Desfiles, Artistas, y Comida.

Hola, amigos y familia! Here it is: the last post of August. The past week has been as unique as the others, and full of great things like an art lesson from a famous Guatemala painter, glass blowing, and our first meal cooked together as a group. This upcoming Saturday marks the end of my second month here in Guatemala, as well as some big changes in my daily schedule with a couple trips and full-time volunteering starting in the next couple of weeks.

At the school, learning how to make rellenitos (plantains with sugar, stuffed with beans  with sugar...and then more sugar on top!)

I continue to learn more Spanish every day and am pushing myself to work hard at it. Over the past week, I have been able to have several ‘real’ conversations with strangers in Spanish, and a couple of them even told me that my Spanish was ‘muy bueno.’ It may seem small, but a compliment like that means so much at this point in the learning process. It feels great to have the confidence to start up a conversation on the street or in a bus, and I have heard some great stories from people and gotten insight into peoples’ views on the healthcare systems here.

Blowing glass for the first time!

The past weekend was a free weekend for our group, and they were some of the most fun days I have had in Guatemala so far. On Saturday night, everyone came to my house to cook our first meal together. YUM! We made a bunch of American classics, from mac & cheese to fruit salad. I think the experience spoke a lot to how much our group has bonded, and it was great to see that we all get along and work together so well even though I am sure we are past the ‘honeymoon phase.’

At my house, making dinner with the group! Yummm.

On Sunday, my friend Andrew and I ventured onto a chicken bus (old school buses from the States that serve as one of their primary modes of public transportation) to go to Salcajá, a nearby town, for a feria (fair) and parade. I met some really nice people on the bus and got a lot of good Spanish practice in, and then was blown away by the parade! There had to be at least a few thousand people lining the streets to watch hundreds of horses (many of whom could dance, march, or perform other tricks) go by.

The parade in Salcajá --- so many horses! 

  

I almost missed one of the most impactful experiences I had this week. I was getting ready to go home and relax while a couple of my friends went to meet up with an artist that we met a while ago, when I read a quote from Mark Twain on a friend’s blog. It said something to the effect of “We will much more regret the experiences we did not have than the ones we did.”

That quote gave me the jumpstart I needed that afternoon to go with my friends to see Ricardo Díaz, a well-known Guatemalan artist who has traveled the world displaying his work. The arts in Guatemala lack much of the governmental and societal support that I had grown accustomed to in the States, and Ricardo is passionate about making the arts more important here. He has several projects he would like to do throughout Xela, such as painting a large mural and making the ‘art display room’ into more of an art museum, but he lacks a lot of the funding and manpower he needs. So, in exchange for some help with these projects, he has offered to give a few of us free art lessons. This is kind of funny given that we are all pre-meds, but surprisingly, we aren’t too bad! I had my first lesson last Friday and loved it.

Part of the art studio where we had our art lesson last week.

That Mark Twain quote made a big impact on me last week, and it is something I am going to keep in mind the rest of my time here; I challenge you to try the same this week. Don’t get me wrong – sometimes, we all need a break and some time at home. However, I learned this week that a lot of times it is important to fight the tendency to be comfortable and complacent, because the experiences we can have by going out and trying something new are often the most rewarding.

On Friday, we leave for a week-long trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, followed by a free week trip to Belize. I am going to do my best to keep up with the weekly blog, but things may be a little sporadic over the next couple weeks. Tú estás en mi mente y mi corazon, y me haces falta!

Hasta próxima vez,

Nico

Las pequeñas cosas

¡Buenas tardes, todos! It has been a crazy, exhausting, exciting week in Guatemala, and it seems like yesterday I was writing my last post (my room, in the mean-time, has changed from all yellow to yellow, blue, and purple). In the past week, I visited the most beautiful lake I have ever seen, passed through my first level of ‘intermediate’ Spanish, and did my first-ever headstand (without any help!).  

My first-ever honey stick! I had no idea these little tubes of deliciousness existed. Yummm.

Since my last update of finally feeling like ‘me’ when I speak in Spanish, I have had some good days and some bad days. Half of the time, I feel like I can say anything I want to express, and other times I feel like I need to glue my Spanish-English dictionary to my hand. However, I have had a few more moments of great Spanish conversation, and like my good friend Mike reminded me, I am making progress  poco a poco (little by little).

I started with a new Spanish teacher this week, Jose Carlos, and I really like him! I am continually amazed by the quality of teachers they have at the Spanish school, and it is nice to switch every couple of weeks to experience some different teaching styles. I’m now on Nivel Intermedio II (Intermediate II), and will be starting the most intimidating part of Spanish, the subjunctive, in a couple of weeks.

This weekend, our group took a trip to Lake Atitlan in the mountains. And, all exaggerations aside, it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. After a three-hour ride through curvy, bumpy roads on a “chicken bus” (how they got this name is debated, but it is essentially an old school bus with a lot of character), we arrived in one of the twelve pueblos (towns) that surround the enormous lake. We got to know the boat taxis (lanchas) that shuffle people between towns pretty well as we visited four of the pueblos in three days. In addition to relaxing a bit, sleeping in a tree house, and zip lining through the jungle, we volunteered at a hospital for a few hours to help them prepare an outdoor area for grass. The weekend flew by, and our busy schedule caught up to us on the bus ride back Sunday night: everyone was asleep most of the way!

During sunrise on Sunday morning at the lake, we saw a rainbow that looked like it was literally 'erupting' from a volcano. The picture doesn't begin to do it justice! 

I usually find one experience throughout the week especially impactful, and this week was no different. I would have never guessed this week’s moment though:

It happened at yoga.

Yoga is not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy it and have found it to be a nice way to start out a couple mornings each week down here. However, it is not something that comes easily or naturally. As I watch the instructor bend in ways that I didn’t know the human body was capable of doing, sometimes it is easy to get discouraged. But, I have a good group of friends here that go regularly, and I enjoy the company and the challenge. I have been improving lately, evidenced by my new-found ability to touch my toes. But last Thursday, I did something I never expected I would be able to do: I did a full-on headstand, without any help from a person or wall, in front of the entire class.

I felt more satisfaction in this small moment than I have felt in a long time, especially as I struggle to learn Spanish and adjust to life in a new place. The last six weeks have brought a lot of challenges, and my headstand at yoga reminded me how important and healthy it is to recognize the small accomplishments, like conjugating a verb correctly. Or understanding a microbus route for the first time. Or not getting lost on the way home. I realized that life instantly gets richer when you aren’t afraid to recognize the small successes that might seem dorky or unimportant. When it comes down to it, the human body and life alone are some pretty incredible things, and I think that and the small accomplishments deserve more attention than we often give them.

Part of our zip-lining adventure in the jungle at Lake Atitlan. 

And with that, I’m off to watch a highly-anticipated Super Chivos (Xela’s soccer team) game against our rivals from Mexico. Vamos!

Hasta próxima vez,

Nico

Pastel de Nico

¡Feliz martes! Another week has flown by, and I’m sitting in my brightly colored bedroom (everything, including the bedspread and my t-shirt, is yellow right now) before lunch working on the weekly blog post. It smells like my host mom is cooking something really good today, so if this post ends up a little short, that’s why!

Look - I wasn't kidding about all the yellow! 

I reached a great milestone in my Spanish-speaking today during class:

I felt like me.

To elaborate, when I was talking with my maestra during class this morning I felt like I was being myself when I talked in Spanish for one of the first times. I wasn’t constantly struggling to find the right words and conjugate them correctly. I wasn’t thinking every word in English first and then translating to Spanish. I was listening, joking around, and sharing my opinions about politics and religion in Spanish. My conversation skills are still far from perfect, but it was a huge encouragement to experience that sense of ‘self’ today.

I usually scan through my photos from the week to help me think of what I should write about in these posts, and this week, I decided to look through all of my photos from Guatemala so far. All 324 of them. Set up with some music slideshow-style as only iPhoto can do, I was grateful to realize the shear quantity and quality of experiences I have had in less than six weeks. I think that if I were to return home now, I could still look back on this experience as a life-changer. I can only imagine the effect that nearly five more months will have…

Last week, we got a visit from a comadrona (rural midwife). She showed us a lot of medicinal plants and was great at explaining life in the rural communities. Fascinating! 

Now getting to my post title: Pastel de Nico. If the first two words in Spanish didn’t throw you off, you’ll realize that the last word is my name (my Spanish name, anyway). The first word, ‘pastel,’ translates to ‘cake'. The interesting part is I don’t think I those two words have been in the same sentence before…at least not in this context...until this week.

On Friday the other student – Hannah – who had been living with me and my host family left to return to the U.S., and we had a despedida (going-away party) for her on Thursday night. One of my biggest problems is trying to please everyone, and sometimes this gets me into a bind --- which has never been as prevalent as it was last Thursday. We ended up talking about cheesecake at breakfast, and I offered to make some for the despedida. That gave me just a morning to find a recipe, go across town to the store that would have everything I needed, and actually make the cheesecake for the party. I ended up finding a recipe that only required a refrigerator, which boosted my confidence. After I bought the ingredients, everyone pitched in to help make the cheesecake. Three hours of refrigeration and a pound of strawberries later, they were done! And soooo delicious. My first cheesecake in Guatemala, and many of my family members’ first experience with the dessert.

One of the finished cheesecakes, with my host-sister Gabi.

This ‘cooking’ experience (if you can call it that, since I didn’t use an oven) ended up going a lot deeper than I was expecting. Spending time combining the ingredients into something delicious – and taste-testing along every step of the way – with my family led to some amazing conversation, joking around, and dissolution of barriers. It made us closer and brightened our dynamic.

Food is a powerful thing. It ties people together. This is one important lesson I learned this week, and I think it is going to influence the rest of my time here. Even with the cultural differences, food can break down walls. I have heard before that if you need to have a difficult conversation with someone, have it over a meal to ease the pressure. I think that idea should be amended to include actually cooking the meal together. Maybe solutions to many of our inter-personal problems and issues in our societies are just waiting to be found in the kitchen….

All of the talk of food is making me hungry, and I think lunch is ready. Hasta próxima vez, tienes una buena semana!

Paz,

Nico

P.S. Post-lunch update: we had chile rellenos for the first time, my host-mom’s favorite. Yummmm! 

Por un Mes.

¡Hola, todos! It is time for another Tuesday blog post update on my journey in Guatemala. This week has been…full. Full of learning, questions, and new experiences. I cannot believe that Sunday marked the end of my first full month here.

I came to a great realization late last week: I have developed a routine that I love here. I am getting to know locals. I have favorite running spots. I know which cafés and bars to go to for specials throughout the week. I even have a barber.

Put simply, it has become home.

A marching band going throughout the city on Sunday - getting ready for Independence celebrations en Septiembre.

As for the Spanish, this week has been going really well! Last week was quite a roller coaster, and I had a few days where I used up every ounce of self-motivation in my body to keep going. I started with a new maestra this week, Helen, and really like her so far. We had an oral and written exam on Monday to test our progress, and it went well. I think the school knows that by simply using the word ‘exam’ with a bunch of pre-med’s, they can get us to study like crazy. And it works…

It has been great to really get comfortable here. A couple friends from my group and I got invited to our first Guatemalteco (Guatemalan native) cumpleaños fiesta over the weekend, which was a lot of fun! I met several Guatemalans involved in everything from studying at university to managing companies. It was also a great time to practice my Spanish in the ‘real world,’ and I am realizing more every day the progress I am making on the language front. Making progress is slow and difficult, but I am already able to communicate unbelievably better than I could just a month ago! 

I learned how to make corn tortillas! Yummm.

This weekend, our group took a couple short day-trips. We learned how to make chamaras (blankets) by hand, which is a ton of work. The machines we learned how to use were made by a man in the early 1900’s, and they are some of the most intricate contraptions I have seen. I am going to think twice now when I see these creations in the markets…

I got to try my hand at making a 'chamara' by hand -- amazing process.

Our other day trip was a hike up an inactive volcano to a lake where many of the local Mayan communities perform their religious ceremonies. It was breathtaking! A dense fog made everything seem really mystical, and it broke just long enough for us to make out the entire lake as we were leaving.

The view from the Mirador before we hiked down to the lake on Mount Chicobal.

One of my biggest achievements this week is going to seem fairly trivial, and possibly even a bit superficial: I got a haircut. I was pretty nervous for how it would go, because a haircut is a lot more intimidating when you consider the language and cultural pieces. I wondered: “How am I going to tell him how I want my hair cut without getting it all buzzed off on accident?” “Will I know enough Spanish to hold a conversation or just have to sit in silence the whole time?”

Well, yesterday was the day. My first Guatemalan haircut. And you know what’s better? I had a phenomenal conversation with the barber. He has been cutting hair for over 40 years, is incredibly genuine, and loves the Super Chivos (Xela’s futbol team).

My haircut got me thinking about how intimidating – but surprisingly influential and positive – routine experiences can be in a new place and culture. I felt like a child getting his hair cut for the first time, or like a kindergartener going to the first day of school without knowing what to expect. The biggest thing I realized was this: if approached with an open mind and a positive attitude, the vast majority of new experiences in life will be positive ones. At the very least, we can take a lesson or two from the experiences that do not go as hoped. A fear of change and ‘newness’ can often be debilitating, but when it comes down to it, isn’t that ‘new thing’ we are looking toward at least worth a shot?

Here’s to continued learning and a safe, healthy week. ¡Te extraño mucho!

Amor,

Nico