Last week in Antigua

Last week at English class, I responded to this girl by saying "gracias" and her response was "no, thank you... only English here." It was so adorable especially since she is one of the girls the struggles the most.

Monday: So not much happened on Monday, partially due to the fact that I spent most of my day in bed. I went to meet Sascha to work on the days lesson plan, but we both decided that we were not in the best condition to be teaching, me with my cold and her with her stomach bug, especially since many of the kids are so high energy. So after lunch, I took a nice and long 4 hourish nap. For those who know me well, you know I love to sleep.. but a 4 hour nap is still a pretty long time for me. After that, I had dinner and tried to watch some tv shows that I downloaded before falling asleep again. I had wanted to go to salsa, since it was the last salsa class I could go to, but I just felt too crappy and need to rest.


Tuesday: I woke up feeling still a little stuffy, but much better than the day before. I went to go to the artisan market to finish buying presents for people. I am glad I am done shopping for presents now! After that I went home for lunch and then went to meet Sascha to head to our volunteer placement. The set up for the festival is getting bigger everyday, and we wish that it was before we left, but at least there are things we can see and buy if we want before the festival starts. In the younger class we worked on family profiles. They have to write about themselves and 4 other family members and they have to talk about what they look like, how old they are and what they like to do. This is supposed to be for today and tomorrow's class. At the end of class though, Sascha told me that one kid was done- Alex. Alex does not talk much in class, but he knows his stuff- he only had about 3 extremely minor spelling errors all together, which was incredible. Especially since many of the kids were struggling quite a bit. After work I headed back for dinner, and then went out to a place called Mono-loco to meet up with people for the evening. I left pretty early because my housemates wanted to leave, but I was glad to leave early because I was extremely tired, and still not completely over my cold.

Wednesday: So today I started getting myself back into the real world. I started by sending out emails for Relay for Life. My goal this year is $1,200, a little more that the $1000 I raised last year. After Sascha and I found some worksheets for the kids to work on. Then Sascha and I went to this place called the Rainbow Cafe for lunch. It's such a cute place, though everyone there is basically foreign. After lunch, we headed to Alotenango for class. There were not that many student there today, not sure why though. We had them finish their family profiles and then work on the worksheets we brought for them. In the second class we worked more on verbs and had some worksheets for them where we had them unscramble the sentences. Even though there is a class party tomorrow, it was very bitter sweet for Sascha and me, as it was our last day teaching. While there are other volunteers in the town of Alotenango, we were the only two in the plaza area. Everyone knew who we were- I felt like "sólo dos gringas en Alotenango." I didn't go out tonight, just stayed in and did some work for school. My first study abroad application is due on February 15th, and so I wanted to get as much done before I got back to school as possible. And it is much easier to do work when I don't have other school work looming over my head. One of the essays that I am working on is for is about riding chicken buses- and intercultural experience.

Thursday:
Today I started packing :/. I'm not really sure that I am ready to head back to the states. I mean I am really excited for next semester, my classes are nicely spread out, hopefully I'll have a job, and I'm really excited to see all my friends. But on the other hand I am having a such a great time here, and I would love to spend another month here and explore more of Antigua and the country itself. My final day of volunteering was today, and we had a party. There was a pinata, we played a game called pass the parcel (an aussie game), and had food. It was a lot of fun, but when we had to say goodbye it was extremely sad. Instead of saying adiós, we said hasta luego (see you later), and some of the kids said to us basically see you another year. I hope these kids go on to do good things- some of them told us that they want to study law, and I hope that they are able to accomplish that. After work Sascha and I met up with Renny, Belize, and Amanda for a bit before I had to say goodbye to Sascha, Renny, and Belize. They were heading to Tikal for the weekend and I would be gone before they gone back. I went out to dinner with some people and then went to meet up with others for the night. It was a lot of fun, but difficult because at the end of the night I was saying goodbye to a lot of other people. A lot of people were heading to El Salvador for the weekend, so they were leaving at 6 am Friday. I really hope I keep in touch with a lot of these people because it has been such a great experience.

Friday:
Today was packing day. I spent the morning packing in one of the most relaxing manners possible. I just took my time slowly getting stuff together. I also spent a bunch of time reading. It was an extremely relaxing morning. After lunch I went and got a massage for 100 Q, which is about 12 dollars. It was a really nice treat to have before I jump into next semester. I then went to get some coffee before heading to Maximo one last time to fill out feedback forms and say goodbye to the staff. I then went back to the house to change and do a little more packing and then my house and Tim and Farid went out to dinner. We had no idea where do go, but we decided to go to this place called Su Chow- a Chinese restaurant. It was actually really good. We then headed home so I could finish packing. I finished packing, and then said goodbye to my housemates. I tried sleeping a little, but I was not really that successful.

Saturday:
I woke up quite frequently thinking it was time to wake up. Eventually I got up finished packing, and then got picked up at 330 am to head to the airport. When I got there TACA wasn't even open. I had to wait at least an half hour before they got there. I got to the gate before basically anyone was there. Once people started to arrive though, I had go through a security thing again before getting to the gate. The security was almost more strict getting back to the states from Guatemala than going from to Israel from the states. I slept most of both flights, and it was a pretty uneventful journey. I'm now back in Westport for the next two days before headed back to Clark. I'm in quite a bit of culture shock, and seeing snow is also extremely strange, but if I cant be in Guatemala I'm glad I'm here.

This trip was beyond amazing, a life changing experience and I'm very sad that I had to leave. I hope that at one point in the near future I am able to go back there, but only time will tell that.

I may have another post in the next few days about my trip as a whole, but we shall see if I decide to do that.

Buenos Noches

Lago de Atitlán

Saturday:
So I woke up extremely early on Saturday to head to Lake Atitlan, which is about 2 and a half hours from Antigua. The drive was pretty easy, I slept for a lot of it and we got to get out as soon as we got to the lake to see the view. Once we got to Panajachel, we went to our hotel for a few minutes before leaving to go on a boat tour. Our first stop was San Juan and we got to walk around a bit. Then we went to San Pedro, where i found an Israeli restaurant that we went to for some food. I got shakshuka, and it made me feel sorta feel like I was back in Israel- it wasn't as good as shakshuka in Israel, but good for being in Guatemala. After that we headed back to Panajachel. I was so tired from not sleeping that much the night before, and from being in the sun all day, so when we got back I took a lovely 2 hour nap. We then all went out for dinner.

Sunday: On Sunday we went to Chichicastenango to go to the market there. It is one of the biggest markets in Guatemala. It was fun, but I was sick so it wasn't as fun. I spent a lot of money and bought a lot of presents for people, though I still have some presents to but people. The market was so incredibly crowded and people kept coming us to us asking us to buy stuff. We then headed back to Antigua and again I slept a lot of the way home. When I got back I just relaxed.
Sorry this blog post was short, it was just a relaxing weekend with not a whole lot going on.

Below is a picture of me overlooking the lake

Lost in Translation

Tuesday:
So today was pretty much a normal day- woke up, went to Spanish- the usual. Sascha wasn't feeling the best, so she didn't come with me to volunteering. I was a little nervous and rightfully so because I do not speak much Spanish and it was extremely difficult. As I have said before... the kids don't speak much English... I was in a little bit of a pickle. I started out by reviewing clothing that we had learned the day before, though they were having difficulty understanding what I was talking about. I had them draw on the board items of clothing that I told them to draw, though they didn't seem to remember how to pronounce and of the items of clothing from the day before. After they finished drawing, I had them draw a person with clothes on and then write sentences of what they were wearing. It took the rest of class thankfully, but it was a little frustrating- there were about 20 kids and a lot of them can't really sit still. Finally class was over and I had the older kids, and they understand more English than the younger kids. The pictures were still up from the first class and so I had the kids write the words on board the correlated with the articles of clothes, and then they added a few more that weren't already on the board. Next we went on vacation- I would read them a scenario and they were write 3 sentences about what they would wear on each trip. They were really understanding what I was saying, until I told them they were going to a wedding- they had no idea what that was at all. I tried to explain in broken Spanish- thankfully I had learned the word for married in Spanish class that day so I thought they understood what I was saying. When I was reading their sentences though, they all said "I am wedding..." instead of "I am wearing..." I then realized that they had no idea what I was talking about and thought that a wedding was a verb not a noun. I was then trying to explain it, and then all of a sudden they got it. It took way longer than it should have, but I was really happy when they understood it.
After I got back from volunteering, I went home and got ready to go out for Amanda's birthday. A bunch of us met up to go to a bar that Carlos (the trip leader) was going to take us all to. It was a cute extremely small bar, and our group just kept growing eventually taking over the whole bar. It was fun and a great way to meet the new people- I tried to meet all of the new people- including all of the new Minnesotans. I don't know any of them personally, but I have mutual friends with a bunch of them. We then went to another bar to meet up with more people and then went dancing for a little bit before calling it a night and going back to the house.

Wednesday:
Today was my last day of Spanish, which was kinda strange. I am glad that I will have more time to do stuff in the morning, but I was enjoying learning Spanish. I went from knowing almost nothing, to being able to speak a little. After Spanish, I met with Sascha to plan class for the day. We decided to teach them animals, and work a little bit on expressions as well. I had learned expressions in Spanish class, and thought it would be nice for the kids to answer more than "i'm fine thanks," when we ask how they are. After that we had them draw animals on the board, and then write the name in English. We will work more on animals with them Thursday, as we ran out of time today. For the older kids, did about the same except we added a few more animals for them. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. I am trying to figure out what to do this weekend, so hopefully I will find something tomorrow. After that I had dinner and then watched Ted Talks for a while. I finished my book today which was awesome- I need to find more time to read, because that was the first book I had read for leisure since last winter break. For anyone that is interested in development that is working well, I would recommend the Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz to you.

Thursday:
It feels so strange not having to be somewhere at 10 am. Most mornings, Sascha takes her host family's dogs on a walk, and so today I went with her to climb to the cross. The hike was only about 10 minutes up stairs and the view was breath taking. It was amazing to be able to see most of the city from the cross. After that, I just went back and relaxed before lunch. It was extremely strange staying home most of the morning, and I dont think that I will be doing that tomorrow. I need to get out- it's boring staying in the house all morning. After lunch I headed to Maximo to figure out exactly what Sascha and I would be doing in class. We then headed to Alotonango for class. We went over animals again with the first class and then had them write what their favorite animal was. After that we tried playing a game where the kids would mimic an animal noise, but everyone was too shy to actually play. Before that class started, one of the kids Daniel, gave both Sascha and I some fruit called chico to try- it was extremely tasty. In the second class we went over the animals and then started teaching them question words. After class, we went to go buy some of that fruit that Daniel had given us earlier. When I got back to Antigua, to meet up with some people to try to figure out the weekend. We decided to go to Lake Atilan for the weekend and the market as well. I'm excited for the weekend- it should be fun. After-wards I went back home for dinner and then a bunch of us decided to watch the movie The Number 23.

Friday:
So I slept in today, which was extremely nice, seeing as I haven't woken up past 8 all week- and today I woke up at 8. I then went to go explore Antigua a little, and did some shopping. I went to this market not too far from Maximo, that i was told was cheaper. I then figured out that I got ripped off quite a bit, but o well... I won't shop there again. After that I went to plan for the class, and then headed back for lunch. On the bus to Alogonango today, Isabelle, Saleh, and Baptiste were on it as well, probably because we were going pretty late. In the first class we had the kids write sentences describing the pictures we gave them. It was to help them work on clothes and colors. In the second class we worked on verbs and grammar. For the past few days there have been some booths selling food and toys appearing outside the school, we found out that there is a festival in town coming up, but both Sascha and I will have already left Guatemala by then. But as we were leaving the school today, we noticed a churro stand set up that wasn't there earlier. We got some and I think that we were their first sale, and they were so tasty. After that I just headed back to the house for dinner, and then went out for a bit.

New Years in El Salvador

Friday:
So everyone in my house went to El Salvador over the weekend, so we all woke up wicked early to eat breakfast before we got picked up. We got picked up a little after 6 to find Levi already in the van. We then went around Antigua to pick up everyone else. We thought that it was going to be just the 10 of us in the van, but we found out later that there were going to be 2 other people in the van. So the van ride was extremely cozy... and not very comfortable since there was not any ac. But besides there being no ac, the van ride wasn't too bad. The total amount of time to El Tunco (the beach we stayed at) was about 5 hours. At the boarder, we all wanted to get a stamp for El Salvador, but we didn't get one because the stamp for Guatemala works for a few other countries. El Tunco is very much a surf small town. Most of the restaurants/hotels are owned by the same family, and everyone knows each other. El Salvador used the American dollar, but most stuff is a lot cheaper than in the states. So after we got there we all changed into out swimsuits, and then Amanda, Ari, and I went to grab lunch at this cute coffee shop. We then headed to the beach; the beach in El Tunco has black sand because it is volcanic sand. It was my first time going to a beach with black sand. The water was not calm by any means, and had so many waves. I don't really like salt water because it stings my eyes, but the water was refreshing none the less. It was only my second time swimming in the Pacific Ocean. After a bit we went back to our hostel, which is called Papayas lodge to chill by the pool. The lodge has hammocks, and I took full advantage of them. They were so comfortable- better than the one at home- which isnt solid so it leaves imprint when you get out of it. I even started reading a book, which is something I haven't done for leisure in about a year. We then all got ready to go out for dinner. We went to this taco place, which at first was closed, but then they opened it for us. Dinner was delicious- I got fish tacos, and they were some of the best fish tacos I had ever had. After dinner, we went to look for a place to chill for the night. While we were looking, there was a chocolate fondue pot at a restaurant and they invited us to have some for free- it was a really good dessert. We ended up at this bar called Darocas (or something like that), which when we got there was pretty chill. The beach that night had so many fireworks/firecrackers- and they went off EVERYWHERE. I do not understand why people like the ones that don't have lights so much. There were some that just made extremely loud noises. At midnight there were tons of fireworks that went off. It was great talking to other people at the beach- we met a bunch of peace-corps people and other foreigners. I wasn't able to stay awake much past 1, due to being awake since 5:30 that morning, but I would say it was a good New Years Eve.

Saturday:
I slept in until 10:30, which is the latest that I have slept in the whole time I've been here. Some of us then went to get breakfast at this place with good food but terrible service. We thought that we were going to go to another beach but we couldn't find our driver. So instead most of us spent the day laying around in hammocks, in the pool, and sleeping. Some people went to the beach, but I didn't really feel like it. For lunch I got papoosas (probably spelled wrong), which is sorta like an El Salvadoran empanada. They are my new favorite food- and there is an El Salvadoran restaurant in Worcester, so I plan on going there when I get back. I got a smoothie there to go, and so they put it in a bag, which was a new concept for me. We all rested more before getting ready for dinner. Saturday El Tunco was beyond crowded with people from around El Salvador, and so we wanted to try to avoid the crowds but trying to find a restaurant farther away from the central part of town. That ended up being a complete fail. All the restaurants that way were too crowded. Other people had that idea before we got there. So instead we went to the Taco place we went to the night before to get dinner to go. We then went back and ate it at the hostel before going out for the night. Our night didn't last very late though, as we were all still exhausted. We went to the beach for a little and then it started to drizzle so we all went back and almost promptly fell asleep.

Sunday:
So we planning on leaving around 10 so we could check out some other beaches, so we were all up by about 8, but unfortunately we couldn't find the other girls that were going to be in the car. But no worries, instead after breakfast we went to the beach to get the last possible amount of sun before we went back the not so warm Antigua. But then the sand was annoying and the beach had too many waves, so instead we went back to the hostel to go in the pool. I then went and got paposas for lunch again before we headed back to Guatemala. In the car, I find that I sleep a lot, which while is always good, is something that I sometime do not like. When I sleep I miss out of the beautiful landscape and just everything that there is to see. I miss out on so much when I drive because I have to focus on the road, but when I am the passenger I tend to always sleep- and miss so much. So we drove back to Antigua, back to the temperate weather. When we got back, Andrew, Shelby, and I met one of the new house mates a French guy. I was so exhausted from being in the sun that I was asleep relatively quickly after that. Though I was woken up at 12:30 because I got two new roommates- they are both from Montreal.

Monday:
I woke up around 7 to have breakfast with some of my new housemates. I then got ready and then went to get coffee before going to Maximo to do my Spanish homework. There are 33ish new people this week, half of which came in a group from the U of Minnesota plus 2 others from the U that aren't part of that group plus me... so in total close to half of the volunteers currently with Maximo are from or go to school in Minnesota. I talked to a bunch of them and while I dont know any of them, I have mutual friends with a lot of them, which is pretty awesome. I feel as if I am making a lot of progress in Spanish- I am learning extremely fast and able to understand more and more though I cannot speak extremely well. Today Sascha and I started to teach clothing, and talk about their New Years weekend. Unfortunately we could not get into the classroom today, so we had class outside, but the kids found tables around the school yard to still use. They are extremely resourceful. It was very cute. They all said that they ate tamales and some other stuff. When we started working on clothing, some of them knew some items of clothes, but not all of them. We had a worksheet where they had to write the item of clothing according the the picture on the sheet. We didn't have a white board, but we had a thing of poster board, so we could write the definitions on there. But we had no place to put it, so I was a human white board. Slowly but surely they are starting to understand more English. It is difficult because this is only a class during their break, and when they go back to school they will only get one hour of English per week. After class today, Sascha and I met up with Renny and Belize at this place called Cafe Sky to watch the sunset. Cafe Sky is on a rooftop, and it overlooks all of Antigua- it was extremely beautiful and calming. They then walked me home and I had dinner with Andrew and Shelby. The rest of the housemates were at Salsa. I was going to go, but some of the people that had been in Antigua for a few weeks worried that it was going to be too crowded, so we didn't go this week. So now in the house there are 3 Americans, 3 Canadians, 1 French, and 2 Aussies- quite a bit of people. I have been extremely exhausted recently, so tonight I am just taking it easy and relaxing- catching up on e-mails and talking to people. I skyped with Theresa and Stephanie a little bit ago, and will possibly talk to some other friends and/or family tonight. While it is extremely nice to not have a cell phone to use all the time- I sorta wish that I was able to contact people at home easier, but it is all part of the adventure, and overall I am loving it here!

Buenos Noches

Last post of 2010

Thursday:
So today I got up and went to a cafe before Spanish to do my hw and get some coffee. It was really good- it's a place called Cafe Barista and it is in the central park area. I ran into Sacsha there, so we just sat around doing our Spanish hw before class. I then had Spanish, and then headed back to my house for lunch. I've realized how amazing walking around smallish towns are. I can get most places in Antigua within 30 minutes walking, and while walking I see so many more things that I would never see if I was in a taxi or tuc-tuc. It is kinda of a blessing in disguise that there is no real bus system within Antigua. While I can take the buses elsewhere, I never take it unless I am leaving Antigua and going to my volunteer place. So after lunch, I went to Maximo to meet up with Ari and Amanda before going on a coffee plantation tour at Finca La Azotea. We also were supposed to go with Levi, but he wanted to meet us at the park and we never found him. There is a free shuttle that leaves from the park every hour to go to the coffee plantation- it is only about a 10 minute drive. One of the other people in the van is in the peace corps, and so she was telling me about it. Another person on the van is a Phd student at Northeastern and she invited me for shabbat any time that I want when back at school. The tour itself was not the best thing ever but it was relatively nice tour. We learned how coffee is made and then saw a bit of the plantation, then saw it being roasted and then that was it. Ari, Amanda, and I wanted to leave early so we tried to catch the earlier shuttle, but it turned out that ever clock at the place was at a different time, so therefore we missed it. We waited around and then went back with everyone else. I then went back to my house and started to pack to El Salvador. For dinner, Shelby, Andrew, Xuemei, Ari, Amanda, and I went to this restaurant that had authentic music and a performance. It was pretty interesting. We then walked Amanda home before proceeding back to our house, to finish packing and try to get some shut eye. We are waking up at 5:15 tomorrow, to then get picked up at 6 to head to El Salvador for New Years. It should be a good time. I will update this once I get back from my trip and once it is 2011

Buenos Noches
and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Tuesday:
So today was relatively boring. I woke up to have Spanish class, but then I started feeling really crappy so I just went back home after. I had lunch, and then instead of volunteering, I just slept. I am trying to get better as fast as possible so I can enjoy my time here. I woke up feeling a bit better, but I am still not 100%. I then went to get frozen yogurt, because I have been craving that. Worcester doesn't have a frozen yogurt place and after having it all the time in Israel, I really wanted some. I then went to discuss New Years plans with people. We are going to El Salvador and going to the beach. It should be a lot of fun. I then walked back with Andrew and Shelby- my new roommates and we had dinner back at the house. We had this extremely long conversation about medicine and religion and a lot of other stuff. It was extremely interesting, and it is great to get to talk to people with other points of view.

Wednesday:
So I woke up feeling a bit better, still not 100%, but better than Tuesday. So I took my time to get ready before going to Spanish class. After Spanish I had lunch and Sacsha and I figured out what we were going to do in class. We then headed to the bus to go to Alotenango, which is where we teach English. Today we worked more on body parts. We had the kids draw monsters with certain amounts of body parts and then write sentences about them. The pictures turned out so cute. The kids are so eager to learn, there are even other kids that have asked to join the class. What is also great about teaching English, is that I am able to work on my Spanish at the same time. After that we headed back to Antigua, and stopped at the grocery store to get some saltines for my stomach. No matter how hard I try to eat good food- my stomach still decided to not like Guatemala. At least it is not terrible, and I can still function. I then went to pay the rest of the cost of going to El Salvador for New Years- we are going to El Tunco beach, it should be a good time. After that I just went home for dinner and just relaxed, and skyped with some people from home. Tomorrow I don't have to go to volunteering, so I will be going to the coffee plantation in the afternoon.

The movie at the bottom is the kids doing heads, shoulders, knees, and toes.

First day teaching English

Monday:
So today I woke up not feeling too hot, so I skipped Spanish class to sleep in. I slept til a little past 9, which was great because I haven't done that yet since I've been here. So then I got up and got ready slowly which was pretty relaxing. I then headed over to Maximo, but went a different route so I could explore a little more of Antigua. I met up with Sascha and we had lunch and discussed exactly what we were going to do today in class. We then headed to the bus- this bus was so much more crowded than the old one I took. We got in through the back of the bus, which was a new experience. The bus ride wasn't too long, and the town is really pretty. It is between two volcanoes. We then waited around for about a half hour before the children showed up. Today about 5 of the younger kids showed up, they are between 8-15. We taught them body parts- their English is okay and they were eager to learn more. We also taught them head-shoulders-knees-toes, and after a little bit they were able to do it by themselves. The next group were the older kids, probably around 16. They were much more quite and there were only 2 of them. We had them ask me questions and then they wrote down the answers and then we also did body parts. Afterwards we headed back to Antigua- the bus was so crowded thought. I went to salsa afterwards, and while it was a lot of fun- I wasn't feeling the best towards the end. A bunch of us went out to dinner after to this Mexican restaurant, which was pretty good. When I got home there were two new roommates- Andrew and Shelby, both from the States and they will be here for about two weeks. They seem really nice.

Well i'm gonna get some sleep and try to get rid of this cold

Buenos Noches