Weaning myself (and you) from the notion that each entry begs a photo, I'll aim instead for a thousand words... okay, fewer.

My days are all about early and late. Had a 7 a.m. meeting at the university this morning and I've got another one at 6:30 tonight (though that's nothing new-- adult education is intrinsically tied to sunrise and sunset, it seems. Still, 7 a.m. is much earlier than I'm used to thinking, let alone speaking Spanish, um, during... (ah, syntax!). My friends who have lived in tropical countries say this is normal; meet before the heat beats you down. Not that it's so hot these days, but come April/May/June, 7 a.m. will seem entirely reasonable.

As it gets hotter, the insects are more noticeable. I saw my first scorpion today, right here in my house. The timing was superb; it made its appearance (very small, less than 1 inch long) in the dining room while I was enjoying a chat with my landlady-- just moments after she and the workman finished patching the hole in the bathroom.

That would be the hole in the ceiling... through which the ants were falling... onto the toilet... and onto whomever might be sitting on it at the moment. Well, I don't have a lot of visitors, so that someone would be, oh yeah, ME. Ants on my head, no thank you! And you can bet I'll start being more diligent about wearing my flip flops when I walk around the house...

I'll finish with an invitation: respond to this posting with a topic you'd like me to explore while I'm here in Mérida, lest I continue quoting the Pope.