When I was coming up my dad always used to say to me, “Meg, don’t wish your life away.” At those moments I would still pine for some goal at hand–high school graduation, a vacation, a paper deadline. Only now do I fully see the truth to his words. Here in Mérida, time is going by waaay too quickly. The program officially ends December first but most of my classes have their final assignments due near Thanksgiving. That’s less than two months left in the semester. I feel like I just got here, and already the familiar end-of-semester panic is literally giving me heartburn. Similar to past semesters in the US, my stress spurs me to give in to almost every food craving. Takis de “Fuego,” get ready! Aha, just discovered the true source of the heartburn.
It’s not as if I don’t have things to look forward to after the semester. For one, I have the month of December off to travel. Tentatively, my plan is to spend the first week in Cuba (not spending any money, of course,) where I will break out my “Cuba Shorts” for the very first time. They are by far too tight, blue leopard print, with Hawaiian flowers. I bought them at a store called Very Sexy that surprisingly, leopard print hot-shorts aside, sells pretty tasteful clothing. Then, my sister will visit me in Mérida before we begin our peninsular pilgrimage through Campeche, Tabasco and then Chiapas. We’ll move on to Campeche if we survive the crowds, that is. Mérida is not the best city for tourists, despite it’s proximity to Cancun. Even so, all the hotels are booked in expectation of the Mayan prophecy, the end of the Mayan calendar on the twenty-first of December. Actually, the prophecy says it’s hitting the fan first in Chiapas, so I’ll be in the right place at the right time! (So what if that’s by accident?) Or, less likely, at the very, very, very wrong place… I’m not sure what the crowd is going to do in Mérida. Cram into one of the tiny bars? Jam the one way streets with rental cars? Elbow the viejicitas for a seat on the bus? I hope the visitors have a wonderful time, but I’m already getting protective of my little city. Probably a good thing I’ll miss the bulk of it.
From there, my friend Carolyn will take over for my sister and we will work our way up through Oaxaca and end up in Mexico City, where my beloved Frida awaits at the Casa Azul! Hopefully we can stop in Veracruz and Puebla on the way, but a summer’s worth of work at a market only buys you so many Cuba Shorts, so we’ll see what happens. From DF, I’ll fly back to Cancun, meet the new batch of American students for orientation and start all over again.
Reviewing this post, I can see that I am getting super ahead of myself. I’m already thinking of next semester! OK, let’s be real, I’m already racking my brain thinking of ways to stay for the summer. So let’s focus. To quote my dad again, “POWER FOCUS!!!” I will live in the present so that my memories of Mexico won’t be marred by anxiety. Here we go:
-Presently I have a mountain of reading and mid-term assignments to work on.
-That didn’t help, let’s try another:
-Presently I have to pack for my upcoming weekend in Chiapas.
-A little better, but not there yet. Again:
-Presently, I am working up an appetite to dine with friends, and then head downtown to celebrate the start of the weekend.
There we go.
