the full Saturday scoop

I think I have a correction to make to my earlier calculations. Ok, maybe two corrections… 1) I really have no idea how many blocks it is from school to my host house, but I do know that it takes me 10 minutes to walk it. I correctly timed myself today, so that I DO know. Given that calculation and knowing I can walk a mile in 19 minutes (mas o menos), that means it’s approximately ½ a mile from school to the house. 2) eight blocks is supposed to be “almost a kilometer,” which I think means to be somewhere between ½ and ¾ of a mile. If I can walk ½ a mile in 10 minutes, then that means ½ a mile should be somewhere between eight and twelve blocks. Therefore … on the day that I walked about 50 blocks, that would equal about 3 miles. I was thinking more like 4 or more.

Today I walked about 60 blocks, so I’m going to say that’s 3.75 miles. Wow. No wonder I’m tired! I’m not used to such walking every day. The way I figure it, I’ve walked at least 2 miles every day thus far. Just imagine how I’ll feel in 4 weeks. And then in 9 weeks … sitting at a computer really might not be fulfilling after all this!

Anyways, I walked to the school to use the internet to try to log on to my computer at work to help with a project, but the remote part didn’t work. I also wanted to use the internet to call my dad for his birthday, which did work. :-) then I listened to music and browsed for a while, answered a question of a fellow student about Skype, and then Marlene came back from her morning ventures. We talked for a while about things and decided to walk together this afternoon to run errands and see the city. So I walked home, ate lunch, and met her back at the school at 2 p.m.

We walked down the street to find the place where she might catch a shuttle bus to the City (Guatemala City) where her friends are. She’s going to meet up with them and go to church. So someone from the school told her where to go to catch a shuttle van and we followed the map exactly. But when we got to where it was supposed to be, it wasn’t. so we asked someone in a restaurant. She said to walk two more blocks south. So we did. Still no place. So we ask someone else. She says it’s four blocks back the way we came. So, we walk back up the street four blocks, looking more closely. We found it, one block north from where we were told it was.

Then we walked two blocks east to the commercial street in order to walk two blocks south to the supermarket and post office. Walking east I hear, “Hola, Jenny!” I look up and there’s Jeanette and Brian, the couple who ate dinner with me and the Stiffs on Sunday. This is the second time I’ve seen them in the city since Sunday. They were also at the museum my school went to on Tuesday. We talked and found out they live just around the corner from where we were. I’m so happy to know now.

Walking south we passed by a store selling cables, switches, and other electronic-type stuff, so I decided to go in and ask for an electric adaptor. She actually understood what I asked for and had one! Yay! Q5 for an adaptor. Sold Guatemalan! :-) I’m so happy to have this adaptor – I can use my computer at home now to journal, listen to music, and watch the two movies I brought from home when I get bored. :-)

There was a lot of activity happening on this street. There was music, dancing, and a couple of people dressed in some kind of old man costume doing some kind of line dance with two teenagers. Lots and lots of things to buy.

And finally the post office, which was closed. :-) but at least I know where it is for Monday. Basically next door to the post office is the supermarket. We went in and looked around at all the stuff to buy. It’s small, packed full of stuff, and very busy. It’s basically a super Wal-Mart extremely downsized, but all the same stuff. Some things were really cheap, but other things were either about the same or more expensive than in the States. For example: a larger sized snack bag of chips cost about a dollar. In the States you’d pay somewhere between 2.5 and 3 dollars. One Palmolive bar of bath soap cost about 50 cents. In the States you can buy one bar of soap in the travel section of Wal-Mart, but it’s ¼ of the size and cost about the same or a little more. (NOTE: there WERE single bars of soap (Dove) that cost about $1.60 each.) Then there’s deodorant, which seemed to cost about the same, maybe just a little less. The one thing I found that was more expensive was feminine products. A pack of eight tampons (name brand) cost about $3. well, in the States you can get a pack of 40 of the same brand for about $10. so, finally, something less in the States! :-)

After we browsed and bought a couple of things, we continued walking east on that street to go back toward the center of town. I’m looking around and trying not to get run over by cars when Marlene says, “Oh, a McDonalds.” YAY!!! I was so excited to find it. not that I LIKE McDonald’s necessarily, but because Marcie had told me about it and I wanted to know where it was. And sure enough, it’s just like she said. In the back of it is a really nice open patio area with trees and a fountain. It is really super nice there. A regular order of fries costs about 75 cents. And if you buy a meal (I think), you get 30 minutes of Internet usage for free. They have McInternet and McCoffee inside. Oh, and there’s a TV in the corner so you can keep up with the latest football game. That’s soccer for us Americans. :-)

The best part about the garden area of the McDonald’s was the view of the fabulous volcano. It’s really awesome. Ronald was sitting on benches throughout, so Marlene went and sat by him and I took a picture of her with Ronald, the fountain, and the volcano in the background. Unfortunately, right when she was sitting down, a woman and her kid decided to sit on the fountain. So you get a nice view of them as well.


Further down the street we found Burger King. They also had trees with tables, but not really an outside area. There was an upstairs, but I didn’t go in to figure out what the upstairs was about. I will later though.

We eventually arrived back to the north/south street our school is on, but four or five blocks south of the school. Marlene wanted to show me a few things she saw yesterday and this morning, so we walked south. Along the way she showed me the language school she found this morning. She talked to the director of the school and picked up a brochure. Apparently that school is going on a trip to Volcan de Pacaya to see the lava at night and invited Marlene to come with. And she invited me. So I think we may be doing that on Thursday. It costs about $15. I’m not sure all the details, but it could be really fun, so I hope we do it. Patrick went and showed me a few pictures on his digital camera while walking to school the other day and talked about how cool it was. He said you can get really close to the lava, it moves pretty slow, and the best time to see it is at night. I think that school is leaving here at 5 and gets back about 9 or 10. since it gets dark at 6 it should be easy to accomplish viewing the lava.

A few doors down from the school is a spa she looked at this morning as well. She picked up a brochure for both of us. I guess an American lady runs the spa. You can get an hour long full-body massage for about $23. hello? I’d say that’s a bargain! (you can’t even get ½ an hour massage for that in the States. Half an hour here is about $13.)

At the end of that street is Iglesia de San Francisco, a very old church/museum. There are also vendors inside the grounds selling their stuff. I peeked inside the church – it is really pretty. I’ll go back and explore it to find out what it’s all about.

So then we walked north to Hotel de Santa Domingo. Oh my goodness! You so would not expect to find this five-star hotel on this street. Wow! (Apparently Bill Clinton stayed here.) we walked in and around the inside of this hotel and what a huge and pleasant surprise! It’s absolutely beautiful there. There’s a fancy restaurant, jewelry store, museum, fountains, trees, and parrots (big ones!). it’s truly beautiful and definitely a touristy place to stay. Just walking down the street you could tell something important was down there because of all the white people carrying cameras going towards it. :-)

After all of that, it was only about 5 en punto. We’d only been walking for 3 hours, but it seemed like all day long. Amazing. We parted ways, she to eat dinner and me to start my walk home.

I decided to stop at the park and sit down for a bit, the park that’s around the corner from the school. As I was walking into the park and contemplating which bench to sit on, I see a familiar face. “Hola, Anna!” my hosts and their grandson were there playing. :-) I sat on the bench for a while and counted the blocks I’d walked so far and tried to figure out the full distance. Then I decided to buy a soda at the internet café across the street from the school and use the internet for a few minutes to blog about my day. But, the blogsite wasn’t responding, so I checked my e-mail and left after 30 minutes of usage.

I walked outside and it was dark! Wow, that was fast. I walked home in the dark, but it was fine. It was only 6 en punto so all the street lights were still on. No worries, Mom!

Dinner tonight was something called a “tamal”. Adolfo says it’s a typical Guatemalan tamale. It looks nothing like a tamale you might find in America and as far as I’m concerned it tastes a whole lot better. :-) it looked and tasted like a really super soft potato in a rectangle shape with a little bit of tomato sauce on top. It sat on a plantain leaf and was accompanied by green beans and rolls.

I’ve forgotten to share that I’ve seen two different men on two different occasions peeing on the side of the road, just right there out in the open, not caring much that people were watching them.

Total expenditures today for one adaptor, one bar of brand name bath soap (that smells really good by the way!), one bottle of Coke, and 30 minutes of Internet use: Q18 = $2.40. In the States all that could cost at least 3.5 times as much. At least. I know I mention the price differences a lot, but it’s just that it amazes me. And it helps me really put a perspective on things.

We passed a TON of restaurants, internet cafes, ice cream shops, panaderias (bakeries), and retail shops today. There is a place called Café 2000 that has a movie screen inside with comfy-looking chairs. They have food, drinks, movies, and free wireless. I didn’t realize how popular internet cafes were. But the smallest of places will have three or more computers set up and call itself a café and charge from Q7 per hour.

The bottled soda I’ve bought at La Alameda tastes a lot sweeter than soda from the liters we had with our pizza the other day and from bottles in the States. I wonder why.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Dominos pizza. That’s on the street we walked east on toward “our” street, before we turned to go to San Francisco. They have delivery motorcycles. If I read the sign properly, the cost for one pizza (don’t know what size) costs about $15. what the heck? Everything else is cheap, but pizza costs more than in the States? I don’t get it. maybe it’s a really big pizza? (The pizza we had the other night was homemade.)

I’ve read there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts, but haven’t see it yet.

ok, i'm finally done. i'm sure you're glad. :-)