im stupid

so i realized i have no clue how this thing works but will continue to flounder through it. you would think that i would realize it by now but everything here is in spanish, and i suck at spanish, so doing things takes a long time, with lots of mistakes. whatev

subcomandante and poop

so i went to the downtown to hear this guy speak and i found out that he is sub-commander marcos, the leader of the zapatista movement in chiapas. never thought i would be spending a friday night listening to him speak ever. i took a little movie with my digital camera and it is pretty cool. he wore his ski mask during the entire speach. and right before, there was this weird ceremony where they lit things on fire and made bird noises. i got pooped on by a bird too, interesting day. went to the beach on saturday at progreso and that was fun. didnt get burnt which is good. i ate this fish that was cooked in a banana leaf. i didnt know that bananas had leaves but i guess they do. then i went to the movie theater and saw the movie that is with jim carey about dick and jane. the name of it is spanish is las locuras de dick y jane. it is funny the translation of english things here. another week of class starting but i cant complain because my week of class is just monday through thursday. i always get a 3 day weekend. thats about it for now, ok bye

interesting weekend

so i went to the downtown to hear this guy speak and i found out that he is sub-commander marcos, the leader of the zapatista movement in chiapas. never thought i would be spending a friday night listening to him speak ever. i took a little movie with my digital camera and it is pretty cool. he wore his ski mask during the entire speach. and right before, there was this weird ceremony where they lit things on fire and made bird noises. i got pooped on by a bird too, interesting day. went to the beach on saturday at progreso and that was fun. didnt get burnt which is good. i ate this fish that was cooked in a banana leaf. i didnt know that bananas had leaves but i guess they do. then i went to the movie theater and saw the movie that is with jim carey about dick and jane. the name of it is spanish is las locuras de dick y jane. it is funny the translation of english things here. another week of class starting but i cant complain because my week of class is just monday through thursday. i always get a 3 day weekend. thats about it for now, ok bye

oops

oops i put it in twice, im still trying to get used to this blog thing, and now that im in mexico, its all in spanish so whatev, ok bye

getting situated

okay, so i am starting my second week of class and school sucks. the way they do things here is classes are usually 2 times a week for 2 hours each time. that is a long time right, not really because the professor doesnt usually show up until a half hour already through the class. the only homework they really do here is lots of reading, maybe a few papers, and one or two speaches about the readings. and most people dont read anyways. you only need to really read what you are going to write or have a speach about. also, there are no books for classes. there is a book but only one copy. so each time you have a reading you have to all fight to copy the same book. it is frustrating but it gets done. we went on an excursion this past weekend to a bunch of ruins in southern yucatan. they were great but it took me forever to climb down the pyramids. they are really steep and i was scared out of my mind. i actually got a standing ovation from a bunch of random canadians after it took my forever to climb down a pyramid at Uxmal. it was embarrassing but also really funny. the weather is really nice right now, i dont know exactly what but it is probly in the 70s and everyone here thinks its freezing. everyone is wearing jackets. it is really funny but i am starting to think that it is a bit cold. my host parents told me that once mid march comes, it will get to well above 100 with the humidity. im not looking forward to that because i hate the humidity. something that they drink here that is really good is horchata. it is a drink made out of rice and they flavor it with almonds. it is really sweet and would be good with dessert. also, they put lime juice on all of their foods, im starting to do it too. everything tastes better with a little lime. Mexican word of the day is camion which is their way of saying bus. and the mayan word of the day is xix (pronounced sheesh) which means leftover kind of. an example is if there is just a little bit of juice left in a pitcher, that is the xix. kind of like the last little bit of something. they use quite a few mayan words. and what is even more awesome is that i am taking a mayan language class. i dont think it will transfer but whatev. ok i have to go prepare for a little speech so bye

getting situated

okay, so i am starting my second week of class and school sucks. the way they do things here is classes are usually 2 times a week for 2 hours each time. that is a long time right, not really because the professor doesnt usually show up until a half hour already through the class. the only homework they really do here is lots of reading, maybe a few papers, and one or two speaches about the readings. and most people dont read anyways. you only need to really read what you are going to write or have a speach about. also, there are no books for classes. there is a book but only one copy. so each time you have a reading you have to all fight to copy the same book. it is frustrating but it gets done. we went on an excursion this past weekend to a bunch of ruins in southern yucatan. they were great but it took me forever to climb down the pyramids. they are really steep and i was scared out of my mind. i actually got a standing ovation from a bunch of random canadians after it took my forever to climb down a pyramid at Uxmal. it was embarrassing but also really funny. the weather is really nice right now, i dont know exactly what but it is probly in the 70s and everyone here thinks its freezing. everyone is wearing jackets. it is really funny but i am starting to think that it is a bit cold. my host parents told me that once mid march comes, it will get to well above 100 with the humidity. im not looking forward to that because i hate the humidity. something that they drink here that is really good is horchata. it is a drink made out of rice and they flavor it with almonds. it is really sweet and would be good with dessert. also, they put lime juice on all of their foods, im starting to do it too. everything tastes better with a little lime. Mexican word of the day is camion which is their way of saying bus. and the mayan word of the day is xix (pronounced sheesh) which means leftover kind of. an example is if there is just a little bit of juice left in a pitcher, that is the xix. kind of like the last little bit of something. they use quite a few mayan words. and what is even more awesome is that i am taking a mayan language class. i dont think it will transfer but whatev. ok i have to go prepare for a little speech so bye

ok, im alive

well hello. this is my first post since i have arrived in mexico. everything is going well. the weather is very very hot but today is is great. my family is fun and they feed me well. i havent done anything amazingly fun or crazy yet because we are in the middle of our orientation. i go to be early because i just get worn out during the day. that will change as time goes on. the people on my program are fun and so it should be fun to hang out with them. i celebrated el dia de los reyes yesterday with my immediate and extended family and it was very fun. the spanish part is going well too. i seem to be getting into the swing of things as far as the language goes. they are very patient and nice. my mother doesnt speak any english so that is good because i have to talk to her in spanish all the time. i just came from lunch in el centro de la ciudad and i ate a food called Poc Chuc and it was really good. it is a local yucatecan dish that is made with pork. ok cool. more to come but it is kind of hard for me to come by a computer with internet so it might take a while. ok bye