Friday, January 16, 2009

Both ends

It was bound to happen at some point, I just thought it would be this soon. I travelled all through southeast asia eating street food, drinking whatever juices I wanted and slept in a few sketchy places and still managed not to get sick. I don´t know how I have the training and pre-approval of sources of sustence from the U.S. government and got explosivly sick during my first week in country. As I layed in bed deciding if I needed to get up or if I could mind-over-matter the nausea all I could think of was, ¨Two years. TWO YEARS!¨
To drown out those thought I put my headphones on and listened to Mates of State, some ABBA and dipped into my pool of episodes of This American Life to get me through the grumbling and ignore my host mom chuckling at me and telling me ¨Es Natural!¨ (¨maybe for you,¨ I thought)
Thankfully the next day I felt 80% better and was able to attend my classes and today I feel better than I have the whole time I´ve been in Guatemala. Things are looking up. The Jelly Bellies that one of my classmates let us scarf helped too.
Tomorrow I learn how to make tortillas and speak mas y mas espanol. Everyday has an adventure it seems.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Short but...short

I made it! I didn´t know if it´d ever really happen but I´ve arrived in Guatemala as a Peace Corps Trainee with asperations of becoming a full-fledged Volunteer.
After many shiftings things and places Í´ve arrived at my host family of 3 months here in Pastores which is just a stones throw from Antigua.
Right after I met these fine people I was toted around to my family´s niece´s house for wedding preparations. I barely remembered my mom´s name and I´m in my finest going to the impossible to get cathedral for a big catholic wedding and then to the reception that seemed to be a never ending dance party. I had fun and loved to watch the people dance and listen to the music but I have been über tired and accustomed to going to sleep at 9p so when I finally got my pjs on at 2:30 this morning I had been out of it long before that. There was not too much sleeping in gracias a mi little brother and the roosters RIGHT outside my window.
Although my Spanish has been good enough to place me not in the dumbass group I´m not much above it and it seems to have gotten worse since I´ve been left to my own. These next 3 months are going to be jammed and full of frustrating spanish lessons but I look forward to it, especially since it´ll be comfy compared to what I´ve got coming in the next 2 years.
Well, I´m running out of time and money. I´m poor now. I earn something around $4 a day so I need to be careful even when those bootleg DVD´s call my name.