Goodbye Guatemala

Hi Everyone.   I had a very sweet last day.  After class I did a bit more shopping, had a nice Italian lunch with my friend Carol and then went back to school for my goodbye dnner and diploma ceremony.  I had to give a little farewell speach in Spanish and, of course I cried.  Boy, this is hard. When I got back to my room, some of my bed and breakfast freinds stopped by to say goodbye and brought me homemade soup.  We visited and shared a glass of wine and now it's time to pack.  Tomorrow morning, I will take the bus back to Guatemala city, spend the night and then fly home Saturday.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you!

 Love, Judy

My School

My teacher

Goodbye...

 

Winding Down

Hi Friends and Family. Only a few days left and I'm beginning to get that inevitable feeling that comes when a vacation is coming to an end.  As is always the case, I just now feel like I'm really gettig the lay of the land and am beginning to feel right at home, and soon it will be time to leave. I know now how to shop on my own and make my way around the huge market.  I know where to buy the best chocolate blocks for making hot chocolate, when to buy butter and cheese and which vendor has the best buy on avocados.  Yesterday I bought 6 roses for two dollars on the corner of the street where I'm staying and today I bought a huge pinapple from a little boy at the same corner for 75 cents.  I think I've made a lot of progess with my Spanish and I feel rested and healthy from all the walking and fresh air.  I am going to miss it all very much. 

Mary, I haven't taken too many pictures of amimals.  I've only seen a few cows, chickens, and a couple of horses.  However, in all my travels I have never seen so many dogs.  They are everywhere and some of them are very sad and others are a bit scary, although none of them have been agressive.  They just look scary.  Yesterday, after school we played Scrabble in Spanish.  My team beat the pants off the other team and I actually contibuted around five words.  It's not easy playing in a foreign language.  I'm not that great at it even in English, so I felt good about my contributions.  Today I visited another fabric coop for Myan women and, of course, I felt obligated to buy!  I love the fabrics here.  Time to make some dinner.  It's a lot of fun and cooking a meal in the outdoor kitchen.

Jan a special hello, hugs and kisses.  I think of you every day and know you would love it here.

 Love to all!  Judy

For Mary, milking goats in Panachel

Eating breakfast on my upstairs patio

My bounty from el marcado

 

Hi Everyone!
I made the move on Friday to my new place. My family didn't seem to mind and now their dog is free to roam again and terrorize other unsuspecting guests! Today was the first day since I've been in Guatemale that I've really slept in. I had breakfast on the upstairs patio where I'm staying and then headed out to explore the city some more. I went to mass and did some grocey shopping, where I ran into a friend. We spend the rest of the day together and had dinner in an Indian restaurant that had the best Indian food I've ever eaten. Pretty funny really, that I found it here in Guatemale.

Active volcanoe, Lake Atitlan below the clouds

Pueblo Panachel

Outside my new room

My room

Yesterday, I was up at 5 in the morning and met my guide at 6. He and his girlfriend took me to Lake Atitlan, which is high in the mountains, at an elevation of over 10 thousand feet. We spend the day there and took boat trips to two of the many pueblos surrounding the lake. We did a lot eating, walking, and shopping. I would have loved to stay there for a couple of days. Maybe next time. Love to all, Judy

Making Tortillas

After a hard day of studying, my teacher, Layla, taught my friend Carol and I how to make tortillas.  I am so excited I know how to do it now.  They were were perfecto.  My teacher and I shopped in the outdoor market for everything we needed.  Three huge avocados for $1.  For anyone who loves fruits and vegetables, it's paradise here.  Tomorrow, I move, so time to pack.  Love, Judy

Work hard...

...have some fun!

It's an art



So good!



A Strange Experience

Well, I hate to rub it in, but I'm exhausted after my one hour soak in the hot springs.  However, I feel compelled to tell you about my day.  (I can just feel your concern for my tiredness.)  After school, my guide, Martin, drove me to a small pueblo which claims the honor of housing three things of great interest.  First, the oldest church in Guatemale, built, of course, by the Spaniards in the 15th century.  The second, the first fabric coop formed for Mayan women in Guatemale.  The priest in the pueblo was the one who helped the women form the coop.  It was a struggle because the men were against it.  The third, constitutes the strangest experince I have ever, and I'm not sure I can quite explain it.  In the picture below is a god/occult figure/religious figure/very scary and confusing thing.  His name is San Simon. He is constantly being moved to different locations thoughout the city.  I'm not quite sure why, but finding him was something like playing "Where's Waldo."  My guide had to ask several people in the pueblo where he was and we walked up and around several steep streets before we found him.  Let me set the scen:.  You are high in the mountains,clouds misting around you and the mountains are so close, you feel you can touch them.  It's a bit dark and the steep, ancient cobble stones steets are slippery with dew.  Everyone around you is Mayan, dressed in tradional clothing.  Everything is so ancient, you feel as though you've stepped back in time.  You enter a small dark room, possibly 10 x 12 feet, and there he sits, San Simon.  There are numerous candles flickering in the room and the smell of incense fills the air.  Five or six Myans are waiting their turn to pay homage.  One stern Myan is watching and guarding every move and collecting payment from each person as he or she moves forward and drops to their knees.  San Simon likes to smoke and drink and so offerings of  tobacco and alchohol are placed at his feet.  Upstairs there is another room devoted solely to the burning of  candles and the offering of chickens.  He has been part of Myan cultures for thousand of years; of course, appearing in different forms in keeping with the century.  The way it was explained to me is that embodies ALL; something like Yeng and Yang; everything good and bad, hope and dispair.  But I can tell you, it scared the you know what out of me and I was very glad to get out of there.  You had to pay to take picture and it all just gave me the creeps and so I got this picture off the internet.  I have no regrets, though.  It was really a once in a lifetime experience.  After all that, we went to the hot springs and it was wonderful!

Thanks everyone for all the nice responces.  I always look forward to them.  Jeanette, work?  What is that? And yes, on Friday I'm moving to a bed and breakast.  It is so beautiful and will be a wonderful way to spend my last week here.  Chris, as in Gigi and Chris, I could never forget you!  I just don't know your e-mail address.  I  hope both of you have a great time in Cambodia.  Love to all.  Judy



My buddy, San Simon

Martin, my tour guide

Me in el pueblo 

November 8 and 9

Hi Everyone!  Another busy school week.  This week I am studing irregular verbs and all I can say is, oh boy!  Sometimes I am so proud of the progress I'm making.  My teacher will be talking to me and I'll think, wow, I actually understand her and I"M SPEAKING SPANISH!   Then today, after class, we watched a movie on the civil war of the 1980's and 90's and I hardly understood anything. Oh we'll, I guess it's all part of the process.  Yesterday, an instructor took me to the museum and I learned all about the history of Xela and the Mayan culture.  The Mayan artifacts were truly amazing.  Tomorrow after school, I'm going on a field trip to soak in natural hots springs.  The trip last week was a sauna, but I guess this one is actually hot water.  It's going to feel soooo good.

Love to all.  Judy

Church of the Virgin Rosario in Town Square

Sunday, November 7, 2010, Guatemala

Hello Everyone,  I ended up staying in the city and not doing the tour because Noe felt it would be unwise for me to go with a cab driver alone.  I took his advice and stayed in the center of the city, did more exploring, shopping, checked out a couple of hotels just for fun, bought three huge avocados for $1 and pretty much ate my way through the day.  The coffee here and hot chocolate are amazing and there is never a sense of being hurried.  You can stay as long as you like, even if you only buy a bottle of water.  I had a wonderful breakfast in a cafe, which consisted of a ham and veggie omlettle with picante and sour cream on the side, fresh corn tortillas, fried plantanes, beans, a large coffee latte, followed by a cup of hot chocolate.  I was starving!  The grand total, including tip, was $4.50.  After breakfast, I stopped at the bakery and bought a large chocolate eclair for 50 cents, which I ate in the town square.  Beleive it or not, I've even lost a few pounds with all the exercise, and you never eat between meals here.  I am thinking of moving to a bed and breakfast type place next week where another student and his wife are staying.  Even though the family I'm staying with is very nice, they leave me alone too much and I feel somewhat like an intruder.  We'll see.  Well, time to do a little studying.  Love, Judy

My morning feast!

"My" balcony cafe

Town Square "Feeding the pigeons" I love this picture.

View from "my" balcony cafe

 

Siesta in the park

Open air market.

Hola Amigos,  just a quiet day of shopping, eating, taking photos and watching the world go by.  I bought several items from a Myan woman who thought it was pretty funny when I asked her in Spanish what her bottom line was.  She did knock off another 100 quetazales!  Adios!  Love, Judy

November 5 and 6

Thursday:  Hi Everyone. Day five and I am beginning to feel at home. I know my way around my neighborhood and the school and that's a releif. I found a small cafe on my way to school where I stop and get a cup of delicious Guatemalan coffee and they know me by name. It's nice. By and large, I find the Guatemalan people very friendly and helpful and they are very patient with those of us here trying to learn their language. There are guards with guns outside many busineses, some hotels and every bank. They are very rigid and stern until you say hello and then they return the greeting and have continued to do so every morning. It's best to be congenial, not over the top, but congenial and have them on your side and watching your back if anyone is thinking about any funny business. I haven't had anything happen even bordering on   scary, but I'm sensible and do whatever our teachers advise. Although I wouldn't say I like it, I saw enough of it in Africa and El Salvador that I'm not too bothered the guards.
I studied hard today and I'm pretty tired. They work you hard and take it very seriously, with a strict schedule. Classes start promptly at 8. You study until 11:30, have a half hour break and then study again until 1 p.m. Then, of course you have homework. Between classes, activities planned by the school and homework, I don't really spend too much time with my family. Our activity this afternoon was a cooking lession. We prepared fried plantanes which are very popular here. Muy bueno! Tomorrow our instructors are fixing a dinner for us. On the comical side, yesterday my teacher asked me a question and I answered her by saying "I ate a man." Yep, she got a good laugh out of that one. However, the playing field evened out today when she tried to translate something into English for me and told me she ate a booger when she was trying to say she ate a hamburger. We laugh a lot. Salud! Judy

Friday.  Hi Everyone!  Oh, I'm so glad it's Friday.  I'm looking forward to getting some rest, wandering the city and not studying so hard.  It was a great day at school.  They reward you on Fridays for all your hard work by engaging in more conversation, playing games and reading you a story.  Today my teacher read me the story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadelupe.  Then we taked about Mayan culture and Guatemalan culture, in general, and I was amazed at how much I understood.  After classes we all prepared a huge fruit salad and ate lunch together at school.  Next week they will teach us to make tortillas, which are so excellent here.  I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend.   Love,  Judy

Hi Everyone!  Here are a couple of pictures.  They take a long time to upload, but it will give you some idea of how beautiful it is here.  After class today I went on a hike in the mountains and relaxed in a nutural steam bath.  Before we left for the hike I ate lunch in an outdoor cafe over looking the town square. 

The weather has been wonderful.  It's warm during the day, but very cold at night.  The altitude is 9000 feet, so tempetures can change drastically within minutes. Until tomorrow....Judy 

Salsa

Hi Everyone,

Another full day.  I have been without any spending money for a few days now,  since I arrived on a weekend and the banks were closed for the holiday.  My instructor took me to the bank today to use the ATM and it felt pretty great to have some money again.  Afterwards we walked to a huge outdoor market where they sold everything you could possibly imagine including food ,furniture, appliances, crafts and even live chickens. My instructor Leyla helped me purchase a suitcase so I have something to put souvenirs in, and then she took me to a famous bakery that's open only two days a week.  The bread and pateries are amazing here and I bought a few things for myself and my family.  Later in the afternoon the school provided a salsa dancing lesson for me with a very handsome young man. I like this school!  I actually did ok and plan on going out salsa dancing Friday night.  I'll keep this short tonight...homework to do.  It's not all fun and games, you know!  Love, Judy

My First Day at School

Hola Family and Friends!

First of all, I wanted to let you know that my niece and sister told me they tried to respond to the blog and were'nt able.  I'm still learning about this blog business, but I think I fixed it and you should be able to respond now.  Since it was a holiday, my family slept in and my Guatemalen mommy did not see me off to school!  She left breakfast on the table and off I headed to school with a backpack full of books and a map in hand, praying I would find my way to school on time.  I met a nice young man along the way who helped me.  I arrived at school to a very warm welcome and was introduced to my teacher, Leyla.    Instruction is one on one and oh boy, I thought my head was going to exlplode!  She is around 32 years old and I really like her.  She's very patient and we laughed a lot.  Even though I was tired, I had a great time and am looking forward to tomorrow.  This week we will have three extra activities: a movie, saflsa dancing, and a trip to the not springs in the mountains.  My next project is to learn how to post pictures.  It is so beautiful here and I have picutres of my i'd like you to see. Today was a holiday, All Saints day, but here they refer to it as The Day of the Dead.  My family waited for me to come home from school and we went to Rosario's  mother's house again for a special traditional dinner with the extented family.  There were around 18 people and I was a bit nervous at first, but they were so good to me and tried to make me feel included in the conversation and activities. 
Some of the things I ate were questionable and weren't very pleasant to look at, but I did my best and will admit to swallowing some things whole. Two young men played classical guitar for us after dinner and it was so beautiful it brough tears to my eyes.  After dinner they invited me to fly kites outside the city limits, which is a tradition in this area on Day of the Dead.  It was quite a sight, with hundreds of people flying their kites.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, but sometimes you just have to live in the moment. 
Mancha, the dog continues to plague me.  Last night he slept outside my door and, can you believe it, he
 snores like an old man.  My sister, Jan, let me borrow a travel purse and today, guess what I found in the bottom ?  Yes, a pair of earplugs.  Bless you Jan.  Well, time to study and this fresh mountian air and all the walking is making me very sleepy.  Until next time. Love, Judy