Can I Steal You For A Minute?

Well hey there,

Lately we`ve been hanging around the school and meeting some new people who attend it. The school that I am at is the TTT...and it`s a division of two programs for tourism in the afternoons, and modern languages in the mornings. The language group is learning English, which is convenient for us. Most of them are really, really great people.

Last Friday I got sick. I had a couple drinks at the Mayan Pub the night before...not a lot even, but because of the heat and the foreign diet my body couldn´t handle it properly. I hurled many times the next morning and had to step out of class because of it like 4 times. It was really awkward to re-enter a classroom after you´ve just hurled. Anyways, I slept it off all afternoon, ate some chewy granola bars...and just let my body relax. I was much, much better by the evening but despite my better judgement, we went salsa dancing. The most bouncy and motion-full dancing that I think there is. But it was a success - I retained my health. I haven´t had that much fun at a bar in a long time. I was sweating like someone had poured buckets of water all over me. I obviously didn´t drink that night, as my stomach was still a bit queezy. But it was a great night out.

The next morning I was perfectly fine. Not sick anymore, despite the kindness in everyone asking me how I was feeling. This day, Saturday, was our day off of school. We went to the beach and played in the beautiful water and the waves for hours. For lunch we went to some place on the beach, but it was a great view right into the Gulf of Mexico. I don´t usually look at the name of the restaurants we go to...but rather I look if its clean. All have been so far. For dinner we went out again (its our only option) and I got a great burger. So good. It was almost all white people in there though. Coincidentally, this day was Cinco de Mayo. Not so big in the main cities as it is in the smaller ones, but still a lot of fun. It´s the day of the worker (ie. labour day) They shut down most of the roads and set up tables, chairs, stages, and there were performers everywhere. One block had three almost side by side. It was a good night.

Then there was Sunday. Every Sunday in Merida there is something called the Domingo Street Fair (domingo is sunday in spanish). Vendours were set up all over the central plazas selling various artwork, clothing, jewelry and food. I didn´t get anything, because I want to wait till the end of our trip so I don´t have to carry it all around. In the afternoon we went to Uxmal (pronounced like ooshmal). This site was much, much smaller than Chichen Itza but it was 10x better because there were no merchants around trying to sell me anything while I was trying to enjoy the site. Our tour guide was okay...but he kept going on tangents about things that I didn´t feel was relevant to the tour....but anyways. We got to climb the Great Pyramid. It was quite steep...and a bit scary. At the top of the pyramid (and actually all over the site) there was a monument of Chaac. Chaac is the Mayan Rain God. Everything that the Mayans did, which is represented in the architecture, has to do with Chaac and his glorification. It was kind of humbling to see this dedication to their religion.

After exploring the site we went to a nearby hotel for a swim and dinner buffet, while we waited till the evening light show. I definitely had my hopes up for it, but a lot of us were disappointed. Basically all that happened was a series of lights shining on the ruins while telling a story of a princess, chaac, and water. I missed most of it because I do not fluently speak the language. Even still, Mary made a point today about it expressing her discontent, and I would have to agree with it. She said that it was such a lost opportunity in that the light show didn´t reflect the Maya. The language wasn´t in Mayan, and it offered no relationship between the Mayan people and the astronomological beliefs - which is core. The lost opportunity here is that instead of setting up a show explaining this relationship as well as constellations and deities, they gave such a technology based approach, which has nothing to do with the Maya. The Maya didn´t have cameras, coloured lighbulbs, or speakers. They had the Earth, Water, and Sky. That´s what we should have been appreciating last night. Not a commercialized, falsified tourism-based experience.

Anyways, today was just another day in class. Things are going well for me. More updates later. Post a comment!