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Published: February 9th 2010
I’m used to not having a lot of money. I didn’t grow up getting everything I want. Heck, sometimes I didn’t get anything I wanted. So, I feel like I’m pretty used to being frugal, only buying the necessities and splurging once in a while if I can. What I didn’t know about coming to Guatemala is that the word splurging would have to be redefined for me.
For most people, splurging means they buy that really cute dress they’ve been eyeing. It could be that they buy a new movie, or possibly go to the movies. Not for me. Splurging has come down to standing in the canned food aisle in the grocery store and trying to figure out if I really need that can of tuna. To be honest, I don’t know who in their right mind would pay 2 bucks for a can of tuna (I only bought two cans when I first got here). I don’t know if it was just the grocery store yesterday, maybe it’s everything. I feel like this whole week has been my week of being a have not. I just found it sad that I stood there for what seemed like five minutes, trying to decide whether or not I could afford tuna. Turns out, after much debate, I can’t. So, beans and rice it is. Again. As always. Forever. I can’t afford mustard, cereal, cream cheese and I can’t find a bagel to save my life. Basically, I should just get used the fact that beans are my life now. No substitutions.
I blame another situation I’m having on the expensive tuna. I walked into Pollo Campero a few days ago to get fries and for some reason, something inside of me snapped. All I can think about is chicken. Chicken Caesar Salad, Chicken Fingers, Chicken Burgers, Chicken Nuggets. Just give me the chicken and nobody gets hurt! This is not a good thing considering I’ve been a vegetarian for four years. I know it’s a dire situation because the other day I saw a lady walking by with a limp, dead chicken in her hand and I didn’t automatically think eww dead chicken. No, the first thing that went through my head was that that would probably be great fried.
Some things are cheap, don’t get me wrong. Just nothing I want. I spent most of my weekend walking around looking for a t.v. Of course, what would any scavenger hunt be without making an idiot out of myself. For some reason the word for “cheap (barato in Spanish)” seems to elude me every time I speak to someone or ask questions. Instead, the only word that seems to come out of my mouth is “borrar”. Borrar means to erase or to fade. So, basically I asked a bunch of people if they knew where I could find a faded t.v. I should’ve known that I was screwing that up when they were looking at my funny. But, it could be worse. Jacklyn seems to have the same issue with the word cheap. She was telling our friend Mynor how cheap she is and instead of saying she was cheap, she told him she was drunk (barracho).
Anyway, luckily I know some of the guys at one of the cheaper places here and they are cutting me a pretty good deal. They dropped the price about 400 q’s and now it’ll be 1200 q’s, which is about 130 bucks. The good part is that I will only have to pay 300 q’s a month until it’s paid off. If not, I wouldn’t be able to do it. That’s too much money to drop on something like that. The way I look at it though, is I have a second job for a reason. That second night job pays my rent, so if I want a t.v. damn it, I should be able to have one. Until I can afford to buy the t.v. I will just keep buying those bootlegged movies on the street. They cost less than a dollar and will have to do the trick for now.
I was walking by the grocery store on Sunday and I kid you not, it was like a scene from a movie. The grocery store’s music is always insanely loud, but they always have good music on. So as I’m walking by I hear a rockin’ Bob Marley song playing. Now, I know that all week I’ve felt like I’ve been such a have-not, but seeing this put things back into perspective. Along the wall, lined up as usual on the weekends, were at least twenty handicap people begging for money. Some of them were in wheelchairs, some blind and some blind and breastfeeding. Either way, the “soundtrack” to with the scene was one of those Bob marley songs that he sings about poverty and hunger. It was one those things that I’ll never forget. The feeling I got from the song and how clearly it matches real life.
Yet, on the other end of the spectrum is McDonald’s. Jacklyn, Emily and I went there on Sunday. Again I had to contain all of my urges to eat chicken and just settle with the fries. I just find the whole McDonald’s situation here so funny. It was the same in Comayagua, with their Wendy’s. If a guy asks you on a date and brings you to McDonald’s, it’s a huge deal. It’s the best date you can possibly have. Whereas, it’s the complete opposite at home. Anyway, this was my first trip there since I’ve been here and I still found it surprising. I just sat there staring at everyone around me, eating my fries.
Everyone looked so happy to be there. Families were all smiling and lauging. You could just tell it was such a huge treat to be there. I saw kid’s faces light up when they got their kid’s meal box and saw their toy. Not only were people all happy, they were also all dressed up in their best clothes. At McDonald’s. Who would’ve thunk it.
I’m in the process of trying to figure out where to go to get my visa renewed. The school does it once for you, but I do have a week long break in June and that seems to fall quite nicely with my visa renewal time. There’s supposed to be some sort of deal that we can’t get our passport stamped in several of the surrounding countries, but apparently it’s not heavily enforced. So, my thoughts so far are Mexico, Panama or Honduras for a visit. I really, really want to go to Belize for a week, but there’s just no way I can afford that. I can’t even afford tuna, so Belize is out of the question.
I do have some exciting news though! Well, maybe it’s only exciting for me, but whatever. I’m really super stoked to be getting my own Spanish class. I usually have class with all of the other teachers, but it’s really hard for me because everyone is at different levels. Some of them have been here for years and speak incredible Spanish. It’s a tad intimidating. They’ve now switched it up for me. I get my own class. Private lessons, once a week for two hours. The teacher is awesome, I really like her. I think that in a month I’ll be flying through some of the things I get stuck on now. You know, cheap and faded. Although to be honest, I am quite proud of myself already. My Spanish is bangin’. I talk to people in Spanish and they actually understand what I’m talking about. I don’t feel uncomfortable anymore and I’m able to hold conversations with people without any problems. It’s a nice feeling. It’s hard work to be in constant translation mode, but it’s definitely paying off.
My Spanish is improving for many reasons. Quite a bit of it is the fact that I have absolutely no choice but to figure it out. My students don’t speak English and neither does my assistant. So, it’s just me against the world. Or, shall I say, me against my classroom. They ask me things in Spanish and I respond in English. When they don’t get it, I’ve got no choice but to explain it in Spanish. Of course, meeting people in the community is helping too. I’ve been meeting new people and making new friends here and of course, they don’t speak any English either.
Although, Spanish hasn’t been my only hurdle here. Making friends seems to be proving a little more difficult than I anticipated, or at least the kind of friends I’m looking for.
I know it’s a cultural thing, but it still sucks the way “relationships” work here. The females my age don’t talk to other females, unless they’re related. They’re either married or trying to find someone to marry and they’re not interested in making friends with foreigners at all. The guys on the other hand are more than willing to be friendly. Problem with that is they don’t really get the whole concept of “just friends.” It’s not like at home at all when you can be friends with the opposite sex and not have nay problems. Although I know a few people, one in particular, that says that even that is untrue. I still disagree. I think it’s quite possible to be just friends with someone of the opposite sex and not have nay problems at all.
As I said before, I’ve been making new friends. All of those friends are guys and it seems as though I’ve had “the talk” with all of them. You know, the usual. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not interested in anything of the sort, just friendship, thanks. Most have been cool with it and those are the ones I keep talking to. Not to say that there still isn’t the occasional problem, but whatever.
One of those problems actually happened this weekend. My friend Yvonne invited me and my roommates to a party with his friends, to mingle and for them all to meet each other. I thought it would be perfect because they haven’t met any new friends since they’ve been here. They’re both single, it’s perfect. Well, it should’ve been.
First off, Jacklyn was sick with a fever of 103.5 and quite obviously wasn’t heading to the party with us. Emily and I went over to Yvonne’s friend’s house and everything was cool. We were having fun and it was nice to be meeting new people and just chilling. The “friend’s” name was Leonardo, but from here on will be known as “the fat guy.” The Fat Guy was really cool at the beginning of the night, but as the night progressed and the drinks were flowing, he became a straight up dick. We all headed out to the bar, even though I know you should never go to the bar with a guy who’s not only a mean drunk, but a fat mean drunk.
Emily and I were dancing, when I saw another friend of mine, Jonathon. He came up and aske dme if I wanted to dance, I told him I just wanted to dance with Emily at that moment. For some reason, people here don’t seem to understand that you can dance alone, you can dance with a girl friend and that you’re not hard up. They seem to think that you must want a guy to ask you to dance, when in all actuality you just want to be left the F alone. But, that’s a whole other rant for another day. I turned away from Jonathon and went back to dancing with Emily, when a second later, The Fat Guy comes out of nowhere. He corners Jonathon, yelling at him and saying that I’m with them and to back off. Right away I get pissed. I stepped in between the two of them and tell The Fat Guy, that actually I’m not there with anyone. Just myself. Well, Jonathon’s friends come up on the dance floor, more people come up on the dance floor and it seemed to turn into some sort of small riot. Jonathon got kicked out, even though he did nothing wrong and I left pretty much after him and Emily and I headed home. The last I saw, The Fat Guy was screaming at bouncers and looked like a bull in a china shop trying to push his way back into the bar. I called Jonathon the next day and told him sorry about the whole mess, he just laughed and said everything was fine, except The Fat Guy better stay away from him. So, that’s where his name came from. The Fat Guy and I are probably not going to be close friends, but hey, you win some, you lose some.
I think that about sums up my week. Nothing too interesting happened. Just work, work, work and more work. Things are really starting to fall into place though. I can really see a difference in my students ability to understand me in class and I’m hoping that that will soon lead to some speaking ability.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but this school is so completely different than my school last year. It’s small and cute. But, it also has this family type feeling to it. The owner came down on Friday to hold a workshop for us. We sat around on the floor, eating fruit, drinking coffee and just talking. Talking about what needs to improve and what is going really good. He’s really nice and doesn’t talk to you the way you would assume the owner of the school would talk to you. Instead, he’s very down to earth and very open minded. Although I’ve been working a little too much for my own liking, I’m glad I’m working for a school that I love. I couldn’t be happier with the school and the atmosphere there. It’s a pretty amazing place to be actually. I feel really lucky to be a part of it, even if it doesn’t always seem like it at the end of a long day.
I got here one month ago today and it’s already been a great experience. I’m looking forward to spending more time here and seeing what the future holds.
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Julie
non-member comment
Why did the chicken cross the road?....................To get away from the vegetarian =)