Routine

As expected, I am not very good at keeping this up. I am not sure why, but I will work on it as some of you have asked (that makes me happy because it means people are reading!). So I have been here in Guatemala for almost six weeks! That is crazy. Generally it does not feel like I left Colorado all that long ago. And yet I feel like I have a found a routine that you can only get in after being in a place for a while, and, somehow, it does not feel all that different from what things looked like for me in CO (minus the dance which I miss so desperately). 

My weekdays usually start with a short (20 mins) run with Sidney around my gated area. I usually do five laps which I think is about a mile and a half, but I don't really know (see green circle on map below). I then shower, eat breakfast, etc. I leave for school at 6:30 and walk up the hill with a first grade teacher that lives in the same condo complex (it is called La Hoya). It takes us about 10 mins to walk (the school campus is outlined in white, I hear it is huge for an international school!). I then get all my stuff ready for the students who come at 7:30. After school I always have something. Mondays are volleyball practice, Tuesdays are professional development days, Wednesdays I run, Thursdays I have volleyball games against the other international school in Guate (InerAmericano and Colegio Americano Maya), and Fridays are also running days. Exciting huh?? I would like to fit some sort of fitness into my Mondays or Tuesdays. We have a pool on campus so I could swim when it is not raining, or there are some people that do a Jillian Michael's work-out video on Mondays at 4. I'll figure it out.

Even my weekends have become routine-ish. Saturdays usually involve shopping at the market (they have great fruits, veggies, tortillas, etc for really cheap) and then the grocery store for everything else. Food is generally good here, I am just adjusting to not having all my fake meats :) But that is probably good for me, I just need to watch my protein intake a little more carefully. I will then often meet up with friends for dinner or hanging out on Saturday night. Then Sunday is a lazy morning followed by ultimate frisbee at 11. We play anywhere from 2-3 hours and then I will often stay at school to get some work done.

There you have it; my Guatemala life in a nut shell. It is nice, comfortable, predictable, and pretty good. I guess that is the problem. Things are not supposed to be comfortable here, I am supposed to be challenging myself, I am supposed to be having amazing new experiences, I am supposed to be growing every day, I am supposed to be learning Spanish! When I first arrived I was told that it is easy to get in routine. That really is the truth! And routine is nice! I guess my next goal will be to get past that routine. I like the comfort and predictability of it, and who doesn't? I think it is human nature to like knowing what is coming, what to expect.  But that is not what I came here for, and I don't want to leave wondering where the time went. I don't even want to go home for Christmas wondering that. So that is what I am going to do, and you all are going to be there to hold me accountable. I am going to explore more; I am not going to not take a taxi somewhere because they seem like the only people here who don't understand my Spanish; I am going to find someone to watch Sidney so I can go away for the weekend (should probably be high on the priority list); and I am going to come home with amazing stories, pictures, adventures, and minimal regrets. At least that is the goal :)

Green circle - the large area around my house.  White circle - the even larger area of the school