1st Bday-very important!

Well, today is Josue's (my little Guatemalan bro's) 1st bday. Here in Guatemala for some reason they celebrate the 1st bday (if the family has money) with a big supper, a cake, maybe a pinata or something like that and invite a bunch of people over. So that will be this evening. Mariana (my Guatemalan Mom) keeps telling me that she told everyone to come for 7:30, but that they are always late and so we will probably only eat at 8pm. I think she's a little worried because Amber and I normally eat at 7pm. It was really cute when Nancy (Josue's mom) invited us because Mariana asked us if we wanted to have our own dinner like we usually do or if we would eat what they eat. I was kinda shocked. I was like, of course we'd love to eat with you and whatever it is that you are eating. Normally at our house I believe we eat the same meals, but not always. The issue is we eat supper at 7pm and they eat at 9pm. Anyways, I thought it was cute that she asked that. So I arrived to the house on Tuesday morning and the whole family was out killing and plucking their chikens. They killed 9 of them. I think for this grand dinner we are having today. Anyways, I took pictures. It's kinda gross, they were plucking them in our pila which is where our clothes and dishes are washed. Anyways, I guess that's life here. So here are some pics. Enjoy, I'll fill you in on how the party goes later.

Monterrico

So Amber and my last weekend together with our moms was spent in Monterrico, a beautiful, peaceful, black sand beach. We had a wonderful time suntanning, collecting seashells and swimming in the pool at our hotel. We didn't go swimming in the ocean because the waves were huge and it seemed a little dangerous as now is the winter, the rainy season. We had a wonderful time and I was able to eat my favorite shark ceviche! The 4 of us had a wonderful weekend and then on sunday we returned home with just enough time for our moms to pack up before leaving at 4:30 am on Monday morning. Thanks mom for a wonderful 2 weeks! Tizate and I miss you already!

Guatemalan Experience

So Amber and I wanted our mothers to have the Guatemalan experience which definitely entailed learning how to make tortillas. We had a lot of fun doing this with my Guatemalan mom who went through all the steps with us. Needless to say, they still turned out more like pancakes than tortillas due to their thickness. We even actually ate them with honey which was a new thing jajaja. We also brought our moms to our Enlish class and I think they had a great time. Sometimes my mom was more disruptive than my students though! We also took them on the chicken bus, which is always an experience in itself, but to compensate for the crazy drivers and whatnot we also took them to beautiful cafes for desert. The picture of Amber and I by a rack of boots is in the market where while on our way over, all 4 of us actually got totally hit on by a bunch of guys. It was really annoying, but quite funny. We were carrying some cowboy boots and they tried grabbing them from us and putting their arms around us and everything. My mom was not impressed, but when she pretended like she would punch him :P jajaja he put his arm around her. I was like, "you don't touch my mom!" Anyways, that was a funny moment. Amber and I have never been harrassed like that in the market before, must be our beautiful mothers' fault. Anyways, so the pic with us and the boots is in the tienda-shop where they are being sold for us. A couple pairs have already been sold which is really exciting. Hopefully as people come to realize boots are being sold there, business will pick up. I think that's it for now. More on our trip to Monterrico beach soon!

Livingston, the Caribbean Coast

Here are some pics of Livingston on the tour we took through the city to see the Garifuna area, the beach and the 7 Waterfalls. It was a wonderful day. We also saw 2 cops on motorcycles drive up stairs and over a little bridge. It was pretty neat. Adios!

Rio Dulce, Livingston, Puerto Barrios

Here are some pictures from our weekend getaway. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Livingston with a wonderful view and pool. I ate ceviche which tastes amazing and is fish cured in lime and cilantro and tomatoes that you eat with soda crackers or toasted tortillas. I love it. This weekend I'm gonna have it with Shark! Anyways, we took a couple boat rides, one down the river and one on the ocean. We also did a walking tour through the town and to 7 water falls which was beautiful. We also had a dinner at the house of our Garifuna tour guide. While we were there, I got my hair braided by his Jamaican girlfriend while my mom, our new friend Mike and our Garifuna friend Eddie cooked dinner. We had Red Snapper (the whole fish on our plate), mashed banana clumps which were seasoned and fried, kinda like hashbrowns and then cucumbers and carrots soaked in lime and salt. It was actually really good, but we only started eating at 10 pm which was pretty late. The next morning mom was a little sick, but it was a good experience.

Tizate with Mom

Hey,

Well here are some pics of my mom and her Spanish teacher Brenda who is also in my English class. I love this girl, she's 16 and has changed from being extremely shy and not speaking, to open and hugging and joking and laughing with us. I met her last year and have always felt a special connection with her. She was in my class last year as well and started opening up to me then, but now we are good friends :) She even said I was her best friend. I love her to death and am so happy that she was able to me my mom's Spanish teacher because they got along super well as well. Anyways, there is also a picture of Amber and her mom and me and my mom on the chicken bus. Oh, it was so cute. I came back from Livingston last weekend with my hair braided because Livingston has 3 different cultures living there. The Mayan, the Garifuna (which are black people who originated from Africa) and the mixed. I got my hair braided by a woman from Jamaica. So anyways, the day after I got back, the two grandaughters of my Guatemalan Mom, Mariana, both had their hair with little braids in it as well. It was so cute, so I got a picture with them as well. So that's a little update from this week, I still gotta post pictures from our past weekend. I don't know what I'm gonna do when my mom leaves. I'm gonna miss her like crazy! I told Brenda we could be sad together and she said we could cry together and then she said I could cry with her at her house. She's so cute. Oh, there is also a picture of Amber and I in the leather store where our boots are being sold. They've already sold 2 pairs! Anyways, gotta go!

Mom's in Tizate

Hey Guys,

Well, this past week has been awesome. My mom and Ambers mom are both here in Tizate with us. They arrived on the 11th and will be here until the 26th. They have been graciously helping us with our work, taking Spanish classes and today they are going to learn to make tortillas. I think they are enjoying the food, but miss their daily cup of good coffee. We call my mom Rosa out here. Everyone is always commenting on how we look alike and how young she is. It's funny. I've never really had people tell me that we look alike before. Well, it's ok by me, Mom's beautiful! The first few nites mom had a bit of difficulty with the roosters and all the other annoying animals, but now, with the sound machine, she pretty much sleeps like a baby. I'm so happy that she is here to meet my friends and students etc because now when I talk about stuff, she will be able to understand what I mean. I wish you could all come here! OH, guess what? We've got internet here in Tizate now!!!!!!! So happy about that, thank you Dad!!!!! So now I should be checking my email everyday if not a bunch of times daily. Email me about what's going on in your lives!!

Yes, we really are normal!

Here are some better pics of Amber and I :)

Would you still love me if I looked like this?

Ok so Julianna (not my sis, but leader here in Guatemala) got a new apple computer with a camera in it that can do weird things to pictures and here are the results. Fun times, funny faces, lots of laughts ;P

Pets in Tikal

I'd like to introduce you to my pet lizard named Schnukums. He lives in the shower in my bungalo in Tikal. My other animal friends consist of monkeys and some other animal I've never seen before as well as ants carying little leaves to their homes. Look at them all marching in line. Neat eh?

Tikal

Well, I was finaly able to make it up to the great Mayan Ruins of Tikal. I went with one of my best Guatemalan friends from the summer last year, Olga. We had a wonderful time seeing and climbing the ruins. It was super hot and there were definitely misquitos, but it was totally worth it. We did it all in two days and one night. We took a very small 18 passenger plane, and made it safe and sound. Guess who we saw making sacrifices in the altars at the ruins? No one other than Rigoberta Manchu who is famous here in Guatemala as she won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the one in the traditional clothes trying to cover her face with the green towel. I want to learn a bit more about her, but she fought for the rights of the indigenous people of Guatemala as well. It was a great trip, we met a guy from Spain named Angel and kinda hung out with him a lot because us three were really the only Spanish speakers in the hotel. It was really funny because his Spanish is so different than ours. A lot of the words he uses we totally don't use for the same type of thing as he does. Even Olga had dificulty understanding him at times! But he told me that I should be able to get by in Spain which is exciting. It's really odd because for some reason I keep running into Angel when I'm in Antigua. I guess Antigua seems like a pretty big city, but really it's not. Ok, so check out these pics.