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

January 12, 2009

In the mean time...
Well, today’s a little different because it’s the first day we begin classes…or that’s at least how it’s supposed to work. Right now it’s 10:22 and I’m waiting on a phone call so I can go to the anthropology school and meet up with Diana so we can go to the Education campus so I can see if I can take classes there (phew, that somehow seems like a mouthful).

This morning was nice though, I woke up before my alarm (this is kind of becoming a habit that I’m not entirely sure how I feel about) and got a shower and the like, got dressed, and then…well… had some free time. I didn’t connect the internet, but whoever around here who keeps their internet on all the time did send a little signal my way so I was able to check my e-mail. I had an ever-so-pleasant gaming club e-mail explaining that I was absent due to a series or run ins with the police and I believe a crystal meth addiction was involved somewhere in that tale (note: anyone who somehow doesn’t know me well enough to realize that Lee has a flair for making ridiculous e-mails should note that I am in fact studying abroad, have not been involved with the police, nor have I ever tried crystal meth). So that made me laugh.

I got some breakfast, some nutella on toast…I’m not sure if that’s actually a good breakfast or not but hey, it’s all good, right? And then since I had some time I played a little on the Allied campaign in RA3. This one wasn’t particularly difficult, in the beginning you have to get the spies into the four different buildings and then take out the rest of some stuff. Maybe I should up the difficulty a little that way I can skirmish a little better.

And basically that brings us to the here and now: 10:27, no phone call. Hopefully Diana will call sooner rather than later.

*****I think I've made it so that anyone can post comments now, just in case anyone is still having trouble with that and does want to post a comment which i *love* getting (hint hint) *****

12:30~
The lack of organization with all of this is basically ridiculous. Just to let you know. I mean, I was told that the education school was running on the same schedule as the anthropology school, and now I find out that, surprise, it’s actually not starting until the 23rd of January. And, obviously, I don’t really want to stay here that much longer after the end date, but Diana says that there are 45 hour classes that don’t go for the entire time so I could possibly take one/some of them. We’ll see. Currently I have compiled a schedule of a couple of classes that seem *meh* okay. Oh to be at SU when I would have already picked everything out…and they’re even offering two good Spanish classes this semester that I wanted to take *jealous* grr. Oh well.

9:00~
Well, I’m feeling a little bit better about things over all now. I went to the program course that’s being offered this semester which is on the archeology and culture of the Maya. It seems like it will be pretty interesting so I’m going to keep that one. That’s 2 classes down (the other being the Spanish class) 3 more to pick out. Tomorrow morning bright and early at 8 am I have the Anthropology of Education class which I have no idea what that means and then right after it at 10 I have Theories of Social Systems so hopefully both of those will be good, too =)
That’s pretty much all I have for today. Its weird not having to type up a lot of things at the end of the night, but at the same time it’s a good thing.

January 11, 2009

Well, today is one week of being here (woo-hoo). Chelsea has informed me that that means we have 19 weeks left. Looking at it that way makes it seem a little shorter, but this week was sooooo long. That’s okay, I imagine by the time we’re down to 2 weeks I’ll be wishing it were longer. …no probably not. Realistically I’ll probably be a little sad to leave people I’ve met here but eager to go home and see people. =) At least my family gets to come visit me in April =) =)
Today was kind of odd, I woke up a lot before it was actually time to get up, but just kept going back to sleep for something along the lines of 20 minute intervals. Oh well. I was actually rather sore when I got up, but my host-family and I were planning on going to the beach. About an hour after being there, though, I started to feel rather sick. I did get to start that book though (or, well, I got to read more of it, I had started a little bit of it earlier. It’s interesting, I feel like there are some points that I’m hoping they explain as it continues, because right now I feel like things are a little, not exactly contradictory, but generally unclear).

So I laid down and slept for most of our time at the beach, which was kind of disappointing. I feel bad because they basically went to the beach for me, actually brought chicken special for me because I don’t eat seafood, and then I just didn’t feel well enough to do much of anything. My host-mom gave me something that was kind of like Alka-Seltzer (how appropriate that I would have that on Will’s birthday), and I was off to sleep.

After I woke up I felt a little bit better. I was told I would be better off not eating the chicken, but that apparently chocolate cake was okay so I had a slice of that with some Coca Cola Light. When we got back, things started looking up really quickly.

I took a shower and then called Will, Kryssy, and Andy who were celebrating his birthday. We only got to talk for a little while but it was still really good to hear from them and to hear that Will enjoyed his birthday. They apparently had funfetti cake with dark icing, red sprinkles, and blue writing frosting: their mouths were black after that.

Fairly soon after I finished talking to them I gave Lee a call; apparently I inadvertently banished him outside to the freezing while we talked (sorry about that) though I didn’t really realize it at the time. It’s really odd to think that it’s snowing and that sort of thing out there when it’s so balmy here. But that was really, really good to talk to him, too. =)

Tonight I went over to Chelsea’s casa and we watched Hitch which was really good, quite funny. I don’t think I’ve seen all of it before, I’d only seen parts but that was definitely good. Will Smith is the man. Speaking of which I never did get around to seeing 7 pounds, though I saw that it was playing in a local movie theater. I think I’d probably rather see it in English though, so I’ll wait on that.

That pretty much brings me up til now. I got to talk a little with Kryssy and J. Apparently my bed is going to remain…well…my bed. …Sorta. Basically just that my bed back in our (her) dorm room isn’t going to become Kryssy’s bed. She also doesn’t have a roommate this semester so that’ll be pretty good for her.

Well, I’m getting pretty tired, and tomorrow is going to be as confusing as all get out. Hopefully I’ll figure out something of what I’m doing. I’m waiting on a phone call about when to leave so I can go to the Education school.

So good night to everyone, an pleasant dreams (hopefully now that I’ve touched base with a lot of people mine will be too, as dreaming here has been rather harsh…)
Cheers, Kate <3

January 10, 2009

Well, it is a pleasure to report that today went pretty well. I got to sleep in a little and then we walked around Merida (which was rather boring). I say it was boring because it was relatively impossible to hear what was being said and I was turned around so it wasn’t really helping me get to know where things were or anything. After that though, we went to Progresso, the playa (beach).

For a round-trip ticket it was 24 pesos which is less than $2.40. The bus was really nice too, with the carpet seats and that sort of thing; like a coach bus. At the beach, Chelsea and I had Dominoes pepperoni pizza, Coca Cola Lights, and Cinnamon bread. To eat without having to think about it was amazing. And the pizza was pretty good, too. I think the Dominoes up at SU is still objectively better, but this was quite good pizza in out little out-of-the-States situation. This pizza and cinnamon bread did have a small draw back: first there was one bee, and then it was like a children’s book because it finally went away (much to my relief) but came back with a friend, then they went away and brought back two more friends until we had 8 bees flying around with a generally panic-y me. Chelsea saved the day though, she put the boxes under a towel until the bees went away and we were able to eat a slice at a time in relative peace.
The weather was pretty nice at the beach and the water was decently warm (kind of cool but definitely not cold). Because it was getting to be late afternoon though and it was somewhat cloudy it didn’t seem like it stayed warm here for too long. We ended up going back around 4 or so.

So we got on the bus with our tickets and got off a little later than was perhaps necessary, but this was only going to save us a little bit of walking so neither or us really minded. We get on the 52 Norte bus and made sure it passed by the round about near our houses and chill out for the ride. That’s where the confusion was. You see, Chelsea’s mom seemed to say that the bus would turn around and we could get off on the same side of the street as our houses. Well, after we had passed by the round about and such, the bus driver looks at us and says effectively “…weren’t you supposed to get off at that round about?” At which point I basically just shrug and say yeah but oh well.

Hahaha, so we road around on the bus for a while longer. Tonight my 5 peso bus ride went pretty far. If we do that every time, then we’ll get the most ride for our money. In reality this was our plan, not like we actually forgot to get off the bus or any nonsense like that.

After that I came back to the house, Chelsea and I decided not to go out again tonight. It was a pleasant day and getting smashed just wasn’t quite on the menu for today. That gave me a little time to make a phone call or two (one of which worked and the other one a certain someone needs to learn to pick of their phone because this is the 2nd/4th time this week I’ve attempted to call with no success…at least it sounded like the phone was on this time…?) Oh well, it’s all good. Mayhaps tomorrow.

I put pictures on facebook from the day (and a couple from earlier in the week). You can look at them here if you like; a lot of them are kind of boring—just buildings and the like, but if you want a glimpse of Merida that’s why they’re there. =)

Well, for the rest of the night I think I’m going to do some reading and that sort of thing. A nice close to a pretty good day.

Cheers! <3>

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

January 8, 2009

Triumph! Hot water this morning in the shower…well…warm water in any case which was quite sufficient. It would seem that I have finally managed to figure out the shower system which involves two knobs and a little bit of waiting time. In either case, I have sacked the cold shower routine from my mornings here in Mexico.
Moving right along, Chelsea and I took the bus by ourselves this morning (we’re getting to be big girls now; we can go all by ourselves). The buses are rather funny things, while I’m talking about them. A lot of them have a little plate, or emblem of La Virgen, that sort of thing. I one of the ones this morning said something to the effect of “Only God is enough.” Now, the thing is, just the other day, I saw a ceramic picture-type thing of La Virgen hanging in between two playboy bunny stickers. Contemplate that view for just a moment. …Yeah I thought it was a little odd, too.
But we got off the bus, it dropped us off at the Plaza Fiesta, and we got on the next bus. For orientation this morning, things actually went by pretty quickly. We learned not to do anything stupid, and that “No” doesn’t actually mean no necessarily in Mexico. Here the dating game is he asks, she says no, he pursues, and finally she says “ok” and everything is perfect. The confidence is admirable, the instigation is fantastic, and however the whole “no” doesn’t mean no thing could get really old really fast.
We also got to see some pictures of Chiapas and el Inframundo (the two options we have for later this month for a 4 day excursion). Both of the trips seem to be really neat, and the professor who spoke about Inframundo seemed really nice, and was clear. I could possibly take a class with him this semester on Underwater Archaeology. We’ll see. I’m asking about classes in the Education Campus so hopefully I’ll find out about that tomorrow.
And this is when things went from moving around quite nicely to moving slower than molasses in the weather you guys are having up north. We got an entire overview of Mexican history. Now, I don’t really know what he talked about for two hours, I know it had to do with Mexican history, and I know Gustavo had the answers to most of the questions he asked. I looked at my schedule for classes which we have to take 5 of. I’m hoping that I will be able to take some classes at the education school because there aren’t very many that I particularly want to take at the Anthropology school.
Finally we got to eat lunch. After lunch though we went to Spanish class which I was kind of looking forward to but it wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped. It’s still going to be an extraordinarily helpful class, but it’s not going be easy like all my other Spanish classes have been. We read articles for class though, and mine was about flights to the Merida airport, which apparently they’re adding a couple of international flights in spite of La Crisis (bad economy) so that there’s not a decline in people doing airfare and airtravel. Seems like a bit of a risk to me, the possibility to waste more funds than you end up gaining but hopefully it works out for them.
We left the school just after 6 (class got out a little tardy) and Chelsea’s host mom picked us up. I have no crazy stories to share today about a lack of camion and waiting in the dark. …That’s probably a good thing though.

This is Chelsea =) ----->

And the first picture up at the top is La Plaza de Fiesta for your viewing pleasure :)

January 7, 2009

Phew, I’m starting this a little late this evening, but it seems like everything was pushed back an hour today. We were gifted an extra hour of sleep last night (we got to start at 9 which means getting up at 6:45), but somehow that hour seems to have evaporated a little. I didn’t end up falling asleep til 11 and I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm. People here in Merida are particularly fond of their car horns even though they don’t seem to be very tense drivers (I’m always surprised that I don’t hear the equivalent of “hey buddy, stay on your side” with the way people tend to drive around here).

In any case, we took the bus to school this morning, Chelsea, me, and my host mom. At the plaza de fiesta, which is where we catch the second bus, we waited over half an hour for the bus which finally came to take us the rest of the way to UADY anthropologia campus. UADY is referred to here so that it sounds like ‘wadi’ or “oo-ahd-ee.”

I believe this morning that we talked about academic classes. We did get a chance to tour the library and get log ons for the computers. It costs 50 centavos to print a regular page in black and white which is fairly inexpensive. SU spoiled me a little though with the free printing.

For lunch today I had three little burritos, a salad which was composed of lettuce and carrots, and some pineapple and papaya. The salad I actually ate a little with this guacamole. It wasn’t thick guacamole like guacamole seems to look at chipotle, it was a little more liquidy, but I was actually surprised to find I liked it. (Of course, we had waited an awful long time to eat so at that point I was pretty sure I wouldn’t’ve bothered to pick out tomatoes from too many things either had they been present).

After lunch we had the best part of orientation: Spanish Class. Now, at first I wasn’t particularly excited for this part as I’m not exactly exuberant to start with the whole “getting back to working” phase that school tends to involve for one reason or another. But this was actually really good. Our professor is easy on the eyes and seems to be really nice and fairly enthusiastic. He’s also willing to give corrections and that sort of thing so the class is actually going to be useful instead of worthless.

After class was over, it was 6 o’clock. Chelsea and I went to the bus stop right outside of the school to wait for the camion. It was actually getting dark by this time. But the two of us were fairly content to chat (in English). I feel like I should have a lot more to add to my Male Theory after that conversation, but I’m not sure how you put “how ‘bout you take the initiative’ and ‘how about you just tell me what on earth is going on’ out of the female perspective and into the male perspective. Maybe you can’t, and that’s why such rifts exist. In any case, I’ll try and work on that for you all.

Moving right along, we kept talking. And then we were wondering if the bus was ever going to get here, and wondering if maybe we should call someone, though it would have either cost my host family money (if my cell phone even worked which I wasn’t sure of) or cost Chelsea a ridiculous amount since her phone is her one from home. But we kept talking. And eventually my cell phone rang. The conversation went something like this:

“Hello?”

“Hello, Kate? This is Laticia.”

“Hey.”

“Where are you?”

“We’re waiting for the bus, but it hasn’t come yet.”

“Are the other students there?”

“No…it’s just us two girls…well, wait, there looks like there are two other people over there, but it’s kind of dark so I’m not sure if they’re students or not.”

“Okay, I don’t have the car, but I’m going to get it. You two stay right there. Do not move. I’m going to come get you.”

And she did a little while later, after say an hour or so of chilling at the bus stop. Maybe a little more or less, I’m not entirely sure. But we did go to wal*mart and got there around 8:20. Apparently, if you try to shop lift from wal*mart here and you get caught then you have to pay three times the amount of money the item is worth and wal*mart can still sue you. Now, before you start wondering “how do you know that?” I’m going to say this had absolutely nothing to do with me. There was a muchacha trying to take money out of the ATM when we finished surrounded by four or five police-women carrying guns. Security seems pretty beefed up around here like they all drink powerthirst or something who knows (insert witty powerthirst flavor here).

When we got home, I had chicken in a sort of cream sauce with noodles and after eating it for awhile, I realized what it tasted like: beef stroganoff. I don’t know how you get beef stroganoff out of chicken in cream sauce, but that’s exactly what it tasted like. And I got to round off the meal with a piece of twix that I bought at wal*mart.

Bueno, I think that’s about the entirety of my day. A side note from yesterday is that here they sell Tacos and Tortas in the same locations. If you’re like me, in Spanish class you were taught that tacos are tacos and tortas are cakes/pies. Well, in Mexico you’d be mistaken because here tacos are tacos and tortas are nothing like cakes, they’re made of tortilla and the same meat or something of that nature but they should definitely not be confused with pies or cakes. I think you would be sorely disappointed if this is what you wanted and you ended up with something akin to a taco. Which is why it does in fact make sense that they are sold together.

To those that sent e-mails or left comments, thank you :) I love getting them. Ah, I should also remember to mention that the magic jack is a pretty fantastic invention. Do call and leave a message because those are cool too as I get them in my e-mail! It's nice to hear a voice, too. =) <3 Kate