Synopsis of the Equinox Tour:

Dzibilchaltun A+
Chichen Itza B-

Paul woke up a *very* cranky Melissa at 4:00 am. We got ourselves together and drove to Dzibilchaltun (a 20 minute drive). We arrived quite early but there were already many people there and there was a short line to get in. Once in the archaeological zone we walked the white road to the Temple of the Seven Dolls and waited in the lovely chilliness and darkness for the sun to rise in the temple door.

As expected, the hippie-gringos were there, but not in any really annoying way. One guy up front did yell "The suns are flashing in our eyes, turn off your camera flash!" Which was weird, because it was dark and everyone wanted a "before" photo to go with the "during" and "after" photos, yours truly included. Whatever. Snap. *Flash* Then the sun started to come up and Paul started filming. This was particularly funny when a woman standing next to Paul said "Perdon" so he moved over a bit and she stood RIGHT in front of him. Luckily for her, she was short and he could film over her. There was another guy who got in the way, but this was no surprise. I hate crowds and I was reminded why. This is pretty though:

We had a fabulous time watching the sunrise. We headed out of the ruins and to the car, which Paul promptly got stuck on a big rock in the parking lot. To his credit, the parking lot is 4 wheel drive terrain, the whole continent is rocky, and the "getting stuck" didn't damage the car as we then drove it 2 hours to Chichen later in the day. It was one of those times that you laugh about when it is over but at the time it is NOT funny.

We drove off the rock, thanks to Paul's excellent maneuvering (sp?) and had breakfast at Sanborns. Yum! Then we went home, took showers, and packed up for round 2: Chichen.

We arrived without incident in Piste around noon and actually parked a lot closer to the ruins than we had expected. We walked a bit to the park, waited maybe 20 minutes in line to get tickets and then went to have some lunch. The serpent slithers down the side of the Castillo from 4:00-4:15 so we had PLENTY of time. After lunch we walked around A LOT and saw these puppies. The Worleys might remember the momma dog which was pregnant when they were there. The puppies were SOOOO cute! It was all I could do to keep Paul from bringing one back to Merida.

We walked around in the sun and heat and finally it was time to see the shadow. We got our seats on the grass kind of early so we could see and sat in the sun and waited. At 3:57 you could see the shadows starting to form. At 4:02 a BIG rain cloud covered up the sun and sprinkled on us a bit - but it was so hot and the rain was so cold, it felt wonderful. Well, at 4:27 when the cloud still hadn't passed I convinced Paul to get up and move around. At 4:35 we left, having seen NOTHING.

Oh well, I'm so glad we went to Dzibilchaltun and saw the sunrise. Also, we briefly met up with our friends Melissa and John. It was great to see them for a bit especially since we didn't see the serpent. Argh! We drove back bummed and tired and got back to Merida just in time for some Law and Order. We fell asleep by 9:30pm.

Well, Paul is back, W is gone, and the house is a mess. Why? Because we are watching ALL the NCAA games online. Woohoo! The best part is, it's free! So there's no time to mop between the Dook loss *Yay!*, the Carolina win *Yipee!*, and whatever is going on with Wisconsin!? Paul has a theory, but I'll let him post it if he wants to.

We found a new restaurant that is near our house, so the Yucatecan options have expanded, which is good because (I can't believe I'm saying this) but I am seriously tired of tacos al pastor. I know I will regret that come July or August, but really, I am. The new place, Susana, has wonderful, HUGE panuchos, a good sopa de lima, and so far that's all we've had but they also offer poc-chuc tacos and tortas, etc, too. Lots of yummy (and cheap) choices. Grocery shopping in the US is going to give me a heart attack. Oh, but Target, whenever I "need" a new bag/container/organizer something, ooooh.

This weekend we hung out downtown since we hadn't done that in a while. We go at night because it is getting hot here. (95 right now) and we are using the a/c more and more. Then we are off on our Equinox Tour Wednesday, which should be cool (see below for details).

I suppose that is all the details on us. Here is a*nother* photo of spoiled pups: from left to right Ellie, Luke, Sutton. Don't worry, Masha is on the couch next to this one, she's just not in the photo. What I'd like to know is: Where do the people sit?! Apparently Miss Ellie and Mr. Lucas are in LOVE, which is a bit gross if you ask me. They ARE cousins after all. But whatever, if Mash can behave enough to have 3 other dogs in "her" space, Lucas and Ellie can do whatever they like!

What the ...?

I am really beside myself. ALL this CRAZY *hand waving* talk about the "early" Daylight Savings Time and how airlines are gonna be confused, your toaster is going to attack you, Y2K nightmares all over again, like your computer might swallow you up so that you become a cyber person. In all of the rot that I have been reading (it's like a train wreck, you know, you, well, I, can't look away) I never read anywhere that this whole "early" thing was for the US only!!! JHC!

Correct me if I am wrong, and clearly I am wrong, but I always conceptualized Daylight Savings as a UN of sorts, but about Time. Either you are in or you are out, and "we, the UN" really don't care which, just decide. (Decide Indiana! For the love of God, Decide!) But I am stone wrong! Apparently we - meaning USers (I refuse to say Americans, don't even get me started there, that is another rant for another night) - can pick when OUR Daylight Savings begins and ends and everyone else stays the same. Well this little tidbit would have been oh, so helpful, BEFORE I ran around like a crazy person changing clocks ahead and mourning the hour of my life that was lost. alas! I got it back! Do you know why? Because Mexico don't play like that, yo. They aren't having any of this people-will-spend-more-in-daylight-and-we'll-make-it-look-like-it-saves-energy-BULL-CRAP-smorgasbord. Oh, no!

So, I have no IDEA what time it is where you are, but it is 10pm here and time keeps rolling on. I didn't lose an hour (yet), I am not going to be that stupid jerk who shows up to class an hour early tomorrow (phew!), and Paul was right (darnet anyhow!). Daylight Savings for the rest of the world is still on for the first weekend of April. I hope George W. sets his watch to the right time tomorrow when he shows up in good ol' Merida. Paul joked that he left for Santa Elena this week because he refuses to be in the same zip code as W, but the joke is on Paul because Calderon and W are visiting Uxmal, a mere 5 miles from Santa Elena!

BTW: I'll let you know if my toaster tries to attack me. Keep an eye on yours. ja ja ja!

M

Well, here I am all by my lonesome. Paul left this morning for Santa Elena where he is working on his video project.

We went back to Mani this week so Paul could film two short plays that this teacher wrote. The plays actually took place in Dzan on the 73rd Anniversary of the town. It was a big deal and the WHOLE town was there! We had a good time but it was actually quite chilly that night and I didn't bring a long-sleeved t-shirt so I FROZE (I know, hard to believe) the whole time! That night I used a BLANKET to sleep with until I warmed up. The plays were cool, in Maya so I didn't understand them until Paul explained them to me, but the residents of Dzan LOVED them and laughed a lot. After that, the town fed everyone massive amounts of tacos and soft drinks. Yum!

Right now I am listening to UNC play really well against Boston College, up 15 at the half. Woohoo! Go Heels! I need to pay attention too because P will want a play-by-play tonight when he calls.

This week I am on full-blown thesis work/reading/revising/etc. Next week we are going to do an "Equinox Tour." March 21 is the Spring Equinox so we are going to Dzibilchaltun at sunrise to see the sun rise (duh) in the temple window/doorway and then we are off for a totally annoying but well worth it experience of Chichen Itza at the Equinox. I am not too into fake new-age hippies running around pretending to worship a sun god they know nothing about all the while thinking they are being "Mayan." Then you ask a Mayan woman what they are doing and she looks at you and says, "I have no clue, I'm Catholic!" BUT! We are going anyway to see the serpent climb down the Castillo at 4pm. It should be cool and we promise to get totally hilarious footage of dumb-fake-new-age-hippies.* see disclaimer below.

Here is the pic of my super cute niece and nephews. I told you they were cuties. And look at me, in a sweater! ha! (typing in a tank-top, jeans folded up at the knee, bare feet, fan blasting)



Oh yeah, I forgot to tell y'all what P got me on my return to Mejico. If you remember, (and if you don't, go to blogs in September) we were both enamored by the "multi-use" bowls that were everywhere for Independence Day. Well, we had been eyeing a set but they were kind of expensive. They went 1/2 off while I was gone so P got a set of "party ware" that includes two multi-use bowls. The bowl is a glass dish really that you put snacks, chips, candy, etc in when you have a party and then when the snacks are gone you turn the dish up-side down and it can be used as an ashtray! I don't know why I find this so amazing, but I do. And I don't even smoke! Anyway, we are now the proud owners of 2 matching chip dish/ashtray bowls and I couldn't be happier!

In other news, I was watching the TV Guide channel (just in case the UNC-BC game was on ESPN here) and I saw a preview for The Closer on TNT! We get TNT here but have never gotten The Closer. Am very excited about this. Will keep you posted as details become clear.

And to reply via blog (how rude!) to just some girl's comment, I really wanted to get it (V for Vendetta) but I just didn't. I did enjoy the movie although the whole time I kept wondering how V got all his money. And the "fake torture" um, not cool. Ever. For. Any. Reason. Well, real torture isn't cool either, but you know what I mean! Kisses to Peanut. looking for a rebozo...

*OK I really feel like Mimi Smartypants here, but just for the record, I really like hippies and some of my close friends are hippies. I do not like fake-pretend-hippies. You know the difference. The fake ones are annoying.

OK, half-time is over, back to "watching" the game!

Much Love

M

1. Warning!
Thank goodness for the internet because it was a KILLER to listen to Tyler get clocked and not be able to see it. Luckily there were a few replays on YouTube so we got to see what all the hubbub was about. Suspended for one game. That is sad and embarassing. That is all I am going to say about that.

2. Movie Update.
While in Iowa Dad and I watched The Departed. I thought it was excellent. I am a big fan of suspense thrillers. Also saw the DaVinci Code. It was better than I was expecting. Paul and I just watched V for Vendetta. I get the feeeling this movie was trying to be historico-political but can someone fill me in, 'cuz I didn't get it. It wasn't baaad, but I am not a Natalie Portman fan. Although to be fair, she was much less annoying in this than the Star Wars movies.

3. Mani.
We went to Mani again for the night last night. Mani is the Yucatecan town where Diego de Landa burned the codices. (For more information, email Paul) We stayed at the Hotel Villa Real, which we like a lot in Ticul, and then this morning we went to meet the teacher Paul needed to talk to - so we got up and got ready at the hotel and ate breakfast there as well. We have stayed at this hotel before. So we go downstairs for breakfast and order two coffees. They bring us hot water and a jar of Nescafe. Now, don't get me wrong, some places you expect the Nescafe, but not here because we have had REAL coffee here before. Ugh! Oh well, Paul met the guy in Mani, I read for my defense, and the day was gorgeous! It felt like a Spring day with a warm sun and a cool breeze. Just lovely. We had spaghetti for dinner (with Nancy's "garlic" sourdough bread) and took a walk. It is good sleeping weather so I am off to sleepy ni-night!


M

Welcome back to Mexico.

Paul is cleaning out his side of the closet so I can put all of my stuff on his side because we have termites again.

We knew they would come back because last September all they did was a little spraying and that isn't going to take care of them. (I just sprayed them with windex and it took the paint right off the shelf, the expensive termite spray didn't do that, gee I wonder how stong it was!)
All of the wood in the closet needs to be taken out and replaced. That's not going to happen because the Ramirez's are going to remodel the whole place when we leave, move into the apartment, and rent the house. We have stopped asking for things to be fixed because they just don't want to do it.

So now we are cleaing everything out of the termite side of the closet (my side, of course!) and putting things in other places for the time being. Lovely. Just what I like to wake up to on a Saturday morning. Had any termites lately? Well, actually yes, thanks for asking.

The little buggers are so gross too. All clear and disgusting.

Luckily I didn't lose any clothes or books this time just some photocopies for the class I'm taking, which I will do without. But still!!!

Ugh!

I made it back to Mexico to a happy-to-see-me Paul!

I think he might have just been excited about all the presents I brought him but he says he missed me too. So after digging into the ginger snaps and chocolate chip cookies Paul's mom made and opening the baseball card packs Dad send him, he wanted to know all about the dogs, of course. I have to say they weren't half as excited to see me as I was to see them. They were all like, "Oh, you, you're that nice girl who used to yell at us when we got on the couch." *tail wag* And I'm all like "Look pups it's MEEE!" And they're all "Did you bring us presents?" Which I did, of course. (and one squeaks, sorry Tom and Nancy!). Basically the dogs had a good time showing me what a nice life they have at the beach and if I want to come back and visit them in their two-story playhouse sometime, I am more than welcome. Seriously though, they are super happy (and spoiled) and Masha did give me a big hug when I first arrived. Lucas snuggled to me all night - actually he was pushing me to one side of the bed, but we'll call it snuggling, and they both have grown up a lot. Masha doesn't even bark at Billy! Wow. She is getting old! Lucas doesn't really look like a puppy anymore (which makes sense since he is 3!) but still!

I had a great 24 hours in Charleston with the Worleys and the pups. Nancy fed me a huge spread of all my favorite foods and when Paul called I had to be all sly and say, yeah, the food was, well, you know, OK. He totally knew I was lying because his mom is a fab chef, but I don't think he could have handled it if I had told him what all I ate. Yum.

Anyway, Paul is trying to figure out the external hard drive to save his videos on and I am surfing for classes I can take next semester. (that's called constructive procrastinating) I also brought a couple of books Paul wanted, coffee, some peeps (essential), curry powder, BBQ sauce, and syrup. Had to leave my super-cute new scarf(thanks Ant A!) in Charlotte (bummer) because the only thing to do with it here is to hang it as a decoration!

We had an uneventful taxi back to the apartment and although it was hot, the apartment was clean (gasp!) and it was good to get back into my routine (that is, watching Law and Order and thesis stuff). I didn't go to class on Wed though because I was so tired and I didn't unpack before we went to sleep Tuesday night but I'll get back into that routine next week.

I suppose that is all for now, the Amazon fiasco seems to be fixing itself. I ordered some books and they were delivered to the wrong address, but I should have the replacement delivery next week. Phew! Luckily I can use the original books when I get back to CH and won't have to lug these ones with me! :)

well, I have to get back to work because the Carolina game comes on at 8 here and we have to eat dinner and get our walk in before then!

Much Love

M