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Published: September 23rd 2009
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The Street
the street of my language school, Pop-Wuj Hello Everyone, Ive made it safe and sound, and heres my first blog entry. i know its long, so pick and choose what ya want. enjoy:
Headlines 1) 30 min after take off, i was where i was going.
2) Spanish School/host family
3) first weekend: hiking the lagun and a wine in the book store adventure
4) on my way again, and everything else.
1) 30 min. after takeoff, I was where I was going we all travel for different reasons, and i think my favorite one is the social aspect of meeting new people. (and from there seeing and learning new things about where i go & myself). In the US i dont make connections with new people nearly as often. when i travel, i make new friends every day, all day long. on my first flight to atlanta i sat next to a guatemalan man going home for a week. We spoke spanish most of the flight, and we became friendly. So before leaving, he offered to take me with him to a gorgeous beach sometime that week which was 2-3 hours away. on my second flight, i met a father & son from guatemala who
Rooftops in the distance
rooftops in Xela, with the mountains in the background i talked to the entire flight. The father hadnt been home to see his family in 15 years so they were celebrating with some drinks for a good part of the way down. so i joined in the festivities, had a few drinks, and was feeling real good about all my decisions. they even offered to drive me to the bus station so i could avoid a $10-15 cab, and to help me out if i came back to gautemala city. Even though it was the first time the family had been reunited this century, they still squeezed me into their car and were excited to meet me and help me out. Pretty powerful stuff. and then as the weeks contined i met more and more interesting people. guatemalans, backpackers, med sudents, the works.
2)spanish school/host family. spanish school is going realy well. it feels wonderful to be studying spanish again. its 4 hours a day of instruction, 1on1, and its tailored to my needs, which is incredible. i think it takes about 4 weeks to get through all the grammer (at my pace), but im itching to get on to el salvador. so i think im gonna
Carmi con la luz
my 2yr old host sister loving my head lamp (and camera) move on to estancia after 2 weeks of school, with the intention of coming back at some point in the next month or two. my host family is also pretty sweet, but the highlight there is by for the 2 year old girl. shes super cute and loves playing in my room with me. in the evenings as soon as she sees my door open she comes barreling in and touching/playing with everything she can find. my personal favorite (and also hers) are her love for my head lamp and guitar. she jumps up on the bed and taps the guitar nonstop ''este, este, este'' (''this one...this one...this one'') until i play and she can bang the strings a bit. the other past time of ours is she walks around my room grabbing everything (like my new badass kleen katneen water bottle) 'que es este, que es este, que es este' ('what is this, what is this.....')
3) hiking/book store adventure my first weekend i went on a hike to a volcanic lagun. its a sacred place for the local mayans (guatemala has a HUGE indigenous mayan population, about 50%!o(MISSING)f this city. and they maintain a very ethnic
Stairs Lit Up
stairs leading down from the ridge to the Lagun. dress and culture despite lots of discrimination). anyway often times, depending on the mayan calander, there are ceremonies at the lagun, but that day we didnt see any. it was a good hike up to the rim and then down into the crater. it was quite gorgeous and extremely tranquil at the lagun. so more hiking is in my future.
after the hike i went to buy a spanish text book. i ended up at a small used book store with a pretty inerestng new Zelander working. i talked to him a bit, and after a few minutes 2 other americans walked in. Odly enough, the book store sold wine and the older american (late 40's) offered to buy a bottle if we would all partake in it with him. never being one to refuse a good drink in a foreign country i stuck around. And i ended up spending the next 3 hours in this tiny used book store learning about life and the world with these 3 other travellers (and some others who came in for a bit). It was a pretty awesome mix of that wonderful old/used book store smell, traveller vibe, and some wine created
atmosphere. It def wins the prize for best book store.
4) on my way again, and everything else. im on my way again this weekend to get to El Salvador and start working. Becky is already there and doing well. im very excited to start working in the clinic and living out in nature. (where the simple act of leaving my hut is a hike, and the walk back at night relies solely on moonlight or headlamps). I know ive made the right decision with this year, and i hope you'll all come down and see for yourself, (or at least call). i have a cellphone now (502-5975-4305). And this will work until saturday afternoon when i leave guatemala. however, ill have a new phone number sunday.
I miss you all and cant wait to see ya'll soon. i probably wont update this for a few more weeks, so know that im safe and staying away from alcohol that doesn come from a book store.
one love,
neal
ps: as always, if you send me an email i promise to respond with a personal one, but this is just a way to get the ball
Thinkin' about life
a brief break on the way up rolling.
Shooters -Uncle Barry: will you show bubby and zaide how to get to this webpage next time your there? i added them so they get emails when i update it.
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Evan
non-member comment
Living the dream
Sounds great man! You're not missing anything! Keep the stories coming.