it bugs!

i think i'm in a buggy situation. i thought intially there were fleas, but nah. it must be bed bugs. i read in a local publication that it's probably bed bugs in the mattress. YAY. i have at least 30 bug bites all over my body, mostly on my torso and neck area. also i have one each on both my thumbs! oh and one on the top of my ear. so much fun. and before i even came here i got a mosquito bite back home on the bottom of my foot. so many fun places to have bites. i'm so bad at self-control that i´m sure i will leave many scars from scratching scratching...

wednesday
at school was movie nite. they showed a spanish (as in, from spain) movie called "mariposa". it´s a beautiful movie. also on my list is a cuban movie called "fresas y chocolate" which i'll have to rent in the future. in the afternoon we had a field trip to El Baúl, which is on top of a mountain. we had to hike up quite a bit. it's of historical importance, as it is where the king of the mayans, whose name begins with a T..., was captured. there is a statue of him on top of the mountain. a beautiful view of xela complements the beauty of the mountain itself. also, u walk to the other side and there is a very cool set of slides that takes u, gosh i can't say how far down. there are long slides that have a series of bumps. so much fun! there are squashed 2 liter plastic bottles there that u can sit on to help u go faster (and also probably so as not to soil your pants). so random, but very fun! got some great pictures that day.

this was also the nite that i got nearly attacked by the dog by my house. i ended up having to climb on top of a car, and i finally made it to my door (i was only 2 houses away!) with the help of a neighbor who calmed the dog down. i think it was a freaky occurrence because it was a full moon. who knows. well, it was also the latest i ever walked home.. alone.. and i had an umbrella in my hand ready to whack someone. anyway, i have never been that afraid of dogs before, and now thanks to that dog i am scared of all stray dogs. there are MANY around here.

thursday
the conference on education in guatemala was the worse conference at our school. i don't know why they invited the guest speaker that they did, but wow. it just... was bad. sooo unfortunate because it was probably one of the topics i was most interested in, being a teacher and all.

but, the nite made up for it!! FUTBOL!! janet made a goal!! yes yes, it is true. there were more folks from last week, so we had 3 teams and rotated in every time a goal was made. but yes, one of the best guys there threw the ball as goalie and i was right there knee it straight back into the goal. as a victory display i ran around like a flying airplane. and many women represented this time around, about 6 or 7! we all had so much fun that we reserved the field again for this tuesday, which is not a regular futbol day. but i´m ecstatic because i thought that would be my last day to play and i get one more. =)

friday
field trip to san francisco was canceled because there was a nation-wide strike in guatemala. all major highways and interchanges were blockaded. crazy! so the school rescheduled on the spot to go to a glass-blowing cooperative. ok, that didn't really interest me, nor many others. but, as is it turned out, the older students (+40) went, whereas the other 20-, 30-somethings wanted to go ahead and see the strike and blockades. and so, that is where we went. what a inspiration. we took the bus as far as we could take it, then walked the rest of the way for quite a while. the first blockade was cars. there were blockades of tires, cement blocks, people... and when we finally made it to the gathering, we stayed around to listen to the speeches. they are fighting against the privatization of electricity, the phone company, and education. they also are demanding better healthcare and drinkable water. then they played songs of protest over the speakers. beautiful! have lotsa pictures from the event as well.

that nite was graduation and i said my good-bye speech, even though i technically have almost a week left. it's just that i wouldn't get a chance to say good-bye formally because graduations are on fridays, and i leave thursday. (i have to be at the UTLA teacher´s union conference in palm spring by friday). it was a beautiful party filled with good people, good food, and good drinks.

today, i was supposed to go on the school trip to tulate beach on the pacific ocean side, but my freakin alarm was set incorrectly and i woke up at 7am instead of 5:30. i missed the bus. so i wandered the streets of xela. =) it was relaxing and i got some good souvenirs and books. i have less than a week left... time has gone by so quickly.