January 9, 2009

About this picture I would simply like to say one thing: you can send me one of these to the address at the library. I’m sure there will be no trouble getting it through customs, and then I can just ride it back into the States; no one has to pay for airfare. That being said, we’ll continue with the actual part of the day.

Well, today is going to be much less a “this is what I did today and this is the order in which they transpired.” I’m going to start by pointing out something that makes me quite sad. The water here in the shower is much harder than the water in the States. It has a lot of minerals, that kind of thing (that’s why you can’t drink it). Unfortunately, that also means that my hair is in terrible condition after less than a week of being here. >.<>

There was an up side to today though. Remember that diet coke I had in the airport? Well, that is far from the best coke I have ever had. Today I had a miracle Coke Light (sorry Papo, this is more like Coke Zero which I still think is better than diet coke as a general rule) but after a week of no soda, that was absolutely amazing. Actually it kind of took me from tired and generally ready to go home-home, to relatively content and optimistic. I highly recommend pepsi products (haha you thought I’d say coke, didn’t you?) to any one in need of therapy. This may also become a Friday affair. Fridays should be celebrated with soda. I can deal with 8 pesos worth of coke each week. Actually maybe I can have pepsi or something if I go out in the evenings who knows. We learned that there are open-bar type places here. You pay something like a cover charge but then you can have as much inside as you want. At least that’s what it sounded like. So maybe that means “free” pepsi. Maybe.

Today, while we were dragging ourselves through our final day of orientation, someone came in only briefly (he’s an academic tutor) who vaguely reminded me of the guy who stared in Red Eye (I know, I know, I should probably have though “hey, that looks like the guy who plays the Scarecrow in Batman,” but alas, I saw Red Eye first). …That really doesn’t have very much to do with anything but that’s what I thought when I saw him.

We were given a tutorial of this volunteer program that we have to participate in at least one Saturday while we’re here. I think that there are a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things but I’m not entirely sure.

The US Consolate dropped by, too. I like him, if I had to have someone come visit me in jail I guess at least it’s someone who seems pretty nice and generally good spirited. I suppose good spirits might not be enough though if I’m in jail. So no offense to him but I hope I don’t have to run into him again; or at least I hope that I don’t ever need his services.

On the way home from orientation we dropped by the mall. It’s pretty big, and wouldn’t look out of place at all in the states. It’s much nicer than the Harford mall or the mall(s) in Frederick. It was two levels.

Uhm, what else? I don’t know, tomorrow the plan is to take a walking tour around Merida and then a bunch of us are going to the beach so that should be a lot of fun. =) This evening Chelsea and I were going to get together and watch a movie but her host mom wasn’t home, so we’ll wait for a little while and then do it another night, maybe once we get back from the beach or something like that. And that’s okay with me because I don’t mind having a free evening at all.

I do have my cell phone here up and working (not that that effects any of you all but it’s good for here in Mexico so I can call around if I need to).

At the same time, I’m not the only one struggling with our Spanish class. It sounds like basically all of us are a little lost except for the two people who are basically fluent and they can opt out of the class. Maybe it’ll get a little better as we go along and he sees where our level is. =)

Pues, I think that’s about it. I really appreciate all the e-mails and comments. I know the plaza de fiesta seems to have been a point of disappointment for many, but it’s nice to hear from everyone! I had a rather rough morning--I stumbled across new years pictures in my backpack which were nice to look at but made me a little more homesick, and then I was so tired that thinking about home was all I could do to keep myself awake during the lecture this morning in orientation. It's been nice talking with my parents each night though. I love you all, <3