Pictures from the crazy weekend!

Tequila anyone?! Mario & Steph at the conclusion of the longest day ever...

Road Block #1 - by far the most dificult

Road block #2

and road block #3... then onward

the view from Earth Lodge- totally worth it!

EARTH LODGE 2007!

Hey Everyone!

As we attempted to make a trip out to a nature-esque resort place for a relaxing weekend near Antigua this weekend, the trip turned upsidedown and sideways with craziness. Our original plan was to leave Xela at 2:30, which is basically right after lunch here. However, as I was in the middle of taking my exam on Friday, our directors came to tell us we were now meeting for a quick taco lunch at 1 because of the bus schedule. My exam was running long, so I had to stop and agree finish Monday, since I still had yet to pack. I ran home, packed in 5 minutes and ran to the restaurant. We then proceeded to run on full stomachs ALL the way across town to catch a chicken bus (probably about a 30 minute walk completed in less than 10 minutes running). We rode bus #1 from Xela to outside Guatemala City (roughly a 4 hour trip). Bus life is crazy: they take old yellow school buses, paint them up all snazzy, and crowd about 100-150 people in with all their bags, and drive uncomfortably for hours. About 2 hours into our first trip we got a flat tire, but the driver insisted we only hit a rock and the tire was fine- so onward we rode. The sound of the flapping tire sounded as if we ran over a bongo player- so the beat got somewhat annoying. Finally, we stopped and waited for them to change the tire. We then drove for a while longer but hit construction and waited for another 30 minutes. I'd like to also note that each stop, 20 people jump on trying to sell something including food, drinks, books for learning, some guy preached from the Bible, and another man made an attempt to collect some money by telling us he hasn't robbed anyone in 3 years, has kept out of prison, and that we owe him. We hopped on our second bus to Antigua as I literally stood in the doorstep trying to hold on for dear life as 1) I was being pushed around by a drunk man and 2) we were flying around curvy mountain rounds at approximately 100 mph.

From Antigua- we were only a short pickup truck ride away from Earth Lodge. Unfortunately, the rode we were supposed to take was wet with cement from construction, so we had to take a road that was 80 degrees steep. 16 people riding up that road in the back of a pick up wasnt gonna cut it, so we split into two and I went with the first group. We HIKED up the rode, but the driver still couldnt make it in his tiny little truck, so we were forced to find a hotel in Antigua (THEE tourist spot) on a Friday night of summer. Originally we only found one hotel with 7 beds, so half the group took cover there. The rest of us sat in the park waiting for word of hotel availability. As we sat, starving and dead tired, we decided to pop open some tequila and make the night a little less depressing. Finally, we got to a hotel that fit all of us, ate some dinner, and went to bed.

The next day we got word that the road would be clear, so we took off for Earth Lodge in 2 pick ups. Unfortunately, we came to find out that there would be a giant roadblock with the contruction still. After arguing for about an hour, they finally backed down and let us through after the owner of Earth Lodge bribed the construcion men with a 3.3 liter of Pepsi. Ridiculous, I know, but they totally went for it. Just as we got going again, we ran into TWO MORE roadblocks, but eventually got through and made it to our destination. Earth Lodge was phenomenal, as the view overlooks two volcanoes, has a swing that flies out over a cliff, a sauna, and amazing food. We had a pretty relaxing Saturday and Sunday morning, and left to come back to Xela.

I managed to get 10000 mosquito bites while I was there- even with bugspray, and the Caladryl I have was NOT soothing the pain. As a part of class this morning, my teacher helped me out with a little secret of hers. We went and bought some cigarettes, tore them open, and put the tobacco in a jar. After, we added some alcohol/vodka to it, mixed it, and VOILA: a PERFECT remedy. My bites feel non-itchy and it was a pretty interesting little medicine to make during class. ps- Salsa classes last week were interesting as always. The professor told me I'm a fast learner and was very impressed with my skills. YAY me!

Enjoy the pics! Love you! Email me soon!

Some very big donated clothing filled by two of our smallest girls: jodi & amy

The creepy man across the pool videotaping us... sweet.

Parque Central- there was a man sitting in that circular structure today who readily told Amy & I in english "I'm single and waiting for you ladies"

This was the jungle that was the only sweet part about Tak 'Alik Ab aj

The group: (far back): Molly, Katy (middle) Ben, Ruth, Jodi, Me, Erin (front) Mojdeh, Lauren, Antonette, Stephanie, Amy, and Mehran

Semana 2

Hola todos!



Last week was absolutely crazy- sorry for getting a little behind.



So every Thursday, we have optional salsa classes. The instructor is this 50 year old guy who weighs about 90 pounds and has one serious snaggletooth. Our group has 10 girls and only 2 boys, so we obviously aren't the easiest to pair up. Last week I got the shaft, and had to dance with another chick in the group. This week I got the privilege of being paired with the instructor and had to demonstrate all the new moves. If you've learned salsa before, or even if you haven't, you definitely should know there are so many steps to learn, it seems impossible to learn. Eventually, I was paired with a Guatemalan guy who came late and was a really good dancer so I learned a lot. Unfortunately, in the middle of class we switched partners and I found myself dancing with a 4 foot 10 man whos looks are unexplicable. I quickly found out this man was TERRIBLE at dancing, but insisted on trying to teach me as he frequently told me to 1) stare into his eyes and not at the ground and 2) inbetween the 1,2,3 steps and the 5,6, 7 steps he would clasp/pinch my hands and say "pausa." I could NOT stop laughing at this Gollum-esque looking man. The last part of the class we learned double turns, and the intructor finally switched out my partner because he was too short. I didn't have much luck with the new guy as I 1)accidently nailed him in the face and 2) grazed his hair to find out it was hard a rock and saturated with gel. Honestly, I laughed the whole time, and I can't wait to go back and learn more.



The next day I had my first exam- we have them every two weeks to check our progress. It was pretty easy, so I'm clearly learning something! In celebration, we all went out that night to a benefit party for Primeros Pasos- the organization we'll be volunteering through. They had a beer pong tourney outside which a couple kids from our group definitley dominated. After a while, we left to head to Kokolokos- an awesome dance club where I put my pathetic salsa skills to work followed by some great reggaetone music to end the night.



Saturday we headed toward the coast to Tak 'alik Ab'Aj - some Mayan ruins that were uncovered. They explained the significant history behind the site, but only 5% of the ruins were actually uncovered as we trailed behind our guide looking at rock after rock. Personally, I found it a bit boring, but the scenery was beautiful. After leaving the site, we went to a restaurant/pool with a water slide for lunch and the afternoon. After having tons of fun swimming and sliding, we unpleasantly saw two men across the pool videotaping us- it was pretty creepy and it abruptly put an end to our fun. We got back in the afternoon and I got pretty sick, so I spent the whole night sleeping.



Yesterday we spent the day at Peile, another volunteer organization in Xela. The previous group sent 13 refrigerator boxes full of clothes to donate- so we were there all day separating clothing into 8 different poor communities across the country- some warm weather and some cold. Among the clothes we would the most interesting of outfits including a whole collection of mu-mus, some XXXL shirts that would honestly never fit a Guatemalan man because they all weigh 100 pounds, and a tshirt fully depicting a fetus in the stomach portion with labeled fallopian tubes and ovaries and everything. We had a pretty good time regardless and I finally felt better today and my food has been staying down.



Almost everyone in the group has been getting sick. From now on, when I use the expression "Sleep tight, don't let the beg bugs bite," I am actually going to mean it. There are millions of bed bugs here and they are VERY VERY real. So say your thanks that you dont really have to worry about them because they suck. I woke up with some bites today- I hope I dont have anymore.

More pics!

The directors: Antonette, Joe, & Elise
My host brother: Jarvis (18)..check out the tshirt!

Heraldo- my 64 roommate

Me & Antonette at the top of La Muela

Scary clown cake

Amy, Ben, & I at King & Queens bar

Mehran, Katy, & Lauren at K&Q's

Hey everyone!

So the night after the hike, we all went out to dinner for Ben's birthday at Sabor de la India. The food was ridiculously amazing and we got so much food for 5 bucks. It was a torrential rain storm on the walk home, and that was the first real rain we got.

The next day we went to "la fabrica." After riding a tiny little microbus and listening to some lovely instrumental Phil Collins music, we instantly pull off on the side of the mountain and we're told to get out. Everyone was really confused because we were under the impression we were going to a big city with a big market....and next thing we knew the microbus took off and we were in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that "la fabrica" was really a family who made anything you could imagine by weaving and their house was down below the mountain. It had been raining all morning so this little boy gave everyone a walking stick as we started to descend the slippery slope of stairs. As soon as I realized the dangerousITY of the walk to their house, my friend Amy read my mind and said "At first I thought it was cute he gave us these sticks." You might have had to be there...but it was rather hilarious. Once we got to the house, they taught us the process of weaving and we got to try our hand at making rugs. It was pretty sweet- see photos.

At night, we surprised Ben with a birthday cake for his birthday. We have tons of bdays coming up and from the looks of this scary cake with a clown that we ate....I cant wait to see what I'll be getting on my very own birthday cake. Other than that...classes are sweet, Spanish is getting better, I saw Harry Potter in Spanish yesterday which was hard at times but pretty cool. More salsa classes tomorrow. Miss you guys! Comment on my blog or email me soon!

LA VISTA- straight from the roof of my house of my city

This is my lovely room!

This is my house from the outside. My host mom delivers propane gas tanks all day for her job.

My family: Mom-Elena (left), Sis- Yulsefi (right)

Settling In

I’m FINALLY settled into my home for the next SIX MONTHS: Quetzaltenango/ Xela (pronounced Shay-la). I met my host family the day after our arrival. Since Xela is full of schools to learn Spanish, almost all of our families have hosted students before. I live with my host mom, Elena (38) and her two kids, my host brother Jarvis (18) and my host sister is Yulselfi (13). The dad passed away 7 months ago from liver cancer, and they seem to be taking really hard still. Also, they’ve been having host students for quite some time now as a sort of family since they don’t have any other family nearby. In addition to myself, there are two other students, Arika (upper 20’s) and Earle… who is, yes, 64 years old. The chick is pretty annoying but I think she’s leaving in 3 weeks, and the old Japanese dude is downright hysterical. He was planning on staying for 2 months, but he said it’s too cold here for him- it’s honestly like 70/80 degrees- my face got sunburnt today…but whatever. Willie (35) and Anjelica (33) live upstairs off of our roof. They are basically renting a space and they have a kitchen up there so they don’t eat with us and I don’t see them often. My family also has two birds that conveniently live outside my window and could NOT be any LOUDER at 5am. The house and the family are so nice though, and I can’t wait to live with them for 6 months.

The food is pretty good – we have a real wide variety of stuff to eat. Among my favorites so fare are: the fruits (especially the pineapple & mango), they have amazing vegetables, rice, and even steak!, and tamales- but Mandie, your mom’s are still AMAZING too. Of the things I do not like: COW LIVER … yea, that’s right- it was so disgusting and I almost threw up in my mouth..

Last but not least we took a couple tours and the town is HUGE. It turns out it is far more commercial than I thought. There is in fact a God because they have both McDonalds and Tbell. Other cool stuff they have is wireless internet, a huge soccer stadium (Xela just won the championship last year, a mall, and a movie theater. There are tons of cafes and bars and dance clubs all over too.

The trip itself has been pretty interesting. We went out the other night and were chillin in the bar when this drunken borrocho man stumbles in. He can’t even speak he’s so drunk, so they turn him away and kick him out. In the meantime he continues to linger outside the door for a while. I just so happened to be sitting directly in the window when I hear my friend yell, WATCH OUT! Turns out this drunk guy picked up a gigantic rock and was ready to throw it through the plate glass window and indirectly at my head. It wouldn’t surprise me if I got nailed in the head with a rock one of the first nights.

Our directors for the program are pretty young- like a year or two older than all of us. We’re the second kids to go through the 6 month thing, so they are pretty funny. All of us hiked up a mountain today. Unfortunately I got altitude sickness and threw up, but eventually made it to the top. I’m pretty sure the last 4 years of intense drinking at Umich didn’t help- my heart has to be in pretty bad shape. It was a beautiful view. We’ve also had some mad Spanish classes but my maestra is cool as hell. She told me if I smoke cigars here that people will think I’m a prostitute or a bruja… sweet, huh?

Well, I can’t think of more stuff… but this is just the beginning…the funny stories will definitely come later! Miss you guys so much!

Bienveinidos a Guatemala continued...

The best part of Eddie´s gourmet was a wall covered with like 25 pictures that were ripped out of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition equivalent. When I asked Eddie which half naked chick was his favorite, he said the one without any clothes and the big butt. Quite the adventure...but definitely good food. We spend the rest of the night chillin in the Hostel and playing cards and such. The next day I went with a few kids into the city and we ended up going to the zoo. It was actually an amazing zoo with animals from all over so I was plesantly surprised.

About 3pm, we met the rest of the group and the directors and had some pizza. We then proceded to load into a Little Miss Sunshiné-esque van with 15 people crammed in and almost all of our luggage loaded up. It was quite the site to see and we had to keep stopping to take stretch breaks. We rode like sardines for about 6 hours and got to our town pretty late, so I got my room, unpacked, and went to bed.

Beinvenidos a Guatemala!

Hey everyone-

So I'm finally down and somewhat settled into Guatemala. I got here July 6th, and stayed in a hostel in the capital for a night with 5 other kids in the program. The 6 of us went to dinner the first night around the corner in a little place called "Eddie's Gourmet."

Guatemala City

I highly suggest Eddie's Gourmet.