sorry for my prolonged absence aqui. i've been muy busy and when i do have tiempo libre, i feel like laying and not thinking. i will totally upload all the nifty photos i got while i was traveling the countryside soon. but i will give no date!
anyways, it's almost march! yesssss
things in the future:
saturday i'm attending a wedding, going to show every how to dance yrself clean
sunday is a freeeee day in antigua, god bless we're due
next wednesday i have my last presentation at the muni
next thursday i get my site assignment :-D
then a week from this sunday i visit my site for a week and chill with my future friends
now, i must do some much dreaded homework and then hopefully watch a few episodes of dexter to help me forget how much i'd like to murder someone for a nice steak with some garlic mashed potatoes, double stuffed oreos, sour gummy worms, and happy hour margaritas. you know what guatemala needs? don and millie's. foolish third world country...
oh ya! and volcán fuego freaking exploded this morning! with lava! holy shit, the entire town shook and it was awwwwwwwwwwesome. note to nebraska, invest in some cooler natural disasters, i'm bored of tornadoes.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
too noble to neglect
deceived me into thinking
i had something to protect
good and bad, i define these terms
quite clear, no doubt, somehow
ah, but i was so much older then
i’m younger than that now
it's weird, like the longer i'm here the less serious i take myself. and i know, some people are going to think that's impossible because i never really take myself that seriously. but being this far away from anything that makes sense sort of numbs you to those norms that run your life with fear. speaking out of turn, caring about how your hair looks or what others are thinking when they see you. the constant reality trap of living in the States is sort of lifted here. don't get me wrong, one thing that Guatemalans are big on is dressing nicely, but this being a poor country means that dressing nice can still be pretty casual. i'll get compliments for wearing a collared shirt; i dressed up for a presentation i had to give at the municipality the other day and was turning heads the entire walk to the building. what i'm getting at here is that i don't care about showering in the morning, i've come to terms with bed hair--or forgotten it looks disgusting. i'm also aware of my awful, though improving, language skills. so repeating the same broken sentence and doing tons of pointing to get my idea or request across doesn't feel stupid anymore. it's just how i get around. and people like it, i'm interesting, i'm funny, i know i look stupid, and it's just okay now. life is much smoother when you get yourself out of the americanized mind-set. wonderful even.
anyways, it's been a while! i am, in fact, alive and healthy. so stop worrying for a couple days. last week was painful and filled so i didn't really have much time to do this. last tuesday i was painfully sick and was sort of out-of-commission--i'll spare you all the disgusting details. then friday i went on a trip to a coffee plantation and visited a traditional mayan music museum. pictures below. saturday i went to a mayan ceremony, which was super interesting. they see the natural world in a real abstract way and it's so cool to look at it in such a drastically different light. i'd love to try and explain it but i feel like i wouldn't represent it very well, so i'd encourage you all to take some glances at mayan beliefs. do a quick google search or wait for me to live here a few more months so i can get a better grasp on it, haha.
this week has just flown by. gave my first charla (presentation) on wednesday. i was mad stressed about it for the last week and it really weighed down my spirit. i need to toss a special shout out to morgan for letting me bitch and moan about my life, so wonderful to put up with my bullshit with a smile and kind words :-) it was a necessary evil, or at least i'm going to keep telling myself that.
and this weekend i get another free day! i think we're all about due. then sunday i'll be taking off to the country side for what's called FBT (field-based training) where we'll be getting our hands dirty at a couple volunteer sites. super excited, but i'll be out of contact for about a week. just an fyi to anyone i haven't talked to already.
anyways, let's do some pictures!
OH HEY GUYS. that's the department i live in!
and off the la azotea...
time to take the tour!
this is a whole bunch of coffee drying in the sun. i racked some of it! it was like free labor...
our awesome guide (don't recall his name) showing us something (not sure what) sorry, this was already a long time ago!
baby coffee bushes
part of the garden after the tour, so pretty!
and into the museum, some cool pictures of traditional mayan activities
mayan handy-crafts and ME :)
these dudes are doing some serious rocking
some larger handy-crafts
i'm going back to buy this, no question
geeeetar and some other shtuff
this was really cool and HUGE. they like carry this around, almost like a float during a parade.
so life has been GOOOD lately. and i'll have sooo many pictures for next weekend hopefully. going to a lot of really cool places this next week, so stay tuned!
deceived me into thinking
i had something to protect
good and bad, i define these terms
quite clear, no doubt, somehow
ah, but i was so much older then
i’m younger than that now
it's weird, like the longer i'm here the less serious i take myself. and i know, some people are going to think that's impossible because i never really take myself that seriously. but being this far away from anything that makes sense sort of numbs you to those norms that run your life with fear. speaking out of turn, caring about how your hair looks or what others are thinking when they see you. the constant reality trap of living in the States is sort of lifted here. don't get me wrong, one thing that Guatemalans are big on is dressing nicely, but this being a poor country means that dressing nice can still be pretty casual. i'll get compliments for wearing a collared shirt; i dressed up for a presentation i had to give at the municipality the other day and was turning heads the entire walk to the building. what i'm getting at here is that i don't care about showering in the morning, i've come to terms with bed hair--or forgotten it looks disgusting. i'm also aware of my awful, though improving, language skills. so repeating the same broken sentence and doing tons of pointing to get my idea or request across doesn't feel stupid anymore. it's just how i get around. and people like it, i'm interesting, i'm funny, i know i look stupid, and it's just okay now. life is much smoother when you get yourself out of the americanized mind-set. wonderful even.
anyways, it's been a while! i am, in fact, alive and healthy. so stop worrying for a couple days. last week was painful and filled so i didn't really have much time to do this. last tuesday i was painfully sick and was sort of out-of-commission--i'll spare you all the disgusting details. then friday i went on a trip to a coffee plantation and visited a traditional mayan music museum. pictures below. saturday i went to a mayan ceremony, which was super interesting. they see the natural world in a real abstract way and it's so cool to look at it in such a drastically different light. i'd love to try and explain it but i feel like i wouldn't represent it very well, so i'd encourage you all to take some glances at mayan beliefs. do a quick google search or wait for me to live here a few more months so i can get a better grasp on it, haha.
this week has just flown by. gave my first charla (presentation) on wednesday. i was mad stressed about it for the last week and it really weighed down my spirit. i need to toss a special shout out to morgan for letting me bitch and moan about my life, so wonderful to put up with my bullshit with a smile and kind words :-) it was a necessary evil, or at least i'm going to keep telling myself that.
and this weekend i get another free day! i think we're all about due. then sunday i'll be taking off to the country side for what's called FBT (field-based training) where we'll be getting our hands dirty at a couple volunteer sites. super excited, but i'll be out of contact for about a week. just an fyi to anyone i haven't talked to already.
anyways, let's do some pictures!
OH HEY GUYS. that's the department i live in!
and off the la azotea...
time to take the tour!
this is a whole bunch of coffee drying in the sun. i racked some of it! it was like free labor...
our awesome guide (don't recall his name) showing us something (not sure what) sorry, this was already a long time ago!
baby coffee bushes
part of the garden after the tour, so pretty!
and into the museum, some cool pictures of traditional mayan activities
mayan handy-crafts and ME :)
these dudes are doing some serious rocking
some larger handy-crafts
i'm going back to buy this, no question
geeeetar and some other shtuff
this was really cool and HUGE. they like carry this around, almost like a float during a parade.
so life has been GOOOD lately. and i'll have sooo many pictures for next weekend hopefully. going to a lot of really cool places this next week, so stay tuned!
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