BDAY FOTOS!

Amy, Elena (host mom), Me, & Lauren 2 seconds before going out to dance!
Yuselfi & I
Me & Amy- classic random pics out on the town
crappy candles that burned almost all the way into my cake...
Tio & I at the school celebrating!

Me & my handmade bday crown from Amy!
About to blow out the candles!
Jodi, Lauren, & Molly enjoying the pinata candy
me & my pinata after bustin it open.
The whole group after pizzzzzzzaaaaaa

Feliz Cumpleanos a mi!

My official name has now been changed to Abuelita Kate - or Grandma Kate, as I have now passed onto the age of 23... so old! I'm happy to say that my new family down here including my host family, the teachers, the school, and my group definitely gave me one awesome birthday down in Guatemala to remember forever.

The day started out by icing my own cakes that I made- because yes, I love making cakes, and I also just wanted some good old fashioned American style cakes on my bday. I baked a chocolate and a funfetti cake Wednesday night and went to school early to ice them, although I needed a little help with my bum arm. My former teacher Glenda gave me a bracelet for my birthday, Marta (another teacher) gave me a scarf, Sury gave me a woven Guatemalan purse, and Amy made me a crown. We served up the cakes for the snack during classes and after a round of the Spanish version of the Happy Birthday song, the piece of crap candles had burned all the way down into the cake which was pretty funny. If I haven't mentioned this before, there are more students that study at our school, and most of them live in the school itself. These others that I do not know nor do they know me, my name, or that it was my birthday decided to swoop in and take/eat mass amounts of my birthday cake =( I finally put a limit on the cake so I could take some home to my host family. They liked the cake but thought it was dry since they usually have a flan-type layer or tres leches in the cakes here that make it taste somewhat soggy in my opinion.

The afternoon consisted of chillin around the town, walking, and taste testing some pizza that was supposedly the best in town. Much to our dismay, the pizza tasted sweet and the crust instantly disintigrated in our mouths- not a pleasurable taste. We returned back to the school at 4pm for a "surprise," which consisted of a Kate look-a-like pinata in the garden for me to break open compliments of my current teacher Johanna, organization by Lauren, and the rest of the group. I struggled big time to break it open with only one good arm and a blindfold. After many attempts, I finally broke it open, and everyone rushed over to grab the candy spread across the lawn. It was a pretty good time, and my first pinata for as long as I can remember.

The whole group came over to my host fams house for a Dominos Pizza dinner after we nixed the other pizza place in town. I received many liters of beer for gifts, some candy, some wine, and some other unmentionable gag gifts. The pizza was really good, although we specifically ordered certain toppings and for some reason I think the pizza makers decided to test their creativity by creating 8 new topping combinations as we had one mushroom and tomatoes and the 7 other pizzas with equally random toppings. Either way, pizza is amazing, and after stuffing ourselves and drinking we headed to La Parranda for a completely amazing night of dancing even though I wore my sling and had a difficult time dancing with one arm. We stayed out til 1am, and when I got home my mom, sister, and I dove into the pizza leftovers to finish off the night. My mom also proceeded to drink the rest of someones warm beer because she didn't want it to go to waste- she's always thinking! Overall, my birthday here was awesome- and thanks to everyone for sending me birthday wishes via email and/or facebook. It was so great to hear from all of you. XOXOXO!

La pobrecita...

Me- for at least 4 days...rocking the sling...
Not the one that hit me...but one a chicken bus nonetheless.

HIT BY A BUS... LITERALLY.

The weekend was crazier then previous week. Saturday started off with Las Fuentes Georginas – or the hot springs up in a volcano. Everyone was really tired, so there were only 4 of us plus our director Antonette. After about an hour bus ride and a short back of a pick up truck trek up the volcano, we arrived at the hot springs. They were pretty awesome, as you can imagine if you picture a giant/natural hot tub carved into the side of a volcano. The place was pretty touristy, but pretty relaxing and a short trip. We just missed lunch by the time we got back, so I headed out to eat with Molly. I made the mistake of going for some classic nachos with cheese and salsa- because when the plate was put down in front of me, it was a heaping pile of 1) non-tortilla chips 2) white nasty cheese and 3) heaping piles of ketchup or “salsa” according this country. I’m actually fairly surprised there was no mayonnaise since they are big fans of the ketchup/mayo combo. I returned the plate and refused to pay- and I doubt I will be returning any time soon. Saturday night was another night out with Lauren, the only other group member who likes to go dancing all the time, so we headed to La Parranda. The discos are a guaranteed good laugh as I saw: 1) a 3 foot Guatemala guy who tried to dance with us, 2) some boys who told us they liked to “drop it like its hot” – they said this in Spanish, and proceeded to do the dance move, I’m sure you can picture this situation, so do it, 3) the short man from my salsa classes was there who likes to say 1,2,3, pausa, 1,2,,3 pausa throughout the entire songs so I had to kindly refuse his offer to dance, 4) a man who had a Newsies like hat and kept taking it on and off like he was Dick VanDyke in Mary Poppins playing his little drums on the street, and 5) the American music played consisted of California Dreaming mixed in with techno, and as always, the very popular Nelly “Must be the Money” song.

Sunday morning came quickly, as we headed off to Chichicastenango, a huge Sunday market with EVERYTHING you can imagine being sold there. You walk around crowded street after crowded street, sorting through various Guatemala souvenirs. After looking for a couple hours, Amy, Lauren, and I said LET THE BARGAINING BEGIN. If you didn’t already know this, I was pretty awesome at bargaining in the DR, so I was like a kid in a candy shop at this market. We left the market with some pretty awesome deals as I bought some earrings, a traditional Mayan mask, a drawing on a leather hide, and giant patchwork quilt made with patches of all of the traditional Guatemalan traditional dresses. We constantly made amazing deals, as I overheard many American/non-Spanish speaking tourists get really ripped off. I left feeling really satisfied as we took a microbus from Chichi to Los Cuentos. We were waiting for a bus to take us the rest of the way home, and as I stood there with my back to the oncoming traffic and my hand on my hip, the bus pulled in too sharply and too quickly to stop and I got clipped by the bus. Yes, I WAS LITERALLY HIT BY A BUS. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve thought about being hit by a UofM bus, but this time it actually happened. The bus plowed through hitting my elbow with the front of the bus and my arm went flying forward. I was immediately shoved on the most crowed chicken bus of my life, and forced to stand for almost an hour before I could sit part of one butt cheek on a teeny piece of a seat. Kinda of in shock and really tired, I went to bed really early on Sunday night. I woke Monday with a really sharp pain in my shoulder, but still went to Spanish classes.
The pain increased throughout the day, and I finally made the scary decision to go to a doctor in Guatemala today (Tuesday). I went with Antonette to a private orthopedic doctor recommended by our directors. After arriving, we found out that doctor was on vacation until Aug. 30th, so they called another doc over from the hospital to check me out. After waiting an hour, he stretched my arm around enough only to tell me I needed X-rays. Conveniently, the x-ray machines were in a totally different hospital, so we picked up and walked to another location to wait, get x-rays, wait some more, and finally take my x-rays back to the other doctor. We returned to the original doctor during lunch time, so we waited some more. Eventually, he looked at the x-rays, and minus the 4 small fissure lines in my bones (3 in my shoulder bone, and 1 in my clavicle), there is nothing much to do other than wait for it to heal by putting my arm in a sling for 3-4 days, taking some pain killers, and put a topical massage gel on my shoulder. So after all the fuss, turns out I’m going to be just fine- or let’s hope. So far, the medicine has been pretty effective, and my piece of crap sling I bought has helped relived a lot of pain in my shoulder. The cool part is I got to keep my x-rays to bring back with me, a sweet little souvenir I suppose. Bad news is that I have to wear this sling on my birthday, what a nice little present. Other than all this commotion, I’m really excited for my birthday here. We’re having a pizza dinner at my house with my family, the whole group, and some of the teachers from school. I’m planning on baking a couple bday cakes for the snack during class on Thursday, and most of the teachers are excited to try American cakes. Feel free to call of my birthday if you want!! (011-502-5883-7736). Miss you millions!! XOXO!

Week #6

Although I’m not quite sure how it’s possible, the weeks keep getting crazier and crazier. This week was the start of our volunteer training at Primeros Pasos – a clinic on the outskirts of Xela. Training consists of 3.5+ hours learning how to teach health classes with 1) Carlos- the fastest speaking guy I’ve met with a hint of a lisp just to make it super hard to understand him and 2)Jessica- one super rude lady, but really organized. Monday and Tuesday morning we had training, followed by 4 hours of class in the afternoon and the usual nightly activities with the group. Tuesday afternoon I opted to have class at my teacher’s house, where I met her two adorable ten year old twins, Luisa and Douglas. We ate oh-so-good Pizza Hut for lunch, and they later walked me to my salsa class at 6. Of course in the middle of our walk- it started to pour. Thus I arrived at Salsafher soaking wet, but ready for class. The rest of the group coming from school decided not to walk in the rain so yes; I had a private lesson with the one and only FERNANDO. Class was awesome, and he’s always impressed that I learn fast so I learned a ton of new moves last week. Too bad every time we go out dancing the Guatemalan boys either are terrible salsa dancers or they assume we can’t dance salsa since we’re Americans. Maybe one day…

Wednesday night I went out to La Parranda with my friend Steph and her host sister/friends. This discoteca happens to offer a free salsa lesson to kick off the night from 10-11 on Wednesdays. Much to my surprise the whole club instantaneously stopped drinking, got up, and fully participated in the free lesson. The “lesson” was more like a line/square dance, where everyone was spinning and moving together almost perfectly in 4 lines across the dance floor. I couldn’t help but think we were in a Disney movie where one person starts singing and dancing and then everyone else chimes in… regardless, I was overwhelmed and super entertained as I spent this “lesson” laughing in the back row until my open toes were crushed under some ladies stiletto heels- needless to say she was REALLY into the dancing. Thursday night was spent at Kokolokos, mainly because I wanted to scope out Thursday nights there for my upcoming bday this week.

We were supposed to head to the beach all weekend, but since a hurricane (Hurricane Dean) was headin our way, we thought it best probablyyyyy not to go. Instead, on Friday night, we had a Cena de Traje, which is like a giant potluck. Amy, Lauren, and I made some excellent brownies for dessert which were paired with ice cream and the usual sundae toppings- sooo good. The rest of the food was awesome too, including some homemade hummus and a Thai soup. We went to listen to some live music Friday night at Royal Paris- by far the nicest restaurant in town, but everything was expensive, we were tired, and didn’t stay out too late.

Me & My host sister out for Sunday lunch- yes, we went to the one and only McDonald's of Xela, Guatemala.

Lauren, Mojdeh, and I out at La Parranda for the benefit party
Start of making chocolate: cacao beans
Almost the end product! ... pure deliciousness!

Tell me this isnt the cutest little Guatemalan boy ever! One of the many pictures from the lake we hiked to yesterday

Swimming in the Pool after Tak A'lik a'baj
Creepy Guatemalan version of Chucky on display at the traditional dress museum
The Start of the Soccer Game: flags.fireworks.and.bad words. Chugging some vino with my host mom- classy. Me & my host sister out dancing!

Onward to month #2...

It’s been a long time…

Life down in THEE Central America has been keeping me so busy that I haven’t even had time to write. I’m still busy with full time classes of Spanish (5 days a week, 4 hours a day) in the morning, and we always have a million activities planned by afternoon, night, and weekend. Last weekend was FINALLY our first free weekend, sans activities, so we took the opportunity to explore Xela. We have a really cool little café a couple blocks from my house called La Luna, and they just so happen to have a bar below, called BAJO La Luna – creative, I know. Anyways, it’s a wine and cheese bar, so the group started there last Friday and then went to my favorite discoteca Kokolokos (and by favorite, I mean the only one we’ve ever gone to). It’s got a dance floor equivalent to Ricksta’s, so pretty big, really hot, and super crowded. The next day we went out to dinner and then went to the opening soccer game of the season- Xelajú is our town’s team. In addition to the season opener, they played one of their biggest rivals, Las Cremas, so the stadium was packed. They threw down some mad confetti and a 4th of July equivalent amount of fireworks went off at the start of the game. (I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but fireworks are huge here, they go off at every hour of the day for every reason you could think of – I think it’s a comparable rule to our “it’s 5:00 somewhere” drinking policy). We went with one of the Spanish teachers to the game, and she’s a huge fan, and thanks to her and the rowdy crowd, I quadrupled my knowledge of curse words in Spanish.

Classes started full time again this Monday, I chose to keep my teacher on board with me for 2 more weeks simply because she’s amazing. A couple girls and I started going to this crazy ridiculous aerobics class in the mornings before school- it’s completely free and really hard. The woman there wear work-out in Barbie spandex type clothes, although they fail to have Barbie’s proportions nor are they close. Either way, these women CAN MOVE! As always, we had salsa on Thursday, but only 5 of us went (classes are optional), so we learned so crazy spin moves and all of the girls were pretty darn dizzy. Thursday night, our school had a benefit party, so of course we went to support them. We decided to start out at Bajo La Luna again, and without much resistance I convinced my host mom and sister to come out with us. My host family THEN agreed to go to the benefit at another discoteca- La Parranda, so needless to say it was THE BEST night I’ve had here. My family is really really fun, and my 13 year old host sister was one amazing dancer. Friday afternoon, we had cooking class at the school. (If I have previously to failed mention the fact that their hot chocolate here is amazing- I apologize…its like heaven). Anywho, we spent the whole day making our own chocolate. We toasted cacao seeds, deshelled them, took them to a factory to put them through a machine that grinds up the seeds, added sugar, and voila- we had a fresh-fudge like consistency of warm chocolate. We took it back to school and you just keep flipping it, which happens to be like how you make fudge if you’ve ever seen it, and keep going until it hardens. Then you can take the hard chocolate bars and put it in hot water to make chocolate puro!

Yesterday was rough. We all met at the school for hike #2 at 6:30 am, took a bus 30 minutes outside Xela, and hiked Chicabal. As before, I left my mark on the side of the mountain, as I suffered from altitude sickness yet again. After a long hike, we got to the viewpoint, which is a big lake where a lot of religious ceremonies occur. We got back at 2:30, and I passed out for the afternoon to sleep off my altitude sickness. I woke feeling much better, so I went out with my friend Lauren, to the one and only Kokolokos. Not only did we start the dance party, but we talked with the dj’s, and they then played our requests the rest of the night - not too shabby at all. At 1:00am, the light went out completely all the way to the park, so the night was shot, and I felt like I was back in the Dom. Rep. where saying “se fue la luz” was an everyday occurrence.

Regardless we met some cool Guatemalan kids, and I cannot even tell you in English words how good I’m getting at Spanish. No lies, but it actually freaks me out. Every day I’m carrying on normal conversations without having to think about which grammar is correct or if I know the words to say what I want to say. I’m actually being sarcastic in Spanish too all the time, which is a pretty good indicator that I’m really able to speak. My volunteer training starts tomorrow and I’ll be working in a couple different places. My main project will be teaching sex education and general health classes through PEILE around Xela. I’m also going to be working in a clinic during the week, traveling around with a comadrona (or midwife) whenever she has deliveries, and volunteering at Rodolpho Robles Hospital with AIDS patients. Please don’t worry- I will be very safe. Comment on my blog or email me if you have time, I’d love to hear what everyone is doing! Miss you all!