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Only in Guatemala:
-Would you drink coke from a plastic bag (bc it is cheaper than a can or bottle)
-Would you get a belly button piercing at the market
-Would you eat street food from a plastic bag
-Would you receive "bon appetite" (in spanish, of course) while walking down the street eating
-Would the cars get the ride-of-way, ALL OF THE TIME
-Interrupting a meeting to say "hello" be considered polite
-Would you use mayo as the salad dressing
I freakin' love it here!!!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Dia de Independencia
Happy Independence Day (Wed, Sept 15th) Guatemala!
This week has been very special in preparation for Independence Day. Working for La Union (the English School) gives many opportunities to work with other schools in this area. On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach at this Kindergarden school for about an hour and a half in the mornings. (I may also begin teaching at Finca Filadephia which is a large coffee plantation in Antigua.)
On Mon and Wed I leave real early from my house to get to their school on time (it is far from where I live) and because I leave before my cook arrives and I seem to never get breakfast I have a bad habit of buying delicious pastries on my walk. Baked goodness every time!
Instead of teaching them this week I participated in a parade instead. All of Monday the parades were dedicated to all of the young children in school. I arrived in the park around 8:30am to meet with the students and teachers. We stood there in the hot sun for about an hour or so, before the march even began. Can you image standing with 2-6 year olds for over an hour in the sun?? I held so many little kids to keep them from crying. That morning gave me another reason why I am glad I don't have kids yet!!!
The parade was quite fun though. We walked around the park and the main streets of Antigua, marching, singing songs (in English - btw). The children were absolutely adorable in their blue uniforms, with matching hats. The whole thing ended around 11am for us.
Tuesday I met with the same school in the park to march again. This time we were led by a fire truck (maybe? some sort of truck) and followed by another truck. This day was "running of the torches," ....so we ran. It was fun, the children were in a much better mood, and the parents were with us the whole time. We didn't have real torches, clearly, they are only 6 years old. But the other schools that were participating that day, did have lighted torches! We ran around the park and towards the school to an open field were we there was food, drinks, and games provided for the children. The food consisted of bread with beans and cheese in the middle (yum), sandwiches with ham, cheese and mayo (they are obsessed with mayo), and sweets. The games included a pinata, a blow up bouncing thing that they could jump around in, and nail painting. Only in Guatemala would you have people set up tables and chairs to paint nails...so funny!
I went to work later that day, hardly any students showed up, go figure. I am talking like a total of 8 ALL DAY. There was an afternoon parade which was dedicated to students in all elementary and high schools. The bands were excellent and it lasted a lot of the night - until at least 9 or 10pm. They would march all through Antigua - it was pretty fun to watch them. It reminded me of high school and homecoming.
Wednesday - the day of Independence. In the morning all of the bands around town came together at the park and marched around the city. I think it lasted about 4 hours. Many, many bands. Kind of like homecoming times 17. I didn't go to this because 1) it was my day off
2) it was at 8am 3) I was not about to get up before 11am on my day off!!!!
Fortunately for me, there was the same parade at 6pm that night, along with the flag ceremony and the reading of the independence declaration.
Me and some friends showed up in the park around 5pm to people watch and to eat! Yum, I love street food. The ceremony began around 6:30pm and then the bands circled the park. Some bands were really good, including their dancers and the girls with the baton (I don't remember what they are called). One band even played "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga - I was impressed! It lasted for about 3 hours total and was totally worth it.
Today, Thursday - is a normal day in Antigua. The streets are back empty, people are working, and the street food is the gone - except the few that are always around. :)
This week has been very special in preparation for Independence Day. Working for La Union (the English School) gives many opportunities to work with other schools in this area. On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach at this Kindergarden school for about an hour and a half in the mornings. (I may also begin teaching at Finca Filadephia which is a large coffee plantation in Antigua.)
On Mon and Wed I leave real early from my house to get to their school on time (it is far from where I live) and because I leave before my cook arrives and I seem to never get breakfast I have a bad habit of buying delicious pastries on my walk. Baked goodness every time!
Instead of teaching them this week I participated in a parade instead. All of Monday the parades were dedicated to all of the young children in school. I arrived in the park around 8:30am to meet with the students and teachers. We stood there in the hot sun for about an hour or so, before the march even began. Can you image standing with 2-6 year olds for over an hour in the sun?? I held so many little kids to keep them from crying. That morning gave me another reason why I am glad I don't have kids yet!!!
The parade was quite fun though. We walked around the park and the main streets of Antigua, marching, singing songs (in English - btw). The children were absolutely adorable in their blue uniforms, with matching hats. The whole thing ended around 11am for us.
Tuesday I met with the same school in the park to march again. This time we were led by a fire truck (maybe? some sort of truck) and followed by another truck. This day was "running of the torches," ....so we ran. It was fun, the children were in a much better mood, and the parents were with us the whole time. We didn't have real torches, clearly, they are only 6 years old. But the other schools that were participating that day, did have lighted torches! We ran around the park and towards the school to an open field were we there was food, drinks, and games provided for the children. The food consisted of bread with beans and cheese in the middle (yum), sandwiches with ham, cheese and mayo (they are obsessed with mayo), and sweets. The games included a pinata, a blow up bouncing thing that they could jump around in, and nail painting. Only in Guatemala would you have people set up tables and chairs to paint nails...so funny!
I went to work later that day, hardly any students showed up, go figure. I am talking like a total of 8 ALL DAY. There was an afternoon parade which was dedicated to students in all elementary and high schools. The bands were excellent and it lasted a lot of the night - until at least 9 or 10pm. They would march all through Antigua - it was pretty fun to watch them. It reminded me of high school and homecoming.
Wednesday - the day of Independence. In the morning all of the bands around town came together at the park and marched around the city. I think it lasted about 4 hours. Many, many bands. Kind of like homecoming times 17. I didn't go to this because 1) it was my day off
2) it was at 8am 3) I was not about to get up before 11am on my day off!!!!
Fortunately for me, there was the same parade at 6pm that night, along with the flag ceremony and the reading of the independence declaration.
Me and some friends showed up in the park around 5pm to people watch and to eat! Yum, I love street food. The ceremony began around 6:30pm and then the bands circled the park. Some bands were really good, including their dancers and the girls with the baton (I don't remember what they are called). One band even played "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga - I was impressed! It lasted for about 3 hours total and was totally worth it.
Today, Thursday - is a normal day in Antigua. The streets are back empty, people are working, and the street food is the gone - except the few that are always around. :)
Friday, September 10, 2010
Yo Speako Spanisho
Some days my spanish is great....and other days it apesta (sucks). I just learned this word today in our meeting. Which was totally pointless btw.
Because I have been talking about random stuff in my blogs lately, I have decided not to have important titles. And if I go off on tangents, sue me.
A few things I am addicted to currently:
**Iced tea
**Cheetos - they have REAL cheetos here. And every since I have discovered them I can't stop eating them. I went to the store the other day (bodagona - the big store) and bought a huge bag just for myself at my house when I am sick of eating rice!!! :) I figure if I am not eating that well anyway, might as well treat myself to some delicious cheetos. They are the puffs by the way - the ONLY kind to eat.
**This song...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s8oBQZ1BeA
**Coffee
**Choco banano or choco fresas (frozen banana or 3 strawberries covered in chocolate). Our school sells them for 1Q or amount .12 cents.
I gave up washing my own clothes. I decided that I was brought up ---too lazy to wash my own clothes -kind of lazy. :) Here goes 50Q down the drain.
I am getting a new spanish teacher which is fantatic for me bc I think my current one apesta (do you remember what this means?). I feel like I am hardly learning, and I am suppose to be having class every day now. But this past week I only had class once, because he is sooooo important and couldn't spare two hours of his day. And beside that annoying part, our class gets interrupted every time, EVERY TIME! For about 20 minutes, at least. aughh so annoying.
I really like these songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbDnLqe_Wk (please ignore the weird video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcnNeGQHwDc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqNJvHYqKFY (stupid video -sorry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJz1YMAu_x0&feature=related
The other day I was in the kitchen with our cook and someone that was staying at the guest house with us, and we suddenly were out of power. So, come to find out our electric bill was never paid for and we could expect to wait a day at least until it was turned back on. I left to go to work and when I returned back we had power. At first I didn't think anything of it because at the time it seemed normal to have power, completely forgetting we had lost power that morning. As I walked towards the kitchen I kept seeing different wires coming from all directions. One of my roommates was in the kitchen and proceeded to tell me how we all of a sudden had power...so it turns out the bill still hadn't been paid, but rather we were stealing electricity from the neighbors! And the best part was, if you needed to use the microwave to heat up your dinner, you had to unplug the refrigerator!
I mean, why not steal from the neighbors I guess?? ha
Zach from Oregon left on Wednesday morning. I am now alone in this house!! Well, that is a lie. I have one roommate but I call him my dad. He is really creepy, stays in his room ALL the time, never hangs out, and once told me that if I have people over again he would tell my boss on me! WHAT!? You are 28 years old, live a little!!
One night I really made him mad, and so now he won't talk to me or even look at me. He was out of his room, standing in my doorway being creepy and trying to talk with me...so I decided that I would find out his reason for being here. I began really nice and not intruding into his life, until he got weird!!! I asked him why he wanted to come to Antigua and why for this amount of time? (Time out: You need some background about him: He is a guatemateco - Guatemalan, but lives in CA. He has been here for over a year, and not working. He stays in his room and works out, watches tv, and plays on his computer all day and night. He is supposedly here to learn about "his" culture and experience Guatemala. He is also supposedly leaving at the end of Sept, but he hasn't bought his plan ticket yet.....Time In)
He said that he didn't want to answer those questions and he was going to go back to his room and watch tennis. So I told him he was being waaaay creepy. He got really mad that I kept asking him those 2 questions, so he left. I told him I thought he was a spy and was acting weird bc he wouldn't answer two simple questions. So now, he avoids me!! haha
I think he is a spy! :)
I love street food...so so so much. And street food here is probably not what you are thinking. It is not a guy/girl in a van or some sort of vehicle - it is a legit setup with grills. Yummmmmy, yummy food! One of the foods I like to eat a lot is called a pan toastado which is a toastado with beans, guac, lettuce (of some time - not lettuce you are thinking about. It is different and I don't know how to explain it), and salsa. O.M.G.
One of my other favorites is a fried plantane (that is hot) stuffed with beans. Sounds gross, but tastes amazing!
I had a snow cone today ... they exist in Antigua. :) It was yummy...this would make more sense to you if you knew my obsession with snow cones and ice in general! Well this snow cone was made a little differently...first - like normal - it was packed with ice. Then chili powder was sprinkled on, then lime squeezed over it, then more ice, then flavoring, then chili powder, then topped with more lime juice and fresh pineapple. Weird at first, but pretty good.
Sometimes walking down the street while eating you get a little surprise by someone passing as they say to you, "buen provecho," which literally translate to bon appetit. How lovely is that?
longest blog ever!!!!
Because I have been talking about random stuff in my blogs lately, I have decided not to have important titles. And if I go off on tangents, sue me.
A few things I am addicted to currently:
**Iced tea
**Cheetos - they have REAL cheetos here. And every since I have discovered them I can't stop eating them. I went to the store the other day (bodagona - the big store) and bought a huge bag just for myself at my house when I am sick of eating rice!!! :) I figure if I am not eating that well anyway, might as well treat myself to some delicious cheetos. They are the puffs by the way - the ONLY kind to eat.
**This song...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s8oBQZ1BeA
**Coffee
**Choco banano or choco fresas (frozen banana or 3 strawberries covered in chocolate). Our school sells them for 1Q or amount .12 cents.
I gave up washing my own clothes. I decided that I was brought up ---too lazy to wash my own clothes -kind of lazy. :) Here goes 50Q down the drain.
I am getting a new spanish teacher which is fantatic for me bc I think my current one apesta (do you remember what this means?). I feel like I am hardly learning, and I am suppose to be having class every day now. But this past week I only had class once, because he is sooooo important and couldn't spare two hours of his day. And beside that annoying part, our class gets interrupted every time, EVERY TIME! For about 20 minutes, at least. aughh so annoying.
I really like these songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbDnLqe_Wk (please ignore the weird video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcnNeGQHwDc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqNJvHYqKFY (stupid video -sorry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJz1YMAu_x0&feature=related
The other day I was in the kitchen with our cook and someone that was staying at the guest house with us, and we suddenly were out of power. So, come to find out our electric bill was never paid for and we could expect to wait a day at least until it was turned back on. I left to go to work and when I returned back we had power. At first I didn't think anything of it because at the time it seemed normal to have power, completely forgetting we had lost power that morning. As I walked towards the kitchen I kept seeing different wires coming from all directions. One of my roommates was in the kitchen and proceeded to tell me how we all of a sudden had power...so it turns out the bill still hadn't been paid, but rather we were stealing electricity from the neighbors! And the best part was, if you needed to use the microwave to heat up your dinner, you had to unplug the refrigerator!
I mean, why not steal from the neighbors I guess?? ha
Zach from Oregon left on Wednesday morning. I am now alone in this house!! Well, that is a lie. I have one roommate but I call him my dad. He is really creepy, stays in his room ALL the time, never hangs out, and once told me that if I have people over again he would tell my boss on me! WHAT!? You are 28 years old, live a little!!
One night I really made him mad, and so now he won't talk to me or even look at me. He was out of his room, standing in my doorway being creepy and trying to talk with me...so I decided that I would find out his reason for being here. I began really nice and not intruding into his life, until he got weird!!! I asked him why he wanted to come to Antigua and why for this amount of time? (Time out: You need some background about him: He is a guatemateco - Guatemalan, but lives in CA. He has been here for over a year, and not working. He stays in his room and works out, watches tv, and plays on his computer all day and night. He is supposedly here to learn about "his" culture and experience Guatemala. He is also supposedly leaving at the end of Sept, but he hasn't bought his plan ticket yet.....Time In)
He said that he didn't want to answer those questions and he was going to go back to his room and watch tennis. So I told him he was being waaaay creepy. He got really mad that I kept asking him those 2 questions, so he left. I told him I thought he was a spy and was acting weird bc he wouldn't answer two simple questions. So now, he avoids me!! haha
I think he is a spy! :)
I love street food...so so so much. And street food here is probably not what you are thinking. It is not a guy/girl in a van or some sort of vehicle - it is a legit setup with grills. Yummmmmy, yummy food! One of the foods I like to eat a lot is called a pan toastado which is a toastado with beans, guac, lettuce (of some time - not lettuce you are thinking about. It is different and I don't know how to explain it), and salsa. O.M.G.
One of my other favorites is a fried plantane (that is hot) stuffed with beans. Sounds gross, but tastes amazing!
I had a snow cone today ... they exist in Antigua. :) It was yummy...this would make more sense to you if you knew my obsession with snow cones and ice in general! Well this snow cone was made a little differently...first - like normal - it was packed with ice. Then chili powder was sprinkled on, then lime squeezed over it, then more ice, then flavoring, then chili powder, then topped with more lime juice and fresh pineapple. Weird at first, but pretty good.
Sometimes walking down the street while eating you get a little surprise by someone passing as they say to you, "buen provecho," which literally translate to bon appetit. How lovely is that?
longest blog ever!!!!
Friday, September 3, 2010
So. Much. Rain.
It is Friday (some day in September - I already don't know what day it is) and it is suppose to rain non-stop for the WHOLE weekend. Sept and Oct are already supposedly the worst months for rain, but a whole weekend...come on, this sucks!
We already have been receiving a tremendous amount of rain (or at least I think it is tremendous). It use to only rain in the afternoon for about 2 hours, I barely remember those days. Lately it has been raining earlier and earlier in the afternoon and it usually lasts all the way through the night. I have been waking up to sunshine and no rain...today is a different day! Today I woke to rain.
Well, I guess the weather man was correct when he called for a "cloudy day, today and tomorrow." Yes, cloudy...I see that, but rain alllll weekend...thanks Tropical Storm with some name, by California!
Ok, enough about the rain. I am sorry!
Not much has been going on which is why I haven't written in a while. Work is pretty much the same - fun and disorganized. I did take on teaching another school that is outside of my working contract hours; therefore, I now receive Spanish class every week for two hours, except on Fridays still. I still don't understand why not?
I officially got sick last week...like Guatemala was saying to me, "I am going to show you who's boss. You think you can come to my country and eat anything you want and do whatever you want? Do ya? Do ya?" Yea, it kicked my ass!!! But thanks to that I lost like 3 lbs. :) ha
Worst way to go on a diet!
I have been here for 2 months now! yea, yea...and still loving every second of it. I think (think) that if I don't ever get that trip leading position I want (with in a couple of years here), I am going to head to Costa Rica. But not for a while...I am crossing my fingers that I am able to stay in Antigua though... I can't get enough!!! Or I guess, if I run out of money I will have to leave. Cross your fingers that doesn't happen either. :)
With this current job, I really don't make enough money to live off of alone. I guess I could do private tutoring, there can be good money in that. With the trip leading position I wouldn't have to get another job.
Tourist season is coming to a slow stop now. At the spanish school (the sister school of where I teach) there are quite a few students, but nothing like during the high season. At times there can be anywhere from 100-200 students coming through a week. That is in credible. This school is one of many (like 15-20) in Antigua alone. During the day and at night you see less and less people out, kind of sad.
I have made a new friend that is studying at the school and doesn't leave until the end of November. It is nice to know someone new, and one who is not leaving in a week. It gets tough meeting people and saying goodbye. She seems cool and normal, I hope this doesn't change. I need some normal people in my life! ha
Nothing else new...I will report back soon!
We already have been receiving a tremendous amount of rain (or at least I think it is tremendous). It use to only rain in the afternoon for about 2 hours, I barely remember those days. Lately it has been raining earlier and earlier in the afternoon and it usually lasts all the way through the night. I have been waking up to sunshine and no rain...today is a different day! Today I woke to rain.
Well, I guess the weather man was correct when he called for a "cloudy day, today and tomorrow." Yes, cloudy...I see that, but rain alllll weekend...thanks Tropical Storm with some name, by California!
Ok, enough about the rain. I am sorry!
Not much has been going on which is why I haven't written in a while. Work is pretty much the same - fun and disorganized. I did take on teaching another school that is outside of my working contract hours; therefore, I now receive Spanish class every week for two hours, except on Fridays still. I still don't understand why not?
I officially got sick last week...like Guatemala was saying to me, "I am going to show you who's boss. You think you can come to my country and eat anything you want and do whatever you want? Do ya? Do ya?" Yea, it kicked my ass!!! But thanks to that I lost like 3 lbs. :) ha
Worst way to go on a diet!
I have been here for 2 months now! yea, yea...and still loving every second of it. I think (think) that if I don't ever get that trip leading position I want (with in a couple of years here), I am going to head to Costa Rica. But not for a while...I am crossing my fingers that I am able to stay in Antigua though... I can't get enough!!! Or I guess, if I run out of money I will have to leave. Cross your fingers that doesn't happen either. :)
With this current job, I really don't make enough money to live off of alone. I guess I could do private tutoring, there can be good money in that. With the trip leading position I wouldn't have to get another job.
Tourist season is coming to a slow stop now. At the spanish school (the sister school of where I teach) there are quite a few students, but nothing like during the high season. At times there can be anywhere from 100-200 students coming through a week. That is in credible. This school is one of many (like 15-20) in Antigua alone. During the day and at night you see less and less people out, kind of sad.
I have made a new friend that is studying at the school and doesn't leave until the end of November. It is nice to know someone new, and one who is not leaving in a week. It gets tough meeting people and saying goodbye. She seems cool and normal, I hope this doesn't change. I need some normal people in my life! ha
Nothing else new...I will report back soon!
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