Done with Xela, on to Lago Atitlan

So I'm at La Iguana Perdida (the lost iguana) in Santa Cruz la Laguna, and it's completely beautiful. there's a dress up bbq tonight (they have aroom full of clothes to borrow, i'm torn between silly and dressy) where I hope to meet some people to hike around and swim with tomorrow and the following week. I mostly just wandered today nearby because all the far hikes you need a group to go with. There are waterfalls and of course, the big beautiful lake, to hike around. I'm not sure if I'll stay here the whole week, or go stay a few nights in San Marcos (the hippy town) or San Pedro (the party town, but also the jumping off point for hiking San Pedro Volcano and the Indian Nose).

I tried to find somewhere to swim, but instead found a volunteer looking for flowers to plant near the wood-fired sauna (hittin gthat tomorrow..) to deter mosquitos. It was nice to talk to someone so soon andthey have a bunch of board games, so I'm hoping to get my game on after dinner if people aren't raging too hard after the bbq party.

My last week in Xela was wonderful. The hike up to Santa Maria under a full moon was spiritual. I don't have words to describe it, but I do have about a million pictures and a couple videos to try to give an idea of what it was like to start hiking under an almost full moon around midnight or one, have clouds for about the last hour and almost get rained out, almost want to give up but then being able to see the top and finding the energy to chug on, get to the top *just* as the sky was beginning to turn from black to grey, cuddle in a sleeping bag as the world lit up around me, sleep for an hour, wake up to a dozen or so cows and a bright, beautiful sky and then getting to enjoy a couple hours on what felt like the top of the world.

Unfortunately, I can't show any of this because there's no uploading pics on these computers. It also costs money. Bummer.


So I think I'm going to take this opportunity and finally unplug for a week. I can't show pics, use Skype or email myself my photos (which I really really need to do.. this silly iphone is full!), so I may as well have a week of introspection and disconnection. I think this is the perfect place for it.

I may have to break down mid week and unload my pictures somewhere else, and if I do, I'll post some here. But I'm hoping I have enough space to last until at least Thursday or Friday sans internet. Cross your fingers with me.

<3

Saturday fun times

I can´t get this stupid thing to work. I´m pretty fed up with the computers here, but let´s pretend I haven´t been struggling for an hour on this computer trying to back up the million pictures I need to erase from my phone... and I can go back to sunshine Stacey who had a great day...


..at least it´s completely dumping out. I was just saying on Sunday how i can´t believe this is ¨wet season¨here because it´s been so beautifull...but just when I was starting to miss the rain, it came in full force the past two days. I hope it clears up for tomorrow´s full moon hike!


(some of..) The pictures i couldn´t upload yesterday...


Trevor and Scott playing at Baúl








I wonder if this has ever deterred anyone in the rain...





Kids playing on the giant cement slides...

My first guatemalan ice cream....

Finger painting!

And the begining of restaurant day number 2...

We went on a hike that was the most beautiful, and by far most difficult, that I´ve ever been on. Btu i cannot handle another second in here to try to upload pictures. Just think 5 km pretty much straight up a mountain to abeautiful eerie lake that´s a sacred Mayan site. lovely!

Much love until next time...

Resbaladeros!

Another week, another shit ton learned.

I decided this week would be my last for school, for now. I´ve learned so many freaking things in the past two weeks I really need some me time to digest it all. I came to K´amalbe knowing only the present tense, and now I´m swimming in tenses. I have a flashcard app on my phone and when I counted how many words I had entered on Tuesday I was at over 500. With all the double meaning participle stuff I got on Thursday, its probably close to 700 now. Its nice though because Ive been texting with diana in spanish, and I think she´s actually understanding me. Anyone who wants an email in spanish, let me know. I´m already planning one to Katie, Diana, my sister and Rachel, but I´m not sure if anyone else is interested? It's part of my "homework" for next week :)

speaking of you anyone´s, I figured out how to reply again and also made it so you can comment ¨anonymously¨ in case you don´t have a google account. the wifi at my house was finally fixed, so I´ve been more connected than normal.

..Anyway

last Friday after I posted we went to Zunil

There was some semi creepy Mayan Museum that had some cool stuff...

...but the guy who ran it just gave me the willies. After reading Rigoberta Menchu´s biography on the way here, I felt really weird about this guy asking if I wanted to try on the traditional dress and wanting me to pay 10Q to see a Mayan ceremony. Don´t get me wrong, it was interesting, I was just a little uncomfortable with parts of it. The apparatus to make the different pieces of clothing were pretty neat though, and Trevor and Finn were brave enough to try it out

Plus Zunil has San Simón, the saint Katie told me to go see. He´s the saint, if I remember correctly, of things such as booze and smoking. This has more http://www.pmoroni.it/esp/notas-de-viaje/san-simon-protector-de-los-borrachos/

I didn´t take pictures because they charge you, but imagine a mannequin wearing cowboy garb with a smoking cigarette masking taped to his mouth, booze bottles tucked in his lap, t'shirts draped around him (to sell) and surrounded by candles. This is the only photo I got there, when we went upstairs for some ritual.

Again, a bit unnerving because this all means something to someone and I feel like it was kinda being treated as a side show. Another lesson learned: the trips through my school are not so great. I´m still happy I went though, because the country around Zunil was amazing and I wanted to see San Simon. The clouds here do the most amazing things.

Saturday was supposed to be a hike up Baúl, a mountain similar to Mt Tabor very close - in Xela, but we went the wrong way (turned a bit too soon) and Trevor got bit by a dog... that we were told would bite. d´oh. The best part is we had just met our new roomies from New Zealand, Tomia and Scott, and their first bit of fun was to spend 2 or 3 hours at the clinic with us since Tomia knew the best spanish. I feel awful it happened to Trevor, but it was still really fun because I got to play gin for a couple hours with Finn and Scott and I hadn´t used my cards yet this trip.

After lunch we weren´t feeling so adventurous, so I asked Alejandra, the 10 year old here, if she wanted to play cards with me. We played slapjack for a while, then I taught her a couple games and a couple magic tricks Oscar had taught me. Then we ended up playing a word game similar to Scattegories until dinner. She´s awesome. After that she really came out of her shell with us, having meals with us and showing us that The Simpsons are on for a couple hours every night. In spanish. I consider it homework.

New roomies studying, how cute.

Alejandra .. I´m not sure why she´s throwing water at that tree.

Canella (I worked so hard for this picture, she was a real wiggle butt for the first 8 days I was here...)

And Pichi (I called him pinchi for the first 10 days before someone finally told me that was a swear word in spanish... oops?)

There´s also a bunny named Alvin and a duck named Donald, but no pictures yet.

Sunday was the market at Chichicastenange, the biggest in Guatemala (maybe Central America?),

and my first day of street food. I´m happy to say there were no BRE´s (bathroom emergencies), which was good since the busride was 3 hours out there.

The textiles and jewelry here are mindblowing. If I had known the stones they would have here in such abundance, I would´ve brought a lot more money to buy jewelry for me and my loved ones. Next time.

Oh and there were all these adorable taxis scurrying about

The week was full of studying and volunteering. Trevor, Finn and I were pretty fed up by the end of the week, since we were hoping to finish our sign in a day (still not done..) and hoping to work with a community not for one. But it´s fine. They really appreciate what we´re doing and I´ve got to know the boys better. And they gave us the most amazing hot chocolate one day, which helped a lot. The sign is taking forever because we´re all perfectionists and after trying to free hand it (um...) I did the math, Trevor did the drafting, and Finn did all the detailed painting and we gridded taht mofo out so it´s going to end up being the most amazing sign done by hand in the history of Guatemala.

But going going going from around 6:30 or 7 until 6 or 7ish, eating dinner and then barely having time for our homework was starting to get to us. I could feel myself getting cranky Wednesday and Thursday, but luckily it´s passed. It helps that Monday is my last day, because I´m not going to end up teaching English since I won´t be at K´amalbe anymore.

Two of my classes this week were neat walks. I´ve found, much like in English, I speak much better spanish while walking. I´m going to try to experiment with this on my own, even if I end up looking weird.

One day we walked up here

Oscar, the amazing teacher

And I thought it was really far.

But then yesterday we had half of our class on top of Baúl (I´m glad I went with Oscar, who showed me the non-crazy-biting-dog-way), and it made were I was before look like a molehill.

Hero

Awesome concrete slides, or resbaladeros, that you can kill yourself on if you´re not careful (I didn´t go this time.. but maybe)

the kiddie slides

back down

Wednesday I had the day off and, after some calls to loved ones, I walked around town solita. The plan was to talk to a lot of people in the street and practice my spanish... but I got all self conscious. Is it appropriate to ask the men? Will the women want to talk to me? blah blah blah. I was looking for this ¨parque tranquillo¨ in zona 2 Oscar had told me about, but didn´t tell me exactly where. I almost went home when I found my first street sign ever in Xela (most street names are painted on the buildings in some intersections, but not exactly frequent in some zones)

realized where I was, sort of, and asked a lady if there was a park nearby. She wanted to know the name of the park, which I didn´t know, but luckily I described it well enough that she figured out what I was talking about. It probably helped that I was a block away. score!

Read for a bit, then wandered back and saw some neat stuff, some of which was...

Cultural center for the region (Occidente)

Teatro Municipal

Yesterday I found out that if I continue to stay with my family I have to still pay 100Q to my school on top of my rent, so I found somewhere else. I will miss the food immensely, but Norma said I could pay to come for meals still, if I wanted. I almost want to take her up on it, because the food is so effing good, but I feel like I have missed out a lot on street food here. So I need to think about it still. Either way, she said I could definitely hang out for free no problem and I found a new room for super cheap near a pretty market

On the way home from reserving my room, I got some colored chalk and played with Alejandra and the little neighbor girl (so hard to understand her. Think foreign language and 3 year old speak, but darn is she cute) for a while

Then Alejandra and I got Scott and Michael excited about four square, finally convinced the New Yorkers they wanted to play (they had never played!), and ended up playing six square for about an hour and half. So fun.

Please excuse the weird tenses of this. I´m writing it and it´s friday night, but the internet has disappeared again so I know I can´t post until tomorrow. And I´m tired.

Other stuff I like

My street in the sunshine

fluffy dogs in Xecanchavox

chicken buses (the one we take to Xecanchavox always says this)

Something I don't like

unfortunately this bus is in the majority...

Now it's Saturday and I'm borrowing Trevor's computer to finish this. We went back to Baul again, only this time I did try the slides

Looks like I've maxed out my pictures. oh well, next time! I'm over teh computuer right now anyway. sooooo over it....

Week 1 in Xela

As of right now, Im a little bummed that I already have my time in Peten scheduled, because I am completely in love with Xela. I love the buildings, the people, the nearby towns, my schools, my roommates, my family, the park, the cemetary, everything.

In the Central Park


walking around



pack of dogs at the park by the cemetary


i got lost on my way home on the first day, but it was ok because i found these cows



But who knows, 3 weeks later, I may be ok with going.

I only have about 15 minutes, but I am backing up my pictures so I thought Id update

I started volunteering with my classmates on Wednesday, so I have very little free time during the week and am hoping to be gone much of the weekend. A typical day goes

615 to 7 wake up
breakfast around 730
school from 8 to 12 or 1
lunch 1 30
volunteer 2 to 6ish
try to call family or do homework until
dinner at 730
homework or maybe talking with my family or roommates until
i sleep around 930 or maybe 1030 if im feeling crazy

my house is awesome, there are three kids who are super sweet. the oldest speaks some english, so we talk with him most, and i havent eaten out at all yet because Norma is an amazing cook. Tortillas are served with everything, even pasta, and my roommates and I have decided our favorite so far is pasta tacos. spaghetti noodles, some sort of garlic sauce, this amazing green salsa thats ever present and tortillas. its amazing.

oh, and there{s a dog, Canela, that i cant get a picture of because shes too durned wiggly (cute spaniel type), but also Pinchi


my original room


which i loved because of this






but after these lovely folks from new jersey left wednesday


i moved into here, and while i miss the poster, the desk to do homework and big windows are fantastic.




School is rad. I cant believe how much ive learned in only a week. easily more than I have in all the years i took classes in high school or college. My maestro, Oscar, is perfect for me becasue he not only teaches grammar, vocabulary, etc, but its not uncommon for him to take me to teh cemetary to tell me the history of certain tombs or how its segregated or to teh central park to tell me history there as well. he talks a lot about local and regional politics and my homework usually includes reading articles from various newspapers (he told me which are crap, which is also awesome). So, I completely lucked out and found exactly what I was looking for in a teacher.

My desk



My view




Art on my walk to school
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my favorite


Trevor (a housemate) at breaktime



As far as volunteering, we are first painting a sign for the pueblo, then their basketball-soccer court, then we start english lessons for the kids next tues day, which well do from tue-thurs each week

Chicken busses! (volunteering was my first real experience with them (so fun, although I know I have to be careful) but I will have many more adventures thanks to these...)



Walk to the pueblo from the bus


Thats one of the twenty something volcanos Guatemala has in the background, Santa Maria. Theres a "full moon hike" this month through an organization called Quetzal Trekkers (www.quetzaltrekkers.com) and I am very excited to do it. You climb a mountain under a full moon and reach the summit as the sun is rising. THen your money goes to support a school for street children. ummm.. awesome.







My housemates from Long Island, Trevor and Finn (left to right=


Los jefes con los chicos after a difficult meeting figuring out what they had for us to do and what we wanted to do. very productive though.


our first project. A little frustrating at first, because it seemed every adult male in teh community came to see what we were doing.
It took 20 minutes for them to decide if the white paint ws going to cover teh old sign properly


And one minute to just effing paint it


But, hey, its their show.
And the kids were super cute and loved to have their picture taken




Lunch time!