The Reserve and Mayan Ruins

On Thursday morning the class drove to the reserve in which Millsaps owns, and a man named James took us for a tour around the reserve. In addition to the land being absolutely beautiful, there are Mayan ruins all over the property. James explained to us what the different symbols meant and also what each ruin used to be. When we were done, two very nice ladies cooked some very delicious tamales for us to eat! After that, it was off to bed. We slept in hammocks, which Kelly and I found to be a little challenging. We woke up to fluffy pancakes with honey, an abundance of fruit, and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Most of us had trouble sleeping in the hammocks, so we were a little grumpy on the ride home. We stopped in Uxmal to see the Mayan ruins there. This place was extremely touristy, which was very different from what I have been seeing for the past 4 days. A guide took us around and explained in great depth what everything was, its initial use, and what all of the symbols meant. It was so interesting to see what the Mayan culture used to look like. The pyramids and temples used to be so small! We even got to see the sport that they used to play, which was similar to our game of basketball. Something really interesting to me was that the winner was sacrificed to the gods, instead of the loser. Winning was seen as such a great honor and so was the opportunity to sacrifice yourself to the gods, which was the meaning for that ritual.

We then journeyed to find food (which Harvey apparently doesn't like to give to us...just kidding), where we ate some great Mexican food. After, we drove to see an old hacienda that is now toured. It was the house of rich Mexican families, so as you can imagine, it was so gorgeous!! Overall, it was a fantastic two days!

Life of an International Business student

We went to the beach the other day after visiting the port. The port was very interesting and was a little different from the U.S. ports. After the port the whole class went to the beach where we hung out for a couple of hours after eating at an amazing restaurant. At the beach we hung out drinking Sol 40's. All of the locals where looking at us funny as all of the foreigners were boozing it up on the beach. At the beach about seven people bought these hammock chairs which are awesome. The only thing bad about the hammocks is that we have to find a way to pack them in our bags to bring home. While on the beach I took a video of an old Mayan man who was playing the guitar to us. When we got in the van on the way back to Merida the ride was very funny. This day was very interesting and very educational and I am very lucky to be able to have experiences like this one. So far the trip has been very insightful into how countries outside of the U.S. do business and how they handle imports and exports.