What a Week

The title of this post is two things. I looked at when I last posted on my blog, and I gasped, What! A week??? Then I thought about everything that has happened since I last posted, and I sighed, What a week! Unfortunately I have neither the time nor the energy to do more than give a quick bullet list of the week's events. Pictures and stories will come sometime Monday, if all is well.

• Bad news first.
  I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday feeling really sick. I saw a doctor on Wednesday, and he recommended a blood test. The results confirmed his suspicion Thursday afternoon: I have mononucleosis, a viral infection. The main symptom is overwhelming tiredness, which has plagued me since arriving here in Merida. The other symptoms bothering me this week were fever, horrible body aches, and a sore throat. Thankfully those have gone for now, leaving me with tiredness. Mono has no cure, and can only be treated with rest and plenty of fluids. It can last for weeks or even months; every case is different.
• The rest is good news!
  I started my new class Monday, and I love it. We had several field trips with our class during the week, and they were interesting as well. On Tuesday we took a tour of the city on an open double decker bus. We took pictures, got rained on, and got hit in the face by tree branches. It was great! Thursday we went to the Great Museum of the Mayan World. That was filled with history and fascinating glimpses of life on the Yucatan Peninsula both before and after the Spanish arrived.
• Friday and Saturday we spent away from home on a field trip. We went first to the Mayan city of Uxmal, where we went on a guided tour and had free time to explore, climb, and take pictures. We spent the afternoon at a chocolate museum which was a completely unexpected side trip. Val had never been there, so she offered to take some of us along. It turned out to be the highlight of the day! We spent the night at a charming bed and breakfast tucked away in the little town of Santa Elena, Yucatan.
• Saturday we visited a Mayan home in Santa Elena, an ex-hacienda (a type of plantation that produced agave or henequen plant to be made into rope), and our first cenote. It was amazing!

I have pictures and stories from all of those places! I will do my best to type and upload them here for you. I am taking each day one step at a time and resting as much as I can. It is hard to believe that today we reached the halfway mark: we have been here for two weeks, and in another two weeks, we will be heading home. Still plenty of stories to come, if all is well! Until later...