It's my fault I am still up at 10:15. At dinner, I wasn't eating much and I tried to explain that I was just tired. At the mall, I had my arms wrapped around myself and they asked if I was cold and I said no, just tired. And when I lost at Connect Four to Daniela, I said "estoy encansada. Uno mas manana." Maybe it's just culture, but our host mother brought us coffee at 7:30. So, I will make use of my wakefulness...
I will admit right away that I am writing this more for me than you because I recently reread some of my entries from my Italy trip and I loved recalling the little things. So I want to do that again. You are welcome to follow along with me, but I give no apologies for spelling and grammar mistakes or just general typos because I am typing this on my tablet. And I'll probably ramble a lot too. Okay, here we go.
Day one was just a lot of traveling. I started the day at 4:15 am Phoenix time to make a train to the airport. The train was late, but luckily Craig was there to keep me warm and to fend off the crazies who tend to loiter around the light rail that early in the morning. I headed to the airport and went through the usual hassle of airport security - I got held up because a SPORK caused concern in the X-ray, so I had to wait in line to get my bag checked behind a guy who had tools and a giant bottle of lotion. Anyway, a one hour flight to LA -where I got to enjoy an empty seat next to me!, a 4 hour layover, and a 5 hour flight later I arrived in Guatemala City. Chrissy greeted me at the airport and we had a shuttle to our B&B, which had American classic rock on the radio. We got a good night's sleep and woke up at 6:15 to get ready to head to Xela. Side note: I didn't have to change my alarm setting from 4:15 because my phone is still on LA time, which is two hours earlier than here.
Now day two! More traveling! After a breakfast of toast, fruit, and coffee, we got a ride to a bus station and a bus ride to Xela. I could see from the airplane that it was hilly, and I knew it was hilly, but on a bus I fully experienced the hillyness in that I had to hold on to the "oh shit" bar most of the trip so that Chrissy and I didn't topple into the aisle. I also tied up my bag after it slid halfway across the bus. We got to bungle our way through a conversation with a man who plays soccer in Guatemala City, has a teacher wife, and family who lives in Canada. Muy frio! I was proud for knowing that phrase, though I don't know if I spelled it correctly.
We arrived in Xela at 11:15 and had time to wander around the city. We ate at a cafe and I forgot that I needed to specify I wanted leche in my cafe. Oops. And enchiladas were flat taco shells with purple vegetables - cabbage? That was not my cup of tea, so I ordered nachos, which were tortilla chips with cheese. Perfecto. We spent some time relaxing in the parque central. Chrissy knitted and I drew as we enjoyed the ambient noise - drummers, guitars, children, and what appeared to be an American spouting religious stuff in broken Spanish on a microphone. A few dogs wandered by and then we got picked on by some 5-year olds. They were touching our stuff, which we allowed. But then one kid ran off with Chrissy's knitting needles. And then he took my glasses. Luckily with a little bit of my teacher look and his realization that we weren't going to chase him ended the dispute quickly.
Soon after it was time to head to school. We met one of the people in charge and then waited around for our host family to come pick us up. At 2:30 we were introduced to a young man, Danilo, and his son, Pablo. We walked to the car -a yellow sporty Mazda, the little boy climbed in the front seat, and we were off. At home we met the mother, Glendy, and their daughter, Daniela.
This is about where my confusion about the size and ages of people began. I am generally pretty good with the ages of children. But I was sure that Pablo was no more than five, but he is in fact six. And I thought Daniela was at least eleven, but she is nine. Later on, I observed lots of adults walking around with their children. Adults are on the shorter side - I am taller than most of the women. But kids were often as tall as their parents. So I developed a hypothesis that children grow rapidly between the ages of 7 and 12 and then just stop growing completely. Maybe? Es possible?
Moving on. The family also has a cute little dog and an adorable kitten. I met the kitten while he dangled from Pablo's arms. Pablo turned on the TV to watch Nick Jr and the rest of us sat at the table. As soon as they realized our Spanish was pretty poor, they got out their laptop and connected my tablet to the internet. And so began our conversation guided by Google translate. The family was quite friendly and welcoming, hugs from the beginning. Daniela complimented my colored hair. After chatting for awhile, we went out to dinner.
Chinese food! I had Japanese when I was in Paris, so why not. I remembered not to get water, but I forgot not to use ice. So I had three ice cubes, which so far haven't killed me. Earlier in the day, at the bed and breakfast, I used regular water to rinse my toothbrush. And, pretty much as I was there thinking about not throwing toilet paper in the toilet, I threw toilet paper in the toilet. I read the sign! But then my mind wandered and reflex took over.
We enjoyed large portions of Chinese food and a giant 2+ liter bottle of imitation Sprite. They got the whole bottle! Pablo got cranky, so I tried to distract him by stepping on floor tiles as we counted. We're both a little flaky on our numbers past doce though.
Daniela continued to admire my hair, so I joked, "no lo tienes cuando duermo!"
After, we went to the mall, spending a few minutes winding around the parking lot to find pretty much the very last spot. This is apparently where everyone in the city goes on Sunday evenings. We walked around, went into the attached Walmart, and then headed back to the car.
We stopped at a bread store before heading home. In Guatemala, it seems that seatbelts and Alto signs are both optional. At one point we used a stop sign as an opportunity to pass another car on the tight roads.
I was very happy to finally make it home. Pablo showed me his games and we played Connect Four while Nosi the dog and Cheetos the kitten used my leg as a shield to play with each other. Pablo did not know the rules, but I was able to teach him. I gave him hints by saying "tengo tres!" After, his dad challenged me and kicked my butt. Finally, I played Daniela, who won two games. So I gave up on that for the night and watched Chrissy and Pablo play some games as Cheetos fell asleep in my arms.
In short, I love my family even though I am older than my host mother, and I love my host kitten and I may just have to stay.
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