So maybe culture shock has set in slightly. I knew that it would be only a minor setback when it did, but here is what is going through my mind this morning...not to be a downer or anything:

I miss my...

-air conditioned house
-bed
-couch
-T.V.
-favorite foods
-Dr Pepper
-family
-dates with my beautiful girlfriend
-friends
-church
-car and all other forms of private transportation
-Frisbee golf games with Nurge
-university's football games
-routine of playing my saxophone at the previously mentioned...

It's a reality...we are all very comfortable within our own culture. It's a reality that we often don't realize until we are out of our home culture for a couple of weeks. And I never thought I'd say it but: Middle-class Suburban America, today I miss you.

V.I.P...Me?

Last night I went to a disco...which is what they call clubs here in Mexico(unfortunatley there is no disco music, I was disappointed). I'm definitely not the club type, by any means, but we were invited by some Mexican students and I knew it would be a good way to make local friends. And believe me, it was. We pulled up to the club and there was a huge line of about 50 people waiting outside. We kinda stepped way to the back and away to show that we weren't yet waiting in line as some of our friends hadn't arrived yet. As soon as we were all ready we stepped up to the line and immediately the huge bouncer at the front points to us and says, "you", he lifts the rope gate, points in, and we walk in front of all of these people and into the club. I felt awful! But apparently having Americans in your club draws more business so they let us in. We were also able to get a table immediately..something that is very coveted at this particular establishment. We were getting stared at all night. People kept wanting to buy us drinks, which we politely declined because accepting a drink from a stranger....well, you are all aware. It was a pretty good time seeing as I don't dance, but oddly enough there really was not very much dancing going on for this to be a disco. It was more like a concert with a really good Mexican cover band that was playing Nirvana, Audio Slave, Metallica, and a few others. It was a good one time experience for me, but I would just prefer to sit back in a cafe and hang out with friends. I'm lame, I know.

I'm finally feeling almost normal after this weekend. Thankfully my stomach should now be accustomed to almost any type of food that I should encounter here in Yucatán. On to new news, there has been one minor change in my class schedule for the semester. In stead of taking the Culture and Mindset of Latin America ( as I found it to be too abstract of a class to take in a second language) I will be taking Mayan Language. I’ll be learning my 3rd language through my 2nd language. I can’t even begin to describe how cool this will be. You see, here in the Yucatán there is a lot of Mayan spoken and I’ll have the opportunity to use some of the phrases I learn when I travel to some of the small pueblos around the peninsula. There is a common saying around here that in essence claims that you cannot know a culture until you know the language. Language is one of the biggest ways that a culture is lived out. So many insights into Mexican culture can only be understood in Spanish, and I imagine that it is even more so with the Mayan culture. We’ll see how it turns out.

Hasta luego

Here are a few photos from my trip to Dzibilchaltùn on Saturday. The first picture is of the Templo de las Siete Muñecas. This temple is famous for its brilliant display of the equinox. The Mayas calculated exactly where to but the opening of the temple so that at the exact moment of the equinox the sun would shine perfectly through the door opening and onto the altar. Millions of people gather each year to observe this phenomena. The other pictures are of just random ruins at Dzibilchaltùn. The last picture is of the cenote, which is where the Mayas would bathe, swim, maybe even get water to drink. And yes, I did swim in the same cenote as the Mayas swam in thousands of years ago. It was awesome!

I have some pretty sweet pictures of my trip yesterday but I'm just not really in the mood to put them up right now. You see, I got the opportunity to learn a lot of new medical vocabulary in Spanish last night as I spent the entire night in the hospital. I apparently ate something bad while I was at the beach yesterday afternoon and at about 6 yesterday evening I threw up. I wasn't too panicked because everyone throws up a little bit their first week in a foreign country with drastically different eating habits. It's a common illness known in Mexico as turista, because it's the tourists who have the weak stomachs. Well I started to get a little worried after my 11th time throwing up because there was nothing left anywhere in my body expect for fluids that aren't supposed to leave their location. So, my host family took me to the hospital. As is turns out, the average person who eats contaminated food has about 10,000 bad bacteria in their system that are making them sick. After my blood work came back the doctor told me that I had about 30,000 bad bacteria in my system. and on top of that, I was extremely dehydrated from the...well, you know...."water loss". Because of this, in the past 12 hours I have exhausted 4 IVs, many injections (in both arm and butt...the latter of which I'm still bitter about), and many trips to the bathroom. I write all of this with the knowledge that some of you will be so disgusted as to never want to read my blog again...I understand. But I have to hold true to you all, the readers, in writing about both the good and the bad. So for now, hasta luego my friends, and don't drink the water in Mexico...