marzo

Whoa! Considering I was MVP at blogging in February, I'm pretty sure I'm really letting the team down so far in March. I am actually at school right now, and somehow finished all the things I had wanted to get done this morning (though I suppose there is always something else I could be working on) and thought I would check in quickly.

Last week I was significantly happier than I normally am all because I started running again. I found out that one of my coworkers, Victor, has been running home from school everyday! Excuse me? Sign me up! Its about a 6K (don't you love that I'm measuring in kilometers now?) run that happens to be really hilly and maybe a little sketchy but I feel pretty safe with Victor. As soon as we're done with ECA's, we put our backpacks in someones car and start our way home. Its perfect for the following reasons,

1. Being outside is always a plus
2. Someone to talk to while running
3. A cool new view of the city, you know, running in a small patch of grass in between a four lane highway.
4. Working on my reflexes as we are constantly dodging cars, dogs, broken glass, fallen branches, and other hilarious things
5. Getting home before 5pm and not having to talk myself into working out
6. Learning a lot about Latin America and life in general from Victor
7. Feeling empowered to set aside the fears and just... run
8. Being exponentially more content with life because one of the things that I thought I had to give up to live in Guatemala is, in fact, not the case :)

The Packers in Guatemala. Yep.

Over the weekend, Aubrey and I did a lot of cleaning. We actually swept and mopped our entire hard wood apartments (can you tell there isn't much else to tell about the weekend since I am spending two sentences on our floors?). Well we did go to Antigua for the night on Friday with Makenzie and our friends Juan Pablo and Alfredo. We met up with Jaron, our super awesome Peace Corps friend we met on a volcano, and ate some great food, met some interesting people, and explored some other parts of Antigua we had yet to discover. Its nice to know that Antigua is accessible for just an evening; we really don't have anymore excuses to stay cooped up in our apartments. 

On Sunday a group of teachers did the Avon Breast Cancer race in the city. It was a sea of pink both walking and running to fight "el cancer de mama." Yes, in Spanish, "breast cancer" is literally translated to "the cancer of mom" -- yikes! Anyway, it was not a very good run for me, which reminded me that running home from school is something I need to continue. But it was still a good time with friends and for Q50, we helped rid the world of Mom Cancer and got to be out in the glorious sunshine without a care in the world. ***This just in. Apparently "mama" without an accent means "mammary gland." I was enlightened by a lovely coworker, Adina, of this fact but decided to leave this paragraph as is because I find it even more hilarious now. The weirdest part is that I laughed about "the cancer of mom" at the race and no one corrected me. They probably just wanted to let me continue to entertain myself :)

Aubrey, Makenzie and I laid on the roof of our apartment for a hours later that day. It was pretty glorious except for the massive sunburn I acquired. After damaging our body's largest organ, we had a little birthday party for Makenzie and Ashley's dads. We knew it wasn't easy to be away from family on that day so we thought carrot cake and friends would make a good substitute. I'm sure those cool padres were looking down on us and celebrating in the same fashion, wherever they are :) 

After a lovely afternoon we had to go screw it up by seeing the most intense movie, El Cisne Negro, or The Black Swan. Okay, I could probably devote an entire blog to analyzing that movie but ho-lee-cow it was so crazy. I know I need to see it again at some point in life to catch-on to things I didn't understand the first time, but I probably can't see it again for a very long time. It was so disturbing yet incredibly well done; the acting, plot, camera angles, everything. Anyway, that movie pretty much consumed the rest of the day, considering it was over 2 hours and we spent the next 2 hours talking and getting all wigged out about it. 

:)

Yesterday, the little guy I tutor after school wrote the coolest story. I asked him to cut out three pictures of people from a magazine and write a story about all three of them. He definitely didn't understand me because he cut out the three most random pictures that had nothing to do with one another. One was of two girls paddling on surfboards, one was a guy with sled dogs in Canada, and the last was of two guys mountain biking. When I repeated my directions he was shocked!

"ONE story about ALL pictures?!" he shouted.

After a few grunts and a "Nooo, please! Please Mees Ana! I don't want!" he finally decided he would write about "My Summer." Here is the paragraph he wrote in just under 15 minutes...

"Hi my name is andres. I have thing to tell you. this summer was realy great. Why? I tell you why. First went to miami and paddle in the ocean. after miami went to alaska i love the sleigh, the snow, and the wolfs. and the end of my summer went to united states my family and me go to the mountains. i don't forget this summer."

Okay, so that was on March 7, 2011. On October 27, 2010, just about a week after he came to Inter, this is all I could get out of him when summarizing a story about a boy named Peter who saved an entire town by putting his finger through a hole in the dike that was leaking...

"Piter put you finger in holl."

Five months, many tears, several hundred eye rolls, and lots of head banging on the desk later, I think he was finally and genuinely proud of himself. 

Today is Carnaval in Latin America which at Inter translates too wear-a-Halloween-costume-to-school and smash-hollowed-out-eggs-on-peoples-head day. Yes, I am equally confused. All I know is right now I'm dressed up as the Cat in the Hat. Embrace it!

We have a busy week ahead but I still have a lot to update about so my goal is to post again before Friday. If there isn't anything new on here by then, feel free to send me threatening messages.