Happy All Saints Day

My last note took so much out of me I went directly
to a bar where I proceeded to sample all the finest
local cervecas and get more acquainted with my fellow
students. Most of them are pretty cool. There are
also a couple tools - other than myself of course.
There are a handful of Europeans and the rest are from
the USA. Mostly from the midwest for some reason.

Sense my last note, I have really taken ahold of my
gringo roots and started hitting the local sites. On
Saturday, I took a pretty sweet hike up to the Laguna
at Chicabal. The lake is in the crater of an old
volcano about 10,000 feet up in the clouds. We got
rained on a bit. But it was cool. The site is an
ancient Mayan ceremonial ground which was a
disappointment because it prevents anyone from
swimming in the lake. And after walking straight up a
montain for 3 hours that is all I wanted to do. But
the rain was a reasonable substitute for an American
not trying to get strung up by his balls by the
indigenious people. We celebrated our return to Xela
by getting one of the fellas housed for his b-day.

On Sunday I hit some natural springs (Georginas) on a
different old volcano. The trip to the springs was
pretty eventful. I got to rub elbows with a breast
feeding infant on the chicken bus to Zunil. At Zunil,
I piled in the back of a pick up truck for the 20
minute drive up the mountain to the springs. Very
relaxing couple of hours once you got adjusted to
swimming in 100 degree water filled with a lot
children with questionable bathroom decision making
skills. Also, there was a really good restaurant next
to the spring where I loaded up on food for next to
nothing.

Sunday afternoon, we got screwed by the always
reliable Guatemalan public electricity. Setting up to
destroy a few entrees and catch a film at one of the
cafes the power went out. Usually it goes out for
10-30 minutes. But this day it was relentless and the
movie was not to be. But the food was great. And on
that note - to change things up a bit rather than
saving it for the end - my stomach has remained true
to the cause and continues to destroy all parisites
providing me with a very comfortable bathroom
schedule.

The other big excitement for the week was preparations
for All Saints Day. They get really fired up down
here for this. I live across the street from the
cementary so I was right in the middle of the heart of
the festivities. All Saints Day pretty much consists
of decorating your family graves, eating, drinking and
foos ball. There is a mini carnival set up outside my
front door with all kinds of street meat, desserts,
foos ball, video games, a ferris wheel, some pseudo
bumper car things, and a sea of hot teenage guatemalan
chicks.

Also, I got to meet my entire host family. Everyone
came over to drink guatemalan rum, eat fiambra (the
all saints day food which consists of a cold vegetable
salad with a bunch of random lunch meat in it and
cheese on top), drink cervezas, teach nick curse
words, and smoke. It was a cloud of guatemalan
cigarette smoke in the dining room. The family is
very cool though. And they enjoyed laughing at me try
to speak spanish. Also, the fiambra sounds terrible
but it is actually very good.

This week I solved my communication trouble and picked
up a cell phone. I think it is cheap, cheaper than my
non-functioning calling card anyway. But I will have
to wait for the bill to be sure. I don't always
understand every word and could have missed an
important part of the discussion when I bought it. If
you are dying to talk to me you can now also call me
at 502-213-0855, in addition to the numbers in the
last email. The area code in the last email was wrong
by the way. It is 502. Yes I am dumb.

That about wraps it up. I enjoyed watching Jordan
make the Wizards look good last night on tv and am
heading to Lake Atitlan this weekend on a 56 kilometer
3 day hike which should be sweet. Also my plans for
the spring are starting to take shape. Details to
come soon. But looks very good for me to be able to
do some meaningful volunteer work in South America for
6 months in 2002. Setting my sights on Bolivia right
now.

Cultural note of the week. I think Guatemalan dudes
are the purest form of male testosterone embodied.
They are relentless in their pursuit of gringo chicks
regardless of features (size, appearance, smell,
dress, etc.) It is really pretty hilarious. Based on
a small survey, the gringo chicks are very much
enjoying the attention.