¡Vamos a Chichi!

Gio (the school's coordinator), Edel (fellow student from Ireland), Lynn (student from Germany), and I went to a city called Chichicastenango today (yes, that is definitely a mouthful!). It was about a 2-hour bus ride from Xela and we went to see the market (market day is Sunday in Chichi). Never again. Haha! I mean, it was a great experience, but there were SO MANY booths and they all had pretty much the same stuff and there were so many gringos and when you'd ask how much something cost they'd usually tell you some ridiculously high price (probably because we're white and therefore rich).

Let me start with the trip there. We met at the school at 7am (which really means like 7:10) and headed up to Zone 3 to catch a mini-bus (zone 3 is about a 15ish minute walk from the school, and mini-buses are really just vans that they cram as many people into as they can). We had to take 2 mini-buses because there wasn't one that went directly to Chichi from Xela. The first one was a little crammed, all four of us were on the back bench-seat (probably made for 3 people) and then the second mini-bus was fine for me because I was sitting in the front seat with just one other person and the driver, but I guess it got super crammed in the back where everyone else was sitting. 

We arrived and were instantly overwhelmed by the craziness of all the booths and people, but we commenced our shopping. After an hour or so we were all pretty hungry so we stopped into a typical restaurant (that means typical Guatemalan food, not that it was just like every other restaurant here)...unfortunately we didn't realize that it was still early and they were only serving breakfast. The food was not the best and the coffee was terrible, but it was really cheap so I'm not complaining too much. We recommenced our shopping extravaganza for a couple hours and it's so ridiculous how much stuff was in that market! I don't even think we saw the whole thing and we were there for at least 4 hours. The whole time you're walking around there are people walking up to you with bookmarks, scarves, bracelets, blankets, etc. asking you to buy their stuff, and the only English they know is "buy it for your mom" and "good price." Then all the little booths are packed full of colorful things and the people running those always say (in Spanish) "Come on in, what do you like?". And they all call you "amiga" (or amigo if you're a guy, haha!). 

After a bit more of that, we were all hungry again, so we headed to another restaurant with more substantial food (but still a really good price). All of us girls got burgers (haha! We're such gringas!), but they're way different than the ones in the states. They're thinner and I think they mix their ground beef with lots of seasonings and stuff, so it was super tasty! And after a bit more shopping we awaited our bus home.

To head home we took a chicken bus (old U.S. school bus all colorful and stuff) because it went directly to Xela. Picture in your mind a regular school bus. Now picture that each seat has at least 3 people sitting on it (sometimes more like 5 or 6 if there are little kids). Now picture the aisle full of people standing. Now picture this full bus stopping to pick up more people and they open the front door and the emergency exit in the back to let people on. Now imagine this jam-packed school bus winding through mountain curves. That's what that two hours of my life was like. Haha! Just like going to the market in Chichi, it was a good experience, but not something I'd want to do on a regular basis. 

Today I saw the most white people in one place that I've seen since I got here (and Gio was making fun of them because they all wear the same travel pants that un-zip to turn into shorts). I also saw an actor in the market (Wade from Hart of Dixie)...it was weird to hear him talk without an Alabama accent. Haha! I had my first chicken bus ride. I bought some stuff for some people, although not anywhere near as much stuff as I eventually need to buy (there were the cutest little coveralls that I wanted to get for my nephew so badly, but he's growing too darn fast that I'm afraid they'd be too small for him by the time I got them home). And I got to practice my bartering skills. Overall, I'd say it was a good way to spend the day.

How to have the best Christmas ever abroad

This is the second Christmas that I've spent in Central America apart from my family, and I must say the first one was much more enjoyable than this one, but this one was also quite grand. Would you like the recipe for this grand Christmas? Of course you would (¡Claro que sí!)!
Well, starting Sunday morning my stomach and head and whole body felt pretty awful. Sunday was ok, but yesterday I left school early because I was totally exhausted (even after getting a full night's sleep), so I told my teacher that at the break time I'd need to go home and sleep because I couldn't learn anything (Pienso que después de la descansa tengo que regresar a mi casa para dormir porque no puedo aprender nada). When I got home I slept for 7 hours, skyped with my brothers for a little bit, read my book a little bit, and then went to bed for the night around 9:30. Unfortunately, this meant that I missed the Christmas celebration with my host family because here in Guatemala they celebrate Christmas at midnight Christmas Eve, with a big dinner and presents and tons of fireworks, but it's all good because the fireworks still managed to wake me up at midnight and keep me up until about 12:30.
Anyways, I woke up this morning feeling much better. Only, my head hurt from laying down for so long. Haha! But I actually ate something for breakfast (I didn't eat anything yesterday) and stayed awake for the whole day. I opened a card that my amazing friend Erin gave me before I left, and of course she's going to come visit me if I stay long enough (I hope!). I got to skype with this really great guy in Germany (sorry ladies, he does not have a brother. Haha!) and then I got to skype with my ridiculous family...and a clove of garlic with a face. And the internet actually worked this time (for the most part)!!

Then, get this: I. Left. The. House. WOW! Not only did I eat and stay awake all day, but I also went to a fellow student's house to have some dinner and conversation (mostly in English). We had food that I've actually had before back home (mashed potatoes, soup, ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, etc.) and there were some fireworks shot off...maybe a little too close to where everyone was sitting, but whatevs. ¡Es la vida! (That's life!) Then I got to come home and review the conditional future tense and do my homework that's due tomorrow.

So here's the recipe for a great Christmas abroad (the condensed version):

 1. Get sick a day or two before

 2. Wake up feeling better

 3. Eat something!

 4. Chat with you most favorite people in the world (and maybe a clove of garlic)

 5. Get out of the house

When all is combined, it makes for a really great Christmas. Different, but still great (I mean, this is my year for all things different, right?). I hope you all also had a great Christmas and I hope that your New Years is a fantastic one!!

Allow me to introduce you to Xela

I've realized that, unless you've done your own research, you probably don't know all that much about Xela (a.k.a. Quetzaltenango). So allow me to introduce you to my new city:

First, let's orientate ourselves with where exactly Guatemala is and where Xela is in relation to the whole country

As you can see, I'm not too far from Mexico, which is great because I'll have to border hop there every 90 days. El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala have an arrangement so that travel and trade is really easy among these countries, but this also means that going into one of those other countries will not renew my visa. 

This is the city. That top orange dot is my church, the orange dot on the left is where I live and the other orange dot is my school. My school is about a 10 minute walk from my house and church is about 15.

The city has a population of about 225,000 people and it's in the mountains so the elevation is 2,330 meters (which is about 7,600 feet)...which means it's a little harder to breathe here than in T-town. The elevation also means that in the winter it gets really cold here at night (around freezing or just below), but by the afternoon it's around 70F. Everything I go to is within walking distance and I've heard that you can walk from one end of the city to the other in about 40 minutes (but I'm not sure that's completely true). It's a great city, but it's also WAY different than anything I'm used to in the states. People drive like maniacs, and yet somehow manage to not crash into each other. The sidewalks are usually too narrow or they're all broken up, so I generally walk in the street, always watching for crazy drivers. There are tons of cafes and bars and restaurants that are really cheap, so eating out isn't really an extravagance. The buildings don't have heaters and they're all made of cement, so when it's hot out it feels really good in my room, but at night I get really cold...I usually wake up from being really cold, but I don't think it's that I need more blankets, it's just cold. Everything is in Spanish, of course, so I often feel like such a foreigner! There are tons and tons of Spanish schools here in Xela and pretty much everyone who's traveling is in a Spanish school, but there are so many that if someone tells me the name of their school I just nod. Guatemala time is a real thing...everything starts about 15 minutes after it's supposed to, which is good for me when I'm running late. Haha! Most of the people here are Catholic, so it's really common for people to talk about God, church, or the Bible...it's almost odd to me how it's not a taboo subject here. Most of the television is dubbed from English to Spanish, which is pretty comical sometimes...but I've found a channel that plays things originally in English, dubbed into French, and subtitled in Spanish. Everyone here loves soccer (fútbol) so I feel like the worst fan ever because I only brought one jersey and I don't know much about world soccer. There are tortillas or bread with every meal...even if the meal is pasta. And apparently foreigners almost always are just passing through; everyone is really surprised when I tell them I'm here (only in Xela) for at least three months, but hopefully a year. Women here carry huge things on their heads...like today on the way to church I saw a lady carrying a table on her head.......a table!! And the lady behind her had a big box on her head. I think I should learn how to do that. 

Anyways, yeah, it's way different here, but I love it. There are plenty of really helpful people here for when I'm lost or confused, and I really don't think it's as dangerous as people think. I mean, yes, having caution is really important; it's not like I carry my money out in the open and wave it around or stumble home from a bar alone at 2am....but what I'm saying is that I think as long as you have some common sense and caution it's not such a dangerous city. Es la vida. (That's life)

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis.

Have you ever used a word so often that it's lost it's meaning to you...or it doesn't even feel like it's a real word anymore? I've been saying "hola," "gracias," and "sí" with my friends for as long as I can remember and now, when I use them here in Guatemala, I feel like they're fake words. Haha!  I think I've used Spanish in jest so much with my family and my friends that it's sometimes weird to me that it's a real language. Do you ever wonder if in other countries people say "hello," "thank you," or "yes" to each other? I wonder that all the time. I still love it here and I'm still alive and well...I just sometimes feel like I might be speaking a fake language. (Are you satisfied now, Erin? You can lay your head down to sleep tonight knowing that I'm still alive. Jajaja!)

Life as usual

I’ve been in G-mala now for almost a week and it’s pretty fantastic! The food is great, the city is beautiful, the people at my school are great, and I even understand most of what people are saying when they talk to me in Spanish. I got a great deal on a cell phone here (Q89, which is about $11.50) and it came with Q200 of free credit (which is like 275 minutes) plus 2000 free texts (but they all expire in a month) and free internet for a month (but it’s the worst internet ever so I don’t use it). So now if I get lost I can call someone to help me find my way instead of just staring at my map hoping something I see on the street will match what I see on my map. But I’m getting pretty used to the area between where I live and where I go to school, which is great because I can find my school, the book store (with the American owner), the post office, and a couple other shops/restaurants on my first try!

With the purchase of my cell phone I got a free picture with Santa! And the guy with me is Gio, one of the school's coordinators.

I went to church Sunday at a church with an English service (some missionaries who I was in contact with before coming said it was the only one with an English service that they knew of), and it was super tiny, and the sermon was (I’m not kidding) 7 minutes long. It’s an Episcopalian church so it’s super liturgical, which is a little different than I’m used to, but I was surprised at how many of the things we do at First Pres the same way (like the same[ish] prayer of confession and after finishing a scripture the reader says “This is the Word of the Lord” and everyone says “Thanks be to God”), so it wasn’t totally strange to me. And I thought the church was a lot further from my house than it actually is so I was a little early…which means I was really early since most of the people at the church are on Guatemalan time (which means everything starts 15ish minutes later than it is supposed to). It was pretty funny, when I walked into the church the pastor introduced himself and then he said, “We start every week precisely at 9AM. That is, if you’re using a Guatemalan clock.” Hahaha! Good times.

Spanish class is going well. It’s so much information at once that I’m really tired all the time, but I’m learning a ton! I love practicing my Spanish with people who work at the school because they’re really good at explaining things to me in a different way if I don’t understand a word, and they’re really patient with my slowness at conjugating verbs in my head or stumbling through words that always mess me up (like caricaturas, amplificador, and anaranjado [cartoons, amplifier, and the color orange]). The family that I live with is really great about it too, but I don’t feel quite as comfortable practicing with them.

Every day there is an activity that the school facilitates and I guess Monday nights are almost always salsa class because there’s a local studio that has classes Monday nights, so that’s something easy to plan since all they have to do is take us to the studio. Well, I decided to go to salsa class last night because I figured, even though I don’t really like dancing, I’m in Guatemala, I had nothing else to do (besides study a million irregular verbs that my teacher taught me…), and I’m pretty sure some part of my tuition goes toward organizing the events, so I went. Never again. It wasn’t the worst thing ever, but I’m pretty sure they had me dancing with a 15 year old who probably weighs 30lbs less than me, didn’t really talk and didn’t seem like he knew what he was doing much more than I did. Plus it was in a pretty small building with too many people in it, so I kept bumping into people. Now I can say I’ve taken a salsa class (as in: been there, done that).

There’s a big market here which is made even bigger because people have set up booths to sell Christmas stuff and it’s super fun to walk through and see all the stuff that people are selling. There are tons of nativity sets, but it’s kinda weird because the most common is just Mary and Joseph together….like, not with Jesus. And then most of the little baby Jesus’ have the ugliest faces, like their faces got squished so they’re long and thin. But there’s also tons of fruit that people are selling, so I definitely plan to go back before it’s all over and buy a bunch of star fruit and maybe some apples (the apples in the grocery stores here are from Washington). It’s pretty funny to me how you can buy pretty much anything here and it’s so much cheaper than in the states! I mean, I know most of the clothes are knock-offs and stuff, but even the apples are cheaper here than in WA and my $11 cell phone and I bought a scarf for $6 that would have been like $20 at Target or wherever. Even the McDonald’s here is cheaper than in the states…for the exact same stuff!! But gas here is expensive, it’s like $4.20 a gallon. So far that’s the only thing I’ve found here to be more expensive than it is back home.

Last night I watched the fútbol final on television. It was the two Guatemala City teams playing (Las Cremas and Los Rojos) and las cremas won. I love how important fútbol is to the people here! Pretty much every restaurant has a TV and they always have fútbol on and then after the match was over last night a bunch of people shot off fireworks in the street (including the people I live with). And I just think it’s cool how it’s not just a sport for young people to enjoy, I was watching at my house with 3 generations. Maybe it’ll be like that one day in the states…but probably not since we have all of those other “super important” sports. Haha!  

Well, I think that’s pretty much it. I love it here and I’m stoked that I get to learn tons while I’m here and……yeah. Oh! There was a little earthquake on Saturday night (well, Sunday morning…at like 4) and I wasn’t sure if it was an earthquake or just a big truck going down the road outside my window, but then lots of people were talking about it and asking me if I felt it…so I guess it was an earthquake. My teacher said it was probably due to volcanic activity, but it’s actually better to have little earthquakes with some frequency than for all the energy to get stored up until there’s a huge quake like the one about a month ago. Anyways, yeah, my life here is getting pretty normal…I mean, I’m still loving it all the time, but I can actually sleep now because I’m not crazy excited just to be here like I was the first couple nights.   

¡Bienvenido a Xela!

After leaving Iowa I had a 4 ½ hour layover in Houston, which turned out to be incredibly boring. I must say, traveling alone is way more boring than it is stressful. But as my plane was starting its descent I decided to look out the window to see if there was anything to be seen, but all I could see was the light at the end of the wing...until I saw a huge flash of lightning! So I kept watching and the lightning continued in the same spot and it lit up that whole part of the sky. It was so cool!! When I stepped off the plane in Guate it instantly got muggy and I could smell it in the air and I started to get pretty stoked. I mean, I’ve been stoked ever since I knew I was going, but the whole day of traveling kind of got me more bored than stoked. Anyways, everything with customs went super smoothly and I got my luggage and walked outside. If you’ve ever been to the Guatemala City airport you know that when you walk outside there are tons of people standing around a fenced perimeter waving, calling out names, taking pictures, and holding up signs with peoples’ names on them. I got a little worried when I saw only Hispanic names, until I saw a little white board with light blue ink (terrible color choice for optimal visibility!) that looked like a name about as long as mine. So I walked up and, sure enough, it was my name. We got in a van and headed to the guest house. When we got to the guest house (only about 7 minutes from the airport) I was shown my room and where the bathroom was and I was given the wi-fi password. After letting the internet know I was still alive I tried to get some sleep. Impossible. It was muggy and I was super excited to be in Guatemala. But eventually I fell asleep because I knew I had to be up by 6:15 so we could leave at 7 so I could make my bus.

I was served the best breakfast ever! Watermelon, papaya, banana, pineapple, toast with raspberry jam, and tea. So much yum! Then we headed to the bus station and I got onto a big charter bus to wait out the 4 hour ride to Xela. It was really entertaining to watch this guy hanging out of the door at every bus stop area yelling out “Xela! Xela! Xela!!!” and waving people on. It was also fun to watch the bus driver make the signal to passing drivers to call him and then his phone would ring 5 seconds later...he signaled at a lot of passing drivers, I have no idea how he knows all of them! Well I arrived in Xela and had to take a taxi to my school. Taxis are way more expensive than buses, even the nice buses! It cost me 57Q (approx.. $7.25) for the bus and 30Q ($3.80) for the taxi. But whatevs, I got to my school and it was great! I drug my suitcase up the stairs (the school’s on the second floor of a really cool building) and Francisco showed me around the school and told me about a bunch of stuff and then the lady that’s hosting me came to pick me up. If you find yourself thinking that you’d like to travel around Guatemala, let me give you one piece of advice: don’t bring a rolling suitcase! The sidewalks are only wide enough for 1 ½ people at their widest points, but they get narrower, and if you try to walk in the road you’ll either get run over or your suitcase won’t roll because the roads are funky. But anyways, we got to the house and had some lunch and then I chilled in my room for a while and decided to do some exploring. I asked the lady hosting me where our house was on the map my school gave me and then I headed to the bookstore (Steve, you were right. I should have brought the pocket dictionary also...but I didn’t, so I bought one for 24Q). I knew I loved it instantly because it’s tiny and full of books, and the guy who owns it (or at least the guy that was working) speaks English (I think he’s American). I’ll definitely be frequenting that store.

Well then I headed to my school because they have activities every day and tonight was going to this restaurant for a marimba concert and Mayan dances & songs. One of the school coordinators, Gio, his mom, who just so happens to be who I’m staying with, and three other students, Ryan (England), April (Australia), and Leslie (England), all went and it really wasn’t that fun. By the time we got dinner it was around 8 and we were all super hungry and it wasn’t even good...plus all the marimba music starts to sound the same after a while. But it was still great to get out and be around other people kind of like me and even greater that the lady I’m staying with was there so that she could guide us back home.

All in all it’s been a crazy couple of days and I still can’t really believe that I’m here in this beautiful place. In the morning I start classes and from there it’s 4 weeks of hard-core Spanish learning. I really hope I can pick it up quick enough that by the end of the 4 weeks I don’t feel overwhelmed to be here anymore...otherwise I’ll just have to hang out at the bookstore all the time and talk to the guy who works there.

Iowa in a nutshell

We came. We ate. We slept. We visited. We left.

Ok, so we did a bit more than that. We got to spend time with our grandparents every day that we were here and it was great to see them so often, even though they told us the same stories every day. We got to spend a bunch of time with our Uncle Bruce & Aunt Janice and our cousin Sarah and her daughter Maddison (and a little time with Sarah’s husband Nate, but he was gone most of the week for work). We even managed to go out to lunch with Lyle (the farmer that my dad lived with when he first came to this country) three times, usually we only get to see him once when we visit because he’s so busy all the time. We got to go see the Omaha zoo on Saturday, but since it’s winter only the indoor exhibits were open, which actually was the best thing ever because it was so, so, so cold out! Lyle took us on a tour of his farm and showed us where he and some other guys has to blow up a levee last year to save the town of Missouri Valley from flooding (and by blow up I mean they hired a guy who brought in 800 pounds of dynamite to make it go ka-boom).

Everything this week was wonderful and we have been so blessed during this visit! It’s been really hard to watch my grandparents be old people, watching them not be able to remember whose children Steve & I were when we first arrived, not remembering that they’d told us the same stories multiple times, spending most of their days sleeping in their chairs because they just don’t have energy for anything else, and seeing them both use walkers when they go out of their room. But it’s also been great to be around their sense of humor (my grandparents have the best jokes!) and hear them tell us stories from the past that we hadn’t heard before and hear them sing together and see how much they care about us and how much they love having us visit.

This week has gone by quite fast and I’m sad to realize that it’s already over, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything! We’ve had a great time and as I sit here reminiscing over the last week I also look forward to my next trip. Tomorrow I fly from Omaha to Houston and then from Houston to Guatemala City. Once I arrive in Guate there will be someone from a local guest house to pick me up and I’ll be staying there tomorrow night. Wednesday morning they will take me to the bus station where I will take a 4-hour bus ride to Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela, pronounced shay-la) and that’s where I’ll be for at least the next 3 months, but hopefully for the next 11 months. I’ll be sure to post something as soon as I can once I get there just to let y’all know I’m still alive!

Jenna, Jaxon, Steve & I in a tractor at Lyle's farm

Day 1

Our first day was a pretty standard travel day: wake up at 3am, eat a quick breakfast, and head to the airport (by the way, why are there so many cars on the road at 4 in the morning?!). Everything with security and checking in went pretty quickly and Steve & I got on our plane to Denver. In Denver we had an hour layover, during which we ate from the copious amounts of snackies we brought with us (home-made beef jerky, sticky rice, apple slices, fudge, and cookie crumbles (they were cookies, but they got a bit smashed in Steve’s backpack). In the Denver airport I was a little worried that the men’s bathroom doubled as a tornado shelter….do those happen a lot in Denver? It’s like in Oregon when you see all the tsunami escape route signs on the side of the road; one would think I would have heard about tsunamis frequenting the state just below mine.

Anyways, we got to Omaha and I was amazed at how small that airport is. I was trying to find our flight on the reader board so I could figure out which carousel our luggage would be coming out on until we looked to see that there are only like 3 carousels and only one had luggage on it and, big surprise, all the people from our plane were gathering around it. So we got our luggage and found our cousin Sarah and her super cute new daughter Maddison and we were off….well, sort of. Steve brought his mandolin and broke a string re-tuning it when we got off the plane so we had to stop by a music store to get new strings for him. After another quick stop at Target, we headed to Missouri Valley and Sarah showed us the nursing home where our grandparents now live and showed us how to get there from her house (she and Maddison couldn’t come in because our grandpa has been fighting a cold). So Steve and I headed over to visit our grandparents. It’s really weird to see them just sitting in a room all day, they used to always be go, go, go. But I guess that’s what happens when you get old. After hanging out with them for a couple hours we headed to my aunt’s house in Logan where we’ll be staying for the week and Steve and I promptly fell asleep after eating dinner. Hahaha! Ok, not really, but I fell asleep for an hour or so and finally went to bed around 11 and Steve went to bed around 7:30 (for those of you keeping track, that’s 5:30PST), so we were pretty tired.

All in all, it was a great day. We got to see all of our family here and since we traveled at such a weird time we’re pretty much used to the time change now. Tonight my sister-in-law, Jenna, and my nephew, Jaxon, fly in and they’ll be around for the rest of the time Steve and I are here too. There’s been talk of going to the Omaha Zoo, which is apparently the nation’s best zoo (for those of you who don’t know, I love the zoo!!), and we plan to get dinner one of these nights with our old family friend, Lyle (he sponsored my dad to come to the United States….so basically, without him I wouldn’t be here writing this blog). It should be a really fun week!  

My last day at home

In just 16 short hours I'll be on the first plane in the biggest adventure of my life. You know that feeling like you're going to forget something really important? Well I don't have that. Which makes me think that I must be forgetting something monumentally important...like, so important that I don't even know I'm forgetting it. But I made my list and double, triple, quadruple checked it and even added a few things, and my suitcase is still only 35-ish pounds. 

This is everything I own for the next 11-ish months

So clearly, something must be wrong, right? None of my bags are bulging like they do when I go on little 10-day trips, my mind isn't racing with panic and excitement, and I don't feel like there are a ton of things I'm forgetting to do around the house before I leave. My room is clean, my bed is made (that never happens!), my laundry is done, and I don't think I've left anything lying around downstairs.
Is it possible that reading all of those articles online and in travel books about packing light and preparing for a trip have actually paid off? Maybe. But I think that the bulk of my peace is from the knowledge that God has prepared all of this before me and that countless people have prayed for me in the past couple weeks and will continue to be praying for me throughout my trip. I can't wait to start my newest adventure, dark and early tomorrow morning, and I'm so excited to be able to share it with you!