Ohh look, animal poop...oohh wait, there's a skull in it! COOL!

Last night, I began wondering what is so great about this trip.  I was feeling frustrated and a bit tense as Amanda, Allison, Jessie, and I walked from a random bowling alley to find a street which actually had busses running on it.  All I could think of was how completely exhausted I was and, really, had no desire whatsoever to go and do anything.  Because of my exhaustion and frustration with the "finding a bus" situation, which, keep in mind, lasted for about an hour, I hopped in a taxi and went back to my homestay.  As I sat in the room alone, my frustration continued.  I hadn't felt like this all trip, and I really began wondering what I was doing.  After talking with some friends online and then to my family, I went to bed so that I could get up at 6:30 AM today. 

With today's "planned fun" Saturday, I was reminded why I am on this trip.  I love all of the things that we're doing and seeing.  Everyone is bound to get frustrated at some point and question their study abroad experience but, since my questioning was so abrupt (especially since, prior to yesterday, I hadn't felt any such emotions), I was taken off-guard and forgot that bowling and the "city-life" is only part of my experience, but not my sole reason for being here!

Today, we went to Dzibilchaltun, which is a small, ancient Mayan city 10 miles from the Gulf Coast.  While we were going to the ruins (I'll admit it...), I was a bit "bucky" as my mom likes to call me, but once we got there, I was so excited/happy/glad to be exploring the ruins!  The city was MUCH smaller than Chichen Itza, but it was still very neat to learn about the significance of the various remaining buildings.

One of our drivers told us a bit of background information about Dzibilchaltun.  Because of its close proximity to Merida, many of the Spanish conquerers travelled to Dzibilchaltun and disassembled many of the buildings in order to use the already cut limestone for contruction of Spanish-influenced buildings and churches in Merida.  Due to this, most of the city was only made up of basic frameworks marking where the city's buildings used to stand. 

In addition, the driver informed us not to believe many of the stories about Mayan culture and society that were written by conquerers of the Maya.  Because the Spanish were trying to make the Mayans look vulgar, the Spanish were able to make the Mayan culture seem not worth preserving, which allowed for many of the Spaniards to support the dismantling of many of the Mayan cities.  For example, the driver stated that many of the stories of Mayan sacrifices were not true.  Many of the findings of bodies in cenotes and other supposed "sacrificial ceremonies" were to honor individuals who had died, thus making the findings of bodies in cenotes only a type of "burial ceremony" rather than an actual sacrifice.  Some cities, however, did have evidence of sacrifice.  Because of these inconsistencies, I will blog later about any more information I find on the sacrifices during my Mayan culture course!

While we were at the ruins, we visited one of the still intact buildings of the city.  This building was one of the only Mayan buldings to have actual windows in it; these windows were used to detect the soltices based on the way that the sunlight would pass through the windows.  By knowing when the solstice was, Mayans were able to identify the coming of various weather changes, including when the rainy and dry seasons would begin!  In this building, the Dawleys saw animal feces on the ground.  I'll admit that I was very grossed out when I saw it, but after it was determined that it was an owl pellet AND there was a whole mouse skull in the pellet, I was very intrigued.  The entire skull of the mouse was intact, so Dr. Dawley kept it for her collection of animal skulls!

After this, we walked to the cenote that was in Dzibilchaltun.  The driver also told us that this is one of the only Mayan cities that has a cenote in the city!  Other Mayan cities who were more inland did not have cenotes due to the fact that the fresh water was so far underground that it could not be reached in the form of cenote; thus, Mayans in these inland cities were forced to find other ways of having water sources (when we learn about them, I will be sure to blog more about it!). 

It was alot of fun swimming in the cenote, especially since it wasnt in a cave, so it was completely different from the ones that we saw last week!  Overall, the trip to Dzibilchaltun was really fun, and I can't wait to see more of the Mayan cities soon!

As for tonight, I'm still not quite sure what I am doing, but I will be sure to write about it in a future blog for you all!

Miss you all!

Love,

Ashley

UPDATE:

Sorry that the above post was the first in three days.  Here's the blogs that I didn't have a chance to post until now!

January 17th:

Today is my dad's birthday!!!!  I was able to call him twice today using wonderful skype and talk to him.  I hope that he had a good birthday! :-D

As for my blogging, last night was alot of fun.  We went to the "Mambo Cafe, which is a salsa dance club about 10 minutes from my homestay!  A group of us met there and waited until the dancing started.  I started getting very impatient waiting for the dancing to start but, once it did, it was so much fun!  There was even a live band at the club playing salsa music!  While Dana, Amanda, and I were dancing on the dance floor, three guys came up to us and asked us to dance.  The guy that I was dancing with did not speak English, and because I know very little Spanish, we just kept dancing and laughing because that was all that we could do to communicate! 

After this, the live band took a break, and regular club music came on, most of which was in English.  It is so strange to me how so many things here are in English and have American influence!  From the restaurants to the popular clothing styles, a large number of things constantly remind me of home;  maybe this is another reason why I have not been very homesick! 

During class today, we took a trip to Centro and looked at a number of the stores featuring Yucatan fashions.  At the "Casa de los Artesanos," we saw a number of handcrafted items which were made from Henequen.  Just as a refresher (or if you haven't read the blog about this), henequen was a major product shipped from the Yucatan to other countries as a textile to make many things, including ropes.  Some of the things that were handcrafted there included handbags, hammocks, and small toys!  We also visited a small jewelry store that had the supposedly fashionable "maquech" pins. Maqueches are LIVE beetles are decorated with jewels and a long, gold chain to make it look like a pin.  The beetle just grabs onto your clothes and sits there!  This was so weird to me, but I still tried one on!  It was kind of neat when it was on my clothes, but I was still minorly disturbed by it!

That's all for today!  Adios, muchachos!

Love,

-Ashley

January 18th:

Today, all of the culture classes took a trip to the Anthropological museum in Merida, which showcased alot of the artifacts and general information about the Maya.  We learned alot about the Mayan calendar and the numbering system, but I found the concept of "Mayan death" to be very interesting!  The museum information stated that, after an individual died, the person would be placed on a sort of display and surrounded with their favorite personal belongings and food to take with them to the underworld.  Individuals who were regarded as the nobility were be buried due to their potential to become divine beings. It was also very interesting to find out that the entrance to the underworld was believed to be the cenotes!  In addition, those who passed through the cenotes into the underworld were able to control those who still were alive on earth. 

Also, I had been wondering what the significance of "Chac Mool" was and, after visiting the museum, I was informed that it was used to place the hearts of those who were sacrificed.  In the stomach of the Chac Mool was a small container in which the heart was placed.  Following this, the bodies of the individuals were thrown into a cenote as a sacrifice to the underworld!

While reading many of the signs about the Mayan, I began looking over at the Spanish just to see how much I could understand of it.  As I read, I noticed that many of the things were not translated over to English and, often times, the signs contained more information in Spanish than they did on the English signs.  I can only imagine that this would be a result of the lack of translating ability of the person who made the signs, but I still found this to be very interesting!

Tonight, our host mom plans to take us bowling, so I will let you know how that goes!

Love you all! Miss you!

-Ashley