Chupacabras

The Chupacabras
(not sure what Chupacabras is/are? check here)

ok, you want a story of our adventures in Mexico? Here you go:

So there wasn’t much to blog about last week: we are into our routines, and believe it or not living here is a lot like living there, except there is only one Wal-mart, (not 50 within spitting distance), you can get everywhere here by bus, and, most importantly, you can get kinder buenos here. But besides that, there really aren’t exciting moments everyday that can be turned into interesting blogs. “We had quesadillas and avocado slices for lunch”... ooh aah.. not very riveting, until last night…

So, I should start the story by prefacing that two days ago Paul bought some turkey at the grocery to cook up later in the week. The package said it was good for three days when he bought it. However, the night he brought it home it started smelling REALLY bad (I’m talking dead yucky road-kill, a week old) in the fridge. So the next day (are you surprised we said, we’ll worry about it in the morning?) it smelled even worse so we bagged it up in two bags and put it outside. We have two porches here, a front porch where the front door is (there is a picture somewhere below) and a back porch for washing clothes (which we send to the laundry), where the hot water heater is located, and where we put our empty beer bottles because you can return them for a deposit on, well, more beer.

I should also say that there are 3 days for trash, which is separated between organic and inorganic trash. We have a tupperware in the kitchen in which we put the organic foods and put them out for pick-up on Mondays and Fridays. Inorganic trash I put on the back porch until Wednesdays for pick-up. ok.

So it was really stinky so I put it (I know, raw meat) on the back porch. Where else could it go? We don’t have a big trash can outside. Whatever, the organic trash goes out the next morning, no biggie…

We go to bed, the bad pavo (turkey) is outside and forget about it. Now, I have had some trouble sleeping lately, mostly because I’m over-stressing about the dumb thesis so I was very happy to fall asleep relatively quickly. About 3:30 in the morning we wake up to the two beer bottles falling over on the stairs on the back porch. OMG! What could it be? The Chupacabras.

So Paul rolls over and goes back to sleep in good Paul form (the ah, we’ll worry about it in the morning thing again) and I, now super-wide awake, decide I’m going to catch a glimpse of our Chupacabras, if for no other reason, I will feel more at home here if I have my very own Chupacabras story to share with others.

Well I saw them, and yes there were two. They looked like over sized rat-ferrets. They dragged our lovely bag of rotting meat across the porch and attempted to carry it over the wall but dropped it and crawled onto the roof instead. I made some noise (like, please go away nice really big rat-ferrets!) and they left. That was at 3:30, and at 7:00 I decided to give up trying to fall back to sleep and went to Spanish class!

After class Paul and I went downtown and happened into the bookstore on the main square (imagine us at a bookstore). There was a touristy book entitled, Mammals of the Yucatan and I looked in it and sure enough there were my Chupacabras. They are called Boxoch, and are really a version of a possum. Actually they are much cuter than possums in the book but in the middle of the night are actually a bit scary especially if you think they are some kind of mutant, over-sized rat-ferret. It was 3 in the morning and I had no other reference to measure the strange animal couple climbing over my wall.

So the mystery is solved, we have possums and we haven’t seem them since we cleaned up the raw meat mess they left! (um that was me and not Paul...) No more pavo from the grocery!

more soon…

P.S. the Dzibilchaltun photos are loaded now, just scroll a little to see them!

Dzibilchaltun

Hi all,

We took a day trip to see some ruins that are off the beaten path a little. It was well worth it - we had a great time. Photos coming soon. We also found a great restaurant near our apartment that is now our favorite taco joint - yummylicious! If you come visit us, we will take you there... is that incentive enough?

photos of Dzibilchaltun to come... be patient...

Oh yeah, on the way to the ruins we took a road we had never been on and we drove past the Costco. Not even kidding. The Costco... wow.

Viva Mexico some more...

Ok, here it is the post-party post.

Friday night:

We went downtown Mérida (which by the way is the capital of the state of Yucatán. So that would the equivalent of going to Raleigh, the capital of NC) about 6 pm, which was way early for the festivities but we wanted to scope things out and see where the best places to see everything would be. It was raining when we got downtown and just getting dark so some of the pictures didn’t come out very well. But, you can see the buildings around the square all decorated.

There were kiosks to buy all of your Viva Mexico gear everywhere. Seems like everyone had a horn, a noise maker, face paint, AND a flag. We got a flag to wave around and it is now hanging on our wall.

From about 8pm on there was a big stage set up and a band playing. They were really good. Once the crowd got so big you couldn’t get close to the stage, you could still hear the music from the whole square because they had speakers everywhere. There were tons of people by about 10:30 so many you couldn’t walk around at all. At 11:00 or so the secretary came out and read the Declaration of Independence and then governor came out to give the greeting, which consisted of a call and response: secretary, Viva Mexico! crowd, Viva Mexico! secretary, Viva Hidalgo! crowd, Viva Hidalgo! you get the picture. It was pretty cool. Everyone was all excited and waving their flags.

Then they rang the bell. The bell ringing was kind of funny because when he rang the bell these pigeons started flying around, it seems they usually sleep on the bell. So the pigeons were totally put out for the night! I’m sure they are glad the festivities are over.

So really Fiestas Patrias is Saturday the 16th but the festivities started more or less last night around midnight (well a little earlier, but you get the picture). Saturday morning there was a parade downtown. We didn’t go to the parade but we did watch some of the parade in Mexico City on TV.

Can't get the photos to post right now, so I'll try again soon!

That’s all for now. We took a walk to a part of our neighborhood we hadn’t seen and came upon these two roaming dogs. One was a shih-tzu-mutt-mix and the other was a pure bred-looking Chihuahua (the mostly black with a little tan kind). They looked like they were super good friends and really cute. Do you know how hard it was not to bring them home? Paul had to pull me across the street… *sigh!*

Viva Mexico!!

Ok, first things first, here is Paul with the flan that Señora Ramirez made him for his birthday. I am already signed up to make it with her sometime to learn her secrets (a tablespoon of orange juice perhaps?) because it is the world's BEST flan. I know, you're saying: I'm not a big fan of flan (those don't rhyme) it tastes mushy to me. That is because you have never had this flan. Amazing and SuperYummy!


Here's the rest of the post, if it looks like we were eating doughnuts in the dark, well, it's because we were - our overhead light burned out and we haven't replaced it yet. Sorry for the dark photos, but they are better than nothing. Enjoy!

Viva Mexico!

Friday is Mexico´s Independence Day and the way people are gearing up, it looks to be a great big party! There are banners and lights all over downtown and millions (not exaggerating) of kiosks selling flags, streamers, drums, horns, you name it all in green, white, and red! To show you how into it everyone is here I am including some photos of our contribution to Independence Day: it was hard taking one for the club let me tell you!

So we decided to call these Freedom Doughnuts and all of the supermarkets have them (and yes, they are really yummy.) Might have to get more before the festivities are over on Friday. Señor Ramirez has explained to us that we must go downtown for the party and that it will be crazy. We have scoped out the best place on the square and are going to go get beer, I mean lemonade in the afternoon to keep our spot. Look for an update on the festivities and more photos on Sat or Sun.

Other than the big party on Friday, we are doing fine. I am still working up my thesis and Paul likes all of his classes.

Oh yeah, I found popcorn (did I mention that already?) AND the green kind of Herbal Essences shampoo, which I love AND which is no longer available in the US b-c they changed their concept or whatever, so I am super happy about that. Paul did not seem to share my enthusiasm when I demanded that we buy the shampoo at that moment, but you should have seen his face when he saw all the tequila on sale for Independence Day...

Oh yeah, we also saw a really cool salsa dish that has the green, white, and red on it AND when you get finished eating your chips or whatnot you turn the bowl over and have a smoke - it is an ashtray. We are so getting one just to prove it exists…

More this weekend!

P.S. We really need to make some friends so we can have a picture of us together!

Melissa

Petit Entry

Wow, I´m so excited people are actually reading this!

This week was good and we are tired. Paul had his first week of classes. He is taking 4 all together. They are at 8 in the morning so he gets up super early. The good thing about getting up early here is that it´s not so damn hot before the sun comes up! He likes his classes so far but finding the books and photocopies is a whole other story. Plus, the facultad is brand new (and sort of not finished) and way out in the middle of no where (literally) so if you forget something, it is a long bus ride back to the campus.

I´m taking a one-on-one Spanish class that is going great. My maestra is really nice and we talk about all kinds of stuff, especialmente chismes!

Paul and I went back to the immigration office today (so much fun) and I got my visa extension, so I am legal to be here until February. Paul has to go back again! to get his FM-3 approved. Don´t ask!

After the immigration office, we went to Sanbourns for lunch and if you know what Sanbourns is, you know we had the limonada, mole, and cochinita pibil. Yum!

We don´t have any big plans for the weekend, trying to save our money so it lasts until Paul´s next installment. It cost a lot to get situated and stuff so we are a little over budget.

Sorry this is a boring post, I didn´t think we´d be in an internet cafe tonight and thought I should post something since I´m here. To make this entry a little less boring I thought I´d include a photo that happens to be on my flash pin. (Yes, I carry photos of my dogs on my flash pin, ok) In fact, I know someone (who will remain nameless) who carries photos of his grand-dogs in his wallet!

I think this photo sums up Lucas pretty well, plus, Masha had a whole post dedicated to her!

Enjoy!

Happy September!

Well it’s September!

We have been here almost two weeks and we are ready to get into a routine. We’ve been having fun, but we have been doing a lot of boring stuff too like going to the Immigration office to get Paul’s papers all squared away and the get me the 180 days I should have gotten in Cancun - the customs guy was kind of a jackass and only gave me 90 days. That was a super-fun trip! Plus we’ve had to run around getting Paul credentials for his classes, figure out how to register, and find out if there is a class I can take. Phew!

Things should get rolling next week. Paul is going to take 3 classes, two lit and one learning Yukatek Maya, which looks pretty hard from the required book, but he’s already working on refreshing his memory from last summer. He’ll be busy, but the classes look really interesting. So he’ll be taking Maya Level 3, Contemporary Mayan Literature (jealous), and a seminar on Fuentes (not so jealous!).

As for me, I have a one-on-one class lined up at the Education Department of the University to work up my Spanish. I’ll also be working on various projects with Mexican students from other classes at the university so that should be fun. Plus, I have to finish that pesky thesis. So far I’ve finished two books I brought for the thesis and am ready to start some of the revising. There is also a possibility I might be teaching English so if that works out, I’ll have some pocket money and no time to spend it – Paul likes that!

I guess that’s all for now. The weather is hot in the afternoon followed by a big thunderstorm that cools everything off for the evening, which is great. All of September should be the same.

We’re going downtown tonight when it clears up to check out the evening market. Paul wants to enjoy his last evening as a twenty-something before the big day tomorrow!

Besitos!