Bryan's Update

Our first full school week here in Mexico has been utterly exhausting. Between school and getting things figured out, I am plum tired out. So Monday was a pretty easy day. I ended up switching my classes a little bit, so now I don’t have classes on Fridays. I have Comportamiento Humano, or Human Organizational Behavior on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9-11, and that is my only class of the day. However, Tuesdays and Thursdays are a complete joke. I start class at 9 with Macroeconomics till 11, and then I have a 3 hour break until my next class. I end up going and having lunch, and talking to all the kids that swarm me in the courtyard. (More on that in a bit). I then have Fundamentos de Mercadotecnia (Principles of Marketing) from 2-4, Mercadotecnia Turistica (Tourism Marketing) from 4-6, and Mercados Internacionales (International Markets) from 6-8. By the end of the day, I have been ready for bed. I don’t think I have ever been as tired (and cranky) by the end of the day as I was Thursday. The classes are going to be pretty hard too. Haha, I don’t know what I was expecting from this exchange, but it is going to be a lot harder than I thought. I have to give a presentation in each of my classes on varying topics, and then a big report, and a few different “tareas” or homeworks. Add that the tests are the majority of the grades in the class and I am screwed. My first real school week is going to be a doozy next week. I have to present with my teams on Tuesday in one class, Wednesday in another, and then Thursday in another. Ugh, it is going to be a joke. The classes are two hours long, and we have to present the entire time, so I am pretty stressed out. I guess it’ll be a little better after I get those three presentations out of the way, but I’ll still have two more to go this semester after that.
Basketball “tryouts” went well on Monday night. Monday morning I met with the A.D, and then he gave me a ride across town where the school gym is located. It is so far from our house, it is ridiculous. So that night we walked to the center, found the right bus to take us over to the gym, and practiced with the team. I guess they have been together since September, and they are alright. I wasn’t blown away by any of them, but they aren’t uncoordinated or anything. Practice was a bunch of drills and running, until we finally got to run it 5-5 at the end. So now for the bad news (I guess for Dad. Haha, sorry Pa.) So the team practices 4 nights a week from 9:30 to 11:30, plus games, and everything, I had to choose between being a husband and a dad down here in Mexico, or being a college athlete and dedicating all my time to practice and ball when I have free time from school. Tuesdays and Thursdays would be especially ridiculous for Leah, since she is home as it is by herself already from 9 am till 9 pm when I finally get off the bus, so add practice on top of that those nights, I wouldn’t be home till almost midnight. I had to realize that we are here in Mexico to get a cultural experience and not to desert my wife at home for the entire time. We are still going to go train with the team on Monday nights, but that is going to be all the time I can really afford to give to basketball due to the ridiculous presentations and reports. So sorry Dad, I know you were excited to finally have a college athlete in the fam, but it wasn’t in the cards for me this time.
School outside of actual classes has been an absolute zoo. The four Americans are seriously the kids that EVERYONE wants to talk to. It is quite the change from UVU, where I generally walk from class to class with my headphones in and rarely talk to anyone. Thursday, I had to run across the street from the school to an Internet Café to print off a homework assignment. On my way back into the school, I heard some girl call my name from behind me. All of a sudden, I am surrounded by 6 girls who are all asking my questions about this and that. I finally get away from them after like 10 minutes, and go sit down to eat some lunch, and next thing I know I am surrounded by 4 guys asking me all sorts of different questions. The other 3 guys are experiencing the exact same thing. Bronson said that it is almost like watching a cat fight when girls are trying to come talk to us haha. One girl will ask us a question, and then another will ask a different question before we even have a chance to answer the first one. It is going to take some getting used to for sure.
So tomorrow we are going to head over to Dzibilchaltun, which are some Mayan ruins about 30 mins outside of Merida. I think Leah and I are going to try to go buy a camera before we go so we can finally start taking pictures again. It really has sucked not having a camera the past week. We keep having little moments where Millie is doing something dang cute, or there is something we want to remember or show you guys, and we are s.o.l. So we’ll put an end to that garbage tomorrow, and finally have a camera. There is a pawn shop down the road from us where we saw some cameras a few days ago, so we’ll probably swing by there to buy it. It’ll run is anywhere from 1000-1800 pesos hopefully (about $95-$150). We’ll send pictures of the ruins and of our house and everything as soon as we can. I know you are probably pretty anxious to see the place. We should be getting the internet installed by Feb 2nd, so that will be nice too. Leah will let you know a little but more about that on her blog update.
Anyways, it is almost 11 down here, and I am just chilling in Santiago Park doing my emailing. (All of the city parks down here have wireless internet, so that is nice. It is the only chance we have to get to the internet until the stupid internet company comes.) Leah is probably starting to get worried, so I had better start hoofing it the 4 or 5 blocks back to our place