I think the title about sums it up. The only words I can say about the past two weeks...are...holy crap! I don´t know if it´s possible in any way to convey how much has changed for me in the past week about being here, but changed in good ways!
Here´s a quick rundown:
...I changed schools (INFINITELY better, and apparently the other school is kind of in a crisis right now anyways. At this school, Juan Sisay, I had to take tests at the beginning of the week to assess my level..which is advanced, who knew? And my teacher is SO much better. He really understands grammar..I mean...really understands grammar. And so we´re going over select parts of grammar on a deeper level, not just passing over the vague version of all the stuff that I´ve learned before, like I was doing at my old school.)
...I changed families (SO MUCH BETTER. The food is great. She cooks with TVP and soy and all of this great stuff, too!)
...I´ve started hanging out with people that speak Spanish instead of English. (woohoo)
...I started working at a cafe (It´s crazy...I work for 8 quetzals an hour plus tips....so en total about 12 quetzals an hour...ie $1.50. It puts into perspective a lot about working and money for me.)
...I started getting hit on a lot (no tengo ningún idea porque ahora si y antes no).
...I started looking for an apartment with a friend I met here.
...I realized I´ve been here for over a month!
...Semana Santa is coming up, which means a crazy week for everyone. (More on this one later. Get siked)
...I was told I don´t have a gringa accent (though, of course, I don´t have a Latin accent either, but hey, not gringa is good!).
...I got my first bad sunburn...only on my face (consequently, every night the favorite joke was to ask if I was drunk because my face was so red..).
...I had my first realization that I wish I could stay longer.
Okay, so that about sums it up for now. Time to go eat lunch!
hasta luego!
31 March 2007
17 March 2007
Too much english.
So, in the past week my life here has seen a signifcant change in the volume of English spoken, which is ultimately not a good thing. I finally went to EntreMundos, the clearinghouse organization of international volunteers, to poke around and look at the volunteer job offerings. There is a woman´s weaving cooperative called Trama that is looking for a new volunteer coordinator, and that is a possibility. However, I haven´t been able to get a hold of the girl doing that job now to figure out what sort of timeline they´re looking for.
The other organization that I was interested in (and am now perplexed by) is this organization called Union de Trabajadores Quetzaletco (UTQ - Quetzaltenangoan Workers Union, more or less). They are an everything but the kitchen sink sort of organization consisting of unions, a school sort of, a clinic sort of, general organizing, sort of a broader union, and I´m not quite sure what else. But, according to the description they were looking for an intern to help with a bunch of different things, including research and help getting their newsletter back off the ground again. When I went to talk to the man, Oswaldo, it was painfully clear to me that there was no defined role of volunteers and everything was helter skelter. The main thing that they´re looking for is more funding, but for which programs or projects in particular I´m not yet sure. There were two other volunteers there when I arrived (one of whom left today) that Oswaldo wanted me to talk to, so I didn´t get the chance to talk for as long as I wanted to with him or his assistant, Rosaria.
I decided to definitely take this coming week off from classes, so I plan on going into UTQ during the mornings for this week, to try and get a feel of if I would like to work there longer term. Then, hopefully, in the afternoon(s) I can go to Trama. I may change schools, too, for the next week, I´m not really sure. And, I´m considering living in a different living situation as well, so a lot of possible changes coming up...we´ll see!
Hasta luego.
The other organization that I was interested in (and am now perplexed by) is this organization called Union de Trabajadores Quetzaletco (UTQ - Quetzaltenangoan Workers Union, more or less). They are an everything but the kitchen sink sort of organization consisting of unions, a school sort of, a clinic sort of, general organizing, sort of a broader union, and I´m not quite sure what else. But, according to the description they were looking for an intern to help with a bunch of different things, including research and help getting their newsletter back off the ground again. When I went to talk to the man, Oswaldo, it was painfully clear to me that there was no defined role of volunteers and everything was helter skelter. The main thing that they´re looking for is more funding, but for which programs or projects in particular I´m not yet sure. There were two other volunteers there when I arrived (one of whom left today) that Oswaldo wanted me to talk to, so I didn´t get the chance to talk for as long as I wanted to with him or his assistant, Rosaria.
I decided to definitely take this coming week off from classes, so I plan on going into UTQ during the mornings for this week, to try and get a feel of if I would like to work there longer term. Then, hopefully, in the afternoon(s) I can go to Trama. I may change schools, too, for the next week, I´m not really sure. And, I´m considering living in a different living situation as well, so a lot of possible changes coming up...we´ll see!
Hasta luego.
11 March 2007
Lago Chicabal + Fútbol.
before i begin, today bush is supposed arrive today at about 1:30 in guatemala. already, i have had quite a number of interesting conversations (condemnations) about/of bush. after he has been here for a little while and there have been protests against him and bad speeches made by him, i will be sure to talk more about it.
LAGO:
yesterday i hiked up a small volcano to see a small sacred lake named lago chicabal with 3 other people. two students from my school that leave for other parts of guatemala today (the german girl, sara, and the crazy italian man, enzo) and a guide (incidentally the brother of my teacher, angelica) and i climbed this little volcano. well, it was definitely vale la pena (worth the pain) for the view, but my god, i felt like i was going to die at times. the hike, when all was said and done, was not that hard, and it was only about an hour to the top, but wow was i tired and winded. we went super slow and it wasn´t that steep. i can only chock it up to the much higher altitude (and the fact that the only exercise i get now is walking around the city, which i only do about half to one hours worth of per day.) i knew to expect it to be harder to breath, but it´s still such a weird sensation that i wasn´t expecting - it was kind of what i expected having asthma to be like.
the end result is that i´m not sure if i could handle hiking other volcanos in the area that i wanted to -there´s one volcano named santa maria that had a huge eruption in the early 1900s that covered xela, killed some 1500 people, and somehow spawned another mini volcano (i think it´s name is migeulito? or something like that) that has constant activity, spewing out gases, rocks, smoke, etc into the area. santa maria takes about 4 or 5 hours to hike, and it´s a lot steeper and higher. you pass a ring of clouds before you get to the top, which seems pretty amazing to me. there is also another volcano that is the highest point in central america (only a little bit taller than santa maria, but i´m blanking on the name), where you can see to mexico on the other side. but, who knows if i will be able to do those or not! my friend xander hiked santa maria last week and was sore for about 5 days later.
LA COMIDA/ FOOD:
i´ve also decided, that i´ve gained weight since arriving. i definitely eat less here than at home (because i actually eat at regular times), but i seem to be successfully packing it on. i think it´s because with every meal you eat francesa*(basically plain white bread) or tortillas. i guess if any a proof needed to exist for the atkins diet, i would be it. it´s hard because it´s mildly offensive to refuse the francesa or tortillas i don´t think i´ve had a whole grain since i arrived, and come to think of it i think that´s what i´m craving. perhaps this week i will go to the bake shop (yes, named so) and buy some whole wheat bread. the bake shop is this little shop run by mennonites that is open only on tuesdays and fridays, and they make their own granola, bread, yogurt, but most everyone comes to buy fresh donuts.**
last tuesday, my teacher from that week, marvin, took me there and we both had mango yogurt, which, a few hours later, i´m pretty sure became the culprit of the horrible traveler´s sickness that i had/have, which has mostly gone, but still is kind of hanging around to bug my bowels at times. so, for the past week, my stomach has been, ehh, iffy and uncomfortable to say the least, but since friday afternoon it´s at least felt liveable.
i had an interesting interaction with blanca, my host mom, the other day, where she explained to me, as she was cooking some potatoes, that the doctor told her not to eat potatoes, rice, or francesa because she had high cholestrol. well, either i misunderstood the word for cholestrol (which is pretty straight forward) or there is some weird medical advice, because i can think of a lot of other things besides those starches that we eat that would be responsible for the cholestrol. additionally, after saying this, she pointed to her sides and her thigh, and said that was the reason she was a little fat (which she isn´t)....which is again, a bit contrary to what i would normally think. but, that´s how it was!
PARTIDO DEL FUTBOL:
so, on wednesday night (bad stomach pains and all), the 4 students from the school went to a soccer game between xela´s team and one of the 3 teams from guatemala city. xela was 2nd ranked and the municipal 1st (and they were only separated in the league by one point), so it was a very contentious match. well, as was expected, we heard tons of bad words, and of course, our fair share of italian swears coming out of our very own enzo. although all areas of the stadium are very, um, enthusiastic, about the game, we had the luck of sitting in an area with a lot of teenagers who had brought with them lots of props. after entering the stadium with much difficulty*** (see note).
the best was at the beginning of the game, when about 4 teenagers climbed up on top of the fence that separates the fans from the field, and straddled the fence holding fire extinguishers. then, right before the game began, from seemingly every different direction, there were fireworks going off (some other time, i will talk about my revelations about fireworks), sparklers, lit torches, noisemakers, streamers, and finally, from the fire extinguishers, colored smoke - red and blue - the colors of the xela team - that they spewed out for a good minute or so. haha, thankfully, my camera takes small videos, and thankfully as well, i had a bandana with me to cover my face because it was impossible to breath during and shortly after the pyrotechnic extravaganza. following the excitement, we were all covered in a good thick layer (and i mean thick) of reddish brown dust. again, thank you bandana, because i was able to dut myself, waterbottle, and camera off. well, xela won 2-0, which was quite exciting for us and meant they upset the number one team. they played yesterday, too, but i guess they ended up losing 0-1.
SO, that´s all for now. i am very much hoping to look at some places to volunteer this week. we´ll see!
------------------------
*so, ironically the word francesa (plain white bread here) is the same word you use to refer to a female from france. i was told a story about one afternoon when there was a cooking lesson for the activity. one french student who attended the school turned extremely red when he was told that they needed francesa to cook!
**on a side note, products here seem to be worth more or are more desirable if they have english thrown into the titles. it usually ends up being really repetitious adjectives, but my favorite so far is MEGA BIG soda.
***we had 4 different people working for the stadium try and tell us that we couldn´t bring our plastic bottles filled with water into the stadium, followed by people telling us oh it´s okay we could, followed by no, followed by yes, etc. enzo, thankfully, was able to point out that we were two americans, a german, and an italian, and no, not to worry, we would NOT be throwing the bottles at the players or the opposing fans. after several arguments, and my pleading that i needed water because i was sick, and that we would put the bottles in my backpack after we finished so that other people couldn´t throw them, they finally let us go.
LAGO:
yesterday i hiked up a small volcano to see a small sacred lake named lago chicabal with 3 other people. two students from my school that leave for other parts of guatemala today (the german girl, sara, and the crazy italian man, enzo) and a guide (incidentally the brother of my teacher, angelica) and i climbed this little volcano. well, it was definitely vale la pena (worth the pain) for the view, but my god, i felt like i was going to die at times. the hike, when all was said and done, was not that hard, and it was only about an hour to the top, but wow was i tired and winded. we went super slow and it wasn´t that steep. i can only chock it up to the much higher altitude (and the fact that the only exercise i get now is walking around the city, which i only do about half to one hours worth of per day.) i knew to expect it to be harder to breath, but it´s still such a weird sensation that i wasn´t expecting - it was kind of what i expected having asthma to be like.
the end result is that i´m not sure if i could handle hiking other volcanos in the area that i wanted to -there´s one volcano named santa maria that had a huge eruption in the early 1900s that covered xela, killed some 1500 people, and somehow spawned another mini volcano (i think it´s name is migeulito? or something like that) that has constant activity, spewing out gases, rocks, smoke, etc into the area. santa maria takes about 4 or 5 hours to hike, and it´s a lot steeper and higher. you pass a ring of clouds before you get to the top, which seems pretty amazing to me. there is also another volcano that is the highest point in central america (only a little bit taller than santa maria, but i´m blanking on the name), where you can see to mexico on the other side. but, who knows if i will be able to do those or not! my friend xander hiked santa maria last week and was sore for about 5 days later.
LA COMIDA/ FOOD:
i´ve also decided, that i´ve gained weight since arriving. i definitely eat less here than at home (because i actually eat at regular times), but i seem to be successfully packing it on. i think it´s because with every meal you eat francesa*(basically plain white bread) or tortillas. i guess if any a proof needed to exist for the atkins diet, i would be it. it´s hard because it´s mildly offensive to refuse the francesa or tortillas i don´t think i´ve had a whole grain since i arrived, and come to think of it i think that´s what i´m craving. perhaps this week i will go to the bake shop (yes, named so) and buy some whole wheat bread. the bake shop is this little shop run by mennonites that is open only on tuesdays and fridays, and they make their own granola, bread, yogurt, but most everyone comes to buy fresh donuts.**
last tuesday, my teacher from that week, marvin, took me there and we both had mango yogurt, which, a few hours later, i´m pretty sure became the culprit of the horrible traveler´s sickness that i had/have, which has mostly gone, but still is kind of hanging around to bug my bowels at times. so, for the past week, my stomach has been, ehh, iffy and uncomfortable to say the least, but since friday afternoon it´s at least felt liveable.
i had an interesting interaction with blanca, my host mom, the other day, where she explained to me, as she was cooking some potatoes, that the doctor told her not to eat potatoes, rice, or francesa because she had high cholestrol. well, either i misunderstood the word for cholestrol (which is pretty straight forward) or there is some weird medical advice, because i can think of a lot of other things besides those starches that we eat that would be responsible for the cholestrol. additionally, after saying this, she pointed to her sides and her thigh, and said that was the reason she was a little fat (which she isn´t)....which is again, a bit contrary to what i would normally think. but, that´s how it was!
PARTIDO DEL FUTBOL:
so, on wednesday night (bad stomach pains and all), the 4 students from the school went to a soccer game between xela´s team and one of the 3 teams from guatemala city. xela was 2nd ranked and the municipal 1st (and they were only separated in the league by one point), so it was a very contentious match. well, as was expected, we heard tons of bad words, and of course, our fair share of italian swears coming out of our very own enzo. although all areas of the stadium are very, um, enthusiastic, about the game, we had the luck of sitting in an area with a lot of teenagers who had brought with them lots of props. after entering the stadium with much difficulty*** (see note).
the best was at the beginning of the game, when about 4 teenagers climbed up on top of the fence that separates the fans from the field, and straddled the fence holding fire extinguishers. then, right before the game began, from seemingly every different direction, there were fireworks going off (some other time, i will talk about my revelations about fireworks), sparklers, lit torches, noisemakers, streamers, and finally, from the fire extinguishers, colored smoke - red and blue - the colors of the xela team - that they spewed out for a good minute or so. haha, thankfully, my camera takes small videos, and thankfully as well, i had a bandana with me to cover my face because it was impossible to breath during and shortly after the pyrotechnic extravaganza. following the excitement, we were all covered in a good thick layer (and i mean thick) of reddish brown dust. again, thank you bandana, because i was able to dut myself, waterbottle, and camera off. well, xela won 2-0, which was quite exciting for us and meant they upset the number one team. they played yesterday, too, but i guess they ended up losing 0-1.
SO, that´s all for now. i am very much hoping to look at some places to volunteer this week. we´ll see!
------------------------
*so, ironically the word francesa (plain white bread here) is the same word you use to refer to a female from france. i was told a story about one afternoon when there was a cooking lesson for the activity. one french student who attended the school turned extremely red when he was told that they needed francesa to cook!
**on a side note, products here seem to be worth more or are more desirable if they have english thrown into the titles. it usually ends up being really repetitious adjectives, but my favorite so far is MEGA BIG soda.
***we had 4 different people working for the stadium try and tell us that we couldn´t bring our plastic bottles filled with water into the stadium, followed by people telling us oh it´s okay we could, followed by no, followed by yes, etc. enzo, thankfully, was able to point out that we were two americans, a german, and an italian, and no, not to worry, we would NOT be throwing the bottles at the players or the opposing fans. after several arguments, and my pleading that i needed water because i was sick, and that we would put the bottles in my backpack after we finished so that other people couldn´t throw them, they finally let us go.
08 March 2007
student protests.
so! i wanted to write about friday night (friday was my first full day in xela). the heart of xela is el parque central (central park) a park of about two blocks in the middle of the city surrounded by a gazillion banks, a museum, a shopping center, some fancy hotels, and a two churches. inside the park is this odd greek-styled rotunda (apparently it´s called a kiosk?) thing made out of cement. the most common building material here seems to be cement. anyways, lots of exciting events go down in el parque central, and the first weekend i was there had a lot going on, because it was the first weekend of the month. so, even though the streets around the park are one way anyway, half of one of them was blocked off as there were vendors everywhere with food, snacks, drinks, crafts, and so on. in the back of a blocked off street, there were also rides for kids. anyways, during my first day of classes, i walked around with angelica, and she told me about the city and showed me a bunch of different places, things, etc. in addition, she explained that i really should attend the student protests that night; so i did.
so i arrive, and the entire park is filled with people. the atmosphere is like a fair, there are families snacking, teenagers drinking in the shadows, and people milling about everywhere. there´s a huge stage set up and people talking so quickly that i couldn´t figure out what words i was hearing, nevertheless translate them. so i look up at the stage only to see...a mass of people standing (and passing through the crowds) in robes like the kkk. oh my, if you can only imagine my shock. todos the students were wearing robes, of different colores, covering their entire faces and bodies that are shaped..... exactly like KKK robes. except, they are different colors - blue, black, purple, lavendar. but, to boot, most of them are also carrying a short stick, like a baton to beat people with...and i´m thinking to myself what the hell?! well, anyways, both robes and batons are symbolic because in years past students were killed, tortured, persecuted and so on for speaking out against the government. and even though now in theory they would be fine, it{s an added measure of protection and of tradition to show up disfrazados (disguised/costumed) in order make their very long, swear-ridden, but mostly truthful condemnations and statements about the local and national governments, recent events, and various candidates for office. the different colors represent various deparments of the university (the public university here is called san carlos; most of the public universities lean quite heavily to the left and the private ones to the right), but still nonetheless, it was quite a shock and quite interesting. there were so many people there, and the protests are regular every friday night, although they change location depending upon which weekend of the month it is. so anyways, it´s a goal of mine to actually understand what the students are saying while they are saying it (instead of slowly translating their little pamphlets) by the time that i leave - if i can understand words spoken so quickly and so distorted by amplifiers as theirs, then i will be able to understand almost anything.
as for my new teacher: his name is marvin, he´s 24, a student at san carlos, quite short, and he enjoys making jokes that just barely make it over my head (ie, i usually catch on about 40 seconds later). he´s only been teaching for about a year, but he seems to me to be a good teacher. it´s quite difficult for me to figure out what i need at this point in order to improve. i want to make sure that i´m getting my money´s worth out of school, but i have no idea wha that, in practicality, means.
it´s like i have this giant cesspool with a mix of different stuff- verb agreement, various articles, verb tenses, and some vocabulary that sloshes around a lot in my head. at times, i´m able to pick out the right parts and use them, but for the most part, it´s all kind of a big mess. miraculously though (and this is what surprised me and the teachers i have had) buried deep down in the murky depths of my brain, i have all of the elements of correct grammar stored (who knew?). i do know all the tenses, i know their uses, i know the differences between estar y ser, between por y para, etc, but all this knowledge surfaces only when it feels like it. i also think there must be something akin to a layer of velcro in my head, that, through the years has been covered with cat hair. consequently, only some vocab sticks, and some, no matter how hard i try, keeps falling off. so, in total, i have this really random assortment of words that i know and use, words that i understand, and words that look or feel somewhat familiar to me but i can´t quite place. the end result is that i´m not quite sure how to go forward with my studies. everyone seems convinced (teachers, friends, family) that the vocab will come with time from listening to people, watching tv, etc, but i´m not sure.
i guess at this point i worry that i don´t have enough homework or that my spanish will stay at the same weird skill level that it´s at now. after class, i spend usually around 2 hours at some point during the day reading other texts in spanish, and i try to talk as much as possible with my family (although difficult), but i´m just not sure what´s best. there are definitely different styles of teaching, and i could most definitely switch schools (i´ve only paid for 2 weeks so far) and there are some odd 40 schools in xela, but it´s hard to tell what i actually need.
moving on, there are only 4 students in my school: a german girl of about the same age, a girl from tenessee who just finished nursing school, an older italian man that is a bit full of himself but quite hilarious and good with his words (spanish and italian are very similar), and me. tonight the school activity is to go to the futbol game between the municipal (the xela team) and the capital (guatemala city). it should be quite the adventure; i´m pretty siked for it. as our teachers told us, ohhh you´ll learn such new words! so many swears! haha. so, we´ll see.
and finally, my funny moment of the day. one of the teachers told me not to worry about missing the dinner with my family tonight (because of the game), because i can eat hot dogs and hamburgers instead. in response, i explained i was a vegetarian and wouldn´t eat those things. so, she told me, well...good thing beer is vegetarian! hah. and good thing, i won´t be taking her advice!
hasta luego.
so i arrive, and the entire park is filled with people. the atmosphere is like a fair, there are families snacking, teenagers drinking in the shadows, and people milling about everywhere. there´s a huge stage set up and people talking so quickly that i couldn´t figure out what words i was hearing, nevertheless translate them. so i look up at the stage only to see...a mass of people standing (and passing through the crowds) in robes like the kkk. oh my, if you can only imagine my shock. todos the students were wearing robes, of different colores, covering their entire faces and bodies that are shaped..... exactly like KKK robes. except, they are different colors - blue, black, purple, lavendar. but, to boot, most of them are also carrying a short stick, like a baton to beat people with...and i´m thinking to myself what the hell?! well, anyways, both robes and batons are symbolic because in years past students were killed, tortured, persecuted and so on for speaking out against the government. and even though now in theory they would be fine, it{s an added measure of protection and of tradition to show up disfrazados (disguised/costumed) in order make their very long, swear-ridden, but mostly truthful condemnations and statements about the local and national governments, recent events, and various candidates for office. the different colors represent various deparments of the university (the public university here is called san carlos; most of the public universities lean quite heavily to the left and the private ones to the right), but still nonetheless, it was quite a shock and quite interesting. there were so many people there, and the protests are regular every friday night, although they change location depending upon which weekend of the month it is. so anyways, it´s a goal of mine to actually understand what the students are saying while they are saying it (instead of slowly translating their little pamphlets) by the time that i leave - if i can understand words spoken so quickly and so distorted by amplifiers as theirs, then i will be able to understand almost anything.
as for my new teacher: his name is marvin, he´s 24, a student at san carlos, quite short, and he enjoys making jokes that just barely make it over my head (ie, i usually catch on about 40 seconds later). he´s only been teaching for about a year, but he seems to me to be a good teacher. it´s quite difficult for me to figure out what i need at this point in order to improve. i want to make sure that i´m getting my money´s worth out of school, but i have no idea wha that, in practicality, means.
it´s like i have this giant cesspool with a mix of different stuff- verb agreement, various articles, verb tenses, and some vocabulary that sloshes around a lot in my head. at times, i´m able to pick out the right parts and use them, but for the most part, it´s all kind of a big mess. miraculously though (and this is what surprised me and the teachers i have had) buried deep down in the murky depths of my brain, i have all of the elements of correct grammar stored (who knew?). i do know all the tenses, i know their uses, i know the differences between estar y ser, between por y para, etc, but all this knowledge surfaces only when it feels like it. i also think there must be something akin to a layer of velcro in my head, that, through the years has been covered with cat hair. consequently, only some vocab sticks, and some, no matter how hard i try, keeps falling off. so, in total, i have this really random assortment of words that i know and use, words that i understand, and words that look or feel somewhat familiar to me but i can´t quite place. the end result is that i´m not quite sure how to go forward with my studies. everyone seems convinced (teachers, friends, family) that the vocab will come with time from listening to people, watching tv, etc, but i´m not sure.
i guess at this point i worry that i don´t have enough homework or that my spanish will stay at the same weird skill level that it´s at now. after class, i spend usually around 2 hours at some point during the day reading other texts in spanish, and i try to talk as much as possible with my family (although difficult), but i´m just not sure what´s best. there are definitely different styles of teaching, and i could most definitely switch schools (i´ve only paid for 2 weeks so far) and there are some odd 40 schools in xela, but it´s hard to tell what i actually need.
moving on, there are only 4 students in my school: a german girl of about the same age, a girl from tenessee who just finished nursing school, an older italian man that is a bit full of himself but quite hilarious and good with his words (spanish and italian are very similar), and me. tonight the school activity is to go to the futbol game between the municipal (the xela team) and the capital (guatemala city). it should be quite the adventure; i´m pretty siked for it. as our teachers told us, ohhh you´ll learn such new words! so many swears! haha. so, we´ll see.
and finally, my funny moment of the day. one of the teachers told me not to worry about missing the dinner with my family tonight (because of the game), because i can eat hot dogs and hamburgers instead. in response, i explained i was a vegetarian and wouldn´t eat those things. so, she told me, well...good thing beer is vegetarian! hah. and good thing, i won´t be taking her advice!
hasta luego.
06 March 2007
de las calles.
well, today i finally went on a 3 hour aimless walk throughout part of the city with another chica, sara, from germany. it seems that the majority of the students here are either german or american (which, incidentally are apparently the two "worst" or harshest accents to have! how fun!). anyways, it was great to wander around here; i hadn't really realized how big the city is, and we went to the outer limits of the city only to find....more streets and houses and so on! we didn't feel like walking down and back up this giant hill, and all of the buildings were spread further apart there, so we decided not to go any further. but still! i discovered this great setting on my camera today that helps you to take panoramic shots, and i've been using it a lot. when i have more time, i'll figure out how to post some pictures and show them!
so today: this morning it was maybe 55 degrees with some wind, and EVERYONE was walking around going "que frio!" or "hace frio", which i found quite amusing. it was cloudy and windy this morning, but it always warms up and clears up by the afternoon, so i ony wore a long sleeve shirt over a tank top. and, i was little cold, sitting still for such a long time, but ay, so funny! everyone thinks it's like a blizzard, and i was laughing because it's like a warm winter/spring day in the states! also, although i didn't feel it or hear it (which is odd because i wake up very easily here) there was an earthquake last night at 1am. quien sabe?!
but on a more solem note, my wonderful maestra, angelica, is no longer my maestra for the week. sadly, her father-in-law died of tuberculosis yesterday. apparently he was pretty young as well, and an extremely well known and respected man. on friday, angelica told me about how he used to run this amazing radio station that programmed both in spanish and quiche (a mayan dialect) with a community focus. but, he was doing it without one of the very expensive licenses that you need in order to operate as a radio station (much like the united states pretty much all of the radio media is controlled by about 3 major, powerful and rich companias). there are many small radio stations, but it's illegal to run one without a license, and apparently he got slammed by the equivalent of the fcc with a court case that resulted in a possibility of either two rulings: go to jail or pay a fine of 1.5 million quetzals. crazy, yeah? and then he developed tb. and yesterday, he passed away, which is incredibly sad. as i was walking home this afternoon, i encountered the funeral procession - which consisted of over a thousand people marching in memory of him. it was a crazy sight; hundreds of men dressed in black that form two columns on either side of the street. and then i think the relatives walk with the coffin and the various signs with pictures of the virgin mary, and then behind, follow all of the women. my host family knew the man, and they're friends with angelica, so tomorrow we will go pay a visit to her. but, wow.
anyways, tengo que salir, but i will write more later. of my new profesor (marvin), of the student protests on friday night (whoa), of the other students, and of my host family.
hasta luego!
so today: this morning it was maybe 55 degrees with some wind, and EVERYONE was walking around going "que frio!" or "hace frio", which i found quite amusing. it was cloudy and windy this morning, but it always warms up and clears up by the afternoon, so i ony wore a long sleeve shirt over a tank top. and, i was little cold, sitting still for such a long time, but ay, so funny! everyone thinks it's like a blizzard, and i was laughing because it's like a warm winter/spring day in the states! also, although i didn't feel it or hear it (which is odd because i wake up very easily here) there was an earthquake last night at 1am. quien sabe?!
but on a more solem note, my wonderful maestra, angelica, is no longer my maestra for the week. sadly, her father-in-law died of tuberculosis yesterday. apparently he was pretty young as well, and an extremely well known and respected man. on friday, angelica told me about how he used to run this amazing radio station that programmed both in spanish and quiche (a mayan dialect) with a community focus. but, he was doing it without one of the very expensive licenses that you need in order to operate as a radio station (much like the united states pretty much all of the radio media is controlled by about 3 major, powerful and rich companias). there are many small radio stations, but it's illegal to run one without a license, and apparently he got slammed by the equivalent of the fcc with a court case that resulted in a possibility of either two rulings: go to jail or pay a fine of 1.5 million quetzals. crazy, yeah? and then he developed tb. and yesterday, he passed away, which is incredibly sad. as i was walking home this afternoon, i encountered the funeral procession - which consisted of over a thousand people marching in memory of him. it was a crazy sight; hundreds of men dressed in black that form two columns on either side of the street. and then i think the relatives walk with the coffin and the various signs with pictures of the virgin mary, and then behind, follow all of the women. my host family knew the man, and they're friends with angelica, so tomorrow we will go pay a visit to her. but, wow.
anyways, tengo que salir, but i will write more later. of my new profesor (marvin), of the student protests on friday night (whoa), of the other students, and of my host family.
hasta luego!
03 March 2007
observaciones!
well well well! so here is a far too detailed and run-on-sentence-laden telling of my experiences and observations thus far. to sum up though, (and this is no shocker) i am very aware of how little i know about the world outside of new england in practical terms. i can tell you academic sociological/historical ¨stuff¨about the world, and for example a bunch about guatemala, but the academic material is dry and devoid of meaning to me without lived reality. i am here because ways i want to be of and in the world rather than just studying or thinking about it and my reactions hypothetically. por eso, i can say quite confidently that i feel affirmed thus far in my reasons and feelings about taking this trip. i´m learning so much about myself and the world in ways that i knew i couldn´t at home in providence. so, bear with me because i may make rather crude observations at times that are simply attempts and realizations on my part to process difference. (also, bear with my grammar - i am trying to write these as quickly as possible!)
so, here goes!
i am here at last! and by here, i mean in xela instead of guatemala city and instead of antigua. after arriving in shock and sweating lots (literally and figuratively) about carrying my bag around, i jumped on a shuttle bus to antigua that was supposed to drop me off on a busline to xela. however, the bus stop was a little flower bed by the side of a road at a gas station on a busy street, where a young girl and her father were eating ice cream. the bus driver asked them about the bus and they said something to the effect of, oh it just came. i think that another one will be here in another hour. well, i didn´t feel so siked about waiting for a bus by myself in the middle of a place i didn´t know for a bus that may or may not come and that i may or may not be able to flag down. so, i continued on to antigua and stayed in a cheap hostel with a girl from montreal i had met on the plane.
well, all i have to say about antigua is roosters and tourists abound! i know it´s one of ¨those¨ places that are supposed to be amazing, but i didn´t particularly enjoy it. it could have been that i was in the wrong city with no real way to contact people in xela or the fact that i was tired and cranky, but the entire city seemed too small and touristy for my liking.
so, por la mañana on thursday, i got on a shuttle ¨to¨ xela, thinking that this shuttle to xela would be like those advertised around, stopping off in (i think the name is..?) chimicastenango, where you switch buses for xela. antigua is about 1 hour west of guate city, and xela is about 4 hours west-northwest of guatemala city. anyways, instead of going in the right direction, the bus went back to guatemala city, where i was handed off to a taxi after the airport, who took me to the bus station i was originally planning on going to when i arrived on wednesday. hah! well, i arrived 5 minutes after the 11am bus had arrived, and even though there was a 12; 30 bus advertised, i was told no! the next bus was not until 2;30. so i waited. and waited. and ate a lot of snacks.
finally, i get on the bus (this was a first class pullman bus called galgos. galgos = greyhound) and we head off...after a half hour wait on the bus. so, at this point i´m happy to be on the road a bit cranky about waiting, but happy nonetheless...except that we run into the same terrible construction outside of guatemala city that leaves you sitting for a half hour at a time in one place. now, in case you don´t know the geography of guatemala it´s extremely mountainous/hilly, and the area where i´m living is called the altiplano - and it´s the western highlands/ mountains of the country. xela is in a sort of basin/valley in the middle of mountains and with an active volcano next door.
but, back to the bus. this bus, as most vehicles i´ve seen here, was a manual shift bus, and, to well, stopping & starting on the giant hills of guatemala in traffic was...err...humorous to say the least. now, passengers change frequently on the bus, as there are two men working for the bus station (aside from the driver) whose jobs are explicitly to hang halfway out the bus door as it travels anywhere between 5-30 mph and yell XELA XELA XELA. and if someone responds, the bus screeches to a halt and picks them up. also, any time the bus stops at random to pick up a hopeful passenger along the side of the road or it is blocked in traffic, vendors jump onto the bus to peddle their food or wares and stay on for the ride until the next convenient moment to hop off.
so, i´m on this pullman bus, and i have my head nearly out the window, and it´s flying around these hairpin curves at a terrifyingly rapid pace..except..again for the frequent traffic jams from the road construction. so we continue onward and the bus driver continues to struggle with this extremely old bus, that, from what i can gather, requires all of your upper body strength to shift into first gear. not only does it require all of the driver´s (and sometimes the assistants´help), but it shakes the entire bus and makes the most terrible grinding sound i´ve ever heard. every time we shift to first gear. or rather, every time there is an attempt to shift, for he stalls out numerous times (it´s a wonder to me how little he managed to stall out), and each time, the assistants kind of run outside with a wrench or something and do i don´t know what to the bus, and the bus driver starts going and the two men sprint after the bus to catch up and jump in as it plugs along. ¡que humoroso! so, we´re moving along and it´s getting dark and i´m starting to feel extremely nervous because the 4 hour bus ride has clearly turned into a 5.5 hour bus ride in which i am arriving at night, by myself, without a real clear idea if there will be someone to meet me, because i thought i would be arriving on the 11am bus to xela (that would be there approximately at 3pm). instead, it´s 8;30pm and i´m going CRAP. i have a broken bag (the hip belt, ie the most important part of a backpacking pack, ripped off in transit from the taxi drivers haphazard handing of my bag to me) and it´s dark and i´m by myself without a clue who or where my family is!
but, never fear, it all worked out. there was a note left for me on the door of the school (i took a taxi to it, which again reaffirmed my poor bargaining skills. i know i´m being ripped off but i have not yet developed either the confidence-gumption-language skills to change it). the note told me to call someone who would call my host family, and they came to the school, helped me carry my bags to their house (which is a less than 5 minute walk from the school). and finally, i was there!
i am writing an extremely large amount right now, so i will save the descriptions of the people in my family for later. but i will run through their names now - blanca (la madre-mom), jorge (padre), alejandra (daughter of college age), mindi (daughter of college age), y jorge (son of college age or older as well). then, there are the two girls who stay at the house. and finally me, and another student from another school named bonner (i don´t actually know how to spell his name, but it´s pronounced bahn-er) who replaced a girl liz. apparently, more than one student staying at a house is not allowed in the world of homestays, and thus my mother asked me por un favor - to say, when asked, that there weren´t any other students in the house with me. i still haven´t decided how i feel about that, because bonner´s spanish, although he´s been studying since january, is far worse than mine, and he likes to hang around and speak english with me - which is the exact opposite of what i want.
so anyways, i am extremely happy to be here and excited and confused and challenged in a number of different ways! i started my schooling on friday with mi maestra, angelica. and i will write about her and my lessons later. but, to provide a brief synposis (in contrast to the tone of the rest of this entry!), i have been pleasantly surprised by how much spanish i retained in the recesses of my brain that was just waiting for the right moment to jump back out and resurface to the accessible parts of my brain! i am actually using different verb tenses of my own accord (although i screw them up frequently, and often substitute by default the present tense for the appropriate one).
but overall, i´ve been happy and excited for the opportunity to use my spanish - and my biggest concern now is to try and find ways to speak with other spanish-speakers, not foreigners, in my every day life. on monday i will hopefully will begin looking for a place to volunteer. so anyways, hasta luego readers!
so, here goes!
i am here at last! and by here, i mean in xela instead of guatemala city and instead of antigua. after arriving in shock and sweating lots (literally and figuratively) about carrying my bag around, i jumped on a shuttle bus to antigua that was supposed to drop me off on a busline to xela. however, the bus stop was a little flower bed by the side of a road at a gas station on a busy street, where a young girl and her father were eating ice cream. the bus driver asked them about the bus and they said something to the effect of, oh it just came. i think that another one will be here in another hour. well, i didn´t feel so siked about waiting for a bus by myself in the middle of a place i didn´t know for a bus that may or may not come and that i may or may not be able to flag down. so, i continued on to antigua and stayed in a cheap hostel with a girl from montreal i had met on the plane.
well, all i have to say about antigua is roosters and tourists abound! i know it´s one of ¨those¨ places that are supposed to be amazing, but i didn´t particularly enjoy it. it could have been that i was in the wrong city with no real way to contact people in xela or the fact that i was tired and cranky, but the entire city seemed too small and touristy for my liking.
so, por la mañana on thursday, i got on a shuttle ¨to¨ xela, thinking that this shuttle to xela would be like those advertised around, stopping off in (i think the name is..?) chimicastenango, where you switch buses for xela. antigua is about 1 hour west of guate city, and xela is about 4 hours west-northwest of guatemala city. anyways, instead of going in the right direction, the bus went back to guatemala city, where i was handed off to a taxi after the airport, who took me to the bus station i was originally planning on going to when i arrived on wednesday. hah! well, i arrived 5 minutes after the 11am bus had arrived, and even though there was a 12; 30 bus advertised, i was told no! the next bus was not until 2;30. so i waited. and waited. and ate a lot of snacks.
finally, i get on the bus (this was a first class pullman bus called galgos. galgos = greyhound) and we head off...after a half hour wait on the bus. so, at this point i´m happy to be on the road a bit cranky about waiting, but happy nonetheless...except that we run into the same terrible construction outside of guatemala city that leaves you sitting for a half hour at a time in one place. now, in case you don´t know the geography of guatemala it´s extremely mountainous/hilly, and the area where i´m living is called the altiplano - and it´s the western highlands/ mountains of the country. xela is in a sort of basin/valley in the middle of mountains and with an active volcano next door.
but, back to the bus. this bus, as most vehicles i´ve seen here, was a manual shift bus, and, to well, stopping & starting on the giant hills of guatemala in traffic was...err...humorous to say the least. now, passengers change frequently on the bus, as there are two men working for the bus station (aside from the driver) whose jobs are explicitly to hang halfway out the bus door as it travels anywhere between 5-30 mph and yell XELA XELA XELA. and if someone responds, the bus screeches to a halt and picks them up. also, any time the bus stops at random to pick up a hopeful passenger along the side of the road or it is blocked in traffic, vendors jump onto the bus to peddle their food or wares and stay on for the ride until the next convenient moment to hop off.
so, i´m on this pullman bus, and i have my head nearly out the window, and it´s flying around these hairpin curves at a terrifyingly rapid pace..except..again for the frequent traffic jams from the road construction. so we continue onward and the bus driver continues to struggle with this extremely old bus, that, from what i can gather, requires all of your upper body strength to shift into first gear. not only does it require all of the driver´s (and sometimes the assistants´help), but it shakes the entire bus and makes the most terrible grinding sound i´ve ever heard. every time we shift to first gear. or rather, every time there is an attempt to shift, for he stalls out numerous times (it´s a wonder to me how little he managed to stall out), and each time, the assistants kind of run outside with a wrench or something and do i don´t know what to the bus, and the bus driver starts going and the two men sprint after the bus to catch up and jump in as it plugs along. ¡que humoroso! so, we´re moving along and it´s getting dark and i´m starting to feel extremely nervous because the 4 hour bus ride has clearly turned into a 5.5 hour bus ride in which i am arriving at night, by myself, without a real clear idea if there will be someone to meet me, because i thought i would be arriving on the 11am bus to xela (that would be there approximately at 3pm). instead, it´s 8;30pm and i´m going CRAP. i have a broken bag (the hip belt, ie the most important part of a backpacking pack, ripped off in transit from the taxi drivers haphazard handing of my bag to me) and it´s dark and i´m by myself without a clue who or where my family is!
but, never fear, it all worked out. there was a note left for me on the door of the school (i took a taxi to it, which again reaffirmed my poor bargaining skills. i know i´m being ripped off but i have not yet developed either the confidence-gumption-language skills to change it). the note told me to call someone who would call my host family, and they came to the school, helped me carry my bags to their house (which is a less than 5 minute walk from the school). and finally, i was there!
i am writing an extremely large amount right now, so i will save the descriptions of the people in my family for later. but i will run through their names now - blanca (la madre-mom), jorge (padre), alejandra (daughter of college age), mindi (daughter of college age), y jorge (son of college age or older as well). then, there are the two girls who stay at the house. and finally me, and another student from another school named bonner (i don´t actually know how to spell his name, but it´s pronounced bahn-er) who replaced a girl liz. apparently, more than one student staying at a house is not allowed in the world of homestays, and thus my mother asked me por un favor - to say, when asked, that there weren´t any other students in the house with me. i still haven´t decided how i feel about that, because bonner´s spanish, although he´s been studying since january, is far worse than mine, and he likes to hang around and speak english with me - which is the exact opposite of what i want.
so anyways, i am extremely happy to be here and excited and confused and challenged in a number of different ways! i started my schooling on friday with mi maestra, angelica. and i will write about her and my lessons later. but, to provide a brief synposis (in contrast to the tone of the rest of this entry!), i have been pleasantly surprised by how much spanish i retained in the recesses of my brain that was just waiting for the right moment to jump back out and resurface to the accessible parts of my brain! i am actually using different verb tenses of my own accord (although i screw them up frequently, and often substitute by default the present tense for the appropriate one).
but overall, i´ve been happy and excited for the opportunity to use my spanish - and my biggest concern now is to try and find ways to speak with other spanish-speakers, not foreigners, in my every day life. on monday i will hopefully will begin looking for a place to volunteer. so anyways, hasta luego readers!
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