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!
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