A Wednesday Update

Hello!

So I´ve decided it´s just too much of a pain to add pictures while in a sketchy internet cafe. I´ll add pictures when I get home next week.

Until then...here´s an update:

1. I love coffee and coffee loves me.

2. I have a slight sunburn and have never been more thrilled.

3. I just looked at the weather in NY- 36 for a high? Excuse me while I work on my burn before I return.

4. I´m starting to read the book ¨Twilight¨in Spanish and realizing how much I suck at reading in Spanish.

5. Helped two American´s who were robbed while on a Chicken Bus. Those buses are reallllly dangerous. Their bags were completely slashed open and both wallets stollen.

6. The family I am living with has a huge, green, talking parrot.

7. I somehow always manage to find buddies from other countries- this time around a woman originally from Malaysia, went to Colombia U. in NY, and now living in London.

8. Sometimes I can´t think of certain words in English.

9. I love when people come up to me on the street and say (desperately) ¨Do you speak English?!?!?!¨ and then are ESTATIC when I say ¨yes, I speak English.¨ I get to feel worldly and useful while telling said persons where particular locations are. But then I think, ¨Is it that obvious from looking at me that I speak English!?¨

10. Have I mentioned in old postings that the only music that stores/cafe´s etc. play are old 80´s tunes? It´s like traveling back in time to the summer of ´89.

That´s all I can think of for right now!

Adios!

Where Do I Even Begin?

I have arrived!

Trip was tiring. Had to take three airplanes. On one airplane the lady next to me asked if I was a student. I turned to her and said, ¨Oh, I´m a teacher.¨ She was like, ¨huh?¨ And so I said, ¨I´m almost 27.¨ She covered her mouth with her hand and started rocking back and forth- I thought she was going to fall out of the seat. ¨She gave me some more side glances and I was like, ¨It´s okay...¨ Then she told me that she married someone ten years younger than her and how great it is and that when I´m 40 I´ll snag someone who is 30. I told her that that is my plan.

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I just got out of four hours of class.

So the guy sitting five feet away from me at this school grew up in the same town that I teach in. He still lives on L.I.

Yep. Such a small world.

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Am wearing sandals.

Lunch is at 2:30. Time to go explore.

Adios!

Night-Before! Ready to Go!

First of all...Happy St. Valentine's Day!

You best be including "St." when you say it...imagine what will happen in a few years when we drop "St." off of St. Patrick's name?

My future children will be running around- all decked out in green- yelling "Happy Patrick's Day!" That will sound ridiculous, right?

Speaking of future children- this is a picture of me and my valentine.

He is invisible.

It's okay though. My married friends don't run off to random countries whenever they want to.

And I do.

Hasta Luego.

Almost there!

It's Wednesday night- I leave on Sunday.

Today was moderately warm here in NY, giving me a foretaste (what strange word) of next week.

Of course my suitcase is at my parents house in MA- so I need to pack really lightly just using a carry-on size case. This isn't so bad, except that you have to bring your own towel/s which take up a lot of luggage space.

The only packing 'trick' I have is to wear a lot of clothes on your way there and way back. It'll be in the 30's when I leave and arrive so I'll just layer.

In other news...

1. My internet hates me.
2. My car hates me- not only is the front end dented in- it's also now a pa-diddle! (is that a western mass term?)
3. There are things dying a slow death in my refrigerator and it's getting a little scary.

Weird to think how close it will be to March when I return.

Am not complaining.

In my opinion winter is one big pathetic purgatory designed to harbor germs inside of buildings while threatening to freeze your eye-ball juice when outside too long. Sorry, that's just how I feel.

This is where you tell me I ought to seek residence just a wee-bit closer to say, the equator.

Adios for now.

Best Cup of Coffee I've Ever Had

This past summer I drank this cup of coffee.

It was so good, I took a picture afterwards.

I can't wait to revisit "Cafe Condessa" in two weeks!

I'm going back!

Hello people!

Or should I say..."hola!"

Okay here's the dealy:

1. It's friggin' cold in New York.

2. I bought a plane ticket for Guatemala.

3. I'm leaving in 2 weeks on February 15th!

4. I enrolled in the same school I went to this summer.

I can't believe I'm returning so soon! And it's not even summer! And it's only for one week!

This is just too awesome.

Spanglish

Hey!

So I made it back in one piece. In the Guatemala airport the ticket man took one look at me and announced that my flight had been canceled. Seeing as Guatemala is the second most dangerous city on the planet I blurted out to the ticket man, "Can you get me home today?"

So I caught a flight to Miami and ended up back in NYC at 2:30 am. For picking me up so late I now owe a friend of mine a kidney, my first born child, and apparently my gall bladder (we made a list of body parts you don't actually need and can lend out/give to one another).

Oh and Chelsea Clinton was on my airplane. I stared at her kind of by accident. She looks skinnier in person.

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In other news...the next day I went to Barnes and Noble and lo and behold the book "Pardon My Spanglish" was right at eye-level. I swear it was fate! I was a little perturbed that someone wrote the book before I did.

I will say that it's a perfect book if your Spanish is in a place where you need a little bit of English to help you along with the meaning of sentences. I read a few pages before I go to sleep each night and it makes me feel like I'm getting some Spanish studying in!

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I'm back at work.

Without going into too much detail, let it be known that I'm not able to get inservice credit for studying Spanish over the summer. Something about it being an overseas program.

Let's get this straight...if I went to a U.S. university for an hour a week and was not immersed in the language I might manage a credit or two... but if I go to a Spanish speaking country and learn an immense amount of Spanish due to living it daily...no credit.

Right...so in less than a week I've used Spanish to help two separate kindergarten children. Neither are my students.

If I'm ever an administrator I will find a way to fund motivated teachers to learn Spanish. It will absolutely help close the achievement gap. You can quote me on that. I stand by my opinion that public school teachers of all subject areas be given incentive to learn basic Spanish. This opinion has nothing to do with the debate over our nation's language or teaching bilingualism. This is simply based on knowing that if you can communicate with the English speaking parents and you can't with the Spanish speaking parents...which kids do you think have an automatic advantage?

Think about it, think-think about it.

Guatemala vs. U.S.A.!!!

Tonight´s the big game! (Soccer).

30,000 people expected at the stadium in Guatemala city.

I´ll be watching the game on a big screen here in Antigua.

Good times.

To Tikal and Back!

Wow. What a weekend.

First of all...I spent Saturday in a jungle.

How did I know it was a jungle?

Mostly from the presence of panthers, jaquars, and tarantulas.

Oh. And because if was HOT. Not like, ¨gee it´s hot today¨ kind of hot. But like, ¨Why am I sweating through my clothes while standing in the shade?¨ kind of hot.

Monkeys! Can´t forget the monkeys! You could talk to them. They would throw things at you from the trees.

So yeah...took a bus all Friday night. Arrived at about 7 am in a town called Flores. It was the kind of town you honeymoon in if you secretly think it would be cool to get killed on your honeymoon. Little sketchy, that´s all.

Friend and I bargained with several locals on the price of getting driven to Tikal- the location of the Mayan monuments (and my ¨monuments¨I mean temples of bloody sacrifice.)

Basically the Mayans believed in many gods. When they felt they needed to make a sacrifice to one of these gods they would capture someone from a neighboring community and kill them, offering their blood in exchange for rain etc. Good times.

After a long day of climbing such temples, friend and I decided that we would save money by traveling back on a bus Saturday night. More bargaining...

(I´d just like to note that on the completely Spanish spoken tour I met a couple who at the end of the trip explained to me that they are both doctors and that they have plenty of space in their Argentinian home and would like me to visit...)

The original plan was to stay the night in Flores and take a bus back all day Sunday. After changing the plan, friend and I took a bus back to Guatemala City Sat. night. Then we took a taxi to the bus station where friend and I got on a chicken bus back to Antigua.

Sooooooooooo... I get back in time to go to Sunday Mass. Let´s also note at this time that there are 31 churches in this town.

So I get to Mass and look to my right and see.... A FRIEND FROM THE UNITED STATES. I was dumbfounded.

So I go over to him and I´m like, ¨uh, Br. Justin?¨ and he´s like, ¨hi, Elizabeth!¨

Amazing huh???

So yeah, it´s been a good few days.

Also today I passed the level of Spanish I´ve been working on in school. After passing this, ahem, 7 page exam, I received a new, more advanced level grammar book. Obviously I won´t pass this next level in the next 4 days.

Well, there´s the update! Today a few postcards went in the mail. I need to go buy some more though. In any case, all will arrive after I come back to the states!

: )

In honor of monkeys, I will share with you the best youtube video ever. It´s very important to watch the entire thing and to listen carefully to all of the words!

Tikal!

(I snagged this photo off of the internet...real photos next week!)

Tonight I´m getting picked up at 6:30pm by a bus headed for Tikal.

Won´t arrive until 6 tomorrow morning!

Will find a hostel to stay in.

Tikal is a some ancient Mayan place.

Adios!

Love. It.

By far the best book store I´ve found.

Many books in English.

Love the name. Who the heck thinks of that?

Surely the political correctness police would be all over it in the U.S.

We really do need to relax a bit.

(Libros= books)

Child, You are Going Places (on a motorcycle)...

Look closely.

Look at the front of the motorcycle.

What do you see?

Yes, yes. It´s a small child.

Doesn´t quite compare to the families of 4 and 5 that go sporting around. But still, it´s a good shot.

I should get hired for National Geographic.

Pic of the Week

This is me and my teacher, Juliet. (Mom, is it, ¨This is my teacher and I.¨? I forget...)

We have a good time.

Sometimes we go to the bank.

Sometimes we eat food.

Sometimes we read People en Espanol.

One day I sat down and she did my nails for me.

On Friday we took a Chicken Bus (more on that another time) to the city.

Sometimes we study.

She mostly just corrects me when I sound like a 2 year old, which is pretty much whenever I attempt to speak.

Update on the Feet

Be assured, my feet are doing much better. Thank you, concerned readers of this blog.

The Great Volcano Climb

This past Saturday I climbed ¨El Volcan de Pacaya.¨

First, I was picked up at 6:30 am.

As I was about to get into the tour van it was evident that the driver was in a heated argument with two people already in the van. Eventually the two people got out and all was well.

After about an hour we arrived at the site.

Immediately myself and the other 30 people in the group I was in were surrounded by children trying to sell us walking sticks. (See above photo). They were very persuasive, mostly owing to the fact that they were a.) children b.) dirty c.) telling us the walking sticks were ¨necesario¨and d.) following us around and tugging on us until we bought one.

So I bought one.

Half way up the volcano my comrads and I realized that we would likely give the walking stick back to the children once we descended.

Thus, I rented a PIECE OF WOOD FROM A CHILD FOR 5 QUETZALES!!! If you think about it, it´s actually a great business plan on the part of these kids.

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So we had this tour guide who announced to us that whenever he blew this little plastic whistle it meant that we were ¨moving on.¨ He also told us that our groups name was ¨Jaguar.¨At first we thought he was saying ¨hot water¨ because of the accent. He only spoke Spanish except for that one word...

At the top of the mountain I asked him why he had a machete. He told me that it was because it is what all the cool men carry with them. ¨And also to kill the snakes!¨ Awesome.

Anyways, we´re going up the volcano and realize that there are several groups and that all the guides have the same darn whistle. Then we realize that EVERY group is named Jaguar.

I did get to see lava. Imagine standing infront of an oven that has been at 350 degrees. Now imagine opening the oven door and standing there. That´s what it was like. You could even feel the heat through your shoes! People roasted marshmellows!

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I hope everyone is doing really well. Thanks so much for leaving me comments on the blog.

Today my teacher told me that I ¨speak very well.¨ This is after we confirmed that I am now in the stage where I just boldly make stuff up. Half the stuff I say is no longer English nor Spanish. It´s not even Spanglish. My brain is doing it´s own thing at this point.

Lost in Translation

So I visited a convent. It´s the thing to do around here...

The nuns didn´t speak a word of English.

I tried to ¨connect¨ with them using my super genius abilities to speak Spanish.

I decided I would tell them about the time I saw the Pope at Yankee Stadium.

I proceeded to exclaim, ¨Yo vi la papa!¨(They looked at me kinda funny so I repeated...) ¨Yo vi la papa! La papa, yo vi!¨ By now I´m showing them pictures of my camera of the event.

That´s when I realized that I had been telling them that I saw ¨The potato!¨ (¨I saw the potato, the potato, yeah!¨) I changed gears and corrected myself saying, ¨El papa...¨

Looks of recognition crossed their faces and all was well.

A little while later I decided it would be nice to take the above picture. Afterwards I told the nun that if I could have her email address I would send her the pictures.

But instead of telling her I´d send her the picture, I mixed up the verb and told her I would ¨sell¨ her the picture. This time I didn´t realize my mistake until 10 minutes later when I had moved on with the tour group.

Oh well.

Speaking of things getting lost in translation, check out this video: (I´m not sure it´s going publish in this blog, if not go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eVO9V98-Bw

Schedule and Food

(This is a picture of El Volcan de Agua. If it were to errupt, it would kill us all).

I took this picture while walking to class one morning.

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Here´s a basic outline of my schedule:

7am Breakfast

8am Class

10am 1/2 hr. break

10:30 Resume class

12 Finish with class

1pm lunch

Between 1-7 randomness. Today (Wednesday) I´m going to go on a tour of some old convent.

7pm dinner

after dinner, reading/studying.

I have been here for about 9 days and I´m on my 4th novel! It´s pretty great. In the U.S. I didn´t have the patience to read for hours on end because it seemed there were other pressing matters.

Food: The food situation is fine. The only strange thing is that I never have any idea what I´m going to be eating.

Myself and another girl (she´s 22, from Texas) turn the corner into the kitchen and our meal is on the table for us.

The convenience of not having to buy or prepare my own food is great (and the price is right, I´m paying $90 a week for my room and 3 meals a day). The trade-off is that you eat whatever is put in front of you.

I was a child who somehow survived solely on peanut butter and fluff (or ¨marshmellow¨...some of my friends apparently don´t know the wonders of ´fluff´). Somehow this diet allowed me to grow and having functioning organs! Anyway...for me to eat whatever magically appears is a big step!

I should also mention that myself and the other girl staying in the same house never eat alone. There is always a member of the family who sits with us. I´m so used to living on my own and eating by myself that this too is something to get used to.

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Funny quote of the week:

¨Elizabeth! Your feet are so dirty!¨- Told to me in Spanish by the 9 year old girl of the family I´m staying with. I responded, ¨Yes, I have been walking the streets all day and they are cobblestone!¨

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¨When you travel in this way (following your intuitive promptings), you are are free, there are no have-to´s and shoulds. You are structured at first only, perhaps, by the date of the plane departure. As the pattern of people and places unfolds, the trip, like an improvised piece of music, reveals its own inner structure and rhythm. Thus you set the stage for fateful encounters.¨

- Stephen Nachmanovitch

La Tortuga- Franklin

This is Franklin, the turtle (la tortuga). This picture was taken INSIDE the house I´m staying in.

The thing about places here is that when you go inside, you´re still really outside.

¨Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.¨

- St. Francis de Sales

It´s Electric!

Water for the shower is heated through an electric contraption.

During the orientation meeting last Monday morning we were warned not to touch this while in the shower.

So of course in my genius, I reached up and tried to adjust the temperature and subsequently got electrocuted!!!

(Just a little. My finger felt tingly).

Electricity and water: not such a great combination.

My dresser

So the house keeper organizes the top of my dresser every single day.

I think it´s kind of funny because I organize it myself every day.

Yesterday I left my wash cloth on the right side.

When I returned, it was on the left side.