Shitting Log

Let me clue you into a silly tradition here in Barcelona.

It’s called: Caga tio.

Caga tio is a fancy way to say shitting log.

Basically, the kids here get presents from Santa Claus (Papa Noel), but they also receive candy from Tio Caca. Tio Caca is basically a log. And I don’t mean a log of shit! (Badum tsh)  The people draw a face on the log and then drape a blanket over it.  On Christmas, the kids gather around the log and sing a song. While they sing the song, they hit the log with a stick, threatening to hit it more if it doesn’t shit give them presents.

I don’t know the exact song but here is a rough translation I believe to be appropriate.

Tio Caca

You’re full of shit

Give us candy

Or with this stick you’ll be hit.

Happy Holidays everyone!

An Aussie, an American, a Brit, a Japanese, and 3 Guatemalans walk into a bar...

I can't believe all of the people that I've met down here in Xela! I guess since I'm American I thought I would a lot of other Americans but it's actually the opposite. Take a look at a dinner I recently had.

Me, Sergio, Martin (from England), Shinya, Ivan, and Jesus

And then when I went to a live salsa concert I got a picture with my Australian and Japanese friend.

Andrew the Aussie, Me, and Shinya from Japan.

And finally because I knew everyone's curious about who I'm living with here's a group picture of all of us. 

From left to right: Sergio, Alejandra, Martin, Faustino, Norma, me, Carlos, Shinya, and Ivan!

Sergio is the family's 18 year old son and he's studying how to fix electronics. Martin is my roommate from England who just left to volunteer on a farm about an hour south of Xela. Faustino is the father of the house, he makes a living selling snacks. Norma is the housemom and she cooks, cleans, and makes me laugh! Their daughter is named Alejandra and their youngest son is Carlos.  Shinya is my other roommate who only speaks Japanese and Spanish. He's here in Xela for a year while he learns! He's a braver soul then I.  Finally there's Ivan who is renting a room from the family. He's currently studying music at a university near Xela.  He says he can play trumpet, drums, guitar, and piano.

Till next time everyone! I'm heading to Costa Rica for a week on Friday so I'll be sure to update you on that!

Some thoughts

I just wanted to jot down a few thoughts before I forgot them!

As a thank you gift, I gave old bay to my host family.  I kept telling them that it's good on seafood and crabs, but they think it will be better on chicken!  The old bay wings at Bateman's are pretty good, so maybe they're onto something.

Speaking of my host family, even though my host mother and I can't converse much, she has already asked me if I was a hyperactive child. Do I come across as that hyperactive?

Yesterday I went to Salcaja and saw one of the oldest churches in Central America.

This church was built in the 1400s. Que anciana!   After we visited the church, we went to a house where a women and her husband make homemade fruit rum called caldo de frutas.  This stuff is super sweet and possibly better than gifiti!

If you know what gifiti is, you might understand this next part.  I keep saying cheque leque, but no one here knows what I mean.

I'll leave you with this thought:  I spoke to my mom earlier this week (Hi mom!) and she asked me how does it feel travellingsolo and being in a new country.  She asked if I was scared.  I responded no, this just feels normal. I feel like I should be doing this.

Getting to Guate

Getting to guatemala and xela was a doozy.  Thanks to the power of facebook, I met up with an old friend, Jane, who picked me up at the airport and showed me around Guatemala City.  Then I hopped on a bus from Guatemala City to Xela.  The bus ride took about 4 hours, which is apparently an hour longer than the ride is supposed to be.  But that did not stop our bus driver from driving like a bat out of hell.  From the way he was driving around corners, I thought the bus was going to tip over!

When the bus driver stopped for lunch I snapped this picture.

 I loved seeing that mountain in the background.

I finally got to Xela at 8pm, about an hour and a half later then when I was supposed to be there.  But the administrator at the school was awesome and waited for me.  My housemother met me at the school and took me to her home.  Here is what my room looks like:

And today I started classes! Classes are really fun! I start at 8am and then study one on one with a tutor until about 1pm.  My tutor is named Mary and mostly we've just been joking en espanol.  She also helped me buy a phone and converter for my chargers.  There are about 20 other student and maetros pairs.

Tonight we're all going salsa dancing!  Since I have two left feet I'm hoping there is a dance partner out there that has two right feet.