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I’ve been in Mérida a little over two weeks now and recently moved from a lovely friend’s home into a place around the corner and still in the Centro. It is also a few doors down from a fellow Fulbrighter who has become a nice friend.

This experience has been amazing so far and I am trying to enjoy every moment. I was here for 5 days and then went to Mexico City for orientation. It’s in a valley high up so quite different from here. Well, it’s a city of 23 million for starters and I was able to witness the remnants of Lope Obrador’s planton (or protest camp). It is an interesting sign that Mexico is a vocal democracy when the former leading candidate who lost the presidential election is able to stage a massive protest with his supporters calling for a recount. It is symbolic as well as completely disrupts city life in the center.Mexico and Merida are really incredibly rich for research. I see this even more now how my project can unfold and what I may be able to bring to my teaching here.

I am getting settled at a charming little house and just got my internet and managed to turn on my wifi. The house has a lovely garden and certainly has some character not to mention about 50 artificial flower arrangements I am trying to figure out where to store ; ) I will start teaching this week and have a few unknows in that area to figure out. The school (each department is very spread out) I am teaching at is at least 30–40 minutes away to the north. I hear that it will take me about an hour on a bus to get there but we’ll see.

I hope to make this my Fulbright blog – sharing what should be public – which is probably only about half that goes on in my life here. I’ll post more soon, including pictures. Mexicans are getting ready for independance day (September 15th and 16th) and even the Walmart is filled with revolutionary costumes to get dressed up in. There’s really nothing like seeing the bit Walmart smiley face with a red, white, and green sombrero. This is Yucatán.