Xela to Antigua

el 29 de junio 2011

I woke up super early today. It gets light here around 5, I think, and that is about when I woke up the first time. I dozed off and on until my alarm clock went off at 6:30. I got up, got ready, and packed up most of my stuff. I took my suitcase with me when I went up for breakfast because I had to leave all my stuff in Sandy’s apartment so I would not be charged for another day. It was annoying to have to carry my suitcase down one flight of stairs and up two. However, Juan Manuel, my Argentine neighbor, was leaving as I was making it down the stairs and he helped me carry it up to Sandy’s. There was yogurt and granola sitting out on the table for me, but when I opened the yogurt, it was moldy so I had milk on my granol instead. The granola here is very tiny and hard. It kind of reminds me of Grape Nuts a bit. I went downstairs and brought the rest of my stuff up and then I left for school.

I was early to school so I looked for some tea to wake me up, but there was not any. I was so tired that I could hardly keep my eyes open. I gave Ola the note that I had written to her and then I looked around for a place to put my handprint. My school, Sakribal, has a fun tradition that each student gets to put a handprint on a wall somewhere in the school. I decided to put mine outside my classroom door. I practiced my speech for the graduation lunch until Carolina came up. I gave her the blueberry ham I had brought and a card I was so tired it was hard to concentrate. We took a break about 9 so that I could got dfownstiars and get some tea. It didn’t help, so I had a cup of coffee after that. We worked on the imperfect subjunctive a little more and then we worked on the progressive tenses of the subjunctive and the future subjunctive that is only used in writing laws. We went to copy my lesson plans during the pausa so that I can take the lesson plans to my next school and show them what I have worked on recently so I don’t end up repeating the same things. After we went to the copy shop, we went to XelaPan because Carolina wanted a snack. They did have shecas with anise seed today so I got 3 of them, but I was disappointed because they tasted stale, which is very unlike XelaPan. When we went back, I checked my email and looked over my speech after getting more coffee. I wanted my handprint to be green so Carolina brought the green pain and tried to put in on my hand, but it was all dried up. I was going to wash my hand so we could use a different color, but Olga told us that there was more green in a cabinet. We got the other green and it worked just fine. I put my name next to my handprint and the year. If I come back again, I will add the year that I return. We continued with the subjunctive tenses and then we read the newspaper a bit. For the last twenty minutes, we played Bananagrams with the Scrabble tiles because I had not brought my Bananagrams game. When the bell rang to signal that class was over, I washed my cup, this time removing the masking tape label with my name on it. I went to the bathroom and had more trouble with the lock. It seems like I can never get out of the bathroom! Twice I have ripped the thumbnail on my left hand trying to get out. Today, I could tell that they were leaving for the restaurant and so I was trying to hurry and get out. However, when I shoved the lock to the side, somehow my knuckle got caught on the lock and my finger started bleeding.

We walked a few blocks toward the park and went to Andale, the taco place where Andrea had eaten gringas a week or so ago. I got vegetarian tacos because I wanted vegetables and a pineapple licuado. I sat next to William and Carolina. It took a while for the food to come and so we did the presentation of the diplomas and the speeches first. Olga spoke first and then Carolina gave me my diploma. Next, I gave my 13 sentence speech and it went well. We got our food and began to eat. An American man came into the restaurant and began to play his guitar and sing very near us. He spoke to us in English and Spanish and sang really loudly. It was kind of annoying because we trying to have conversations at our table. This went on for quite some time. Some of the teachers collected money to give to him at the end. He finally took the money and then he went around the table and started demanding that everyone give him money. Sander (from Hungary) and William didn’t want to give him money and he started yelling (in English) in this restaurant about how selfish Americans are and how America is going down because of people like all of us. He then started cursing and screaming. Sander and William tried to reason with him, especially about the fact that Sander is not American, but it just made him more irritated. This went on for almost five minutes. I was very relieved when the man finally stormed out. I could not tell what some of the teachers thought. Some of them said that he was very demanding and usually the people who play music in the restaurants ask quietly and nicely for coins, but that this man was very demanding. I think some of the others thought the boys should have just given a coin to him and not engaged in the confrontation. After we finished eating, I took pictures with Olga, Carolina, and Luis. Then I left.

I hurried to XelaPan (where you can always find someone begging) and gave a boy a banana that I was not going to have time to eat. Then I hustled back to Sandy’s apartment and finished arranging all of my stuff. I had to carry my suitcase, backpack, and other bag down three flights of stairs. I waited nervously by the front door, hoping that the shuttle would really appear. It finally did about 3:15 (it was supposed to come anytime after 3). I was the last person one from Xela. We had only four people in the shuttle, which was a very nice one. I knew it was too good to be true. I pulled out my laptop and started writing this journal entry (please excuse any typos). After about an hour of driving, we pulled into a gas station with another shuttle waiting. I thought they were going to get into our shuttle, but actually we had to get into theirs. As usual, it was a full shuttle. They had to put all of our luggage on the roof. I sat in the back next to some Israeli girls. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Overall, it was a pleasant ride for the shuttle being as full as it was. The people spoke quietly or were silent. I had to go to the bathroom, so I was thankful when we took a rest break. We continued on and it started raining. I was worried that our stuff on the roof was getting wet because I had my Bible, my phone, and a bunch of books in my bags. We finally arrived in Antigua about 6:30 and began dropping people off. I was the second to last stop. I was excited to finally be at Elvira and Enrique’s. The man unloaded my stuff, which was very wet on the outside. I rang the doorbell and Enrique opened it and took me to my room in the white house across the street. Amber was not there yet. I had about five minutes before it was time for dinner.

At dinner, I met Alex, Sharon, and Lara, the other people who are staying with Elvira right now. We had chile rellenos, rice, bread, and cake in honor of Lara’s birthday. Amber arrived during dessert. I gave her a quick hug and then she went to put her stuff in our room. She came back and joined us at the table. We talked a lot to the other people and Elvira and Enrique. We continued talking to E&E after the others left. Finally we went back to our room and talked and unpacked a few things. Our room is small with two twin beds, a table, a wardrobe, a chair, and a bedside table. The floor space is quite limited. Amber was very tired. We ended up going to bed about 10:30, but it felt more like midnight.