Bowling, Running, Ultimate Frisbee...an Active Second Weekend!

Well the weekend is over, and we had a lot of fun in the city with a bunch of the staff members.

¡Boliche! (Bowling!)
Friday, Aug. 17
We got together with Randy, Iniyal, and Kelly and went grocery shopping as we wanted to cook a dinner together. We picked up what we needed and headed back to Kelly's place to prepare our dinner of rice, stir-fried veggies, and chicken. It was a late start to the evening, and I don't believe we ate until almost 9 p.m. We had planned to go bowling, but were all feeling pretty lethargic after our meal. Thankfully someone in the group had the energy to rouse us up and go check out the alley to see if they were still open at 10:30. Luckily, the place was, so we got a lane and an hour of bowling (with shoes) for $3 a person. We all played with sporadic moments of greatness, yet the highest score (by me) was a pitiful 99.

Iniyal lining up

Randy lettin' loose

Kelly bowling crazy bike messenger style

I'm about to pick up a 7/10 split ; )

Running, then Lounging
Saturday, Aug. 18
Beth and I stayed the night at Kelly's so we could go over to the school early and do some running on the track. It was a beautiful clear day and there was a nice breeze, so it felt just right for running. We were both anxious to see how how our bodies would fare distance running considering the altitude difference. At times, we've both felt winded easily (like climbing the five flights of stairs to Kelly's apt.) and blamed it on the altitude. We set out wanting to run four miles, and we accomplished that distance, we just didn't run it all. I ran the first three, but at a fairly easy pace, then caught up to Beth and walked the last mile with her (I was feeling tired). Beth's knee was hurting for some reason, so she didn't run the entire distance either.

Afterwards, we walked over to Kelly's classroom as she was there setting it up. Along the way, we met our new soon-to-be neighbors, Matt and Amy. They both were very friendly and we think they'll quickly become good friends.

That afternoon, Beth, Kelly, and I lounged around and watched the movie, Elizabeth Town and even got some laundry done. In the evening, we three explored a little of the city by driving over into a new section to visit the Hiper Paiz, which was basically a Guatemalan Super Center. Then we headed to the Metro Norte, a mall, to browse around and grab some dinner at the food court.

We've been to a few malls now, and one thing we've noticed is the abundance of shoe stores. I'm not kidding when I say at least half--it not more--of the mall's stores are shoe stores. I guess Guatemalans love their shoes. I have seen some size 12s, so maybe I'll actually be able to get some here if I want.

Another funny thing about the malls are the knock-offs. For example, we went in to a "GAP" and the clothes sorta looked GAP-like, yet they were also selling "Abercrombie and Fitch" branded clothes there, too. I think it's hilarious that these stores selling knock-offs are in an upscale mall.

Shalom the Baptist Church/Ultimate Frisbee & Happy Hour
Sunday, Aug. 19
Sunday morning Kelly picked us up and took us to her church. It's a baptist church, yet is called Shalom and has a star of David on the front of it. ??? Only in Guatemala, I guess. Sunday school was held in an adjacent building that also serves as a school, yet sorta looked like a prison. We sang some songs (although Beth and I didn't since we didn't know the words) and then a member of the class led a discussion of some text from Genesis (pronounced "henesis" by the Guatemalans). Kelly would fill us in from time to time about what was being discussed as we couldn't follow much of it. Beth wrote down new words to look up and I just read the text in English throughout the class.

The church service followed at 11 a.m. and commenced with praise music singing (this time there was a projector with the lyrics, so we could sing along...in Spanish!) by a large crowd of a few hundred, I'd guess. Then the preacher jumped right in and spoke for probably an hour+. True to his Baptist-ness, he spoke with great theatrics--his voice loudening and quickening, then abruptly dropping to a hushed whisper. Unfortunately, we couldn't follow much with our limited knowledge of the language, so again, Kelly would catch us up periodically. Overall, it was a great experience and we got to meet a lot of nice, welcoming people.

We had lunch at Kelly's and then relaxed for an hour before walking over to the school for our 3 p.m. game of Ultimate Frisbee. About 25-30 people showed up, so we formed three teams and played to 3 points so we could rotate often. It was Beth's and my first time ever to play, and we each were a bit apprehensive as neither of us are especially coordinated or good at team sports. We did fine though and had a lot fun, thoroughly wearing ourselves out. The pace was much like soccer, with lots of sprinting and continual running. I can't wait to play again next week!

After the game, we all walked up about a block to a staff member's house for a post-game happy hour. Once again we were treated to an amazing place. Their house was great, but their backyard was the best as it offered plenty of room for everyone and a direct view of the big volcano, Agua. They provided an assortment of salsa type dips and chips, as well as wine, beer, booze, and water. It was a fun way to relax after the game and get some more time in to meet new people. There were a lot of new faces as most of the staff from last year just returned this last week.

So that was our second weekend in Guatemala! We're having a lot of fun and we really appreciate the emails and positive feedback from you all.