First day!

All the students made it, which is good (I had a few concerns). They came to orientation which always includes stuff like no binge drinking, no unsafe sex, and no tattoos. of course the fact that we have 8 incoming freshmen on the trip makes me laugh, their parents get really freaked out by those rules!!

Last night we had the opening ceremonies with UADY (University Autonoman de Yucatan) and they hired three musician guys to play. About 20 yucatecan students where there and it started off like the eighth grade dance with everyone sitting at the edges of the room and then the music started and Allan and Alba danced so everyone got up to dance. The students don´t know each other beyond introducing themselves--we haven´t even done the ¨go around the room and tell us who you are, your major, where you are from, etc.¨as there hasn´t been time. We´re going to do it today. My other big suggestion comes from the old Alternative Spring Break (shout out to Berri)--that they all get assigned numbers and they have to count off rather than we counting and then trying to figure out who is missing. Of course the numbers are in Spanish!

One of my pet peeves will be revealed this trip--posing for photos and then passing around 25 cameras. They are all digital. I remember fussing at the students in Costa Rica about this and that they could share. They thought I was being mean. Alas, we´ll see how this goes.

This morning we leave for the three day excursion to Playa del Carmen, Ek Balam, and Coba. I brought my flashlight for the night herp walk. I will be back Sunday night to Merida.