Sunday, September 26, 2004
The Joy of Eating....Lost Forever
One thing that I really lack is food options here. Because meat is expensive, I have bought chicken 1 time in the last month. Mostly, when Sabine and I go to the market we buy, frijoles, rice, vegetables (they are dirt cheap) a pinapple and that is about it. We get cheese made in the market (Q10) that we call water cheese. It is white, tasteless and kinda mushy. Then we go to the grocery store and get yogurt, saltines and if it is the beginning of the month, cereal (always without milk, that is way too expensive.)
Our meals consist of, pasta with assorted vegetables, rice with assorted vegetables and assorted vegetables on a bed of spinich leaves. We can also do once in awhile, mashed potatoes with, none other than, assorted vegetables. Seriously, this is all I eat. Bread is a luxury item also. It is fairly expensive. As you can see, one can get really bored with the food situation.
Yesterday, Sabine and I decided to spice it up a bit. We got out the saltines. Next we put small pieces of the water cheese on them, then a thin slice of tomato. Next we got out the balsamic vinegrette that Danny brought us from the U.S. and Ta-Daaa. It's almost like fine dinning. We finished eating at which point Sabine looks at me and says..."This really is pathetic." That about sums it up.
So, when I get home this afternoon, I will put some pasta on, chop up some vegetables and eat, pasta with assorted vegetables. Who knows, maybe I'll throw in a little "All Spice" to jazz it up a bit.
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One thing that I really lack is food options here. Because meat is expensive, I have bought chicken 1 time in the last month. Mostly, when Sabine and I go to the market we buy, frijoles, rice, vegetables (they are dirt cheap) a pinapple and that is about it. We get cheese made in the market (Q10) that we call water cheese. It is white, tasteless and kinda mushy. Then we go to the grocery store and get yogurt, saltines and if it is the beginning of the month, cereal (always without milk, that is way too expensive.)
Our meals consist of, pasta with assorted vegetables, rice with assorted vegetables and assorted vegetables on a bed of spinich leaves. We can also do once in awhile, mashed potatoes with, none other than, assorted vegetables. Seriously, this is all I eat. Bread is a luxury item also. It is fairly expensive. As you can see, one can get really bored with the food situation.
Yesterday, Sabine and I decided to spice it up a bit. We got out the saltines. Next we put small pieces of the water cheese on them, then a thin slice of tomato. Next we got out the balsamic vinegrette that Danny brought us from the U.S. and Ta-Daaa. It's almost like fine dinning. We finished eating at which point Sabine looks at me and says..."This really is pathetic." That about sums it up.
So, when I get home this afternoon, I will put some pasta on, chop up some vegetables and eat, pasta with assorted vegetables. Who knows, maybe I'll throw in a little "All Spice" to jazz it up a bit.
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Thursday, September 23, 2004
Disecting Sentences
When I was younger I hated grammar. I really didn't know what a noun was until I think I was 9. One of my least favorite subjects to teach is grammar. It is really hard especially since my students are not native speakers. However, I have done something that I thought I would never do. I am making them disect sentences....AAAHHHHH I've turned into an English teacher. The kids absolutely hate it. My favorite quote was "Miss Melissa this is stupid" followed by "Do you hate us, why do we have to do this." It's a really good way though to find out if they know what a noun, verb, adverb, adjective and pronoun is. I believe I have entered into the catagory of "World's Worst Teacher" Yikes..I really do scare myself sometimes.
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When I was younger I hated grammar. I really didn't know what a noun was until I think I was 9. One of my least favorite subjects to teach is grammar. It is really hard especially since my students are not native speakers. However, I have done something that I thought I would never do. I am making them disect sentences....AAAHHHHH I've turned into an English teacher. The kids absolutely hate it. My favorite quote was "Miss Melissa this is stupid" followed by "Do you hate us, why do we have to do this." It's a really good way though to find out if they know what a noun, verb, adverb, adjective and pronoun is. I believe I have entered into the catagory of "World's Worst Teacher" Yikes..I really do scare myself sometimes.
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Sunday, September 19, 2004
Learning to Speak English
I believe that I will have to relearn english when I get back. My students ask me all the time, "Miss Melissa, Can you borrow me a pencil" I say, "No, but you can borrow a pencil or I can lend you one." Well the other night, Danny (another teacher) was at the house and I asked him "Danny, can you borrow me this CD" It came out of my mouth as if I had been saying it that way for years. He looked at me and said "Absolutely not, but I will LEND it to you." I was mortified. My english has been reduced to that of a 9-year-old Guatemalan child.
Then, last night, my friend and I were sitting on the couch watching t.v. I saw that he had a gray hair and I went to pull it out, but it didn't come out. I absolutely killed his head. He asked me what happened (in spanish). I replied in spanish, but I asked him "what is the word for 'come out'" and he told me "salir" (duh) So I said "It wouldn't salir" in perfect spanglish. It was horrifying. I think we laughed for a good 10 minutes.
Long story short, I may have to take some ESL classes when I get back.
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I believe that I will have to relearn english when I get back. My students ask me all the time, "Miss Melissa, Can you borrow me a pencil" I say, "No, but you can borrow a pencil or I can lend you one." Well the other night, Danny (another teacher) was at the house and I asked him "Danny, can you borrow me this CD" It came out of my mouth as if I had been saying it that way for years. He looked at me and said "Absolutely not, but I will LEND it to you." I was mortified. My english has been reduced to that of a 9-year-old Guatemalan child.
Then, last night, my friend and I were sitting on the couch watching t.v. I saw that he had a gray hair and I went to pull it out, but it didn't come out. I absolutely killed his head. He asked me what happened (in spanish). I replied in spanish, but I asked him "what is the word for 'come out'" and he told me "salir" (duh) So I said "It wouldn't salir" in perfect spanglish. It was horrifying. I think we laughed for a good 10 minutes.
Long story short, I may have to take some ESL classes when I get back.
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Sunday, September 12, 2004
Girls Night
Last night me and my girlfriends decided we were going to have an old fashion sleepover. You would think by all being in our mid 20's that we would be past this, but absolutely not.
We have all been feeling pretty homesick, so we decided to make it as westernized as possible (2 girls are from Europe). So I made chicken casserole and Sabine made a Caprezzi Salad. Then we all sat down with popcorn and chocolate and watched the movie "8 Mile".
After the movie was over we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. So we all fixed our hair really funny and took goofy pictures. Around 11 we started to get really tired (at that point showing our age)so we spread out our comforters, pillows and sleeping bags and crashed on the floor.
We all woke up this morning around 7. We layed around for 2 hours watching a Lifetime style moving and justnot wanting to get up. Finally I got up and I fixed bannana-chocolate chip pancakes. They were so good.
It was so much to have a girls night. I think it is strange but nice that, no matter how old you get, it is still fun to have slumber parties.
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Last night me and my girlfriends decided we were going to have an old fashion sleepover. You would think by all being in our mid 20's that we would be past this, but absolutely not.
We have all been feeling pretty homesick, so we decided to make it as westernized as possible (2 girls are from Europe). So I made chicken casserole and Sabine made a Caprezzi Salad. Then we all sat down with popcorn and chocolate and watched the movie "8 Mile".
After the movie was over we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. So we all fixed our hair really funny and took goofy pictures. Around 11 we started to get really tired (at that point showing our age)so we spread out our comforters, pillows and sleeping bags and crashed on the floor.
We all woke up this morning around 7. We layed around for 2 hours watching a Lifetime style moving and justnot wanting to get up. Finally I got up and I fixed bannana-chocolate chip pancakes. They were so good.
It was so much to have a girls night. I think it is strange but nice that, no matter how old you get, it is still fun to have slumber parties.
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Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Guatemala Won!!!!!!!
Since living in Central America I have really gotten into futbol (soccer). I absoluely love it now. In the soccer world today, we are having the pre-qualifying games for the World Cup 2006. The Soccer God is currently with Guatemala. We won against Costa Rica on Sunday which was no supposed to happen. This was the first time in years that Guatemala was able to play in it's home stadium. You could feel the energy everywhere in the country. During the game the streets were absolutely desserted. Me and my friends went to watch the game in a place called Personajes. It was so much fun. We were doing chants and cheering our hearts out. It was so fun to be the underdog and win.
Tomorrow we play again Honduras. Again, Guatemala is not supposed to win...but I think we have a chance...Gua-te-ma-la! Gua-te-ma-la! Gua-te-ma-la!!!!!!!
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Since living in Central America I have really gotten into futbol (soccer). I absoluely love it now. In the soccer world today, we are having the pre-qualifying games for the World Cup 2006. The Soccer God is currently with Guatemala. We won against Costa Rica on Sunday which was no supposed to happen. This was the first time in years that Guatemala was able to play in it's home stadium. You could feel the energy everywhere in the country. During the game the streets were absolutely desserted. Me and my friends went to watch the game in a place called Personajes. It was so much fun. We were doing chants and cheering our hearts out. It was so fun to be the underdog and win.
Tomorrow we play again Honduras. Again, Guatemala is not supposed to win...but I think we have a chance...Gua-te-ma-la! Gua-te-ma-la! Gua-te-ma-la!!!!!!!
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Thursday, September 02, 2004
Chicken Bus Duck and Nun Run
Sabine and I went to the city last friday because we had the day off of work. We got on the chicken bus near our house and so of course it was packed. We hopped in and pushed our way to the back so that we could stand between and sweaty guy and a crying baby. The money taker guy entered from the back and was pushing is way forward when he yelled "Agachense, Agachense" which means duck down. So all of us who are standing duck down and then I see why. We were passing the police and there is now a law that the bus can not be full past the number of people that fit on the seats. It was absolutely hysterical to see all of us standing already packed like sardines try to then duck and be level with the people who are sitting. Finally we stood up and we were on our way again....
On another note...
Every morning I walk about a mile to the bus stop to take the chickenbus to work. I leave my house around 6:20am. Near my house is a church that has a monestary. Every morning on my walk I see the nuns walking around town heading back to the church. At around 6:25 a bell rings which tells them they all have to go back to the church. Apparently yesterday everyone was a bit late because as I am walking I see all these nuns coming from every direction and they are running as fast as they can. It was the funniest thing I have seen because they suddenly come out of nowhere and they are running full blast...how strange.
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Sabine and I went to the city last friday because we had the day off of work. We got on the chicken bus near our house and so of course it was packed. We hopped in and pushed our way to the back so that we could stand between and sweaty guy and a crying baby. The money taker guy entered from the back and was pushing is way forward when he yelled "Agachense, Agachense" which means duck down. So all of us who are standing duck down and then I see why. We were passing the police and there is now a law that the bus can not be full past the number of people that fit on the seats. It was absolutely hysterical to see all of us standing already packed like sardines try to then duck and be level with the people who are sitting. Finally we stood up and we were on our way again....
On another note...
Every morning I walk about a mile to the bus stop to take the chickenbus to work. I leave my house around 6:20am. Near my house is a church that has a monestary. Every morning on my walk I see the nuns walking around town heading back to the church. At around 6:25 a bell rings which tells them they all have to go back to the church. Apparently yesterday everyone was a bit late because as I am walking I see all these nuns coming from every direction and they are running as fast as they can. It was the funniest thing I have seen because they suddenly come out of nowhere and they are running full blast...how strange.
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