A Day In The Life Of Me

I am in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Mexíco and am reflecting on the last 4 weeks. Several people have asked why I haven´t posted much. Well my normal day is the same as the last.

I get up at 5:50 am to shower on the off chance that there is water. It works like this - if I get up at 6:30 there is no water but there was at 6:00 - if there is water at 5:50 AND I get up the water is still on at 6:30 - I can´t win. And to make matters worse Carlos and Shirley are getting a deposito (rooftop water storage tank) installed this week - sure as hell didn´t help me. Anyway, after my shower I go back to bed till around 7:00, then I get up eat breakfast and leave for school around 7:30. It is about a 15 minute walk to the school.

I usually get to school 15 minutes early and chat with Yesi. She is one of the teachers and lives at the school and is one of my altime favorite people. School is from 8 to noon give or take. Usually we start a little late but with Yesi, Sheny (the director) and Otto (Sheny´s husband) it is school wherever you are - we can be drinking beer at 11 pm and they will be correcting my spanish. In other words when we start late its really lessons with 3 or 4 teachers. We usually take about a 30 minute break at 10:30 but again during the break I have more than 1 person correcting my spanish (unless I am cheating and talking in English to another student).

I usually leave school around 12 to 12:30 and head home. Usually I stop and check my email on the way home and get there by 1 pm. I then eat lunch and am usually done by 2 pm. Lunch is usually the biggest meal of the day. After lunch I head back, check my email and see how badly my tigers are doing and then head for the fundación salvación. I usually spend 2 to 3 hours there leaving between 5 and 6.

On the way home I often stop at the restaraunt margarita near the fundación for a cold beverage, check my email one last time and then stop at the tienda closest to my house. Gloria and Ruben are the couple that own the place and then I spend up to a hour in their houses chatting and having a couple of beers. Having friends like Gloria and Ruben make it all worth while learning spanish.

I usually get home around 7 pm and we eat dinner around 7:30. After dinner I go out and have a couple of beers in a restaraunt and read or in a bar and chat. Then its home, chat with Carlos for 10 or 15 minutes and then to bed.

Thats it, a typical day for me in Guatemala