Friday, June 30, 2006

sorry bout that...

turns out that i didn't write any more yesterday, i got caught up applying for a scholarship and then i had class and then it was night time. so anyway, on sunday morning we woke up, there was still no water in the hotel, and anyone who wanted to shower had to walk like 20 minutes down the street to another hotel. luckily, i did not want to shower, and so avoided that. we were supposed to leave for chichicastenango (gringolandia) at 9, but due to the shower situation, we left at about 11. we arrived in chichi at noon and decided to meet at a certain restaurant at 2:30 for lunch. i shopped around a little, bought a skirt and some magnets, but i ran out of money pretty fast. so then i went to a bank to try to change my $20 bill for some quetzales, but they wanted to see my passport for that, so i didn't do it. #1, i didn't have my passport with me, and #2, i think it's ridiculous to ask for identification when someone wants to change cash for cash. ugh, i hate banks here. i'll talk more about them in a minute. so anyhow, we had lunch and then piled into the vans to go back to xela. on the way back, i got really carsick. not throwing up carsick, i don't do that, but just really quoozy feeling and miserable. also, we were listening to the weirdest music. the radio first had a shakira medley, then a reggaeton medley, then a music from the u.s. in the 70's and 80's medley, which included selections like "i will survive", "another one bites the dust", and "video killed the radio star". it was so odd.

finally, we got back to xela and i went home, had dinner, and went up to my room with the intention of sleeping. i'd been taking pepto bismol all day and my stomach still didn't feel better, so i decided to try one of the herbal pills, the huang lian su. BIG FAT MISTAKE, let me tell you. about an hour after taking it, i threw up all over my bed, sleeping bag, and pj's. luckily, it was only like 9:30 at that point, so dulce was still up and she very kindly cleaned up my barf. also luckily, my room has two beds, so after the barf was gone, i went back upstairs and slept in the other bed. 11 hours later, i woke up and decided that i needed to go to the bank, because i only had 5 quetzales left.

now, let me tell you, the closest bank is about a 25 minute walk from my house, and with my acrobatic stomach it felt like an hour and 25 minutes. once i got there, i discovered that the bank i went to last time had a line out the door of people waiting to cash checks or something, i don't know. so i went to a different one. last time i went to the bank to cash a traveler's cheque, all they wanted was my driver's license, and when i used them to pay for language classes at ica, all they needed was my passport number, which i obtained from the copy of my passport that i carry with me. however, the bank i went to on monday wanted my original passport, and nothing else would do. so back home i trudged.

about an hour and 15 pepto bismols later, i arrived back at the bank, original passport in tow. there are three banks in a row, we'll call them banks 1, 2, and 3, because i can't remember their names. bank 1 was the one i went to last week which was very busy. bank 2 said something like "western union" on the front, so i decided to try that one.

thing #1 that i don't like about the banks here: there are at least 4 armed guards outside each one, and they're very polite but they have very big rifles which make me very nervous.

thing #2 i don't like about guatemalan banks: WHERE IS THE LINE? WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO WAIT? IT ISN'T CLEAR AT ALL! in bank 2, there were several tellers and a block of 6 chairs set up in front of one of the tellers. all the chairs were full, so that looked to me like the place to go. the teller helped one person, and then dissappeared for about 7 minutes. then she returned, stared at us for awhile, and left again. she finallly came back, and a woman who had just sat down went up to the window, did her business, and was redirected to another teller. when the teller in front of us returned, i decided not to worry about courtesy, and that there were still four people in the chairs that had been waiting longer than i had, and up i marched. the teller informed me that her bank could not cash my traveler's cheque, and that i should go to bank 3. argh. i was so frustrated.

so off i waddled to bank 3, clutching my poor stomach, which was having an identity crisis and thought it was a boy scout learning how to tie 15 different knots. after some more awkward waiting, i finally got my 377 quetzales, and slowly plodded back up to my house. when i arrived, it was lunch time, but i requested plain white rice. after eating, which made my stomach hurt even worse, it was time for language classes.

since today is friday and i'm still talking about monday, i'm just going to sum up my language class experience so far. #1, my teacher, mynor, has nose hair that is out of control. it curls around of the nostril about 1/2 an inch, which is a lot for nose hair. also, he has a really high pitched laugh that he launches into without warning. aside from that, he's very nice. i've been reviewing the subjunctive, both in the present and past tenses, because that's the last tense i learned and therefore the one i am least comfortable with. we also spend much of the 5 hour class just talking, which is good practice too. he's also really into playing competitive chess, and he had a tournament on wednesday in which he won 3rd place and 100 quetzales.

wednesday morning i went on a school trip to fuentes georginas, which is a hot spring, and that was fun and relaxing. wednesday night dulce, kirsten (who is doing much better), amelia, andrew, his girlfriend (who's name i can't remember), and i went out to kokoloko's which is a discoteca. kirsten's friend from home's boyfriend is also in xela, and it was his birthday, so we were meeting up with him to celebrate. here's what i don't like about discotecas in guatemala: people are allowed to smoke inside, and do. it's disgusting. now i have no voice, and i think that's part of why. the other part of why is all the air contamination. but anyhow, my stomach feels great now, i think i just had food poisoning from the gross little restaurant in santa caterina.

now it's lunch time again, see you all later!

Posted by Sarah @ 10:27 AM