this morning i woke up with a crampy stomach pain that won´t seem to go away.  we´re taking an easy day today, studying in the AM and going to class in the afternoon.  i´m not sure how much more i´ll be able to do.

my flea bites are slowly healing, so i´m feeling like less of a leper and a little more human again.  hopefully they´ll all go away before i get home so people won´t run in fear at the sight of me.

we all got up early due to the stressful sleeping conditions and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.  i had crepes filled with melon, banana, pineapple, and yogurt.  wierd.

at the start of our boat tour, we met a group of friendly people who regularly travel to vietnam and all around southeast asia now that they´re retired.

first stop on the tour was the village of san marcos. coffee trees, avocado trees, and other fruit trees covered the area, broken up only by foot paths leading to little massage parlors.

next stop: san carlos.  this is a more touristy town with great views of the lake, but not much else of interest.

santiago atitlan was our least favorite. as soon as we hit the dock, vendors came screaming, thrusting handmade souveniers in our faces and offering tuk tuk rides around the town.  we declined, prefering instead to shop at our leisure on the way to lunch.

our bus from panajachel back to xela was packed, and i ended up sleeping on connie for random parts of the trip.  poor girl.  by the time we got home, we were so happy to see our  abuela that we gave her big hugs and gushed about how much we missed her.

at 730am we got to school for our field trip to the coffee plantation.  we saw coffee trees, learned the steps of coffee production, and viewed an active volcano from afar.  i got bitten multiple times by mosquitos. bah!  we skipped out on the subsequent hike to the lake (where apparently the fish were biting) and caught a chicken bus to xela instead.  another lunch at pollo campero, and then we were off on a private shuttle to panajachel.  the ride took longer than expected, as there was massive roadwork being done along the way.  we were dropped off in front of our hotel, Utz-Jay (meaning: little house).  we nearly screamed when we saw our hotel room — clean, bright, with a hot shower!

we spent the evening walking up calle santander looking for bags and stuffed giraffes (that one´s just me) and bargaining with the vendors until we got a decent price.  dinner was at cafe bombay, a cute hippie vegetarian cafe.

once we got back to the hotel, theresa found a gigantic spider on her bed, and started freaking out.  subsequently, we found more spiders and bugs, and ended up stripping our beds and throwing all of the linens in the corner.  tram busted out her sheet and she and i shared a twin bed. we slept with the light on at theresa´s request.

we got up early to catch a chicken bus to the san francisco market.  the guy collecting money on the chicken bus tried to cheat me by not giving me back my change… but we bugged him until he begrudgingly threw the money at me.

the market was crowded, smelly, and ugly.  men walked by selling batteries and cellphone charges, women sat around selling everything from indigenous scarves to abercrombie t-shirts.  one area specialized in live animals, another in dried fish.  random people kept pushing, shoving, and touching my butt.  one really happy guatemalan man patted my back as i walked by and shouted something that sounded like… ¨good boy!¨ wierd.  we left early.  back in xela, we walked over to parque centrale for a scoop of mango ice cream from pops.  afternoon classes were held at a nearby salon and a nearby spa, where we sat on cushy couches and got pedicures.

back at home, starved and tired, we scarfed down chicken and eggs for dinner.

early morning pastries from xelapan — yum!

no patients today, so we went downstairs to help set up the clinic.  i scrubbed the outside walls and then helped paint the inside.  look at me doing manual labor!  my pants have green paint on them now, as do my arms… why won´t it wash off?

lunch at giuseppe´s gourmet pizza– suprisingly good and sugar free.  i had the chicken gourmet. Q45.

during class, my teacher told me about the anti flea spray for our beds, so we took our classes to the streets and went searching for it!  we hit a supermarket and 2 farmacias before we found it, but it was worth the trek across town.

after class, we walked home in light rain.  at home, we sprayed our beds and let the room air out while we studied and had fruit in the kitchen.  mi abuela showed me how to make guatemalan hot chocolate from the blocks that i had bought, and we all sat around the table and relaxed.

hanging out at xela pages today, catching up on the deluge of emails and updating my blog. i´m trying to upload some photos to flickr, but the computer is super slow and i´m not sure how successful i´ll be. i´m still getting used to the keyboard. oy.

this morning tram and i decided to forgo breakfast at home because our abuela was sick and hacking up a storm in the kitchen. instead, we went to xelapan, a pimpy bakery on 4th calle. we grabbed fruit filled pastries and orange juice and went to school, where we found out the doctor had all the students that he needed, so we came back to the cafe to finish up our work on the computers.

lunch at pollo campero– gotta love fried chicken kids meals! i got another bubble maker toy for my suprise.
our lago trip is booked via adrenalina.

i gave mi maestra my instyle magazine and she loved it, as did her friends and family. it´s nice to see that someone appreciates it.

tacos 3 x Q10 for dinner again. nachos yucky. and… we got accosted by a panhandling, fat, dirty 10 year old while we were eating. when we said no, he walked away saying ¨grumble grumble…. chinita… something something¨ i wanted to smack him.

back at home, tram lifted her sheets to find that she had just squished and killed a bunch of fleas. FLEAS! thoroughly disgusted, we were unable to sleep well all night. i woke up hating guatemala.

breakfast- french toast

lunch- cuban restaurant while watching ¨falling for a dancer¨on HBO.  gotta finish that movie.  really wierd.  food was fantastic. i had a bistek with rice and plantains and a sad horchata naturale.
dinner- thai food in xela.  tofu pad thai covered in sugar and a wierd thai iced tea with ginger.  pretty good.

salsa dancing at the escuela with oscar.  tons of fun.  so tired.

we woke up at 615am to run off to school, but ended up sitting in the new student orientation again and then waited and waited…. and waited for the doctor to arrive. when we finally got going, we piled 8 people into a minivan (2 in the trunk) and drove off to an elementary school where we tried to organize a bunch of rowdy kids so that we could do screening exams and treat problems. it was an exhausting couple of hours, and by the end we were all dreading the next clinic. the van took forever to come back to pick us up, and we ended up having to squish 10 people into the van this time– 3 people (including me) sat in the trunk. tram and i were so uncomfortable 5 minutes into the ride that we requested to be let off and we walked home, exhausted and loopy.

lunch was rice and soup, followed by a fantastic watermelon.

after class, we walked down ave 15, which is a steep 45 degree incline.  the rain started to fall, and the physical comedy began.  i slipped on the slick cobblestone road and fell on my butt, got up, and 2 minutes later, my bag strap broke, leaving me to hug my bag until we reached the lavanderia.  after paying for my laundry, i went to zip up my bag– and the zipper broke.  i tied the strap around and made it partly functional, and then tram and i hauled our laundry home.  thankfully, we got home before the storm.