One more week!

This last week is definitely going to be the most stressful. I still have yet to read the last book for my literature class, and honestly, I probably won’t finish it. Our professor usually just tells us what happened in the stories anyway. Our exam for that class is Thursday instead of Friday, and I’m very nervous for it. There are only going to be 2 parts to the test: for the 1st part, she’s putting a small piece from one of the works we read on the test, and we just have to write about it. For the 2nd part there’s a concrete question from the story that we’re reading this week. I’m nervous because I’m really not good at BSing, and I’ll have to for this test because I’m not good at analyzing. For my culture class, the professor decided that he wanted a change of pace, so instead of our final being extremely easy like the midterm was, we had to form groups and we have to do a presentation on Friday…each person speaking for 5 min. The best part is is that he’s not giving us the topics until Monday. Great, right after the weekend when we could actually have time to work on it. I hate presentations with a passion. I’m so embarrassed to be speaking in front of people who speak so much better than me. I’m already stressing out.

Friday night was fun. First, we went to a party for the language school that our host mom works for (it’s also the school that hooked us up with our families). It was kind of sad because about 30 people from our program RSVP’d saying they would come, but only about 10 people came. The school director was really upset about it and started talking to Miguel (one of my housemates) about how we think we’re so much better than everybody else since we’re doing our master’s program. It was really weird because it was like he wanted to start a fight. He went on to talk about how all gringos are the same, and how we’re pretty much bad people. We ended up leaving quite early and we went to another place called Personajes (where they have karaoke once a week), and there was a live band there that was pretty good. I had a good time, but come 12:30 AM I was ready to go, and so were my two other housemates. Miguel wasn’t ready, and since we didn’t want to walk home alone, we called a taxi. I have a few trusted taxi drivers numbers on my phone. He came super fast, and we made it home safely.

Early Saturday morning, Krista, Lindsay, and I got up early to go to a coffee farm called “Finca Filadelfia.” We got a tour, and it was so interesting to see and hear about what all has to be done just to get that little coffee bean the way we like it. The farm was ENORMOUS, and so gorgeous. Of course I didn’t try the coffee at the end for fear of getting sick even with just one sip. On the trip to the farm (there was a vehicle that came to pick us up), a lady who worked there sat by us and we talked. It’s really fun talking to locals. She was very impressed with our Spanish and said that we hardly had accents, which I know was a huge lie because we definitely do! After we were dropped off in town, I went to the gym because I’m trying to go every day before we leave (I’ve done 7 days in a row!).

In the afternoon we went to the market (when I say we, I mean the Midwest girls that I always hang out with), and of course I bought a few more things. I just need to stay away! There are so many cute things here! For dinner, we went to this Italian restaurant that was super good. On the way there, we passed this dude who we’ve passed by twice before who must be from the Caribbean or Africa or something. He always is trying to advertise something and hand out a flyer, but every time, he’s speaking in English, and we just answer back, “No, gracias.” Then he says, “I speak English, darling…English, not Spanish.” Well, this time, after he said that, one of the girls said in Spanish, “We’re in Guatemala…where they speak Spanish.” He then got super mad and called her a “f-ing b*tch”, to which she just said “wow.” Then he goes, “Yeah, NOW you understand English, huh?” I’m not sure if it’s just me, but does anyone else think that’s kind of a bad way to get business?

Anyway, at the restaurant it started pouring rain, and the electricity went out for a good 15 minutes. Afterwards, we started heading home in the pouring rain, and we were already soaked after a few steps. Umbrellas don’t do any good here. We decided to call that same taxi as the night before, so we started heading to shelter where we could wait. Well, as we were walking, a taxi drove by, and we recognized the number. It was the driver who we were about to call! We pounded on his windows and I think we scared the crap out of him cause he slammed on the brakes, probably thinking he hit someone. He was actually on his way to pick someone else up, but he took us home anyway. I just can’t believe he happened to be right there in that moment when we were about to call him! The taxis are so cheap here. We each only paid a dollar to get home.

My mosquito bites are really itchy. Ouch.