Day 2 in San Pedro

SOmuch to say, and so little desire to be on the internet. Here are some pictures stolen off the net to help you visualize. The church is around the corner from my house.

After 3 busses, a boat, and a lot of rain I made it to San Pedro. It is a very beautiful place, and I have to say the weather almost makes it more appealing to me- it is about 72 degrees and either raining, or not raining. Its been raining extremely hard at night, and yesterday it was a total douwnpour when I walked to class (as in Skylar conpletely soaked, and feels stupid for only brining 2 pairs of socks and one pair of pants. Whatever...). Basically, its Tacoma in the spring plus 10 degrees, with thunder and lightning. Anyway, I was imediately dropped off at my school, La Flor del Maiz, where I very nice teacher named Jose told me hed take me to my family after the evenings activity, a lecture on la cosmovision maya (mayan worldview). What a way to start out! I understood about 70%, the same as the other students, so I was feeling pretty good until I did meet my family and participated in an extremely awkward dinner in which the father (Javier, also the owner of my school) asked only 2 or 3 questions and I pooly attemped to provide answers. I did understand that he thought I was coming in the morning and had been waiting for me all day (oops!)

Yesterday in the morning I had breakfast with Javiers wife, Lola. She is very sweet and much easier to talk to. She taught me how to make tortillas, which I suck at, no matter how many times she told me my 2 that didnt fall apart in my hands were muy bien. Lola does not work outside their home, except to weave skirts and belts, really typical for a Mayan woman. She mostly cleans and takes care of their daughter Lolita, age 9. Lolita is very cute, and seems quite micheveous. We sit at the breakfast table and she giggles endlessly at me. After that we cleaned, and I attempted to take a walk around San Pedro, but it was raining too much (This will be a common theme, I meant to do X, but it was raining...) My first class was in the afternoon with my teacher Demis. The other students (Currently 3 brits and a woman from Seattle-Denver) say hes the best, though based on their assesments of the other teachers, hes the most patient and thus the best. He is extremely patient. We laugh alot constructing simple sentenses like- I dont like rats, people who eat them are strange.- Apparently someone tricked him into eating one once... My classes are 4 hours long, but they hardly seem like it. We spent the entire time reviewing basic concepts, which was really helpful. Its apparently really common for people to come with lots of working knowledge of the language, but no understanding of grammar, like myself. Two of the brits left this morning so last night we went to a gringo bar for desert and drinks Apparently, I like cubo libres. It was very relaxing to talk in English for 2 hours, lemme tell ya. We covered normal travel topics, for example- what do people really think of Obama, and what happens if a homeless person with no insurance needs to see a doctor. I had forgot about the inevetable part of traveling that is being a US ambasador. I also forgot how much more people from Europe travel. Another question -why dont many americans have passports- is also very common. The two students who left this morning are on a 18 month adventure up and down s. and c. america, through india and through new zealand! It was refreshing to be around poeple who also feel that most extra funds should go towards travel.

Today I switched to morning classes and had more review time with Demis. We take breaks after about 2.5 hours and then the tables are turned- we students tease our teachers about their usage of English, and talk about slang expressions. Today I learned several ways to say womanizer and slut. Ah, life education. This afternoon our extra activity will be a Salsa lesson, yay!

What else is important¿ Food. So far Ive had mostly steak, black beans, and tortillas. So. many. corn. tortillas. And coffee, even Lolita drinks coffee! This morning Lola surprised me with a huge breakfast of chocolate pancakes, watermellon, and pineapple with yogurt and syrup! Breakfast here is a normal size, lunch is supposed to be a big meal, and dinner is very small. As my fellow student Jono put it, dinner is f-ing paltry! Lunch is a mormal sized meal in the US, and dinner is very, very small. But its enough, and only slightly akward that Lola and Javier give themselves portions half as large as mine...

This weekend is a popular one for fiestas in mayan towns, so I think I will go to the next village over, Santiago, for their festival. I would also like to climb one of the two volcanoes on either side of San Pedro- its astonishing how deep the lake is and how imediately close the mountians are. However, that would necessitate 5 dry hours, which might just be a miracle.

Thats all I can think of for now. Hasta luego!