Land of the Muertos

What's a girl (or in this case, two girls) to do on a Saturday afternoon? Why, go to the cemetery, of course!

I think that was more or less our logic last weekend. We pass this beautiful orange gated arch into a cemetery on our way in to work every day and have been intending to check it out for several weeks. After a lovely morning of reading, relaxing, sunning and studying we decided Saturday was the day.

The guards looked a little amused as we pulled in in beat-up Roscoe, but collected our 3Q entrance fee and waved us in. We parked and started walking around, amazed at the quantity of elaborate and/or tacky mausoleums styled after everything from gothic churches to my favorite:

Egyptian tombs!

This thing is intense. It had everything down to copper hieroglyphic plates on the side. And, of course, a cross on the top. The Egyptians were big Jesus fans, I hear.

Behind it you can see the other thing I found most interesting about the cemetery. If I were a really good blogger, I'd look up the history of these walls of coffins and tell you why they're constructed this way, where the idea came from or some other interesting tidbit. But for now all I can tell you is that I was filled with a strange, unsettling sense of beauty when I walked up to this wall stacked eight high with people and tributes to them.

Space available.

What we didn't realize when we planned this day trip is that the cemetery is one of the more dangerous places to go in Guatemala City. We found this out afterward, but were given some hints as we were there (the two boys sharing a bicycle, one holding a club, for starters). Don't worry, Mom: as soon as a couple guys started trying to talk to us in English (and when that didn't elicit any response, Chines) we got in the car and left.

And we'll just pretend we didn't try to turn around in neighboring El Gallito (worth a listen).

the end, I hope.

So now that I’m starting to get this Spanish thing down, it’s time to learn another skill here in Guatemala: problem solving.

If you’ve talked to me over the past few weeks I’ve probably annoyed you by listing off all the things that have gone wrong recently. Between a flooded kitchen, ghosts locking me out of my bedroom, a stolen wallet (and therefore three weeks without money aside from that which my WONDERFUL roommate is lending me) and a dead rat-blocked pipe, my stories haven’t exactly been filled with sunshine and gumdrops.

So when we left our house Monday morning to head to work and Roscoe the car wouldn’t start, you can imagine how excited I was to add one more fun circumstance to the list.

After some investigation, we fed Roscoe all the liquids he was so thirsty for (the poor, neglected thing was almost completely out of oil, coolant and windshield wiper fluid). We borrowed jumper cables, which helped him start and gave false hope, since as soon as we turned him off he wouldn’t start again. We drove around for 40 minutes hoping the charge would stick, but nothing.

So at this point we know it’s the battery. Since I’m renting the car and the lease has directions for where to take it if something goes wrong, I call the number for the mechanic and tell him exactly what’s happening. “Good evening, I’m renting this car from ____ and I think it needs a new battery. I can start it with cables, but the next time it won’t start” (but in increasingly impressive Spanish). “Yeah, yeah, bring it in,” they say to me.

So after a very complicated morning including Don Roberto the taxi driver, borrowed jumper cables and a guard at the mechanic’s cutting grass with a machete, we drop the car off at the shop and go to work.

I get a call around 5 p.m. “Good afternoon, that car you’re renting from ____? I think it needs a new battery. We can start it with cables, but the next time it won’t start.”

Ok. Yeah, I knew that.

“You’re going to need to go buy a new battery.”

Argh. I may be wrong, since I’m limited in my experience with mechanics in the US, but I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work. I mean, thanks for validating my knowledge of what a car needs to start, but you really can’t give me any more help than that? Isn’t your job to fix problems after you diagnose them? I asked where in the world I could go buy a battery. It’s not like there are Wal Marts or Auto Zones around. They didn’t know.

So we walk down to the mechanic this morning, point at the car and say “that one’s mine” (I could have been anyone, but I guess it’s good that they didn’t ask for ID because I don’t have any), got someone to jump it and drive to work where my new favorite coworker tracked down a battery and someone to install it. The sound of the car starting without cables could not have been more welcome.

We went through the AutoMac and bought McFlurries on the way home to celebrate The End, both to the car saga and hopefully to the series of unfortunate events.

My life looks like:

First of all, I'd like to dedicate this post to my Australian readership (aka Jane) who are apparently waiting eagerly for another exciting post about my life. If I had a picture with Jane, I'd start off with it. I like her. She, being Jo's mom and wedding preparation expert, has been an important part of the biggest and most exciting event of the past month: the wedding!

More on that later, but first a few other photos that are hanging around to give you a glimpse of what my life looks like these days, or at least what it looks like when there's a camera around. Shout out to Karri for providing most of them. (FYI, you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.)

These first couple pictures are from trips to Antigua. I know I've said this before, but Antigua contrasts sharply withe dinginess and grunge so abundant in the city. It's a whole different world 30 minutes away, and as much as I'd love to say I'm tough sometimes escaping is exactly what I need.


Jenny and Karri got roped into dancing a traditional Guatemalan dance at a dinner (well, they had maracas shaken at them which apparently indicated they should get up and hop around). I refused but judging by the joy on Jenny's face in this picture, I missed out.


The wedding! There are tons of pictures out there displaying the beautiful location and people involved in this wedding, but here you get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what went into making the day. The morning of the wedding, a bunch of us were put in charge of transporting the beautiful cake Jo's grandpa's wife made from the house, and then I was put on guard dog duty, keeping all admirers away while the cake's creator put it all together. I put the mean face that comes so naturally to good use. It was worth it: with very little stress and no falling layers, the beautiful cake featuring traditional flowers from both Guatemala and Australia was a big hit.


Jo looked amazing. Victor too. I am so happy for them, and loved the wedding so much. So many people came together to make it wonderful - it definitely had a community feeling and that's probably what I loved most about it.


The morning of the wedding it rained. It rarely rains in the morning here, so it was kind of a bummer. However the ceremony looked gorgeous with the sprinkles in the background, and as the reception went on the clouds cleared up showcasing the volcanoes that surround Antigua, which lay below the hill where the wedding was held.


Here's a snapshot of our new house! It is so posh, I feel guilty living here, but the price was SO right and it was available for exactly the amount of time we needed it.


Although I love the house, it's already caused its fair share of problems. See the previous post for an explanation of this picture (which Alex so kindly took before going back to bed).


After I locked our keys in the house and had to be rescued by the landlords, Karri and I decided that the only logical thing to do was to stop at the beat up yellow Datsun that we often pass on the way home from work to get another set made. I mean, why not? Why go to a store when you can pull to the side of the road put your hazard lights on?


It's kind of a sweet set up, when you think about it. A pegboard of blank keys in the back, cutting machine in the passenger seat, bag of Cheetos on the drivers seat, the ability to work from anywhere...


Birthday party for a coworker's niece. This was so much fun, especially because I got there before Alex did and made friends with the kids before he had a chance to steal them away. Kids always like him the best so the victory was sweet. That is, until this girl started dragging me around the house, racing me everywhere, forcing me to sit on (and therefore pop) balloons and completely wearing me out. She was awful cute, though.


The birthday girl. I believe this is when we were singing "Happy Birthday to You," which is always sung in English here. Unfortunately I've started singing it in the Spanish accent with everyone else. Yikes.


We had Army Day off, so Alex, Karri and I headed to the beach. As fun as it was, I think I liked cruising down the highway in Roscoe best. Guatemala is so beautiful. Check out this volcano that we drove past: we're going to climb it on Sunday!


The drive to the town was beautiful, but hazardous. Aside from a million cruel, giant speedbumps, there was an abundance of livestock crossing the road without looking both ways including this pig and her family, which I almost hit.


All worth it for the ocean. The waves were MASSIVE, however, and immediately took me out, filling my face and bathing suit with the black volcanic sand. It was still beautiful, if painful.


I recovered by laying in the sand for hours.


Nope, not Oreo on my face, although that wouldn't really be out of the ordinary. (It's sand.)


And finally, the cutest things to come into my life lately: the baby sea turtles. Apparently Monterrico, where we went, is famous for its nature preserve. Since it was Army Day the center was closed, but we sneaked in for a peek at these little cuties. If they hadn't been in the preserve to protect them from people who wanted to steal them, I would have stolen one.

BAM!

So that peaceful existence I wrote about yesterday? It was rudely interrupted yesterday at around 9:30 p.m.

We (Karri, Alex and I) had just got back from a nice dinner with friends and were all getting ready for bed or falling asleep in our respective bedrooms. All of a sudden there was this giant explosive sound. I think the first thing that came to my head was that the fan had fallen from our ceiling - I had been tugging on the light switch pretty aggressively a bit earlier trying to turn the light off. Option number two was that somehow all the cupboards in the kitchen fell at once and every pot, pan and dish crashed to the ground.

I actually think either of those would have been better than the cascade of water we found flowing out of the wall when we walked into the kitchen. Apparently a pipe burst which left us pretty helpless to stop it, until I finally found and figured out how to turn off the well pump out back. Unfortunately by that point we were close to having a swimming pool in our kitchen.

I called the landlords who came over and messed around with the hot water heater (apparently the culprit) for a while until giving up and saying they'd have to bring in a plumber the next day. Karri and I were left with the task of sopping up the water with towels and wringing them out into pots.

Things were ok when we got home from work today, aside from the fact that our hot water heater is missing. At least life is back to normal as far as showers go... brrr. Knew that luxury wouldn't last.

tranquilo

I've been waiting and waiting for something noteworthy to happen that I'm allowed to blog about (you'll notice that you don't see work stories here - that's against the rules, but also where most of the excitement is) but nothing new is going on. No random people have run into my car, I haven't been sick or cooked anything incredibly delicious, no trips to ruins or rivers or anything. Life is pleasantly calm these days.

My new roommate and I are getting used to our summer house. As part of the rental, we have a maid who comes in on Wednesdays, so on Tuesday nights we usually make a pretty big dinner using as many pots and pans as possible since we don't have to do the dishes. This always sounds like a good idea on Tuesday nights but usually results in a wave of guilt Wednesday morning around 6 a.m., which means I end up running around the house rinsing and wiping and picking up before the maid comes to rinse and wipe and pick up.

I've learned the new route to work that avoids the traffic-congested main roads but involves about 35 turns down side streets (my directions include notes like "left at big yellow sign that you can't see until you turn" and "turn left at scary street where we almost died") and a plethora of speed bumps of which I often fail to see several. I get mild road rage when people drive in the maniac style that is normal here; however, I'm pretty close to Guatemala driving "excellence" myself.

I listen to a lot more music than I used to. I had forgotten how soothing it is to me to lay in my bed reading with Denison providing the soundtrack. I'm finally following Jo's recommendation on the reading list we made in the offive and diving into an Isabel Allende book. So far, I'm enthralled.

Since it's been rainy and cooler in the evenings, I've fallen hard back into my cardigan, scarf and jeans habit. I bought yellow loafers and a yellow headband to wear to Jo's wedding but now can't wear them without each other, which means yellow makes a frequent, vibrant appearance in my daily wardrobe.

I found my favorite food in one grocery store in the new part of town where I live: Coffee Haagen Daz ice cream. Seriously. It's my favorite food in the world, and it's here in Guatemala. To make life EVEN BETTER, it was on sale last week.

I look at my LSAT study books every day trying to get up the courage to start studying for real.

I listen to a lot of podcasts.

This is my life outside of work this week. Not very exciting, but nice.