Day 1 in Quetzaltenango
I have arrived in Guatemala. I got a ride from Sofia at 530am to the Boston airport, and arrived in Guatemala City at 100. I took a taxi to a bus station, and rode a ¨1st class¨ but that had a lot of commuters on it to Xela. It was a four hour ride, and I arrived around 7pm. Then I took a taxi in Xela to a cafe where I met Eddy, the very nice couchsurfing guy whose place I am staying at until I move in with my homestay on Sunday. Eddy and his girlfriend gave me an entire room to myself. I had a lot of conversations in Spanish yesterday, and gave myself a big pat on the back. I chatted with the taxi driver, who told me that I speak Spanish very well (probably so that I would give him a bigger tip). I also spoke for awhile with a woman who was traveling home to Xela after being in Guate for business. She was very friendly and attentive to my grammar. On the bus, the guy who sat next to me also had a long and pleasant conversation with me, we talked about the schools we attended. He had a baby girl who was 2 1/2 years old, and it seemed like she was the joy of his life. He let me use his cell phone so I could get in contact with Eddy. How nice. At some point I think he may have been trying to invite me to his home, but I couldn´t totally understand what he was saying and I realized that maybe that would be a classic stupid tourist thing to do. So I didn´t.
I felt kind of sick last night, and at first I thought it was because of the altitude, but now I think that it´s more likely that I was getting a headache from all of the exhaust from all of the junky cars. Eddy made us dinner (pasta) and I went to bed early.
Today I allowed myself to sleep in, then I went to the open air market. It was packed and people were mostly selling lots and lots of tropical fruits and vegetables outside. It was pretty amazing, but I wished that I had a friend with me to give me the low down on all that was going on. The vendedores knew how to pear a green bean like nobody´s business. I sat at a little taco stand that had a bench attached to it and had a yummy pork taco which was cooked up for me by a boy that was probably 12. When I sat down, he said ¨mochilera, mochilera!¨ (backpacker, backpacker). I pondered balancing a 20 lb sack of potatoes on my head. I bought a coconut that a woman had preskinned. Then I decided to walk towards the Central Park and was starting to get horribly lost but then I ran into the woman who I had met yesterday while waiting for the bus out of Guatemala City. Que buena suerte. She was on a walk for her lunch break, and we went to another market and bought plums, and then she walked me to the Central Park, where I ran into another woman who is from Denmark and staying with Eddy. We met one of Eddy´s Spanish students, Jason, and got cookies at a meninite bakery that´s only open twice a week. Right now i´m at an internet cafe and the security guard is pacing in front of the cafe with a rifle. So I know it´s safe.
Tomorrow I am thinking about climbing Santa Maria volcano or going to Fuentes Georginas hot springs. On Sunday the professional Xela soccer team has a game, and I am hoping to get a crew of people interested in going to that. Then I will move in with my homestay and begin Spanish classes on Monday. So all is going well. Stop worrying!
I felt kind of sick last night, and at first I thought it was because of the altitude, but now I think that it´s more likely that I was getting a headache from all of the exhaust from all of the junky cars. Eddy made us dinner (pasta) and I went to bed early.
Today I allowed myself to sleep in, then I went to the open air market. It was packed and people were mostly selling lots and lots of tropical fruits and vegetables outside. It was pretty amazing, but I wished that I had a friend with me to give me the low down on all that was going on. The vendedores knew how to pear a green bean like nobody´s business. I sat at a little taco stand that had a bench attached to it and had a yummy pork taco which was cooked up for me by a boy that was probably 12. When I sat down, he said ¨mochilera, mochilera!¨ (backpacker, backpacker). I pondered balancing a 20 lb sack of potatoes on my head. I bought a coconut that a woman had preskinned. Then I decided to walk towards the Central Park and was starting to get horribly lost but then I ran into the woman who I had met yesterday while waiting for the bus out of Guatemala City. Que buena suerte. She was on a walk for her lunch break, and we went to another market and bought plums, and then she walked me to the Central Park, where I ran into another woman who is from Denmark and staying with Eddy. We met one of Eddy´s Spanish students, Jason, and got cookies at a meninite bakery that´s only open twice a week. Right now i´m at an internet cafe and the security guard is pacing in front of the cafe with a rifle. So I know it´s safe.
Tomorrow I am thinking about climbing Santa Maria volcano or going to Fuentes Georginas hot springs. On Sunday the professional Xela soccer team has a game, and I am hoping to get a crew of people interested in going to that. Then I will move in with my homestay and begin Spanish classes on Monday. So all is going well. Stop worrying!