Monday:
There is a new student in my house. She came the Saturday that I was gone. She just finished her junior year at north carolina state and is from Massechusets. She and a girl in the line at the market both noticed my Minnesotan accent right away... I thought I was free of that but apparently not. We went to the market and bought some treats.. mine was yogurt and a hersheys bar. Im missing yogurt and quality cheese INSANELY!!!! Their cheese is really dry and not stringy when cooked... it crumbles :(
Things I´ve noticed that are suprising:
1. I have seen with my own eyes that balancing things on your head is in fact POSSIBLE. The women here blow my mind with their talents to carry things in their hands and head at the same time.
2. Alcoholism is a problem. I was walking to the market at 7:30 pm with Kristen (the american) and Natalie (the cousin) to grab a snack after dinner and there was a man being thrown out of a tuc tuck (small taxi type vehicle super small). He was beggin the driver to take him home but the man did not have enough money. And then also lying in teh space for a car to paralell park was a man passed out laying on his back.
3. One of the kids at the school, Eduardo, was talking to me and I noticed his back molars are the color of caramel and have disinigrated almost to the root. I do not understand how he is not crying in pain after each bite.
4. Last names that are more European sounding like Castillo as opposed to an indigenous last name is looked on better because it implies more European blood.
Nothing especially exciting happened this week at volunteering or lessons. In general though the kids are loving me and love to see me when I walk in the door. So it seems I am making a difference there which is good. They get more attention this way because often when they have free time the teachers arent playing with them and are working on the next activity.
Thursday: Rainy season FINALLY started in Antigua! I went over to John´s house so he could mail some stuff when he got back to the US. While there it started raining at about 8 and didnt stop by 9 so the rain coat i specifically bought for Antigua´s ¨rainy season¨ finally came in handy. Me and Kristen walked back with our raincoats and I came back dry as a desert... at least my top half. Ha pants were a little wet but it sprinkles here for like 2 hours tehn stops. Also it sounds like a hurricane is hitting Antigua.. but it is just the tin roofs. And a nice surprise when I came back to my room was a leak in my ceiling... (I guess Dinkytown rentals isn´t the only place to be known for leaky ceilings.... (Nesha and Kristina and the other ladies of the 612). I did end up eating 2 chocobanaos (frozen chocolate bananas covered in choclated and peanuts) today... OOPS
Friday: I went to el proyecto for the day.. but I was sniffling all over the place and went to ask Maria Jesus if I should be working with the kids or not. She was surprised that the other teachers hadnt sent me home already. So I went home after being there only for a half an hour. I packed my stuff, went shopping for snacks and took a two hour nap.
I left for El Salvador at 2. I had to skip my lesson. El Salvador was supposed to be a 110 trip for ride and hotel for 3 days 2 nights. When I paid the guy told me plan on spending 80 dollars there. So I expected the prices to be outrageous so I made a stop at the local Subway in Antigua, bought some granoala bars, nuts and a gallon of water for the trip. Gallon was less than a dollar! Subway in Antigua has PHENOMAL fresh guac to put on the sandwich along with RED TOMATOES unlike the subway in the US that serves us the whiteish greenish redish tomatoes. They also sold brownies and cheesecake I think for dessert and they have the cookies and desserts individually wrapped in plastic wrap in the box rather than just sitting in the box plain. The ride wasn´t nearly as windy as the trip to Lake Atitlan, but there were some sharp turns here and there but it wasn´t every 20 seconds. However... we drove on this dirt ¨road¨ for maybe a mile... it was so rocky and bumpy I doubt we topped 10 mph. For those who have seen Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls... the car ride was as bumpy as Ace makes his smooth car ride seem on the saffari. We had 13 people in a 15 passanger van so it was pretty tight.. but actually comfortable. The boarder was uneventful. Lots of people trying to sell you drinks and to exchange quetzales to dolars. Sadly they don´t stamp at El Salvador so I only have stamps saying I left and came back to Guatemala. The place we stayed at was GORGEOUS. We got in around 7. We had a room for 5 of us. There was a small pool that was the perfect temperature. It was a small hotel place owned by a guy named Alex and tons of his friends and locals just hang out at the place. There were tons of hammocks and places to lounge and read. You could see the ocean from certain parts of the hotel. We were 50 feet from the ocean. It was AMAZING!!!! We just hung out and went to bed early because we were waking up at an early 7:30 am for our first surfing lessons.
I hope to be able to post pictures soon... but here is a link to the place we stayed at.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/73/07/51/area-restaurante.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tripadvisor.es/Hotel_Review-g303858-d1238258-Reviews-Esencia_Nativa-El_Zonte.html&usg=__jswJHcLi-0bDEHqP15rAlQ6DBVI=&h=450&w=337&sz=38&hl=es&start=24&sig2=0h8B-zaCSck_QODWQde0zw&zoom=1&tbnid=y6q2Sk1ScIxBPM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=121&ei=4jzlTcagNKPq0QHXsrDrBg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Del%2Bzonte%2Bel%2Bsalvador%26um%3D1%26hl%3Des%26biw%3D790%26bih%3D495%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=132&vpy=92&dur=4467&hovh=260&hovw=194&tx=143&ty=164&page=4&ndsp=6&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:24&biw=790&bih=495
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