I’m at Harold’s house for the last night. Tomorrow, I go to Antigua and my Spanish classes start on Monday. Yesterday night, I went with Stephanie to her university class – something like a philosophy/cultural geography course. With the help of the powerpoint pictures, I could understand the gist of discussion focused on global warming and natural disasters like the 2010 Hurricane Agatha and sink hole in Guatemla City and volcano nearby. Everyone was very warm and friendly and talkative.

Today, I went with Harold to the market for a few hours in the morning. Its unbelievable how many fruits and vegetables Guatemala’s extremely rich soil yields. The market was quite the experience – full of stimulation. Dyed baby chicks and regular chicks. Dead chickens killed with unlayed eggs inside, apparently a delicacy, short men carrying huge loads on their back and being payed pocket change to do so, small children with baskets on their heads selling trinkets, sellers sing-song calling out sales, and the intense smells and noises the photos only sanitize. Harold purchased 50 tomatoes for about $1.25. Almost everything is sold in bulk.

We’ve been eating fruits and vegetables all day. I made smoothies for everyone with pineapple, mango, cantaloupe, strawberries, bananas, blackberries, yogurt, honey. All produce must be either washed with a little bit of bleach or boiled because consuming untreated water or produce washed with untreated water will likely lead to worms in your stomach and illness – if you don’t have a tolerance built up to the bacteria.

I took two long walks when I got home, one in late morning and one in late afternoon. Its easy to feel at home in Harold’s house and great to experience what its like to live in his life in Guatemala City. I’m relaxing more than I expected to. Last night, we watched “I love you Man” and this afternoon I watched some of the movie “Tourist” with them. I rarely watch movies or t.v., but sometimes, its okay and nice to be lazy.

I have to mention the Trova Jazz night briefly too – the music I went to see that Sonia invited us to. The bar felt very European, lots of nice-looking, intelligent people there. Apparently there used to be more places like that in Guatemala City, but now there are not as many. Everyone, everyone, everyone sings along to the lyrics with seemingly deep-felt passion. The music really comes from the heart and can be felt so strongly there. Its funny and different how people sing along to a cover band in a bar here. It was the birthday of one of the bandmembers and friends brought him a cake on stage. I enjoyed seeing Sonia again and sitting with her, her friends, Harold and Stephanie. I tried the standard Guatemalan beer, Gallo (rooster), and I tried it mixed with tomato juice and spices – which is a great idea!

Guatemala City is not somewhere I’d like to stay for more than a few days though because there isn’t easy access to the things I like to do – outdoors, active, nature stuff, art galleries, cultural things.

Interlude: some friends of Harold’s just arrived at the door, so I’m going to say hi to them…

Back: that was cool. 4 of Harold’s friends just showed up. Harold says that in Guatemala no one calls before coming over, they just stop by. That’s a pretty interesting cultural difference between Guatemala and the states. It could drive you nuts, but I like it (some of his relatives popped by this morning for instance too). We were just having a quiet evening, but having a group of people show up caused Stephanie to order pizza and then we all had some interesting conversation and looked at photos. It was fun. The visitors just left and then I talked to Stephanie and Harold some more and am now heading to bed soon. I’m grateful and lucky I had the chance to stay with them my first 4 days here.

Tomorrow: Antigua, which everyone tells me is one of the most beautiful cities in Guatemala.