One month anniversary

There has to be a balance when you've been living in city for a month that is always moving, pretty violent, and sometimes pollution is sometimes a little too much to handle. Whats the sollution for an enjoyable weekend? You spend one day in the city and then you...

get out of the city.

I was told today that i've seen more of guatemala so far than most chapinas (guatemalans!) do. Who knows if thats true, or if this girl just doesn't like to get of the city, but it made me feel pretty good. I feel like my time here is slipping away and I'm trying to see as much as possible.

Friday after work i headed down to zone 13 with some maestros and checked out two of the best museos in Guatemala. I saw tons of Mayan stuff and a great modern art exhibit. Dodging the rain we ran over to the Artisan Market and saw again more of the beautiful woven goodness of guatemalan fabrics. I cant get enough of it. To complete a day of experiencing the city we headed down the busy -non walker friendly- streets to the zoo. This zoo looks so mis placed. You would never imagine you'd find it in the middle of zone 13. You walk in and are most deffintely in another world. Lions, Hippos, bears, monkeys the size of your hand and smaller!, jaguar...and much more all in the most beautiful natural habitats you have ever seen in a zoo. Another hidden gem tucked away in the middle of a busy city.

Saturday after work I hoped in the car with an @er from AXLDS and headed to the pacific coast with 10 of his cousins.

Monterrico.

Drastically different than the city, it was the perfect weekend escape. Driving through the small town I saw much different style of living, one that i could get used to. Fruit stands, bars, and music everwhere with men and women relaxing in the shade in their hammocks.

We got to our bungalow and walked out our front door onto black sand beaches as far as the eye can see. The waves were incredibly forcefull but of course it wouldn't stop me from swimming in the bathwater of the pacific. For 2 or three minutes was knocked over several times and would tumble head over heels tyring to figure out how to survive and actually have some fun in the water.

I looked over and their were 5 little guatemalan boys ages 5-7, all handling the waves perfectly. They noticed i was in destress and explained to me how to be part of the wave, and not to fight it. You have to first face the wave and when you see it right before you you go under water and turn around so you are facing the shore. You then stand in the running position with one foot forward and one back to brace yourself. Perfect. No struggle, no panic.

I'm dissapointed that i didn't tell them thank you.

Pacaya

Yesterday I got picked up from work by two
friends that i had met at my conference i went to in march- and we headed out of the city for the day. The took me to Pacaya Volcano, to experiences the wonders of hiking an active volcano. It was actually the most incredbile thing i've ever seen or done. It started with a winding car ride up through the rural base of the volcano parking our car at a little impoverished town. We opened the car door and were stormed with 10 little boys ages 4-7 all holding out walking sticks that they had carved waiting to sell them to us. We spent 5 min testing out each one before we each picked out two and paid the boys Q5 per stick (Q8=$1). We strapped on our hiking packs and took a few sips of water, preparing of our 3 hour hike up the volcano.

I was told this is the easiest volcano to hike in Guatemala, so I was not worried, nor expepcting any difficulty in our journy. Boy was I wrong. Javier set his stop watch as we began to hike, knowning exactly what pace we had to walk and when we could stop and for how long. The first 45 minutes was the hardest physical thing i think i've ever done. Think of a an incline equivilant to flight of stares where the steps are twice as high as the should be...and theirare no steps- its just the ground. After 5 minutes of fast pass walking, i was winded and sweating. Alvaro took my back pack and he and alvaro took turns carrying my load up the hardest stretch of the journey. Thank gooodness.

The entire hike through the 'forest part' you could here the volcano venting and erupting above you. Finally we got out of the forest and could finally see the peak and the area that was all volcanic rock. The lava was ozing down and you could see the smoke coming out of the top. Our goal was to climb to the sumit and look down the top into the crater. Both Javier and Alvaro had done it over 7 times before and said its an expereince of a life time.

We put on gardening gloves (the rocks are razor sharp) let go of one of our sticks and began our climb over and up the rocks. We followed paths called "candels" that are active tunnels of lava but are more sturdy than the loose little stones that can slip and slide beneth you. The higher we climbed the hotter the ground got and at times you could see the red glow beneath you. Then it started to pour. Rain gear out we were surrounded in steam from the rain on the hot rocks. Up we climed until our feet got so hot that we had to turrn around. Our shoes began to melt and we tried to flank to the right and try a different path. Unfortuanly (but super cool) The top started erupting in pretty big spurts into the sky and we realized we couldn't make it to theop today. It was too active. The sun had set arleady, so hiked in t he dark to a flat area in the rocks (where we were safe!) and pulled out a bottle of wine and cheese and bread enjoyed a nice dinner watching the beauty and power of mother nature, with a show of volcanic eruptions and lava flow.



Breathtaking.

Word on the street

I 'experienced' my first guatemalan earthquake yesterday. There was pretty big earthquake that shook everyone up yesterday, except me. My friends and students told me how their houses were shaking, parking lots moving, and buildings swaying...and yet I felt nothing. For the one minute it was going on i was in a 2 minute car ride to work.

They say its hard to tell you're in an earthquake when you're driving because you arleady are moving. It doesn't help the situation i'm guessing whent he car is old and shakes to begin with..

Nevertheless, yes- the rumors are true: There was an Earthquake in Guatemala yesterday. Everyone is safe, and i couldnt' tell you what it was like even if i wanted to!

"Kathy, I still don't understand..."

I think i'm learning more about the english language than the spanish language.


Please use 'presuppose' in a sentence.

Can you expain "matter"...aka "what is the matter"...

Please explain "insofar" without just creating examples.

Is it gramatically correct to say "I was finishing walking the dog?"


"....umm...."

Things are just different....

It's just a different way of life down here. I wake up at the crack of dawn everymorning and am out the door by 630am. School buses packed of people, some of whom are hanging out the side, roar past me as huge black clouds of smoke engulf me. I learned quickly why people are sometimes cover their faces with a cloth or their shirt. On my walk to work I pass the same police men standing on street corners, the same old women with her bag of tortillas and some sort of filling, the same maid letting two dogs out to use the bathroom, and smile at the guard who opens the gate for me at the Academy every morning. I utter "buenas" to them as they give a long stare at me clicking my heels down the small side walk.

At the Academy, marriage status is a focus of many conversations. When I was introduced to the company last friday...the newbies were to say their name, where they were from, and if they were single or married. In my class yesterday, when I told an older women that I'll be in Guate for a few months...she responded with "are you single, or married?" And yet again... when asked by fellow co workers why I'm in Guatemala.... almost all assumed that I followed a guy here to live.

I walk home for lunch some days and relax with the son of the women i'm staying with. I see the maid setting up a table outside with tons of food. I ask her who is coming, and she tells me that they feed the men who bring the vegetables. A few minutues later, the door bell rings and a neighbor is dropping off some sort of fruit for us as the maid exchanges her with some bread from our cabinet. A few minutes later, the bell rings again...its a person who came for some eggs- and I am reminded that my house has a "SE VENDEN HUEVOS" in the window...and we do infact, sell eggs.

Back to work I go , for another six hours. Class, class, class and I'm home at 815. Dinner is waiting for me at the table, and the maid is patient and sits with me, listening to me rambling on in broken spanish about my day.

"Muchisimas Gracias"
"Buen Provecho"

The table is cleared, the lights are turned off, I flick between the evening news and some dramatic soap opera where the father of some women's unborn child was killed last night....I sleep. I wake up. I do it again.

Feliz Cumpleanos!!