volcan pics

Volcan de Pacaya pictures

all that work to get up there and most of my pictures didn't even turn out. just as i had anticipated, but still disappointing. my camera has a nice little feature to take video as well, so i managed to capture lava falling in motion. but, i don't know how to post the video, nor upload the video, to this site.

i have to go to lunch now (slowly, but surely), but maybe this afternoon or sometime on the weekend i can take time to figure it out. if any of you know, please email me.

Volcan, part 2

so, there it was, lava. red. orange. beautiful. it moved slowly down the hill, but then collapsed over the side. when it broke, it sounded like glass breaking. it never occurred to me that there would be noise. but it was amazing. and up at the top of either the same volcano or another one, you could see lava spewing up in the canal or cone or whatever you call it.

what was bad was that about the time we reached a place to start taking pictures, it started raining. it always rains, so this was expected. we walked a little farther, to get closer, and the rain lessoned. and then we climbed over lava rocks to get a little closer, which, in my opinion, was totally unnecessary and very dangerous. i have battle wounds to prove it. my hand has at least 6 cuts on it from bracing myself as i traversed the rocks. nothing to hold on to, so better my hand to be cut than my entire body from falling over. seriously, you could REALLY hurt yourself.

and then it was time to go down. slippery. difficult. slow. i stepped wrong and twisted my ankle. fell down on the side of my leg in the dirt. only hurt my ankle though.

finally, the bottom. finally, a chance to sit down. needless to say, i earned a soda and snickers bar. :-)

the drive home was fast, the regular amount of time, 1.5 hours. i got into bed at midnight exactly. a very long evening.

all night, it was hard to get comfortable because of my ankle. you don't realize how much your ankles bend until you can't bend one of them. ouch! this morning i woke up not as tired as i'd expected. i also am not sore at all. i am really surprised. the only thing that hurts is my ankle. but i can walk on it, so it'll be better very soon.

this morning i ate french toast for breakfast. yum! i gathered my laundry and began my walk. i walked about a block and a half and there was a tuk-tuk (taxi), so i took it to the laundromat and to school. for the first time i didn't walk all the way to school. it felt weird. and very bumpy. tuk-tuks are not the most comfortable or shock-absorbant vehicles. they're basically a motorcycle with a box on the back of it for two passengers. it's weird, but it gets you there. cost me Q10.

class thus far today has been ok. i basically said, "no, i'm only doing two sentences" and "no, i didn't do my homework and i don't care." i stuck to my guns and therefore didn't feel stupid, small, and frustrated.

after class is over (because my break is now over), i will post the pictures from last night. not much to see. it's seriously just black with red blobs. but i'll post them anyway. :-)

Volcan de Pacaya

well, it proved itself more difficult than anticipated. everyone said it was easy. they lied. they don't know what easy is.

first the time changes from 5 to 3:30. we pack in a van like sardines, 13 or 14 of us. we drive for a little while, and then we hit a traffic jam. it takes an hour to move one mile. not kidding. it was a mess. we finally get out of that and turn onto a road that, in America, would have been closed because of it's condition. we blaze it like it was an interstate. there were horses in the road. there were dogs in the road. then, out of nowhere, there's a village. people, children, houses, stores selling Pepsi and Snickers. finally, we arrive to our destination, the part where the walking starts.

the people we were with were mostly early 20s. even in MY 20s i would have struggled. these people acted like marathon runners, all 12 of them. the first part where i struggled was ... um ... straight up. no kidding. straight up. after about 10 steps i knew i was in trouble. my lungs started freaking out. for normal lungs, sure, out of breath, but for MY asthmatic lungs, forget about it. how the heck am i gonna get up this mountain? i still have 2.99 kilometers to go!

when we reached the top of this semi-paved area that was straight up, we stopped for a minute. well, i did. to catch my breath, contemplate the situation, and wait for Marlene and our driver. it was at this point Marlene decided to go back. i asked several times, but finally decided to leave w/o her. i felt bad, but i wanted to try. we hadn't walked far, so for her to go down on her own was safe. i carried the rear of our group, for sure, but i made it. our group was led by a Guatemalan guide ... old man ... very fit. they stopped periodically to rest. i caught up just in time to watch them leave. finally, we were there.

oh, by the way, our entire walk was in the dark. it shouldn't have been, but because of the traffic jam, we had no choice.

so there it was ... lava.

more at breaktime...

today & pics

click here for new pictures from my tour of Paseo de Santo Domingo yesterday.

today has been ... overwhelming, again. class involved frustration, crying, and a little bit of laughing, in that order. the director came around and inquired of classes and homestay situations and i requested to change teachers. i have mixed feelings about it, but don't really know what do otherwise.

lunch was pasta, alfredo (kind of), with onions, celery, and some kind of finely chopped green lettuce like stuff. i ate with Anna only. we sorta talked.

i'm now posting blogs and pictures and waiting for 3:15 to come. at that time, marlene and i will walk down to the school where the tour of Volcan de Pacaya will begin. hopefully it will be fun. if nothing else, i'll see live lava, if i don't collapse from the hike up the volcano before hand.

i bought a little loaf of bread (almost the perfect size for living in the States, which doesn't exist in the States, of course), a snack bag of Cheetos (puffs), and a package of about 10 oreo cookies for Q14, in preparation for eating on the bus since i won't get dinner otherwise. Q14 is only about $2 ... that's amazing.

ugh!!!

Oh my gosh, I’m so ready for the weekend. I’m not having fun at all. This is so much harder than I thought it would be. And today is a very hard day. I’ve started crying several times, of course inopportunely. Is that even a word? Ugh!

I woke up this morning very tired. Breakfast sucked. I had to learn a new verb in class which confused the heck out of me. Even though I was prepared from previous studying that verbs were hard, attempting to use it today in class proved very difficult. Doing exercises right there with my teacher waiting on me gets me very nervous and freezes up my brain even more than it already is. Then she wants me to do this very difficult exercise where I complete sentences, but they are long sentences and use words I don’t know! I was so confused. And of course got some of them wrong. We discussed them and I understand why it is the way it is, but … ugh!

Lunch semi-sucked. By this time I’m ready to cry at any moment. I’m basically on the edge. I’m never gonna learn this stuff. I’m never gonna be able to understand people. I’m never gonna be able to communicate. What the heck am I doing here? These were the thoughts going through my head. I prayed on the way home. But I was still very much emotional and tired and frustrated.

Lunch wasn’t ready yet, so I went to the table and sat down with my homework to try to make sense of it. Adoflo asked me how I was and instead of giving the canned “Bien, gracias, y tu?” answer that everyone gives, I was honest. “I’m frustrated.” So he attempts to encourage me. Anna comes in and does the same thing. by this time, tears are coming and I can barely stop them. Thankfully, Anna read the prayer and didn’t ask me to do it. we ate homemade Chinese … fried rice, bits of meat, onions, peppers, and celery. I picked and tried not to cry and tried to talk. I did the best I could, but was so upset.

Adolfo was kind enough to write down the name of a book I might find helpful for studying. I guess when I pass by bookstores I’ll inquire of it. maybe $15 or $20 might be worth it. He and Anna both were also kind enough to offer their help. They could tell I was upset and could see the tears in my eyes even though I didn’t let them fall. And Adolfo was very sweet, at the end of lunch when were getting up from the table … he said, “Jesus loves you, that’s what’s important.” I could only whisper, “Yes, He does.” Then as I passed him in the kitchen he put his hand on my shoulder and said if I needed help this afternoon to please ask.

I went to my room and cried. I only had 10 minutes before I needed to leave, so I could cry a lot, but I tried.

I walked back to school for the activity at 2 p.m. Five students and four teachers walked down to the museum at the Santo Domingo hotel. One of the teachers was our tour guide. Things were going ok for a while. I was actually understanding some of what he was saying about the stuff we were looking at. Only a little. But then we get to this one place and I didn’t catch any of it. he could tell I didn’t understand and came over to me after everyone had dispersed and said a few key words to me in English. I said thank you, turned away, and the tears started coming. I felt so stupid. He was being nice and helpful, but I felt so stupid. Why is this so hard?! I hid my tears from everyone, got myself gathered together, and moved on with the group.

We were at this museum for almost two hours. It shows art, old stuff from kitchens and pharmacies, skeletons, and a lot of Catholic stuff … statues, paintings, etc. It was interesting, the art was cool, and the setting was beautiful. Overall, it was worth the $5.50 I spent.

On my walk home, for the first time, a local talked to me as we walked in the same direction. What? I’m not invisible? Wow! He asked me questions and I understood a good bit of it and was able to respond in Spanish. Mostly the canned questions like, “Where are you from? Are you here to study? How long are you here for?” he was a bit older and had a lisp, so I had trouble sometimes getting words, but at least we talked! I didn’t really know what to say, but I tried to answer the best I could and he understood.

It is 6:15 p.m. and I’m waiting on dinner. I need to do my homework and study, but am afraid of getting frustrated because of not understanding.

This has been a hard day and I don’t expect there to not be anymore. I appreciate your prayers. Not only am I frustrated with the language learning and barriers, I am very much sensitive to everything around me right now … the constant noise, so much walking, and the guys who whistle and make kissy noises at me when I walk by every single day, at least once a day, are all getting to me.

Dinner was leftover Chinese food. They were sweet and picked out the peppers. I wish they had picked out the onions and celery as well. Also on the plate was a lovely portion of potato salad made with my favorite … mustard! Potatoes, carrots, and green beans mixed with mustard and maybe a tiny bit of mayo. Maybe. *sigh* I ate most of it, but some of the bites were really hard to get down. Thank God for bread and lemonade!

Adolfo joined me and we talked. Sort of. He does most of the talking, I say “si” and “wow” a lot. :-) at the end he encouraged me with words from God. God knew what He was doing. I’ll be ok.

mustard, ugh!

Adolfo made those sandwiches again for breakfast. mustard, mayo, turkey ham, and cheese. thankfully the other stuff drowns out most of the mustard, but i can still taste it. i don't have the heart to tell him i don't like it.

i've learned "estar" today. it's another "to be" verb, but temporary. (Jeff, thanks!) talk about a confusing language. my teacher keeps telling me not to think in English, but i don't know how NOT to think in English. it's all i know!!! if you have advice, please share. i'm lost.

today we go on a tour of the museum in the Santo Domingo hotel. i think i'll go.

it was cold this morning, so i put on long sleeves. but now it's hot. i never know what the weather is going to be from day to day, hour to hour. it's always changing on me. i've been dressing in short sleeves and carrying a jacket, but today i wanted to be minimal and thought i'd be ok. but alas, i am hot. *sigh* oh well.

*sigh*

another day of walking all over the place. i'm tired. school was ... well, somewhere in the middle. Lesbia taught me the first verb ... "ser" = to be. Yo soy, Tu eres, El es, Nosotros somos. basically, "i am, you are, he/she is, we are, they are." and then we played a little game to go over the words i'm learning. you might know it as Twenty Questions. but with this game, instead of just thinking of the word, you write it on a piece of take and stick to the other person's forhead. therefore, she becomes the object. then she asks, "am i a person?" and we continue like this. when the word is finally guessed, you get another word. we basically got one word each and then it was time to leave. we weren't very good at it. :-)

at noon Marlene and i walked down to the other school to sign up for their tour of Volcan de Pacaya on thursday. it cost $15. no food included, so i'll have to buy myself a roll at the panaderia and make me a peanut butter sandwich to take with. lucky i have peanut butter. :-)

then i walked home for lunch. we had a fillet of chicken and some scalloped potatoes that had been baked. it was yummy. Anna can cook very well.

then i layed on my bed for a while, thinking about walking to the post office. it's a hike, so i had to psych myself up for it. finally i got all my stuff together and started walking. i ended up walking two blocks past where i needed to go, but thankfully i have a map to refer to at all times.

now i'm at Cafe 2000, the place i've passed several times. it's dark and loud with music. rather cozy little cafe with a movie screen. they play movies, for free, and have free wireless internet. i thought i'd try connecting to my work PC again, but it didn't work. i've ordered a brownie with ice cream, though i don't know why. i guess i feel guilty for using their internet and not ordering anything, which i know is their intent. so, i shall fatten myself up again with dessert, and before dinner no less!

flashcards

Overall, a good day. :-) Lunch was with Adolfo. We had soup … chicken, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes. My lunch also included a “tamal”, this one was different than the one I had the other night for dinner. It still tasted good, except there was a chile in the middle of it and even after taking it out, the spice of the chile was throughout the middle section of the tamal. Needless to say, my mouth was feeling it by the end. :-)

After lunch I went back to the school to check my e-mail (was waiting on a response from someone at work) and give chocolate and lifesavers to Marlene and her teacher Juan Carlos. My plan was to check my email and leave, walk to the post office, go to Café 2000 to test their internet to see if I could get through to my computer at work to help with prayer cards, and come home. However, I ended up staying at school until 5-ish, walking my boss through the steps to formatting a prayer card via instant messaging. In the process of that, I responded to a couple of emails and made friends with a new student Marlene met earlier.

Her name is Alexis (or Alexia, I honestly can’t remember right now) and she is from Australia. Her boyfriend wants to travel around Cuba and for her to join him, so she thought she’d take a break from work (in between jobs) and brush up on her Spanish beforehand. She’s here for three weeks and lives with a family who, incidentally, is not mine. Oh well.

She went to the salsa class with Marlene and afterwards she and I continued to talk and walk in the same direction towards our houses. We might walk to the post office together some time this week.

Tomorrow Marlene and I are going to walk down to the other school she found on Saturday and sign up to join their tour of Volcan de Pacaya on Thursday evening. I’m very excited about that. Turns out Alexis went on a tour of Pacaya Sunday evening. She said it’s a bit of a hike, but Adolfo says it shouldn’t be a problem for me. We’ll see. Hopefully I’ll get to see real flowing lava up close and personal. That will be way cool.

So after my wet walk home, I hung up my rain jacket and jeans to dry and began studying. I’ve learned well over 150 words/phrases this week, but couldn’t figure out the best way for me to study and retain them. I finally decided to make my own flash cards. In order to do so, I needed to borrow some scissors. I form the sentence with my trusty dictionary, practice it, and go out to the kitchen to ask … “Me dejas unas tijeras?” and Adolfo says, “Oh, prestas, si.” Turns out my verb, borrow, was the wrong one. I had a 50/50 chance, according to my “trusty” dictionary, and I, of course, chose the wrong one. Oh well. I learned.

I started on my project, but then it was time for dinner. Some tasty pasta and the green vegetable I can never remember the name of. Squash? Or zucchini? I think squash is yellow and zucchini is green? Ugh, I can’t remember. But it was green. And it tasted good, surprisingly enough. I think it was zucchini. Because I think that’s what Melissa and I eat at Musashis and I usually like it there just fine. This coming from a girl who wouldn’t touch a vegetable other than corn with a ten foot pole. :-)

This time, instead of Adolfo reading the prayer from the “bread box”, he asked me to do it. EEK! I was a little nervous, simply because it would be the first time I’d read anything real out loud. I guess I did ok. I didn’t understand any of the words, but I got to the end and we all said Amen.

I am talking more over meals with Adolfo and Anna. I try, anyway. Thankfully Adolfo speaks much more English than he gave himself credit for on the first day. Anna, on the other hand, really only speaks a tiny bit. He usually translates for both of us. :-) They both are really sweet people.

Flashcards are complete. Hopefully they’ll help me. I get so frustrated in class because Lesbia will ask me a question, of which I understand and know the answer, but I don’t know how to form the answer properly. Either that or my mind goes blank or my tongue gets tied and I just freeze up. I guess I don’t want to be wrong, so I get scared and would rather not say anything. I end up just sitting there looking like I’m thinking, which I am, but what she doesn’t know is that the answer is in my head. “En la casa!” But that’s not the “complete” answer. She wants me to say, “El libro esta en la casa” or something to that effect. The whole Esta, Es, and Son thing gets me really confused. UGH! So maybe this will help. I don’t know. I just know I’ve learned a lot of words that don’t’ really seem to help me communicate with people around here. Like who ever uses RABBIT???

Alexis asked me how long I was here for. When I told her she was surprised. I was too. Why the heck did I choose 10 weeks in such a foreign land learning a language that frustrates me every day????? She expected me to answer different to her question of traveling, as well, but nope, just here to learn and then will go home. It all made sense before I came here…

attn: females

walking really does work. my skinny pants, that i brought for the "in case", fit again! :-) i decided yesterday to try them on and was thrilled when the legs didn't stick to my thighs. yay!

mas escuela, lluvia, y comida!

lunes brings mas escuela, aprendiendo, lluvia, y comida. :-) monday brings more school, learning, rain, and food!

everyone is cold today cuz it's cloudy and rainy. class today was ok. better than i had anticipated. i was worried about my homework and being repremanded over doing it wrong. but it all turned out ok. i did better than i thought. we played "memory" again and i learned the other half of the words in the game. it's raining again. and breakfast today was a piece of "cake" (sweet bread, dry), and two fried eggs.

there's a new student, a girl from Australia, so maybe she'll live with us, i don't know. i'll find out later i guess. Marlene talked to her on our break. she talks to everyone. thankfully for me. :-)

yesterday turned out to be a little bit harder than i'd expected to get food. i mean, there are TONS of choices. but the unexpected part was me choosing a place and not being afraid to order stuff. even though some of the food is either American or Italian, the menus are still mostly in Spanish and therefore i don't always know what i'm ordering. which fears me. and then i hesitate. so i'm glad today is monday and i don't have to think about food for a few days. :-)

Sunday's scoop

Slept in, sort of. Walked to the Viejo Café where I ate breakfast and use their free wireless. Breakfast was a warm croissant with butter and marmalade and fresh fruit. It included coffee as well, but I don’t like it so I bought a bottle of water instead. Total cost for my breakfast with tip was Q25 (approx. $3.50).

When I walked in and chose a table I saw Jeanette and Brian. They live a couple of blocks away, so wasn’t too surprised to see them, but at the same time, of all the places we each could go, we end up in the same place. Small world.

After my computer battery reached 20 minutes or so left, I packed it all up and walked down to the McDonald’s. Lots of people. A man went into the ladies bathroom and used the stall I had just come out of. He didn’t seem to care he was in the wrong bathroom, but all of us females kinda laughed about it. I ordered some fries and a coke (Q16.50) and found a table outside by the fountain. But it was rainy and cold and so therefore wasn’t as pleasant as I had hoped for today. I ate my fries and did my homework until I got frustrated with the whole thing and decided I needed to try to find a quieter place to study.

I left and started walking towards the movie theater. I knew I would pass a few places that might be warmer and/or quieter to sit in. and they would have been, had there not been a football game on every television in the city with 100 people around each one.

There are some comfy chairs outside a bar-like place between the movie theater and the Mono Loco, so I sat down and started studying. About 10 minutes later the game was over and everyone left, so they played good music inside the bar place. But then teenagers decided to come sit around me and talk, laugh, and smoke for about half an hour. Ugh! By the time they left it was time for me to go to the bathroom and buy my movie ticket.

Before I sat down to study I decided to look the movie situation over a little more and discovered a parking garage where I thought the actual theater was. Come to find out, there is only one screen/theater through a door to the left of the concession stand. So now that it’s almost time for the movie to start, I went over to the concession stand and inquired about a ticket. I buy it there. Ok. Q15 ($2). Behind me stood a white woman who s poke pretty good Spanish. She bought a ticket as well. Turns out we were the only two people in the theater. No need to be early! :-)

The seats were short and VERY close together as far as up and down goes. If I had to sit with seats in front of me I would have been VERY uncomfortable. Thankfully there was at least one row half way up that had open leg room. The other patron chose a seat in the same place, but on the opposite side. I have a feeling these seats go first, if there ever is a busy time/movie. :-) the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles. It was raining, really hard, which drowned out the sound quite a bit. During those times I’d wished the languages had been switched so I could actually know what they were saying. The sound wasn’t the best to begin with, so having a non-sound-proof roof didn’t help at all. There were no previews, by the way.

After the movie I walked up to the BBQ place across from La Merced to eat dinner. Since my host family always serves dinner between 7 and 7:30, I can only assume I was early and that was the reason I was the only patron, it being only 6 en punto. the place is called K & Ribs and has maybe a total of maybe 10 tables, half of them being outside in a patio-like area with a little garden. It being chilly and damp, I chose inside. So far, from what I can tell, any regular place you can eat in you don’t have to wait to be seated, you just go in and help yourself to any table you want. That’s just the way it is, no signs to tell you so.

Anyways, I perused the menu and decided on the pulled pork sandwich. I also got a soda which was served as a glass bottle with a glass of ice. I decided to risk it, but prayed over it first. hopefully the Lord will sustain my health just this once. When the Stiffs took me to the Mono Loco the waiter brought us all glasses of ice. I waited to see if they would pour their drinks into the ice and they did. So I assume some places are ok and therefore took a risk today.

The sandwich was wonderful. Big. Soft bread. Pulled pork in BBQ sauce with cheese sauce over top, lettuce, and tomato. Accompanied by fries and coleslaw. The slaw was ok, but not good enough for me to eat. overall though, it was a very good dinner. When I was done eating it occurred to me that I didn’t have enough Quetzales to pay for my meal. Oh dear. After a few minutes pondering discreetly in my head about what to do, I called the waiter over and asked, “Puedo pagar con Visa?” he seemed hesitant. So I added, “o dollars?” and he seemed good with that. Phew! I gave him a $20 and he went off to convert and change it. my total bill there was Q48 + Q2 for a tip. So, about $6.65. I am way full too.

Then I walked home. In the dark. And wasn’t completely comfortable about it. I prayed and the Lord protected me. I know, I wasn’t being safe. I know I took too many risks today. I know. There’s no need to lecture me. Please. And thank you. :-)

Today’s costs … croissant, fruit, bottled water, fries, large soda, movie ticket, dinner, soda, two tips: Q106.50 = $14.20. What a deal man. In the States you’d pay $14 for just the dinner. Amazing!

Costs for the week: on Tuesday I converted $50 and tonight I converted $20. That would be approx. Q525. I bought two cell phone cards (200 minutes), a fruity drink, an ice cream cone, two meals, two 20 oz. bottles of Coke, one wafer cookie thing, an electrical adaptor, one movie ticket, three hours of internet usage, one museum school activity, and a bar of soap. I have Q108 and some change leftover. So in one week, I spent about $55.

NOTE: I used to convert stuff using a 7 to 1 conversion rate. Now I use 7.5 to 1.

Sunday morning

i slept in. sorta. it was nice to not have to get up to be somewhere at a specific time, like breakfast at 7 or school at 8.

i walked down 6th avenida and found the little cafe Marlene and i passed yesterday that has food and free wireless. it's like a little french place. i had a croissant with butter, marmalade, and fruit. the music has been anywhere from Christmas to Enya to Chicago to Spanish.

in a little bit i'm going to walk to McDonald's and study in the garden area over french fries and a soda. :-)

and then at 4 i'm going to see about watching the Lake House at the theater. i'm very excited. :-)

one thing i've not mentioned yet about life here is how people answer the telephone. they answer in English, "Hello?" and then begin talking in Spanish. weird.

door handles are not knobs. they are little sideways locks that you pull out or push down or up. on the outside of the doors there is only the keyhole to use to open the door with. weird again.

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. :-)

pictures

here are some pictures. i'll try to add captions. i'm putting them in this way to kinda break up the monotony of text. :-)


this is the back patio where i use my laptop and where activities are after class.


this is the yard i can see when i'm sitting on the patio.


this was one street i walked down yesterday. i liked the woman carrying stuff on her head.


the school yard where i study


this is a "park" around the corner from the school

TGISaturday

ah, a day of rest. i have homework to do. i have walking to do. and i have food to eat. :-) i'm so glad it's saturday. i got to sleep in an extra hour. and i don't have to sit with Lesbia and get frustrated about pronunciations.

dinner last night was white rice, green peas, rolls, and pieces of pork in some kind of yellowish/brown beans and gravy. it was good. and filling. :-) breakfast today was cereal, banana, and water. they (Anna & Adolfo) don't buy milk, though it is possible to do, so to make milk you use water and powder. i think i might have gotten the right amount of powder this time, but the water isn't super cold, so it's like drinking tepid milk. oh well. at least it's food.

this morning while i was trying to wake up, i counted nine different bird noises, including the rooster. have i mentioned the honking yet? very annoying. it's cloudy today and a little cooler than it has been. in fact, last night Anna and Adolfo were cold. they both had jackets on. :-) it really wasn't cold, especially by CO standards, but to them...