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....