What I´ve Learned in the Past Week

We´ve been here for exactly one week now but it feels like it has been much longer. I say that mostly in a good way. Guatemala is beautiful, surrounded by mountains. I actually live on top of one of the mountains and its a long bumpy ride to my house but the view is amazing. I can see Antigua (a huge tourist city) and San Christobol from our house. Our group is extremely small, a total of six people, or seven if you include our new friend Doug which we usually do at least for Seth´s sake so he isnt the only guy here. A small group has it´s advantages however. We´re all pretty close, and talk about things such as what stage we are at (about a 2 for me today). For the sake of our friendship (I´m assuming if you are reading this that we are friends) I´m not going to tell say what stage four is, or five for that matter. Ask Elizabeth is you really want to know, otherwise use your imagination.

ANYWAY. We´ve been with host families for roughly 5 days and an entire weekend. I´ve never been more excited to go to school on a monday morning before but I was today. Last week we visited the national cemetary, palace and Guatemalan City landfill. The landfill was heartbreaking to see but the palace and cemetery were both awe-inspiring. I have learned so many things in the short amount of time I have been here about this amazing country and the people who live here. It´s definitely an adjustment living with a family where it is hard to communicate. To give you a brief understanding of the past week, here are some lessons I have learned.....

1. When dealing with different languages, especially one you don´t speak very well, always answer a question that you don´t understand with simple, non-commital words. Acceptable responses are yes, no, i don´t know, and probably the best is ¨I´m sorry I don´t understand.¨ Don´t answer in detail when you dont know the question. For example, your host dad may ask you what day Mother´s Day is in the U.S. Don´t tell him that Mother´s Day is that day, the 27th of May as it were, even if the only word you understood in his question was ¨fecha¨ or ¨day.¨ Chances are he already knows what day it is and in any case if he didnt he probably wouldn´t ask the only person in the house who barely speaks Spanish. Now he thinks that Mother´s Day in the U.S. is May 27th. Hopefully their next host student can fix this.

2. Always look in the mirror before leaving the house. This is really good advice for whatever country you happen to be in, but when you´re 5 shades paler and roughly 3 feet taller than everyone else the last thing you need is your bangs to be sticking straight up giving people another reason to stare at you.

3. Your family is going to talk about you, and you will be in the room, probably at the dinner table with them and you will feel stupid. Even though you can´t understand them, a fact they are happily aware of, it seems best to smile and laugh with them. This in turn makes them laugh harder, but you can´t win every battle. Just go with it.

4. Say yes if they ask you if you like soccer, even if you don´t. Either develop a love for it or put on your best acting face, because there is no better way to bond than over soccer. Luckily I happen to love soccer, so that part is easy. However, I was not prepared to answer when my brother asked me what my favorite team was. Like always I responded with the first thing that came to mind. Barcelona. It worked out well because Barcelona was playing (and won) in the European League finals on Saturday. Three of my siblings are Barcelona fans and as far as they are concerned so am I. Also, I didn´t have the heart to tell them that I didn´t give a rats ass who won. Another example of ¨just go with it.¨

5. It´s important to find ways to entertain yourself. Whether it be reading, writing, or in my case trying to prove that my host sister does in fact speak English. I had been at this task for several days until  I was successful yesterday by frustrating her when I didn´t understand her when she asked why I haven´t seen all 5 of the Fast and the Furious movies. I would like to point out that later that night we went to see the newest one.

6. Guatemalan people are a lot nicer than the average New Yorker and as long as you don´t refer to yourself as American (Guatemalans are American too) and do not try an defend the United States´actions towards Guatemala, then they will be perfectly nice to you.

First Post

So I decided to start this blog so I could share my experience in Guatemala. I´ll update this blog whenever I get a chance and I also set up a flickr site to share pictures with everyone. Here´s the link to that http://www.flickr.com/photos/katelynjy/