fiesta. The spur for this was originally the length that my fingernails are acquiring and their disposition to chipping and this sort of nonsense. So I walk kind of along the path that the bus usually takes us home.
I know that there’s a super market, that kind of thing, and that’s what I head towards. It probably would’ve been better to do this on a day when I wasn’t wearing heels (even if they are my type of heels and generally pretty comfortable) and on a day when it wasn’t supposed to rain. You see, when I got off the bus it had stopped raining and I forgot about the fact that it had been raining.
So knowing the super market isn’t far, I head in that direction. You can consider this either blatantly stupid, or taking the initiative. At the time I was counting on it coming under the category “taking the initiative.” I walk into the grocery store and, as it turns out, there is a lot more than just a grocery store! There’s an almost entire mall there. Note: For those of you who were disappointed in the Plaza de Fiesta, you need not be anymore. This is right there at the Plaza de Fiesta, and it seemed like a pretty big place.
Somewhere between the bus stop and this shopping center I forgot what had really sent me on this journey and was hoping that I would be able to find a hair salon. Well, a big place like this didn’t disappoint and I was able to get some Redkin leave in conditioner specifically for curly hair. For those of you that that means nothing to, that basically just means I’m going to be a lot happier with the condition of my hair while I’m here and just generally happier as a byproduct of said conditioner.
And being down to my last 50 pesos in my wallet after buying the conditioner, I figure I should probably visit and ATM while I’m out. Well, when I had seen the hair salon I had cut through this really long line. As it turns out, that was the line for the ATM. So I kind of ended up walking around this circle three times. Once to leave, Once to find a bank, Once to leave out a different door next to the hair salon than the one I came in through, and then Finally left the area to go out the same door I entered through since that is probably a better idea due to my lack of sense of direction.
I walked across the parking lot (at this point in time it was raining pretty decently, but I didn’t mind too much because I had my conditioner and it was the kind of rain I like). Overall it actually seemed like a pretty good day for rain, not it the depressing way that I would usually tend to say that, but more in the sort of refreshing-renewal type of way that is exceptionally rare.
So I’m standing at a new bus stop which I’m really hoping is going to allow me to get on the bus. Then I’m thinking about those 50 pesos and when my next opportunity to go to a bank is going to be. And I turn around and there’s actually a bank about 50 feet away. So I go in there, withdraw some cash, woo-hoo.
Then I wait. And wait some more. And look at my watch it’s only been 3 minutes. Wait some more. About 10-15 minutes passes and finally the bus I need arrives. No problemo. Get on the bus; get off at the right stop. Check that out it all went pretty well. It’s a little drizzle-y but for whatever reason I just don’t mind today.
Come to the casa, nobody is really around. Drop my stuff off, check my e-mail real fast. Then I decide, you know, I’m going to be slightly more social. So I grab a book I’m reading and go sit in the tv room. Well it sounds like in the mean time, my host mom has come back and there’s some really good smelling stuff coming from the kitchen.
I go in, and she and Sol (the woman who helps around the house) are inside preparing for lunch. I get to help out, I do the salad. This is actually the first time I’ve probably ever made a salad that doesn’t involve opening a plastic bag of romaine lettuce and emptying a packet of Caesar dressing. But I think I did okay. Cut up some lettuce, pealed a cucumber and some carrots. Made it look pretty.
Then my host mom and I went and ran some errands. It basically just involved going to the dry cleaners and going to someone’s house who apparently repairs blenders and irons (though the iron was not unrepairable because it burnt itself out or something like that). And then we picked up my host-little sister Maria Regina from school.
We had lunch which was really good. Some tomato soup (I know check that out. You never thought you’d see those two sentences juxtaposed, did ya?). And some chicken in tortillas with black beans and my salad. With Jamaica to drink which is like a juice made from Hibiscus flower petals I believe.
After lunch I ended up getting pretty tired so I laid down at about 4 o’clock…and woke up at 6. And that’s about the extent of today. It’s actually made for a rather long post though so I hope you all enjoyed it. Overall I’d say it was a pretty good day though it started out pretty rough.
This evening I showed Maria Regina the pictures from New Years and then the pictures I have of my family. So that was cool. This internet’s been cutting out a lot this evening, but that’s okay.
Cheers! <3 Kate