RANDOM odds and ends
Every two weeks at the Academy we change schedules. Classes, students, and teachers are shuffled to give everyone the opportunity to hear as many accents and expresions as possible.
What this means is everytwo weeks I have 5 goodbyes with 5 groups of people...each one showing thank you in their own special way. This friday, my 630-8pm class decided to leave class early with me and headover to Kluster. A fondue bar that has ´yards´ of beer. It reminded me of the essenhause a bit...except the yard of beer is all for you and you don´t have to pass it. Not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing...
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and dinning in Zona Viva. Since i´ve moved i´ve felt like a city girl living in new york or something. I live in the heart of Guatemala City with marble sidewalks in a four block radius around me. Ritzy hotels, resturaunts and bars in everydirection...and work is one block away.
It is hard to beleive that 5 blocks east and one wrong turn in a car can bring you into a drastic change. Zone 3. There are hardly any street lights and the area is not just impoverished but dangerous. I got lost in zone three a few weekends ago and we were told that if it happens again we should roll down our car windows at stop lights so people can see your faces. Since everyone has severly tinted windows people have been killed randomly i guess...i still don't really understand.
Danger here is strange to me. Almost every person i know can tell you a personal story about encounters with corrupt police, robberies, murders and more. A student ofmine was absent last week because his boss's brother was murdered. And last week when i asked a friend if she wanted to walk wiht me to get coffee she said hes but hestiated...ever since she was robbed with gun to her face a block from work she's been nervous to walk.
I'm not sure why i'm writting this... i know my family will probably read this and become more nervous or friends might say what in the world katy..but its just something i'm observing here and trying to figure out. With election campaigns going on, i've been trying to understand the political sides and the history of guatemalan struggle and peace and its correlation with the heavy presence of gangs.... i don't know enough yet to make an educated post describing it..so for now i'm just relaying what i'm seeing.
On another note... a second wind has come into my lungs for trying to learn. My roomate and I went through the entire apartment today and post it noted everything in spanish/english. She is my english student so its helping both of us greatly. Now evertime i sit on the toliet i face a shelving unit filled with postits for "pasta de dientes" y "papel del bano". I spent the day today speaking spanish...i havent done that in a while....this week i'm starting 'leyendas de guatemala' for some freetime reading.
Trying to plan my next weekend with a little traveling...TINA is coming!! yaa axlds love
What this means is everytwo weeks I have 5 goodbyes with 5 groups of people...each one showing thank you in their own special way. This friday, my 630-8pm class decided to leave class early with me and headover to Kluster. A fondue bar that has ´yards´ of beer. It reminded me of the essenhause a bit...except the yard of beer is all for you and you don´t have to pass it. Not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing...
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and dinning in Zona Viva. Since i´ve moved i´ve felt like a city girl living in new york or something. I live in the heart of Guatemala City with marble sidewalks in a four block radius around me. Ritzy hotels, resturaunts and bars in everydirection...and work is one block away.
It is hard to beleive that 5 blocks east and one wrong turn in a car can bring you into a drastic change. Zone 3. There are hardly any street lights and the area is not just impoverished but dangerous. I got lost in zone three a few weekends ago and we were told that if it happens again we should roll down our car windows at stop lights so people can see your faces. Since everyone has severly tinted windows people have been killed randomly i guess...i still don't really understand.
Danger here is strange to me. Almost every person i know can tell you a personal story about encounters with corrupt police, robberies, murders and more. A student ofmine was absent last week because his boss's brother was murdered. And last week when i asked a friend if she wanted to walk wiht me to get coffee she said hes but hestiated...ever since she was robbed with gun to her face a block from work she's been nervous to walk.
I'm not sure why i'm writting this... i know my family will probably read this and become more nervous or friends might say what in the world katy..but its just something i'm observing here and trying to figure out. With election campaigns going on, i've been trying to understand the political sides and the history of guatemalan struggle and peace and its correlation with the heavy presence of gangs.... i don't know enough yet to make an educated post describing it..so for now i'm just relaying what i'm seeing.
On another note... a second wind has come into my lungs for trying to learn. My roomate and I went through the entire apartment today and post it noted everything in spanish/english. She is my english student so its helping both of us greatly. Now evertime i sit on the toliet i face a shelving unit filled with postits for "pasta de dientes" y "papel del bano". I spent the day today speaking spanish...i havent done that in a while....this week i'm starting 'leyendas de guatemala' for some freetime reading.
Trying to plan my next weekend with a little traveling...TINA is coming!! yaa axlds love
posted by Katy @ 10:36 PM
1 Comments:
At 8/26/07 9:15 PM ,
Melody said...
Ok Katy, me hiciste recordar el dia que pegamos los post-it... no los he quitado, aun no creo que ya no estas...aqui ya te extrañamos y solo hace 1 dia y medio que te fuiste... in the future when you see a pos-it remember me!!
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