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Published: March 1st 2010
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Jacklyn and I on our way outI think things are finally coming together for me. As most of you know, I’ve been working a crazy amount of hours everyday at both school and home. I was putting in 16 hour days most days. 8 hours at school and another 8 hours of lesson planning. It was definitely not my idea of a good time and there were days that I really thought I was going to crazy. But, I’m happy to say those days are pretty much out of the way now. My books finally came in and even though it’s only two books, it has already cut down on my lesson planning so much. The last few days, I’ve spent just as much time on lesson planning as I had been before, except this time I’m not stuck on doing just the upcoming week. No, now I’m actually ahead. My lessons are planned for a whole month and I feel like I can finally breathe. I plan on still doing a lot of planning, not just slacking because I can. I want to get as much done as possible so that if I want to go out somewhere during the week, I won’t feel like I
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The view from the roof can’t because I have to work. So, for this whole month, I can go out whenever I feel like it. Look out Coban! I’ve been let loose finally.
I hate writing about work so much, but honestly I spend so much of my time there, it’s hard not. So, on Thursday I got observed, yet again. This school seems to do this pretty often. It’s uncomfortable to have someone just sitting in your room writing down everything you’re doing. Although, this time I wasn’t half as uncomfortable as I was the first time. I was nervous at first, but then got over it pretty quickly. I got a great review. I was so happy, ti made my whole week. She said so many really nice things and she didn’t have anything bad to say. Basically, she said that I was a great teacher, doing an awesome job. It made all of the hard work that I’ve been putting in the last two months, completely worth it. I have no idea what I would’ve done had she said I was awful. Probably just given up and went home. The school is really great about talking with their teachers and giving
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Me on the roof. Proof that I'm a rebel haha. them credit where it’s due. If you’re doing a good job, they definitely let you know, and if you’re not, I’ve noticed they’re pretty quick at letting you know that as well.
Friday was such a good day at school. One, because it was Friday, but also because everything was just falling into place. There are just those days that you wish could happen every day. But, I guess if they did we wouldn’t appreciate them as much. All of you back home know my Friday ritual. It doesn’t matter where it happens, but it’s guaranteed to happen. It’s the Friday Dance. Well, I would like everyone to know if someday you see a little Guatemalan kid dancing randomly on a Friday, it’s probably cause they’re my student. That’s right. I taught the, the dance.
We were all waiting patiently in our class for them to ring the bell for the earthquake drill. The guard was taking forever and I could tell that my kids were getting antsy. So, I started dancing and they were just staring at me. They know I’m strange to begin with because I make up weird songs for everything. Especially math. But, the
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Our neighbours new roof. Again. look they were giving me was different than any other one they’ve given me before. As I was dancing my Friday Dance I asked them if they knew what it was. They were all like, um, no. I told them, it’s my Friday Dance. I was explaining to them that they need to have one too. It’s Friday, no school the next day, they get to play. They should be happy. I asked them to stand up and show me what kind of dance they could come up with. I told them not to think about it too much, just let the dance happen. One of kids is a real firecracker and I knew his dance was going to be crazy looking. All of my students were standing there dancing all crazy, but my little firecracker was hilarious. It was a mix between break dancing (standing up…don’t ask how), Michael Jackson and a ninja. I loved it! I asked them, so what am I going to see every Friday when you come to school and as they’re still dancing they’re yelling…this Miss! This!
Speaking of Friday, maybe this past Friday I was a little stranger than I normally am.
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Jacklyn considering her new job as a construction worker I don’t know, it’s just a guess. I was going through my new Spanish words, the ones I think I mentioned them in my last blog. But, just in case, here they are again: tornamesa - turntable, suspensor - jock strap, verruga - wart. I thought it would be funny to use all three words into one sentence and then randomly ask one of the young Spanish assitants if they could help me find it. So, I went up to Cristal, and asked her if she knew a store here in Coban that sold turntables, but it had to be close to a store that also sells jock straps because I was getting warts. She knows I’m just learning Spanish, so she was just staring at Jacklyn and then at me. So, I asked her again, this time I couldn’t help but laugh. She bust out laughing and asked if I knew what I said. I told her, of course I knew. So she did the sign of the cross and told me I needed Jesus in my life. I’m glad it was good for a laugh. Although for the rest of the day and probably most of next week,
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If this apartment starts to look better, maybe we'll move there. That way, we'll still be on top! she will continue to look at me and laugh. She probably thinks I’m nuts, which I’m not. I just enjoy a good laugh now and then.
Well, I’m pretty sure a lot of people we’ve met think both Jacklyn and I are a tad strange. They’re probably right. We do sing often and dance in random places. But now, they really have a good reason to think we’re off our rockers. At least we will be entertaining. Oxford has started a futbol team and I am on it. I play defense. I called it first. I was just thinking there is no way you’re going to make me play Forward. I don’t want to run an entire game and try and get goals too. I also don’t want to be responsible for letting all the balls in the net either. I played Defense before, why not again? Our first game is in two weeks. Oh, this is going to be a good time. Or shall I say a good laugh. There are no guys working in our school, just us ladies. So, a team of North Americans is sure to get the crowd in the stands!
Since I’m already on the subject of school spirit, I may as well add that in a few weeks I’ll be hanging out for six hours in Parque Central. As a judge at a spelling bee. It’s so much better than Jacklyn’s job that day. She’s the bee. Yep, she will be dressed as bee handing out balloons to kids. There is just absolutely no way I would be getting in a hot ass bee costume, walking around the park handing out balloons. Thanks, I’ll be sitting down listening for wrong asnwers instead. I actually like spelling bee’s so I’m kind of happy to be going. Plus, I really like what the school does with them. They do it once a year, and they invite students from all over Altra Verapez to compete. The winner gets a year of free English classes at our school, second place gets 8 months and third place gets 6 months. Also, their teachers get scholarships too. In fact, one of my night class students is the spelling bee winner form last year. I think it’s a nice way to be part of the community and to give back.
Apparently by then, we will have a new teacher also. Her name is Jamie and she will be teaching adult classes like Emily does. I’m happy to hear that because I think it’s been really hard on Emily the last two months. As I mentioned before, Jacklyn and I are pretty much always together. We get along really well, we’re both a little strange (in a good way), we have the same schedule and a whole bunch of other things. Whereas Emily is more laid back and doesn’t really seem like she likes to go out as much, or explore as much. She has a different schedule and definitely a different personality than myself. I haven’t really made much of an effort when it comes to developing a friendship with her and this week I started thinking about it from her perspective. I wouldn’t be having fun either if I were always left out of ever inside joke, if when I got home from work both of my roommates were pretty much going to bed. I’d be lonely spending so much time alone and I think being left out of a lot of things would be hard. Her and I differ a lot when it comes to pretty much every aspect of our lives. But different doesn’t have to mean it’s a bad thing. I made a decision this week to really put forward an effort with her. It’s not that I dislike her, it’s that I really haven’t gotten a chance to get to know her. So, that is my new goal for the next little while. To get to know more about Emily and give it a better chance at us becoming good friends.
I think I’ve pretty much made up my mind about my money situation here. Buying food at the grocery store is ridiculous and I’m not going to do it anymore. The prices of food are out of control. I am only going to eat out from now on. It’s dramatically cheaper. Crazy how that works actually. I can get five Tayuyous for five q’s. That will keep me going for the whole day pretty much. Or I can go to the grocery store and spend 50 bucks and come home with pretty much nothing. I don’t mind going to the market once in a while, but I’m at the point of just saying screw it and only eating out. I mean why not, everyone knows me. They all know what I like. I don’t even order food anymore. When I walk in to my favourite places like the Tayuyou place or the porn restaurant, they only ask me if I want my usual and then it comes in a couple minutes. Now that’s service!
I’ve also made another key decision. That’s how to carry the water back home from the store. It’s super heavy and it’s almost two blocks. I’m too cheap to have the guy deliver it to the apartment, so we all take turns buying it and carrying it home. This time though, on the way home from the store, it was so hot and Jacklyn and I were taking turns carrying it. That was until we got to the hill by our house. The hill lasts for a whole block and I just did not want to carry the jug down it. I looked at Jacklyn, looked at the hill, looked at the hill and looked back at Jacklyn. I asked her if she thought we could roll it down the hill and she was up for trying it. So, I let her run part way down and then I put the jug down on the ground, leaned into it yelled READY? She yelled GO! And there went our water jug, rolling down the street. She stopped it and I ran down, to hold the jug while she got ready to catch it again. We only had to do that five times and then we made it to our apartment door. I will never again carry a jug of water down the hill, I will only roll it. The best part of the rolling the jug down the hill was the faces of the people watching us. There was guys washing their cars, as I’m in football stance with a water jug, rolling it down the hill. My favourite was a young boy holding a bag of tortillas, just staring at us as if to say oh no, the gringas have lost their minds.
I must say though, it’s seeming pretty unnecessary these days to buy jugs of water. What’s the point? Whenever I boil water for tea, I let it boil for quite a while and what’s left at the bottom of the pot scares me. I know I’m drinking nastiness all of the time. At the bottom of the pot, there are tons of brown particles floating, and the top has some sort of film. But maybe that’s what gives the coffee such a great flavour haha.
This weekend has been one of all time favourites so far in Coban. I didn’t do anything special, nothing big happened, I didn’t really go anywhere. But, it was pretty much perfect. It was exactly what a weekend is supposed to be.
Friday night Jacklyn and I were walking around the city as usual and just happened to become part of a religious parade. Even though I‘m not religious, I find it still gives me goosebumps to be surrounded by hundreds of people in the middle of the street talking about life and religion. There‘s just such a sense of community when you‘re in that. We only walked with them for a few minutes and then we turned down another street. We walked by the big white church and ran into s few cops that asked us if we were going to stick around and see the procession. I think it was pretty amusing that his name turned out to be Jonathon. I seem to be meeting quite a few Jonathon‘s here. I have no idea why. It‘s obviously not a popular name in Central America, yet I‘ve met three now. Strange. Anyway, we stayed to watch the procession and I‘m glad we did. They had the church stairs lined with candles and lights and they were carrying down floats with statues of Jesus on them. There were tons of memorials set up along the steps and on the street. Wherever there was a memorial, the float would stop and the people at them would go up and kiss the hands of the statue and thrown rose petals on them. It was pretty amazing to see. At the time I had wished I had a camera with me, but even then I knew it was something you can‘t really take a picture of. It would be like invading their privacy, I think. Some things people just need to see for themselves and this was one of them.
Right after seeing such a beautiful display of culture and religion, where would you go? If you’re Jacklyn and Janet…you go home, get dressed and hit up Tantra! Well, first you’d break into the apartment above you that’s under construction. But, no worries, nobody lives there. They are just making an addition onto the building and we really wanted to see more of the procession and the roof was the perfect spot. So, yes, witness a beautiful cultural event, then do a B and E and then hit the club. We went with Mynor to have a few drinks. A few, a lot, whatever. Same thing. I just love it there. It’s like Cheers, everyone knows your name. They don’t let strange people bug us and the staff are super sweet to us. I have met some of my favourite people there actually. Javi, a DJ there has become a good friend of both Jacklyn and I. His friend Anthony has also become a good friend of ours. Just filling everyone in on names, so that when I talk about them, nobody’s confused.
I did see another friend of mine there, Jonathon. He was crazy drunk. I’ve never seen him in that state before and it was not good. I know there’s laws in Canada about how much you can serve someone, but that’s just the case here. I said hi to him and talked to him for a bit and within the next hour, he was being carried out by his friends. That was until he collapsed. I was dancing and when I saw him go down I wanted ot go over and help, but I knew there was nothing I could do. He hit his head pretty hard and he was lying on his back just completely knocked out. A bunch of guys carried him out and that was it, he was gone. I saw him the next day at his work, my internet place, and asked him how we was feeling. Other than big bump on his head, he’s fine. That was the only no so good part of my evening though. The rest was really good.
Last night we were supposed to go out with two guys we met in the park. They are travelling through Guatemala and asked us where a good place to go was. Of course, we told them Tantra. But, by the time I got home I just didn’t feel like it. We didn’t get their number, just told them we’d meet them there, so I messaged Javi and Anthony and asked them to let the gringo guys know that we weren’t going. Come to find out today, they told the wrong people. I don’t know how that could’ve happened honestly. Only locals and us ever go there, I’ve never seen any travelers there. Anthony said oh yeah, I told the one with long hair that the three girls weren’t coming. I was like umm, neither of them had long hair. He laughed and said that’s probably why they looked at him so strange. Oh well, hopefully they weren’t offended by us not coming out. I was just feeling it at all. I wanted to be in my comfy clothes and read a book. Something I haven’t had a chance to do in almost two months. Any books I’ve read recently have been school books. Although, my plan didn’t work out all that well. I read two pages and passed out before 11. Some rebel I am.
Today was Javi’s birthday and we had made plans last week for all of us to go out for lunch. So around 12:30 they called and asked if we were ready to go. They wanted us to meet them at Tantra and then we would figure out where we going form there. When we got there, the place was a mess. I know it’s a bar, but I have only ever seen it in the dark before. There were beer bottles everywhere and there was guy lying on the chairs passed out. Apparently they hadn’t even gone home yet, Javi and a few other unknown guys had been drinking all night. We also came to find out the guy that was passed out is the actual owner of the bar.
We decided to go to our porn restaurant for lunch because the guys desperately wanted to know where you could eat breakfast and watched porn at the same time. So we all packed into the truck, no worries, Anthony hadn’t been drinking at all so he was the driver. Javi on the other hand was so impossible to understand most of the time. I can usually understand him just fine, but just like everyone back home gets a drunk slur, well so does he. Most of the lunch was spent with him saying strange things and then Anthony translating them and then apologizing. I don’t see what there was to apologize for, it was his birthday and he was drunk. At least he had a good time. That’s all that matters.
After lunch they were going back to Tantra to keep the celebration going. There was no way we going to partake in that. Saturday sure, good chance, but a Sunday no way. After we got dropped off, Jacklyn and I headed out to get some ice cream and then went to catch a futbol game. It was a perfect way to spend the rest of our Sunday. The sun shining, eating ice cream and hearing everyone yelling at the ref’s for a bogus call. It’s these kind of days that make a Sunday a real Sunday. I’m beginning to think Sunday’s in Coban are better than anywhere else in the world.
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lyette
non-member comment
Just wanted to say how much I love you, and how proud I am to be your mother.