Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Guatemala's Top Five
1. People smile in the streets and ask you how you're doing for particular reason. Little school girls say 'Buenas noches' to you like you're their BFF.
2. Licuados (a sort of fruit milkshake) and hot chocolate are yummy no matter where you are.
3. Xelaju is a gritty, polluted city surrounded by spewing volcanos and those lushy, poofy kind of clouds. We're so high up that the clouds surround us.
4. Experiencing all this with Levi, who is hilarious, patient and loves to analyze every interaction and conversation with others as much as I do. It's his birthday today and he's got a bad resfriado. Poor Levi.
5. Learning Spanish with my maestra, Maria Eugenia, the best teacher ever. She teaches me about culture, about social mores, about what's going on politically in Guatemala. She has a million opinions on immigration to the United States, but mostly, she's terrified her sons might leave the country, never to return. She indulges my bungled attempts to express my loaded opinions even when she is having hot flashes, which she does often. But it's not all play. Maria Eugenia is strict and super directed. So directed that when I handed out cookies to the patients in the clinic waiting room (that's right, I spend five hours a day studying Spanish in a clinic), she didn't pat me on the back for being That Super Nice Gringa. Rather, she scolded me for saying, '¿Quieres una galleta?' to the mothers and children. I should have been more formal, she said. I should have said, 'Quiere una galleta.' Then she grilled me on verb tenses.
2. Licuados (a sort of fruit milkshake) and hot chocolate are yummy no matter where you are.
3. Xelaju is a gritty, polluted city surrounded by spewing volcanos and those lushy, poofy kind of clouds. We're so high up that the clouds surround us.
4. Experiencing all this with Levi, who is hilarious, patient and loves to analyze every interaction and conversation with others as much as I do. It's his birthday today and he's got a bad resfriado. Poor Levi.
5. Learning Spanish with my maestra, Maria Eugenia, the best teacher ever. She teaches me about culture, about social mores, about what's going on politically in Guatemala. She has a million opinions on immigration to the United States, but mostly, she's terrified her sons might leave the country, never to return. She indulges my bungled attempts to express my loaded opinions even when she is having hot flashes, which she does often. But it's not all play. Maria Eugenia is strict and super directed. So directed that when I handed out cookies to the patients in the clinic waiting room (that's right, I spend five hours a day studying Spanish in a clinic), she didn't pat me on the back for being That Super Nice Gringa. Rather, she scolded me for saying, '¿Quieres una galleta?' to the mothers and children. I should have been more formal, she said. I should have said, 'Quiere una galleta.' Then she grilled me on verb tenses.
