don´t think i´ve died

For my faithful blog-checkers, I wanted to let you know that I will be out a touch for awhile. Tomorrow afternoon we´re leaving to spend the weekend in Cancun and then I´ll be traveling to Xochempich to spend a week there. It´s the little town that Ted and Nelson are from (I´ll be staying with their mom) and where I spent most of my time when I was in Mexico last year. I became good friends with some of the nurses who work at the clinic there so I´m looking forward to spending time with them and being at a clinic a lot. Xochempich is the complete opposite of Merida- nothing to do! But it´s nice, it´s peaceful, and there´s a cenote (swimming hole). So I´ll take lots of pictures and write down everything so I can share my adventures when I return! Have a good week everyone!

I don´t feel like elaborating right now but I figured it was time to jot some things down before I forget. This is what I´ve been up to. Fill in the rest with studying at the library, eating, sleeping 8 hours every night and usually taking a nap, watching tv, reading. I know, I´m lucky. I´m working on writing something more creative about what it´s like to be the only white person (almost!) in Merida. But this will have to do for now. Sorry it´s boring, I just don´t want to forget anything! A side note- if ever you go on a trip like this, you must write a blog. It makes me so happy to know that when I get home I´ll have an electronic scrapbook of my time here!

Monday night we went to go see Pirates3- I loved it! I´ve seen more movies here than I´ve seen in a long time! Probably because they´re $3. And we ate tacos at a rodeside stand. My friends said I´m officially a Mexican now!

Tuesday night we went to the women´s prayer meeting at the church- so hard to understand because when they pray one person is saying the main prayer but everyone else is praying too!

Today I registered to take the MCAT again in August...which makes me want to vomit.

Tonight we´re going to see a free show called "Passion Tango"! Super exciting. And I smell some really good food cooking right now!

This weekend we´re going to Cancun!

simplicity

I´m sitting here in the Science Library in Merida, up to my ears in square roots and exponents, and it reminds me too much of my American life. So I´m taking a break and taking advantage of the slow (but free) internet here. And I´m writing about my simpler, Mexican life.

Chicharrones

In my American house, we have flashlights. In my Mexican house, we don´t.

After enjoying a cool, trickling shower, I rested in my hammock to let my dripping hair dry to a slightly damp frizz which I could straighten. I pulled the flat-iron through my hair, steam rising to heat my face. Halfway done, I stepped back and tilted my head to the ceiling, letting each oscillation of the fan dry the beads of sweat on my face.

When the sky let loose with my first Mexican rain, I thought, so much for straight hair. I shut the window so the computer wouldn´t get wet and pointlessly began on the other half of my head. A few tugs of the flat iron. Dark. The rain had overpowered the electricity in Merida.

Left with nothing else to do, I went and sat on the living room couch with my Mexican mother, Rosi. We reveled in the of coolness of the rain, windows open, protected by the overhang of the patio. We sat in silence, and I was struck with a feeling of de ja vu. Five minutes passed. Summer Camp. This was like those afternoons at my childhood summer camp where, left with no other options, we lay on our beds and heard nothing but the rain in the trees.

After finished her shower by memory, Paulina joined us. We sat in the semi-darkness, discussing the differences between American and Yucatecan cuisine, the slowing rain providing our soundtrack.

You know, cottage cheese. It´s white, half liquid, half solid. It comes in a plastic container. Yeah, like little balls. Oh, you mean cottage cheese. Yeah, cottage cheese.

Pau wanted popcorn. I reminded her that the microwave would not be working. The rain had all but stopped but there was no sign of power returning and the sun had been driven from the sky. I could no longer make out the expressions on their faces. Rosi lit candles, and Pau had an idea.

Chicharrones. What? Come on, I´ll show you. Small pasta like O´s became crispy, greasy snacks after a few seconds in crackling hot oil. And like everything else, we topped them with hot sauce.

When Rosi and Jose Louis left for the Super, it was just us and the chicharrones. Teach me English, she said.

My name is Paulina. I am 24 years old. I have two sisters. I am a pre-school teacher. My friend Jenna lives at my house. She teaches my English. She teaches me English. I teach her Spanish. We are waiting for Ted and Nelson.

When the rain slowed, they were coming to pick us up. With a mischievous glint in my eye, I said, Pau, this is a secret conversation, just between you and me. And then we saw the headlights of their little, red, rusty car. All we could do was look at each other and laugh. It was the hardest we had laughed in the two weeks since I´d come. Still laughing when they came in the door, Nelson asked, what´s up?

Nada, we said. Nothing. Everything.


As you can probably tell, this would be me attempting to be more creative in my writing style. Please feel free to leave suggestions. Especially if there are parts that don´t make sense.

In my normal style: The Latin Jazz concert on Saturday night was great. None of them like to dance so that will have to wait. Sunday after church, we stopped at Ted and Nelson´s apartment where I later learned that we were picking up our lunch, a HUGE, gross looking fish. Back and Pau´s, Ted sliced it open, smothered it with butter and red sauce, and sliced tomatoes, onion, and green pepper over it. Then it was wrapped in banana leaves and aluminum foil and put on the grill for about a hour. It was delicious. And when I said huge, I meant huge. Four of us ate our fill and there were leftovers.

It looks gross but it´s just sauce!

Nelson, the grill master

Jenna, the eater!
Ted and Pau, singing in the dark

I guess I should get back to the square roots. Thanks for reading:)

PS: Something I appreciate about the United States:

If I were a Mexican sitting in the library at IU Med School ( or even at IWU for that matter), no one would know that I wasn´t a student there. But I definitely stick out here:) Most days, the only time I see a non-Mexican is when I look in the mirror!

Friday

I slept in a bit and met Ted at the hotel where he was working at a conference which focused mostly on AIDS and related diseases. The hotel is called Fiesta Americana and is VERY nice. It´s across the street from the Hyatt. So with Paulina´s hand-drawn map I was able to learn another bus route!

It was almost comical how similar this conference was to the ones I´ve been to in the states. At a very nice hotel. The set up. The Powerpoint. The people who get up and walk out. The water table in the back. For Dr Webb and my lab friends: just think Autumn Immuno Conference and you´re there! I listened to two, one hour talks and understood about %30! About the same as at a conference in Chicago! It was an interesting experience. Then I just sat in the lobby of the hotel with Ted and we talked for a couple of hours. It was so nice to speak English and to have a conversation where I was able to go a little deeper than my spanish allows. It was good for Ted because he was getting bored. He works for a travel agency and he was just there if anyone needed anything but they didn´t. So he was just sitting all day. It´s funny though because he said that the doctors need everything spelled out for them. He said one has asked him a question which was clearly explained in the registration packet. He laughed when I told him that doctors were the same all over the world. More on this later.

Ted and I ate at Burger King and then I went home where later Pau and I met the boys and went to hang out. We went to a Pastor place. This refers to the method of cooking the meat, which is usually pork. So good! We ate some great food and watched a soccer game on tv. Many restaurants here are open on three sides- it´s a great atmosphere.

Saturday

So Pau went with me to the hospital where we were supposed to meet her prof, the doctor, at 9am. Let´s just say that at 10 we were still waiting. Pau asked someone (probably for the 4th time) if he was coming, and finally at 10 they said probably not. Pau said: welcome to Mexico. And I said: no, welcome to medicine- doctors are doctors all over the world! Oh well. We still had a productive time because Pau took me down the street to the new medical library- open to the public. Full of scientific journals in english. Full of new computers which are supposed to be only for research but which are obviously used for the internet as we saw many people doing so. Sweet. I thought free internet would be available at the other library but you have to have a password. At this library, it´s really true. And there´s very cold air conditioning. I´ll probably actually take a jacket! But i´m not complaining.

On the way home I took some pictures of the beautiful trees which are in bloom right now. Ahh Mexico. And tonight, we´re going to a Latin Jazz concert downtown for $1.50 and afterwards there´s music and dancing in the "town square" until 2am! This is the life!

no food today

Don´t worry, I did eat today, but my parents told me that my blogs are always about food so today I´m not going to tell you about what I ate. Sorry.

Not a whole lot new today. I went downtown again to study at the air-conditioned library. On my way there, I stopped off in a market and was stopped by some old men. Now if you´ve seen the movie "Return to Me" just think of the old men in that movie. Just some funny old men who wanted to talk politics and American culture with the girl from Indiana. They were so hilarious. Like old men all over the world, they love to philosophize. They wanted to talk about George Bush and we got into pacifism...whoa... they really wanted to win me over to their side but with my limited spanish all I could say was that I´m a pacifist at heart and it´s complicated:) While we were on the topic of Democrats, they wanted to know who I thought killed JFK. Seriously. I said that it was probably Oswald but that no one really knows. Wrong answer. Because they think that it was Johnson. My brother would like them- he´s into conspiracy theories. They also said, "Nobody knows, or nobody wants to know?" Oh my. Finally we started talking about more benign things like what Americans eat for Thanksgiving and is it really a possibility that we´ll have a woman president in the US. At any rate, it was entertaining, and good practice for my spanish. Before I pried myself away I got some pictures with them. This blog is great because it motivates me to take pictures that I might otherwise be too lazy to take!



After some very productive hours at the library with my GRE math, I decided to walk around for awhile before I headed home. There´s a free contemporary art museum in Merida that I´ve been wanting to go to so I stopped in. It was very nice for a free museum. I didn´t take as many pictures as I would have liked because I wasn´t really sure when I was or wasn´t allowed to.

Here are a couple of random shots

I really liked this (below). It´s called En Busca de Un Ideal (In search of an ideal). If you can´t tell, the two concrete pillars don´t quite match up.

And these are from my favorite exhibit. I´d love to have these paintings in my house someday! I can´t remember the artist´s name but it was a woman. The painting below was my favorite. It´s called Puerta Circular (Circular Door). I think it goes without saying, but pictures just cannot do justice.

I didn´t get to everything before it was time to get back for lunch at 4. But since it´s free I´m sure I´ll go again! I can´t believe that tomorrow is Friday! My time here is flying by!

Preview: tomorrow I´m going to a medical conference that Ted is working at. They´re talking about AIDS and he talked to the doctor in charge who said I could come for awhile without paying! I actually understand more of that kind of stuff because a lot of the scientific terms are very similar to the english. We´ll see! Also on a medical note, on Saturday I´m going to one of the hospitals here. Pau has a prof who´s an emergency room physician and he said I could come hang out with him. Luckily I remembered to pack scrubs!

juice

As you can probably tell, i´ve had a lot of free time today. We just finished lunch and I wanted to tell you about the drinks here. They drink a ton of Coke- I mean the nasty, gross, full of sugar kind. But every day for lunch, when Pau´s dad, Jose Luis, gets home we have fresh juice with our food. Pineapple, limonade... it´s great.

As far as alcohol goes, none of my friends here drink. Alcoholism is a HUGE problem here- many say it goes back to the Mayan roots which still have such a hold on this area. So they don´t drink. Because they´ve seen it destroy so many lives. Neighbors. Strangers. Their own families.

pollo pibil

Ok, don´t try this at home. I´m just writing it down to remember. Rosi just taught me how to make what we´re having for dinner tonight- pollo pibil. I guess if you have a Mexican grocery nearby and you´re adventurous you can try to make it:) But I won´t promise anything.

- Line a big pot with hojas de platano (banana leaves)
- cut up a whole chicken, normal size?, I don´t know...
- In a small bowl mix juice of one naranja agrea (sour orange- I don´t think we have these in the US but Rosi says they sell it in bottles) with 2 of these little blocks of seasoning called achiote (they´re like bullion cubes only bigger and they´re red), and salt and pepper and 3 cloves of garlic.
- pour this over the chicken and let it sit while you cut the veggies
- cut up 3 small tomatoes, half a big onion, half a green pepper
- in the pot, layer chicken, veggies, chicken, veggies and on top place an uncut chile ixcatic (it´s a hot yellow-ish pepper)
- pour a little oil on top and cover with more banana leaves
- simmer? on the stove for an hour or so (I guess until the chicken is done)

I´m sure that if I knew how to cook in the US this would make more sense, right mom? :)

More recipes to come!

empañadas...hushpuppies...yum

The last two days have been pretty low key which is nice after running around for a week. Yesterday, I decided to stay at home by myself and just rest and study. I went to the store to buy some Trix for breakfast- it´s nice because there are so many little stores and restaurants within walking distance. When I got home, for some reason I couldn´t remember the trick to opening the door and I had to call Pau on my Mexican cell phone- thank goodness for that.

I finally was able to download and watch the greys season finale...wow...talk about leaving me hanging. But it was good to have a taste of home. Same with movies. There´s a channel here that shows movies in English with subtitles. Sometimes I watch a movie that I normally wouldn´t just because it´s in english!

Pau came home for lunch between work and school and we walked to a little restaurant that just serves lunch- comida light- light food. It reminded me of Panera because you get soup and bread and an entre. But unlike the $7 you would pay at Panera it was less than $7 for both of us!
This little lunch place was so cute!

I studied quite a bit yesterday- both spanish and gre stuff. When Pau got home I was doing my spanish flashcards and we had a little informal english-spanish lesson before we left for women´s prayer meeting at the church.

I really like going to church here. Sometimes, when I´m at my church at home, I have a tendency to be thinking about other things and not paying attention. But here, if I want to understand what´s going on I have to pay close attention. And when I understand something, it really sticks with me. So I feel like I´m seeing things in a new light.

After that, Nelson, Ted, and Diego met us at the church to take us home where we spent an hour deciding what to eat for dinner...wow. Finally we ordered pizza from Dominos which I don´t think my stomach liked because I felt a little sick this morning.

Rosie, Pau´s mom, wanted me to go with her to el centro this morning. She needed to buy fabric for some clothes she´s making and chicken for our "lunch." So I guess you would call what we ate at 10:30 a morning snack:) For breakfast we had oatmeal smoothie things (her favorite) and when we got back we stopped at a little "store" where Rosie and her friends hang out and the lady whose house it is makes empañadas. My parents will appreciate this: they reminded me of Judy and Lona and Mona! Just having lunch together and talking.

This is Santa, the lady who makes the empañadas. She reminded me of Judy so much- always entertaining and telling jokes. They are half circle shaped things filled with ground beef. The outside part tasted so familiar to me but it took me so long to figure it out- they taste like hushpuppies from Long John Silvers! Only better of course.

This afternoon, Rosie and I are going to wash clothes. They have a washing machine and then they just hang the clothes out to dry.

Two things I feel bad about:

- Paulina has the big, final exam of her college program on Friday and I want to make sure she knows that she can study if she wants. She doesn´t have to entertain me all the time.

- People never let me pay. Well, sometimes, but only if I´m really annoying about it. I´m going to have to find a way around that because I don´t want them to pay all the time.

Something I´m thankful for:

- Someone, actually. Ted. His english is great and sometimes I need him to explain complicated situations to me. And I feel comfortable talking to him about things like why no one ever lets me pay and how I can change that:)

all by myself...almost

Today was my first day in the city by myself.

But I´ll start with yesterday morning. Pau and I met Nelson at their church because he played the drums yesterday. Their church is very small, about 20 people, but I really liked it. It lasted about 2 hours. But we were about 20 minutes late. Which leads me to an important point: every type A person should come to Mexico. It will make you a little uncomfortable at first, but once you get used to it, it is soo freeing! If you haven´t guessed, that´s how I feel. Schedules and plans are impossible here, you really have to live in the moment. And if, like me, you´re used to living by a schedule, you need to come and live here. We were late because we needed to take the taxi-van to church and three passed by us because they were full. We finally walked back home and woke up Pau´s dad to drive us. Oh well.

This is the church

After church, Nelson and Pau always have brochetas (shishkabobs) for lunch. You get two huge brochetas and a bag of spaghetti for $3! After buying them, I rode home with Nelson on the moto in my dress! Haha.

Then, Nelson and I went with Pau and her dad to vote. It was a lot like in the US only they do the whole stamping your thumb thing which was cool. I´ll try to put up more pics before they take things down because the propaganda here is in credible. It´s EVERYWHERE! Pictures would hardly do justice. Ivonne, the PRI candidate for governor of Yucatan won which was what all my friends here wanted.

After that, we watched the movies that Nelson and I had rented the night before. It´s great because the movies here are usually in english with spanish subtitles. We watched Matrix2 and The Illusionist. It was soo relaxing.

Today, I got up, ate some cereal and left to catch the bus all by myself. No problems. When I got downtown, I stopped off in a park to read for awhile and then went on to the library to study GRE. Wow, I have a lot of math to practice.

The view from the park where I read

Then, Diego got done with school early so he met up with me and when I was done with GRE we walked to the big park in the middle of the city and sat and talked for awhile. Then I asked if he´d show me the market. On the way, we stopped at the bread store (heaven!) to pick from one of the amazing variety of cheap bread treats. We choose one with ham and cheese inside. Then on to the market which I love! You have to see it, pictures just can´t do justice. The colors and smells, it´s crazy.

I can´t wait to buy my lunch here!

Chicken, anyone?

We were getting hot so we walked back to the centro and bought some cokes and ate our bread thing in the Oxxo (like Handy Andy!) in the air conditioning. Then, back to Pau´s house for our afternoon siesta. Diego had never taken the bus before so I taught him how! Back here, we turned on the tv and it was You´ve Got Mail in Spanish so I made Diego watch the last 15 minutes with me. It´s my favorite so that made me so happy. Right now he´s watching Mr Deeds. That´s about it for now. Enjoy the photos.

a day of many firsts

Wow! Can I just say that I love love love Merida!!! And my amazing friends here- though of course I miss all of you at home:) Ok, so even though no one has commented on what I wrote last night I´ll write again. I´m writing this as much for myself as I am for anyone else! So today, Pau and I set out for El Centro (downtown) so that she could teach me to navigate the city by myself! At the end of her block, we caught the cambi Lindavista which is the name of a taxi-bus that goes to el centro. It costs 50 cents.

This is an example of what you see in el centro. Not to sound like a commercial, but it is literally a bustling center of commerce and culture. Neta. I love it! The buildings are all so old and beautiful. And there are parks everywhere.

There are tons of theaters here and most shows are either free or less than $3. Merida really is the center of Yucatecan culture. There is something to do every night- dancing, folklore, bands...did I mention that I love it here?!

This is an example of the beautiful churches here

One of the theaters that we went in to check out the events had this art display. It was so beautiful and they let me take pictures. The painter is German but he lives in Merida now.

This was my favorite- it´s called The Parade

After this, we were on our way to the biblioteca (library) where I will study when Pau is at work and school. I am soooo excited about hanging out downtown, studying, eating, doing my thing!

This is the courtyard of the library which also has free internet!

Next stop was to eat some icecream! Mine was watermelon. Then Ted and Nelson met up with us.

On our way to our next stop, we saw this thing outside of the museum of contemporary art. What did I tell you? Culture abounds.

And what, you ask, was our next stop? I decided it would be fun to get my nose pierced! It only costs $12 and it was clean. I watched him open the needle, Mom:) Then, Pau decided to get hers done too!!! Wow, what a bad influence I am :) It only hurt at the moment. As soon as it was in it didn´t hurt at all.

Final stop, Burger King. Here, pronounced like Booger King!

Ted and Pau

And me and Nelson

Even in Mexico, you can have it your way! The big print says: Proclamation of the king, What you want.

Last, but certainly not least, I learned how to get back home to my neighborhood, "Pensiones." Don´t worry, I still have my shirt on.

I think tonight we´re just chillin here at the casa. Tomorrow is church which I´m excited about. Nelson is playing the drums! If you´re reading, leave me a comment:) I know this was long so I hope you enjoy the pictures!