Jach k'iilkab

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Jach k’iilkab. It is very hot! Today was a sizzling ninety-seven degrees and from the moment that I walked out the door I knew that I was bound to be a puddle on the pavement. Both the morning and afternoon class have melted away, along with my sanity, and were marked by an air of hilarity, a sure sign of the upcoming weekend.

There are still moments of prolonged silence and passing glances as my classmates and I get to know each other better, yet there are flashes of some future friendships built upon laughter, sweat, torturous oral quizzes in Yucatec, and beating grammar over our heads. The seven of us create an interesting blend, one of those Ben N’ Jerry’s concoctions with a really cool name like the boox báalam, or black jaguar, a blend of laughter, distance, sincerity, and even some differences of opinion. In fact the firm façade of our afternoon professor has begun to splinter on many occasions confirming that he is indeed more than just a linguistics robot. During lunch everyone seems to withdraw for a little alone time, yet it is not long before groups are formed and everyone is talking and laughing, though mostly about Yucatec Maya. I was very excited to share some stories from my Semester at Sea experience with Pablo who is a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill. He sounded very excited about the program and wants to hear more.

I was feeling very satisfied with my evening workload following the Popul Vuh movie until we were notified about an oral exam tomorrow in our morning class. I have absolutely no desire to study anymore tonight, and instead took a quick glance through my notes and went to bed. It seemed like we might actually get a few moments free of Yucatec since were spared a grammar quiz tomorrow afternoon, but I suppose that when you are learning a language in six weeks there is really no time to come up for air.

I have decided to type my notes from class in the hopes that it will prepare me for our grammar exam in a week and a half. There are so many components that are incredibly jumbled and if I could just get everything in order it might actually make some sense. It is time to do some laundry and I am resurrecting a technique from Semester at Sea to hand wash as many items as possible in Ziploc sized washing machines, all of which include a pre-wash, soak, and rinse cycle in a storage sized Ziploc bag filled with water and laundry detergent and rolled around on the shower floor.

The movie was extremely boring; especially since the last time I watched it was less than two months ago. Meanwhile, it was interesting to see the response of the students that had never seen the film. It would have been fascinating to hear the commentary in Maya. I feel like my time could have been better spent preparing for the exam tomorrow and instead I feel unprepared and a bit stressed. The streetlight is sending beams of light through the spaces in the blinds, while the background on my laptop is set to a beautiful orange washed sunset at the Schwedagon Pagoda bursting through the tiny golden stupas, and I am ready for bed. Tomorrow is the last day of classes until Monday, and though I am sure the hours will pass slowly a weight will be lifted from my shoulders at 4:30 when the weekend begins.

Friday, June 06, 2008

This morning I watched the minutes pass by…tock, tick, tick, tock…until eleven o’clock and the commencement of our oral exam, my nerves rising to a peak. As I successfully answered each question my anxiety lessened. I felt bad when someone else made a mistake, and in turn was thrilled with how well I actually performed. I was extremely excited when it was over and more so that it turned out to be less intimidating than I expected. Everyday class borders between really fun and really tedious, yet I am actually starting to understand the grammar better and can visualize using the language during our time in Mexico.

In the course of our lunch break Leah and I spent some time getting to know each other better, in fact I was pleasantly surprised to discover that she has twin sisters. In addition, we each reminisced about our years as competitive swimmers, which brought back a bundle of memories perched on a diving block waiting for the starting buzzer to begin an event.

It is over one hundred degrees outside and the heat is absolutely draining. I never expected it to be this hot in North Carolina in June, but I suppose that it is only preparing us for the inevitable as we get one day closer to our departure for Mexico. After class Catherine and I decided to locate the Trader Joe’s on Franklin Street. Our little adventure took over two and a half hours, but in the end we were successful. We have both commented often on our situation here in Chapel Hill. It feels like we are stranded on the moon. We have no laundry facilities beyond hand washing, no internet beyond the computer stations in the FedEx Global Education Center, we have no transportation beyond a public bus system that does not run on weekends, and trying to acquire food is like hoping for a breeze in this summer heat. Just before reaching Trader Joe’s we stopped at TCBY for an ice cream. My small cup of mint chocolate chip was extremely refreshing and created a chill deep within my being that I carried with me on our final trek to Trader Joe’s. I managed to find some bagels and crème cheese for breakfast, peaches to replenish my dwindling supply of fruit, bread for my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, plantain chips, feta for my pasta and vodka sauce, and a bottle of Kris pinot grigio.

As we waited for the bus in the scorching, searing, violent heat I felt as if each car that passed stared at us, as if we were not standing at a bus stop at all but two Martians from another time and place just standing idly in the afternoon sun. Before long I began to wonder if we were waiting at a bus stop that hasn’t been used in decades, the sun bleaching the road sign to a pale Pepto Bismol pink and feeble blue. I felt so stranded as the minutes ticked on and on and on and no buses passed. In a way I sensed that the stares from young men passing in shiny convertibles were like vultures circling overhead. Just down the road a sign read Booker Creek and soon I was imagining a country song about the hookers from Booker Creek sang in a strong Southern drawl. After almost thirty minutes a bus, or wawa as I have come to know it in Yucatec, arrived and we headed back to Ram Village Apartments.

Returning to the apartment completely drained, I made pasta with vodka sauce and decided to have a glass of wine. Unfortunately a battle between suction and myself ensued…and as you can imagine suction won. My wine 911 was the result of a corkscrew on a pocketknife and a rubber cork that would not budge an inch. After an hour of hilarity attempting to remove the cork, both Catherine and I pulling with all our might, I gave in. Catherine has suggested that before the trip is over that I will at least try a beer, but I refuse to shift my preferences from grapes to grain. Before bed I did some laundry and finally put my head on my pillow in the complete darkness knowing that tomorrow I will have a break from Yucatec and a chance to revive my spirits.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

This morning I worked on my vocabulary list of Yucatec terms for travel, adding illustrations, and editing before leaving for the library on the other side of campus. It is over one hundred degrees today and the walk to the Union was splashed in a labyrinth of shade and sun created by the foliage of the trees and the rectangular forms of the buildings along the path. I can see how the walk would be pleasant in better circumstances, but lugging my laptop and Yucatec books to the library was a chore in restraint. Though it was exceedingly hot I only managed to comment on the warmth and humidity a dozen times or so. Catherine and I made a brief stop at the Union, where I purchased a bottle of tea to quench my thirst, before arriving at the library to print my project.

My first task was to obtain a guest card at the library from an antiquated machine that spits out a fancy plastic card that has to be fed back into the machine to add a balance. After several attempts to push, shove, and ram the card into the machine I finally walked away with a few dollars worth of printing and copying privileges. When I finally located a computer with a USB drive on the front of the central processing unit I opened my document and pressed print. Then I had to locate a print station to swipe my guest card and process the print job. After all of this I managed to print a copy but could not locate the printer that the document was sent to, so it was time to get some help from the experts, at least I had hoped. Apparently the students working in the library have no idea how to print a document or the location of the printers. Don’t they go to this school? Don’t they work at the library on a regular basis? Well the computer expert finally made an appearance and helped me to finish printing and locating my hard copies in a printer on the other side of the library. Unfortunately, I discovered that guests can only print in black and white, and while my project doesn’t have to be in color, it would have looked much snazzier. My other classmates have elected to handwrite and draw the illustrations on their projects, but I could not imagine subjecting someone else to my drawing of a bicycle, or a sad looking stick figure climbing an ancient ruin.

After a few hours at the library I walked back to the apartment alone, making a quick stop in the bookstore where I found a pocket Spanish/English dictionary to use in conjunction with my Yucatec/Spanish dictionary, so that I can finally understand some of the Spanish definitions in my Maya dictionary that have escaped my memory over the last five years since studying Spanish in high school. The UNC Student Store is very nice with a wonderful bookstore, snack bar, and gift shop, which among the Tar Heel novelties I discovered a corkscrew sure to open my stubborn bottle of wine. As I walked back to the apartment, sweating buckets, a surprisingly refreshing breeze swept me down the hill and back to the comfort of my air-conditioned room in the Ram Village Community.

I spent the afternoon writing and typing Yucatec notes, hand washing a few articles of clothing and chatting with Catherine about our adventures abroad. I enjoy talking to her about her experiences, dissertation, and of course the Yucatec class. We seem to get along very well and it is nice to have someone familiar around. At about nine o’clock Garret called and asked if we wanted to go out for drinks, so fifteen minutes later we were in his car being whisked down to Franklin Street and the Milltown bar for drinks. Though it was still very humid, we sat outside and talked for hours, a cool breeze sweeping over the patio as we laughed. The three of us seem to get along well, though occasionally Catherine vocalizes her opposition to many of his opinions. It is nice to talk to another student that can actually hold a conversation about hieroglyphs, iconography, and anthropology. We got back after one o’clock and I enjoyed a very restful sleep filled with thoughts of anything except Yucatec Maya and the knowledge that I have one more day of rest before another very long week.