oh she found the strength to break free like a painted wild mustang flying out across the open range

Since I have been "out of town" more or less all weekend, it has been awhile since I've updated my blog.  Here goes nothing.

Thursday--Mexico played France in futbol.  Mexico won.  I watched crazy reactions on the news.  And while I walked around town, people were going crazy here in Merida too.  People were honking their horns, waving flags, using noisemakers, and joy-riding around town.  I went to Eladio's later that afternoon and the waiters were still all wearing their jerseys and some people were still going crazy.  That night, a group of us went to a club called Tequila.  People were still wearing their jerseys in the club.  On the way home from the club, a police man pulled our car over (a friend of Gaby's that works at Tequila was driving).  There wasn't really a reason.  He just pulled us over.  And searched the trunk.  You can't argue that in Mexico.  The police can do whatever they want.  There is a HUGE police presence here in Merida.  But I've never seen them doing anything.  Except pull us over pointlessly at 3:00 in the morning.

Friday--7:30 am departure for Chichen Itza.  8,000 tourists move through this site a day.  We got there early, so we were able to take really good pictures without a million people running around in the background.  There are 365 steps on this pyramid, and sadly, they don't allow tourists to climb up and down anymore.  From Chichen Itza, we left for Tulum where we stayed in a hostel.  Long story short, if you drink rum and fall asleep in an outdoor hammock, you will get 10000s of bug bites regardless of whether or not you applied bug spray 3 times.  Lesson learned?

Saturday--Of course not.  After a beautiful day at the Mayan ruins at Tulum, near-heat exhaustion on the beach, and a 3-4 hour rest under a shady palm tree, the same thing happened.  Whoops.

Sunday--Not a fun day.  Forgot the rest of the rum in the fridge at the hostel.  Itched like no other.  Diarrhea?  or TMI?

Today--went to class.  We didn't make pinatas like Silvia promised.  Instead we watched a depressing movie called Under the Same Moon (La misma luna).  And we had to visit la casa de artesanias (a little market for artists) AND a traditional dance.  Long story short, Alex and I fail at taking buses and ended up spending the afternoon at the air conditioned mall--which is the complete opposite side of where we wanted to be. 

Also--Valerie (the director) told me I was butch today.  Why?  Because I carry around a clip board.  I educated her that it was A. a cute clip board created by my roommate, B. that girls all over my women's college carry clip boards and that it was in no way butch, and C. that clipboards are very commonly used where I am from by people of all ages.