last day of work

Today was my last day of work :( I brought in all the crafts I made for the classroom and I think the teacher really liked them. Unfortunately I forgot to put the batteries in my camera...dumb...so I dont have any pictures but the teacher was taking some and she said she'd email them to me! The last day was sad, and all the teachers and nuns kept hugging me and saying goodbye. The little babies made me a card (or their teacher did) and my older class made me a really cute card with their handprints on it. It was adorable. The teacher also got me a little present which was a Guatemala purse, so that was really sweet. Im going to miss the daycare alot, but I feel like I really did help out there and that they really appreciated my help.

After work we had lunch and then we had a our final wrap up with Virginia. Tomorrow is the last day we will see her :( :( :(. But we talked about how we felt our experiences had been, the best and worst parts of the trip and how we feel that it has changed us and our world-view. I dont know how I will feel when I get back to Texas but I do know that this has been an absolutely amazing experience and I will really miss everyone here, especially Virginia. It was kind of a sad talk but I do really hope to come back someday so I dont feel like it is goodbye forever. We also got to put our handprints on the wall with all the other past volunteers, which was pretty cool.

I also started packing today since we are leaving for Antigua tomorrow afternoon and we wont be back until Friday night. It will be a miracle if I fit everything in my suitcases. I started a pile of stuff I'm ok with leaving here, its going to be that packed. So wish me luck with that. I dont know what we're doing tonight, but we'll see!

flores

So today at work I brought another craft for the kids to do. It worked out perfect actually because there were only 8 kids because of the holiday and one 1 boy. I had the kids make flowers out of pipe cleaners and tissue paper and they loved it!

Today it was kind of sad because it was my second to last day and alot of the kids werent there :( Since I wasnt at work on Friday, I didnt get to say goodbyw to alot of them who arent here this week, so I wil definitely miss them. There was also a 9 year old in class today since she didnt have school and she really wanted to learn english so I talked with her alot of the day. She told me she wants to learn english so that she can go to college in Los Angeles, haha. I told her to try Texas instead. 

After work we had Guatemalan Chinese food for lunch...interesting. But I also got a delicious chocolate covered mango!! mmmm. We dont have any plans this afternoon so I've been working on a project to bring to class tomorrow for my last day. Since the teacher doesnt know any English I made little labels with the English words for things to put around the classroom. I also made a little clock for her to help teach numbers in English, and a color chart. On the color chart there are the Spanish words on top and then they can flip it open to find the English words. I dont know when the next volunteer will be at that placement so I just wanted to makes sure that the teacher keeps working with the kids on their english and they dont forget everything. It made me laugh to day because the kids were doing their usual thing where they ask me to say things in English .."Como se dice ____??" and they kept saying the English words for things instead of Spanish like, "Como se dice Bunny??", so that was funny and it's nice to see they actually do remember some of the words I've been teaching them even if they dont realize it. Their two favorite words though are still "monkey" and "cookie", of course.

Tonight we watched the Awakenings after dinner, which was a pretty good movie, I'm surprised I havent seen it before because I know I've heard about it. Me and Abbey also played ERS for awhile and she absolutely killed me, I'm a slow slapper...not good. Then we played Gin, which was pretty complicated but fun for awhile. It was a good night.

VIP

So Friday I didnt have work, as I said before there was this big demonstration in Zone 1 blocking off a lot of the streets. What happens is that the university students from all over come to Guatemala City and have kind of a political movement. They made floats like the ones in religious processions but they were making fun of religion and of politics in Guatemala. The whole thing is basically a parody on their society, and a reason for all the students to party in the streets. So Friday morning I walked down to the Park to see what all the commotion was about and it was pretty crazy! Here are a couple videos and pictures of the whole thing... (also, word of warning, the masks that they wear look a bit like KKK masks but that has nothing to do with this procession)

After all this I came home for lunch and we basically decided there was no way we were going to be able to fins a place to stay in Monterrico or the Lake for the weekend because everyone here is off work for Semana Santa, so we decided to stay in the City. Me and Debbie walked to the Central Market and tried to do a bit of shopping, to me it was a bit too small compared to the other markets we've been to, but I got a couple of things and it wasnt a total bust. We were going to see a movie, but the cab we called got a flat tire, so they called another one but the radio system they use to communicate between cabs was down, soooo we didnt get to do that. So we decided to walk to Tacontendo for a bit and we got to watch some ESPN and even drink budweiser! which is really hard to find here. 

Saturday: we got to sleep in!!! After we finally got up and ready me and abbey decided to go to this market we found online called Mercado de Artesanias. Well it turns out that this market is right next to the airport...so on one hand it was pretty nice and they had alot of cool stuff, but on the other it was way pricier than any other place we have been in Guatemala. All of the stuff already had price tags on it and they werent willing to bargain like all the other shops, so we didnt stay long. Luckily we had a nice surprise and the zoo was right next door! Neither of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into with the zoo or what to expect, but it was pretty awesome! They had a beautiful white tiger, tons of different types of jaguars, and my new favorite animal, the marmoset, soooo cute. Also they had raccoons??? It was weird to see raccoons at a zoo, but I guess they arent as common here as they are in Texas. 

Marmoset!

awkward giraffe

 

white tiger!

After this we went to Oakland mall and I finally got to try a Pina and Oreo Mcflurry! As weird as it sounds, it was actually pretty awesome, it just scared me a bit at the beginning cuz it was neon yellow. But yummy.

Then we went to the VIP movies!! In the mall they have a separate VIP theatre where you can order food and drinks while you eat. Before we went in Me and Abbey were joking about how nice the theatre to be, thinking it was ridiculous, but we walked in and the seats were full out recliners!! It was the most awesome movie theatre I've ever been in. We saw the Hunger Games, and it was ok...I knew I didnt want to see it, it was just different from the book and how I pictured it would be. Also I feel like it really wouldnt have made any sense to someone who didnt read the book, but oh well, the theatre was nice! After we all went to Cien Puertas and Tacos and Tequila.

our movie seats

Today: we slept in again! After we got up me and abbey decided to walk up to the Central Park market since it is usually huge on Sundays. Well we were surprised when we got there and the streets were crazy packed because it was Palm Sunday! There was a huge procession passing through the park area right when we showed up and luckily we got to see most of it, it was kind of hard to get pictures with the crowd, but it was so beautiful!

Then we tried to do some shopping, but we didnt really have much luck, alot of places are closed because of Semana Santa and because its Sunday. But after we came here and ate and now we're just hanging out! 

**Important Side Note***

So in the course of my time here I have realized one very important thing...Guatemalans LOVE Micheal Jackson. Seriously, he's everywhere. They were even playing a DVD of one of his concerts last night in Tacos and Tequila. Just something to remember when traveling to Guatemala.