{"id":315,"date":"2010-09-12T20:38:04","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T02:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/?p=315"},"modified":"2010-09-12T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T02:38:04","slug":"no-entiendo-tanto-como-pienso-hago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/no-entiendo-tanto-como-pienso-hago\/","title":{"rendered":"No entiendo tanto como pienso hago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, so I thought the plan for Saturday was that mama Lupita was going to take me to a supermarket that had more variety and cheaper prices than the one in zona 1<\/em>.\u00a0 I also\u00a0thought that a bunch of little kids were going to visit\u00a0mi familia guatemalteca<\/em>\u00a0in the morning.\u00a0\u00a0 And that Carlito was playing a\u00a0xylophone-like instrument called a lira<\/em> here, \u00a0in a performance in the afternoon.\u00a0 \u00a0Of course this is what I divined from all the rapid updates from Lupita and Ilse.\u00a0 And of course, they had no reason to\u00a0suspect that I didn\u00b4t know what was going on because when I\u00b4m not saying\u00a8s\u00ed\u00a8, I\u00b4m nodding my head affirmatively.\u00a0 I picked up this winning technique in Hungary 20 years ago and it\u00b4s got about a\u00a060% success rate, m\u00e1s o menos.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Su casa es mi casa. This is where I lived for the last week. I know it looks a little like a bright blue garage, but it\u00b4s beautiful and inviting inside.<\/p><\/div>\n

First off, there were no children coming to visit.\u00a0 But I was apparently going to visit a bunch of children.\u00a0 Sort of.\u00a0 There was a parade, desfile<\/em>, of ni\u00f1os<\/em> from schools around Xela and that was what Lupita was describing to me about sabado.<\/em>\u00a0 And after breakfast I was rushed out the door to go view the parade.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u00b4t love a parade like most people do, but this\u00a0one was\u00a0really quite colorful,\u00a0interesting and bizarre.\u00a0 It seems whenever there\u00b4s\u00a0even\u00a0a slight congregation of people, everyone brings everything in their house\u00a0to sell.\u00a0\u00a0And they carry these things on their heads,\u00a0in push carts, coolers, on wire display racks with wheels, some even carry a few things in their hands.\u00a0 One teenager had a bottle of conditioner in one hand and a few tubes of toothpaste in the other.\u00a0\u00a0I was uploading a great pic of a guy selling hats and poof, couldn\u00b4t upload anymore.\u00a0 Very very frustrating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my\u00a0favorite parts of the parade was when a bunch of\u00a0Domino\u00b4s delivery guys just showed up with some pizzas in those oven bags and attempted to sell them.\u00a0 I\u00b4m pretty sure no one ordered them.\u00a0 At least I don\u00b4t think\u00a0anyone did…I\u00a0guess it could have gone something like this:<\/p>\n

\u00a8Dominos? I need a delivery, I\u00b4m at the parade,\u00a0cerca el teatro<\/em>, I\u00b4m wearing a traje from Momostenango and\u00a0I\u00b4m standing next to the really tall gringa…yeah, that\u00b4s the one, the one that always looks lost.\u00a8\u00a0<\/p>\n

I probably watched\u00a0the parade\u00a0for about an hour, following the procession down to the park.\u00a0 I got pretty choked up and cried a little (okay, a lot)\u00a0when groups of sick children and disabled children passed in the procession.\u00a0 Muy triste, pero muy\u00a0inspiradora y triunfante<\/em> at the same time.\u00a0 This isn\u00b4t a country known for acceptance\u00a0or celebration of diversity.\u00a0 I was\u00a0truly moved.\u00a0 I\u00b4m getting a little weepy again just thinking about it.<\/p>\n

Next, there was no leisurely walk to a local\u00a0supermercado.<\/em>\u00a0 After lunch (which were delicious crispy tortillas with ground beef, onion,\u00a0queso fresco and salsa…la comida de la feria<\/em>, festival food, is what Lupita called it),\u00a0I was\u00a0summoned downstairs because we were going to get a ride to \u00a8Hiper\u00a8<\/em> (I should have known just by the name) from Jimena and her husband.\u00a0 Jimena is my pregnant Guatemalan sister that I just met yesterday morning.\u00a0 The car was tiny and we all crammed in, me, Ilse, Lupita, abuelita, Carlito, Jimena & her husband.\u00a0 Some part of the bottom of the\u00a0car kept dragging along the cobblestones whenever we went up a hill and everyone seemed to be in a bit of\u00a0a panic.\u00a0 I wasn\u00b4t even trying to understand what was going on.\u00a0 Carlito & abuelita got out of the car first and we drove a little further and got out at what looked like a highway intersection.\u00a0 And there it was.\u00a0 HIPER…the mall…or Centro Commercial<\/em> en espa\u00f1ol.\u00a0 Huge speakers blaring Guatemalan pop welcomed us to the megastore.\u00a0 I just wanted to pick up some cheap cheese and some corn flakes.\u00a0 I really\u00a0wish I needed to do more shopping…bras only\u00a0cost $2.00.\u00a0\u00a0 (I\u00a0did end\u00a0up buying chicken for the dinner I was cooking, some limes because lemons don\u00b4t exist here, garlic, some yogurt, tea, cucumbers\u00a0and corn flakes) After hitting another adjacent mall, I thought we were going to see Carlito perform, but was scared to ask. Who knows what I misunderstood about what was next on the agenda.\u00a0 But I was right, we were off to see Carlito and his lira<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u00a0did think the performance was in his school.\u00a0 Instead, they brought me to a Greek temple that looked exactly like a replica of the Parthenon, right outside the Minerva bus terminal, a real dodgy part of town.\u00a0\u00a0And what\u00a0an architectural oddity to say the least.\u00a0 Anyway, boys of all ages from Carlito\u00b4s school were lined up with instruments\u00a0getting ready to\u00a0start their parade.\u00a0 It was cute to see 5 year olds playing instruments that were too big for them, but\u00a0two parades in one day.\u00a0 Ay dios mio!<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mi familia guatemalteca: Orlando (el novio), Ilse y Guadelupa (aka Lupita)<\/p><\/div>\n

On our way home, we walked Ilse to her boyfriend\u00b4s job and Lupita asked me if I could do her a favor.\u00a0 At least I thought that\u00b4s what she asked me.\u00a0 She wanted me to invite Orlando over for dinner that night.\u00a0 Not really sure why, but I bet they wanted to show him how awful my Spanish is.\u00a0 \u00a8\u00bfQuisiera venir para la cena con nosotros esta noche?\u00a8<\/em> I didn\u00b4t really understand why Ilse couldn\u00b4t ask her own boyfriend over for dinner, but what the heck.\u00a0 It made them giggle a lot.\u00a0 And he looked absolutely terrified when I told him I had to ask him something, so it was kinda fun for me too.\u00a0 \u00a0Making dinner was really nice, it was a new dish for Lupita and she was so excited to learn a\u00a0Greek recipe.\u00a0 I like picking things out of gardens\u00a0and\u00a0using them and they grow their own rosemary (romero)<\/em>, and basil (albahaca<\/em>).\u00a0 I made garlic bread with basil and olive oil as well and they never had that either.\u00a0 Even though I roast this kind of chicken all the time, I never made Greek chicken with lime before and was afraid it would be more\u00a0Caribbean than\u00a0Greek, but\u00a0it was pretty similar to the original dish and really tasty.\u00a0 Everyone loved it and Lupita said she\u00b4s going to make it again.\u00a0 It was a really nice cultural\u00a0exchange and Lupita was so thankful and so giddy about learning something new.\u00a0 She\u00a0told me she loves having\u00a0different people from different countries in her house because not only does she find different cultures interesting, she feels\u00a0like she\u00a0actually visits those places.\u00a0 \u00a0At least I think she said that.<\/p>\n

I said goodbye to my family this morning, big hugs and lots of buena suertes<\/em>.\u00a0 Lupita insisted I come over for dinner the following week and Gordo kept jumping on me trying to block me from leaving.\u00a0 Before I left, Lupita\u00a0shoved a huge green calabaza at me.\u00a0 I wonder if all her students get\u00a0a squash as a parting gift.\u00a0 I miss them already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well I\u00b4m all moved in to my new digs, ready to start another week!\u00a0 Just finished cooking a lovely meal in my lovely new kitchen…hasta ma\u00f1ana, hope everyone had a great weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some part of the bottom of the car kept dragging along the cobblestones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-studying-spanish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}