No rest for the weary traveler...

Buenas amigos y familiares,

Today is "el aniversario" in Merida, Mexico, the day when the city celebrates its establishment exactly 100 years ago. What a day to be here: there is artwork being displayed on the main drive; the city has erected a gigantic Christmas tree in the center of the city; there are artisans selling their crafts in todas partes; and there is yet another reason to eat (like the people here need a reason; I haven´t stopped eating since I arrived). I guess I should keep you up to date on what I´ve done in the last few days. I left you abruptly when I was being whisked away to the supermarket to buy food for myself. What an awkward experience that turned out to be! Instead of buying into the whole "experience a different culture" thing, my family decided to make me feel as comfortable and hearty as possible by letting me choose my own food. This ultimately consisted of my brother asking (in Spanish obviously) if I liked ham, hot dogs, orange juice, cookies, and a host of other American-sounding items, all of which ended up in our cart by the end of the trip. I felt even more oafish when I arrived home to find that we already had orange juice, and-even worse-my brother had spent all of my mama´s money. As they say here, que lastima!

At any rate, my busiest day thus far was definitely yesterday when our group traveled to Dzibichaltum to tour Mayan ruins and swim in an underwater spring and to Progreso, a port in the northern part of the peninsula where we ate some wonderful seafood dishes and sat on the beach. Oh, but the day didn´t end there. I returned to the house only to be told that we were leaving in a few minutes for a party. Since a few minutes for us Americans means a few minutes, I quickly showered and dressed only to find that ¨a few minutes" here really means a few hours. We still needed to eat, watch a little Harry Potter and chat before we could head out. And then, after all of the waiting, we didn´t even go to the party. We went downtown instead to take part in the festivities. After spending hours walking down a dozen streets where we (a few of my companeros and me) were shown all of the colonial homes that have been turned into banks, we were ready to hit the sack. Ah, but the plan did not include such an obvious and natural response to a long day. No, while the accompanying students went home to their (un)comfortable hammocks, I went with my brother to the party we intended to attend earlier. It turned out to be what is called a quincinera-a party for a girl who turns 15 years old. And then....and then...at around 3 a.m., we returned home. At this point, I prepared to jump into my comfortable bed and sleep until I was awaken the following morning (afternoon, I hoped). My plan was soon thwarted, though, as my papa walked into my room and told me that it was high time to learn how to sleep in a hammock. I will spare you the details concerning what happened next and simply state that I did not sleep last night. Hammocks are great for napping, but that is about it.

And today, well, I think we are going to return to the downtown area to eat, drink (pop, Mom), and be merry. At least that is the plan...

I love and miss all of you and hope that you are enjoying the snow/rain/sleet/etc. in your respective locales. The sun here feels great.

Ciao!