The other night I didn't feel like doing my homework, so I sat with Margarita in the kitchen, showed her the pictures from the lake and told her about my trip. She loved it. My youngest host brother, Israel, came in to eat and we all began talking about different lifestyles. Margarita fell asleep mid-sentence while she was sitting on a stool. Israel and I laughed at her for a good 2 minutes before she woke with a start and a sheepish smile. She began to clean the kitchen and make fun of herself.
The next morning I ate breakfast with my host sister, Elisa. Margarita told her about the event from the night before and made fun of herself again. I then told Elisa that I was leaving in 4 days. She corrected me saying that it was actually 4 months. No, 4 days. That afternoon after school I returned home and took pictures with my host mom and sister. Elisa thought it would be funny to joke about how tall I am compared to my family by saying she was going to take a picture of me and actually taking a picture of the ceiling.
Tuesday after class, we went to the central park and to watch the parade of marching bands. Xela is the party capital of Guatemala for "independence day" (Guatemala never really won their independence from anyone), so there were people from all over flooding the streets. When I went back to my house my Guatemama told me that she expected me to go out and come home late from the festivities. That evening we returned to the central park to enjoy the music and other goings on. Bands were playing, people were dancing, women were on stage in skimpy cow girl outfits, drunk people were vomiting and peeing in the streets…everyone was having a great time! At midnight fireworks exploded over the city and rained ash down on my head. It was beautiful.
Yesterday (Wednesday) was the actual "independence day" so we had the day off from school. I went to a conference at the school after laying around in bed until 9:00. I went back home for my going away lunch with my family. They had made a special meal for the holiday and for me…they did, however, forget that I don't eat red meat. I wasn't going to be rude and refuse the delicious food they had taken all day to prepare, so I sucked it up and ate dreams. My tummy did not like it one bit, but my mouth did. After the red meat my family and I took family photos, but my oldest host brother was sick and couldn't participate. After the photo shoot, my host mom grabbed onto my belt and began jumping up a down trying to get as tall as me.
Later, a few of my friends and I went to the fair. There were apparently rides there, but we didn't walk far enough to find them. All we saw of the fair was the market part. On the way there and the way back we rode in public buses that are the size of VW vans and were full of about 25 people. It is the closest I've ever been to another human in my life. At one point I was sitting on Natalie's lap right next to the open door. As we rounded a sharp corner I nearly fell out of the van . People were hanging out of the side of the van and I would have taken all of them with me.
Later, a few of my friends and I went to the fair. There were apparently rides there, but we didn't walk far enough to find them. All we saw of the fair was the market part. On the way there and the way back we rode in public buses that are the size of VW vans and were full of about 25 people. It is the closest I've ever been to another human in my life. At one point I was sitting on Natalie's lap right next to the open door. As we rounded a sharp corner I nearly fell out of the van . People were hanging out of the side of the van and I would have taken all of them with me.
Finally, today I took my exit exam for Spanish. I only missed 0.25 points! A great improvement from the entrance exam. Tomorrow I have an oral presentation and then I'm done! Next week Doris will come with me to Cantel, but the whole week will be based solely on practice.
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