Wandering

Well I made it to Xela in one piece. In the past four days I feel like I´ve gone through two weeks worth of learning and emotion. Overall it has been super interesting.
I landed into Guatemala City at 11PM last Thursday (Jan 15th) and it was unbelievable to me how fast my heart was beating as we touched down on the runway. The woman who was sitting in my same row of seats was coming back from visiting her grandchildren in Ontario and told me all about them and I told her about my plans. She was shocked that I didn´t have a place confirmed to stay for the night so she made me call a hostel from the plane and ask them to pick me up. She watched me as I did it. After I gave her back her phone her she couldn´t stop telling me how much better she felt because "this city is so dangerous and I have a grandaughter your age". It was great that she forced me to do that because when I got off the plane I had nothing to think about, there was my shuttle thing ready to take me to the hostel. When I got to the hostel I didn´t have to do anything, the guy showed me my huge room, gave the key and that was it. When I sat down on the bed all I could think was Omygod! Omygod! Omygod! Iswear there was like tons of adrenaline in my blood at that point: immediately post-cliff jump.

In the morning I was pretty disoriented. I missed breakfast and thus the chance to talk to other gringos about the city and what I should do and all of that. Then ye ol´caffeine addiction kicked in and I realized I needed a cuppa pronto or things would get very bleak very quick. It was also a good mission to put myself on where there would otherwise be none for this extranjera with no context in the big city. So I left the hostel on foot with only my little Lonely Planet map of the city that I decided to rip out for quick refrence without looking like a theivery target. After an hour and a half I found an espresso before things got too desparate. Two hours later a found a place to eat that I thought might not give me the eternal runs. I am soooo scared of the runs, an unhealthy fear I think you might say. Another three hourse of wandering the city and I was ready to never go back to Guate City again. Woah, if you don´t have a reason to be there just pass through it and go somewhere smaller.
The next day was the day to get to the highland town of Quetzaltenango, refered to as Xela which is a shortened version of the Maya Xelajú. The hostel guys took me to a bus station downtown where, according to the preparation packet provided by the school, there should have been a bus leaving for Xela in half an hour. I went up to the ticket agent, asked her for a ticket and looked at me surprise,¨"At 7:30 tonight?" Um, no. Woah. For twenty minutes I was screwed. It was a sketchy part of town, not a tourist to be seen and people kept talk to me and asking me stuff and at one point two guys came up to me and holy buckets. I was calm though, you know? It was interesting because I can be near panic while I´m packing but in this situation I was breathing normally and I decided to call the school in Xela and see if they knew what bus had a bus leaving soon. In Guat City there is one bus terminal but there are also several other terminals owned by individual bus companies so you really need to know what bus you want to take and what time if leaves. Apparently, I was given a different impression. The guy at the school told be of a bus that was leaving in an hour and a half and told me the name. Thank you, sir! I hung up got in a cab told the taxista the name of the bus and he promptly took to THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY to a first class bus station for the mostly wealthy. It was so comfortable after that sketchy part to be on a big nice bus that was going where I needed to go. I got to sit in the front and had tons of space, the driver was on top of his game, the lady next to me was super sweet and wow, midway through a guy got on and sold us a three cousre lunch for 4 bucks while we kept driving! I felt really pampered.
The country we passed was incredible. Lots of pine forest, lots of deforestation, lots of small farms, lots of smaller towns full of things going on, lots of pick-up trucks filled with huge Mayan families, lots of curves in the road. I have never seen anything like this before.
We got Xela and I got swindled in the cab to the hostel. Wow, that sucked. He just charged me too much and exorbantly and I paid it. I really hope that´s the last time that happens. Anyway I had a great night in the hostel across the street from the school. I slept like a log, a log that knew it was where it was supposed to be and didn´t have to trek anymore for a while. The next day I met some cool people who go to the school and was assigned my family. My family is nice, just a mom and her son, Sandra and Jovani. Jovani is studying to be a lawyer here. There are a tone of lawyers´offices around, I have yet to figure out why. My room is a concrete cube painted green, a lovely green. I have a desk and chairs and a light. The house is made of various rooms that stand as themselves through a stretch of courtyard, I will do my photojournaling project pretty soon here and you can see what I mean. My `mom´ is mostly vegetarian and health conscious which is sweet and we eat together three times a day.
Hey! I had my first class today. This was after hearing an introduction to the history of Guatemala in an hour. Amazing. I´m excited to get a routine started and to actually start improving my spanish. As I get more settled I hope these blogs become less about what I do in the day-to-day and more about things I´m learning. Keep your fingers crossed!
Ok good people, if you stuck it through, awesome. If not maybe I´ll become more engaing. All my love, more later.
Lizxoxoxox