August 14-August 17

Buenos dias!

The last three days have been very eventful!  

Friday evening we were invited to dinner with two friends of ours, Vanessa and Vicky (our translator).  Last summer Vanessa was working with a nonprofit, PCI, which helped with Ethan's research.  Hence, they met and became friends.  It was so very nice getting to see her again!  We went to a vegetarian restaurant here in Guatemala City--it was great!  Being a vegetarian is definitely not as easy here as it is in the US, so it was really nice going to a place where Ethan had so many options!  

Us at dinner.  From Left to Right: Vicky, Ethan, Me, and Vanessa.

The following day, Vanessa invited Ethan and I to her son's 10th birthday party.  Let me tell you, birthdays here are a much bigger event and are totally awesome!  It was a huge bash (with even bigger pinatas!) and a ton of people!  Ethan and I met some new friends and got to practice our Spanish.  Our friends gave us a ride home and even bought us ice cream on the way.  It was so nice!  We couldn't believe how Guatemalans celebrate birthdays.  Here are some pictures!

Me and the birthday boy!  You can tell he is so excited.  Also, this is the biggest pinata I have ever seen!

Ethan and the birthday boy!  It is very obvious that Ethan is way more fun that I am.  

All the kids watching the clown!  There were close to 40 kids by the time the evening ended!

Everybody taking pictures before pinata breaking time!  It took quite some coordination to get this picture. :)

The birthday boy gets to hit the pinata first!  

The cake!  The entire party was Dragon Ball Z themed.

In Guatemala, they put fireworks on a birthday cake.  They also sang "Happy Birthday" in English, then sang "Happy Birthday" in Spanish.  

At Guatemalan birthday parties, they also create party eggs.  They take a raw egg, blow out all the egg so that all that is left is the egg shell--and then they stuff it with confetti and seal the hole.  Everyone is given these eggs and you throw, crush, etc. them on people.  Confetti goes EVERYWHERE and it's awesome!  The kids (and let's face it, Ethan and I as well) had SO much fun!

On Sunday, Ethan discovered that Guatemala's Netflix has a Colombian version of Breaking Bad (Ethan's favorite show).  It's literally a shot-for-shot remake of the entire show.  Needless to say, when we have a little free time, this is how we have been spending it.  It's also great to see the translations of all the characters' names--Walter Blanco (Walter White), Cielo Blanco (Skylar White), Saúl Bueno (Saul Goodman), etc.  It's been very entertaining and has helped us continue practicing our Spanish.

The Show's Title in Spanish

Latino Walter White introducing himself as Walter Blanco.

On Monday, Ethan and I went to the open air market again.  We got a TON of food and had a lot of fun exploring the entire market.  There is so much there and you can buy literally everything from food, to spices, to jewelry, to fake flower arrangements.  It was really fun!  We also bought eggs and they came in a bag!  I've never seen eggs sold like that before, it was really interesting--and rather tricky getting the eggs back home via a crowed bus without any of them breaking--but we did it!

What we got from the market the second day.

Our eggs in a bag.  We bought 15 eggs in this little bag!

This is why you don't buy eggs in a bag.  We made it all the way home without breaking any, and as soon as I try to put them in our old egg carton, so they wouldn't break, they exploded--one casualty and one wounded.

Other than that, Ethan and I are just adjusting to the slight differences between living here and living back in the US.  One of the aspects I thought was funny was the no parking signs.  

"To Park" in Spanish is "Estacionar" so this is what all the no parking signs look like.  

Ethan and I have some pots and pans that Ethan brought when we came down in June.  He stuck the suitcase they are in at a friends house, and his friend has been out of town.  So we borrowed a little frying pan from Maria, our landlord, and have been very creative with it.   

We hard boiled eggs in a frying pan last night. 

Well, that is about all from our end.  We hope all is going well with all of you!  

Saludos.

August 11-August 13

Buenos dias!

Ethan and I on the airplane to Guatemala!

All is well here in Guatemala!  

We have moved into our apartment and are getting settled.  Our translator's name is Vicky, she and Ethan became friends last year, and I got to meet her yesterday.  She is so great and is constantly giving Ethan trouble--which is much needed!  He can use someone to keep him on his toes.  

We have had several meetings to figure out what we need to do in order to get all our paperwork complete.  We have talked to so many people and still have so many questions but we are in the process of finding out everything we need to do.    

Our apartment is really cute.  We had talked to our landlord (her name is Maria, she also runs the hostel, Quetzalroo, that Ethan stayed at all last summer--Ethan calls her his Guatemalan Mom) when Ethan came down in June.  We had asked for a furnished apartment, but we didn't know how much she was going to be able to get done before we arrived.  So we were hoping that we would have a bed--and that was about where our hopes were at.  And what we got, was an adorable little apartment, fully furnished and decorated.  It has everything we could possibly ever need and it was very obvious that Maria worked very hard in order to get it ready.  It was so nice of her and the apartment is so great!  Here are some pictures!

These are the stairs leading up to our apartment.

Our front door.

Our living room.

Our bedroom.

Yesterday Ethan and I also went to the open air market in order to get some food.  The market was awesome and really fun!  For any produce lover, it can't be beat!  We'll have to get some pictures of the market itself later, but we did get some pictures of what we got.  The produce is all very reasonably priced--we spent $5 total.

Our haul from our first day at the market.  

They have a lot of the same fruits and vegetables but they also had a lot of different ones as well.  We got to try two new fruits yesterday--lichi and zapote.  Lichi is a small red fuzzy ball that once you peel, tastes very similar to a grape but much sweeter.  Zapote is a firm grey-brown round fruit with a dark brown seed and tastes very much like a sweet potato.  

The new fruits we got to try--lichi (top) and zapote (bottom).

Yesterday we also got to see a friend of ours, Anna, again.  Anna has come to Guatemala many times in order to get data and research for her dissertation on midwifery and she and Ethan became friends last summer.  I also got to meet Anna last fall when she came to Denver.  She arrived back in Guatemala City yesterday and we invited her over for dinner.  Ethan and I have 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 cups, and 2 sets of silverware--so dinner was BYOP style (Bring Your Own Plate). It was so nice getting to see her again! 

Other than that, that about sums up our past few days.  The weather here is absolutely amazing and the people we've met could not be nicer.  

Saludos!