The other day I was hanging out with this guy from New York named Ben, who was cool enough to add on Facebook, and he subsequently mentioned reading my blog, which freaked me out because I forgot that it was linked on my Facebook page, but then I realized obviously I needed to read his and having just finished doing so I'm all pissed off because his blog is better than mine (No, I'm not going to link it, you don't know him).
It doesn't help that my post rate has dropped to twice/month or that I haven't been posting any photos (mostly because my I lost the charger for BOTH of my cameras)
Since my last post I traveled to Lanquin, Guatemala with 3 of the girls from Mayan Families where I've been volunteering, Amy, Hannah, and Helene. I'm really bummed I didn't have my camera because it's one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far on my trip. I may return when my dad comes out to visit in February.
We stayed at El Retiro lodge for 3 days. On Christmas day I decided to drop acid because we didn't have any plans for the day and it was so beautiful. I didn't handle it particularly well and made a less that ideal first impression with my future volunteer colleagues (Did I mention Helene's family was visiting from Australia?) Coincidentally, that's also when I first met Ben. On the plus side I have two full, typed pages of LSD stream-of-conscious that I may eventually be able to work into something interesting.
20 minutes into the bus trek back to Antigua, I realized that I didn't have my phone with me. I stopped the driver grabbed my bag and started walking back to the hostel hoping to find it back there. I did. I then hopped on what I thought was another bus to Antigua. It wasn't. There was a bus switch in Coban, somehow I got back on my original bus which for some reason had been kept waiting for me. I still don't understand how the shuttle system works in Guatemala but I certainly know what it feels like to be the least popular person on a bus.
In Antigua we met up with Mike from Canada who we had all met back at Puerta Viaje Hostel in San Cristobal, Mexico. I tried cocaine for the first time ever. Apparently its cheaper than weed down here although, according to Mike, its not as good as the stuff in Honduras. The night ended with me and some crazy-haired girl from Mexico in the back of a Guatemalan Police vehicle. Relax. they were just giving us a ride. Apparently that's normal here.
The next day Amy, Hannah, and Helene left for Honduras and I stayed and took some pictures that I'll post in like 3 months. I ended up hanging out with 3 young woman from the States who were also staying at our hostel in Antigua. They were all college buddies from New York and must have been a few years younger than me. Turns out one of them works at Tesla, one works for the Federal Reserve and the other works for a private equity company that she was reluctant to name. We talked about Bitcoin all morning. Crazy fucking world.
Then I came back to Panajachel to celebrate New Years and get settled before Mayan Families started up again on the 6th. I didn't do either. The only girl who's number I had in the friend-group I was going to hangout with on New Years said she was sick and I was feeling depressed so I stayed in and played computer games, for like 3 days straight. I told everyone that I did go out and just didn't see them, but I doubt they believe me because this town is really small and there's only one bar that people attend regularly.
Apparently I did go out one night and I had everybody back at my place for a house party and everybody says it was a good time but I blacked out and can´t remember any of it.
Work at Mayan Families has been good, but I´m insecure about how much work I do. Mostly I help Helene, the communications director, running errands, she´s crazy busy all the time. Sometimes she gives me bigger projects, like re-doing the youtube channel or something. Then I feel over my head and I spend a bunch of time trying to figure out exactly what a perfect youtube channel looks like what obstacles we´re looking at and I have to reddit a little bit to relieve some of the pressure and hope to God that Helene´s expectations of me aren´t half as high as the expectations I put on myself.
This last weekend Ben was in Panajachel and visited. I hung out with him Saturday. We went to the Atilan Nature Reserve. I took a lot of photos of butterflies that I´ll post in a few months. We all went out and got drunk and I dropped my phone off a dock into Lake Atilan. Yes. The phone for which I became a bus-pariah not two weeks ago. The phone that I had shipped to Mexico and had to pay a 30% import tax on. 20 meters under. I didn´t even realize it until I had got back to my place.
Maybe I went to the Nature Reserve on Sunday? Yea, I did. I don´t remember what happened Saturday before I lost my phone.
On Monday I didn´t have a desk because Steve is back in town. He is another volunteer that has been with Mayan Families for a few months. He does something with Excel or databases or programming or something. Helene sent me out to take photos with a bunch of volunteer nurses. I forgot to put a damned SD card in my camera but one of the interpreters let me use his. I actually put those photos up on Facebook already because that´s kind of my job. Although I didn´t go in to work to day. Because I wasn´t feeling well. I won´t go into details. I mostly had to come to terms with losing my phone. That and reconcile the amorphous blob that is my life.
Well, I did get a new phone.
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