Paraiso

For the first time in 3 weeks we are all three showered, have had a good nights sleep, have eaten well, and all feel normal again.  We have arrived back in civilization.

Right now we are sitting in an internet cafe in Xela, drinking lattes, eating crepes and using wireless internet service.  It is our idea of heaven.  We actually cried tears of happiness.  I'm not kidding, Gabby started it and Andrea and I both joined in once she got all teary.

We are all living with different families.  Andrea has a family with a lot of kids, like she wanted.  Gabby has a really nice family and she has a great little room with one pink wall, one blue wall, and one wood wall and a huge window over her desk looking out over the city.  My family is really amazing and kind.  They go out of their way to find food that I like and ask me questions, most of which require some sort of pantomime in order for me to understand, but they are very patient.  They have obviously had a lot of students.

We Think Sarah and Cassidy Are Following Us

http://www.cassidyandsarah.blogspot.com

They´re even sneaking pictures of us paparazzi-style: http://picasaweb.google.com/cassidy.claassen/Tikal#5249972578379000850

Thanks, but no thanks

One of the best things about Belize is that even on your nastiest, sweatiest, ugliest, worst-hair day, there is always someone to whistle and tell you how beautiful you are as you walk by.

One of the worst things is that there is ALWAYS someone to whistle and tell you how beautiful you are as you walk by.

We Be UnBelizeable

Pardon the pun, but we are: Unbelievable and in Belize! Sorry we haven't written in a while!

The last time we reported we were in Xela on Independence Day. We dreaded going back to the only 3 beds we could find in our nasty hostel dormitorio. We shouldn't have complained for when we returned our beds had been taken by a group of Israeli girls who were much tougher than us. We only got one bed to share. Gabby was freezing near the window, Sarah was roasting in the middle, and Andrea was freezing near the aisle. It was a long night.

From there we went to Lake Atitlan for a couple of days and then to Tikal (which we soon discovered translates to "Land of Sweatiness"). Tikal is the largest preserved site of Mayan ruins, it is now set in the middle of a jungle. It was once the center of the Mayan civilization.

We arrived at 7:00 am and hiked into the grand plaza which has two of the larger temples on either side of an open courtyard. We had the entire grand plaza all to ourselves except for the carpet of bees we walked through whose buzzing echoed through the entire plaza.

We were sitting on top of temple II trying to imagine what life here was like in it's heyday when we heard a terrifying roaring sound off to the south. After staring at each other in disbelief we were debating whether this noise was A) a hungry lion B) angry Mayan gods or C) a dinosaur. These were obviously the only three possibilities. Right when we settled on C and decided to walk the other direction we ran into a park ranger (or someone who looked official). We asked him "What is..." and we pointed to our ears. He said "It's a jaguar" and grinned.

This was a possibility we had not yet considered.

He had a good laugh and then escorted us to go see the quite harmless howler monkeys in person. [Editor´s Note: there was some confusion with this...the roaring sound was actually the howler monkeys, we were not being stalked by jaguars, nor did we see any...for better or worse. We did however see a tarantula about the size of a plate, he almost ate Andrea, but she´s pretty fast, she escaped.]

It was the perfect beginning to our day at Tikal. We can't describe how incredible this place is. You just have to see it.

So with one more week off before school starts we were wondering where to go when on the bus ride home our driver just happened to be taking reservations for the bus to Belize. As we obviously needed a vacation, we decided, Why not go to Belize?

Early yesterday we were ready to go to Belize, however, our bus was not. We got the 7:30 bus at 8:30 when it arrived and headed to the border. Andrea had read in the guide book that Guatemalan officials will ask you for an illegal "Exit Tax", so when they asked us for a dollar we refused to pay and began holding up the only line. Finally, as the agent realized she couldn't argue with us because "No Entiendamos" (we don't understand) she just gave us our passports and moved on to easier targets. So Gabby paid.

She forgot to stamp my passport, which isn't necessary, but I did not know this, so I went back and insisted that she "Stampa" my passport. She was less than willing but eventually gave in.

I find that many words in Spanish really are similar to the english word but with an O or an A at the end. Just a note to you all, stamp is not one of those words. I don't think Stampa is a word at all, but she got my point.

We all made it across the border. We are now at Ambergris Caye in San Pedro town to enjoy the Caribbean beaches for a few days.

One Love - Andrea, Gabby, and Sarah

So it turns out "estampa" is a word.

Gabby is Famous . . . or Married

Last week Gabby was asked to sign something by one of the village children at La Escuela De La Montana, so she did, thinking of course they want her autograph. I agree with her, who wouldnt? But Andrea and I think she might be married now.

I´m just sayin...

On Tuesday we´re leaving for a two week trip around Guatemala. We really need a vacation. We plan to hit up Lake Atitlan, for some beautiful volcanic lake-ish views and hikes, and maybe some meditation retreat action, then go to the Mayan ruins at Tikal in Northern Guatemala. But that´s not the point. After that we´ll be studying spanish for another 4 straight weeks, so any time in the next 6 weeks we can receive mail at the following addresses.

regular mail:
our name
care of PLQE
Apdo 114
Quetzaltenango
Guatemala
Central America

fedex:
our name
Proyecto Linguuistico Quetzalteco de Espanol
5 Calle 2-40 Zone 1
Quetzaltenango
Guatemala
Central America
*but keep in mind, we´re already total gringos walking around the city with our guidebook dragging our way too massive broken suitcases behind us.

Besos!

A Recap

So, even though I think blogs should be short, sweet, spontaneous and stick to one subject, I think a summary is in order:
We really enjoyed our time at Escuela de la Montaña. We had lessons 4 hours a day in the mornings with really great teachers- Ani, Abby and Eunice (it sounds a lot prettier in spanish). We got to explore a coffee finca (plantation), catch the ¨pick-ups¨(pick up trucks with a metal cage-like stucture on the back) to a nearby town, Colomba, for 50 cents, and be amazed at the different ways our families could serve our four basic staples-beans, eggs, tortillas and vegetables (along with fried chicken and corn flakes for sarah).
Now, we are back in Xela and much more adept at riding the chicken bus and, between the three of us, understanding the locals. Tomorrow is Independence Day so there is much celebrating going on. The downside to this is there seem to be no rooms available because of the holiday so we ended up at ¨Casa de Argentina¨in a dormitorio-basically a room with a bunch of beds. We tell ourselves that it is part of the experience.
Our plans for the next two weeks are to visit Lake Atitlan and Tikal in the north.
Buen Viaje(good journey) to us!

Gabby Has Won "Best Packer Of The Year" Twice...In One Year

A feat which has never been accomplished before in the history of the Best Packer Of The Year award. She is not invited on the next trip.

Como se dice "fishnet"?

My bug spray ate holes in my tights. Yet it fails to ward off the mosquitos.

Safety Is No Problema at La Esquela

So we are living at la esquela with seven other students, a couple of teachers, two directors, three dogs, two cats, and apparently two night security guards, who I have not yet met. We have been warned not to venture more than about 100 meters away from school alone or in small groups unless you take one of the "attack dogs" with us. Now, these dogs are shaggy mutts that will roll over on their backs every time you come within 5 feet of them. Vicious is not the first word I would have used to describe these dogs, so taking them with me as protection was not making me comfortable.

However, the first time i was outside of the school - sitting in a hammock as one does in the afternoon - two children in school uniforms walked by our gate and the dogs went crazy. I was afraid they might go around the fence and bring back some poor kid´s severed hand. It turns out that they know all the students and teachers, but anyone else that even dares to walk past our school runs the chance of being torn apart by Buster, Compa, and/or Capi. So our dogs are a bit protective I discovered.

Now that I know that they are vicious, I wondered how to get them to stay with me as I venture down the road. It turns out that all you have to do is call them as you leave the school grounds and they just stick with you the whole time you are gone. Buster (Andrea´s personal favorite) often accompanies her into town when she goes for her meals. The first day Buster even went inside with Andrea like she (yes, Buster is a girl) owned the place.

They are smarter than most people I think, and sometimes better company...but they all have fleas so we make them sleep in the hallway.

Buster is pictured above...vicious, no?

Mucho Love

Never again

And so, the thing which I dreaded most of all-riding the chicken bus- has come to pass, without me even realizing it. True, I did notice that it was packed to roughly 6 times it´s intended capacity and vaguely wondered why the woman next to me was on my lap, but there were no chickens in sight. Who knew?

La comida

Every day each of us eats three meals with a family in one of the nearby communities, Fatima or Nuevo San Jose. And by eating with, I mean I sit at the table and eat, while one family member is obligated to sit and talk to me. Mine is a 14-year-old girl named Lucrecia. She never eats, just watches me. This is 20% awesome and 80% awkward silence. Once we get past the obvious small talk--where are you from? what´s your favorite fruit? how many friends do you have? (Lucrecia has 14)--I usually just say any random spanish phrase that comes to mind (Maria es en la cocina style), or tell her how bueno the food is for the 50th time.

Everything comes with corn tortillas. Today for breakfast I had spaghetti with corn tortillas. For lunch, mashed potatoes with corn tortillas. Um, yes, operation gordas gringas is in full effect. Miss you all and photos soon. Amor.

Busses and Malaria

Today we bravely ventured out of our hotel – on the recommendation of our hotel owner we did not take the Chicken Bus to Antigua. I think we may have missed out on an adventure there, but it was too late in the day and we didn’t have time. Luckily we did get to spend some time on the bus. On our way across town we caught our first Guatemalan bus, but missed our stop because we hadn’t realized that as the bus nears your stop you should wait for the driver to slow enough to change gears and then you jump off. We figured it out soon enough, and on the way home we crossed two lanes of traffic to jump onto a moving bus. The driver then proceeded to tell us that the bus didn’t go to where we were headed, but as we stood there looking confused he decided to drive us to our doorstep. I think maybe he didn’t know how else to get us off his bus. It was a good day.

Also, I got bit by a mosquito – think I might have malaria. Does anyone know if the symptoms include paranoia? Gabby just brushed her teeth with tap water – I think she might have a water borne illness.

Humor does translate – we got our first joke in Spanish today – well, it was more of a play on words and wasn’t so much funny as clever, but in a desperate attempt to not BE the joke for a minute today we laughed. Gracias Tacontento, Gracias.

Tomorrow we are on a bus to Xela for our first night at the school...buenos noches.

(above) Gabby and Andrea at Museo National de Arqueologia y Etnologia

Um…so we ate at Taco Bell.

I don't want to talk about it.




Gabby and I had a great first day of feeling like idiots and making locals laugh (which come to think of it sounds a lot like our life in Green River Cass), and Sarah joined us last night. We somehow got a room that could fit 30, with two giant decks, and our own private bathroom, so we’re livin large in Ciudad de Guatemala. Currently, there is someone making a very important-sounding announcement on a loudspeaker outside our window. We’re not sure if he’s saying “there is a fire in the building--please evacuate” or “it’s very important to get your RDA of potassium.” Since he appears to be selling bananas out of the back of his pickup truck, we’re guessing it was the latter. We’re here one more night, then off to Xela to begin studying Spanish!

Welcome to el bloggo! Mucho mas later.