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.