So I´ve started language school, and moved in with a guatemalan family. The Something-Rojas. Super friendly, animated, funny, and super catholic family. Sergio is the dad, he owns a breadshop and we always have this kinda spongy, sweet bread with our meals. The mom is catalina or carolina (theyre pronounced about the same and I still dont know exactly.) Super good cook, nice lady, but I get the evil eye from her time to time. Gaby is the oldest daughter, 20ish? Josue is their son, 17. Youngest daughter is dulce (spanish for sweet,) super funny little girl. When I first arrived only Josue was there cus the rest of the family was at mass. After mass, The dad piled all the kids plus an assortment of cousins, neighbors, and possibly passerbys into their 2 door 1990 civic. (definitely not hating on the car, its got character and comfortably seats 8 somehow.) We drove up the mountain to a park called Baul. Its a super cool park, distinctly guatemalan. Theres these huge concrete slides, you have to sit on cardboard to slow you down, otherwise you go too fast and land in the woods at the bottom. All the metal slides are rusted through at some spot, or way too wobbly to trust. Theres this huge faux-ancient statue in the middle of the park of the mayan tecun figure. Its about 20-40 feet high. At the back, its brick, and after about 15 feet theres just ladder rungs. At the top of this hill, theres a lookout from which you can see all of xela. We stood around the park exchanging really basic simple and kinda awkward spanish. We returned to the most delicious lunch ive had since getting to guatemala. Ribs, rice, potatoes, some kind of shredded vegetables, fresh squeezed vegetable juice, tamalitoes. basically all the meals here are way good.
Started spanish class, its pretty cool. It gets rough hammering four hours of grammar and not being able to speak a word of english (i think my teacher understands it but just pretends he doesnt, cus i made him laugh the other day but the joke was in english.) My teachers pretty cool, he has a metal band that mostly does metallica songs. Aparrently, guatemalan music isnt popular in guatemala. he says no one gets famous off original tracks/music. Im really settling into xela its cool.
The other night, i drove around with the family looking for somewhere to buy a rose at 930 at night. (cus dulce remembers all of a sudden she needs one for school) We ended up at the graveyard, which happen to be pretty much the most colorful thing in whatever guatemalan town your in. Afterwards, we went to central park and got some salvadorian food i cant rememer the name of. basically fresh fried tortilla chips with beef cheese onions and tomatoes all together. It was a good time, and im starting to break the communication barrier with the family. Its really cool getting to know them.
Yesterday i went to Zunil. Tiny dirty little town up in the mountains, known throughout central america for its huge carrots. According to the guy i went with, they grow so big cus of all the fertilizer runoff in the nearby river. Theres a dump by the river too, and in the dump are huge vulturesque raven type birds... their heads are probly waist high on me. In Zunil, theres a creepy old dilapidated church. Its full of these christian statue/doll things in glass cases. I have trouble describing them. The jesus one was super strange. A Bloody jesus doll in a glass case chillin with a bunch of light bulbs...
Last night I went to karaoke at the local coffee shop and had a brew. Really fun time. I sang Lean On Me with a group of fellow whiteys, and Suzie Q solo. I figured suzie q is super simple, and wouldnt be tough, but the simplicity kinda messed me up. I forgot when to say what, and tried to do it without looking at the screen. Big mistake, kinda. But the point of karaoke is kinda to suck at it, right?
Walking in the door at 1145 smelling of smoke and beer kinda got me an evil look. Tomorrow I walk to Baul with the family, hopefully this will redeem some brownie points. If not, 630 mass at the church??
uhh im starting to forget//not want to journal every night, and the days are starting to blend, im getting used to life here. sorry no dates. i probly forgot some stuff too. tough luck
