Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies with Soy Milk and Added Fiber

Choco Crema de Maní Banano licuados con Leche de Soya y Fibra

Motorcycle adventures. Cliff diving. Excursions to ancient ruins. Waterfalls, parties, hot springs, volcanoes. These are the things I feel expected to write about. But this is not my life right now. Sure, I hiked La Muela (a volcano-formed mountain with naturally-heated saunas built into the ground in the middle of no-where) twice in the last week. And Saturday and Sunday I took motorcycle rides to neighboring pueblos. Saturday I went to San Marcos, a 27 mile ride through the mountains with a beautiful valley overlook, and Sunday, I went to Totonicapán an 18 mile ride past fields where people played soccer while cows grazed. The road was tranquil enough that bicyclists were out for a Sunday ride. But this is not what I am going to write about. And if you were hoping for pictures of my motorcycle rides, I am sorry those pictures only exist in my mind and in the lives of those who live in these areas, for I did not take my camera. I am not going to write about these adventures because they do not capture my life here. Sure, they are part of my life, but a story about banana smoothies is much more accurate.

This bolg is about my daily life, my daily routine. And it is a simple life. I attend class from 8am to 1pm every day. After class, I come home and make lunch with my housemates: Anna, Andrea, and Webber. (Alas, Anna left on Sunday and whoever becomes our new housemate will not, in my mind, easily fill her shoes.) Frequently we make comida típica (eggs and beans), but for desert, or for dinner, we frequently make smoothies. Yes, our blender gets a workout on a daily basis. Anna, Andrea, and Caitlin frequently have a smoothie for dinner which consists of assorted frozen berries, yogurt, and fiber. I on the other hand usually have real food for dinner and have my smoothie for desert, and yes, I recently found a place to buy chocolate syrup.

The rest of my life consists of doing my laundry by hand and hanging it to dry (and moving the laundry when it rains and putting it back in the sun after the rain), doing repairs on the house, occasionally doing an activity with my school (like going on a walking tour of the city or climbing La Muela), completing my Spanish homework, walking to the market to buy food, or just sitting around the house talking with my housemates and playing cards.

I find that my Spanish is getting much better, and I frequently understand most of what is said directly to me. It seems that one of the biggest fears of people learning a new language is talking on the phone in that language, but recently, I made reservations for a hotel over the phone in Spanish.

My life here is simple. In a day, I find that I accomplish very little—half of what I probably accomplished on a daily basis in the US. But my days seem very full. They never seem long enough, and for the most part, I love my life here. Sure, I am burnt out from constantly meeting new people. I am frequently sad because I am always saying goodbye to people. But I have adapted very well to the way of life in this county where people are chronically underemployed. I am okay with accomplishing less on a daily basis and fret the day when I will have to start working again.

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