Sitting in a cafe, watching the espn gamecast of alabama vs tennesee. 4 Seconds left bama timeout, vols kicking a field goal. Not good, not good at all. Thought i would do a quick blog for those of you who are interested.

This week was pretty status quo in most ways. Class continues to be difficult but i am learning a lot. I think im getting better at espanol and im doing my best to get out there and chat with real people so i can gauge my spanish skills by the quizzical looks on their faces.

Andy and I went to an afterschool progam in Jocotanango(sp?). It was a big day for us not just because we were checking out the program but because we had to take the bus without any help. It was pretty funny how many questions we asked, are you sure all buses go there? Where does it drop us off? how much do we have to pay? who do we pay? What do you mean almost all buses go there?
Turned out it was a 3 minute ride, literally the easiest bus ride in history, im a stress traveler though at all times.

The school we went to was pretty cool. The guy who started, really still just a kid, converted his own house into a place for kids to come for education and health. He wants the kids of his town to have a place that is positive and shows them other options in life. They do tons of art and music projects and every kid there is so positive and upbeat. The second i walked through the door a kid ran up to me and asked me to lift him to the ceiling and than ran away laughing and screaming.

The director of the school is one of the most inspirational guys ive ever talked too. He is cool as hell and super passionate about his project. He told us we can do whatever project we want and design it for an authentic experience. Im thinking of doing something with bball and writing, maybe playing games, keeping stats and writing articles. Let me know what you think.

He also may have convinced me to become an english teacher. He was talking about how some people in Guattuemal think they are wicked cool because they can speak english when "any idiot can speak english, and alot of times it is the real idiots who do'" coincidentally i met that guy earlier in the day. He told me he could kick my ass in basketball at least a dozen times and when someone asked him if he was a teacher(he was hanging out at a language school) he said he only knows how to teach people to roll joints and smoke them. So long story short im contemplating teaching english, or at least teaching people how to be cool, i have a ridiculous amount of knowledge on how to be cool. Tengo Frio!

So im going to spend the weeekend contemplating some volunteer opportunities, ill keep you guys updated.

In other volunteer news, Lindsey set us up with a chance to to habitat for humanity this morning. We met up with this great old lady, Matilda. She was a tiny little peanut, very Hans Moleman, only a Guatemalan female version. She walked us to the bus and man she doesnt take any guff of anybody. When we got to the bus she asked the bus driver which bus to our destination and when he said a completely different one she gave him a no i didnt say that idiot kind of retort. She was pretty bad ass for a tiny lady with a keyser soze limp.

We ended up taking the bus about 4 kilometres out of Antigua and then walked a bit to this new development of houses. It wasnt what you might expect from a Habitat for Humanity house. The development was gated and just so damn close to the volcano. They had some pretty swanky houses by Guatemalan standards and the development had a pool, a pretty nice pool. We wandered all around this place eventually coming upon a tiny little cinderblock house being built by Marcos. Matilda surprised the hell out of Marcos by telling him he had four fresh volunteers to help build the house.

Long story short, we carried cinder blocks, cleaned up broken cinder blocks and watched Marcos work for most of the time. I dont think ill be putting this down on my resume as building a house or working for habitat. I could put it down as chatting and watching and occasionally handing someone a cinderblock but definitely not much more than that. After 3 hours we hit the road fulfilling our requirement and leaving Marcos with more confusion than actual help but in theory we were going to help an ready to do what it takes. I think its the spirit that counts, or so ive heard.

That bama ending sounds amazing, and surreal.

Well the computer im using is crappy so its a little difficult to type and its a bit frustrating. Ill write more later.