The World At Large
Not too much to report from the equator.
Continue reading “The World At Large”
Tag: Adventure
Chutes Too Narrow
One of my best friends Cristella arrived in Quito about a week and a half ago, and it has been beyond amazing to have the company. It’s really nice to be around someone who already knows and loves you. And someone with whom you can speak English. After a few days to allow her to get her bearings, we started working hard to get all of the clinics set up for the group of 8 volunteers from Santa Barbara arriving June 27th, and so far we have been really lucky with how well everything has been falling into place.
Deep Blue Sea
Deep blue sea, darlin’ on the deep, deep blue sea. I could not get that Grizzly Bear song out of my head pretty much the entire time I was on my eight day cruise around the Galapagos Islands. Cruising around on a luxury yacht is definitely several steps up from the grimy dorm room hostels I am used to traveling in, but lucky I have a Grandfather who made my voyage aboard ‘The Millenium’ possible. For this I am so grateful, because it really was life changing. Every single day felt like being in a National Geographic documentary, with each day somehow managing to get better than the last.
Automatic Stop
I just finished my last day of Spanish classes, maybe ever. It feels great, this last week stopped being fun and just felt hard. I sort of miss making the silly mistakes I used to when I first started studying, it always gave me something to laugh about at the end of the day. Thinking that someone was saying ‘I love you, stupid’ instead of ‘I love you a lot,’ telling people I was pregnant instead of embarrassed, saying I wanted to ride a ‘cowboy’ instead of a ‘horse’… those were the good old days. Luckily, I’ll be staying with Tatiana and her family for another three weeks, so I will still have an opportunity to practice, which is what I need the most at this point. Still, when people speak Spanish quickly, to me it sounds like they’re speaking in tongues, need to work on that…
Universally Speaking
‘The usual by-passer is a woman sauntering slowly down the road with bundles upon bundles balanced on her head. These woman are pillars of wonder, defying gravity while wearing the ho-hum aspect of perfect tedium. They can sit, stand, talk, shake a stick at a drunk man, reach around their backs to fetch forth a baby to nurse, all without dropping their piled-high bundles upon bundles. They are like ballet dancers entirely unaware they are on stage. I cannot take my eyes from them.’
I am currently reading The Poisonwood Bible, and this quote describes far better than I ever could the way I felt every time I saw the Mayans in Guatemala walking down the street balancing all kinds of crazy things on their heads. I really do miss it.
So Says I
Where did the past two months of my life go? Suddenly it is time for my to leave Xela, and … Continue reading So Says I
Don’t Rock My Boat
This weekend, like a good little tourist, I went to Antigua to see the processions for Semana Santa. Before I say more, please note what is happening with the statues in the picture of the fountain above. Amazing. Anyways, I had no idea that Semana Santa was such a big deal in Guatemala, in Xela all the schools were closed, and most businesses took a holiday as well. When I was walking to school on Thursday morning it was like an atomic bomb had gone off, there were no cars, no people, no open tiendas… for the first time ever even the beer factory had closed its gates.
Long May You Run
Once again, I’m not sure where to begin. The time in Xela is really flying by, I can hardly believe I have been here for six weeks. Last weekend I took my first long trip via chicken bus out to Lake Atitlan. Aldous Huxley was famously quoted as saying that this lake was the most beautiful in the world, and I’m convinced that he was right. I felt like I had discovered the Garden of Eden.
Queen of the Surface Streets
This post should be titled ‘1001 Reasons Guatemala Will Turn Me Into a Gordita.’ This past week I have discovered many food items that have significantly improved my quality of life. Let’s start with the tamalitos de chiplin that I discovered at a little restaurant called Cafe Luna. The photo above is all that remained of my tamalitos, because I scarfed them down before I was able to remember to take a photo, but, they were increible, cheesy and savory and yum.
Weird Fishes
Ugh, I’m terrible at this blogging thing. It’s only because I caught a nasty cold that I am now taking today to try and update. Where do I even begin, there is so much packed into every single day, it’s hard to find a good starting point. Just a disclaimer, any information I put in here, now or in the future, might be incorrect, since usually people are telling me things in Spanish, and it is very likely that I misunderstood.
Taking the Long Way 