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Published: February 1st 2010
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Decorated because it makes it way cooler to have a piggy bank...if it's decorated. My time here in Coban is getting better each day. It’s a small town and I see some people every day, but that doesn’t bother me. Instead, I find it kind of nice. I have already staked out my favourite restaurants, favourite places to grab ice cream, favourite place for coffee and I pretty much have a favourite for everything now.
I love that every day on my way to and from school, I walk by the same guy that shines shoes for a living. He makes me smile absolutely every day. I can’t help it. He just cracks me up. His clothes never fit. They are always way, way too small. I wonder if he has a younger brother at home and just takes his clothes. His shirts don’t ride up on his stomach, it’s just so small that it stays there. His pants are more like short Capri’s and he has a strange voice. He is in his twenties, but he has the voice of a thirteen year old boy going through puberty. He yells at people to come over and get their shoes shined by him, but his voice just does this weird cracking noise and I
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That's right I said it!
Livingston no butts about it! have no idea what he is talking about most of the time. Whenever he says hi to me, I just wave and smile because I don’t want to bust out laughing in front of him. My favourite thing about him though, is that when he’s working on someone’s shoes his butt is always, always hanging out. Always. It never fails. I get to see crack in the morning and crack in the afternoon. I’m blessed, what can I say.
There are actually a ton of shoe shine people here. They’re everywhere. I don’t recall seeing any in Honduras at all. But here in the park there are at least twenty guys lined up shining cowboy boots. The amount of cowboy boots here is just plain astounding. They have quite a few stores that only sell cowboy boots and they are usually located right beside the stores where you can buy you’re corresponding cowboy hats, Wrangler jeans and belt buckles. The men here mean business when it comes to their cowboy attire.
Of course, not all of the men wear that particular ensemble. Some just choose to wear shirts with English sayings on them that mean absolutely nothing to them.
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My Trip Piggy Bank :D Take my friend Louise, for instance. He was wearing a shirt that kind of offended me. It said “A woman’s place is in the house” on the front. But once I saw the back, I was no longer offended. I just started laughing. The back read “in the Whitehouse - Sarah Palin.” He wanted to know what was so funny and I asked him if he knew what his shirt said. He had no clue that he was sporting a support Sarah Palin shirt.
The all time best shirt so far, was actually in Honduras though. I was walking with friends when this “aggressively ugly” chick walked by. Not only was her face just plain busted, but here eyes were all buggy crossed. He shirt has an arrow pointing up towards her and underneath that, her shirt said “my eyes are up here.” That still makes me smile when I think of it.
The other day, I went to Telgua. Yet again. That was the place I had to go back and forth like 5 times a couple of weeks ago when I was tyring to get my internet situation figured out. Anyways, Jacklyn had to work extra hours and didn’t have time to get her internet. So, I volunteered. Well, what I saw there made my whole day.
There was a woman possibly in her late 60’s, early 70’s, talking to the girl about her cell phone not working properly. She couldn’t get her phone to take pictures and video. I was thinking that I was mixing up my Spanish because there was no way this little old lady needed her camera phone to work. But no, I was right the first time around. The girl helping her starts taking pictures of the lady and I couldn't help but wish I could see those pictures. They must have been awful looking. This lady had drawn in eyebrows, crooked mind you, but they were there. The brightest, boldest orange hair I've ever seen and hooker red lipstick. All that was missing was the blue eye shadow. I don't know who let her out like that, but it wasn't very nice of them. I feel like I'm just picking on people in this blog. I don't mean to, but sometimes, it just needs to be said. Check the mirror before you leave the house. That's all.
Actually, I think Karma has already kicked my ass this past week because I have had some seriously nasty things happen to me. Things I don't even want to write about because I'm that traumatized. But, I guess I'll work through the pain and just get it out.
So, there's pictures of me and my first pila washing experience that I posted before. What I didn't mention was why I was washing them by hand. I couldn't bring them to the laundry mat because they do it for you and this is a small town. I don't want people to get the wrong idea about me.
My beautiful purple sheets that I bought at the paca right before I moved into my apartment, were actually not all that beautiful. I wanted so badly to sleep on sheets the first night, so I opted to use them before I washed them. Worst decision ever. The next day I was standing by my bed and I noticed something on my sheets. Then I looked again and it was everywhere. There was sperm shots all over my sheets. I have no idea what people were doing on these sheets before they gave them away, but I have a feeling it's illegal in a few states. I was horrified. I quickly peeled the sheets off and my contaminated pyjamas, and washed them. I wanted so badly to take them to the laundry mat, but I didn't want them to think I had an orgy the night before, so I opted to wash them on my own. You will all be happy to know I've learned a few things from this experience. I learned to wash sheets in a sink by hand and I learned to never, under any circumstances, wear anything from a paca without washing it first because you never know where you will find crusties. But my scary, scary sperm sheets are now back to being my beautiful purple sheets.
Now that wasn't the only gross thing that has happened to me recently. No, of course not. While Jacklyn and I were in the market, sitting down having a licaudo, someone spit something out and it landed right on her arm. It seemed to happen in slow motion. I saw it flying across and then splat, it just landed on her arm. She just sat there and stared at her arm, while I was busting out laughing. I laughed so hard that I was crying. About half an hour later, Karm kicked my ass.
We were looking through some clothes at a paca and this guy standing beside me, looked turned his head, looked right at me and sneezed on me. I had stuff all over my arm. He snot rocketed me. I looked at Jacklyn and there she was, laughing hysterically at me while I was trying to comprehend what had just happened. I was so horrified I was trying to tell her I needed to get out of the store, but I think I may have said in Spanish. I then proceeded to walk out of the store, but not before I used one of the skirts to wipe off the stranger snot off of my arm. Absolutely disgusting.
Jacklyn and I have been on the hunt for these sticky balls. They are really good for activities to do in our adult classes. So, we've been roaming around the city asking people if they have sticky balls. It's still funny in Spanish. They just look at us like oh, those crazy gringas. They probably don't think we know what we're saying. But, we totally do.
One of our stops in our sticky ball mission, led us into an unknown market world. I glanced in and it just looked like a regular store, but no. It's a never ending market. It must a whole block. There is another one like it in town, but it's always packed. But, this one was relatively empty. By empty, I mean people aren't trampling over you to get to the plantains like at the other one. Minus the dead animals hanging in random isles, it's a really cool place.
My Spanish is really coming along now. I can really see the difference that just three weeks has made. If I keep at it, I think I will finally be able to say that I'm fluent by the time I leave. I'm learning new words all the time. Maybe not the best words, but words none the less. The other day I learned that you don't say “coher” to someone. It doesn't mean “take” here. It means sex. So, I have no idea how long I’ve been saying I wanted to sex something, but hey, whatever. I’m sure I gave someone a laugh and that’s what really matters.
It isn’t just my Spanish that’s improving though. I’m also picking up quite a nice collection of Q’echi words. This is definitely coming in handy when I’m shopping in the market. I can’t really haggle with them, but they now know what I’m talking about instead of looking at my like I have two heads. It’s nice. I know how to count from 1-10 and I can say quite a few random words, including the word “beautiful.” I learned that one from an elderly Mayan man who was complimenting me.
I’m apparently somewhat of a hit here. Last night, I went out with my friend Yvonne and he was telling me that I’m famous. Apparently everyone knows my name, that I’m from Canada and that I’m the first grade teacher at the school. They are also happy that now I’m teaching adult classes. I’ve been here for three weeks and it’s a small town so I can see why everyone knows me. I kind of stand out. I’m one of the girls that walk around the city for six hours every Saturday. I’m hard to miss. I’m hoping that once people are used to seeing me all of the time, they will stop staring at me. I don’t mind waving at people I don’t know, I think that’s cute, but having random people just staring at me, is getting a little old. People are always watching you. What I really want to know is why the guys think that hissing at a girl will get her to go over to them. When was the last time someone hissed at you and you thought, wow, he must really like me because he hissed at me. It never works. I wish that they would take a hint. Talk to people, don’t hiss. Although, the other day I hissed at Jacklyn and it got her attention. She came over to me. Maybe it works on some people.
Last night, a friend of mine invited us out to a bar that was having some sort of special on drinks. All they had to say was the drinks are 1 Centavo and I was in. That’s so cheap and it got me pretty pumped to go out. It was pouring rain so Jacklyn didn’t wan to go out. So just Emily and I made our way to Anananda;s, the house of cheap drinks. When we got there I was a tad confused. I figured with cheap drinks like that, the place would be bumping. But there was no music and I could only see guys. No females whatsoever. Emily and I were standing outside just looking in through the gate at the guys drinking their beer. We looked a little out of place. It wasn’t until I looked up and read the sign that I understood what was going on. At least I think I understand what was happening. We weren’t at a bar at all. We were standing in front of a Hindu restaurant. So, my guess is that they were celebrating something. But what I can’t figure out is why they were drinking. At a Hindu restaurant.
Either way, we didn’t even attempt to go in. We were out of place just standing outside. Instead we were on a mission to find a bar. A real bar. So there we are walking down the street desperately trying to listen for music coming from anywhere. It only took about five minutes and we heard some. Five minutes doesn’t seem like long, but it’s pouring rain and you’re trying not to look like a drowned rat, it’s quite a while. We followed the music all the way to…Milenio. The same bar we went to two weeks ago. The one with the gun. At that point though, I didn’t care. I wanted a bar and we found one./
I think what I’ve figured out is that two girls, or at least two gringas, can’t go to the bar alone. Last time there was a group of us and we had a guy friend with us. Last night was completely different. I had bought myself a couple of beers already when a waiter came over and asked if I wanted a beer. I said no that I didn’t. He then explained to me that a couple of guys at another table wanted to buy me a beer. Again, I said no. So then he asked if I wanted to dance with one of them. Again, I said no. He left and went over to tell them. Meanwhile, I’m thinking that’s pretty weird that they needed to send a waiter over to ask me if I wanted to dance. A few minutes later I got back from the washroom and on our table was not just one beer. No, there was a bucket of beers. Six Gallos just sitting there on ice. I felt obligated to go over and thank them, so I did. I told them that there was no way I needed six beers and that they could come and grab their beers, it wasn’t a problem. Instead, they wanted to sit with us. I told them that that wasn’t going to happen. Sorry, but no. I walk back over to my table and a couple of minutes later, the same waiter brings over food. I guess their thinking was if beer didn’t work, food must. I don’t know. Either way, it chicken, so I couldn’t eat it.
Later on that night, they were pointing for my to go over. They kept saying it was important. So, I thought just one more time. Fine, I’ll talk to them. Stupid obligations. Anyway, one of them asked if he could get a picture with them. It made me think of the whole “famous” thing again. So I sat down with the guy and he inched his way closer and told me to make it look like we really knew each other. Too funny. After the picture, I thought we were done. I did something nice for them, we were even. But no, the other guy wanted a picture with me too. And again, I was told to make it look like we really knew each other. So, now there’s probably some great story to go with those pictures. I’ll never know.
Basically my night consisted of telling guys no. No, no, no, no, no. I even played dumb with a few and said I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They left me no other choice. I couldn’t just say no to them. No, they wanted reasons why. I wanted to dance, of course I wanted to dance. I just didn’t want to dance with any of them. I wanted to have fun and dance, hang out with Emily and just have a good time. But I had to wait until the food and beer guys left. Around 1 or 2 in the morning, I was finally able to hit the dance floor. I made friends with the DJ and he played all of my requests. It was totally worth climbing the 20 not so safe, rickety, wooden ladder steps to get to the him.
I had entirely too many beers last night. I wasn’t left with much choice though. How could I possibly let all of those Gallos go to waste? Plus, I was just thinking to myself the other day that I need to have more beers and a whole lot less work. It seems like all I do is work. I need more me time. I need more time out of the apartment, out of work. Just time to bust out my dance moves and have some beers with friends. Luckily, that happened this weekend. Although, I was supposed to go hiking today and that didn’t happen. I blamed it on the rain, but in reality, there was no way I wanted to go hiking for four hours after last night. So, the weather helped to get me out of that. I would say next weekend, but I think I have some other plns for next weekend.
I really want to take a weekend trip out of Coban. So, I’m thinking either Antigua or Semuc Champey with Jacklyn. I want to go swimming and sip some coconuts on the beach, so I’ll probably go with Antigua, but we’ll see. Either way, as long as I get out of town, I’m happy.
Most of my time is spent with only one of my roommates, Jacklyn. Emily has a different schedule then us and we don’t see her as much. Plus, Jacklyn has named me as her “temporary best friend” so I’m obligated to hang out with her haha. She’s actually a lot of fun. Emily is more laid back and likes to stay in and sleep a lot. I feel like I haven’t really gotten to know her that well because we don’t click as well, or as easily should I say. I think in time, when she’s not always sick, we’ll hang out more. Guatemala seems to be kicking her butt. She was the one who had to sleep in the bathroom a few weeks ago and she just doesn’t seem to have worked up any immunity to the things here. But, in time, I’m sure that will change. Although the friends I’ve met here so far are great, I still miss my friends from Honduras. People definitely make the experience and they made that one an amazing one for me.
The other exciting development is I am planning a special trip. Although I plan on traveling around Guatemala quite a bit, there is one place that I’m very, very excited about going to. Jacklyn and I bought piggy banks today and every bit of change I get is going in there. I get a lot of change and I’m always trying to get rid of it, so here’s my chance. As soon as it’s full, we’re going to Livingston! It’s a Garifuna settlement on the north coast of Guatemala and is only accessible by boat. The pictures I’ve seen totally remind me of Sambo Creek, Honduras. The rooms are apparently pretty cheap, they have gorgeous beaches that I plan on spending a lot of time at and it’s got more of a Caribbean feel to it instead of Central America. I’m totally pumped and can’t wait until my bank is full. Livingston here I come!
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Julie
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I think you are missing the K Block freaks that is why you are commenting on all of the beautiful people that you have encountered!=) Sounds like you are at *home* once again and that makes me happy!!! Keep the blogs coming!!!! Miss you Love you! =) =) =)