Fall is here...

The leaves are turning and it's starting to get colder. Ok, not really. This is California. It's still in the 70's every day. I think of You've Got Mail around this time because of the opening scene where they discuss how the fall inspires a desire to buy school supplies. Tom Hanks says that he would send Meg Ryan a bouquet of sharpened pencils if he knew where she lived.
Anyway, I bring this up because I recently found a rubber band on my desk that smells just like those rubber playground ball we used to play four square and Greek dodge ball with in elementary school. I always loved the way those smelled. This little strip of stretchiness took me back to the times when I'd open up the coat closet and the dense aroma of rubber and fun would envelop me. Anyway, I guess I could finish up about nostalgia for a simpler time when my only worries were catty girls on the playground. But really, I just like the smell...

Wernicke's Disease

So I've started my job as a receptionist as I've mentioned before. I always considered myself good receptionist material. Warm, friendly, nice smile, etc, but I never realized that something lurked within that would destroy my hopes of reaching the pinnacle of receptionist-ness.
I always knew I had a problem. My friends knew it. My parents knew it because my mother suffers from it. There's nothing wrong with my hearing, but I'm pretty sure there's something not quite right in my Wernicke's Area. Slight brain damage? Maybe. Judge for yourself. Not uncommon are comments such as this:
Me: Did you say you are in love with Michael Buble?
Whomever: No! I said I want to make a cheese souffle!
Oops. So yesterday a man by the name of Wif called. I had no idea that anyone in the world is named Wif, so I told me boss, Bob, that Wes was calling. He later corrected me, saying that his name was indeed strange. Near the end of the day, a man who I swear said his name was Brian King calls up Bob, and I transfer him.
Me: (Sweetly) Bob, Brian King is on the line for you.
Bob: (Gruffly and obviously annoyed) Ming! His name is Ming! He's Chinese!
Sorry Bob that my disability has come between us. I'll never get promoted to favorite receptionist now.

Who knew telephones were quite so complex?

I have a new job. I answer the phone and read people's resumes at a job recruiter. The first day was almost a disaster. I sat there learning how to answer the phones for the first two hours. The only problem was that the phone only rang a few times. When Carol (the other receptionist) left, I still had no idea how to get phone calls successfully across to my ornery bosses. The first time I tried to transfer a call to the head boss-man, I put him on what I thought was hold, then proceeded to hang up on him after telling my boss that he was on the phone. Pandemonium erupted. Everyone became very stern very quickly and my boss said loudly, "He's not on the phone. He's not on the phone!" The girl who had been talking to me when I answered the phone tried to recover the phone call. Who knows where I'd pigeon-holed the fellow, but his call was out there somewhere in oblivion, waiting to be picked up. When all the hubbub died down, he called back. Crisis averted. Since then it's been almost fine. I'm still on the job hunt though. Being a receptionist is definitely not my cup of tea.
The other part of my job is searching for resumes that match available positions on CareerBuilder. I'll learn something at least. The first thing I've learned is that Hogi Yogi really is a blight on my cv, just like I thought it always would be. Nuts!

I heart Smetana

So September is turning out to be a stressful month, and I'm guessing October will be the same way. I'm attempting to study for the GRE which I recently found out has changed in the past months, so the prep materials I have are partially obsolete. Oh well. I'll do my best, and I can always retake it. I also am trying to get my paper prepared for publication (I need to have a draft done by the beginning of October), and upon reading over my paper from last year, realized I have some major revisions that may amount to rewriting half the paper. More work than I expected, but I'm excited about writing it, which I guess is a good thing.
Oh, I'm also trying to find a job. A full-time one that gives me lots of money or at least more that $11/hour. Uncle Mike introduced me to a guy who's job is finding people jobs, and he said he had a position for me answering phones and helping him with internet research part-time until I find another job. Of course I lept at the chance. Then I realized that I've got a lot to do in the next few weeks on top of trying to be social and make friends. Bleah. It'll all work out and come out fine in the end. It always does.
I also would like to apply for grad schools this year. Hmmm... Maybe I can squeeze that in somewhere.
Other than that, I'm really enjoying myself, making new friends and getting to know the area. I walked on the Golden Gate Bridge, rode a trolley car (singing that song from 'Meet Me in St. Louis' while swinging off the side), spent way too much money making public transportation mistakes, ate at a restaurant in China town, went to Fisherman's Wharf and the Embarcadero, and drove through Castro. Still much more to see, and I'd post pictures, but I currently have no camera since it got stolen in Copan. *Shakes left fist*
So last Monday I saw this guy on BART who seemed really nice and even said something to me, but I just responded and didn't strike up conversation. I was kicking myself days later. So then we go to the visitor's center by the Oakland temple to see an art exhibit that's up there. We're taking the tour and the sister missionary opens the door and... there he is! Amazing! He recognized me, but couldn't place me. He remembered once I told him. He was going to the same regional young single adult fireside that we were going to, so that's why he was there. Anyway, we are going to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the SF museum of modern art on Thursday. He seems nice, so hopefully he's not a creep. In other news, Spencer (my cousin who's room I have temporarily occupied) left his mate bombillas and stuff here. Yay! There's a guy in my ward who said he'd drink it with me. No one here will touch the stuff. Sad day for them.
The moral of the story is that 'The Moldau' is like a bubble bath for the soul. Thanks Aaron for making this possible!

When it rains, it pours (from June 4th)

This week…It's hard to remember. I've been working at Copikaj, the basket cooperative. Mostly it's been office assistant work. The first day was fun. We went and helped a family of weavers finish off their products to turn in that afternoon. They let me work with them and talked to me a lot in K'iche'. I was trying really hard to understand, but really I only got about half of it. It was really fun. They asked a lot about life in the United States. For some reason people have this idea that it is common for people to sign contracts upon getting married that say they are only going to be married for 5 years or whatever. I know that there were those who would get married to get a green card then get a divorce later and maybe they are thinking of pre-nups or the high divorce rate. I don't know, but it's one of the common questions I get all the time. If anyone has experience with that, do let me know.
Anyway, the second day, I helped Julio (the guy in charge of basket production and commercialization) organize the warehouse which was full of rat droppings and dust. The baskets were in fairly good shape for the most part, but it turned out that it was pretty disorganized. I tried to help by sorting the baskets according to type while he was out talking to a woman about buying land. When he came back in, he basically said, I was planning on putting something else in those spots. Then he threw all the piles I had made on the floor and did it his way, throwing baskets in whatever container. Oh well. Because of what I had done, he did keep most of the different kinds together, though, so that's something.

The next day I went in and worked in the office and did more organizing and pricing. Today we did inventory. I think they are taking advantage of the fact that I'm there to do the projects they've needed to do. That's what I'm there for, I guess. I'm excited to get to know some of the basket weavers and do interviews with them. My new goal this week is to get a bit of data on the people's concept of their town identity and traditions. I'll let you all know how that goes.
As far as fun and games go, I've been playing a little more with the little girls that are 2 ½ and 4. Ramona's (the older one's) favorite show on Discovery Kids is Lazy Town, so we do exercises in the kitchen after dinner. They are really cute, but really disrespectful to their grandparents and get into everything not to mention that they are constantly at each other's throat and touching each other and rough-housing. Kind of reminds me of me and Brian growing up actually. Sorry if we were annoying guys. :]
Anyway, we also went to San Pedro on Saturday night to see the election of the town queen. It was really stressful because the whole group decided to go because if more than 2 of us are going anywhere, it becomes a group activity. No one wants to be left out. I respect that. It was raining and we missed the first bus. Another bus came almost immediately though, but there were doubts cast by Craig's host mom about whether it was actually San Juan that we were supposed to be going to. The ride made Jessica sick and she threw up in the street when we got there. We had to find a hotel which ended up not being too bad. After dinner (about 8:20) we headed over to the program which was outside without chairs set up, so we had to stand the whole time.
The others weren't enjoying the program or felt gross, so they left after about 45 minutes. Craig and I stuck it out to the end (because it's his project and I'm interested in representations of their own culture). It didn't finish until almost 1 am. I was pretty sore the next day. I'm not used to standing in one place that long.
It was raining when we left that next morning. We had to wait almost an hour in the boat to go to Panajachel for church, so we missed sacrament meeting. Everyone was cranky on the way back because they were hungry (not because it was fast Sunday because they forgot. Craig reminded me luckily. I don't like surprises like that.), tired, sick, and wet. Anyway, we all love each other again and we got home fine.
Oh and it's been raining since Friday. We've had two tropical storms pass (probably depressions by the time they get here actually), Alma and Arthur. There has been flooding across the country and mudslides on the road down to the pacific coast and one by Nahualá (inter-american Highway) that I've heard of. We've been fine here except for the laziness (and depression) that accompanies the rain. Craig had to go to Momostenango on Monday, so I was worried about him ending up dead at the bottom of a muddy gulf, but all that happened was a delay because they had to go through the center of Nahualá to get around the mudslide. They said there is another storm that might be coming through, but I get confused information all the time, so I'm not sure how many more days of this we are going to have. According to the newspaper here, the ground is already to the saturation point of September. Yikes!
Anyway, the rain is driving me nuts and I just want the sun to come out again. The sun came out for about 5 minutes today and I went out and looked at it. It was so warm and happy! It reminded me of the story mom always talks about where they lock that girl in the closet for saying it is going to stop raining and when it actually does stop, they forget about her and she misses it. I'm glad I saw it.
Anyway, I think that's it. Life marches on and takes me with it.

So this is actually from May 26th

last week was slightly unexciting. Finished my basket. Read a lot. Got more behind. Yay! Anyway, I really only have about twenty minutes to write anyway. I'm still alive, still not sick, and still fairly (fat and) happy. I kind of went on an eating binge last week which I'm still recovering from. I love tienda food! (i.e. cheap fatty snacks). On Friday most of us went to Sololá to buy weaving materials. I went to go check out the basketmakers that come from Santa Clara to sell. It was fun. They were all (ok just one) really excited to hear that I am living in Santa Clara and learning to make baskets. That night I was feeling sick from the greasy chicken and snacks we ate on the trip, so I went to Craig's house to watch Shrek II. We were half way done when his computer shut off and wouldn't turn back on, so we just called it a night. My family gave me a stick to beat the dogs off with, but I got home just fine. As he gave it to me, Don Pedro said, 'Now people make fun of you for carrying a stick, but it's worth it.' Not the thing to say to someone who's already self conscious about being who she is where she is anyway. Oh well. I told Chad's family, who I went to visit on the way, that it was for bad children when one of the girls mentioned it (Aracely). Her grandma laughed.
On Saturday, we went to San Marcos again (we promised Juan we would) and jumped off the big rocks. Ok, I'm not as brave as I thought. There's something about throwing yourself off of something into something you can't see. I'm not sure how high it was exactly, but I think it was about 5 meters tops. The shorter one was about three. I'll send pictures next week. We got some cool ones. The lake is pretty deep there. I didn't touch the bottom when I jumped really couldn't see all the way down to the bottom even though the water is pretty clear. I ended up jumping off about three times, and the first time took about 15 minutes for me to finally just go. After, Craig and I swam around to the beach (I don't know how far it was). There were women by the beach washing their clothes and one woman was bathing. It made me wonder how far they had come to wash since a lot of the places that are right around there are pretty touristy and would have water. I didn't really get a chance to look around much of the town though. We went to a restaurant and had huge plates of spaghetti. Yum! We were home by quarter to three. Sad news is I left my umbrella in a tuk tuk. Goodbye trusty friend that been by my side for four years now. It has survived rain, wind, and snow only to go the way of my bag of snickers. No going back now. It's time to move on to a cheap Guatemalan umbrella. Everyone shed a tear for my dearly departed.

Anyway, we also had a fiasco getting to church because no buses passed and Craig was half and hour late. We didn't get up to the highway to catch the 20 minute (25? I can't remember) bus ride to Chirijox until 9, so we decided to go to the 10:00 Nahualá branch instead. We got there half an hour early, so I decided to play the piano a bit. I don't know what I was thinking. Of course I doomed myself to play the hymns. It was fine though. I've gotten better in the last year thanks to the piano in my apartment (or maybe the hymns were just easy). Anyway, it was the most successful sacrament piano playing I think I've done.
So that was good. And life is good. My bath water was actually almost hot on Sunday and I cut a mango successfully this morning, so maybe they will trust me more with things. Anyway, they love me and I love them. I also am going to start working at the basketweaving cooperative this afternoon, so that will be awesome too, hopefully. Well, until next week...when we run to the coast and back (that may only slightly be a joke).

I only cut my finger once, but don't tell Tat Lu' that!

This week has been lovely for the most part. I made my first basket of the year with Tat Lu’ whose teaching method is to do the work for me. Hopefully by the end, I’ll be making baskets completely on my own from splitting the cane to putting the rim on. Maybe. I’ve been learning a lot about their family and it’s amazing how different their family is from the one I stayed with last year. Last year I kind of resented the lack of nitpicky care I got from my family, but this year I appreciate it. The family this year takes such good care of me that it makes me feel bad and stifled all at once. No longer do I burn my tongue on the food or drink, I am always at home before 9:30 else they come looking for me even though they know where I am, I am not allowed to help with dishes or cleaning (though I do get to make tortillas and take the kernals off the dried corn-cobs) and my bucket baths are nice and luke-warm. Sometimes I think they think I don’t know how to care for myself, and I get annoyed. Then I remember that they are thinking of my family back in the States and want me to get back just the way I came. So no worries mom and dad. They have let me do my own laundry which makes me at least feel slightly autonomous. I decided to live with a different family to get a different experience. I’m definitely getting what I wanted.
Last week I had a wonderful birthday. I made pizza with Yohana, my host-sister from last year and we invited all the students over (all four of them). They also made a small dinner complete with roasted chicken, broccoli, and yucca was it? We also had the pizza, and they surprised me with a cake! Yummy. This was the first year that I actually was subjected to the mordida tradition were the poor birthday girl’s face is pushed into the side of the cake. It was all very fun. Who doesn’t like having whipped cream all over their face?
Last week I also started really working again with Lucia and her group. Right now they are mostly doing crochet, so I’m learning how to do that. They actually let us work with them and with their materials even though there is no way that my stuff is good enough for sale in the market. Who wants a crocheted cell-phone bag made by a gringa anyway? Actually, Chad is also learning to make baskets with Tat Lu’ too, so we have big plans to make our own set of a dozen baskets to take to the market to sell. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t sell any, but it would still be fun(ny). On Saturday I went with Craig to San Marcos, a town on the edge of Lake Atitlán that is a prime spot for tourists. It’s always a shock going to tourist areas after being in the communities even if it’s only been two weeks. We were only there a few hours to see a friend of his and pick up a newspaper clipping (unbeknownst to the other students at the time, they were in the Diario for being tourists at Tikal. I was already in Santa Clara. It’s ok. I’m not that jealous). Anyway, for some reason the pot-smelling, long haired tourists made me nervous. Small pathways, lots of people. Why was I afraid they would touch me? No idea. It would be more logical to be nervous in the place where I’m the odd-ball. Which reminds me that a man that was slightly drunk came up to me in the street yesterday asking me something about Venezuela and telling me they were all wonderful people and that I should love them too. He then said in the politest way that he could that they didn’t want anything from the United States in their town. “Bueno,” I said with a smile and walked home. Slight paranoia ensued, but it was all forgotten in a couple of hours.
I also have been having crazy dreams about home and people I haven’t thought about since high school. Why? Maybe it means something. Maybe it’s the tortillas. Anyway, I want to go back to San Marcos one day and jump off the huge rock that’s there into the lake. Most everybody’s afraid to jump off of it. I’m pretty sure it’s no higher than the second platform at Candler. No biggy. I’m going to wow them all with my fearlessness.
As far as everything else goes, I’m way far behind in my coursework and getting things typed up. Typical. Oh, and last night was the first big rain since I’ve been here. The water was streaming in through the windows in the kitchen, flooding the floor a bit. The sound is always deafening. We have to shout to hear each other and the little girls kept talking to me. They are hard to understand anyway, so I just smiled and nodded.
I forgot that last week we also went to the election of the queen of La Salle, the school that I learned to weave at last year. Each candidate had a short dance that they did with others of their age-group as an introduction. One of the girls’ groups reenacted a Maya ceremony and actually sacrificed a chicken by dramatically chopping off its head. The kid who was acting as the priest then poured the blood onto his face and danced around. At the end when they were cleaning up, they left the head out in the middle of the basketball court where they had danced. “The head, the head,” everyone shouted. Eeew. We heard that the director of the school though it was inappropriate. It was cool though. The other dances were pretty typically traditional with marimba, incense, and baskets of corn and other greens.

Well, that's all there's time for this week. Stay tuned for next weeks grand adventure in basket making!

First Post from Guate

Titles are so stinking hard to come up with. There's just so much pressure.
So it's my birthday. Well...the news...or maybe first an explanation of exactly what I'm doing this time around since I didn't really explain it last year, so a lot of confusion insued. Basically, I'm continuing my basket research to hopefully write something publishable or presentable. I'm going to apply for folklore programs when I get back, so I'm focusing on the significance of the basket (I'm more interesting in material culture-dance, music, art-than the english type of folklore). This year is slighly different because I am the facilitator for the group of students that came on the Guatemala field study program. There are four, in random order--Chad, Jessica, Craig and Aaron. They each have their own research project that they are working on. Now to my doings...
I got here fine last Thursday the 1st after taking an all-night flight of sorts. I left at 7:40 from Utah, then left again from LAX at about 11. I left again from LAX at about 2. We had been up about an hour when they told us there was a problem with the engine and we were running on auxilary power or something, so we were going back. 'That's kind of scary,' I thought, then promptly went back to sleep. I didn't even get to see anyone famous, so it was definitely not worth the trouble.
A really nice family who worked with the field study when they were in Nahuala (we had to move locations last year) picked me up from the airport, fed me pizza and dropped me off at Km 148 to take the bus in to Santa Clara. I arrived in the pouring rain taking a bus that charged me double "because of my suitcases" and a tuk tuk that charged me cuadruple because they were a couple of punks. I didn't care to argue too much because I was getting wet. In transport, I only lost my bag of mini snickers in the tuk tuk. I would have been ok with it except those little twerps charged me too much. They didn't deserve it. :)
The next few days were spent with my host family (Tat Lu's family who taught me how to make baskets and to embroider last year) and visiting old friends. I was going to find all new host families this year, but Tat Lu' had already talked to the families from last year when I got there. Oh, well, best just to go with the flow.
On Monday, I went up to the Capital to spend the night where the other students were staying. We had a cinco de mayo party complete with carne asada and cohetes. No piñata though, they were expensive and had no candy in them. I actually don't know whay a piñata costs, so it's possible they were cheap. Whatever. I
The last week I've basically been getting distracted by the other students, running around town seeing people and eating food. The pan dulce is going to be the death of me. Luckily, Yohana (my host sister from last year) said she'd go running with me a few times a week. It's not socially unnacceptable to run! Hooray! Also, we tried to go talk to both the mayors and neither of them were there. Does that make me a bad facilitator? Possibly.
Yesterday and Saturday I went up to the top of Las Cristalinas, a mountain peak that overlooks Lake Atitlan. It's not very clear this time of year, but it's still cool to go up and see what I can see. You know, like the bear. The second time was fun because we went up with Craig's host parents, Cecelia and Miguel who were all up for exploring the mountain and trying different paths. We took pictures of all the gringos just to see how they'd like it as well as destroying the lovely foliage Guatemala style in order to take flowers back with us. We did actually learn something about the plants and I found a ton of mint up on the mountain. It was fun. There's a lot of hiking to be done while I'm here.
Anyway, not too many flea bites so far. I'm only sleeping on a box spring, so that's interesting. But, I'm taking bucket baths every other day which is marvelous! So far adjusting to the food hasn't been all that painful either. I'm going to be working again with Lucia's group of women that make crafts (including the pine needle baskets) among other things. I'm also hoping to learn baskets well enough to work with someone a few times a week making different styles. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, happy Amy's birthday to everyone.

My First Post

I've decided to join the ranks of the bloggers. This way I can send weekly Guatemala emails to the people who actually want them, and if anybody else wants to check up on me who just happens to love me that much, but isn't on the list, CAN! I'd like to thank Ellie Crandall for being the other inspiration for my blog. I wish she would also live in the basement of my house forever.