Oliver sent this to his mum

Oliver must have been playing online yet again. As a Brit, Oliver felt this video was an important video. He frequently sends me all types of goodies referring to his attempts to flee back to England.

a past trip but still a cool one

I just read an article about Nova Scotia, where I had the opportunity to go a few summers ago in May.

I do remember that I ate lobster, clams, mussels, or fish for every single meal there. I went to a UF student's wedding up there, giving me the excuse to go. I also went to Prince Edward Island where the Anne of Green Gables house is (the books are set on PEI).

traveling during a high threat level with children...thank god it´s not my problem

Jason reported that the travels yesterday from Merida to Miami, Miami to Atlanta, and so on were terrible. Delays everywhere, can´t carry lipstick or compacts (not that Jason had those). Antonio had to throw out his hair gel.

BUT I have to go ahead and say, at least I am not Lynn flying back from London with her husband and two children (10 and 7 years old or so). Here is her report:
¨
Well, actually, I'd rather not get killed, especially
on a hijacked airplane. But lookie what I get to
bring on the 7 hour flight which shows 1!! movie with
my school-age children:

"Carry-on baggage must be limited to accessible
property in a single transparent sealable plastic bag.
Only one bag per passenger will be allowed beyond the
security checkpoint or onboard the aircraft. Contents
of the bag may only include:

Pocket size wallets and pocket size purses—not
handbags—plus contents (for example money, credit
cards, identity cards).
Travel documents essential for the journey (for
example passports and travel tickets).
Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient
and essential for the flight (such as diabetic kit)
except in liquid form unless verified as authentic.
Spectacles and sunglasses without cases and contact
lens holders without bottles of solution.
Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the
flight, if unboxed (such as tampons, pads, towels and
wipes).
Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs.
Keys, but no electrical key fobs (remote control door
openers).

I am sure the kids will enjoy playing with my tampons.
I will be downing the prescription medicine within
the first 10 minutes.

Oh, and we have to check in 3 hours before the 10:30
am flight, so we'll need to leave Kevin's father's
house at 5:30 am, which will mean we need to get up at
4:30 am. Cuz I didn't need that extra hour of sleep.

I can understand no electronics, but NO BOOKS!!!! Have
these people gone insane????? And no food. Because
you know my kids just wolf down airline food.

OMG!!!

I will have a twitch when you see me Monday. If I'm
lucky and not in the slammer or the loony bin.

OK, I will be glad to survive it and not die at the
hand of a terrorist, but...

hasta luego, Merida

Today is my last day in Merida and I am finishing up my book chapters and shopping.
I think the Cupoli children benefitted the most from my travels. The gifts are quite scarce this year, folks, so you better let me know today if there is something you are dreaming of in Merida.

Last night I got a tatuje temporale from a guy who painted henna on my ankle with a toothpick and he used a bottle cap to mix the henna. I did not have to sign anything prohibiting this, but next year we´ll add the I WILL NOT TRY TO GO TO VISIT CUBA WHILE I AM MERIDA to the student rules.

I know that the staff at the Hotel Caribe was dying to find out if Jason was indeed my novio or not. Sure enough, he left yesterday morning and I came back to the Caribe in the afternoon after working at the internet cafe and they were like ¨so...you´re alone now, where´s your novio?¨so I got to tell them that Jason is an amigo, not novio. The intrigue always continues at the Caribe.

a Spaniard, an Italian, and an American walk into a bar...

When we went to Uxmal yesterday, our tour group consisted of two people from Spain, two from Italy, and us. We broke into two languages, English and Spanish for the guided tour. But when Jason and I went to lunch with the group, it was definitely a bit like the movie Lost in Translation. The Italian guy spoke some English (they were from Milan) but his girlfriend only spoke Italian. The Spaniards were pretty much only speaking Spanish but the wife could get a few English words across. My Spanish is pretty weak. Yet we managed to have a conversation over lunch with everybody. It turns out that the couple is from the Canary Islands. Very cool. I think if you had a video of the entire meal you would have bent over laughing at it.

Mercado libre commercial

The Mexican ebay is the Mercado Libre and they are advertising left and right on the TV. For some reason I love this commercial! Here is a link to it on You Tube.

Side note: although the default settings in Mexico make everything in Spanish (like the popups for errors, etc.), the blogger website is currently defaulting to Italian. Good thing that I took 4 years of Latin, 2 years of Spanish, and 1 year of Italian.

television, my friend

as you all know, I am a fan of the mindless hum of a television set and the drivel it produces. In case you were wondering, I have been able to catch up with a lot of reruns of stuff that I never would watch in the US, but because it's in English, I watch it with the subtitles to improve my Spanish. Right now I am in the middle of the 12th season of ER, which I had stopped watching years ago. I am a few episodes into the 2nd season of the L Word so now I will have to finish them at home on Netflix. CNN en espanol is actually quite good and informative. It also makes the US look even more bumbling.

But of most importance is the Gilmore Girls saga! I started watching it last summer while here...then borrowed the first few seasons from Fran (yes I am outing you as a GG fan) and am all the way through Season 5 disc 4 when I left for Merida. (Those city budget hearings got in the way of my rerun watching.) Anyway...there are episodes on from early in season 5 on here, but more problematic is that they are showing some season 6 episodes and of course I cannot look away! oh no! when did Lorelai and Luke get engaged...why are Rory and Lorelai fighting...what is up with Lane and Zach! oh boy. Netflix must save me when I get back.

some bad news about a former student

So usually I don't share bad news on my blog but I received word today about a former student of mine, Jennifer, who is suffering from leukemia. She married one of my former orientation leaders, Jeremy, and they were off in DC together starting their lives, he in graduate school and she was working in student affairs. Apparently the end is quite near despite all hopes. You can read more about her at the blog that her husband started. Click on updates to follow the saga through. I hope for a miraculous recovery.

off to Uxmal tomorrow

I´ll be gone to Uxmal tomorrow, it´s a spectacular archeological site. I am sure that I´ll have a good report. In the meantime, I have to learn to make my own gazpacho when I return, I´ve made it before but it´s not great. Foodies to the rescue, por favor.

lluvia y yucatecan cuisine

Jason´s luggage is now in his possession but it´s been raining a lot, the most I´ve ever seen it rain in Merida. Usually we get the random afternoon thunderstorms but this is actually rain. I had to buy an umbrella today.There is a 60% chance of rain for the next week! Check out the forecast.

we went to the museo de antropologia today which is really nice and then to eat at Los Almendros, which is the Yucatecan restaurant. I had the cochinita pibil and Jason had the queso relleno.

Thanks to Scott for the link to Jill´s commentary about the Berkshire county adventure and for the photo of our creatures which are currently ensconced at his home. I am sure Mozart is pleased with his guests and Maggie, well, not so much.

luggage humor

Jason arrived last night and his luggage is apparently still in Miami.

when you arrive in Merida, you get your luggage off the belt and then send it through the Xray machine. Then you get the luggage and go over and there is a traffic signal that you push, if the light is green then you go and if it is red then you have to stop and they have to open your luggage. Yes it was Xrayed 1 minute right before and of course it is Xrayed in the U.S. But I got the red light so I had to open my suitcase blah blah blah. Not a huge deal.

well, even though Jason has no luggage other than his carry on bag, he still has to push the button. He gets the red light too, so now when his luggage arrives, they can´t just send it directly to the hotel but he has to go back to the airport to get it and open it up for the people. So that is an errand will do later today.

Viva Mexico!

feliz cumpleanos a mi!

yes, it's my birthday! hooray for me! of course if you are despairing because you have not been able to celebrate my birthday with me, keep in mind that I will be back very soon and I always like to make the entire month of August as a celebration. I am off to Celestun and Dzitya today with the students.

hiker update!

the hosting of the hikers apparently was successful but I still have no direct report other than : Bama's trail journal

Note that I worked one summer at Mt. Greylock at the Visitor's Center as a nature interpreter. now, that's good stuff. And my Girl Scout leader's husband was the caretaker of the entire Massachustts part of the Appalachian Trail.

the mercado and the tarantula

Today in class we had a huge tarantula on the wall in the classroom. It was a bit distracting from the lecture from the UADY professor. Her lecture was entirely in Spanish and I am proud to report that I could actually understand almost all of it. After lunch I went with Mark and his friends to the mercado, which is a crazy Latin American market with all kinds of fruit, meat, fish, spices, vegetables, and all other items you could possibly imagine. It's a total mesh of noises and smells and crowds. Fun but I gotta go back and take a shower.

Cuba is the next island over, and it´s also octopus season

I read a good article on the bus to Palenque about how Castro can´t live forever and in Cuba they´ve been preparing for Fidel´s brother, Raul, to take over. At the same time, the U.S. is likely to make a move during the first couple of weeks of a transition. Since nothing much has changed in Cuba for decades, imagine my surprise when I saw huge crowds in Miami on CNN en espanol cheering and a whole lot of intrigue into what´s happening. You can actually fly to Havana from Merida, which of course is tempting for the U.S. students. Read about what´s happening on CNN.

Also widely reported is that today is the first day of octopus season (el pulpo). we saw the fisherman preparing when we were in Campeche last week.