Español!

OK, let’s try something. So I’m actually starting to think in Spanish a little bit, which is really cool! But it makes it harder to do this blog. Sometimes I actually have to translate my thoughts back to English!! And that’s not good cause it takes longer to think and I’m sure that’s not helpful in trying to get better at Spanish. But obviously I’m still not fluent in Spanish so I can’t just write this blog in Spanish. And I don’t want to spend forever on this blog so I’m not going to think that hard if I don’t know it. So I think what I’ll do is if the thought comes out in Spanish, I’ll type it in Spanish. And if it comes out in English, I’ll type it in English! And if you don’t understand Spanish, you can try using Google Translate. The only problem is my grammar/vocabulary still isn’t that great and I’m not necessarily going to take the time to write out accents so you might not get a correct translation on an online translation website. In that case, maybe you can get a friend that speaks Spanish to tell you what it says haha. :) I don’t know, we’ll see how this goes. One thing I’m definitely going to try to do is not switch languages in the middle of a sentence though. It’ll probably be interesting to see how I use more and more Spanish as this trip goes along!

Esta manana me desperte a las 6:30, me duche, y come el desayuno a las 7. Me sorprendio a ver 3 otros estudiantes en la mesa! Pague extra para vivir en una casa sin otros estudiantes! Pero esta bien. Los otros estudiantes son: Karin (Karyn? No se…) quien es de Canada, y tiene 38 anos. David es de Alemania, tiene 24 anos. Nina tambien es de Alemania y tiene 25 anos. Me gusta mucho el acento de los alemanes cuando hablan espanol, es muy interesante! A veces Nina y David se hablan juntos en aleman, pero no me importa con tal que nadie me habla en ingles! :) Karyn asiste a la misma escuela que yo, Tecun Uman. Solo esta aqui para aprender espanol, y creo que le va este domingo. David tambien solo esta aqui para aprender espanol, pero en otra escuela. El esta aqui por 3 meses creo. Nina esta aqui para ensenar en una escuela para ninos, no para aprender el espanol, y tambien esta aqui por mucho tiempo pero no recuerdo exactamente cuanto tiempo.

Hable con mi tutor de espanol, Carolina, por casi 2 horas en conversacion normal sobre mi familia, su familia, que hago en los Estados Unidos, etc. Despues, me describio el plan para las proximas semanas. Tomamos una pausa por 20 minutos y despues continuabamos la leccion hasta las 12. Carolina me dijo que normalmente la pausa dura 30 minutos. La escuela ofrece actividades cada tarde, pero no puedo participar en estas mucho del tiempo porque tengo mi trabajo de voluntario cada tarde a las 14 creo. Today they were going to have a walking tour of the city. (My first sentence in English, whoa! I’m not good at those types of sentences with “they were going to” and stuff.) Pero empezo a llover MUCHO a las 11, y cancelaron el tour. And the director of my volunteer project said the kids probably wouldn’t be there anyway because of the rain. Por eso, tenia una tarde libre! I bought tissues and toilet paper at the supermarket, and walked back to my homestay. I was wearing shorts but put on my citenge (from Zambia) cause my legs were cold and I had a poncho on but it didn’t cover from like my knees down so the bottom of the citenge got soaked. And I was wearing flip flops cause then when my feet get soaked it’s not that bad. The roads are made of cobblestone here, and the sidewalks are normally paved but to cross the street I have to walk on cobblestone. And the cars don’t really stop for pedestrians. So it’s hard to walk around in the rain cause wet cobblestones and flip flops are not a good combination, and add my clumsiness and the fact that I kind of have to hurry cause it’s kind of like the game Frogger, and I just know I’m going to slip and fall someday soon. -_- I got to my homestay just in time for lunch! LA COMIDA DE MI CASA ES MUY RICA!! ME ENCANTA! :D Dos amigos, Luis y Byron, de alguien (no se quien) estaban alli para el almuerzo tambien. Mientras comiamos, Telma (la madre de mi casa) nos dijo que alguien en la cuidad Guatemala (que es muy violenta y peligrosa) fue secuestrado y matado esta manana. Dijo que el joven solo tenia 30 anos y fue el hijo de alguien que trabaja para la estacion de radio “Sonora”. Byron dijo, “mi tio trabaja para Sonora y mi primo tiene 30 anos!” y llamo a unos parientes para saber si fue su primo que estaba matado…y fue su primo. Byron seemed a little shaken but not so shocked. He seemed more surprised that he wasn’t notified earlier. It was really sobering for me to be there when he got the news. And it was really weird. But apparently that stuff happens in Guatemala City all the time. Just you don’t all get worried, Antigua is really safe, but Guatemala City is dangerous and there are kidnappings all the time. During dinner, Telma told the rest of the students what had happened at lunch and she told a story about someone she knew who was kidnapped and blindfolded and gagged, and the friend overheard the kidnappers saying on the phone, “hold I’m I’m busy, I’m working.” Like kidnapping is an actual job in Guatemala City. They kidnap people and hold them for ransom, and if they take too long to pay up they kill them because they’re taking up space where another victim can be. It’s horrible. And the government doesn’t do anything about it because it’s so corrupt. So for any of you who want to know how you can be praying for me and for Guatemala, there’s definitely an issue.

Despues del almuerzo, porque no queria estar mojada otra vez, y porque tenia sueno, tuve una siesta de 3 horas. Me despierte para la cena, y despues fui al café de internet. Y creo que es todo! Oh I forgot, there’s this really cute baby, Angel, who lives in my house! He’s 2 years old. :D yay! Oh and one more thing. If you’re on Twitter, you can send me replies and direct messages and I’ll get them on my phone for free! I have to pay about 7 cents per text I send, so I probably won’t respond to you right away, but I’ll reply when I get online or something. Yay!

Select photos from my trip - https://picasaweb.google.com/sfgiantsgirlpics/AntiguaGuatemala
Separate album for food :) - https://picasaweb.google.com/sfgiantsgirlpics/ComidaDeAntigua