On the Road to Find Out

I am now realizing how difficult it{s going to be to keep up with this blog in Guatemala. For one thing, I can{t figure out the keyboards, so my punctuation is going to be all off. Another thing, I{m already realizing that the more I start thinking in Spanish, the worse my ability to speak and write in English becomes. Also, I{ve only been here for three days, and so much has happened that I don{t even know where to begin…. Probably beginning with the various ways that I{ve embarrassed myself is a good starting point, since I do that here, a lot.

I{ve already told my host mom that I was pregnant when I was trying to say I was embarrassed, and on a different occasion I{m pretty sure I told her I was aroused when I was trying to say I was excited to be in Guatemala. My homestay Mom{s name is Wilma, and luckily she has a great sense of humor and could not be nicer. She is very proud of the fact that no student has ever switched homestays or complained about her food. When she first met me she kept telling me that I looked like a muñeca, which I thought meant wrist, so I was very confused. She then promptly  tried to set me up with her son Kevin, so I figured that whatever muñeca means, it couldn{t be that bad. However, sometimes she gets frustrated with my because I can hardly string words together to form a passable sentence, and she{ll tell me just to go upstairs and relax.  Sometimes I can hear her and her daughter laughing and laughing downstairs, and I suspect it must be at some of the stupid things I said.

I live with another student from school, her name is Julia and she is from Denmark. She is my saving grace, because her Spanish is much better than mine, and she speaks English fluently, so she helps me out when I get stuck. I really like her, we talk a lot about our homes, because neither of us knows very much about each other{s country. She is completely freaked out by the cat’calling that goes on here, because I guess it is unheard of in Denmark. She told me that she could tell I was American instantly, because Americans are so open and eager… probably that isn{t a good thing.

So far I also really like my school. Its called La Escuela de  I.C.A., but everyone just calls it ICA.  Its only a five minute walk from my house, I live next to a big ceveceria that takes up about four blocks, and all you do to get to ICA is just follow around the outside of the factory. There are about 30 other students  here, from all over the place, the majority from Denmark. Everyone speaks english, which right now is a good thing since spanish causes me a lot of pain, but it also has the potential to allow me to be lazy. My teacher{s name is Flore, and she is very nice, I really need a new adjective, but she really is so nice, and so patient and helpful, I like her a lot. We talk a lot about culture and religion and sports, and her family, and the differences between  Guatemala and the United States. I told her about how the Chargers break my heart every year by coming so close to winning, and she said it is the same with Xela{s soccer team.

Xela, to use a cliche, is full of life. It{s always busy, lots of cars, people bustling everywhere, a million different little tiendas. I haven{t seen any building taller than two stories, and each building looks different than the next, and usually is a different color as well. The streets are cobblestone, and there is a rhythm here that I haven{t quite figured out, but I kind of love it already. Plus, I picked a good time to come, because on Sunday they were celebrating Valentine{s Day, and yesterday they celebrated Fat Tuesday, or Carnaval, so there was a lot to see and do.

Right now I feel like I am on sensory overload, I am a bit overwhelmed and also very tired, so I know that this was written poorly, but I wanted  to write while I had some time before lunch with my family. Also I{m going to try to avoid doing that annoying thing where people throw in Spanish words in place of English ones, but I think inevitably it will start to happen, so I{m sorry in advance. I{ll leave you with a verse from the Cat Steven{s song that I have been listening to on repeat while I do my Spanish homework, yes, I know that is cheesy, but I don{t care…

Well I left my happy home, to see what I could find out. I left my folk and friend, with the aim to clear my mind out. Well I hit the rowdy road, and many kinds I met there, many stories told me of the way to get there. So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out, there{s so much left to know and I{m on the road to find out.