To add further insight to my daily like here in Xela, I figured I'd share my morning routine, which I am constantly tweaking to make more authentic (of course):
6:00 AM -- Aerobics class at Shaddai's Gym, a 5 minute run from my house
**The preferred method for mi maestra de aerobics, Pati, is to move so quickly and with such intense vigor that every person in the class eventually falls and/or quits. Then we repeat the process for 45 minutes. This is the hardest exercise I have ever done. But how can one fail to appreciate a country where you are permitted, at 6:00 AM, to blare music at unreasonable decibels so people can sweat their hearts out??
***For my CrossFit pals, "push jerk" and "push press" are univerally understood. "Sumo Deadlift High Pull" is not. Shaddai and I are working on this.
7:00 AM -- Run home. I really, really miss Starbucks and/or Caribou Coffee at this time (and many other times, but this is the first of the day).
7:05 AM -- I smile daily with the trickle of hot water in the shower. Every morning I think of the frigid bathing in Kerala, India that we had to face morning and night. I'll take the trickle of agua caliente any day!
7:30 AM -- Desayuno. I truly appreciate a country where fresh fruit and warm bread is cheaper than processed food. Bananas, juicy papayas and bread with coffee comprise a wonderful Guatemalan breakfast.
7:55 AM -- Walk to La Escuela Kie Balam. Appreciate the sun, because it typically rains all afternoon. Here is the view as I walk:
8:00 AM -- Commence the lecciones de espanol at Kie Balam with my teacher, Mariela. I am usually able to sit still until approximately 8:30, when we begin the daily wanderings about town and cafe visits.
As my time here continues, I am sure I will fill this blog with more acccounts of afternoon adventures. The daily lunch with my family deserves a posting unto itself.
Until then, I want to close by remarking that I have a newfound appreciation for our students at Gunston who are linguistic outsiders. Being totally immersed in Spanish, aside from Internet communications, is exhausting. My brain has not worked this hard in years. It is also tremendously isolating to be unable to communicate your complex feelings and thoughts with friends.
Tuesday was a particularly challenging day, and in the afternoon, I felt the strangest emotion returning from my years at Camp Rim Rock. I was homesick! Almost to my house, I smelled the fresh tortillas cooking next door as I longed for a good English conversation. I unlocked the front door and glanced at an old Toyota parked a couple feet away on the narrow road. On the bumper, I joke not, was a sticker of the MacPherson insignia with our clan motto "Touch not the hand, but the glove" and our name written underneath. I suppose that was the ultimate sign that this is exactly where I should be right now.
Yeah, you should include a picture of your family on here....so as you make reference we can see who you are speaking of.
ReplyDeleteYou sure are walking in the shoes of our 'freshly arrived' students. You have at least a few working words under your belt from being around some Spanish here at school...but still it's very isolating I am sure.
Be safe! I look forward to reading about your adventures...
That is so weird!!! You need to hunt down the owner of that Toyota; maybe it's a long lost tribe of Guatemalan MacPhersons!
ReplyDeleteI think if all teachers could experience what our new ESOL students go through, i.e. not being able to communicate, I'm sure everyone would be more sensitive to their feelings. Summer school started today and I had to help a new Ethiopian boy find his bus and he had ZERO English. I hope he got off at the right bus stop! It is scary not being able to communicate.
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