Antes me ducho cada dia...

Every day before I take a shower, I have to go through a process. Since I'm too lazy to describe it in words, here are pictures for you to enjoy

I turn the brown switch to the left 2x to turn on the gas

I stick a lighted match inside that hole to start the fire

For pressure,

Only slightly - a quarter of the way

After this, I go to the shower head and turn it on. The water sort of dribbles. There is not a lot of pressure in the shower head. If I want good pressure, then I would shower in very cold water.

After I turn the shower head on, the whole stove rows and columns light up

 Sometimes I'm really lucky ( yo tengo mucho suerte) and I get to shower with hot water...other times...meh...I have to shower really quickly and jump out.



And the toilet system...
This warning is put in most  places where foreigners or gringos constantly visit.

my shower is green

El Sabado en pasado y ayer!

I did this on Saturday. I hiked a montana named La Muela with my otre 2 amigos. I really do not know how high la Muela is, but  Xela is already couple thousand feet above sea level. It was a strenous hike for me at least, because we took the long way. i.e. hiked for two long hours or more before we got to the foot of the mountain. And then... started the remaining 1+ something uphill climb. 

 

 We walked through some cornfields

 

 I took in the view of Xela from some elevation

  

We saw an American Car from NYC!

We scampered up some rocks, I used some serious arm motion. My guns are in total shape right now!

 Find me in this picture!!! And no I am not wearing a green sweater!

Sweet victory

The altitude was killing me at this point. My chest was tight, my heart was beating really fast, but alas I did not muero!

El hombre Amigo was responsible for bringing me safe and sound to my husband. Mi mujer amiga also had a man who was ready to do some corte de ...
jajaja

I did not look down going up, and this is what happened on my way down. I thought I was going to faceplant. mi amiga is doing some serious butt-shifting on the rocks. It produce mas duele on ur bottoms

Zona 1 or 3 in Xela

My knees were killing me at this point, walking downhill for about 1.5hrs.


Yesterday, I climbed up a hilly route to go Los Vahos (a natural sauna). The rock heats up and releases steam. Some people capitalize on it and build concrete houses to catch the vapor. They put Eucalyptus leaves to scent the place. This place was the hottest sauna I have ever been in. I managed to stay inside for a total of 15 mins, probably worth my 20Quetzals i.e. about 3 dollars.

this is what happened when I tried to take a pic of the sauna. Muy caliente!

My host family

 I live with Claudia. She has a daughter who has a daughter (my Spanish is so terrible; she had to explain to me as mi ija de mi ija – the daughter of my daughter) who is married and has moved out of the house. Our casa is two floors. It’s pretty comfortable and clean. Claudia has a dog named Bombom. The most skittish dog ever -who only likes to be on a cama (bed) and nowhere else. He is a Chihuahua (how do u spell that?). He wants to be petted, but he doesn’t trust anyone. He's always cold, pretty spoiled and only likes to be carried. Slowly he has gained my trust...(only maybe) 

Claudia usually says eh Bombom esta loco!!!

Bombom on my cama

In Guatemala, their houses usually have a center porch/patio/garden that is shared by members of the house. Next door to us, sharing the patio is Claudia’s aunt (her tia). She also shares the kitchen sometimes.

No mas espaniol!

Before I went to Guatemala, I thought learning Spanish for 5 hours a day would be a cakewalk compared to how much work I do during my clinicals. How surprised I was by the 2^nd hour of the first day when I was already overwhelmed. I just usually  drag throughout the day. Imagine your brain failing on comprehension and even pronunciation because you just cannot take it anymore!

Each week, you have the option of choosing a diferente maestro. Este semana (this week) my maestro was Carmen. I like her a lot, but I will chose a different teacher next week, so I can practice with a different accent, style of teaching etc.

Carmen y yo en el jardin after 25 hrs of Spanish school!

Day 1 blog - o - rama

This is for you all who are wondering why (or wtf) am I in a foreign 3rd world country in Central America...

I am currently in Guatemala in Central America. It is a country bordered by Mexico, El Salvador, Belize and Honduras.
I live in Quetzaltenango (or shortened to Xela) on the Eastern part of the country. I arrived by avion (airplane) in Guatemala city, stayed the night at a bed and breakfast known as Patricia's and then I rode on the first class bus for 4 hours to Xela. More info on this arrival and trip to come soon. 
I am learning Spanish and I hope to be able to work in a clinic or hospital in Xela or its surrounding in  3 weeks and speak reasonable Spanish. Although this is turning out to be much harder than I thought.
Life is cheaper here, so while I am homeless in the United States, I get to stay with a host family who feeds me three times a day except on Sundays, when I only get dinner (cenar).
 I currently go to school 5 times a week for 5 hours a day writing, speaking and learning Spanish. This is usually exhausting because I am learning a lot of informacion. After that depending on what day it is, I may have to meet with other members of my class and the director of the program that I am in in Guatemala on some afternoons for 2-3 hours. Other afternoons, I just sleep because la clima, el altitude hace mi cansado(makes me tired)

My attempt at trying to get a picture of the mountainous glory that is called Guatemala failed as the window of the airplane was too thick and too blurry for my camera.

A quick peak at Guatemala city, the capital of Guatemala. 

I will try to update this blog as much as I can