Xela. Life. Travel? Maybe not.

So, I had originally planned on spending around a month in Xela, maybe a little more. Well, somehow I don´t see that month ending in a week, as your average 4-week month would. I´m thinking instead that I would rather my month in Xela take the form of maybe a 6- or 7- week month. Good thing I am the only one to whom the length of my months holds any relevance.

I´m sorry it has been so long since I have posted... I´d blame it on my busy schedule, but let´s face it... Anyone who has been to Guate will tell you that a busy schedule consists of accomplishing all of one, possibly two things in any given day. Take today, for example. I came home around 6, exhausted, and happy to have cancelled plans to go out, so I could come home and rest. What did my day consist of, you might ask? Was I perhaps exhausted because I woke up early to go to my kickboxing class? Nope. Didn´t have boxing today. I woke up around 9, and hung around in bed for a while, until I finally got myself up, showered, and dressed. After breakfasting and chatting with Veronica (who cleans the hostel every day), I got my things together and went off to Casa Argentina, where Quetzaltrekkers (the volunteer-run trekking company that I almost ended up working for this summer) is located, so I could interview some of their volunteers. After our interviews, we had some lunch, which was followed by a few hours of coloring promotions with the brightest crayons we could find. Shortly after, I walked the 25 minute walk to one of the biggest markets, and wandered around there for the remainder of the afternoon, after having met a potential spanish teacher for a quick conversation. Then home. So, all-in-all, we have a day that started with chatting, followed by conversation (though this one was recorded), heavy-duty coloring, and wandering around. What a day.

Life in Xela´s pretty good. As far as routine goes, I have my super intense kickboxing class every other day, which serves to get me up in the morning, and gets me to bed by 11 the nights before. At kickboxing (at which I am, of course, the only girl and the only extranjero) I see all my friends, and get just enough time to greet everyone and have a laugh or two before getting sweaty, yelled at, and hit in the face. It´s something I look forward to every day.

I´ve also been doing pretty well as far as my research is concerned... despite the difficulties concerning motivation, punctuality, and technology here, I´ve managed to conduct my first few series of interviews with some volunteer organizations here, and might actually have things to say about the data! The other upside to working with these various organizations is getting to learn about the various volunteer opportunities that are available to me when I finish my research, depending on how long I decide to stay in Xela. There are so many different things that I could do, and I know they´ll all do good for the community here, so there doesn´t seem to be any wrong answer here.

Aside from interviews, boxing, and relaxing, my life here is a lot of hanging out with friends. Aside from a loan extranjera friend, my friends here consist of a bunch of guatemaltecos that I met through another friend. On the upside, I don´t ever have to worry about slipping back into english by accident. On the downside, though, I haven´t done much traveling around the surrounding areas near Xela, because my friends don´t seem quite as excited by the prospect fo exploring the area as I am. To give an example, we had made plans to climb a volcano last Sunday. Well, on Monday I realized that we had made such plans, and then just completely forgotten about them. I´m pretty excited to go on a hike with my friends this weekend, where we´ve planned to go picnic... Somehow, I´m a little skeptical that it´ll end up happening.

...But so is life.

Love,
Tasha