Randomness ..

Today was another one of those days where we tried to cram as much Spanish grammar into one day as possible. We learned directional vocabulary (under, above, below, behind, ect.), the present participle, and present progressive. While I have seen the majority of what he teaches us, that by no means implies that I remember how to use it or remember all the conjugations. I am a little surprised he has skipped the subjunctive, but I remember last semester when we just barely touched on that, that we all had a very hard time trying to figure out when and how to use it because there is nothing like it in the English language. It is definitely exciting to talk to my host mother and also with others and hear them using tenses that we go over in class and gleaning the more subtle meanings from the conversation. Also, something I find pretty odd, is that if my host mother is just talking, I usually do a pretty good job of understanding the majority of what she says, but the minute she asks me a question, my mind goes blank. I have to sit there and make sure I understood the question and then try to formulate the answer in my head while conjugating the correct verb and using the applicable tense …. I’ve certainly gotten much better, but I still find that sort of odd :-p

This week, we switched teachers for our culture classes, and Lulu, our new maestro, is definitely more into the academic side than Roger was, but Roger definitely made it fun. Yesterday, we learned about hammocks – how they are made, what kind of material, and that the majority of people in the Yucatan sleep in hammocks at night. Most hammocks are handmade here and are out of algodon, nylon or henequen, with henequen being the most expensive and considered a luxury. Almost all of the tiendas that we have seen have carried hammocks for about 50 USD. Lulu was telling us that in her house, she has 4 – one in both bedrooms, and one on the front porch and back patio. They also make “matrimonial hammocks”, for married couples and apparently they are pretty comfy. ;-) Muy interesante. According to Lulu, for the matrimonial ones, it is worth the money to invest in the ones made from henequen. During our two weeks at the field station in Kiuic, we will all get to sleep in hammocks, and essentially live a glorified Mayan existence. That will definitely be quite interesting, because all I can see my clumsy self doing is getting all tangled up in it at night and then somehow managing to flip myself over and fall out. We’ll see about that one. I know two of the other boys in our house bought hammocks and set them up, but I have yet to see how they are set up. Today, we read random facts - “Did you know” type things, which translates to “¿Sabías qué”, using the imperfect tense of the verb saber, which means “to know”. HA! I am learning something down here.

Today was also the Arthropod quiz for the Bio 220 course. Did you know that the female mosquitoes are the only ones that suck blood and give you that lovely red, itchy welt? Yep, it’s true. Males have really “hairy” and bushy looking antennae. So the next time you see a mosquito, try to tell if it will suck your blood, or if it’s merely an annoyance :-P Also, I’m sure everyone has seen those huge bugs that look like incredibly anorexic mosquitoes on steroids, but they are actually harmless craneflies and harmless – they do not bite or anything. We ALL have already had our share of female mosquitoes feasting on us. I have all but slathered myself in Benadryll cream – and even with the self restraint I have to not scratch them, they still swell up to inordinate proportions and it looks like I was attacked by some monster bug rather than a teeny tiny albeit EVIL mosquito …. It’s wonderful being allergic to mosquito bites … I mean go figure, it’s not like I’m allergic to anything else :-p

I have definitely found my favorite food down here – as of yet, it is panuchos. I know I gushed about them in a previous post, but they really are incredible. They are amazing in restaurants, they are one of the dishes that can easily be made vegan by asking for it sin carne, huevos y , a veces, sin queso. Our host mother made them today, and we got to eat them for lunch and dinner. Yum. One thing I am finding out, is that while the lunch meal is the main one of the day, and inordinate amounts of food are prepared, dinner is usually the leftovers of lunch, in smaller portions. There really aren’t any leftovers, and therefore, massive amounts of food do not go to waste. While it certainly took some getting used to, eating a huge meal at 3 in the afternoon and then not again till 7 or 8 at night, it really isn’t that bad of a system.

A veces, it seems like the days creep by, with two hours of grammar, and then another 2 hours of culture, a half hour bus ride/walk to get home, but the weeks do seem to fly. Tomorrow is Wednesday already, and we have our Spanish final on Friday, then two more weeks in Mérida before we head out to Kiuic and jungle-ness. Ash and I just got back from walking a few blocks to an Extra! which is like a toned down Wawa (oh Wawa L) because Ash had a craving for vanilla ice cream, and after much label reading and funny looks I was able to find some cookies that I could eat. We decided that we have to indulge now, because in the jungle, we aren’t going to be able to find ice cream, never mind vegan cookies :-P Ah – another thing I have noticed down here is that they do not snack in between meals. There really isn’t anything that she keeps in the house to snack on besides fruit and plain tortillas. There is peanut butter, but I could only imagine what she would say if she saw us going all “Meet Joe Black” and eating it by the spoonful :-P .