Toto, We're Not In Saskatchewan Anymore . . . Part 2

So . . . .

Where to start?  I have had about a million blog ideas in the last 2 weeks but no time to write one.  And now I am not sure where to start.

So lets start with some "Big City Living" realizations.  Guate is a city with over 3 million people, I am from Saskatchewan where there are 1 million people in the entire province and Saskatchewan is FIVE times the size the country of Guatemala.  So for me, who loves numbers, this is a BIG change in numbers!

I think I have said this before but there are people everywhere all the time . . . in Guatemala right now they have a mandatory person registration . . . what I am getting from my interpretation of the signs is that everyone in the country must get a photo ID . . . anyway, one of 5 of these "person registration" sites is on the lower level of our building and there are people lined up down the street from 5AM til 6PM trying to get this registration done.  If we didn't look like complete foreigners I am sure they wouldn't let us into our building thinking we are trying to budge in line in front of them.  In the mornings as we wait for our bus we watch the people get off the chicken buses and race eachother over to the line.  Its a pretty funny site because I am really not sure how people get off those chicken buses once they are on.

So . . . I took a couple chicken bus pictures last Sunday while we were out for a walk . . . but since Sunday is the day of rest they were not nearly as entertaining as they normally are . . .

They call these buses "Killer Tomatoes", I am not sure if its because you could die riding them or they would just plough you down if you got out in front of them but I am really not sure I want to find out.  I still have not ventured on one of them but they cost 1Q which is like 12 cents Canadian so it is definately an affordable mode of transportation for a very poor country.

My transportation around this country consists of a school bus to and from school, car rides from our local tour guide, and my feet.  My feet tend to be the most dangerous of the modes as this is not a pedestrian friendly country and I tend to be in a daze most times when I walk.  I believe Kara has saved my life or maybe legs a few times since being here as people do not like to use signals or follow cross walks or stop signs or pretty much anything that would make it easy to decide whether it was safe to cross the street.  Also I think they may just want to plough down the girl with the blonde hair.

I need to end this blog and attend to some marking/planning but I feel I should leave it with some pictures of things I find entertaining about this country.

McDonalds along with every other fastfood restaurant delivers . . . I think I may have to start drinking more in order to fully appreciate fast food delivery!  But the dirt bike delivery vehicles are rather entertaining.

You know you are in a Latin American country when . . . the maniquans have BOOTIES!

Anyway anyone who knows me from Uni knows that I am pretty much the best procrastinator in the world so I say now that I am going to start marking/planning.  However, I do believe that I may take a nap/have some lunch . . .

I will blog again soon . . . I didn't even cover anything from the last 2 weeks.

Miss and Love you all!

Toto, We're not in Saskatchewan anymore

So . . . I really am not in Saskatchewan anymore.

Yesterday was probably one of those days I will never forget . . . ever!

So it is 6:00 AM. I am about to leave my apartment to got wait for the bus and I hear "Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang (long pause) . . . BANG". This time I am sure its not fireworks . . . and it really doesn't make me feel much better about going to wait outside in the dark on a street packed with people. GREAT START TO THE DAY!!

Around 9:30 AM I am in class with one of my classes that I normally really like but yesterday not so much . . . I had just finished lecturing them and am a little worked up when I sit down in my desk. I thought I was so angry that I was shaking my desk with my foot. Nope not that angry . . . It's just an EARTHQUAKE! The kids start freaking out I have no idea what to do . . . no one briefed me on what to do in the event of an earthquake! So I run into the hall and see the middle school coordinator and she says "you need to evacuate" . . . great to where? It's a good thing these kids knew what they were doing because I sure didn't.

My first earthquake . . . doesn't turn the day around.

I swear there must have been a full moon yesterday because the kids were insane! The earthquake probably didn't help much . . . but seriously I had to pop quiz one of my classes just to get them to calm down. It did not work . . . and after marking I am realizing how poor some of their English really is and that is not going to make teaching them science any easier.

To top things off . . . the bus left the school 2 minutes early . . . and we missed it! The bus that is always 10 to 30 minutes late picking us up in the morning leaves early . . . wonderful! So the next bus we could catch meant a 5 block walk home with 20 pounds of books on my shoulder. Gotta love that!

So the day ended with me crashing . . . hard . . . I couldn't even wake up to finish my planning for today. Uh oh!

Today was a better day. I actually had enough planned to make it through the day and I am finding the use of study hall very satisfying. HEHE!

First Trip to Antigua

Last weekend with the aid of our new colleague/tour guide we ventured out of our bubble to a wonderful little city called Antigua. Our goal was to experience some of traditional Guatemala and that we did. The city is very old with coble stone roads and traditional style buildings. The kind of Guatemala I was hoping to find upon arriving here.

We started with a trip to the market. It was pretty amazing . . . one side of the market had all of your traditional Guatemalan touristy stuff . . . the other side had everything else . . . literally everything else. You need shoes . . . they got'em . . . phone cards . . . got'em . . . pants . . . got'em . . . fruit . . . got'em . . . they have a little bit of everything and a lot of others.

On a brief jaunt through the streets we stumbled upon this old ruined church.

They had added on an area to the side of the ruins which contained an art gallery. The art was all very MOD and didn't fit the feel but it was very cool anyway.

The inside of the ruins appeared to have been turned into a restaurant. It was not open while we are there but I snuck a brief peak and it looked pretty fancy.

We then ventured to a wonderful little restaurant that served fabulously delicious Guate dishes. I ate the "Souban-Iq", it was a stew like thing that contained pork, beef and chicken in a tomato type sauce. Very good, but beware of the bones!

Our next stop was a monument on the side of one of the hills that overlooked the city.

(Decroly ladies: Jimena, Jen, and Kara)

OOPS! Wrong one . . . we went to high . . . time to venture down the hill.

I am not sure what this monument was for . . . but it might have something to do with "God".

The view was spectacular.

Me and my P.I.A.C., quite possibly the two whitest people in all of Guatemala.

More of the view of Antigua.

In the Central Park of Antigua . . . such a funny fountain . . . the mermaids are lactating water. This country has some pretty hilarious monuments . . . and a lot of them.

After meeting up with some fellow N.B.'ers we head towards the Finca Filadelfia . . . a coffee farm on the edge of Antigua.

Let's just take a moment . . .

To honour the best coffee in the world. As I write this my mouth is salivating at the thought of this coffee. Seriously, I might need a napkin. Sorry Kevin, I miss Tims but Tims ain't got nothing on the Finca Filadelphia. If only I could get someone to bring me a cup of this every morning at 6AM.

(Kara, Jimena, Miguel, Jen, Curtis, and Carissa)

We shut the place down . . . they pretty much had to ask us to leave . . . I probably would have moved in if they didn't make me leave. Not only was the coffee delicious but the grounds were gorgeous.

There were even some Llama's for my momsie.

It's hard to see, but some timber post and beam for the brother.

I highly recommend this place . . . did I mention how good the coffee was?

I am sure over the next 10 months I will be returning to Antigua . . . it was a nice escape from the craze of the city and only 35 minutes away.

Tomorrow we have planned a trip to Zone 1 . . . perhaps a visit to the palace and the market . . . and hopefully we return home unscathed . . . we will have our tour guide with us so it is a little less scary.

Wondering what quiet sounds like?

I am sitting here in my bed listening to the noises of the city and I realise I don't think there has been a moment of silence since I arrived here last Monday morning. I have never lived in a city this big before. I am from Saskatchewan and this city has 3 times the population of all of Saskatchewan and that means there is always something happening . . . always.

I spoke of the buses before and I sure I will speak of them more because they may be one of the most insane things I have ever seen in my life . . . but these buses like to honk . . . even when there is no reason to honk . . . they honk. This morning at 6:10 as we wait to catch are bus . . . trying not to be fully awake in hopes of catching a few winks on the way to school . . . the buses start honking . . . and there is no hope for winks . . . maybe hope for a headache . . . but no winks.

People walk the streets amongst the cars trying to sell their flowers or agendas or phonecards shouting out at every car they see. I can see the appeal to do this in a tourist area . . . but Guatemala City is no tourist area. I am not sure how they make a living but they sure do try and I definitely give them props for all they do.

Guatemala city has expanded quite a bit over the years and because of this the airport is very close to the city. Actually in the city. And I am on the 13Th floor of an apartment building. This means the planes are very close . . . very very close . . . like shake your core when they fly by close.

Anyway the dark is approaching, but not the quiet. The planes and fireworks should be starting soon. (At least I hope they are fireworks!) The quiet of Saskatchewan will be something I will miss although I think I am getting used to the noise . . . hopefully I can still hear when I come back . . . but I guess if I survived the pool with my hearing I can survive this.

Lost In Translation

Monday morning 6:30 A.M. my new P.I.C. (partner in crime) or should I say P.I.A.C. (partner in avoiding crime) get off of our overnight flight from Chicago to Guatemala City. The flight itself was fine, the 10 hour layover was exhausting. We clear customs no problem which is a huge change for me I usually get the full on interogation, I didn't even have to wait in line they let us right through. This was probably because Kara (P.I.C.) had no bags, somehow they never left the Toronto airport, I would have died she handled it very well, remember we didn't have carry ons. We are greeted outside by 2 very small but very friendly people Javier and Sheila. I instantly notice how small the Guatemalans are, I could possibly be descibed as TALL!!! compared to the women here. It's wonderful, they all walk around in 4 inch heals and I am still taller than them! WOOT WOOT! This has never happened to me before I am very excited!

On our drive from the airport I come to understand the phenomenon I had been reading about. Guatemal city has these buses they call "Chicken Buses" I never understood this term until I saw them. They literally look like those truck boxes transporting chickens they are so packed full of people. I will take a pictures soon. I have been told I am not allowed to ride these buses because they are so dangerous. Apparently they are all independently run and are known to have someone come on the bus shoot the driver and take the money and run. I still would like to experience these one day . . . I may take one to Antigua sometime apparently these are the safer ones.

We arrive at our apartment building to find out it is an old hotel they have converted into apartments. It is called the El Cortijo and I live on the 13th floor . . . but in the elevator it isn't actually the 13th floor the button doesn't actually say 13 and the numbers that light up above the door don't light up on when I get to 13. The apartment itself is pretty awesome, it's probably the size of the little brick houses a family of 5 would live in here, so I think I lucked out.

The best part . . . the closet!

The bathroom . . . no tub!
The living room . . .

The view from my balcony. The photo in the middle shows the volcanoe. Sweet I know!

After dropping our belongings off at our apartments we went for breakfast at a restaurant that is in an aquarium, it was pretty cool and apparently one of the most popular restaurants in the city. We were then dropped back off at our appartments and spent the rest of our afternoon "lost in translation". Our first challenge was finding a grocery store . . . these two little Gringas walking down the street towards Zone 4 (approaching sketchy) who maybe speak 6 words of spanish between us trying to ignore the cat calls and street merchants as we go. "The food smells great but don't eat it" we have been told! Groceries were a semisuccess except for the phone card we needed to purchase. We had to return home. unload, pull out the phrase book and proceed out again. I thought it would be something like Mexico where you can get by with your English . . . but there is no way . . . very few people actually speak English in this city. Even with our attempt at Spanish the phone card took about 5 merchants before someone actually understood what we were saying. On the plus side Q75 about $10 CDN seems to last a long time considering I have been making international calls.

All is well I will blog about more later.

And away we go . . .

Here I am, sitting in the Chicago airport about to enjoy the remaining 8 hours of my 10 hour layover. YAY!!!

Wouldn't be so bad if I could clear security and didn't have to lug around enough luggage to last a small family a year. But my connecting airline counter doesn't open for another 5 hours and I can't leave my luggages side. (It has been announced every 5 minutes since I got here.) Still haven't established what I am going to do if I need to use the washroom in the next 5 hours because these bags won't fit in a stall with me . . . however I am in the states and it is a super size country, maybe they have super size stalls?

The trip started on a low note with my carry-on bad being rejected due to additional screening measures for those entering the US from international locations. So with the quick thinking of the Mom and a gift shop satchel and some quick suitcase repacking I was as good to go as I was going to be. Upon arriving here in Chicago I find one of the biggest airports I've ever seen and I am only in Terminal 5, there are 4 others. There are so many airline counters in this terminal my A.D.D. kicked in before I could finish counting them all. After another repacking of my bags (I can now have a carry on, the additional screening only applies to those arriving in the US not those already in the US, makes sense eh? Us Canadians are known for our unrest and violence or wait is it for being one of the most peaceful nations in the world . . . I am going to have to go with the latter.) and some nasty airport food I am ready for a nap before I enter lag 2 of my venture south.

I am now going to go and try to find a corner and curl up on my suitcases. Doubtful since every inch of this airport is covered with people but I will try none the less.