Not Dead.

Oye, I've been so sick since Monday night. I just wanted my mommy to take care of me and for someone to speak english to me. My host family is great though. They don't seem to mind that I've vomited in nearly every room of their house, and Blanca, my host mommy, did my laundry while I was sleeping. There's lots of people living in the building with us, and I believe that they're all related somehow, but it's a little unclear how. There's lots of aunt and uncle type situations when I ask. Sports is a favorite topic of conversation, as is Semana Santa which is coming up. They can't believe I'm going to class for the entire week. I actually had to ask when easter is.

Being sick was no fun. I've never been sick like that. I'm getting much better every day, but for days I only left bed to go to the bano. For a while there I would faint every time I tried to walk, and I ended up falling down the stais once or twice (unclear). I'm all covered in fun looking scratches now, but nothing hurts too bad. Now I'm like a cut up overly slow/tired version of myself. I'm skipping the volcanoe hike this weekend. I might take the bus to lago Atitlan witha friend though. I'm really excited to see it.

Spanish classes are so hard.. I think my spanish got worse while I was sick because I wouldn't go to class for 4 days in there. Now it's super hard for me to communicate with the family. I need practice.

Pictures soon I promise, the sick thing got in the way of that. Thanks for the offers, but don't send me any cameras.. I'll be out of Xela before they get here.. lo siento.

erica

Long. Interesting?

Trying to write about my experiances at the mountain school is really hard. There's so much, and it's hard for me to get across in writing. Also, I don't want to bore anyone.

The mountain school, a side project of the school I'm studying at in Xela is about an hour and a half outside of the city by chicken bus. It's in the middle of a bunch of fincas (coffee, ect.. plantations) and a few mayan communities. The two communities the school works with are made up finca workers who organised after the finca owners stopped paying them. Both were awarded the land they live on in settlements with the finca owners. This is super rare. Most of the families still work on fincas, and earn about $2 or $3 a day if they're lucky. The minimum wage in Guatemala for finca workers is about $5 a day (12 hour days), but it's rare that anyone gets this. I ate all my meals with a family in one of the communities. Intense. So far from my world that I can't even begin to describe it. 9 people lived in a house about the size of my apartment in Denver. There was one phone between the two communities.

I visited a finca that Starbucks buys from.. so weird. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and seeing all the equipment for processing the coffee was really interesting, but I also got to see the armed guards at the gates that keep families working 12 hour days. At the finca they told me that Starbucks pays a good price for the coffee,.but that the finca owner keeps it all and the workers don't see any of it. I said that Starbucks has a responsibility to buy from fincas that actually pay their workers. I failed to mention that I used to work for starbucks, and that I earned more in an hour than a family earns in a day. Later in the week I got to visit a finca that the workers occupied and now own themselves. Such a difference from the Starbucks one. So much better.

On a less important note, I spent a lot of time lounging, partied a little bit, and ate like a million mangoes. They were five for a Q. There's 7.5 Qs to a dollar. I made some friends and it's nice to know people now that I'm back in Xela. Took lots of pictures. Read stories to the kids in the community. Traveled to the nearest town the way the locals do it, standing up in the back of a pickup. Ate more mangoes.

Today was my first day of classes in Xela. I love the school. My teacher is making me talk a lot which is good, but hard. I'm learning a lot of the espanol, and possibly more about the political situation here. Ah, there's so much to write about. No time. Mas tarde.

She's Back

hola. sorry about the lack of info lately. I've been in the mountains having an amazing time. Guatemala is really great. I'm having so much fun/learning a lot. I'm back in Xela now. I'm about to run out of time here so I'll recount my week in the mountains tomorrow in the afternoon. Everything's going good. I'm meeting people. Bueno.

ps. It seems that someone (not me) using my AIM account. I haven't had internet access in like a week, and I haven't had the AIM in a lot longer so if someone that claims to be me is yeling at you in broken spanglish, know that it's not me. Sorry y'all. Will's trying to fix it for me.

I'll try to hook up pictures in the next few days. I need to get film developed. Why didn't I bring a digital camera? It's so silly.

Tampico es Mas Rico

I'm in Xela finally! Guatemala is amazing. It's so much more beautiful than I could have expected. The drive from the border was great. The people seem really really friendly so far, and they speak more slowly and clearly here.. it rocks. I checked out the school yesterday when we first got to town and it looks bombtastic. There were lots of young people (!) and posters sweet left wing posters everywhere. I'm so excited to start. I'm leaving for the mountain school tomorrow morning, and I'll be up there for a week. It's on a coffee plantation, so I'm expecting an end to the instant coffee nightmare that my life has become.

At the mountain school, I'll be hangin' in a traditional Maya village where the main spoken language is Mam. Reciently the people living there have learned Spanish as a second language. It's going to be so confusing. And good.

Today I ate friend plantains and a mango. I haven't seen any pupusas yet, but I'm looking. I know they have them here. It's just a matter of time. Narajada is my new favorite thing. Tampico es mas rico. This place is sweet.

Dance Dance Revolution en Espanol es Bilar Bilar Revolucion!

Tonight I'm in Tapachula, Chiapas. I spent all say driving through Chiapas. I kept looking for a sweet revoultion to join up with, but none presented themselves. Actually, suprisingly for Chiapas we didn't even see any military. Tapachula is right on the border with Guatemala, and we'll cross over tomorrow morning. That should be an exciting multi-hour adventure through red tape. Hopefully I'll be in Xela by the afternoon. I'm so excited to see it. I really have no idea what to expect. I'll fill you in.

Last night we were in Tehuantepec. I loved it for it's Mexicanness. It was the first place where we've been where I didn't see any other gringos. It was amazing. It reminded me of why I enjoy travel. There were plazas and three wheeled taxis and lots of demonstrations. I also saw DDR in one of the arcades. I wanted to chalange someone to a dance off, but I didn't know how to say dance off. oh well, in Xela I'll be prepared.

oh, a note to my dear readers- this website is in spanish at most of the internet cafes I visit here, and the spell checker doesn't work with all my english typing.. sorry about all the spelling errors. I'm sure there's a few. I'm just no good at the spelling. I'm real smrt in other ways though.

I'm living the life.

I've been in Puerto Escondido for the last two days. It's this touristy beachy surfing town that I'm enjoying quite a bit. This morning I slept in after a night of gecko-induced terror. I know, they're harmless, but seeing one run all around the ceeling of my room while I'm trying to go to sleep turned me into a crazy person. I couldn't handle it.

Entonces, earlier today I was lying by the pool, shaded by this huge mango tree, and I was looking up at the leaves and the mangoes, and thinking about Janie under the pear tree in There Eyes Were Watching God (maybe the best book ever?) and generally enjoying life. It was a good moment. Later I went to the beach and watched huge waves crash for a while. It was hot, and I actually went in the water. Like, all the way. So deep I couldn´t touch the bottom.. It was crazy! I didn´t even think about jaws or kraken that much. It was actually really fun being tossed around like a beach ball at a Dave Matthews Band concert. The water was super warm. If you were going to be jealous of me, now is the time.

Ok, enough with the weird bragging. I need to study the espanol. The real adventure will start soon I promise.

ps. I just found out that you can get Jaws 3 in 3D. Jaws 3 party at my house when I get back!

delicious foot soup

Mkay, I have five minutes so I'm going to make this snappy. Since we last spoke I:

-drove for hours on a Mexican highway. Not actually that bad although at like 30 over the speed limit I was getting passed a lot

-ate soup with an entire chicken foot floating in it. The whole thing. Scales and toenails and everything. "what'd we order?" "I don't know, but there's a foot in mine.. hmm" I didn't eat the foot. It was hard to look at.

-Walked along three beaches, and watched one sunset over the water. I listened to the Pixies, which made it even better.

-haven't stopped sweating. never. maybe once while I was actually in a cold shower.

-have recieved hundreds, maybe thousands of e-mails about a snowstorm in Colorado. sorry y'all.

-have knitted one dark green scarf

-have nearly finished Jitterbug Perfume. I better figure out the secret to living forever soon.

that is all! details to come!

The people of Mexico love their bangin' rims.

hmm.. road trip in a hot hot honda. not too shabby. Actually, other than the inferno-like heat, the drive from Zihua was pretty cool. We were driving along this coastal highway, which is sometimes actually along the coast. We only got stopped by the military twice, and they didn't even ask for papers! boo yah. We're in Acapulco now. It's crowded and touristy, but it has a nice bay. The city feels like it's past it's prime. I can imagine what it was like back in the day when it was a real hot spot, but now it feels a little run down and overflowing with gringos. like me. The taxis here are VW bugs which weirdly remind me of the mini cabs of London. They're funny though because they're all tricked out with the neon lights and the fancy paint jobs. I may have seen a few rims.. who knows.

Yesterday we ate lunch on the beach. I kept thinking about Corona commercials and how I could have been in one right then.. what a strange thing to think. I think TV has ruled my life for too long. I can't enjoy paradise because I enjoy it, I have to enjoy it because beer commercials told me too. But I do enjoy it, either way.

Latin America Is The Bomb

Looks like I wasn´t kidding! I made it to Mexico yesterday. Ojo! Preguntas! Entonces! I seem to have forgotten any spanish I ever knew, but the people of Central America are going to learn me up real good over the next few months. Turns out Zihuatanejo (where I am) is in the tropics. I might need to invest in some short/tank tops. It´s really hot here, and humid too. I kinda like that though. Zihua was this little fishing village that turned touristy when Ixtapa was developed right next to it. Ixtapa is a big resort for honkies like me, so Zihua is full of white people, but still retains some kind of traditional Mexican vibe. I like it. My hotel is like a block from the beach. The beach is beautiful. I´m a big fan of looking at beaches, not so much of going into the water.. I might get my feet wet. You never can tell.

Anyway, I made it. I´m relaxing and having fun. I´m drinking a lot of Fanta and I plan on eating a lot of Happy Colas. I´m staying in Zihua tonight, then my dad and I start our road trip down the coast and eventually into Guatemala. Latin America is the bomb. I´m so excited to be here.

Finally

Tonight I actually went out during the evening time hours. Finally. It's only taken me two and a half weeks in DC to hang out with someone that I'm not related to. It was really nice to be out of the house after dark. I had dinner/coffee/dessert with a guy that lives in my mom's building at a uber-hip joint off of U street. There was loud music and I felt like a young person again. And I had really good chocolate cake.

Looking back at my past entries, I realize that I put commas where they shouldn't be, and I start sentences with the word "and." I also skip a line between paragraphs. I know these things are wrong, but it's the internet.

I finished that scarf two days ago. I'm heading to old town Alexandria tomorrow to buy more yarn. Hopefully this'll be a little less painful than the $20 yarn experience. The guy I had dinner with tonight asked me to let him know when I was going to go. He knows an ice cream place. It's a little unclear if I will. I need to find somewhere to buy cheap yarn. Where are the discount yarn stores of the world? Why is knitting so expensive?

I got a nice e-mail from the chinchilla that ate everything I love in the world. I can't help it, Ruby's like family. Like family that ruins all of my worldly possessions. Like family that thinks it's cool to eat my clothes while I'm wearing them. She sent me a picture of herself.



pretty cute.