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Published: February 21st 2010
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Apparently you even need sex to sell butter...Things have so insanely busy around here that I haven’t had a chance to write anything other than lesson plans. There were a few days this past two weeks when I was really wondering what in the world I was doing here. It is a great experience and I love being in Guatemala, but the amount of work to be done sometimes feels soul crushing. The fact that I haven’t had a chance to even talk to anyone back home, let alone write, makes me a little sad and upset. I’ve been trying my best to stay optimistic, but sometimes it’s just really hard.
Things are starting to get better, but maybe that only because it’s a Sunday and I’ve had a couple days off now to decompress. This weekend I decided to be rebel and not open my plan book, or my lessons, or anything else to do with the school at all on Saturday. I usually work quite a bit on Saturday and Sunday and maybe that’s why it feels like I never have a chance to breathe. But, this weekend, I took a whoel day for myself and it seems to have worked wonders. Of course, at
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This is what happens when you teach Montessori. You crash. the moment, my school books are sprawled out in front of me. Oh, that’s right. I said it. Books. Real, actual books. The books I’ve been waiting on since I got here, finally came in on Friday. I will now have something to look at when I’m doing lesson planning. Of course, it won’t cut back on my work load all that much, but something is better than nothing. This school is basically an all hands on school, books are rarely used. It’s a great idea in theory, but to be honest, for the teachers it’s a massive pain in the butt. The amount of work and thought that goes into lesson planning is ridiculous.
Other than work being hectic and crazy, things have been great! Last weekend Jacklyn and I went out to Tantra, my new favourite bar here. Actually we went there Friday and Saturday. I absolutely adore the DJ there. His name is Javi and he is a sweet heart. He’s not one of those creepy guys that only talk to you for one reason. He’s one of my new favourite people, that’s for sure. He plays any music we want and he’s just a really
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Jacklyn and I on our way to a house party cool guy. The whole staff there are really great. They treat us super special, which is always nice, They don’t have a cover charge usually, but this past Friday because of the special holiday, they were charging 25q’s to get in the door. That’s a little over 3 bucks US. Right away, I said absolutely not, we would just go to Milenio. Although there was no way I wanted to go to the other bar, it’s not half as much fun and the music kind of blows. We started to walk away, but they called us back pretty quickly and let us in for free. They said that we were VIP and should never have to worry about paying to get in. Although I usually don’t care about special treatment, I’m beginning to see the real upside to all of it. I’ve been thinking about it, and I seem to be getting special treatment quite often. You’d think most people would want to charge me more for things, but no, instead they are just giving them to me.
We always have fun at Tantra and this weekend was no different. It’s always funny the people you end up meeting
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Jacklyn singing to her party cup there. This weekend, there were a few guys that were more than just annoying. They were on the verge on getting slapped, let me tell you. I can understand when guys ask you to dance and then ask you again later. But, asking repeatedly, just to be shot down doesn’t make me feel bad for you, it makes me angry. Luckily though, one my friends works there and saw that I was pretty much at the breaking point with one guy. So he politely came over and whispered in my ear that if I needed the guys to leave the table, just let him know and he would take car eof it. I didn’t want to cause a big scene, so I told him things were fine for that moment. I’m guessing it was about five minutes later, when they guy was so close that I could feel him spitting on my face, I looked at my friend, he came over and poof…just like that…the guy was gone. I didn’t miss him at all the rest of the night.
Although, I’m not quite sure what’s worse. The guys that practically stalk you all night, or the one “fun” guy
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Jacklyn party cup top you thought it would be okay to dance with. Some short, old guy asked me to dance and I usually find them to be pretty harmless. They show me some new dance moves, which is why my Salsa dancing is getting way better these days. This old guy though, definitely had other things on his mind besides dancing. At first I was thinking to myself that there was no way that that could be happening, it had to be in my head. But no, as the song went on, I was very well aware that what I had was a short guy with a big boner constantly grazing my leg. Gross. That song could'nt have ended soon enough for me.
But it wasn't all stalkers and boners that night at Tantra. I also met some new friends. Several of the futbol players from Coban's team ended up showing up that night. I obviously had no idea who they were and I think that surprised them. Anyways, we ended up sitting with them and talking. You know your Spanish is getting good when you're able to make jokes in Spanish instead of English.
Yesterday one of them, Jonathon, gave
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My party cup. Aka the priest conversation starter. me a call because we were all supposed to go out for lunch. I waited for Emily to get done work and then we headed to Parque Central to meet up with them. The first place we go, of course, McDonalds. Here, it's a pretty big thing if someone takes you to McDonalds. It pretty much means you're going to get married and live happily ever after with a million children. Him and I had a talk later and I told him that we were just friends, that’s it. He already knew, but I'm guessing he was just testign the waters. Either way, I only had coffee there because the last thing I wanted was fries. They weren't that good the first time I was there.
After McDonalds we all decided to get out of Coban. It was the best decision I've made in along while. I haven't left since I've been here. Six weeks is a long time to be cooped up, working and going out only on the weekends. First we went to Santa Cruz, which is only about 10 minutes away. It's a cute, cozy little town with mostly dirt roads and a couple of churches.
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Full view of the lyrics. I'm thinking my next party cup will have the lyrics to I Touch Myself. Nice conversation starter lol We grabbed some beers there and then headed to San Cristobal.
San Cristobal is really pretty. They actually have water there. It's a tiny lake, but it's better than nothing. I'm not sure if you can actually swim in it or not, but I wouldn't take my chances with it. I did see some people fishing there and I wasn't even sure I would eat anything coming out of that lake.
Only Emily and I were able to drink by the water. The guys had to drink theirs in the car before getting out because they had a game the next day and people talk. They're not allowed to drink or smoke the day before the game. So, Emily and I casually drank our beer by the water while everyone else had to chug theirs back. There was a group of boys sitting by the dock that were absolutely adorable. They asked if we could take their picture and even when I was just trying to take picture of the water, they tried to jump in those pictures too. I don't think everyone found them as cute as Emily and I did because they told them it was
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Look! My neighbour has a new tin roof. time to go. As the boys were leaving, they were saying goodbye in English. Then things went from cute to not so cute. They started saying shit in English and then in Spanish and then my favourite part, was the pelvic thrusts they were doing towards us while saying goodbye. Oh kids these days.
Today I got to go to my first Futbol game since my arrival here in Coban. What's even better than a live game? A game that you get free tickets to. Which by the way, was lucky for me because 30q’s to go and see the game would have been a little too expensive for me. But, I definitely will need to add Futbol tickets to my budget because I plan on going to see more games. It was just such a nice way to spend a couple hours on a Sunday. The sun was hot, the fans were screaming, I managed to get a sweet tan and we won!
After the game I got a text saying that they were all glad we came to the game and that one of their friends had sent them a message saying that we were in
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The reasons I miss the days of washers. The streets are so dirty here and I'm stuck washing my clothes by hand. the stands. The message also said that they didn’t realize we were more famous than the team. I think that that is a bit of a stretch, but still funny. Although, one of my other friends said the same thing, so now I’m not so sure. it’s hard not be a little bit of a celebrity here when we’re so easy to spot. Emily is blonde, you can see her coming a mile away.
I think some of the other teachers and their boyfriends think that Jacklyn and I are crazy. We went to a party at Rhian’s house with our own cups. Not just any cups though, special cups that we ahd decorated just for the occasion. We decided that it was be a great idea to make our own party cups. So, we picked out some lyrics and wrote them on our cups. My party cup had the lyrics to Superfreak on them and her’s had Baby Got back. It was a good idea in all seriousness. That way nobody would mix up our cup with theirs. What I wasn’t expecting was what happened because of those cups.
We all headed to the bar, so Jacklyn
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The lake in San Cristobal and I left our cups in our friend Julio’s car. Julio is the brother of one of my students, just so everyone is up to speed. After the bar we walked home, so our cups were left in his car. Two days later I’m just getting ready to start my night class, the one that has the two priests in it, and Julio’s brother comes strolling in singing Superfreak. I looked at him and tried to giev him the “eye” as in shut up, I’m dying here. He obviously thought is was a better idea to let me know that his brother had our cups and that he liked mine. He started to quote the song and as soon as got to “she’s a very kinky girl” one of the priest turned and asked me “what’s kinky.” These kind of things only happen to me. Do you have nay idea what it’s like to try to explain kinky to a priest. Neither do I. I lied and said it was like curly hair. There was no way I was having that conversation with two priests and thirteen year old in the room. But at leats Julio’s brother got a good
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The kids trying to get in another picture laugh out of it.
Speaking of English class, as most of you know my students don’t speak any English yet. They’re just starting to learn. Well, the other night I had a pretty rough night talking to someone from back home. I was pretty upset and I knew that crying was the worst thing I could do. But, I admit it, I was in tears. It’s hard when you’re far away from people, you’re busy and can’t seem to make enough time to make everyone happy. Anyways, the next morning, one of students walked into my class and just stood there staring at me. I asked her what was wrong and I’ll never forget what she said. Her first English sentence was “Miss your eyes are so ugly today.” Now I find it funny, at the time, not so much.
As you all know, Jacklyn and I go to the porn restaurant every Saturday morning. It’s our ritual. I love it there. They don’t even give us menus anymore, they just see us sit down and shake their heads. We shake back yes and within a few minutes, our food arrives. It’s a really great system. Now, what
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The cute little boys that were sitting by the dock I haven’t mentioned yet are Tayuyous. Oh how I love me some Tayuyous. The ladies that work at the hsop down the street also know us well. Today Jacklyn and I tried to stop by their to get some, but they were closed. So we set off in search of another place that had them. Luckily for us, we found another one. One even better than the first and cheaper too! This place has three Mayan ladies making tortillas and tayuyous. There is just one large stove in a wooden shack with pink painted boards for walls. All you can hear while you’re waiting for your food is Q’echi being spoken and the clapping of their hands while making the food. There was way too much smoke and a cardboard box on the floor that was serving as a crib for a baby. The food was incredible and super cheap at 1q each. It wasn’t the food that makes me want to go back though, it was the all around atmosphere. it’s hard to believe that two blocks from McDonalds there is a shack with Mayan women making tortillas and speaking Q’echi. It’s a pretty amazing feeling being somewhere like
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More of the lake that. It’s the reason I came here, to experience something just like that.
Speaking of restaurants, today before the soccer game all of us went to the porn restaurant to grab some breakfast. Unfortunately, being a Sunday and the day of the game, they were closed. We were searching around for another restaurant that had something besides meat when we saw a woman with a plate of food. I asked her where she got the food from and she pointed across the street. I was confused because where she was pointing was a sports store. A little teinda that had cleats, jerseys and soccer balls. I guess she could tell that I was confused, so she walked us over there. We walked into the store, which was most certainly a sporting good store. But a few feet from there, were three large water bottles lined up. We stepped over that and there were in someone’s kitchen. There was yet another baby crawling around on the floor and one of the girls just looked at us and asked us what we wanted to eat. Apparently on the weekends it opens up and becomes a kitchen/breakfast restaurant. This is just one
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Emily and I. I'm proudly holding my Gallo, while she's hiding her's. of the many reasons reason I not only love being in Guatemala, but love to wander around the streets. Because you end up eating behind a sporting goods store, in someone’s kitchen while their baby crawls around on the floor. I absolutely adore Guatemala!
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Janet Gabriel
non-member comment
YOU GO GIRL!!!
I'm so glad tht things are ging wel for you, It sounds like you are really enjoying the teaching plus the trip. Great Tan you have there kiddo, but watch out for those wrinkles that we get from too much sun. I hope that you girls are wearing lots of Sun Block. Great hearing from you and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future. I Love you SAlways. Mammas