Hola mis compadres!
It’s Liza here, blogging from the gringo friendly cafe, La Cafetera. Where do I begin? This week has definitely passed by much faster than the week we spent in Pasac. This is a good thing. Pasac was overall, an amazing and wonderful experience that I’ll always remember. However, upon our arrival in Xela, I had one thing on my mind and one thing only: to take a hot shower. Waterfall showers in the rainy jungles of Pasac just doesn’t really clean you off after a day of playing soccer in the mud with endless amounts of tiny energetic children. Besides showering, there was one other thing on my mind, food! The majority of our conversations on the three hour bus ride from Pasac to Xela revolved around pizza, pan (guatemala’s bread delicacy), and any other kind of americanized food that we had been deprived of. When we arrived at Xelaju, the Spanish language school that we would be attending for the following two weeks, we were warmly greeted by our host families. I have never been more grateful for a comfertable house with my own bedroom, a clean bathroom, and meals cooked for me three times a day. We started our exploration of the historic and lively city of Quetzaltenango on Sunday the 26th of September after spending our first night with our host families. Everyone was eager to go to El Mercado and check out the local food joints. On Monday we started spanish school at Xelaju, each student getting paired with a professor. Classes last from eight until one, with the lessons ranging from the studying of verbs and vocab in a classroom, to walking the streets of Xela making small talk and bettering our conversational skills. At first a lot of people were reluctant to go back to the classroom (didn’t we do this trip to avoid school?!) but overall it’s a good feeling to start of the day with purpose and I know I will value the lessons, at the very least, for the remainder of our time in Central America. After school, most people spend their afternoon shopping in the local market, which has an affluence of striped skirts and pants, drug rugs (a popular striped wool sweatshirt type thing), jewelry, and lots of nasty raw meat and unappetizing vegetables. And have no fear, I think everyone here has taken full advantage of the exchange rate, roughly eight quetzales to a dollar. Besides browsing the market, much time is spent lounging in comfertable cafes sipping cappuccinos, as I am doing right now. Oh! another favorite pass time in Xela is eating pan. Guatemala is renowned for its plentitude of sweat bread. Let me expand upon that: donuts, creme filled pastries, scones, eclairs, and many other kinds of fluffy white breads which I do not know the names of. It is now custom that we go to La Paneria daily to fulfill our helpess cravings for the most delicious bread we have ever tasted.
To give you a visual of the group, many of mis amigos have decorated themselves with beautful jewelry from the market, colorful hair wraps (which Ernesto has a full head of), and colorful clothing from the market. We are beautiful!
Now, to sum it all up I will touch on the highlight of my week, my birthday! We all went out to La Disquoteca Parrenda for a night of embarassing ourselves on the dance floor and experiencing a little of the night life in Xela. There were two or three salsa dancers who stood in front of our massive group of awkwardly moving gringos on the dance floor, and tried to show us how to swing our hips and step with grace and agility. It was awesome to get out on the dance floor and have some fun group bonding by embarassing ourselves a little. The concensus is, the first week in Xela was incredible, I can totally see myself coming back here, and I am extatic to spend another week here! We are all bien, and I hope you all are doing great as well back home, where ever that may be. Happy thoughts from the CarpeDiem Itza group!
PS- Puchiba means “wow” in Quiche.
