More life details

So a lot of people have been asking about daily life in more depth so I figured I’d go into more detail about that for a little bit.
The food: I’m pretty happy with the food here, I get a little worried about my cholesterol because I tend to eat eggs often but other than that, the estomago is muy feliz! So breakfast is typically cornflakes or eggs with beans and of course tortillas! Then for lunch I have a variety of things that are similar dishes to dinner. Some plates that I’ve typically had:
· Chile relleno – green chiles that are covered with flour and then battered with egg and fried
· Soups – beef, chicken, potatoes, guiskey (like yucca), yucca, potatoes, sometimes rice, pasta, cilantro and pureed tomatoes
· Beans – which can be served three ways, whole black beans, liquefied black beans, and the refried black beans
· Tamales – which are very different from tamales I’ve had in the past because it’s really just masa with tomatoe sauce and maybe one piece of meat that usually is mostly bone, these are also eaten with French bread which seems crazy but it’s soooo good
· Pepian – this is a typical dish of my pueblo and it’s oh so good! Basically like a mole that’s poured on top of three types of meat, guiskey, yucca and potatoes
Some funny eating sidenotes I’ve encountered with my host family:
· Carbs with a side of carbs is pretty much how it goes over here, as a fellow carb lover, I have no problem with this…my waistline on the other hand may end up expanding as a result
· The tortilla is really like a fork, it’s pretty common to eat with your hands unless eating a soup or tamales
· Bones are sucked on…still haven’t gotten around to this one either
· Fish are eaten hole…which results in lots of work for little meat but my fam typically eats the skin since the fish are usually fried…I’m still a scaredy cat and like to be picky haha I’m sure I’ll come around
· I had Ramen for breakfast one morning…it was excellent!
· I also had a ham sandwhich with ketchup and mayonnaise…that was probably the most mentally challenging thing I’ve dealt with thus far (I hate mayonnaise that goozes out ughhhh) but there’s a slight chance that it’s this liquid cheese stuff, kinda like sour cream so I just tell myself that’s what it is
· Soda is called “agua” which is the word for water…that would be a great public health campaign
I do my best to stay in shape here but it can get to be pretty tough since I feel a little uncomfortable running alone, not that it’s unsafe but I get scared by the stray dogs and EVERYONE stares…I’ll get used to it I’m sure! There are others who run, this morning I saw four other runners, it’s just that they are all male. So as an alternative I’ve been doing a good job of making sure I regularly use my Rubberbanditz fitness bands and then I try to do 30 minutes of cardio which typically consists of: a song of jumping jacks, a song of high knees/running in place, a song of front kicks, a song of sidekicks, and the rest of the songs consist of a combo of the previous stuff, up-downs, mountain climbers, punching combos, or one minute kicks pretending there was a punching bag where I can’t put my foot down OR if I’m lucky enough where a good dance song comes on I just shake my booty randomly around my room while jumping around. I’m hoping eventually I’ll have internet so I can just youtube fitness routines.
My biggest enemies thus far are spiders and mold. This morning (Saturday) I spent most of my morning cleaning out my room and scrubbing down this one shelf that the mold seems to really like thereby attacking all of my shoes. The clothes are safe…but my shoes have become a victim. Thanks to all the HGTV that I watched back in the day, I retaliated with some bleach water. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve killed about seven spiders in my room thus far, none of them super big, but all unwanted. I’m sure I’ll get used to that too!
Biggest environmental threats: rain! The other day it rained all day pretty hard which back home isn’t a big deal at all but here that leads to a huge mess! Roads close, people’s houses get flooded, it can get pretty bad and all I can say is that I am so incredibly lucky to have a solid roof over my head and a concrete floor that won’t wash away. I’ve felt one tremor thus far that was very small but still weird to feel the earth shake! Then today I’ve felt two shakes but supposedly those are from the volcano that erupts (just slight ash, sometimes some fire, but I couldn’t see it because it was so cloudy). Don’t worry everyone who is reading, it’s not like lava flowing omg we’re gonna die type of eruption, just a small puff of ash and such J
All in all, I have to say I’m pretty happy here. Despite the hiccups and small environmental changes/annoyances, the people and the family here really make it all worthwhile. I also can’t wait until I have some free time to really explore and get to know this beautiful country and the festivals! The fifteenth is Guatemala’s independence day which I’m super excited about just because it means there will be lots of food and the kids have a big parade which I’m sure will be adorable! So yes, people don’t fear for me because life is muy bueno and I can’t wait until people can start to come visit!!