Spring break

Spring break was pretty much awesome. My roommate and I took a cruise to Mexico, so it was basically five days or reading, relaxing, and generally doing absolutely nothing. No computers, no cell phones, no school, no worries. It was perfect. I'm pretty much in love with water, so waking up every morning to blue ocean waves as far as the eye could see was quite ok with me.

Our ship made two stops- one in Progresso and one in Cozumel. While the general itinerary while we were there was the same, the feel was completely different. Progresso is a small town of about 40,000 people and is still a relatively new port of call. Cozumel, on the other hand, is a huge tourist destination. I think we counted around seven other cruise ships while we were docked in port. Walking around was somewhat depressing. A two-story outdoor shopping area, lots of touristy hotels, a bar and scuba shop every twenty feet along the beach. Nothing seemed real, except for the massive numbers of scooters everywhere. I've decided I want one. Katelin and I tried to rent one to go see the Mayan ruins but were unsuccessful. So instead, we parked ourselves at one of the outdoor bar/restaurants. Katelin read as I snorkeled to my heart's content, and we both laughed at the poor fools who paid $25 for thirty minutes of snuba. Maybe if there'd been an impressive reef, but the location wasn't all that spectacular. I did see something really cool though- a big blue fish eating a small yellow fish. That was pretty sweet. I hadn't expected the fish to be so different from the ones I saw in the Pacific last semester.

Progresso was a completely different story. The entire town consisted of about two streets. We went shopping in the craft market, where I found a chess set for my mom. We then spent about ten minutes walking up one street and back down the next. There wasn't much aside from a few banks and internet cafes for tourists. The back side of the street, which was not for tourists, was probably the most real place I saw the entire trip. Walking into those small shops I spoke about as much Spanish as they spoke English- not much. It made me realize that poverty is still very real in Mexico, and it has increased my desire to learn to speak it fluently and to one day go back to Mexico. I'm glad we stopped in Progresso because otherwise I feel that my view of Mexico would have been very skewed. One of my favorite things there, which I dont think was Katelins, was walking through the food market. She thought it was gross, but quite frankly I thought it was cool. I mean, that's pretty much daily life there.