Since I'm in such a homesick mood, I thought I'd make a joke of it and post this list of food that I desperately crave and that will be consumed immediately upon my return to the states. Rachel and I had a wonderful night listening to Now 4 and compiling our own special lists. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do! (Note: items are listed in a random order that does not correlate to how much I miss them - it was a stream of consciousness list that I later organized)

Cravings

1. Mashed potatoes (with cheese and maybe garlic…)
2. Chocolate chip cookies
3. Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream (my two boyfriends)
4. Lemon squares
5. Nutella
6. Toblerones
7. Raspberries
8. Sour Patch Watermelons
9. Peanut butter-hershey kiss cookies --> caramel filled Hershey kisses
   

Home Food

1. Pizza (Bagel pizza, Pita pizza, Sal’s Pizza - green peppers, spinach, ground beef, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms)
2. Bagels (cream cheese/garlic cream cheese, everything bagels, sesame seed bagels, Re-invent el Yegua sandwich - chicken, lettuce, bacon, cheese, tomato, garlic onion cream cheese)
3. Bread (Garlic bread, Kaiser rolls, Italian bread, Hoagie rolls, Rye bread)
   
4. Eggs (Eggs Benedict, Omelet - lots of cheese, bacon, onions - Biscuit egg sandwiches - Pillsbury biscuits, eggs, and cheese, Open-faced sunny side up egg sandwich)
   

Junk food

1. Chips and dip - Herr’s sour cream and onion chips and Helluva Good French onion dip
2. Buffalo chicken dip - Fritos
3. Peanut butter
4. Pistachios
5. Pringles BBQ (once you pop, the fun don’t stop)
6. Popcorn
   
7. Chocolate covered pretzels
8. Puppy chow
9. Twix
10. Peanut butter cups (Reese’s)
11. Pizza rolls
12. Cheese and crackers (Ritz, Wheat thinks Monterrey jack, Garlic roasted Triscuit’s with sharp cheddar cheese)
    

Pasta

1. Spaghetti (Red sauce and meatballs, Butter garlic sauce and shrimp, Butter garlic sauce and tomatoes)
2. Lasagna
3. Manicotti
4. Ravioli - Lobster with vodka blush sauce
5. Ziti - salmon with asian glaze, asparagus
6. Linguini alfredo
7. Macaroni and cheese
   

Full-on meals

1. Koulon Chicken (wrong spelling, same great taste)
2. Pot roast - mashed potatoes
3. Steak and marsala sauce - baked potato or red potatoes in butter herb sauce
4. Pork tenderloin - oven-baked potatoes
5. Barbecue chicken and barbeque ribs - grilled zucchini and corn on the cob with infused butter and watermelon
6. Salmon with sesame glaze - fried rice
7. Steak wedgie - roasted red peppers, cheese, salt, pepper
8. Mock Thanksgiving - turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, those little rolls (you know I mean)
9. Barbecue pulled pork sandwich
   

Necessary visits to certain food establishments

1. Shady Maple
2. Chic-fil-a
3. Mister Wok Chinese food
4. Sal’s Pizza
5. Chilis (Texas cheese fries, Classic nachos, Crispy chicken tacos, Ribs, Paradise pie) I realize this may sound counter-intuitive since there are tacos and nachos on this list, but Chili's is not real Mexican, this distinction must be made in order for #5 to make sense.
6. Red Lobster (Biscuits, Caesar salad, LOBSTER, Key Lime pie)
7. America Bar and Grill (Calamari)
8. Sushi 4 You (EVERYTHING)
9. Hibachi (Sushi, Shrimp tempura, Steak, Salmon, Shirley Temple)
10. Friendly’s (Munchie mania, Honey BBQ Chicken Melt, Crunchy Shrimp Basket, Happy Ending sundae)
11. Subway (Chicken Teriyaki, Italian BMT)
12. Bravos (Pepperoni Stromboli, Spaghetti pizza (if they still make it), Cheese fries, Pepperoni bites)
13. Fire Creek Grill (Duck!!!)
    

Today in class we learned how to read Mayan. We spent most of class trying to figure out how the calendars work because, just in case the less informed readers don't know, the Maya have multiple calendars and we tried to learn the major three: the Sacred Almanac (Tzolkin), the Vague Year (Haab), and the Calendar Round (which combines the two otherwise incompatible Tzolkin and Haab calendars).

So basically what we've got with the Tzolkin are numbers and days. Straight-forward right? But wait, I forgot to mention that there are 13 numbers but 20 days! That means Imix doesn't always line up with 1, but in 19 days it'll line up with 8, and in 19 more days who knows where Imix will be! It's like where's Waldo except where's Imix and his various other counterparts! Imix won't be reunited with 1 again until 260 days have passed because that's one cycle.

Still with me? Well we're moving on to Haab, which measures days and months! The Haab is a calendar of 18 months with 20 days each and is 360 days long (it's easy to remember because 360 is more or less 365 so that makes it a vague year). But don't panic, they do tack those 5 extra days on the end in a special evil, bad luck-filled month of their own. So never you fret, all 365 days get in there. At this point the Haab appears to be pretty easy, but here's the twist, they don't count the days 1-20, but rather 0-19; I mean, the Maya had to do something to stand out. But anyways, those are the two calendars.

Seems pretty complicated right? Head's kind of spinning? Well it's about to get worse because now we're gonna shove them together into the Calendar Round! A calendar so ridiculous that a complete cycle is 52 years long! This is also the calendar that has predicted the end of the world, so after today's class I have my doubts.

(Note: Also, as far as the world coming to an end in December 2012, the Maya also predict a new beginning IMMEDIATELY after the end so it's not just the apocalypse, it's a new beginning, people need to chill out. And FYI, the end of the world date in Maya is 13 baktun.0 katun.0 tun.0 uinals.0 kin 4.Ajaw.3.K'ank'in)

Ah don't worry, I won't try to explain the Calendar Round, I don't fully understand how it the two calendars are actually combined within it anyways. I can read it now though.

Today I was running a little late for our big meal (which is lunch here) so I just kind of sat down and started eating without inquiring what it was like I normally do. It kind of looked like Mexican lasagna: layered meat, beans, and tortilla chips with a light red sauce. Finally I asked, "Como se llama?" and my mom responds, "Pan de Cazon." Pan I understood, pan=bread or in this case tortilla but what is cazon you ask? Baby shark. Today I consumed a baby shark. Win?