Otra, otra noche otra

Since it´s been a couple of days since I had enough tiempo (and a good enough internet connection) to blog, I have a few things to tell you all--and it´s been such a busy/tiring few days, it all sort of runs together and I have no idea what the actual days were. HA! All I know is that today is viernes.

After Atitlan we had a 3 hour bus ride to Chichicastenango--but we only traveled about 40 kilometros. My point is that we are going up and down and around montañas, so the driving isn´t so great but I have good conversations on the bus so it makes the time go by more quickly. Something that is different than when I studied in Costa Rica is that when we were not in classes or out with other spanish speakers, we didn´t normally speak spanish--here, I only speak spanish (the truth is that, now, I have to think about what I am going to say in ingles).

Chichicastenango
After our arrival, we had a nice cena and then we had a littel fiesta with my group of friends--there´s about 10 or so that I hang with...and of those 10, maybe 3-4 that I am usually always with. It was a very fun noche. I stayed up too late and had a little too much ron but I figure that, after this week when we start clases, I am going to have to be a hermit, so I am going to make this week count.

The next day we went to visit a church where we saw paganism of the mayas and the catholicism of the españoles all in one lugar. It was a catholic church that during their masses, the mayas conducted their pagan rituals at the same time in the middle isle. It was interesting. After the church, we went to this cementary/ceremonial spot where along side the burials sites we ceremonial sites that were used to give offerings to their gods/spirits. It basically a fire that they tend to as they are putting stuff in it as a sacrafice. The bigger the need, the bigger the sacrafice. They don´t sacrafice people, but they do sacrafice animales, which I am happy to say that I did NOT see. But, that, too, was interesante. Finally, we got to go SHOPPING!! :) Chichicastenango has the biggest mercado in Guatemala. It was HUGE! I bought a lot of cute stuff for very little dinero. The most interesting thing I bought (and that I can tell you because most of the things I bought were gifts) was a traditional get-up: a huipil, which is basically a shirt, a corte, a skirt, and a faja, a belt. One of my amigas got one with me...we figured it would be a good idea to get them so we could actually show our students the culture instead of just talking about it. After the market, we drove another two hours (mas o menos) to arrive to Quetzaltenango. Again, good conversation, bad driving.

Quetzaltenango
For dinner in Quetzaltenango we thought that it would be divertido if we wore our traditional dress to dinner to surprise people, so...we did. It was very gracioso, and I think we actually looked pretty darn guapas. After dinner, we had another fun-filled night with most of my possi. We went dancing with our guide, Oscar, who is something like 50 years old but SO SO asombrante. We went to a discoteca and we bailamos mucho until about 1 or 2 in the morning. It was typical latino music and we danced the cumbia, merenque, etc. Oscar, taught us all how to mooove--well mainly just me because the rest of them are nativos and already know how. :)

Finally, today we had to drive 4 kilometros to the pueblito we visited. That drive turned into a 2 hour viaje...for 4 km. We have a charter bus, but the streets in these towns are not made for them!! We got stuck. They had to call the centro de transportacion to help us. After about 45 min or so waiting on the bus, we shuffled off and loaded into 4 minivans. There was 16 people in mine, and when I say minivan, that is what I mean.  That was fun! After we got there, the vistas were breathtaking and it was like going back to pre-colombian days, but with carros and some electricidad. It was a little village that cultivated everything for themselves and we saw the hills full of people working. You´ve all seen the fotos...feilds scattered with indios covered from head to toe to protect from the sol with hoe in hand working away. That´s exactly what I saw today. It was a little surreal because it was so similar to what I had imagined.

After our morning trip, we came back to the hotel to for lunch and some descanso. I was tired so I didn´t go to our afternoon outing. I stayed behind with some people to read (boring, right??? but we have SOO much to read). And now...I am about to go to dinner and despues, a bailar again. :)

Tomorrow we are going to Antigua to meet our familias, but I think we have something like 6 or 9 horas on the bus, so..ugh. I am ready to start the real deal, but am sad because I have been having so much fun and now it has to be limited to the weekends. Oh well. Asi es.

That´s all for now. Next time, I will be talking about my classes, and hopefully what a relief it is to know that they aren´t going to be that hard.

Adios. (And for those of you that know spanish, please excuse my lack of accentos. This keyboard is driving me loca and I have no idea how to get them.) :)