Recent Happenings

So, the Tucson tragedy has been all over the news. A man about my age brought a gun to Safeway and shot a congresswoman, killed 6 people, and wounded many others. When I first heard the news, my housemates and I were at a brunch with a JV from Alaska and her parents. We watched the news intently at the restaurant, and have followed the story since then on the Internet.

I was having a difficult time describing how I felt the other day, but I'll try to put it into words here. At first, it felt very weird. I didn't know any of the victims or the shooter, and the grocery store was up in the North of Tucson, which is not that close to us. Not to say I didn't feel very bad about the shootings because I did, but it didn't feel like it happened that close or that it could have happened to me.

Then, in the following days, when we learned more about the victims and I thought more about some of the things we have done here (like going to protests) I thought--wow I could've been at something that could have broken out into violence. And that 9 year old girl that died could have been one of the 9 year old kids that I teach at this school. That's when it started to feel more real.

Then the other night, I had a nightmare about everyone I saw had a gun and was trying to shoot me. It felt very real in the dream and when I woke up and went to work I found out about the protests that were going to happen at little Christina's funeral, so it wasn't a great day. (luckily the Westboro church will not picket her funeral because they made a deal with a DJ for airtime, but they are still picketing the other victims' funerals, which is ridiculous and makes me sad/mad:(

Yesterday, we went to go see Obama speak at the U of A. Jen and I didn't get in because the line had about 13,000 people in front of us and only 12,000 could get in. We ended up going to the stadium right next to where Obama spoke and watching it on the jumbo screen in there. (with about 13,000 more people) This is when I felt the most connected to the Tucson community. I loved Obama's speech and it made me tear up several times just thinking of how devastating this is for the victim's families and for the community. But we will stay strong and Tucson is a great town. Like the president of the U of A said, it's a city that feels like a small town. Some people on CNN are saying it was strange there was so much clapping at the speech and it should have been more of a memorial than a pep rally. I felt however, that the speech was very appropriate and the clapping was all of us joining together to agree and applaud what he was saying. It didn't feel like a campaign speech to me at all. I thought it was amazing and I was so glad I went.

This weekend, after the tragedy and before Obama's speech, I drove up to Phoenix to see the parents and for the Oregon game. They didn't get me tickets, but it was still fun and we went to the official tailgate party. It was a much needed break from all the sadness in Tucson. It was great to see the parents and they are coming back in February!

I think today, after hearing Obama's speech about us coming together, I am feeling a lot better. I continue to pray for the victims and their families as well as the family of the shooter. Gabriel Giffords is recovering in the hospital right now and I hope she makes a full recovery. It's such an inspirational story to see her recover. When Obama said she opened her eyes for the first time yesterday, I was so happy.

Update for my previous blog: I put photos on Facebook from Guatemala: HERE

I went to Guatemala!!!! And now I'm back at work...

So, Guatemala was definitely an experience. It was my second trip there, but VERY different than my first time visiting in June. For starters, we spent an entire week in Antigua, a cute little touristy town that has great restaurants, cobblestone streets, and is surrounded by volcanoes. (<---) The vacation started out very relaxing, going to nice restaurants for lunch and dinner, and eating out A LOT! It was pretty much the opposite of JVC where we eat out like once a month. (seriously) And I got a pedicure.
Awesome.

My mom, dad, Sean and I took Spanish lessons at La Union Spanish school in Antigua. My teacher, Dalia, was great. I'm very much a beginner in Spanish, but started to understand a bit of what she was saying. We went over the basics like Ser and Estar, conjugating verbs, and learning vocab as she spoke to me in Spanish. The lessons were really cool cuz it was one-on-one the entire time, just having conversations in Spanish. I got a book too, which I will be studying with this year along with Rosetta Stone to improve my Spanish! It was fun also because we played games like Scrabble in Spanish and Basta! (Categories)

My favorite thing we did while there was we took a trip to the volcano Pacaya. We got to hike up a bit and see an amazing view of Antigua and like 4 other volcanoes. On Pacaya we roasted marshmallows because there was so much heat coming from the little caves. I have pictures I'll post to facebook. It was the best day!!!

On Christmas Eve, we went to eat at a very nice restaurant and I had pumpkin ravioli (yum!) or maybe that was what I ate at another place..hard to remember, but it was good food whatever it was! We went to a Christmas mass in Spanish and I was kinda lost. And by kinda I mean really. Those words were not covered in my lessons at La Union haha. I pretty much spaced out. It was a long service. But nice. In Antigua, at midnight on Christmas Eve, they set off tons of fireworks like it's New Year's Eve. So, we stayed up til midnight and ran outside our little guest house we were staying in to view all the fireworks around us. It was really cool!

We left the next day in a micro van to drive 8 (ish) hours to San Martin, Erin's site with Peace Corps. This is when the trip took a serious turn. Erin's house is not someplace I would want to live. It's great that she can do it, but I like having a shower and not being afraid of getting sick if I use a little bit of the water, and stuff like that. It was totally fine for the visit (except I was like deathly allergic to her house and woke up several nights having a hard time breathing), but I wouldn't want to live there for 2 years. I'm so proud of my sister for being able to cope with all the things she does. She's amazing!!!

The coolest thing we did in San Martin was take a hike up to the ruins. I wasn't prepared for a hike, I wore my Converse sneakers, but then Erin reminded me the the kids from her village that were going with us were wearing old sandals and they would love to have my shoes. So, then I felt bad for complaining! The cutest little girl, Stephanie, follows Erin around the village and she came with us along with 2 other girls and a boy. The ruins are mostly covered in grass, but the view from the top shows all of San Martin, so it was really worthwhile to go up there. We brought a little frisbee and Sean and I played with Stephanie. I took some pictures (and she took one of us!) that I'll put up too.

After 3 days in San Martin, we were ready for the next place, so we went to Todos Santos, the town closest to Erin on the way back towards Antigua and the capital. It's about half hour/45mins from San Martin, but much bigger and touristy. It's famous for the people wearing traditional Mayan dress and the men wear red pants with stripes and white hats. I really liked the red pants and want some for myself!!! At this point, my mom and Sean got pretty sick. Mom was the worst. We spent two days in Todos Santos, just hangin out, going to the market, and eating Guatemalan food at the comedors. We had some blue corn tortillas that tasted sooo good!

On New Year's Eve day we left at 7am to take the long ride back to Antigua. The ride wasn't quite as long this time, but still it's a van ride. It's MUCH nicer than taking the camionetas (chicken buses) all the way back! whew! We got to Antigua in the middle of the day and Erin and I went for a run. It was hot and my stomach was hurting, so it didn't go that well for me. Then, for lunch we went to a delicious crepe place where I had my favorite--banana and nutella with vanilla ice cream!! yummmm!

For dinner, we went to the nicest (and expensive!) restaurant in Antigua. On the way there we almost got hit by the fireworks as there were men with crates of fireworks on their backs shooting them off into the crowd. It was cool/scary!! And the crowds were huge for 7pm! The restaurant didn't have anything vegetarian on their special New Years Eve menu, but they did have one mushroom thing left that my mom ordered. I wasn't feeling that hungry and neither was she. We ended up sharing it even though I didn't eat the mushrooms. They had decorated our table really nicely and put real fireworks on it, so of course we lit them at the table! They were only sparklers and the waiter looked at us weird, but whatever. We aren't fancy enough for them anyway;)

And then........later that night I started to feel worse and worse....and I decided to take a nap before the crazy New Years fireworks. I ended up falling asleep until midnight when the insane amount of fireworks going off woke me up. I tried to shake Sean awake, but he didn't wake up, so I ran upstairs as fast as I could to catch the fireworks from the roof. It was really pretty. Everyone was shooting off the HUGE ones on their own so it was all over the city! The view up there was amazing. We had watched the sunset behind the volcanoes up there earlier that night and I loved it. But when the fireworks were going off I did not feel well. I decided to go back to bed when they died down a bit.

At about 5am I woke up and felt even worse..and then the puking started. I won't go into that...but it was nasty...

I was sick the rest of the next day and was really worried I'd get sick on my flights home, but I didn't! And today, I'm feeling MUCH MUCH better!!! yay! I'm back in Tucson and at work. (It's lunch break, so I can blog hehe) Being back at work feels like I never left. We have new software and headphones for the kids to use, which is super helpful. The kids talk to each other less when they are plugged in! Phew! And I forgot how absolutely adorable the little ones are! I still have no idea if I want to be a teacher in the future, but who knows! Maybe!

My New Year's Resolutions are:
1. Run my first marathon in June (and then another in December)
2. Learn Spanish and use Rosetta Stone
3. Learn how to play the guitar (for reals this time!)

Soooo hopefully I stick to those. I haven't really started them yet, but it is only the 4th day of the year:)