Megan in wéet ichil tu meen to’one’ iicho’on

Monday, June 09, 2008

It is hard to believe that this is the beginning of our second week in the program. My mind seems to be working a bit slower today, perhaps because Monday marks the start of a very long week ahead of us. Both classes seem to drag on for hours; days, weeks, or even whole seasons could pass while the seven of us sit in room 3033, yet we would never know since eternity seems to be ticking away within the confines of the classroom walls. The weather continues to be oppressive, forcing me to alter my morning routine to include a quick sprits of water to my already curly hair and a colorful ribbon to coordinate with my outfit.

During our afternoon class we split into three teams, Pablo, Garrett and I as the chakay, loosely meaning lobster, though the red fish is more accurate. It was a fierce competition in conjugation but of course the red fish won, claws down. After class Patrick, Garrett, Leah, Catherine, and I walked down to Franklin Street for pizza at Peppers, try saying that five times fast, where I enjoyed a white pizza with feta, fresh spinach, sliced tomatoes, and red onions. Oddly enough when you get a bunch of academics together they do nothing but talk about academics and literary pursuits. In fact we spent most of the time chatting about interesting books and movies before deciding that everyone should prepare a reading list to share with the group.

It was quite painful to return for another two hours of class after completing six hours already in quiet misery interspersed with bursts of laughter which only prompted quick glances at my watch to discover that two or three minutes had passed since my last peek. Though the movie was quite informative, even for a second viewing, I could not help but feel my heart sink as the minutes neared the hour of the final bus home. Sure enough, as Catherine and I dragged our barely alert bodies up the hill the final RU bus whisked by in a blur of white and blue, its orange digital letters mocking us in the growing darkness. The twenty-minute walk back was spent in stressful contemplation of our quiz tomorrow and the pile of homework left to complete.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The only thing positive about Tuesday is that it’s not Monday and it’s one day closer to Wednesday, the midpoint of the week. My brain seems to be functioning a bit better today, at least mentally I am feeling more awake and prepared for whatever Yucatec is tossed before me today. We have finally moved into the past tense, so it is quite a relief that I can now actually say that I ate something, instead of constantly eating ja’as, bu’ul, and waaj (bananas, beans, and tortillas). I woke up thirty minutes earlier this morning to review for the quiz this afternoon and spent another ninety minutes studying over lunch, in addition to the hour spent in preparation last night. The material is overwhelming and memorizing a whole dialogue in one night is definitely testing my cognitive abilities, and reminds me of studying hieroglyphs for my weekly quizzes last semester, which after a few hours quickly turn into meaningless spaghetti spirals.

Shortly after taking the quiz we were handed our grades for the last two quizzes, which I am pleased to say that I received a perfect score on both. We spent most of our time this afternoon on definitions of relationships in Maya, which I will share my favorite with you here. Megan in wéet ichil tu meen to’one’ iicho’on. Loosely translated, Megan and I have the same/similar face because we are twins.

It has been a pretty relaxing evening drawing intransitive completive and transitive completive scenes for class tomorrow, my stick figures tapping their tiny stick fingers on crooked piano keys, drinking wine from glasses with tiny stems, and comically smiling as they purchase red and white flowers. I have spent about an hour typing notes from the last two days and feel a tinge of hesitation in pursuing this activity further tonight. Instead I will try to get through a few pages on the caste war and talking cross in Mexico, definitely with a glass of wine and brownie chocolate chip cookie, before perhaps turning to a few minutes of reading purely for enjoyment and bed.