From Hostel to Home...Life in Guate

the pencil memory

right before i fell asleep last night, i had a teaching memory that brought on a flood of emotions and really got me thinking...

it was my first year out of undergrad and i was substitute teaching for san diego city schools. i took on all jobs to see what my cup or tea with teaching was. i even tried high school once or twice, but that didn't take long before i knew it wasn't for me. because san diego city schools was desperate for special ed. teachers, i could sub in that field without being certified. i remember this day clearly. when i got to the school and other teachers overheard what room i was in and which class i was taking on, they gave me a smile and nod, and some even wished me luck. it was a 5th grade ebd (emotional behavior disability) class in a lower socioeconomic part of the city. young, fresh and just excited to be trying new things, i dove in head first. not afraid. overall, that day was tough. i was called every name in the book, broke up fights, and the memory? i was actually stabbed with a pencil that day. i walked into the principals office at the end of the day to make a report on the stabbing, and he looked at me with my flushed face from the day and my band-aide on my hand, and said sorry. my literal response was, "do you need a teacher for that classroom, because i'd be more than happy to take over." i loved it. the challenge. the kids. the power that a teacher possesses when making such a change and impact on students who need it the most. i wanted that job, but it was taken.

after that day and a few other fun packed days working with students with autism, i went back to school for my sped degree. i knew i loved that field from the moment i stepped foot into that classroom. i'm good in that field. i'm actually great in that field.

long story not so short, i was lying in bed last night worried that i'm moving in the opposite direction career wise and losing passion. sure, i'm still teaching, but to a population that i never imagined myself to teach. every child needs a good teacher, rich or poor and i get that. but then my thinking shifted. maybe what it was about these kids that made me feel so alive was the challenge. and then i silently smiled.

next year, ben and i will be starting a school in malaysia that hasn't ever had a student set foot into the classrooms. now that's, a challenge. i'm not moving in the wrong direction, just a different direction with the same amount of passion. ebd will always be there for me when we get back to the states. or maybe someday i'll reach my goal of phd and go back into autism. the amazing thing, i have these options of challenges to chose from and i think that's pretty sweet.

as soon as we get to malaysia, i'm going to start posting blogs on my teaching website.

guate engagement party

a huge thanks to our friends shannon and dexter for throwing us an engagement party this weekend. there was great food, wonderful friends, thoughtful toasts, and ben and i enjoyed every minute of it! we're getting down to the wire, and it's starting to hit us how much we are going to miss our friends that we've made here. thanks for last night, it made us feel very loved...

they live in a beautiful house with a view!

a toast!

our guatemalan homies! we're going to miss you guys...

more pictures to the left. we didn't take great shots, but hopefully we can steal other photos from other cameras, and then share more.

let the rainy season begin

it's been a shi#%y week.

first, robbed and now i have a phone the size of my pinky, and i'm not a fan. then, ocean beach is all booked for the time that i want to rent a place, so i may wind up in pacific beach, and that's not ideal at all. next, a family member passed away and i feel really sad for the sadness felt in my family right now. finally, i went to the dentist yesterday to get out my stitches and even he is worried about my mangled gums. this week sucks, and it's only wednesday.

tomorrow, i'm cutting my hair that i've been attempting to grow out, with a side of bangs. may is coming to an end and i hope for some change in june.

 

saturday morning on our way to san martin

i hesitate writing about this because i'm not too sure how to put it in words to describe what happened yesterday. i don't want to make it seem as if a huge deal, and i don't want to dismiss it as nothing. all in all, i think it's worth writing down.

when we first moved here, we were put up in a hotel and taken around by a realestate agent looking for an apartment to live in. we drove around for hours with this lady and she told us numerous stories about how dangerous the city is. repeating things like not being able to walk around during the day, or especially at night. not talking on your cell phone, even in a car. don't wear a purse. no jewelry. try not to look like a gringo. don't look lost. yada, yada, yada. it spooked me! i mean, i knew guatemala had a reputation for being unsafe, but i thought it was in certain parts of the city, and that we would find the safe parts of the city, and never venture to the danger zones. i went home one of those first nights living in the hotel and glued myself to the computer. researching: how dangerous is guatemala? top 10 dangerous cities in the world? what are the safe zones in guatemala? travel tips in guatemala? well, that night of searches had me even more spooked! i looked at ben in tears thinking, "what did we get ourselves into?" the school had given me a few contact numbers, so i decided that night to use one of them. i called sarah. she heard the panic in my voice and invited us over for dinner. we hadn't met any of the teachers at this point, as we were still in the hotel looking for an apartment. sarah had invited other young teachers over for dinner and we were put at ease seeing other teachers living in the city and enjoying their lives. that night really saved us. from then on, life has been life, and we never google searched the dangers in guatemala ever again. we have a lot of friends here and ben and i live a very rich life.

there are rules you need to follow. the realestate agent wasn't trying to scare us away from living here, she was just being helpful.

the rules:

1. never walk on the street, ever. night or broad daylight.

2. don't carry a purse with you, maybe just a bit of money in one pocket, and phone in the other pocket

3. never leave the house with nothing in your pockets

4. don't dress to flashy

5. never carry cameras

6. never talk on your phone outside

if you follow these rules, you're less likely to be robbed. it pretty much means take a cab every time you leave your house, and don't take anything with you that you don't want to get stolen.

yesterday, ben and i woke up to a sunny morning and i decided it was  a perfect day for going out to breakfast. we called our two friends and they agreed to join us. first, we broke rule #1, and decided to walk (it's about a 15 min walk to the restaurant). second, broke rule #2 and i carried a purse. third, broke rule #4 as i was wearing a bright yellow dress and a scarf.

we were a group of four gringos sauntering down the streets of zone 14 like we owned the place. a black car fully tinted rolls up, two guys jump out, one of them cocks his pistol and they take everything from us. i would guess the whole experience lasted about 30 seconds. in my mind, i had kind of gone over what i would do if it ever happened, and it didn't seem that scary. what i did wrong? the guy with the gun came straight to me. i opened my purse up hoping to "pick and chose" what to give to the guy. wrong! he possibly thought i was reaching in for a weapon, so he became super defensive and grabbed my arm to stop me from reaching in. he yanked the purse from my arm, and off he went.

no one was harmed. lessons were learned. the couple we were with, this was their third time being robbed in eight months. now that, just sucks.

i lost my iphone, 300Q, debit card, drivers license, colegio maya i.d., favorite little wallet, favorite purse. not too bad. all replaceable. we still continued on our way and had breakfast, only because i get a little crazy when i don't eat, and i refused to let this experience come between me and food. we also still went out to dinner to celebrate our friends birthday last night. life continues as normal.

now this happened in broad daylight on a busy street on a saturday morning around 10:30a.m, in the "safe" zone that we live in. it could have been a lot worse, and it wasn't. the government in guatemala really sucks in that the police are corrupt, there is mad drug trafficking, and there are children starving. high risers are creating shadows on the shacks all over the city, and the money that ben and i spend doesn't ever make it back to the community. the high disparity in this city is more than i've ever experienced in all of my travels, and nothing seems to be changing. gangs and poor people are stealing from the rich, as if it's their job. it's really sad.

the good thing, we learned our lesson with breaking all the rules we did, and now we will be safer. ben and i say goodbye to this city on july 1st and it's too bad this had to happen to us right before we leave. we've loved living in guatemala (besides the bus rides for me) and we will continue to love this city until we leave. this experience hasn't jaded us and our feelings towards the city, at least of of today, just one day after. if anything, it gives us perspective of how many people in this world have to go through that experience without having the luxury of moving away from it.

 

life

i haven't posted anything in awhile, because life has been pretty normal here in guate city. we haven't gone on any trips or done much of anything exciting in quite awhile now, pretty boring. working everyday and getting up and having to be on the teacher bus by 6:15am, pretty blah. last night, i came home from work and laid down to take a nap at 6pm, work up this morning when my alarm for work went off, pretty tired. i still have stitches in my mouth from the latest surgery, so we've been eating really bland foods that are soft, pretty hungry. sometime soon life will get exciting again and i will have something to write about. for now, life is life and we are enjoying it, pretty awesome

reasons to smile

the letters from my students at lummi came yesterday and they are awesome! melted my heart. i miss those little faces so much and hope to someday run into them and listen to stories of how great they're doing. one student, kept referencing stories that i told them for writers workshop and remembered such detail. it was great! thanks amazing third grade teacher jennifer for having them write to me, and i plan to write them each back this weekend.

another plan this weekend is to start a round two of the elimination diet that we did last spring. maybe if i write it down, then it will force me to stick with it. 2 days of green smoothies beginning tomorrow. it's a bit of a challenge here as far as lacking organic veggies (mainly KALE) and fruits, but we're going to use what's in season and looks fresh. we took bellingham food shopping for granted. after doing this shift in eating last spring, i told myself i wanted to follow it every spring! we'll see about that, but for now, we're giving it another go.

this face also brings a pretty big smile to mine

happy weekend and healthy eating...

we love antigua

Here's what the lonely planet has to say about antigua...

In all the long, earnest discussions about where to get off the beaten track in Guatemala, you can be sure the name Antigua won't come up. This is fantasyland – what the country would look like if the Scandinavians came in and took over for a couple of years. It’s a place where power lines run underground, building codes are adhered to, rubbish is collected, traffic diverted and stray dogs ‘disappear’ mysteriously in the middle of the night.

 But you’d be a fool to miss it. Antigua’s setting is gorgeous, nestled between three volcanoes: Agua (3766m), Fuego (3763m) and Acatenango (3976m), and its streetscapes – with sprays of bougainvillea bursting from crumbling ruins, and pastel facades under terracotta roofs – offer photo opportunities at every turn. The language school scene is thriving, the hostels offer colonial-chic accommodations and the dining is some of the best in the country.

because it only takes about 45 minutes to get to antigua, we tend to spend a lot of time there. this weekend lasted a glorious 4 days, so we spent 2 of them in this super sweet house on the outskirts of the square. i think the best part about being in antigua is walking. we walk everywhere and it feels so nice. 

here are a few photos of the weekend.

music lovers
ben checked this walk off his list...

and the view seemed worth it, even on a hazy day

ben and i went to our favorite restaurant in antigua (fusion) to celebrate many things, but the biggest accomplishment and celebration is for ben finishing his student teaching on friday! it was a sad day for the 5th grade students at maya, but they were lucky to have ben as their student teacher. he's done, and he's feeling pretty good about it.

pin this

it's about that time that i need a new addiciton on the internet, so why not pinterest? i haven't figured out the hype yet, and maybe need to look for a tutorial to show me more than how to "like" or "repin" something. one thing i like about it so far is the ability to store all ideas in one place rather than my unorganized folders on my mac. if you're interested...you can check out my "pins" here

did you know?

i stumbled upon this blog the other day, and it made me want to be a better blogger. as ben and i took turns reading lines, we were both jealous of their adventures and carefree traveling mentality. but then i realized, we are this couple, we are living similar lives. i mean sure, this guy works from home i believe 5 hours per week, which is the opposite of what we're doing, but they are out there living and exploring the world, and that we can relate to.

i also love this random girls blog, and she makes me want to become a better writer, and not throw something together over a 15 minute recess break without giving it much thought.

either way, here are some interesting facts about malaysia that make it hard to sleep at night, we're so excited!

did you know?

the largest cave chamber in the world is the Sarawak Chamber in Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak

or that malaysia is home to the largest flower in the world?

The Malaysian flag was adopted on Sept 16,1963 (and it looks a lot like the american flag)

it's ridiculously beautiful and really hot! (not really a fact but still fun to look at pictures)

doesn't this make you want to visit?

i will admit, i'm a little scared of the insects we'll run into while traveling, or possibly in our own house! spiders the size of your face, oh my!

more adventures are around the corner!

 

succulent lover

if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. thanks.

i'm not planning on being an "off beat" bride that makes her guests all participate in the thriller dance, but i would like to add a little bit of flavor, and if i didn't, then it wouldn't be my wedding. cookie cutter sh%# just isn't for me.

succulent bouquets! i love them. who needs to spend 300$ on a bouquet when you can get inexpensive succulent bouquets that are absolutely beautiful.

i like the peacock in this one.

boutonnieres

some color

a few flowers in the mix

i love them. the best part? you can re-plant them in your garden to keep growing...