"The most beautiful lake it the world"

Im in Lago de Atitlan. Its a huge lake surrounded by 30 volcanoes. the lake is actually a colapsed volcano. its really nice. there are about 15 little cities around the lake, most of which you can only get to by boat. so its calm. no cars or planes. most of the people are miyan. i cant spell that word i guess. So the other night i was sleeping in my dorm and i woke up at 4 am, and i heard a deep rumbling sound coming from the mountains, (which are all volcanos). it would rumble and then stop for 30 seconds and then rumble again. sometimes it would be more frequent than 30 seconds. i spent 20 min trying to figure out what the noise was, then i concluded that it was a volcano preparing for eruption. Which sucks because the only way out of Santa Cruz is by boat or hiking over the mountain. so either way i´m dead. there are no boats till 6:30, and then when everyone wakes up and hears the volcano, theres no way im going to get a seat on a boat. So i decided i should probably write a little bit in my journal so that i would be the famous person who died who wrote an account of the erruption. then i decided i would go wake up my friend Ben who was sleeping in the same dorm as me, and we both laid there in his bed trying to figure it out. i was scared. ben was worried as well, but i decided if i die i might as well die with someone else. it was comforting. so that morning ben said he was going to figure it out, and a few minutes later he came and told me it was avacados falling on tin roofs up in the myian village. He-he. i was glad. i didn´t even feel stupid though, because ben was scared too. what a baby.

Heres a fun story. i was in san andreas, and in the morning i was walking by the same 2 dogs that bark at me every day. This day though, they were especially upset at me. so i picked up a rock and threw it, but they didnt care, which is not that normal, and they continued charging me. so i felt scared and bent down to pick up another rock and as i did so, a third dog ran out of his house and bit my calve. i kinda yelled and the owner of the dog ran out and shewed his stupid dog away. i looked at the bite, and was suprized at how not bad it was. it drew blood, but didn{t go too deep. so i said "rabies?...es tu´s perro rabinous?" and the man just stared out at the lake. it was weird. and then it was funny. Late that night, me and this other girl who is also a volenteer were walking home from the most absurd beauty pagent i´ve ever seen, (not that ive seen many, but now i understand ash´s non-obsesion with belizian beauty pagents) There were only 4 contestants and it lasted 5 hours. it was so awful. so we turned the corner onto a quiet little road, and I saw this guy pointing a silver gun at the sky. he directly put the gun in his pants and walked up to us. He wispered "denero... denero". my friend said no, and started to walk around him and he grabbed her neck. I freaked out and yelled "get your hands off her!" and he backed off for a sec and put his finger up to his lips to tell me to be quiet. so then he started at her again and i yelled louder and he scurried away like a little puppy. It was weird. So last week i got bit by a dog and mugged at gunpoint the same day. I laughed about it later that night, and when i told my host family they were sad that both those things happened to me, but assured me that the gun was not real. which i kinda figured. But we all had a good laugh about it. Any way.

now i am in this earthy little town full of alternitive medicine-type-people." its a compleate delight. there are yoga and meditation classes all day long every day. today i went to a meta physics class and learned about lucid dreams and other states of altered conshusness. (that was clearly mis-spelled.) It was interesting.
tomorrow im doing a course in emotional blah blah therapy. i cant remember the words. but im excited to see what its all about. so im real happy here. there is a ton to explore. i started a water fast today. and i will try to do it for 3 days if not more. My body is ready for a clense and plus im running out of money. adios

Note: i have no idea which pics i uploaded. im pretty sure there is one of my bite, but it is a week old so its all healed up, and there is one of the lake for sure, but the third is a wild card. i just chose it, so hopefully its nothing to vulgar.

just thinking a bit.

This picture is from my time with Ash and Todd. its in hopkins which is about 6 miles from thier house. this was the fateful night when we put false hope into ride home and ended up - actually, i don´t think any one will really understand how funny and scary it was. so nevermind. (only ash and todd. but mostly ash. todd was happy.)




These are pics of my host sis Ariadna(who is amazingly beautiful) and one of the other volunteers (daphney) and our boss at the park(condilario). Condilario is hilarious. he doesn´t speak any english. i love working with him. he makes us work so dang hard.

its been different to have to think before i speak. Every thing i say i have to slowly walk through it in my brain. i think one of the first lessons my momma taught me (that i remember) is look before you leap. i cant exactly remember the situation, but i know it was something to do with me jumping into the car and lipstick. I guess that saying translates into: think before you do something or say something you might regret. I have never felt like that was a good lesson for me to live by. sorry momma. As i look at my decisions in the past, the ones that have been the most benifical have been made spur of the moment. But thats how my little mind works i guess. i dont have patience to think things through. when i make a pros and cons list i usually write out all the pros and never make it to the cons. Ash probably described my minds workings best with the "action...thought, action...thought" metaphor. Generally i find my mind is happy like that. but when speaking only in spanish, i have had to totally change my action...thought mind to thought...thought...thought...action. it´s hard.

My host mom reminded me yesterday night at 6:30 that it was thanksgiving, (so no, mom i actually thought it was on the 25th for some reason. i confused it with christmas probably.) but i did think of my family and about what i was missing, and i wished i could have been there, but not to the point of sadness:)
i went for a swim yesterday at 4:30 and thought of my dad and how he would be feaking out about the glassy water. Today is the first day that i´ve seen waves on the lake. its glass all day long every day. there are 2 wooden boats that i see fishing a few times a week, but other than that there is nothing going on except kids swiming. its amazing. at first i was praying that someone would have a motorboat that could pull a skiier, but now i know it would change the lake. im so greatful for the calm of the lake and that the biggest fish anyone has ever caught is 10 inches long.
anyway.

San Andreas-

Ha. i am in this beautiful town named san andreas. i live 20 paces from the lake- i wake up at 6 30 in the morning regularly. funny huh? today i slept in till 7:15. (i hate when people say that). but i work at 8 in the morning at the ecological park mon-fri. i am staying with this compleatly awesome family. my host mom and dad and thier 3 daughters. 16, 14 and 8 years old. they are rad! they dont speak any english except cool, les-go! and excuse me. its crazy because im learning tons of spansish every second. i know 4 other people that speak english in the whole town. the guy Mataio who runs the volunteer program, and 3 other volunteers. Its so weird to not be able to understand anyone. im learning alot though. I have a spanish teacher named edwin. we have class by the lake every day for 2 hours. i pay him about 3 dollars and hour. Its private lessons so its really easy to catch on. its so fun! i love it here. i never understood how people stay with a family who doesn´t speak english, but somehow it works out. I learned the word for food really quickly. my host mom makes me breakfast lunch and dinner. i pay her 75$ a week for food and my own room with a door that opens to a view of the lake. its crazy. i love it.

hopefully i can get my pics to work. It was funny. the very first person i met here was my taxi driver, and he asked me ¿de donde? i told him estados unidos, utah, and he asked me if i was mormona. I said si, and he said ´mismo´ which means same. he said there are muchos mormonas in san andreas.

um, pictures are uploading right now, but i have no idea which ones they are. i couldn´t open the pictures so i just guessed. i think there will be one of my neiborhood pigs, one or 2 of the lake, the three girls i live with and maybe one of my room. we´ll see. But im really happy here. i feel good. my host mom makes really amaizing food. i haven´t eaten the same thing twice and ive eaten 10 meals already. my host dad fishes 2 times a week, and is also a teacher. but its vacation time for 3 months right now. till jan. so everone is just relaxing all day. its really fun. the streets are really steep and they are made out of rocks, so when it rains its really slippery. its kinda scary, but i get a good workout about 3 times a day walking back and forth from the eco park and the library that i also help with at nights. Any way.

I left Belize. sad but happy

These pictures are of me and ash and todd at the shamaiakdj ruins in belize. (i made that name up) It was a good way to end my time with them. The ruins were beautiful. its cool how much easier it is to imagine ancient people when you are standing in their lands.





I am in Florez right now, i went to Tikal yesterday morning at 3:00 am. It seems not worth it-but it is. We hiked up this long trail in the pitch dark. if there was any moon light it was blocked by the trees. so we were near the back of this group of 30 people, and my friend ben had to go to the bathroom so we got behind the group. It was just us 3 on a dark path in the jungle. i was kinda scared but then this loud growling animal started roaring and my heart kinda stopped for a while. I thought it was a jaguar and that we would die. I remembered my ipod had a bright light so i used it as a flashlight. there was a fork in the trail, and luckly i saw a glimmer from someones flashlight and we caught up after about 5 minutes. it was scary. I was too scared to talk about the roaring animal until we were with the group, and i asked the boys "what the h was that animal", and they said it was the howler monkey. Which i should have known because i´ve heard one before, but in the middle of the jungle i didn´t remember.

The sunrise was crazy. We sat in silence for 40 minutes and watched and listened as the animals and birds started waking up. Turns out we were on one of the biggest temples in tikal, and had a view of 5 other ruins. The ruins are surrounded by thousands of trees, and many of the ruins are still just mounds of earth with grass and trees on them. We had a tour of the main temples and had some time to walk around on our own. I went to some living quarters and to a musium that had pottery and jewelry that they continue to find. they have the skeleton of one of the kings too. It was rad. I think i´ll go again before i head out of this area.

animals are different

Ash and todd- what a beautiful couple!

I have loved hanging out with these guys so much! Its wierd how you think you love someone so much and then suddenly you love them more. That didn't happen to me, but it probably happens to people sometimes. Kidding. i love ash. she is really strong for being out here and functioning. Ash makes her own tortillas and pizza dough. she kneads the dough like a regular mom. The best food ive eaten as of yet has been in Ash and todds home. They have to depend on each other so much. it makes me so relieved that two people can be in such a healthy relationship. Its giving me good happy feelings about marriage. I've been with ash 24 hours a day since i got here. im not at all exagerating- we have been in a 12-inch-whisper radius for a week. lucky for us we really know each other and love each other.
We went to the zoo! Ash found a pet dog and then its owners came and stole it and then ash stole it back and then they came and took it. Ash cried. it was hard for her.
I have so many bug bites on my legs that people point at me and gasp. i'll take a picture. Its the best feeling when i have been controling my hands so i don't scratch a real bad itch, and then suddenly i realize that the itch is a real, non-bite itch right between two bites. (It happens very rarely, but its fun.) sorry all these pictures are about me. i didn't mean to.

Finally some picts- a am computer literate

Im hopefully uploading some images right now- I do realize that blogs are so dull without something to look at. and i truely apprecitate my three readers Larry, Ashers and Mare. I dedicate this post to you. And mom.


These pictures are of quatemala city and antiqua. What more can make you feel at home than to see a plethera of blue mazda protege's running around the streets of guatemala city. I'm positive that my little guy is in the best shape of them all.







Is that better? I hope so. not so damn borring now is it?