Dzibilchaltun

Yesterday, we went to our first Mayan city - the city of Dzibilchaltun. It really was incredible. There was a museum that we went into first that had many of the artifacts that had been found inside the ruins. After that, we explored a few Mayan huts and then headed on our way through the woods to the city. You always see things like that on postcards or other people's pictures, but when you yourself are actually there, standing on the stairs, it's an entirely different experience. You get such a rush from standing on the top of one of the pyramids and looking out over the ruins of the entire city. It was really amazing. (Picture wise, my internet is really persnickety at times, so trying to upload pictures just gets frustrating, so when I have a better connection, I'll post an updated photobucket link) We learned that the main "tower" overlooking the city was built by someone who had a great amount of money, and the square in front of it was used for the townspeople to watch whatever "spectacle" was going on. More or less in the middle of the city was a structure that they used to tell time. It was a single obelisk looking thing in the middle of a platform that cast a shadow depending on the height of the sun - essentially like a sundial. There was also a Catholic chapel nearby that was built because there were so many people who lived there, that they had to construct their own church. It was not like a conventional church of today though - there was a steeple and everything, but the altar and cross were the only things that were under the cover of stone - the congregation would have sat out in front of it and observed the mass being said "inside". We then ventured over to the nearby cenote. This one was different that all the rest, being that it was completely open. Was still very pretty, and the water was incredibly warm. I remembered my waterproof case for my camera this time and took some amazing pictures of all the fish underwater. We weren't allowed to wear sunscreen because it would ruin the natural ecosystem of the cenote, so we all got a tad burned, but it was well worth it :-)
After returning home, my host mother and I ended up sitting at the table and talking for almost an hour. Just having a normal conversation about the weather, her family and grandchildren, where I'm from, my family ect. I am getting better at understanding her, and she is more than willing to sit through my attempts at responses :-P Sometimes I get a littler nervous trying to talk because I don't speak the language nearly as well as some of the other people in my house, but she always lights up whenever I make a valiant effort and she never really seems to get mad at the fact that I never conjugate the verbs correctly :-P

Today, I decided to get up early-ish and go to mass in the cathedral downtown. After my Type - A self stopped flipping out over the bus being late and the fact that I would be 10 minutes late to mass, I went anyways and ended up being right on time. The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous inside, and was surprisingly full for a 10 AM mass. I had neglected to remember the tiny little fact of since I'm in MEXICO the mass would be in SPANISH. So on the list of things to do this week is looking up all the prayers and such in Spanish, although of course I knew what was happening and actually understood a few bits and pieces of the homily. I ended up sitting next to this cute little old Mayan woman who was the sweetest person - she told me how happy she was to see a young person there and that she liked the dress I was wearing (at least thats what I thought I understood :-P) Coming home was even more interesting because first off, I took a different bus route - there are 2 routes that I can take to get home, but host mother told me that route 1 is better. So I took route 2 this morning just to see where it would take me. Well, about halfway home, the bus pulls over and stops. Apparently there was some problem with the axles that they were stuck and wouldn't rotate anymore (again, my broken spanish comprehension abilities). The driver told us that we had to get off and that he would flag down another bus to pick us all up. After a few minutes, an empty bus comes by (from the opposite direction) and turns around to pick us up. This driver was used to driving a different route, so this route was explained to him and off we went. Was a little nervous when he started going the complete opposite direction of my house, but I stayed on until I saw my cross street and thanked him profusely and got off. I was anticipating about a 10 block walk, but was surprised when I found myself in my area after only a few blocks.

I know I've become accustomed to the weather when I walked out of the house this morning and thought 72 degrees was pretty cold :-P Even now I'm in bed under the covers and in the long sleeved shirt I brought. Tonight we are all venturing over to the Dawley's house for some free food (Hopefully :-P) and in the interim I'll be working on my lectures notes and the arthropod taxonomy for the quiz on Tuesday. Speaking of taxonomies, every time I walk past a plant on my way to the bus stop, I am usually able to discern the phylum, order, family and sometimes species/common name ... thanks Dawleys for increasing my nerd abilities far beyond my wildest dreams :-P There is also this darned Aracacea (palm) that I have to move out of my path everyday on the way to and from school .....