Cancun

Annie and I flew from Belgium to Chicago to Miami on Sunday. We overnighted in Miami, then flew to Cancun on Monday. I have a nursing conference here this week, so Annie came along--an extension of her "Senior trip".
As we walked off of the plane, heat, humidity, smells, and Spanish greeted us--all familiar and good memories. We are back in the Yucatan! Europe was really nice, it is true, but they don't smile a lot there, except Michele and her mom. It is hard not understanding the language, although a good experience. And while I am not fluent in Spanish, I certainly am more familiar with it than French. Plus, after living here for almost half a year, it seems like coming home.
Until we got to the hotel, that is. It is a ridiculously nice hotel, the nicest Annie says she has ever stayed in, and is nothing like the Mexico we experienced when living here. It is an all inclusive resort, about 25 minutes from Cancun. It is a compound, sequestered away from the road, from everything, really. Food and some entertainment are provided.
My main purpose is to go to the nursing conference, so I have been going to that. Annie has been hanging out at the pool enough to get burned even with sunscreen, and I have gotten to be there a little bit, but not enough to even get a little burned WITHOUT sunscreen. We have had some good food, although I am bummed to not be able to get Mexican food at a Mexican resort. We have gotten to eat a lot of flan. Oh yeah!
Annie's favorite thing about this resort, though is the huge jacuzzi tub sitting on one side of our room, as large as one of our beds. Bubble bath is provided, and with the jets, well, look at the pictures of happy Annie in the tub:

Annie is loving that tub. Tonight she got the bubbles a couple of feet high, and then played for a while sending handfuls of bubbles into the air.
I don't have any other pictures yet, partly because I don't want a bunch of pictures of the swimming pool. The ocean water is murky, and there is some sort of weed growing there so no white sand. Basically everyone stays in the pool, and a few people at most have been out in the ocean. Not to worry--we plan on spending some time on the north side of the Yucatan Peninsula--hopefully the water will be better there.
I do have a funny story. Our rooms are very clean, and are beautifully furnished. Today after I returned from a conference session I was waiting in the room for Annie. A medium sized spider ran across the floor, and not wanting it here, I lobbed one of my flip flops at it and killed it. Later, I was telling Annie about my amazing spider-killing skills as we walked back to our room. Just as we started across the grass and I was telling her about this, an iguana popped up. Both of us jumped a couple of feet and let out very loud screams, then realizing it was just an iguana, had a very long laugh at ourselves!