Valparaiso

Hey all! Im posting from gorgeous ( and hilly, man do my calves hurt)  Valparaiso Chile. I havent posted in a long time, but Ill post about my last weeks in Guatemala at a later date. For now Ill just say that I painted a mural at el nahual, was super busy, and had a great goodbye dinner before heading off to Chile.

I spent my first couple days here in San Fernando, staying with my old host family and just unwinding. Wednesday I decided to go travel a bit, so until saturday I'm here in Valparaiso. Valparaiso is the cultural center of Chile, a university town, and famous for its street art. Its also very very steep and hilly, and laced with a sytem of stairs and old fashioned anscensores, or elevators to enable its senoras to get home to their colorful houses perched on cliffs.

I visited Valparaiso last time I was here, but with my host sisters class on a University tour, so I wasnt able to do any touristy stuff or go exploring. One of the things Ive always wanted to do was visit Pablo Neruda's residence here ( he also had a house  in Santiago, and one on an island near here called Isla Negra). Yesterday I went, and the views are even better than can be imagined. The colorful hills, port, and wide blue ocean with its naval fleet and shipping boats stretches before you. I also splurged and bought a book of poetry.

Other than wandering around, Ive been spending my time getting together with friends from school who are now studying here, going to the beach in Vina (neighboring resort city) and drawing. So there you go. Saturday Im back to San Fernando ( with a quick stopover in Santiago), Sunday Im off to Pichilemu with my host brothers class and host mom, Tuesday or wednesday La Serena to see some of the North, and Concepcion for the weekend to visit some friends. Then San Fernando again for a couple days until the first leg of my journeys is over and I'm back to Seattle. I'll update you all when I can, but If I dont its just because I'm too busy enjoying myself.

Hasta Luego!

What A Klutz!

Hey Guys!
So I had an interesting night last night. I was meeting some friends in the central parque , and they were sitting on top of a rather high stone bench in the middle of parque, which I tried to climb while texting my housemate to ask her to turn off my curler - which turned into me falling off the bench in front of a bunch of people and doing some acrobatics with my ankle. I then made the decision to walk all over Xela and go dancing, ignoring the increasing pains in my foot area, which turned into waking up this morning and having to crawl to the kitchen to make myself some coffee because my ankle is the general size and color of a purple ballon filled with angry minitiure gnomes poking me with sharp knives. (Lets just ignore how this is probably the direct result of multiple stupid decisions.. you only live once hahah) My landlady and her mother came up to change the sheets and insisted that I go to the red cross, and get an xray, and then offered me painkillers, but after some ice and an ace bandage it is much better. Plus I have no idea how I would have gotten to the red cross, considering its a struggle to get down the stairs. Jenna came over and Jill brought me her crutches which cheered me up.
Mostly this is just making me feel ridiculous.. of all of the injuries I could obtain, an ankle injury is the most irritating considering I get everywhere here by walking. I have no idea how I am going to get to work.. the most feasible option involves an hour bus ride, the most appealling stealing a car (or finding a nice, or not so nice, not picky - boyfriend with a car haha).
In other news, I am now painting a mural at el nahaul which is exciting and should be fun to boot. I have also gotten insanely good at scaring school children in spanish. Other than that I will let you know how getting to el nahual on monday goes!

So Now I'm Earthquake Girl!

Hey guys! We had a significant earthquake, but everyone here is fine! Just some plaster has fallen off walls. Other areas - the coast a couple of hours away, for example - are more heavily affected. Lots of landslides on the highway. This is my fifth earthquake! Im basically earthquake girl at this point. Anyway, just wanted to let you all know I am totally fine, and I'll leave you with a nice photo of me and my fam at Tikal ( so amazing! I'll write a post soon about our trip.)

No more External Schools! And Trips to Walmart

The school year here is over, so I'm not teaching in the rural schools anymore - instead El Nahual (www.languageselnahual.com) is running what amounts to a summer camp evey day, and I teach english classes and crafts classes. Its a lot less hectic - I have access to construction paper and computers, which makes classes a lot easier, plus I'm only teaching five to fifteen kids. El Nahual is also gorgeous, especially for Guatemalan standards. They have a garden with stone tables and benches, and the second floor has a (gasp!) wooden floor and wrap around windows with amazing views of Xela and the Santa Maria Volcano. I still teach at one external school to 7th - 9th graders (wierdly longer school year) but I have more time to plan classes now and theyre a higher level so I have a wider range of options and can do more advanced games.

Jenna took these when we went to Chicabal last weekend.

Credit to Jenna again. Soccer game high in the mountains. 

Yesterday I went to El Cuartito, which is the local gringo cafe bar that has live music every night, and watched the presidential debate with my friend Jenna. Jenna is Finnish and has absolutely no interest in the debate, so we talked over most of it. Every wednesday I go (again) to el cuartitio (theres a group of us that go) and then after we go out salsa dancing. Fridays we go out and do something as well, and saturday usually a group of us go out for dinner. Its such a routine that at this point I just show up at the usual place and dont even check that anyone is coming. I also go to yoga a lot here, and have been learning a lot of random body vocab because of this.. for instance pulgos means big toes.

I've been getting super excited because my mom and sister are arriving next Friday! Cant believe its actually happening and am so excited to show them around, and do touristy stuff ..and make my mom go grocery shopping with me so she I can buy whole wheat pasta, and olive oil, and nutella... (real luxury items around here!) Get ready Mom, we are going to have a big trip to Walmart.

 Of course I'm excited to see my family for other reasons. Theyre just slipping my mind in the aftermath of the trip to Walmart yesterday where I ogled the haagen dasz and ended up just buying milk. Sometimes doing work for no money sucks. A lot.

Hasta Luego!
p.s. please excuse my spelling and lack of punctuation, I'm writing on a spanish keyboard and cannot find things like apostrophes and semi colons.

16 Reasons Why Teaching English is No Joke

I haven’t posted in a while,  but since the school year just finished I thought it would be a good idea to write a reflection on what I have learned teaching fifteen classes a week, forty kids a class, with no resources.

Teaching children things. Mainly the correct technique for hitting pinatas.

1. Kids are super embarrassed.

Getting kids to do any kind of activity, such as skits, that make english fun will require an abnormal level of enthusiasm and an insane amount of optimism.

2. Give up any semblance of dignity or pride.

You cant have any when you are trying to get 40 kids who have no interest involved in learning the English alphabet. The sillier you act, the more they enjoy it. Whatever, I don’t care if forty 12 year olds are laughing at my dancing skills. Or my accent. 

3. prepare to be laughed at.
See above. They love it when you drop things, when your accent sucks, and when your spanish is ridiculous. For instance I called "el clima" "la clima" by mistake, causing forty sixth graders to laugh their heads off for five minutes until the teacher took pity on me and told me about my mistake.  And when it is my fifth class of the day and instead of speaking intelligible Spanish I resort to groaning and saying "arrgubluaabllubss" I get big laughs. 

4. clear early on that tests and homework will actually count.
Or don't care about homework. This is probably a better strategy because who wants to grade that? Not me. Tests are great, because they can be used instead of a lesson plan... but then you have to grade them. Ugh.   

5. never ever raise your voice, because five classes in which you shout the entire time means you will have no voice. 
Unless its raining and the leaking tin roof makes noises equivalent to a battlefield, in which case give up on class and settle for keeping the kids from physical violence (a challenge in itself).

6. make english fun! do half the new vocab you think you should, and make the rest games.
What? you don't think English is fun? Well it is now. Even if I have to scare the concept into you. 

7. don’t tell them how old you are.
Because they are only a year younger (education sucks here.. count your blessings Americans, at least you were twelve in sixth grade) and if you tell them how old you are it will only make them feel as if it is even more socially acceptable to stand super close to you and hit on you in class. Yuck.

8.  have emergency games up your sleeve.
Or a song. Or translate all their names into English for them, that's what they really want to do anyway. 

9. don’t use words like adjective or superlative, because chances are no one knows what that means.
Even I had to look up superlative, I don't know why I though they would know what it meant.

10. never bring valuables with you.
Ive never had anything stolen (knock on wood) but everyone I know has. Poverty is a major issue, and while I feel bad, I'm not earning any money either.  

11. keep them guessing. be supernice… up to a point.
Some people call this setting boundaries, I call it acting crazy. 

12. When they ask you what a word means in english ( ie onion, or chinese, or monkey) don’t tell them.

All they want to do is point laughing at some poor classmate and call them that in English. Probably should have realized this when they asked what cabeza de tomate meant in English.

13. be crazy super enthusiastic! I think I already went over this. 

14. make friends with the real teacher.
They might feel bad for you be nice and stay for the class, which means you get a 20% better behaved class, and possibly some coffee afterwards. 

15. be super, super creative.
You kind of have to be, when there are forty kids and all you have to entertain them teach with is a white board and marker. No one likes copying vocab, so the more you get away from this and into interactive games and exercises the more both they and you will enjoy the class.  The internet is great resource.

16. enjoy yourself.
If you're not having fun, they're not having fun, and fun can turn into actually enjoying learning a new language. Which can turn into enjoying learning, and maybe getting past sixth grade! Lets graduate sixth grade people.   

Why Antigua was the Bomb

I went to Antigua this weekend! Antigua is a gorgeous colonial town that is super touristy – way back when it was the capital of Central America, now it is just covered in tourists and gorgeous ruins and gardens. I loved it. It was clean, there were sidewalks (and curbs!!!), no one harassed me, I got to eat focaccia, and I also climbed a volcano which could have been the inspiration for that one creepy scene in the Lion King. I also kept imagining Frodo and Samwise clinging to the lava rocks while giant eagles swooped around them. If you don’t get it it was Awesome ( yes that capital is on purpose).  

            I still like Quetzaltenango, but let me lay it out for you.

Antigua Pros:

Curbs

Pavement

Clean Air

Minimal Harassment

Gorgeous

Antigua Cons:

Tons of gringos ( of course this could also be a pro)

More expensive

Smaller

Ruins literally everywhere ( I don’t know if this is a con I just felt the cons were lacking)

Quetzaltenango Pros

Less gringo – ey

More mixing between Guatemalans and Gringos ( maybe this is the same pro)

I already live here

Its bigger

Cheap as all get out

Quetzaltenango Cons

Dirty

Harassment

Large trucks outside my window as four in the morning

So I guess I already live here trumps all other points. Also I think I would eventually get tired of how gringoey it is, because I went out and literally met only gringos. If I'm going to be in Guatemala I would like to meet some Guatemalans. But other than that, Antigua was a refreshing break, especially from the harassment.

In other news, I have now planned the rest of my year! If any of you are remotely interested.

Until December 1^st: Guatemala

December 1^st – 21^st: Chile

Home for Christmas and some money!

February 1^st: Burma! To visit emma. ( Hopefully a little bit of travelling in Asia )

February 27^th: Heidelberg Germany, working as an au pair.

Sometime in here going to Ireland for a week or two.

Home the 10^th ish of June.

El Mercado and Suprise Japanese Food

Since I have been living by myself for a week, I have started cooking for myself (which I love… since this is what I do at home as well) and that means I have started shopping for myself.  As the second biggest city in Guatemala, Xela has two general grocery stores.  However, the best place to get your food ( and the cheapest way) is to go to the market. Xela has four markets, and on certain days the entire city seems to turn into a market as Guatemalan women dressed in blinged out and brilliant colored traditional huipiles sit on every corner with their piles of vegetables, or walk around the plaza shouting manzanas! Frutas! Tres quetzals! with  large baskets full of fruit balanced on top of their heads.

I love going to the market, because not only is it dirt cheap but you can also find any item you could possibly need. Radishes, spices, chicken feet, cow testicles, stools, coffee makers, clothing, electronics, dvds, sweets, lychee, cowboy boots,  and even satin underwear displayed in neat piles next to fresh eggs.

My problem with the market is because I look so blatantly gringa, I am constantly getting ripped off, but since even getting ripped off is super cheap I can never tell when I am getting ripped off. Also, some items are ridiculously cheap – for instance tres quetzales for a pound of tomatoes ( 45 cents) and some items are comparable to US prices ( 6 bucks for a used backpack). I always try to bargain when the price is already fair, and this 12 year old mayan girl in traditional dress just stares at me and shakes her head. And then sometimes I don’t bargain and then later realize that 10 q for a pile of tortillas is twice the normal price.

On the subject of food, I have been treated to a Japanese feast this week because one of  my housemates ( who is Japanese) is leaving and she and all of her Japanese friends have been having dinner and making gigantic amounts of Japanese food. I then proceeded to buy sushi from one of the women, so for dinner yesterday I had miso soup and sushi. Talk about things I wasn’t expecting to eat in Guatemala. 

Laguna Chicabal... more photos

Laguna Chicabal

         Today Kat and I decided to do some hiking, starting with something easier than one of the volcanos – Laguna Chicabal, a crater lake at the top of an extinct volcano which glows green when the sun is on it. We took the bus through San Martin Chile Verde ( there are like four different san martins, why this one’s nickname is chile verde I have no idea) out to a tiny pueblo nestled under the mountains. The driver let us out at the stop for la laguna and we set off.  It is possible to grab a ride with a truck up to the entrance to the hike but we decided to walk.

            After two hours of steep uphill ascent, the landscape had changed from small houses and farms under the sun to clouds so thick at times we could barely see 15 feet ahead.

     Small boys carrying gargantuan loads of wood with their heads, or leading various animals, would emerge out of the mist and gawk at the sweating gringas. One car passed us, but the road was so bad that about 15 minutes later we passed the car and its owners, now attempting to walk to the laguna (the woman in heels). At one point we passed a small boy and his father with their loads of wood and their machetes, and the father stopped and spoke to us. He was definitely not speaking Spanish, so I just said, no hablo Mam (the local mayan tribe) and then he turned to my friend Kat and said in Spanish, What country are you guys from? She does not speak Spanish? As out of the two of us, I am the one who speaks more Spanish, Kat just gestured at me. We had a short conversation with him, but I couldn’t understand much because he kept speaking in mam. Who knows.

            We paid the entrance fee and continued our steep ascent, the air becoming both thinner and cleaner, and the forest more and more thick along with the clouds. I kept expecting to get hit with a blow dart or something for trespassing - Laguna Chicabal is sacred for the local tribes and different rituals are performed there. When we finally got to the lake, we could barely see it for the clouds but they move so quickly that the lake soon cleared off. It is amazingly beautiful and peaceful and I could see why the lake is sacred. Clouds move and transform across the lake, coming down from over the trees and spreading across the water. In the sun it is supposed to be a brilliant blue green but the clouds have another enchantment all their own.

There’s not much else to say for today! We took the bus back. While waiting I saw this.

Now I’m exhausted, and since I can’t charge my computer at the apartment, I’m at Baviera ( a local coffee shop that reminds me of caffe vita in seattle) I hope you all had a wonderful day! 

In a Funk

So I have had a bit of a weird week. I decided that I wanted to move out of the host family’s house after two weeks, mainly because I didn’t really feel like a part of the family and the food was making me a bit sick (unfortunately too much sugar and white carbs makes me sick…. And I have been eating a lot of white rice and sugary coffee).  The mom and the kids were super sweet, but I felt more like I was at a hotel than that I was part of the family. 

            I also started real volunteering this week! Basically I am a volunteer English teacher for fifth and sixth graders in rural schools in the area. I teach at four different schools – La cuchilla (the painful walk school) Llano de Pinal (the 45 minute bus ride on a pot holey country road school) Pacaja (the close school, but I am teaching sixteen year olds) and San Jose, which I missed this week because I spontaneously woke up with an ear ache on Thursday and spent all day wanting to pull a Van Gogh. Proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I also self-medicated with garlic oil, so not only was I in blinding pain, but I smelled. Double whammy.

            I actually like the teaching, and I have learnt that it is best to arrive with a bang and take control… or you have no control. Also in order to maintain confidence, I just pretend that I am not a bare year older than most of the students, and in some cases I suspect much younger ( lets just say most sixth graders don’t have full beards!) The educational system here, especially the public schools, is definitely lacking. A lot of kids start school very late, and not many make it past sixth grade – especially the girls. Hence the seventeen year olds in the sixth grade class. Less than one percent of Guatemalans have the chance to go to university, and less than half of those actually go. Who knows if me arriving at these schools and teaching kids the English word for maiz will make any difference, but at least I am learning something. If not about Guatemala, about how lucky we are in the US to have our dysfunctional underfunded educational system.

            Anyway, so I have had kind of an intense week. I was just thrown into teaching English to forty sixth graders at a time, I was house hunting, and I was super sick. Everyone kept telling me that there was a ton of housing available, but this was not true. Either the hostel didn’t rent per month, or the kitchen was nonexistent, or the place was super expensive and had weird rules (no guests, and if you do have guests, you have to pay) – so I ended up settling for this place that is kind of substandard. The pros are that I have the place to myself, and its slightly cheaper. The cons are that I have the pace to myself, it’s basically outside, the bed is rock-hard, and the light barely works.  I’m not sure how it’s going to go – I only paid for a week so if it ends up being miserable I will resume the househunt next week. Most likely I will go to the weird rules expensive place.

I moved in today and was in a bit of a funk all day because I had a traumatic experience getting to the place. I packed up all my stuff in the way people pack stuff when you know you’re about to unpack it again – ie half my clothes were in a garbage bag. I got a taxi to take me to the residence at the prescribed time. What I hadn’t though about  was that even though I knew the block the residence was on, I had literally no idea which door it was.

I stole this photo off the web, and its Antigua, but just imagine a bunch more doors,more trash, horrible traffic, and people staring at me and its pretty accurate. 

 There were twelve different identical doors on the block, and after the taxi driver dropped me off in all my gringa glory with my garbage bag, suitcase, purse, and backpacking pack – I realized that I was out of minutes on my cell phone. Dragging my suitcase to the three places within walking distance that sold minutes proved that no one had any available. At this point it had been thirty minutes, and I was almost to nervous breakdown. I had started knocking on doors, but after a drunk guy answered one and asked me how old I was ( while muttering rude comments I can unfortunately understand) I gave up on that. Finally I found a pay phone – which only took 25 cent coins. I didn’t have any 25 cent coins. Finally a grandma on the street took pity on me and gave me some, and I finally reached the landlord. When I got in I discovered that the bed was rock hard.

            Let’s just say it was the kind of day to put someone in a funk.

            

I'll leave you with another stolen and accurate photo. I went to the market today and got horribly ripped off, which means paying fifteen bucks for enough food for a week.

My Aching Feet and Pan Therapy

I decided I could eat all the pan I wanted today. “Why?” you may wonder. Did she have a gluten craving? Did she go to a pan festival? Did she throw belly fat caution to the wind? Although these are all valid reasons to eat a bunch of pan, they are not correct. No – today I was tricked into almost walking ten miles in a pair of toms. Uphill ( yes, both ways. You may not think that is feasible but by carefully manipulating the route taken, anything is possible.)

            Let me start at the beginning of this surprise trek. Today Jill ( my coordinator, a distance underestimating Canadian apparently with legs of steel) took me to la cuchilla, which is a school in Zona 9 of Xela. (This was my first clue – I live in zona 1.) She said it was a bit of a walk, but I’m ok with that. I'm working off my pan.  We passed El Nahual ( The community center I’m volunteering with – they also send volunteers to teach English in local middle and elementary schools, which is why I was going to la cuchilla) and I’m like, Ok, not too far now. We keep going. And going. And then we finally turn off the highway, and in the distance on top of a hill I can see a huge Mormon church. Just past the church, says Jill.  She means way past the church.

This is what the mormon temple looks like from the highway.

            I make it through three hours of sixth graders making fun of my accent ( another story) and then I start to head home for lunch. I get a text from Jill – can you go back and teach at la cuchilla again at three? Guess who decided to prove she’s tough and agrees.

            Long story short, I almost fell asleep in the directors office at la cuchilla at 3:30, and on the way home I decided that I didn’t care how long the bus ride was going to be, or how expensive it was. I caught the bus, but it still dropped me a mile from my house. And I just ate four pieces of pan.

            So, almost two round trips to la cuchilla? Turns out, according to Googlemaps, that is 7.8 miles. If I hadn’t taken the bus, it would have been ten. I think Jill is sending me a message about exercise habits. 

p.s. Speaking of long distances, I just bought my tickets for Burma in February! Yay!

pan: too many
new words: too tired to learn things

Las Fuentes Georginas

Hey Guys! Today was a lazy Sunday, so my friend Kat ( A girl I met through the coordinator at El Nahual who is volunteering as a nurse in a local hospital) and I decided to do a little exploring and headed off to a nearby hot springs called Fuentes Georginas. So named because Jorge Ubico and his wife Georgina used to come vacation at the hot springs.

            We were going to take a shuttle from Xela – but when we arrived at the shuttle office at the prescribed time there was no shuttle, and a couple phone calls confirmed that the shuttle was not coming due to a vague problem… ie the driver was probably hungover from the 15^th. So we roughed it and took a local bus, which was  what we should have done in the first place but honestly I’m still a bit nervous about transportation around here. When we arrived at the town of Zunil ( about a 45 minute bus ride from Xela) we paid around six bucks to ride in the back of a truck up the mountain to the hot springs. The ride was gorgeous, passing through farmland up into the jungle – with a view through clouds to the river below.

            The hot springs were a bit crowded because of the holiday weekend, but one of the baths was suspiciously empty. After I had gone in up to my waist I realized this was because it was scalding. I think I lost a layer of skin on my legs. Kat and I found a different pool that was in between boiling and lukewarm, and it was amazing to finally be able to relax in some hot water! On our way out we saw a sign for an ecological trail down to a mayan altar and another “banera” and after asking around a girl in traditional dress told us it was a beautiful three to five minute walk. It was beautiful, but it was no three to five minute walk, and the mayan altar turned out to be a cave. Full of trash. There was also no natural hot spring. The altitude made the climb back up quite a trip! At least I’m exercising off some pan.

            On our way back we explored Zunil, and walked through the local market. We were both exhausted from our spontaneous hike and the hot water and Kat fell asleep on the bus back. This was probably a good thing because about halfway home the bus driver decided to stop the bus and disappear for twenty minutes. My best bet is he went and got lunch.

p.s. I will add photos later! 

new word:  "de alto grado" meaning steep. Something I wish I had understood when asking the mayan girl about the hike. 

Independence Day and Beauty Queens

     Happy Independence Day everyone! I’m sitting in an internet café drinking a surprisingly decent cappucino (usually they just taste like cinnamon milk, but this one has a tinge of coffee to it!) Today is Guatemalan Independence Day, but most of the celebration took place yesterday in the night. There are more free concerts and parades today, but the main craziness was yesterday. Independence day here is not like 4^th of July – here it is a weeklong celebration  involving a travelling carnival, parades full of dressed up school children and bands ( every day!) and free concerts everywhere. There are also the traditional fireworks at midnight on the 14^th. They are set off right in front of the municipal building, less than 15 yards away from a huge throng of people. I have a small burn on my hand from a piece of falling firework.

     Last night ( the 14^th) I went out with the girls from the place I’m volunteering at, and met a bunch of other foreigners who are living in Xela. I’ve been speaking a lot of English… I need to find some Guatemalan friends pronto or my Spanish is going down the drain! We went to one of the concerts and then at midnight returned the parque central in order to see “el grito de independencia”. I was under the impression that the mayor gave a toast and then everyone started screaming. Not exactly… the mayor does give a speech but I couldn’t hear it, and there is no screaming! Apparently everyone who could see the mayor sings the national anthem or something like that but I was nowhere near close enough. The crowds were insane. One thing I did get to see ( though at the time I had no idea what it was) was the carrying of the liberty torch – relay runners carry live torches across Central America to celebrate freedom from the rule of Spain. They ran across the park, and at the time all I thought was “that cannot be safe” and only realized what it was when I researched Guatemalan Independence today!

            Today was pretty tranquilo, I just went to see some more of the parades with one of the girls from work. The parades are pretty entertaining – one of the funniest things is I think they had around 15 different beauty queens, ant that was just in today’s parade. Xela is obsessed with beauty pageants – not only are there the normal beauty pageants, such a “Senorita de Quetzaltenango” and the Maya traditional equivalent (Instead of a sparkly dress and a crown she wears traditional dress and braided hair with ribbons) but there’s also Senorita Deportes, Senorita Deportes del Liceo, Ms. Municipal Company’s Girlfriend, etc. They all walk in the parade – in sky high heels I might add. 

 Both the Guatemalan flag and Quetzaltenango flage being raised in the parque central.

The parque all decorated for the festival!

A view of the big church with the mountains in the background

The parade, with food stalls in the background. 

new word: espeso = strong ( as in coffee or tea)

pan: 1! What self control... although I am about to have dinner

Spanish Class Rants and Invented Words

            I started Spanish classes and volunteering this Monday. This is actually a kind of weird week (or the best week?) to have arrived, because this Saturday is Guatemalan independence day, and the entire week is a feria week – the kids get off school, most everyone has a three day weekend, and there are parades and free concerts every day. Just outside town is the feria, which is basically a huge carnival. I haven’t gone yet, but I should be going this Friday so I’ll report back.

            Every day I go to El Nahual, which is a little community center with classrooms, a garden, and an office, to take Spanish classes in the morning and teach kids English in the afternoon. The Spanish classes are one on one and when I signed up for them I didn’t really think about the fact that they were going to be actual classes, as in there would be worksheets and homework. So basically, since I have now been taking Spanish classes for 12 years and I thought I was finally done with that ( last years Spanish was just goofing off and reading short stories in Spanish) the spansih classes are not especially enjoyable. In fact, I am harboring a great deal of both resentment and sympathy towards the poor woman who keep trying to make me give examples with the verb querer.

On one hand, I am not a particularly willing student… and I straight up refused to do some of the worksheets.. and I haven’t done any of the homework…and on the other hand I am paying her and she has ignored my suggestion to teach me local customs and sayings. Also, about every five minutes she asks me if I am tired ( I don’t know, are you tired?). And asks me rude questions to try and make conversation. No joke, today she straight up asked me – Are your friends gossipy and full of themselves? And then she asked me if people in the US believe in God. Can we please find some kind of middle ground here?

At least they are done on Friday. Thank god. My Spanish isn’t perfect, but I am definitely beyond worksheets.

The volunteering I actually love – the kids are adorable, and super willing to learn. I’m sure later on I will get frustrated with teaching the same things over and over again but for now I’m still in the honeymoon stage.

And for now, I’ll leave you with a photo of a test I gave a little girl about family members. Keep in mind, she was supposed to put the corresponding translation next to the first word ( which I wrote). Then, after her first try ( when she copied all of them except mother) I told her to go study some more and try again. The third word is her second try. Sisro, toto,toyo, and fori, don’t mean anything in spanish at all.

Pieces of pan today: 4

New words: Chompipe = Turkey

Travel Hiccups on the Road to Xela

I arrived in Guatemala from Dallas/Ft Worth – it was pouring and dark when I arrived and I wished I had gotten a flight that arrived earlier! When I got out of the airport it was hectic, with hawkers and men advertising different hotels all yelling. I was supposed to be met by a person from Quetzalroo, but when I looked around no one was there to meet me. I had a moment of freakout, but soon enough a guy with a Quetzalroo sign came and asked if I had a reservation (he was just there advertising)– turned out they had forgotten to pick me up! No harm done someone came and picked me up pronto. At the hostel, I paid for a dorm room but since it was so empty that just meant a larger private room for me with several beds in it!

The next day I was dropped off at the bus terminal, and caught the bus to Xela. However, about an hour into our 4 hour journey the bus started to smell suspiciously of burning rubber, and about twenty minutes after that two old ladies in the back started screaming stop the bus! There was a large amount of smoke coming out of their seats from the back wheel. (At first I thought there was a fire, so bad brakes was a large improvement)We stopped for a couple minutes, then the driver decided to try again despite loud protests from several passengers. Someone was in denial. My four hour journey turned into a six hour journey, and everyone had to get off the bus and wait to flag down various buses on the side of the highway. Several people just decided to flag down camionetas or chicken buses ( local buses – which are just  old, intensely polluting and insanely decorated school buses) but I waited till a pullman or greyhound came along and got on that. As luck would have it the only available seat was next to an older guy who talked my ear off (despite loud music coming from my headphones!) and gave me a monologue about which countries have the most beautiful women. When I finally got to Xela, I took a taxi to my host family’s house ( the taxi driver overcharged me and had no idea where the house was – I had to give him the telephone number so he could call and ask for directions). By the time I got there I was exhausted and extremely happy to be over the most stressful part of my trip.

 So far despite my travel hiccups Guatemalans in general seem friendly and helpful. I start volunteering and Spanish classes (which apparently I need super bad! I forgot how to say fries while ordering at MacDonald’s) on Monday. My host family is super sweet and has two young kids – Diego ( 7) and Fatima (4). I haven’t seen much of much besides from the bus so far, but when I have a chance I’ll explore Xela and give some updates.