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Published: January 18th 2010
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Emily and Jacklyn posing in the streetThis has been one very long week. Luckily though, things are finally better. I’ve moved out of the host family’s house that we were staying in. That helped my mood immediately. They are an amazing family and I adore them, but it was driving me batty. I hated feeling that I had be in at like 4 in the afternoon and could only eat when they did. I found myself thinking about food a lot. I always want what I can’t have, so come 8 at night when they serve dinner, I was famished. I could’ve eaten my own arm at that point. This is a pretty small town, so I’m sure I’ll see them pretty often, which is nice.
My new apartment is awesome. In fact, everyone loves it. It is in a new building and so things are more modern than most other places in Coban. The first time we had people over, I was listening to a few guys talking and they cracked me up. One of them actually said “oh wow, they have a real sink.“ I bust out laughing. I couldn’t help it. I’ve just never received compliments on my sink before.
Our first
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One of the many hills here in Coban. night in the apartment, we had a party. It actually wasn’t our idea to start with though. I didn’t realize that we are the only ones that live alone. All of the other teachers are shacked up and living with their boyfriend’s family. So, that makes us party central apparently. It was a fun night though. Met a bunch of people I hadn’t met before. It seemed like our place got pretty packed and people just kept coming in. Good thing we have no furniture, or there would’ve been no room for them. Our living room is just a big empty room. It looks like some sort of foyer that just leads you into the kitchen. The only room with chairs.
We met a couple German guys that are teaching kids from the dump in the outskirts of Coban. They seem pretty nice, a little weird, but nice. I thought it was kind of amusing that during the party, there were people from 4 different countries and yet everyone was speaking Spanish. Which is probably why my Spanish is improving pretty rapidly at the moment. In fact, I’m also picking up a little Q’echi as well. Good thing too,
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Right after the porn. because I felt like a complete tool at the market this weekend.
I’m so happy to be settling in, finally. Finding the things I need for daily life hasn’t been easy, but it’s a work in progress. So far, my favourite purchase, besides the obvious Paca purchases, has been my bed. I think it’s funny that I’ve never in my life owned a brand new bed, and it took me coming to Guatemala to buy one. Not that I wanted a new bed. I just had no other choice, really. The air mattresses that I saw for 5 bucks went up to 50 the next day. Apparently they figured out they had made a mistake just before I was coming to buy it. I figured if I’m going to spend 50 on a crappy air mattress, I may as well spend a 100 on the real thing. It ended up being 120, but so worth it. The bedding was a whole other matter. I checked in the grocery stores and the mall, they were all completely hideous, covered in flowers and were 20 bucks. No blanket. Just sheets. I hit up a Paca and had to fight Emily my
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Same, but with Rhian's boyfriend Fernando beautiful purple sheets. I don’t know why she bothered to put up a fight for them, let’s face it, I was obviously going to win that one. They cost me 100 q’s, but they’re a complete set and Egyptian Cotton, or so the tag says. Either way, they’re perfect. Most people won’t care about my sheets at all and that’s fine. Just know that I walked hours and hours, two days in a row to find them. Don’t even get me started on the blanket fiasco. Just know that I now have one. I may not eat for a month, but at least I’ll be warm while I’m withering away.
I was trying to buy some tortilla’s from a woman and she had told that they were 1q for 5. She told me this in Spanish, so I told her I wanted 10 in Spanish. She looked at me like I had five heads. So, being a dumbass, repeated it a few times. Finally, I got frustrated and told her five was fine. When she was counting out the five tortillas, she wasn’t counting in Spanish. No, of course not. She was speaking Q’echi. I don’t know how it
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Just a street near my apartment slipped my mind, considering she was wearing traditional Mayan clothing.
My first day of class was on Friday. It went well, but I wasn’t expecting none of them to know English. I was under the impression that half of my students knew English and the rest, I would be teaching at 7 in the morning. An English Corner type of class. I’m not exactly happy about having to be at the school at 7 in the morning everyday to do an extra class on top of my regular schedule, but I guess that’s life. Either way, only one of students can understand English. So, it’s looking like I am up for a challenging time this year. I’m excited about my lesson plans though and my students seem really great, so what can go wrong…right?
On Saturday, Emily, Jacklyn and I went out to grab a bite to eat and got a little more than we were expecting. It was a small hole in the wall type restaurant, but the waiter was dressed to the nines. The food was really cheap, so I liked it immediately. Plus, they had a movie playing during our meal, which is always nice.
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More scenic views Especially when it’s Asian porn. At first I just stared thinking that I couldn’t possibly be seeing what I thought I was seeing. But yes, she really was giving him a blow job, while I was eating my beans and tortillas. Dinner and a show is always nice.
Last night we went out to the bar for the first time since being here. We went to a place called Millenium because we heard it was pretty good and it’s not too far form our apartment. We were told not to go to Bohemian Discotek because they have a bad reputation for being dangerous. Well, that may be, but I don’t think Millenium is much better to be honest. We had only been there about a half hour when I noticed the guys in front of me acting strange. Within seconds, one of the guys pulled a gun on his “friend.” The girls were talking and not paying attention to me as I was yelling to them that the guy had a gun. For some reason I was glued to my spot even as I looked around and saw that everyone was either ducking or lying on the ground. Jacklyn,
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Jacklyn and her I'm from Kentucky pose. Emily and Mynor (Rachel’s boyfriend), finally grasped the situation unfolding around them and I started trying to head towards the door. I made my way into the crowd of people running out and made it outside pretty quickly. It seemed like it all happened so slowly, but I’m sure it was pretty quick. We waited outside for a while and then the guy that had the gun came outside and I looked at him and didn’t like the look in his eyes at all. I know they had to get him outside, but that’s also where a lot of people were standing. He just stood there staring at everyone and I did my best to keep an eye on what he was doing, without making any eye contact. Oddly enough, they let him back in the bar. They made him sit by the front door, because obviously that seems appropriate. Either way, nobody got hurt. Just one of those scary moments that tend to happen. Of course it had to happen the same day I was thinking about the differences between Comayagua and Coban.
I wasn’t expecting to see such a huge difference between the two cities. I knew
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San Francisco! there would be a things, but not this many. I haven’t had to keep money in my bra, I’m quite okay to walk down the street and talk on my phone. I carry my camera at all times, not just on special occasions. I feel very safe here. I’m not being unrealistic, I still take some precautions. But, I feel much safer here. I walk every where in the city and don’t feel tense at all. We walked home from the bar last night and I felt fine then too. Mind you, we did have Mynor and his friend walking with us to make sure we were fine. I wouldn’t just walk home that late at night alone. But, all in all, Coban is much, much safer. I haven’t heard of anyone being robbed, at least nine of the teachers.
There are a bunch of other things that surprise me about Coban. They’ve made shopping much easier than Comayagua. Everything is much more organized. I have found everything that I’ve looked for. Including Dill Pickles. I’m not going to lie, I did do a little dance in the grocery store isle when I found pickles and olives. It pretty
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Just some pictures from outside of old room much made my day.
The city is absolutely gorgeous too. Everything is so green and colourful. There are some serious hills that I believe are out to get me. My knee is so screwed up and has been for almost a week now and I think it’s because of one of those killer hills. They are really steep and when you finally get to the top, you need to stop for a second and catch your breath. I love being at the top of the hills though and looking around. You can see everything. Being in the mountains is truly beautiful, especially when the sun shines. Because we are at such a high altitude, it doesn’t take long before it gets really hot. It feels like the sun is actually touching you at times. I’m not going to complain about the heat, don’t worry. I love it.
Things are definitely much better. I say that now, but tomorrow is Monday, which means back to work. So, we’ll see what I feel like then. But, I just want to let Julie know she was right. This trip started out awful, but it has already gotten a million times better.
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The ice cold scary shower I’m excited for what’s in store. The new people I’m going to meet and the new places I’m going to get to see. I’m happy to say that I’m finally happy in Guatemala.
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Julie
non-member comment
So glad to have happy Janet back!!!! The one thing that caught my eye is the San Francisco sign....hmmm....A sign I must say!!! =)Enjoy your pickles and olives and can not wait till your next blog!!Love you miss you!!!