It's Time to Catch Up!

Wow, it has been incredibly too long since I have blogged! However, my journal has also been neglected equally, whoops!

SO much has happened since the last time I blogged! For starters, I had an amazing time with my parents when they visited me during Spring Break! They stayed in my house down here with my host family and we had some great times interacting between the two families. Even though there wasn't a clear line of communication, everyone got the general idea, and I feel so blessed that I had the opportunity to share my life down here with my parents! We spent 3 days in Mexico (the trip there was quite interesting, getting stopped at the border, the unofficial fees, our taxi couldn't cross the border so we ended up taking a taxi from the border the city) and then just really relaxed while in Mexico. We also went to Lago Atitlan, which was GORGEOUS! The picture above is there! So that was an amazing week, and I was really excited to see my group after a week of not seeing them (a bit of withdrawl!)

Let's see, what else has been going on. We have still been at school quite a bit. We have gone on a few trips. The most recent is Semuc Champey which was AMAZING! The highlights: I jumped off of a bridge that was 17 m, scared me so much. I also went off of a few intense water swings, and went exploring in these caves where we had to swim with our candles.. I was freaking out there. All in all, I came out with many bruises and cuts, but the weekend was SO worth it, even though it was a 10 hour bus ride there and another 10 back.

Other than that, we have still been doing the salsa dancing and enjoying the heck out of our time here in Xela. Scary news is that we only have 18 days left in Xela.. after that,  I am headed to Costa Rica with 3 other girls from our group and 2 teachers from our school, which should be fun! But it is just ridiculous to think we will be headed back to the States SO soon.. Asi es la vida! (That's the life).

I hope everything is going well for all back up North, I heard that the weather is finally cooperating!

Abrazos de Xela-Sarita

Guatemala: Mi paraiso

Hola, hola!

It has been a pretty interesting two weeks here on the Guatemalan front. We went to the beach last weekend, I climbed a volcano and then this weekend... (drum roll).... my parents will be coming to Xela to visit me! Taking the big plunge across a few big borders. So that is very exciting!

I started classes with another teacher last week, and the curriculum also changed because some students were having problems with the pace of the studies here. Therefore, last Monday, people taking language classes started receiving a great deal more of homework and the pressure and stress definitely added. I am not taking my language classes for college credit anymore because I am taking two classes at the university for credit, but I am still doing some homework for my class because my professor said it was "good participation." Needless to say, I clashed a bit with my professor a bit these few weeks, but I survived and I decided it was more important to be patient with all different types of teachers.

The beach last week was AMAZING! It was perfect after somewhat of a stressful week. A group of 6 of us went down there, got to experience a chicken bus stuffed with people, and had a great time.

On Sunday morning, I woke up nice and early (4:30 am to be exact) to climb a volcano. We stayed there for a few hours to watch eruptions and we got to see some great ones. It was so exciting and beautiful. It was also good bonding time because there were only 3 students, Tania (our director) and 2 guides. So we all had a really good time despite it being cold and early!

This coming Sunday (2 more days!) my parents will be arriving in Xela. We are heading to Mexico for a few days to renew my visa and also will be going to Lake Atitlan so I am very excited to see them! It will be odd not being with the group for almost a week though, as I have not been separated from them for more than a full day, at the most! So we said some almost tearful goodbyes today, and everyone is off!

I know that it is also Spring Break there, so I wish everyone safe travels and happy vacations! And to practice my subjuntive, espero que todo disfruten la pausa de la universidad y que todo vaya bien! (I hope that everyone enjoys the break from the university and that all goes well!)

Abrazos- Sarita

Just another week in Xela

This week was a little bizarre as we actually stayed in Xela for the whole time. Last weekend we celebrated a group member's birthday in high fashion (with a Woody pinata!), started more class this week (as if we didn't take enough as it was) and just kind of relaxed otherwise!

On Monday, some of us started our second class at the university. This is a Mayan Societies class which I'm not sure what entails yet, but hopefully I figure it out soon! This brings our class time total up to 9 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.. and Mondays is just 7, so a little break? Wednesdays I still go to volunteering, but I only have 17 hours or so left, so in a few Wednesdays I should have those completely free to take class or to explore around Xela. The second picture is at the shelter playing some games with kids and volunteers.. I also went on an excursion with the mothers and children this week, which was very interesting and fun!

I have finished my time with another teacher. I really enjoyed my teacher because she challenged me with a few different forms of the subjunctive, which is one of the most difficult forms to pick up in Spanish, but I am working my way to making sense of it!

One whole paragraph needs to be devoted to food. I ate.... COW TONGUE AND STOMACH the other day. I also learned I am never going to ask my host mom what a certain food is again.. and the ones that she always tells me, I cross my fingers that they aren't direct translations. On the surprising side, the tongue was actually good, but the stomach.. after I found out what it actually was I don't think I'll be able to eat that again. My favorite meal is carne asada (I think it's some meat from a cow) with fresh guacamole, beans, tortillas and mangos for dessert. Really.. food doesn't get much better than that when I see the food sooo fresh!

This afternoon, I am going on an adventure with my host mom, so I am excited to explore Xela with her more!

I hope that everyone is still enjoying the MinneSNOWta winter.. I am currently sunburnt :)

Abrazos-Sarita

Guat it covered

Hola everyone!

I hope everyone is surviving the heat wave that passed/is currently passing through MN! I could not believe when I heard it was in the 40's and 50's, but that is great to get rid of all of that snow. We had a really busy week of traveling last week to Guatemala City, Tikal, Rio Dulce, Flores and some smaller places within those larger stops.

We left at 5 am on Monday morning for Guatemala City, capital of Guatemala. We began the trip with a surprise visit to the Cerveceria (beer company) of Gallo, which is the most popular brew of the country. We got to tour the establishment and we got to see the bottling and recycling process. They get back 80% of the bottles that they produce, which is huge and we were all very impressed by this fact. We didn't do much else in Guate because it is not extremely safe to walk around on the streets at night or during the day with valuables, so we had a card/game night and I found some other people to play 500 with, which I was really excited about. We toured a church and also a Human Rights Office, where we watched a movie about Nunca Mas, which is a series of books that describes the violations that occured during the armed conflict in Guatemala. It was very interesting to hear about because its something that not a lot of guatemaltecos feel comfortable talking about because it is still a sensitive subject. Then we got into the bus for a 10 hour trip to Finca Ixobal.

This Finca is all-organic and has grown basically because of work that volunteers have come to do over the years, such as installing bathrooms, electricity. The lady is originally from California and has lost 2 husbands in her almost 40 years on the Finca. One of them during the armed conflict when he witnessed a military action and, as a result of that, he was killed. She also adopted 2 Guatemalan children and raised them on the finca without many resources. I was a bit freaked out by the mosquito nets that covered the beds, and my legs did get eaten alive the first night, but after that I relaxed a bit more and really enjoyed the wonderful food and the beautiful surroundings. We stayed 3 nights there and then traveled to Tikal the next day.

Tikal is a site of Mayan ruins that have been partially recovered and reconstructed. We visited temples and walked for 4 hours around these ruins. Unfortunately, it rained. This would not have been a problem besides the fact that no one expected rain as we hadn't experienced it yet here in Guate. But.. we survived.

Then we headed off to the Rio Dulce to stay at Hotel Backpackers, which is actually a restaurant that helps fund an orphanage. This orphanage is called Casa Guatemala and it is not supported financially by the government, instead it just supplies the orphanage with children and they are forced to find donors to keep them going. It is an amazing establishment where they have learned to manage their electricity use and food with such skill for having to feed and support 250 kids. It takes about Q2000 for each child per year which is about $250. The kids were adorable and so ready to just play with us. One little boy that I talked to couldn't speak Spanish at all, and instead just knew an indigenous language, but he was full of hugs! We painted the kindergarten and library there, which was interesting and a funny experience. It was nice to do something to give back to the kids because other groups will come in and paint murals there.

After that, we stayed one night at a really nice hotel in Rio Dulce. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy this one because I ended up getting sick and didn't get to enjoy the rest of the trip as I became good friends with the bathroom and all the bathrooms which we stopped at! On our long 10 hour bus ride home, we told life stories. It's my goal to hear the life story of every individual on the trip because it is great getting to know people in our group better and we have such a united group.

Otherwise, we have started classes at the other university, Landivar, and I am excited to be back in my host family's house, eating real food that wasn't cooked at a restaurant. My body is finally healing, so big success there! This weekend, it is the 21st birthday of one of our group members, so we are going to celebrate that and also going to a soccer game, sporting our official jerseys! It is so hard to believe we are in our 6th week of classes, and that my parents will be here in Guate in less than a month! Time is flying by and I hope that everyone is enjoying life back in the States!

Abrazos-Sarita

GUATEVER

It has been such a busy few weeks here down in Xela. I had a new change of professor and she worked me really tough with 2 books, 5 Guatemalan legends and lots of different types of homework. So… in the past 2 weeks, we took a big trip to the beach, Tilapita, and also took a big group trip to Antigua. We have also been taking private salsa dancing lessons, which I thoroughly love because that means I get to dance 2 times a week! Wonderful.

We went to the beach 2 weekends ago with the travel guides that present us with weekend trips and trips during the week as well. The beach and ocean were both gorgeous. Yay for the Pacific Ocean. However, the town was so small that the resort was really sketchy. Bats flying in during the day, cockroaches and scorpions during the night (thank goodness not in our room) and really sketchy beds and shower part. Therefore, we all preferred the natural showering method of the ocean or the pool. Needless to say by the end of the weekend, every female was complaining about how gross their hair was, but oh well! We also went on a boat ride through a mangrove forest, which was really cool.

Antigua- It was actually the former capital of Guatemala and it is nicknamed “Gringoland.” When we went to the discotecas, they played all American music, plus they closed at 12:30! Earlier than in Xela and than in Minnesota. On the positive, Antigua has some architecturally beautiful buildings that were untouched by the various natural hazards they have gone through. We also got to climb a volcano, Pacaya, which was beautiful. We actually didn’t get to see any lava which was a downside, but the view of the capital was amazing. It was absolutely crazy being above and at the same level as the clouds. We also toured an organization called Common Hope which has another office in Minneapolis that works directly with Minnesota. A former Bennie was a long term volunteer there, so that was fun to connect with her. We toured a macadamia nut farm that was solely dedicated to planting trees that were genetically different because there has been a large decrease in the gene pool. The tour guide was a retired fireman from the States and made lots of inappropriate jokes and wore a name tag that said “Heavily Medicated.” He was a card.

Private salsa lessons- A group of 8 of us have been going once a week to the instructor from La Parranda (the disco that we dance for free on Wednesdays) to step up our dancing abilities. Our favorite line of his for the girls “Mas Sexy!” (More sexy). It is fun and we are all determined to come back to the States and teach our significant others how to dance.

Salsa dancing- We have spent from about 8:30 to 1 out dancing and around Parque Central the last few Wednesdays just bonding as a group. The teachers have all said how great it is that we went to salsa dancing right away and love it because not all of the groups have gone at first and then they regretted it towards the end. No. Our group loves it and will continue absolutely loving it. It is the highlight of every one of my weeks and I love learning new turns and just having fun with our whole group!

1 on 1 classes: The last two weeks, I was a bit frustrated by my language teacher as she had a different style of teaching and she tended to not pay attention when she was not teaching me. Therefore, I struggled a bit with stress. I read Charlotte’s Web last week in Spanish and then this week I finished El Alquismista which was surprisingly really great. It talked a lot about living in the present, not in the past or in the future and I was actually really inspired by some parts and also surprised at how much I could understand. I also took my first big test today and I think I did pretty well except for 1 section that was worth 5 points. Otherwise my teacher said that the other parts looked really well.

Food: I am loving all of the food that I eat at home with my host family. My host mom is an incredible cook and I hope to come back bearing many recipes. I also enjoy hitting up the local XelaPan which is an amazing bread store.  I tried a Chevere finally, which is a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, mayo, cabbage and a green chile sauce. I didn’t throw up afterwards which I think is a good goal because it’s always hard to tell with street food. I had an unfortunate experience with street food yesterday which is kicking me in the butt slightly today and probably will for a little while but I’ll just have to be a little smarter about the food that I choose!

I was supposed to go to the beach with my family this weekend but because I wasn’t feeling well, I decided that I would stick around Xela by myself and relax for our big trip to Tikal this week! We leave Monday and 5 am and don’t get back until the following Sunday at midnight. It is going to be a LONG time on the bus, but I am excited. After Tikal, we will be starting our second phase, which means I will have 2 classes at the other university, Rafael Landivar, and then I will have language classes from 2-7 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.. but Wednesdays and Fridays with no class which will be nice.

I know that I was very delayed in writing this, so hopefully another 3 weeks does not pass until I get another blog up! Hopefully everyone is staying safe with all of the snowy weather you’ve had in Minnesota, classes are going well and life is treating everyone well J

Abrazos- Sarita

Guatemala: Land of Tall Mountains and Short People

Hola a todos!

It has been another busy week here in Xela. Monday was a tour of an indigenous community nearby, Tuesday night was a documentary about the armed conflict, Wednesday was more salsa dancing, Thursday was a cooking class, Friday was a trip to one of the biggest markets in Guatemala and it was also the beginning of our first excursion as a group to Lake Atitlan.

San Andres Xecul was the indigenous town that we went to on Monday. It was about a 30 minute bus ride, and as per the norm down here, we did not have enough seats so we had to do different arrangements to get us all there together. We visited some churches there that were painted in some spectacular colors and designs. We were also able to see a Mayan ceremony, which we believe was some sort of memorial service.

We were able to watch a documentary at our school (Celas Maya) on Tuesday night, which was about the armed conflict in Guatemala from the indigenous perspective. It was very interesting but the images were graphic. However I think it is important to have videos like that which show the repression that the indigenous and mestizo population went through during the conflict in order to avoid future similar situations.

Another fun filled night of salsa dancing! One of my friends got to dance with one of the instructors, and I was so jealous! So this is my goal for this coming week. However, I feel like I learn a few new things or I learn how to time things out better with my dancing skills.

On Thursday, we made relleñitos de frijoles, which is basically a dough made of mashed up plantains filled with beans which had sugar added to them. It was a dessert, and it was very delicious. We added a little cream and sugar to the top of them so it was pretty tasty. We mashed the plantains and then filled them with about a spoonful of beans and formed somewhat of a little pie, except for it was round. Then they were fried in oil and ready to eat!

Friday was a very busy day. We left to go to San Francisco de Alto market, which is one of the biggest in Guate. We walked 30 minutes to get to this rotunda where 3 large busses honked and yelled at us to ride with them. We finally got on one, and then made about 20 stops along the way to pick up individuals. By the time we got there, we had 3 people to a regular bus seat, many people in the aisle and people squeezing in to sell candies, food or other objects. An hour of that and we got to the market. At the market, there were so many things for sale. Cows, dogs, pigs, sheep, cats, chickens, turkeys, ducks.. all on nice little ropes being pulled around when they were paid for. In another part of the market, they sold fresh meat on sticks that was just hanging in front of our faces, interesting smell. Then we went into the clothing section where a great deal of indigenous clothing was sold. I bought a purse for Q75 and it is beautiful. We left on the same kind of bus that we came from, but on the positive side we didn’t have to go back to class.

That was because it was time for our excursion! We left at 2:30 for Lake Atitlan, which was a little over a 2 hour bus ride, so not bad at all. When we arrived at the lake, we stopped at a scenic overview to take pictures and buy some souvenirs. Then we arrived at the hotel. Which was like a resort. We had 3 people to a room, with 3 beds, and hot showers with pressure. It was fantastic. The first night we went out to eat at a place where we waited about 45 minutes for drinks and over 2 hours for our food, and then people went to get more food after because they weren’t full. So kind of a fail on the food situation. That night, we stayed at the resort and just hung out as a group and chatted, which was pretty fun.

On Saturday morning, we took a boat tour to three towns around Lake Atitlan like San Pedro, San Marino and Santiago. In San Pedro, my friend Ruari and I got separated from the group while we were taking pictures and ended up missing people from our group jumping into the lake. We met back up with them and then went onto see a few churches and other places around town. Then we came back for lunch at the hotel, which was delicious but still not a lot. After lunch, we took a short siesta and then went to a natural reserve for ZIPLINING! It was so amazing. We were a couple of hundred meters up in the trees and on every line we had a fantastic view of the Lake Atitlan. The longest one was for 40 seconds and the shortest was for 8 seconds. There were 8 different paths that we took so it was really great. It also wiped me out of cash because we weren’t aware that we could do that, so I ended up splitting supper with Grace and we stayed in to chat again and we also walked down to the lake later to see the lights.

On Sunday, we climbed La Nariz del Indio. It was 2000 m high and it was mostly  rocks and steps, so it was difficult for the leg muscles but it was a great view again. On the walk down, I had a little difficulty walking and fell twice. I have some proud battle wounds to show! One of them is a 12 inch mark on my arm that looks really bad but actually doesn’t hurt. I am hoping they both heal up. The trip in total took a little more than 4 hours and then we took a boat ride back to our hotel. After having a little misunderstanding, all 24 of us were only able to shower in 2 different rooms after the coordinators moved all of stuff to these two rooms. It gave people some high tempers. I also experienced my first street food because it is cheaper than a restaurant, and I had this chicken taco with some other girls. It was fresh chicken and onions, but it tasted amazing. They also have popsicles for Q1 at the Sarita ice cream shop, so they are incredible (lime is my favorite). We rode the bus back and returned to Xela around 5:30.

No excursion this weekend, but the crew is thinking about going down to La Playa (the beach) through Celas Maya which should be pretty fun. We will also be returning to Lake Atitlan we decided. I was really surprised by the number of individuals that spoke English to try and sell their objects. To anyone that cannot speak Spanish, these native sellers will steal your money. For those of us that barter, things go down about 50%.

Class this week went well again, I am slowly working through tenses, verbs, conjugations, prepositions and fun stuff like that. I am still really enjoying my family, however I feel bad on the days that I am so busy that I leave at 2 and then don’t get home until 7, and then leave again that night for another activity! Highlights from the food have been some good chicken dishes, fried cauliflower, great broccoli and carrots, some really tasty soups, and of course, lots of foods that I don’t know the name of them but I try to taste everything that has been on my plate, and thus far I have only not liked one thing (chicken livers… what a surprise those were).

As classes start for students back at CSBSJU, I hope you have a good first day of class! I’ve only been there for 2 weeks already, so don’t worry about me. Have a good week and I’ll update again next week!

Abrazos-Sarita

To explain a bit, the first picture is fromSan Andres Xecul, the cool church we visited. The other pictures are around Lake Atitln this weekend!

GUATE!

I can’t believe I have already been in Xela for a week… although it seems as though I’ve been here for quite a long time. But it really has only been a week since I said my goodbyes! This week has been full of adventures. Main events include soccer, salsa dancing with my family and with the group, a wine and cheese party, a family birthday party, a professional soccer game and climbing a mountain to see one of the wonders of Latin America.

•       Soccer: We went to an artificial turf semi indoor place to play soccer for an hour… about 6 injuries later including one tough blow to the head to my “aunt” here, my friend Grace, we left. It was very fun because some guatemaltecos were watching us and we had two native players. They were also on our team. Our team won! However I sat out with Grace when she got hit and we noticed that all of a sudden our team scored about 4 goals in a short time period, which made us question our importance! But it was a great time.
•       Salsa dancing with the group on Wednesday- Our university, Celas Maya, has arranged for us to have one hour of free salsa dancing lessons every week. This was an amazing time with the whole group. We danced all together to the salsa, they played some American music and then we all kind of split up later in the night to do some more dancing. It was so great and I am really looking forward to it this week.
•       Salsa dancing with my family- I ended up going out to this little salsa dancing bar on Thursday night with my host mom, Maria Elena, Gustavo, my host dad, and his brother, Julio who is from Guatemala City. I learned some steps from them and it turns out that Maria Elena and Gustavo go dancing quite a bit together, which I thought was very cool.
•       Wine and cheese party on Friday is a weekly tradition at Celas Maya because they have students graduating weekly. Well, there were no graduates there this week that stayed around so it was just us students from CSB/SJU. Ariel and I talked to some teachers from Celas which was fun and good practice because these ladies didn’t speak any English at all, whereas mine speaks a little.
•       Birthday party- I put up pictures on Facebook, but this party was absolutely crazy. There were 150 people invited, and I think about 90 people showed up, so quite a bit of family. It was a Toy Story theme as can be seen in the pictures, and the little boy in the Woody costume was the birthday boy. The payment for the party organizer, all of the food, music and entertainer was 10,000Q which translates to over $1,000 for a 1 YEAR OLD’S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! They are pretty important in the society though. Grace, who is staying with my mom’s mom, was also there, and we got to break open the second piñata which was pretty fun. My host mom spun me about 10 times! And Grace 0. She gets all the luck. It was a good day.
•       Xela soccer game- About 20 of us went to a soccer game on Saturday night. It was basically a time to just chat and it was around $4 to get in.. and the jerseys outside are around $6 so it’s ridiculous. Xela won this exhibition game. The most entertaining part of the game was when we were walking in and we were pointed to a hole in the fence where we were supposed to enter. Most of us went home right after this in preparation for our big hike on Sunday.
•       La Laguna Chicabal- One of the wonders of Latin America, and is known as one of the most beautiful places that some elders in Guatemala have ever seen. However, it is a tough climb. I was so glad to have my inhaler because I needed 4 puffs to get there and back and it was definitely a struggle. Really good exercise though, and my body is definitely going to hurt on Monday. Such is life. Again, more pictures on Facebook of this, but just for a little background information. La Laguna is a sacred place of the Mayans and individuals aren’t able to touch the water or it is really disrespectful. We got to look at it from high above, and also got a great view of the surrounding volcanoes, and then climbed down a few hundred steps to get to the beach of the lake where we ate breakfast/lunch (at 9:45) and then walked around the lake. After that, we climbed back up the mountain, again really difficult, and then returned back to our lovely town of Xela.

I have still had really good luck with the food that I am having. Not that I am picky at all about the food that I eat so really it has to be pretty terrible for me to not try. I am also getting to know my host family better, and I really like them. They are extremely nice and also let me have my independence. I enjoy watching telenovelas with my host mom and I have some good chats with my host dad. Every day, my speaking and understanding gets better. I can usually understand the things they are saying on the first time as of late, which is really nice because if I wasn’t, I would be really frustrated. My teacher at Celas Maya is fantastic. She seems to think I am really funny, which I enjoy.  Our group has also been getting along really great thus far. We females are SO lucky to have 12 guys here, and guys that are willing to pick us up in the morning, walk us home in the afternoon and night, and also when they don’t live near us. It is really great of them to do that to make us feel safer.

I have also taken on the name of Sarita, by both of my parents and other members of my family. The use of –ita is a term of endearment, so it is really special. Also, my teacher at school calls me that now, so I have a good relationship with her as well. Sarita is also the name of an ice cream seller and a chain of restaurants. Pretty cool.

This week, we start our environmental science class with our director, Tania, who is really opening up. If you look at her, she is a serious lady, but she has a funny side as well, which I appreciate. I am also starting to volunteer this week. We have a required service time of 40 hours, and I will be spending my time at a women and children’s shelter. I am crossing my fingers that it goes well!

I know that southern Minnesota received quite the snow storm last week, and I just wanted to let you know that I am struggling with sun burn down here… but no snow! J However, there was frost this morning on the ground in the mountains, but it melts pretty fast.

Well, I hope that everyone is taking care in the Minnesota winter and keep me and my group in your thoughts as we continue our studying and traveling down here! I miss you all!

Abrazos- Sarita