The official answer from my friends here in Guatemala is they can fit about 30 Guatemalans in a microbus. During my two trips I saw a maximum of 27, so I can believe they actually can get 30 in there given that as an American I should count for two[…]
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I’m celebrating the 2011 Thanksgiving in Guatemala which is a strange dejavu of Thanksgiving 2009 in Belize (the neighboring county). This time it is held in my Spanish School, Munde en Español. There are 22 students here, 14 of which are from a medical volunteer organization. They are going off[…]
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Last year I decided I wanted to learn Spanish. I hadn’t studied any languages since College in 1990 and had forgotten most of my German. So, before learning Spanish I spent the a few months this last summer in Germany brushing up on my German before moving onto a new[…]
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The chocolate here is to die for–amazing mouthwatering stuff! We have hot chocolate a couple times a week with breakfast. The hot chocolate is amazing and has little flecks of the coco beans in it reminding me of flecks found in richer orange juice. It’s not unpleasant, but rather an[…]
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On Saturday, my friend Stephanie and I decided to travel on a chicken bus to the farmers market in a small nearby town of Salcajá. The Spanish school is owned by Gladys; her 31 year old son Eduardo offered to be our guide for the morning. The ride each way[…]
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I am a rockstar as I walk down the streets here in Quetzaltenango. The women are all literally gawking at me and giving me flirtatious smiles. Men are pointing at me and heads are turning as I become the topic of conversation. I swear they are about to stop and[…]
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I’m terrified I’m going to fry myself and they will find my body laying on the shower floor jerking back and forth as 50 amps of raw power stylizing my blond hair with a popping noise to look like Billy Idol in the Rebel Yell video. It all started when[…]
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I was in the checkout line at a local supermarket and noticed the cashier was sitting down far enough for me to see the bald spot on his head. I guess I hadn’t really noticed that in the States all the cashiers are standing. The next store I went in[…]
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Only kids wear helmets in Europe–I’m not really sure why, but adults never wear helmets unless they are racing bikes in a marathon or something like that. In America, if you aren’t wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle, people more-or-less think you are stupid and just asking to have[…]
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The other day I was walking down the street when a man wearing yellow road a yellow bike past me. He stopped a few doors ahead of me and I noticed he had boxes attached all over his bike and a large double kick stand that he set in place[…]
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The other day I was looking around and it dawned on me that something was strange. All of the soft drinks and beer in the super market were in bottles. In fact everything was in either bottles with only a few items in plastic. The only exception was milk and[…]
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I had absolutely no idea that anyone caught doing the Nazi salute (or Hitler salute) in Germany would be fined and thrown in jail. At the time of the Nazis it was common to hold the right arm at an upward straight angle and utter the words “Heil Hitler!” and[…]
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