Week Two

I am starting to wonder if I am going to hit a plateau at some point soon because everyday seems to be even better than the last. Excuse my extensive details. It has to get boring at some point, and then the blog will become a bit vaguer.

The week in recap: Not including the obvious point of having class everyday from 8am-1pm.

Monday: I participated in a cooking class. We learned how to make empanadas and tortillas. I am not sure that I could recreate it with any accuracy but I might get close. It was a neat experience. However I am thinking some more experienced cooks could have created a better dish. Our inexperience showed as we consumed the results. Not quite right yet, we will have to try again sometime. Hopefully with a little more success.

Tuesday: During class today we took a field trip to a near by school. It had students ranging in age from about 5 to probably around 12. It was their first day of school and they had a lot of energy. Our group along with our Maestros (our teachers for tutoring) taught the students some songs in both English in Spanish. They seemed to enjoy our demonstration of “I’m a little teapot” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” They were all smiles and quick learners. We also played a few rounds of” Duck, Duck, Grey Duck” with them in smaller groups. By then end, only an hour later, they were clinging to our sides and were sad to see us leave. I think some of our group will be going back to volunteer teaching English in some of their classrooms. That afternoon I had a few more hours of makeup class for missing last Friday for our field trip. But followed it up with some fun playing fútbol in a “field” (more of a cage really) just a short truck ride away with a few others. It was good to get a little exercise.

Wednesday: Turns out Wednesday was my Birthday. I was surprised during class with a large piece of cake and a great traditional birthday song sung by the rest of the students and maestros. I received a few small gifts during the day. It was really nice. We had an excursion planned for that afternoon to Salcaja. We saw the oldest church in Central America. (You can see it in the reflection of the picture of the bus below.) We also went into a house to learn about the weaving which is really prevalent in the area. The caldo de frutas is also typical of the area. It is an alcoholic beverage made by a fermentation process with fruit. However speculation as to the strength of it after a claim of only 5-7 hours of fermentation leads us to believe that they add liquor to the mixture. The youth of the group found it a little strong but the adults enjoyed it and bought a few bottles. I capped my birthday night relaxing with friends at a nice café downtown, Bavería. We had hot drinks and shared a piece of cake. The café has the fastest internet I have seen and has free wireless for there costumers. We got kicked out when they were trying to shut down at about 9:30. And then I retired early with satisfaction from an enjoyable birthday.

Thursday: I spent most of the afternoon in the café again using the internet to set up this blog and catching up on emails. In the evening I just worked on a paper for class.

Friday: Friday was the big fiesta for my family. We had three birthdays to celebrate: Mine, Amanda (student from Colorado), and Monica (host sister). The whole family showed up. We laughed a lot and had great food including more cake (the fourth time I have had it this week.) I didn’t end up saying final goodbyes until 11pm. It was a neat experience to be celebrating my birthday with an adopted family.

Saturday: Today Oscar (a Guatemalan we meet on our trip to Semuc Champey) lead a group of us to El Baul. It is a hike up a large hill/small mountain to a park. Oscar is probably one of the coolest guys we could have met. He really takes care of all of us. Today he surprised us with a picnic lunch. We grilled out, played games, and took turns blindly swinging at a piñata that some of his family friends had brought with the rest of the food. Highlights from the park include Steph and I finding a retaining wall that we think will make a perfect bouldering spot. The first ascent was exciting as it was the first we have climbed in a long time and we are direly missing it. We played some soccer on the top of the hill and then took turns racing down some giant cement slides. The trick we learned after nearly killing a few people the first run is to station some people at the bottom to catch/brace the fall at the end so the momentum and speed doesn’t carry then off over the edge of the barrier at the bottom. The rest of the afternoon I spent relaxing reading a book in our courtyard. It isn’t a great location but I was able to catch the last rays of the sun and finish of my book “A Walk in the Woods.”

Sunday: Today is a day for relaxation. I started a new book this morning and the rest of the day I plan on just spending some time in a café.