A day in my life in Guatemala

It's only my third day of classes, but I already have a routine. I have been waking up at 6:30, and then I usually spend a half hour getting up the courage to take a shower. It's so cold in the morning that I don't want to take my clothes off and stand on the cold floor. I do have hot water, but I learned the hard way that you only have to just turn the water on enough to get a bit more than a trickle to have hot water. The more you turn the handle, the colder the water gets and the higher the water pressure which makes the little hose that supplies water to the shower head pop off, and spray water all over the baño. In the ensuing chaos, I pulled the shower curtain down and broke the rod and thus have been showering with no curtain for two days. No matter, to get hot water there's not enough water for it splash all over. I head upstairs for breakfast at 7:30 and then leave the house at 7:50 to walk the six blocks to my school.

My class is from 8am-1pm and we get a break from 10:30-11am. They actually ring bells at class start time, break time and the end of the day. Cracks me up. There have been six other students at the school learning Spanish this week but they all leave tomorrow and next week I'll be the only one until who knows how long. All of the classes are one on one. Today, all the students who are leaving had to give a little presentation in Spanish saying what they learned, we played a Spanish word game, and then we all ate lunch together. Five of the students are part of a group from Naropa University and one was a man from Australia here on his own. The group from Naropa is heading to Lake Atitlán (a huge beautiful lake nearby) to do a week long yoga retreat. I'm totes jelly, but they gave me the name of the place so maybe I'll get to check it out one of these weekends.

Usually, at 1, I go home where I am served lunch. Lunch here is the biggest meal of the day which means that it's normal sized because dinner is teeny tiny.  At every meal, there is a basket of warm tamales on the table. Don't get too excited, they are mini tamales that have nothing in them, not even salt. Mayonnaise has become my new best friend.

After lunch, I rest a bit, change my clothes and then walk to my gym. I joined the bestest fanciest new gym in town because it was the only one that has spin classes. And oh, it's a whopping $25/month.  The gym is about two miles west of my house so it's a half hour walk to get there and another half hour back. My host mom has a buddy who's going to give me the skinny on which bus I can take to get there. When I get to the gym, I sit in the little cafe area and do some homework, use the internet, maybe have a protein shake. Then I change and get ready when it's time for spin class.

After the gym, I have to be home by 7 for dinner. Usually either the housekeeper girl or one of the little boys comes and knocks on my door to call me up for meals. I'm supposed to wait until I'm called.  There are a different variety of people present at each of the meals, and I usually stay at the table talking to everybody until I'm the last one.

My host parents said it's not a good idea for me to be out after 7, so I have been coming home at 7 every night and staying in. This is making me insane. I talked to my professor about it today and he says it's okay for me to be out until 10. Tomorrow he's going to show me some places that are close to my house and safe to walk home from where I can go after dinner to chill and do homework.

Tomorrow I am headed to Tapachula, Chiapas México for the weekend. It's about 90 miles away but of course it will take me four hours to get there. I walked all over town this afternoon inquiring at different bus companies how to get there and only found a few possibilities. I got home and Arlette, one of the other student-boarders, explained to me exactly how to do it. Of course.  So here's the plan for tomorrow after lunch:

Walk down to the Puma gas station and catch the bus the Minerva Terminal

At the Minerva Terminal, catch the bus to Coatepeque.

Get off the bus in Coatepeque, and hail a taxi to take me to the bank Banrural, the one where all the buses are.

At the Banrural, take the bus to the border town of Tecun Uman.

In Tecun Uman, hail a tricycle to drive me to the bridge.

Walk across the bridge, go through immigration.

Then hail a taxi or find a bus to Tapachula.

Wish me luck! 😂

What follows are pics of my breakfast, the kitchen in my house, my shower, my professor teaching in our tiny classroom, and my fancy gym. Note: It appears that I have no control over the order of the pics. They never appear in the order I upload them. Let me know if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them!!