Busy, busy, busy!

This past week has been extremely chaotic, so I am sorry that I haven't had the opportunity to write!  I am, however, going to give a brief run-down of events from last week, just to keep everyone up to date!

I saw my first car accident in Mexico last week.  I know that this sounds like a horrible thing to be talking about, but if I could show all of you the driving style in Merida, you would all be surprised that I hadn't seen a car accident sooner!  I keep experiencing more and more surprises with the driving style in Merida AND the public transportation system.  The busses last week were just horrendous.  I had two busses that didn't even follow the normal bus route, so I ended up walking many more blocks than necessary.  I can't imagine the complaints that would come from Americans if a bus driver did not follow the bus route in an U.S. city.  This just further proved to me that Mexicans seem to be much more laid back and tend to do what they feel.  It just seems to be so entirely different from America, especially in the fact that people feel they need to be so regimented and follow certain standards, which is probably why I was so angered by the fact that the bus driver was not following what I knew to be "the correct" driving route!

Last week, I studied every day for my Spanish final.  Even though it is "only" Spanish 101, or "Elementary Spanish I," I can honestly say that I was struggling.  I am able to comprehend alot of the grammatical aspect of Spanish due to my knowledge of the French language, but I felt extremely frustrated when I would try to speak.  Since the majority of the vocabulary I had to know was completely different from French, I was starting a whole new language, and I guess I just forgot how hard that truly is!  Regardless, I had to keep going and try to practice my Spanish as much as possible, both in aspects of comprehension and responses.  I feel as though I am able to really comprehend people (as long as they speak slowly, of course!), but I really have a difficult time speaking back.  Even though I start of speaking Spanish, I somehow find a way to incorporate a French word in my speech without realizing that my mind is switching languages on me!  As I learned more and more Spanish, this became the most frustrating thing for me.  I didn't realize how challenging it would be to enter a Spanish speaking country and expect to just "learn" the language without any prior experience!

After my Spanish final on Friday, a small group of us bought tickets to see a symphony, a soprano soloist, and choreographed ball-room dancing at the Instituto de Cultura de Yucatan.  Under the direction of Jose Luis Chan Sabido, the symphonic orchestra was really excellent.  While I was listening to the orchestra, however, I felt like I was at an ordinary concert.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially due to the fact that the performance was very well done, but I was more excited to be in the theater during one of the final pieces.  Just as I had thought the performance was not extraordinary, Maestro Sabido began conducting the audience to clap to the beat with the orchestra, in addition to instructing us to become forte or piano!  I have never been to a performance where the experience was interactive!  I'm not sure if it was just the fun-nature of the conductor, or if this is acceptable in Mexican art performances, but I really loved it!  Because of that three-minute piece, I can say that my trip to the orchestra was the best 80 pesos that I have spent on this trip!

On Saturday, we took a trip to Oxkintok, which is a Mayan city about an hour and fifteen minutes from Merida.  It was the first time that we used our field notebooks and binoculars, so it was truly quite the experience!  I couldn't believe how challenging it was to spot a bird, grab my binoculars, and find the bird through the binoculars before it would fly away!  I still do not have the "hang of it," but I was able to observe grackels, tropical mockingbirds, turkey vultures, and a mot-mot!

In addition, we explored the ruins of Oxkintok.  I was able to talk with our Mayan anthropology teacher, Rebecca Hill, about some of the things that we were seeing, including the architecture of the buildings.  She told me that in this region of the Yucatan, many of the ruins were characterized as being "Puuc" styled architecture due to their location in the Puuc Hills Region of the Yucatan.  She also showed me two types of vaults which were seen throughout this region, which include the boot vault, which is made from triangular shaped stone pieces that are stacked so that the stability of the structure comes from a more outwardly located center of gravity; and the inverted stairwell vault, which truly resembled an inverted stairwell!

As I walked around the ruins and climbed some of the structures, I felt that it was most interesting to see the hills which bordered the city of Oxkintok.  After being told over and over that the Yucatan is completely flat like an antacid pill, I was a bit confused by this.  I was looking over top of Mayan ruins, but I was suddenly reminded of the hills that I can see outside of my window at home!  We were later told that these hills are a part of the aforementioned Puuc Hills, but I still felt that this was quite odd to see rolling hills in background this Mayan city!

After Oxkintok, we visited Usil, which is a cave a short distance from Oxkintok.  Being that this was my first visit to a cave in the Yucatan, I was very excited to enter but, after hearing that there were hieroglyphs left by the Mayans in the cave, I was even MORE excited!  I was in awe looking at the hieroglyphs that covered the ceiling of the cave.  There was evidence found that part of the hieroglyphs symbolized the entrace into the underworld, while others displayed the Mayan numbering system to show the year in which the Mayans wrote in the cave!  After looking at the hieroglyphs, we entered a small, enclosed part of the cave in which many small rocks were placed as a form of offering to the Mayan dieties and to the underworld.  In this area, there was also a small, carved Mayan head.  When I saw this, I was initially intrigued but, after thinking logically, I began to wonder how legitimate this was.  Following this, the guides showed us a very large rock that was covered in bone and pottery pieces that were left by the Mayans.  Although the pieces appeared to be real artifacts, it seemed as though someone had placed them there rather than the Mayans leaving them there.  Rebecca Hill confirmed my thoughts and stated that she felt that the hieroglyphs were legitimate but that the Mayan head figure and the placement of bones and pottery may have been done by someone else.  It was interesting, however, that she felt that although the ancient Mayans did not do this, it may have been another Mayan individual who did this more recently in order to honor their Mayan religion and culture.

We then went to swim in a cenote.  I was really excited to go swimming, especially since I was completely covered in mud from the ruins and the cave!  When we got to the entrance of the cenote, I began feeling really nervous after I saw HOW I had to enter the cenote. Through the small entrance, I could see a small, very "riggity"-looking ladder that I would have to use in order to decend into the cave.  As I dangled my leg into the hole, I could not seem to find the step, and I started feeling really anxious.  I stepped back and let everyone else go so that I would be able to relax and go at my own pace.  This cenote was totally different from the others, especially in the fact that it was entirely underground and was lit by huge lamps rather than by some form of sunlight!  I'm really glad that I am getting the opportunity to visit so many different types of cenotes, especially since each cenote seems to have something special about it!

Yesterday and Saturday night were solely devoted to working on my Bio 220 project.  I was able to finish, which was great, but I was so sick yesterday that the day just felt like it would not end!!!

I don't really have any updates for today, besides the fact that we started our Biology 220 and Mayan Civilization classes today.  I really think that I'm going to love the rest of my classes and learning about the Mayans and biological aspects of the Yucatan through hands on experiences!!

That's all for now, folks!  I miss you all so much!!!

Love,

Ashley