Monday, July 26, 2010

I got up this morning at 6:45 and did my usual morning routine. Breakfast consisted of a bowl of sliced bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple. I guess you could call it a fruit salad. I thought it was funny because each time we have had the yogurt-fruit breakfast, there is less and less yogurt on it until today when there was none! I also had a little bit of coffee. Hussein and I left for school at 7:50.

I read my homework assignment to Any, which consisted of a diary of my trip to Antigua. I had to write it from the perspective of three days (before, during, and after my trip). I had also written out an itinerary of my last week here. Any and I talked about it. Then I reviewed the conditional progressive tense and the conditional perfect tense. There are seven uses for these tenses, in case you were wondering. Next, I read two Guatemalan legends. One was about the creation of the world and it explained why people can’t communicate with animals. The other was about Hernando Cortes and his horse that broke its leg so he left it with the native people. They didn’t know what to feed it so they tried to give it snake meat, and deer meat, and fish, and all kinds of meat, but the horse starved because horses don’t eat meat. The people end up making a stone horse to remind them of the real one and they kind of worship it. It is a long story and I am tired and I don’t really speak English anymore, so I am not going to take the time to tell all the details, but what I really liked about the story was that when the Spanish came and taught them about God, the native people realized that if there is only one God, then when they were offering sacrifices to the stone horse, they must have been praying to God, so then they start praying to God instead of their deities. It was a neat story. Then we had the break. I was hungry, so I went to the bakery next door to the school, but they hardly had anything. I wandered around a bit looking for another bakery, but the other ones were closed, so I returned the first bakery and ended up getting some regular roll-type things. I went back to school and talked to Elizabeth and Gareth, a couple from England. They are only at our school for one week. Any came back and we finished talking about the second story. Then we played animal memory. If you turned over two different animals, you had to give a sentence using the two animal names. I beat Any 17-8. Then we played again and I beat her 13-12. I was very lucky, often turning over two cards we had never looked at before and they would match! Then we read a third story about a conceited girl who turned into stone because she bathed on Good Friday. By the time we finished discussing and retelling this story, it was time to go home. Any and I had fun today. I kept making her laugh when I stumbled over names of places. I also told her my story of bartering in Antigua when I told the man that “the lowest price I will pay is Q90” instead of “the highest price.”

Hussein and I walked home. We had soup with noodles in it and black tortillas. We also had rice and black beans and a potato-chicken-lentil-curry dish. When I finished, I went back to my room for a few minutes before leaving for daycare.

When I arrived at the daycare at 2, Rosy Bella was sitting on the floor waiting for someone to hold her. I gladly obliged and soon rocked her to sleep. I held her while she slept for an hour. A group of students from a church were painting the tables and chairs. I was excited because they really needed it. Yadira was back but still was kind of sick and cranky. The kids woke up around 3:15 and they had snack a little after 3:30. Rosy Bella was fussy and didn’t want to be held but neither did she want to be put down. Carlitos, the little darling, tried to cheer her up, but she just screamed louder. Eventually she calmed down. I left about 4:30 in a rainstorm.

I had to go all the way to Central Park to talk to different tour agencies about my options for my last week here. I visited Adrenalina Tours and then went to MonteVerde Tours (the group I was supposed to climb the volcano with), but they were closed. I wandered around and found the Bridge of the Chacoyos and realized that the bridge I had thought was the Bridge of the Chacoyos really wasn’t. I also found Icaro Tours right by the bridge. I talked to Erica’s friend Josue. He tried to convince me that I have time to go to Semuq Champey AND Tikal with the excellent tour he would set up for me. I am really only interested in a shuttle to Antigua, but I listened to him talk for a while. I forgot to mention that it was pouring by this time. I headed back out into the downpour. It had been raining hard for a good hour and the streets were flooded. I had to step into a stream of rushing water. My shoes were completely drenched and my jeans were drenched, too, up to my knees. It wasn’t super cold, though, so I didn’t mind too much.

I went to XelaPan and bought some tostadas for tomorrow during the break. They are my favorite thing from the bakeries here. I then kept walking home in the deluge. I stopped at a tienda and bought some candy to give to the kids at the daycare tomorrow since it is my last day. I kept walking home. I stopped at a libreria (a store that sells notebooks and pens and stuff like that) and looked at folders. It was kind of funny because I didn’t know the word for “folder” so I told the woman what I needed (a thing to put papers in that opens and shuts). She brought me a selection of folders. I asked what you call them (in Spanish, of course), and she told me “fol-der.” Oh, I should have tried my Spanglish in the first place! They were not cheap, but I bought a plastic one that opens and shuts (perfect for file folder games at school).

I went back outside and walked to the internet café near Parque Bolivar. Every time a car passed me, it would spray dirty water from the street onto my shoes and pants. I had to wait for a bunch of cars to go by until I could cross the road and enter the internet café. I waited two minutes for a man to finish working on my favorite computer, and then I had my turn. I read my emails and responded with a short reply to a few people, but I spent most of my time working on my potential plan for this week. I think I might go to Antigua Thursday afternoon and then go to Semuc Champey Friday-Sunday. Then I would return to Antigua until I would take a shuttle to the airport early Tuesday morning. I emailed Elvira to see if any of this would work for them. My time was up, so I headed back to my house. It was only sprinkling by this time.

I did a few things in my room, and then headed into the house to chat with Sandy and help set the table. We had rice, black beans, the lentil curry dish from lunch, a salsa that I don’t remember its name, bread, and a strange egg creation that was basically a leftover black tortilla from lunch with an egg cooked on it. After dinner, I went to my room and took a shower. Then I did my homework (rewrite the creation story from this morning in my own words). I am really tired and my brain finds it hard to write in English. I keep writing Spanish words and then have to erase them. I take this as a good sign for my Spanish. I guess it’s a good thing that I will have nearly two weeks of English immersion before I have to teach students proper grammar!

I put all my pictures on my computer and worked on the blog. I estimate I will go to bed around 10:30. I am going to try to catch up on my blog entries from this weekend.

I am really proud of myself that I have not accidentally used tap water to brush my teeth. I think this is the first country I have been to (that you shouldn’t use the water) that I haven’t accidentally dunked my toothbrush in the water at least once. I also have only twice thrown toilet paper in the toilet, in case you were wondering. What I am looking forward to the most about returning home (even though I really don’t want to leave), aside from seeing my fantastic family and fabulous friends, is taking a nice, long, hot shower and washing my clothes in a washing machine… both now possible thanks to our new septic system and washer!