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.

Beginning of week 3

Yesss! We’re half-way through classes. My linguistics exam was so easy that it was almost a joke. I actually could have probably given that test to my high school students. Yet, surprisingly, many people thought it was hard. I can’t understand that, especially since he told us EVERYTHING, and I mean everything that was going to be on the test. It’s just basically comparing English grammar with Spanish grammar, but it’s mostly Spanish, which is why I don’t understand why people don’t get it. This is the stuff we teach to our students. You should know what a past perfect subjunctive verb is or what a present perfect progressive indicative verb is, right? Can anyone give me examples in Spanish or English? Anyway, my second exam wasn’t so great. It was the literature one. I actually think I did pretty terrible because I didn’t know the answers to some of the questions. But it turns out that everybody in the class thought that they did poorly because it was so hard, so I don’t feel so bad. The culture exam was also kind of a joke. He gave us 15 minutes to take it. He had a list of really broad topics that we had talked about in class, and we had to choose one and write about it, using only the lines he had drawn on the paper…no more than that. We were able to use our notes, so I just copied down exactly what I had in my notes.

After that last exam, Rigoberta Menchu came to talk to us. She’s kind of a big deal in Guatemala, and she came with body guards and all. She won the Nobel Peace Prize, and ran for president in the last election. There’s a book written about her life, but it’s kind of controversial because apparently some things were exaggerated by the author who interviewed her. Regardless, she’s had a rough life growing up Mayan. Her whole family was killed violently when she was younger. She taught herself Spanish, and she speaks it like a native. It was pretty cool to hear her speak. In that culture class, we’ve actually had a total of 3 speakers…all authors of books we’re reading. Last week, we had a female poet named Ana Maria Rodas come in and read some of her poetry and answer questions. She was extremely interesting. I hope the next two are good too. I have yet to read their books. I probably won’t since I have so much other reading to do.

Monterrico was alright this weekend, but I kind of feel like I wasted my entire weekend. When we got there, it was hot, humid, and sunny. But we had to eat first, and the service was extremely slow. It took us two hours to finish eating, and by that time, the sun was behind some thick clouds. I still swam in the pool. The water temp was perfect. The ocean was different there. It’s the Pacific, but the sand is black. I’ve never seen anything like it. The waves were enormous, and it was pretty dangerous to go in the water, but I just dipped my feet in, and it was soooo warm! I’m not used to that. It’s always so cold in CA. Anyway, we were looking forward to sun the next day. Sunday comes….zero sun, not even for 1 second. It was rainy and windy, and we all just wanted to go back to Antigua. Very disappointing. I’m as pasty-white as ever, and I didn’t get anything done this weekend that I needed to get done. The biggest excitement on Sunday was seeing a big sea turtle. I was just sitting by the pool when suddenly I saw a lifeguard sprint toward the ocean. I thought someone was in trouble because some other hotel workers started running too. Then, the guy came up holding a huge turtle, and he plopped it on the sand closer to our hotel. We were all oohing and aahing over it, taking pictures until we realized it was dead. Poor thing…it still looked alive. She even had eggs that she was going to bury in the sand. It was so sad.

Anyway, on that note, I’m off. Bye!

Update

Ok, so 2 people were killed on that bus, not 10. What a relief, huh? (sarcastic)

Incident

Well, there was a little scare this morning with a girl from our group. She was leaving her house alone at 9:30 this morning, when she saw a car driving really slowly near her. They stopped, and a man came out with a hanker chief covering the bottom half of his face, and started coming at her. Before he could do anything, she screamed like crazy and started running back to her house (which was really close). The car drove away, and nothing happened. Her house is pretty much right next to ours, so that's wonderful.

Things like this just make me want to go home. Apparently yesterday in Guat. City, some thieves got on a bus and killed 10 people. Why?.......Why? I just don't get it. Once again, I'm living in fear constantly. August really can't come fast enough.

Tomorrow is exam day, and I have 3 of them! Wish me luck! Then it's off to the beach for the weekend.

1 week down, 3 more to go

Ah, week 2.…one of the most stressful weeks. All of the midterm exams are Friday, and there’s so much “unknown.” What will be on the tests? What’s the format? Well, I already know that they’re all essay style, but I’m pretty worried that I won’t know what to write. I’m really trying not to stress out, so I‘ve just been doing the normal routine: Get up early, go to the gym, shower, eat breakfast, go to first class, come home and eat lunch, go back to 2nd and 3rd classes, come home and eat dinner, talk around the dinner table, read a little, then go to bed earlier than any other student in the program. Notice there’s not much time for studying in there. I really should be studying or reading right now, but this only takes about 5-10 minutes to write. I usually just write these in word documents the night before, then copy and paste them online the next day.

One of my housemates, Lindsay and I have been doing a lot together. She’s the one who always goes to the gym with me and we have all of our classes together. She’s from Ohio, near where my aunt and uncle live. It’s funny how us Midwesterners kind of stick together. My good friends here are from Chicago, Indiana, and Ohio. We all went out to the big market that they have here on Saturday. That place is dangerous…as far as spending money goes. I vowed to not buy anything here because I don’t have room in my suitcase, but I kept seeing cute things and I just couldn’t help it. Later that night, everybody in our house went to a Cuban restaurant for dinner, and they had live salsa music. We were pretty much the only ones there…or so we thought. There was a loft above, and who came walking down the stairs to leave? Our professors! Really? Of all the restaurants in the city, we all ended up at the same one? But unlike high schoolers, we don’t think it’s weird to see our professors in public. We actually realize that they are people too, and do things outside of a classroom.

Us Midwesterners went to a buffet brunch on Sunday at an amazing café. Afterwards I wasn’t feeling so well, so I decided to go home while the rest of them found a place to watch the World Cup final. On the way home, I was craving a McFlurry from McDonald’s because I had seen a commercial about a new flavor: Mint chocolate chip! So even though I wasn’t feeling well, I stopped and ordered one, with Oreo crumbs in it too! This McDonalds was amazing. It’s like a nice restaurant with flat screen Tvs, a huge garden and fountain with Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench nearby, and of course a play land. It’s probably the nicest restaurant in Antigua, and it’s by far the nicest McDonalds that I’ve seen. Anyway, I called Mom and talked to her while I ate my McFlurry. Afterwards, needless to say, I felt even worse, but it was soooo worth it! I haven’t been able to eat many sweets since I’ve been here, so I was craving something sweet for so long.

Well, this definitely took me longer than 10 minutes…oopsie! Sorry, but most of my journal entries from here on out will continue to be about nothing. I could make it more exciting by telling about some drama and scandal going on here, but that wouldn’t be very nice of me, would it?

Earthquake!

Last night at exactly 1:20 AM I was shaken awake, not by Esther but by an earthquake! It wasn't too big, but it's always a little scary when you wake up to that. For the two girls in the house from Chicago and Ohio, it was their first earthquake. You don't really want to be in a third world country when one hits. Anyway, about 10 min. later I texted Jordan and he looked it up and it was a 4.7 about 20 miles away, so it wasn't that bad.

I've had two days of classes so far. I really love my linguistics class. The professor is super nice, and I just love grammar, so it's super easy. I can't say the same about my two afternoon classes (4 hours in a row of torture). I hate literature, and my Guatemalan culture class is disappointingly boring. I love learning about the Mayan culture, but I just can't pay attention in his class. It's two hours of him talking at us with Power Point slides. I'm nervous about the tests in these two classes because I don't really know what they would test us on. I'm nervous about not passing. I think maybe I have some form of ADD because I REALLY can not pay attention in those classes. We get out at 7:00 PM from the last class, and it's really dark out, and scary to walk home even though we walk in a big group with the 3 guys who live in our house. At the end of the day I'm just so exhausted and in a bad mood.

In other news, the food is great here! Our host mom really knows how to cook! She's super nice too. Her sister comes to help her out during the day since there's so many people to cook for.

Yesterday, I went with a housemate Lindsay to a gym to get a month membership. We went this morning, and wow, I feel so out of shape. There are classes every day, and we're planning on doing tae bo on Tuesdays. The classes are right in the middle of the gym and the machines are surrounding that area, so it's kind of awkward with everyone watching you. The gym is small, but it's bigger than the one I went to in Spain, and there are lots of elliptical machines instead of one.

Ok, time for class. Later.

In Antigua!

Hoe-leigh-kow! We made it to Antigua! What a bus ride. I wasn’t sick this time (yay) , but some other people were sick. We drove through a huge thunder storm. It was so cool since I haven’t seen lightning in a while. We also saw more mud slides. Man, those things are crazy. We saw someone’s house that had collapsed, and it was pretty sad. Also, when we were almost in Antigua, we went by this area where I think the road actually collapsed and dropped down a hundred feet or so with the mud. It was scary because the drop-off right next to us was huge and the road was extremely bumpy.

Anyway, when we got here, we got our family assignments. I found out that not only am I with Esther, but with 5 other people in the same house….. 3 of them boys. Uhhhh….what? I wasn’t too happy about that. I didn’t sign up to live with boys. Then I saw that the woman who we are living with had a little girl with her. I specifically put on the housing form that I didn’t want a family with little kids. I mean, yeah, they’re cute and whatever but I didn’t want any little ones bugging me to play while I studied. I was really angry on the crammed van ride to the house, and praying that there was more than one bathroom.

So we get to the house and….it’s freakin HUGE…like incredible. It’s just one woman and her daughter that live here. Each group has their own room (me and Esther, two other girls, and the 3 boys) with a bathroom connected! We also have a tv in each bedroom. I haven’t checked for cable yet. It’s seriously like a hotel here. I’m just sooooo shocked, and I feel extremely lucky. She even has a water purification machine thing in her kitchen, so the water is safe to drink here. Also, there’s internet! Can this get any better? Well, yeah, I guess if it were Wifi it would be better, but still! We’ll have to share it between all of us, but the hotel where we are having classes has Wifi, so no biggie. We all sat down and had tea and biscuits and talked to our mom, Ana Lucia. There are seriously no rules except don’t bring boys or girls home that don’t already live here. Oh, and guess what??? We have HOT WATER!!!! AHHHHH! I can’t believe it. I’m gonna pass out because I am so excited as I’m writing this.

Later, as Esther and I were organizing the room, two people came to our bedroom door and introduced themselves. They are this Asian couple from Boston that are living here too for about 3 more weeks. They look so young, but they can’t be as young as I thought because they have their masters degree and have been working for a while I think. They don’t really know Spanish, but they wanted to learn so they came down here for 4 weeks to go to the Spanish school that our host mom teaches in. Oh, and guess what their names are? Apple and Moses ….. Does that sound familiar?

Tomorrow we’re getting a tour of the city, so I’m excited for that! I just can’t believe all of this!