Something Old, Something New

THE MAYANS ARE OLD.

Confession: I sometimes have a hard time keeping my eyes open in my History of Mayan Civilization and Culture class. Defense: the class starts at 8 a.m, consists of two hours of nonstop PowerPoint slides and lecturing, and the maestra speaks very, very quickly. It doesn't help that the first two weeks of the course were essentially an overview of ALL of Mayan civilization, covering the pre-classic, classic, and postclassic periods and their numerous defining characteristics...You can hardly be surprised that my body sought sleep as a refuge from Information Overload!

Fortunately, I think the course has finally turned a corner. Each day this week, we've been focusing on a different type of archeological evidence of the ancient Mayans (ceramics and rocks and bones, oh my!). On Tuesday we visited the university's ceramics laboratory and held vase fragments dating from the pre-classic era -- over 2,000 years ago!

In addition to the more interactive and focused subject matter, I've really enjoyed getting to hear more from my Yucatecan classmates this week. Majors (carreras) work a little differently in Mexico: most students arrive to university with a fairly specific career in mind, and take only those classes necessary for a degree in their field. (Since they know I'm taking Spanish and history classes, people here look confused when I explain that I'm actually a policy studies major.) As a result, several of my classmates already have highly specialized knowledge in their carrera. On Monday one student gave a presentation on the use of shell as a material for toolmaking. Today, another student helped the maestra fill in some blanks about skeletal evidence of ritualistic cranial alterations...I can promise you I wasn't falling asleep during that conversation!

LUXURY MOVIE THEATERS ARE NEW.

Sorry for that embarrassingly terrible segue, but I really had to write about this. Yesterday, I went to the Movie Theater of the Gods.

Mérida's biggest mall has two movie theaters: your average one...and then the Altabrisa VIP. After forking over just 9 bucks, my classmates and I took our seats in massive, reclining leather chairs and were promptly presented with a menu offering everything from chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks to white wine and carrot cake. Although I had solemnly sworn to resist temptation, the appeal of a giant, $5 cheesecake crepe with raspberry sauce was too much for my willpower. The waiter brought it to my seat just as the lights began to dim for the feature presentation... The movie ("Man of Steel") was pretty unremarkable, but the atmosphere was heavenly. I think I might have to head back tomorrow for Pixar's "Monsters University!" :D