hammocks and maya greetings

Today is my second full day in Piste. I arrived here Sunday afternoon on a bus from cancun, that all went smoothly, even dragging my insane amount of luggage to where i had to go. we came to the posada (small hotel) where we have stayed the last 2 nights.
The first afternoon we walked around the town and explored a bit, and then met up all together at night where we had some first introductions and orientation to the program.
Yesterday, we started learning Maya in the morning! It is definitely difficult but we are moving along faster than i expected to. i am able to understand what we are learning but it takes me a long time to remember the words and phrases. After that we had an assignment to walk arounf the town and find certain spots and make a social map. We had to ask people in order to find out the locations. it started pouringgg on the walk so i ducked into an internet cafe but was able to talk to a few people and find a few places.
After, we all met for lunch at restaurante chichen itza where i have had lunch the last 3 days and each day have quesidillas...this town isnt so good for vegetarians.
Then we got the software we will use for our fieldnotes. its a cool program that seems like it will be very useful.
Then we all got into a van and went to a small and quiet town 20 mins away to buy our hammocks. Mine is greenish and really big, you should all come and sleep in my hammock with me. i havent slept in it yet but will tonight. There is a precise way to hang it, tie it, wrap it up and sleep in it..who knew it took so much skill to sleep in a hammock?
After the trip we had some time to hang out, i met a couple staying at our hotel who is traveling in Central/South America for 6 months. i am quite jealous! then we had dinner and tried to test out our maya greetings.
I have to spend a lot of time each day putting my field notes together. i hope this practice is helpful for my future work.
The town is definitely different than expected. I passed by a lot of towns that look similar in Guatemala, but I guess expected it to be a bit more jungle and naturey than it is here. I am looking forward to establishing relationships with people that live here and finding out what goes on, and what peoples relationships to the environment are. It is definitely a small town in terms of things to do, but I am sure that as time goes on i will understand more of the happenings.

Time to go pack up before meeting my family!
Miss you all!