¿Que?

Did this weekend actually happen? I’ve been checking the calendar on my phone over and over again…. Yep, Sunday evening… two weeks into my Guatemala stay. Over the course of the last two days I’ve worked alongside a small group of Guatemalan construction workers to build a small house, ridden in the back of a truck with who-knows how many other people, took a chicken bus to Taxisco that had the ‘woman silloughette’ figure etched everywhere, went 80mph down a pothole filled road, and laid on the horn every 20 seconds, danced salsa and meringue all night, lost one sandal to the ocean, made friends with a reggae band from Germany living in Antigua, found my sandal ¼ of a mile down the beach, freed a baby sea turtle into the ocean, rode on a motorcycle with two other people (yeah, 3 people is Guatemala style- 4 if one’s a baby), ate a soup that had crab, shrimp and fish in it, and was taken over by a mini tidal wave while reading at the beach and consequently covered in black sand.
There’s a ton more… I know I’m forgetting a ton. My life here is so different. I woke up the other day to a chicken outside of my little window hole! That stuff just doesn’t happen in the city, or in the suburbs, or really anywhere else that I’ve been to. In Arizona, if a guy walks up to you with a machete, you dial 9-1-1 while you run as fast as possible. In Guatemala, if a guy walks up to you with a machete, you shake his hand and thank him for the corn. It’s a different mentality, a completely different lifestyle. People aren’t grouchy, or in big hurries here. If you walk around the town, chances are you find about half the people lounging around in hammocks if there’s not a soccer game on.
My Spanish is coming along pretty well… I’m getting fairly decent at irregular verbs in the past tense. But I’m getting to a point where I’m really starting to miss home. I really miss my friends and family, and dogs of course. There are dogs everywhere in Guatemala, but ‘pets’ in Central America are incredibly different from what we know them as. I want to hug and train and play with my host family’s dog, Ponkey, soooo bad… but it’s just not something you do here. She’s such a smart, good girl though. I sneak her secret pets behind the ears when the family’s not around (and promptly wash my hands afterward- haha).
Apart from having an insane weekend, not much happens here in Monterrico. I have a pretty normal routine of breakfast, class, lunch, nap, internet café, nap, homework, nap, dinner and bed. And no, I’m not being a homebody… napping is just a way of life here, so I’m going along with it!
Buenas!