recess, profi, LTD'ing, Belice

Last day of classes yesterday...for a while.  Gonna take a break to spend some time reviewing and studying on my own and focus more efforts on my project and work.  To say I feel comfortable in this humdrum town would be a grand understatement.  I love the feel more by the day and already feel like I know everyone, kinda like Leave it to Beaver except I wouldn't sleep in a separate bed next to my wife.

Getting the ball rolling on the aqua gig here, hopefully we'll be online in the next month or so.  The concept is to use the aquaponic garden, leveraging the relationships of El Infinito and my school to demonstrate to students and other locals alternative methods of producing food.  Clearly the goal is not to put aquaponic gardens in every household but rather to break cultural norms (by growing veggies in rocks for example) and opening a dialogue about sustainable and more efficient ways of producing food.

I taught my first classes the other day to a class of 15 year-olds and another to a group of 10-11's.  We talked about environmental science and human interaction and human-caused environmental issues.  What really surprised me was the complete apathy (and absence for that matter) of the teachers juxtaposed against the hunger to learn of the kids.  When the bell rang, for example, the kids told me that they didn't need to leave and that I should stay to keep chatting with them.  Turd, I remember when I was 15, I couldn't wait to bounce outta class.  Anyway, I think I'll groom the classes to be one of the first groups through our interchange program for OFOG.

We had our first exchange yesterday via skype with the students in Oakland and the folks here, including the El Infinito dudes and Estuardo, mi teacher's son who's volunteering for me.  What an experience.  Something I've dreamed about for the last year finally happened.  Espesh since we did 85% of it in espanol with people on both sides translating for those that needed help.  We talked about the food sitch here, agricultural techniques, typical foods, american perspecitves, etc.  Felt great to get the cultural share thang on.

To further the incest that broods in this town, I've agreed to fill Max's shoes as a volunteer at El Infinito.  Basically, managing the garden and helping out with various educational programs, which is what I'm already doing.  So that's coo.  Plus they have an epic living room for epic sesh time.  huhuhuhuh.

I've recently met two less than attractive Euros with super hot Mexican girlfriends.  They don't even really speak the language that well.  Turd.  Well I guess there's two takeaways from this:

1)  So you're telling me there's a chance!

2)  The phenomenon of locals falling for FOBs is not only relegated to shy Asian girls with creepy, frail white dudes.

Gots mi first border run this week so I'm heading to Livingston then Belize for some time on the beach and fun under di sea.  Yeah, I know, life's tough.

BTW, hypem's been blowing up with sickter tunes but this song takes the prize right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnmUwTmvrw8

Signing off, hasta luego padrotes

honey bunny, no me dejes, livin cosmo, workin man

It's official - I'm staying in Xela for quite some time now.  I start this afternoon working at my sister school (spanishguatemala.org) redoing the website and promoting the school to foreigners via online marketing and school partnerships.  The school's been sinking for some time in terms of enrollment and so hopefully I'll be able to turn the ship around.  It's kinda scary having that in my hands but at the same time it's really exciting working towards something I feel passionate about in bringing people to experience a new culture and learn a new language.  Additionally, this school has a robust volunteer segment so this work fits in nicely with my project.  The aquaponics life is starting to grow legs as well so hopefully I'll be able to bring the exchange component to life sooner rather than later with the help of this job.  

We went out really hard last week cuz we were saying goodbye to two of my closest friends here, Evan and Rosita.  Evan's still in college but is quite possibly more mature than any of us.  Not to mention he's an absolute bro that loves to frat hard.  Rosita potentially steals my crown for being most insane but acts like a dude and was always down for a good time.

 I showed up at the bar without feeling in my legs and somehow found myself chatting up a guatemalteco for most of the night...buena practica.  I kept thinking he had really soft features for a guatemalean but watev, I told myself, it was good practice.  Well at the end of the night he put his number in my phone and I couldn't hear comprehensibly through the noise but the next morning when I woke up (by myself, thank you) I saw that his name is "Honey".  Turd.  Then it instantly made sense why he kept buying me drinks and wanted to talk to me so badly.  Gah I hate that I keep doing that.

Anyway Rosita, Claire and I went to Antigua for the weekend as a final send off.  It's a great town, but feels nothing like Guatemala.  It's super duper cosmopolitan and I got to eat with chopsticks for most of my meals...sushi, thai and chinese, which was actually quite good.  The feel's really quaint as a result of the myriad ruins left from the 1770 earthquake and everything's been preserved to maintain a really rustic, well, antigua look.  We basically just spent 2 days walking around eating, drinking and taking a photo shoot - a great respite from Xela life.

corazon de la selva, witches, the descent, gringos in guate

Just got back from Semuc Champey last night.  Jiminy Xmas was it worth it.  We took the 4am bus from Xela to Guatemala City and then hopped on a shuttle to Coban.  As expected, they had oversold the shuttle so we were cramped in and sitting on the floor.  The driver said we were going to meet up with another bus and we'd do a lil exchange to give my group more space since there was a couple sitting in front and we just needed two seats.  Well when that time finally arrived I took care of translating for the Israeli couple and explained that the other bus was going to the same place, everything'd be cool, etc.  Well when the Israeli douche saw that he'd have to give up shotgun, he whined (pretty usual for an Israeli) in his bastard spanish that he was too tall to fit in the other seats.  Oh I'm sorry you kunt.  I'm your same size and I've been sitting on the floor in between someone's legs for 3 hours.  But yeah, you deserve your king-size space just like you have the right to push people off their land in the name of God and label them all as terrorists.  Right.

Anyway, after lunch, our Brit friend Claire channeled her inner Iron Lady and just took the front seat.  The kunts bickered and whined but she remained obstinate.  Ahh, how refreshing was that front seat jaja.  We finally got to Lanquin around 5pm and then took another shuttle into the park, an hour further (only 10kms) on a dirt road through the jungle.  Omg like soooooooo Heart of Darkness.  The hostel I chose was perfect.  The other options were in the barrio that is Lanquin and are just party places filled with wasted aussies and kiwis (sorry Alby, I just can't handle hoards of ya'll).

Anyway, it's nestled in the mountains along the river with essentially 0 infrastructure.  There's only 4 hours of electricity a day and lemme tell you, blazing trees under the stars with only the sounds of water trickling by and night birds and insects humming their tunes is pretty prettttty pretttttty sweet.

Oh yeah and it's walking distance from the main attraction, Semuc Champey park.  Semuc is a series of rivers above and under the ground with limestone caves and pools.  Really really breathtaking - the pic says it all.  After the pools and swimming through underwater mini-caves and such, we took a cave tour.

Good God.  So no one really tells you what it is.  They handed us a candle each and we started walking in.  There's a river pouring out of the cave and as we started wading in, the river became deeper until we reached a point where we had to swim through near darkness, only following the candle flickers ahead of us.    Because you can't see below you, I kicked a rock as I was treading water and took a chunk of flesh out.  We scaled walls alongside roaring waterfalls and kept feeling our way to the end of the tunnel.

After a couple more swims and stumbles, we were reaching the end of the cave and uggh the exit, finally.  Well there was a tunnel, about the circumference of a pretty fat dude, maybe Cee Lo Green or something.  Anyway, I couldn't see the bottom but could hear water hitting down below.  "Go for it" the guide told me.  "Uh, yeah but where am I going?" I trembled back.  Well, that convo got nowhere really fast so I just had to trust him and went for it.  Surrender to the world, trust that you will prevail, and you shall conquer life I always say.  It was a quick ride through the "tunnel" and then I hit the water.  For a brief moment on the way back up I worried about I don't know, a potential lack of space or air at the surface, but it all worked out.  Gah what an adventure.

Took the journey back yesterday and now back to same ole same ole.