El grupo de Hoy en tu Comunidad.

Most of the students are in medical-related fields (nursing, nutrition, dentistry, medicine), but others who come study education, economics, anthropology, law, chemistry, social work, etc. Though I don’t quite fit into any of those categories (the mathematics students don’t come…), it’s not too hard to find something to help with. I have helped the education majors keep the kids occupied while their parents receive medical check-ups and the nutrition majors measuring heights and weights.

Midiendo y pesando.

Unlike the United States, students in Mexico can start studying medicine right after they finish with the prepa (high school). Because of that, a lot of the students helping with the medical check-ups are 17 or 18 years old! It doesn’t take nearly as long to become a doctor or dentist in Mexico, because you can start your professional practice right after you graduate from the University. Though it’s definitely a more efficient system, it’s a little strange to see 17 year olds walking around with their stethoscopes.

Mis amigos de nutrición.

There are several things that I really enjoy about the program. For one, It is a great way to meet and make friends with more students at the UADY, instead of only getting to know the students at the facultad de antropología. I’ve gotten to know a group of the nutrition majors pretty well, and it’s really fun to help out and hang out with them. Also, after a full day of non-stop conversation, I feel like my Spanish improves significantly and I always end up learning some new Yucatecan expressions and slang.

It is also really interesting to see what life is like in the pueblos of Yucatán. While Mérida is a city full of economic diversity, there are a lot of malls, clubs, restaurants, Walmarts, and other elements that make me feel like I’m back in the United States. Life in the pueblos is very different, and I appreciate a window into what life is like for a lot of Mexicans who don’t live in the large cities.

Algunas mujeres esperando en el programa.

I also really enjoyed getting to work with the kids the past two weeks. We helped them color, taught them some songs (which of course I didn’t know, haha), and taught them about recycling by making baskets out of recycled newspaper.

Listos para jugar papa caliente, jaja.

Although I really enjoy the program, and think that it’s really cool how it’s completely volunteer-based and fully supported by the University, I think it’s unfortunate that there’s little sense of permanence or long-term commitment in the help that’s provided. A six hour visit once a year can only scratch the surface of some of the problems that exist in these pueblos. At the same time, though it might not be perfect, I see Hoy en tu Comunidad as a great opportunity for me further enrich and widen my understanding of Mexican culture and society, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being involved!

Con algunos amigos de HETC.

Thanks again for reading! The weeks here are really flying by and I feel like I’ll be home before I know it!

The other day I was walking to the bus stop, and I just stepped back and realized how important it is to really soak everything in and savor every moment. After living in Mérida for six weeks, it’s easy to walk around and take my surroundings for granted. I’m used to the way things look and I’ve seen these same buildings a hundred times. Unfortunately, that makes for a grave error, because if I really look with fresh eyes, there is always something new to see.

Anyways, here are some pictures. The comments will be brief, as it is late, and I am Skyping with my brother.

Mi casa.

Above is a picture of my house. It’s pretty typical for the houses in my neighborhood: flat-roofed, made of concrete, and quite square. It’s a nice place to live.

Los arcos.

Easily the most interesting structure close to my house. I don’t know the history behind these arches, but there are pretty cool! This is where I catch the bus.

Una esquina cerca de la casa.

A pretty typically view in my neighborhood. Mérida is divided into what is colonias and fraccionamientos, basically just neighborhoods with different names. There are over one hundred colonias in Mérida. I live in Fraccionamiento Los Pinos. There are no pine trees… hmm. Below is the park in my fraccionamiento.

El parque de los Pinos.

Anyways, there is a brief look into my neighborhood! It’s definitely a far-cry from a Minnesota suburb, but as I said above, I’ve come to appreciate the many sights it has to offer.

All of these things will have to wait, however, because today I plan to write about my trip to Chichen Itza a week ago before I forget about it. Funny how the past always gets further away, huh? Speaking of the slippery nature of time, today marks more or less the one third point of my semester. While the days have definitely flown by, August also feels like a long time ago.

Con el gran castillo de Chichén Itzá.

Last Tuesday (the 22nd of September) I went to Chichén Itzá with some Mexican students from la facultad and some others from my program. Some of my new friends at the facultad are actually studying archaeology and have even helped with some excavation at Chichén. It was really cool to have them be our guides! We intentionally went on Tuesday for the equinox, because on that specific date, the shadows on one of the staircases of the pyramid (pictured above) form the outline of a snake! Unfortunately… it was cloudy, and our efforts were thwarted. In any case, it was a great opportunity to see the archaeological site and get to know some students from the facultad.

Amigos en el cenote de Chichén Itzá.

To be honest, Chichén was one of the less impressive ruin sites I have visited, although it is without question the most famous on the peninsula. It is filled to the brim with vendors and tourists and feels very commercialized. The site was recently voted one of the 7 new wonders of the world, which I think has unfortunately caused it to lose some of its original charm. There are more restrictions about where you can go and tons of people selling T-shirts and trinkets. At the same time, some of the structures are very impressive and it was definitely worth the trip!

Con Ezer y Ray en el mercado.

My friends pictured above are both really nice guys. Ezer is one of the Mexican students that I have gotten to know the best. He actually lives in a pueblo about 40 minutes outside of the centro of Mérida. In all, his daily commute by bus to the facultad is about 80 minutes one way. So next time you think you have a bad commute, remember it could probably be worse! He’s invited me to come spend the weekend with him and his family in his pueblo, which I hope to do sometime soon.

All in all, I am still enjoying myself immensely. Hopefully I will be disciplined and update again within the next couple days! Thanks for reading!

First some general information about the University. The school’s name is la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, though everyone refers to it as the UADY (pronounced waddy). This translates to the Autonomous University of Yucatan, but in essence it is the Yucatan state’s public university. Mexican public universities carry higher prestige than the private ones and admittance is more selective.

The UADY is divided into what are called facultades (Faculties or Departments). I take courses at the Facultad de Antropología Social, which contains licensure in Latin American Literature, History, Anthropology, etc. The facultades are spread all throughout Mérida, though there seems to be an effort underway to consolidate some of them into the same location. My facultad is actually located outside of the city, basically in the jungle.

La parada de autobús.

Above is a picture of the bus stop at the facultad. The morning fog adds a certain mystique, but makes for a humid day! On a side note the temperature has been getting more bearable. I think it is a combination of both me adjusting and the temperature lowering. Though the high today, although it was one of the cooler days we’ve had, still reached 96 degrees.

La entrada de la facultad.

Here is a picture of the entrance to la facultad. I believe the building is about three years old, and it’s pretty nice. I think there are about five to six hundred students who attend this particular facultad. I’m not completely sure how many students there in the UADY as a whole.

I am taking four classes in la facultad as well as a Spanish class offered through my study-abroad program. So far I have enjoyed my classes thoroughly, and my professors seem interesting, witty, and nice. My four classes at la facultad are:

Literatura Latinoamericana del Siglo XX - this 20th century Latin American literature class is probably my favorite, though it will probably be the hardest as well. The professor has a lot of great insight into the works that we have read so far. We will each be assigned a novel to read, on which we must present and write an essay. Combined those two projects constitute 80% of the grade!

Literatura Fantástica – this class deals with the genre of fantastical literature, which basically includes any work that contains elements that break the reality constructed by the author. So far we’ve only been reading theory and commentary about the genre, but I think the class should be fun.

Antropología Latinoamericana – I have never taken an Anthropology course before, so I think this course will be interesting. Our class discussions about what constitutes Latin America and what the science of anthropology means in Mexico have been pretty insightful.

Historia de las Relaciones entre Estados Unidos y México – Most all of the study-abroad program students are taking this class, along with ten to twelve history students at the facultad. The US students are required to read and present on Mexico’s history, and the Mexican students on the history of the USA. I already did my presentation for the class, and it was a little intimidating to present in Spanish in front of my Spanish-speaking classmates! Everything went well though, and it’s nice to have one presentation under my belt.

There are loads of other little idiosynchrosies about school here I could write about, but this post is quickly lengthening as I type, so I’ll leave them for another time. I’ll end by saying that I’ve been making some nice friends at la facultad, which has been a lot of fun! I really enjoy going to school to chat and hang out. In particular, the students in my literature classes are really nice; it seems like a cool group. Thanks for reading! I’ll try to update again in a couple days.

Over the weekend we visited various archaeological sites and cenotes on the Eastern part of the Yucatán peninsula. The word Inframundo refers to the Mayan concept of the underworld. They regarded cenotes, which are underwater caverns that eventually open to the sky, as the entrance to the underworld. The Mayan architecture is infused with ideas of the Inframundo, and often times their sacred pyramids were built to share a certain symmetry with a cenote.

We visited at least five different archaeological sites, so I’ll spare you a tiresome, detailed report of everything we saw. Instead, I’ll share some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

En la lancha explorando la laguna.

We took a boat trip through a lagoon near the ocean in which the ancient Mayans had constructed channels and pathways to ease their own aquatic transportation. It was really cool to float through these channels. The vegetation on the sides hung down into the water, and I couldn’t really distinguish between the roots and the branches. Unfortunately, after swimming in this lagoon I developed a rather immobilizing fever, which made for a restless night. I felt better the next day, but could have used some extra energy for the rest of the trip!

El cenote de Edén.

The above picture was taken at what was aptly named the cenote Eden. It really was one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Unfortunately, due to my aforementioned sickness, I didn’t feel like swimming, but I had time to take a lot of cool pictures! This is, in my understanding, an example of a mature cenote, one which has opened up fully to the air. We visited another cenote which was completely underground. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera! The cenote Eden, pictured above and below, was actually featured on the nature documentary series Planet Earth!

Yo cerca del cenote (pero difícil divisar...)

There was a nice cove at one end of the cenote. It was fun to go and sit and watch the lizards scampering around!

Al lado del cenote.

Well, so far in writing about my trip to see ruins and cenotes, I have failed to actually show any of the ruins! Perhaps that’s because I am so easily enamored by a beautiful body of water. In any case, we did see some very cool ruins. I think my favorite site was Tulum, a port city constructed right on the Caribbean sea.

El puerto de Tulum.

The Mayans chose a beautiful spot to build this city. There are palaces and other domestic buildings scattered throughout the grounds, as well as the building pictured above, which was likely used as a sort of lighthouse or landmark for travelers at sea.

Another interesting ruin site we went to was Ek Balam. The city of Ek Balam was only excavated about 20 years ago, and there are still buildings left to be excavated (at present they look like a hilly forest!). Evidently due to the way the ruins were buried, some of the sculptures were fantastically preserved, to the degree in which they don’t even seem real.

Algunas estatuas en Ek Balam.

There is such a stark contrast between these statues and the other archaeological ruins we saw that it’s hard to believe they’re even authentic! However, our guide, an archaeology professor who visited the site during its excavation, assured us that they are legitimate. It’s really fascinating to see something from 1000 years ago so well preserved, and it really helps to bring the ruins to life.

All in all, I enjoyed the trip to the “Inframundo” quite a bit. Were it not for my getting sick, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it even more! At the same time, I’m excited to be able to get into a daily rhythm in Mérida. Next time I will write about my classes and more of the day-to-day aspects of life!

I only have one class on Friday, History of Mexican-U.S. Relations, which goes from 9 to 12. Mérida is conveniently located near the ocean (a quick 25 peso bus ride away), so some of my friends in the program and I spent the afternoon at the beach.

La playa en Progreso.

And to think, I had been 45 minutes away from the ocean and hadn’t yet made the effort to go! It was a lot of fun to swim, eat, read, and relax. This particular beach is located in Progreso, which is a town near Mérida. We ate a restaurant called Eladios, where I ate ceviche. Essentially it’s a shrimp, onion, tomato salad, seasoned with lime.

Con mi ceviche en Eladios.

For those of you familiar with my culinary preferences, you might be impressed that I would eat something with so much tomato in it! I’ve been making an effort to learn to like tomatoes, and I’d say it’s been paying off. I’ve found I’m able to enjoy a lot of foods here that I wouldn’t have bothered to try two or three years ago. We stuck around in Progreso to watch the sunset. I love being able to watch the sun sink into the ocean, something you definitely can’t experience in Minnesota!

La puesta del sol.

Yesterday (Saturday) was relatively relaxed, but today was quite the opposite. For our second program excursion, we went to Uxmal, an ancient Mayan city about an hour from Mérida. I think it is really interesting to study the way that the people indigenous to the American continent lived prior to European conquest and colonization, especially when you can see these structures first hand. It almost seems to me like a timeless history, separate from the historical time-line of the Western world.

El templo de Uxmal.

Above is a picture of the main religious temple in the city of Uxmal. A common characteristic of Mayan architecture is the portrayal of a monster whose mouth is an aperture of some kind. In the temple above, you can make out the eyes, nose, and mouth of the monster at the top of the temple’s stairs. It isn’t difficult to imagine that a priest emerging from the monster’s mouth to address the masses below would have quite effectively reinforced the authoritative role that religion played in the lives of the Maya.

Un cuadro público de Uxmal.

We were able to explore quite freely around the grounds of the city. It was very cool to see the different stone sculptures embedded in the buildings. I only wish we could see exactly how things looked 1000 years ago when the city was alive and thriving. I think if I were an archealogist, I would never feel fully satisfied with my work, because there is just so much that you could never really know about life in the past. In any case, it seems like a fascinating field.

Una vista de la ciudad.

There was, fortunately, another tall structure that we were able to climb. The view from the top was spectacular. All in all, I greatly enjoyed our trip today!

I started the day by riding the bus down to the centro with several of my other program friends and one of the host moms. Let me say first of all, that riding the bus here is no small feat. I think, however,  that I have gotten the hang of it. Unlike in the states, a bus doesn’t automatically stop at a designated bus stop; it has to be flagged down. Nor must you actually be at a bus stop to flag down a bus, you can do it pretty much anywhere. Additionally, there are countless buses circulating the city, and you have to know which one you  need. It’s a little tricky.

La plaza principal en el centro de Mérida.

I have greatly enjoyed my trips to el centro. There are numerous plazas that are really quite beautiful, though they boast sizeable populations of pigeons. Oddly enough, the Spanish word they use here for pigeons is paloma, which at the same time means dove. It’s funny to me that you can’t differentiate linguistically between two birds with such different connotations.

Anyways, the whole reason we went to el centro was to meet up with the rest of the group and go to Los Dos cooking school, where we were taught about Mayan cuisine by an American chef. Perhaps a little unexpected, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. Anyways, he talked about the history of food on the peninsula, and then we walked to the downtown market. It felt as if we were walking through a beehive because it was so crowded and busy, but it was a cool experience!

We then returned to the school and helped prepare what would be our lunch. It was pretty fun, and the meal was delicious. One thing I have heard over and over since being here is that Yucatán is not México. Essentially there is a significant attitude of cultural independence on the peninsula, largely due to the geographic isolation that was experienced for years and years. Because of this the cuisine is not what you might typically think of as Mexican cuisine, though it still has a lot of similar elements in my mind.

Con mi tamal.

Our stomachs filled and ready for some rest, we all went back to our respective casas, but not until we had devised a plan for the evening. A group of ten of us from the program decided to go to the fútbol match! Mérida has a professional fútbol team, Los Venados de Mérida, and they play in the second highest league in Mexico. Apparently they were one win away from moving up to the premier league last season, but didn’t quite make it. Prior to entering, I was interviewed by TV Azteca and we are going to be on the news (for you Chihuahua friends, that makes twice on Spanish TV, haha!). Basically they just wanted some footage of the only gringos at the game saying ¡A ganar Los Venados! Fun nevertheless.

This was my first ever professional soccer game, and let me just say that I was impressed. I have never seen such spectator enthusiasm. There were three sections of a couple hundred people each shouldering drums and cymbals who never once stopped jumping and chanting until the game ended. This was an especially impressive feat given what happened during the middle of the game…

El comienzo del partido. Nota los globos en el aire.

After about twenty minutes of play, the ominous clouds which had been slowly creeping over the stadium let loose and dumped buckets and buckets of water upon us and the field. Fortunately I had the foresight (or perhaps wussiness as others might call it), to take cover under the stadium as soon as the rain started. A pretty wild storm ensued and the game was suspended for an hour. The drumming fans, however, never missed a beat. Talk about perseverance. We waited it out the storm, and play eventually resumed.

Quitando el agua de la cancha.

As you can see, the field was a mess. The ball would stop in the middle of puddles, and it seemed to make play quite difficult, particularly for Los Venados. In the end the home team lost, but we still had a fun time!

Mirando el partido.

Tomorrow I start school, which I am sure will be a very different kind of adventure. Adios!

On Monday we started orientation. Orientation consists of long discourses concerning academics, health, safety, etc. Most are far from thrilling, though we did have a lecture today on Mayan archeology which was really interesting. We also started our Spanish classes this week, which are program classes, rather than courses offered at the university. These classes have been fun so far, and I think I will learn a lot.

On Tuesday night I took the bus to el centro (a feat in and of itself given the bus system) with some of the other students in my program. We ate at a restaurant boasting traditional Yucatecan fare, and I ordered sopa de lima. I must say the soup was quite delicious. I would describe it as chicken noodle soup, minus the noodles, plus tortilla chips, and plus pieces of lime. In general, I have enjoyed all of the food that I have eaten. Yucatecan food spicy on its own; instead the chile is added on top. Right now, my host parents say that the salsa I am eating is level one (out of three). Perhaps next week I shall move up to level two…

Anyways, I am enjoying myself a lot here, and there are really a lot of cool aspects of the city and culture to explore and appreciate. Hopefully I will post again with some pictures in a day or two to give some more visual context! Adios!

Un baile tradicional de Yucatán

There were a lot of people out in the streets and there was a nice, friendly atmosphere. All sorts of food vendors set up on the streets. One girl’s host mom bought a little snack for some of us students to share. It was more or less spicy, lime-flavored corn soup. None of us loved it, but we finished it off eventually. I enjoyed going to the centro, and look forward to going back again. It is about a 20 minute bus ride from where I live.

We also stopped at the university headquarters, which is located in el centro. There are no classes taught at the headquarters building, it just holds the administration offices. The university is actually spread all throughout town in different facultades or departments. Students in a given facultad don’t take classes outside of their own facultad. In any case, I have seen the headquarters of la UADY (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán). Evidently, they hold concerts in the headquarter’s plaza on Friday’s.

Yo en el edificio central de la UADY

So far things have been pretty quiet. I have my own room and my host family has wireless internet, which will be nice. I already skyped with my family back home, though it definitely made me miss them! I’m sure the months will fly by though!

Finally, Mérida is HOT. I have a ceiling fan (which is quite powerful, though a little noisy), but it is hot and sticky nevertheless. You get sweaty from just sitting! In any case, I am just starting to get used to my new tropical home. Not a lot has happened yet, so I don’t have a ton to write, but I wanted to update this on my arrival.