With my 8 weeks of Spanish classes anyway. Today I took my final exam, tomorrow is a class presentation called Clausura... we´ll see how that goes, but really in my mind today was the last bit of uphill road, and now I am descending. Finally.
8 weeks of 4 hours of spanish class everyday, and little freedom even on our free afternoons had begun to wear me down. But now it is on to free travel!
Free travel is sparking a whole new set of worries in me though. I am going with 3 other people to the tropical island of Utila. It takes 12 hours by bus to get there, so we are leaving for the bus station at 3:30 AM, then we´ll have to stay in a hotel in La Ceiba before getting up bright and early to get to the ferry around 5 AM the next morning.
OH! And none of the cheap hotels on Utila take reservations.... sooo we are just going to show up, walk around with all our stuff, and find a hotel with vacancies. Hopefully it shouldn´t be tough, but for someone like me... not having plans is a little stressful.
It is a growing experience, growing experience... etc. etc. That´s my mantra.
This past weekend was our last free weekend with our host families, it also happened to be my host mom´s father´s birthday, so we went to pay a surprise visit. PS: my host mom is from Honduras!
So we all hopped in the car and took off for Honduras on Saturday morning after my host dad finished his turno at work. It was about a 7 hour drive- add two hungry, crying babies and you have yourself an adventure! No, but really it was a good time. Honduras is absolutely beautiful, we were in San Pedro Sula, it was hot and sticky and rainy and everything was green. I met a LOT of extended family, ate a lot of good food, and spent most of my waking weekend in the car.
This week has been nice and relaxing after the busy weekend. We finished up all our class material, so we spent the last few days planning and practicing our clausura, reviewing for the test, and playing games. Kathryn and I began our mission for the next month: Eat as many mangos as possible so that when we return home... we no longer love them, crave them, or even want to think about them.
During this mission we are also determined to find out how many mangos it is humanely possible to eat before digestion is negatively effected. So far, so good. Yesterday we went across the pasarela and each bought a few mangos to start out our mission... each cost Q2.75 ... a little more than 25 cents. YUM
Tonight and tomorrow I have to say goodbye to my family here. It is so hard to believe that I have spent 8 weeks with them already. I so clearly remember that first night here, I was so uncomfortable and literally on the verge of tears every time I thought of home. I didn´t think I would make it. But what a wonderful experience it has been - I have been so blessed to spend so much time with one family, getting to know them and feel included in their daily lives.
So that is my agenda: Pack everything, say goodbye, do clausura, go to Utila, find somewhere to live.
Things I will miss from Guatemala:
The lady at the coke stand
My host sisters (and finding Eva messing with all my stuff in my room... then acting innocent and saying she was doing "nana")
Mangos
The simple satisfaction of getting a seat on the bus
The man who runs past me in the mornings and tries to practice his english
Chocobananos
Edna, my spanish teacher, and all her silly quirks
Jacaranda trees (which are in full bloom right now!)
PIBAMA smoothies (piña, banano, y mango) for a little over $1
The guy at the grocery store who knows me by name and practices his english while I practice spanish
the weather
FRIJOLES
mucho mucho mucho mas.
Things I won´t miss:
whistles and stares
smog
packed buses and hands on my butt
guns
4 hours of class
... un poquito mas
And a funny story for your enjoyment:
On Tuesday night I went to Lucas´s house for dinner because his family wanted to meet me. Many of you proabably know my nervous... thing... of blushing. Ugh. Maybe it was because I was nervous, or still had a little fever, or maybe it was a weird reaction to the Chloroquin I had just taken... at any rate, my face felt like it was burning.
Lucas´s older brother Diego asked me "¿Por que tu cara esta roja?¿ Estas nerviosa?" - why is your face red, are you nervous?
And Lucas, laughing at my now even REDDER (because all the attention was on me) face says
"No, no, no, su cara siempre esta roja, especialmente cuando ella esta EMBARASADA" - no no no, her face is always red, especially when she is pregnant. PREGNANT. .... and I knew this was coming as soon as he started the sentence, so I was just sitting there frantically shaking my head saying "no nonnonononono. AVERGONZADA"
Embarasada is just one of those cursed words that sounds like what you think you want to say, but means something totally different.
Needless to say everyone was laughing, my face was ridiculously red, and Lucas was just a little confused. Once I had stopped laughing enough to let him know the difference in the words, we all started laughing again.
oooooh cultural and language differences.
This might be it for a while, OFF TO HONDURAS!
blessings,
-Jenn
No comments:
Post a Comment