Dave's BDay in Guatemala

Monday night is movie night. Many of us were craving pizza so we decided to order massive amounts of Domino's to have with the movie, the Motorcycle Diaries. I think it was the best Domino's pizza I've ever had. The movie was amazing with some of the landscape scenes flawlessly done. Tuesday was Dave's Birthday! But first, there was a two hour dance class in Meringue and Salsa. Umm I need to work on those... they're hard at first! But of course, extremely fun. For the birthday fiesta, I went to Xelapan and picked out a cake with a hilarious clown on it. Other people got candles and a gift for him and Brian made sure to get Spiderman plates and napkins =). A piñata was purchased, but we did not use it because we didn't have any candy for it. A huge group of us went to a bar and sang Happy Birthday and ate the cake while drinking Guatemalan beer (which, btw, Gallo is horrific but Maza is a little better... Gallo is made in the brewery which I live next to here... yes I live next to the brewery with the massive amount of barbed wire and armed guards). Anyway, Dave had the tables compete in a card game of high-low for most of the night before we headed back. On the way home, Dave lit his firecracker birthday presents with some of the guys before we all split up.
Dave and I live in the same direction, so he usually walks me home =) This time we didn't realize how far south we were heading and saw the cemetary in front of us. To avoid it, we turned north on the next possible street. Now I haven't mentioned this before, but in Xela, dogs are EVERYWHERE. They roam the streets in packs and are honestly on every corner. Well, on this street, we could hear a bunch of dogs barking like mad. We turned and a pack of 10 dogs were right in front of us. Usually the dogs will scram in front of people, but these... they were terrifying. They started barking more and approaching us with their hackles raised and frothing at the mouth. Both Dave and I just about paniced. However, we just tried to walk as quickly as possible away from the dogs without making them any more angry. We were fine, but it was not the best ending to the fiesta.
Wednesday I started to feel a touch sick. I haven't gotten sick here yet, but I know it's inevitable. I stayed in all night just in case, but I was fine... at least I got some good reading done =)

Champerico!

I just returned from a lovely trip to Champerico, Guatemala. Champerico is the closest beach to Xela and it took 4 hours by chicken bus to get there. We left Saturday morning and got there around noon for lunch. We decided to stay the night and immediately found a hotel so we could store our stuff while we swam. The hotel, of course, hid some key information to us by saying the showers worked... but really it was a bucket of 1100 liters of water and a pail to dump it over you. It actually was not that bad and I felt surprisingly clean after my bucket shower that night. The seven of us swam for about 3 hours on Saturday... while the current is wicked strong, if you go just a little deeper than the dropoff, the current is not as strong and you can thoroughly enjoy the incredibly warm water. The beach itself is black sand and the water comes very close to all the restaurants lining the shore. The funniest thing was this GIGANTIC pig just walking around on the beach amidst all of the stray dogs. We also walked along the pier where a man was net fishing. He caught this huge fish and placed it in a tire to store. While I was standing there, it jumped out of the tire and was flopping on the pier. So I helped my catching the fish and putting it back in the barrel haha. Oh the sights of Guatemala.
We found dinner at a hotel down the street... we all got hamburgers, but only Dave, Brian, and I could actually stomach them enough to finish them. The worst hamburger I have ever had in my life... but I don't eat fast food burgers, so I don't know the comparison. While we were walking down the street, people were staring and pointing at us like we were complete aliens. The bus guy was shocked that we were not getting on the last bus out of there. We got some provisions and spent the night in our hotel room because we figured that it was safer to do that. One of the hotel guys stayed outside our rooms all night and even went to get us beer whenever we ran out. Good times.
On Sunday, we hung out, had a beans, eggs, and tortillas for bfast, as we do every meal, and had one last swim before leaving. We found some public showers which were actually very nice that all the girls used before heading out. The ride back was hysterical because the chicken bus was waaaaaay crowded. I was sitting 8 across in seats meant for 4 adults, 6 kids max. The woman next to me also had a chicken in a basket that she placed under my feet so I had to sit with my legs tucked above the chicken while it squawked away. We got back around 6 so I was home in time to have dinner with my family and rest up before starting classes for the week. All in all, an excellent weekend.

Well I made it to Xela!! My flight was delayed so I missed the bus I was supposed to take... luckily I met these two young people who were in the same situation. We weren't supposed to take busses to Xela past dark, but we decided that it would be better to just get there and that we would be fine. The bus was probably one of the more scarier experience since the fog was so thick and the bus was playing chicken with the cars in the other lane. However, we made it there alive at 930pm. The three of us immediately got in a cab and told the cab driver a hotel. It didn't exist so the driver just took us to a hotel that was nice and had rooms. Worked out just great and we were safe and sound. I met my family Tuesday morning and we defintely could not understand each other at all. But that's ok, I will eventually.
I am the only student staying with the family. There are two sons, 19 and 24, who make fun of me constantly for not being able to speak Spanish. They try so hard to make me feel like family and I really appreciate it. The food she makes is really good, but I think I'm already sick of eating plantains. The bathing situation is what you woudl expect from a third world country... it´s either high pressure and cold, or kinda warm with no pressure. It's fine though.
My first full day I went to help rebuild a community that was knocked out by Hurricane Stan. We helped by planting trees for the reforestation effort and then moving blocks for building a school for the little kids. They are soo cute, but speak this random dialect that I have no chance of understanding. Still fun though.
Today I took the¨chicken bus¨ to ChiChi. I put that in quotes because there were no chickens on ours, but usually there are. These busses are old school busses that they cram three people per seat instead of your usual two children. ChiChi is the biggest market in Guatemala (i think) and I got some gifts for my family. I am trying to learn how to barter so I got some pretty sweet deals. The way back was hilarious because 24 of us were crammed in an 11 person van for the first hour and then we were in the chicken bus again for another 2. No chickens again, lucky me. Right now we are trying to plan our weekend... we think we are going to the beach! Should be fun... OK wow that is enough for one blog =)

California

First and foremost, bike riding hurts. We rode 200 miles in 5 days through all the different valleys in wine country in northern California. Words cannot describe what an awesome trip it was. The group we had was just perfect(with me being the youngest by many years but that's ok). The guides made the trip by knowing every thing there is possibly to know about wine and California. Our group had 11 people including my family with 3 couples and 2 singles and each one had a fabulous tale about their life. We would stay in these amazing hotels and when we got off the bikes everyone would head straight to the Jacuzzi. The last night I got a deep tissue massage that I was in dire need of. I couldn't walk after that. I think the funniest thing about the trip was that many of the wineries opened at 10am. We would get on our bikes at 8am and ride to the first winery, drink lots of wine, and then get back on our bikes to get to the next winery! I'm amazed none of us got a BUI. The sites were amazing and what's great about seeing the country by bike is that you really appreciate the smells of the roses and the sites of the wine (and also I will never look at a "rolling" hill the same way ever again). I highly recommend the program Backroads which is found all over the world with different programs in hiking, multisport, or biking (however, if you do the biking, I HIGHLY recommend investing in very padded bike shorts).

After the bike trip, my parents and I picked up Matt and Tara and we headed down to San Jose for the wedding celebration. If anyone needs a lesson on how to flawlessly and perfectly throw a wedding, they should have taken notes on Melissa. Everything was perfect, every detail covered, letting all of us enjoy the beautiful occasion. I love my family and being able to celebrate with them was just amazing. I haven't laughed that hard in a loong time. Yes, we were THOSE people at the wedding that everyone is wondering why they are being crazy. And we all loved it.

Summer time... and the living is easy

Again, I have ignored my blog... I am the worst blogger ever... I'll try and work on that..
Exams came and went. The more important thing being the celebration of finishing the first year of medical school. Many of the first years gathered on the roof to have a champagne toast to becoming second years. Since many of us had not had much alcohol in a long time, the champagne hit fast. We then continued with our usual post exam traditions... a nice rendition of Kelly's Since You've Been Gone and then off to Dallas for a Texas Sized Margarita celebration. Let's just say that afterwards Jeannie and I passed out watching Arrested Development until almost 7pm. We tried to rally to go out and made it to the Upper West Side... but to no avail. When Marie mentioned that she wanted to go back, four of us jumped at the opportunity to go back and just relax before the hellish day of packing.
The awesome celebration was Saturday night as I got to see Harry Connick Jr. on stage in the Pajama Game with Bren and Kev and their dad. Our seats were AMAZING! I could almost touch Harry we were so close to the stage. It was awesome and one of the best nights I've had in NYC.

Other than that, I've been bumming in Texas with my dogs. My birthday celebration was me, my mom, and my dogs at the dog park in the pouring rain, playing catch. My mom and I then saw XMen3 which was amazing. Not your typical birthday, but fun nonetheless.

Now I'm off to California for a week to tour wine country by bike and celebrate my cousin's wedding!! I'm so excited to see all my cousins and family!!