It was a “cat on the windy tin roof” last night, but overall, all sounds identifiable.
Cali went off to school with a rake and a trashbag. I suppose they are cleaning up the school grounds today.
Madi doesn’t have school on Fridays. We cuddled up on the couch and read for three hours, then went into town. I dropped off the DVD player to another guy who is going to see if it’s fixable. We browsed the used bookstore for a bit. One of Madi’s teachers works there on Friday, so we talked with him for a while. He graduated from college and has been down her for two years–loves it here.
Next we picked up a pencil case for Cali at El Mismo Precio, got groceries at Sandras. Then as we were walking down to the breakfast place, a young woman tried to sell us some textiles. She offered them for 15Q each. I confirmed with her twice that it was the correct price, because it was a bargain. When I decided to buy two and was handing her the money, she said it was $30 for two. A bit of a difference. The old bait and switch currencies routine. I understand this is how she makes her living, but I don’t like being treated like a fool. I said forget it, so she hounded us all the way down the street saying she was sorry. That experience aside, I find the tourist price is on average three times the actual price.
Madi and I went to my favorite breakfast place, last time we lived here. The desayuno tipico is slices of plantain, mashed avocado, scrambled eggs, tortillas, black beans, slice of watermelon. Sooo delicious, but also very filling. I won’t need to eat until supper. Madi had already eaten breakfast and couldn’t find anything she’d eat. She ended up with a tall glass of lemonade, which she didn’t care for (ugh). The setting of this restaurant is adorable, lots of hanging plants. Much to Madi’s dismay, they kept on shooing away the stray dogs that kept sneaking in.
While we were eating a little boy squeezed under the fence that separated our restaurant from another. We bought a little keychain from him at full gringo price. He was obviously pleased. Other girls came in trying to sell their items, did the usual wrapping scarves around our necks, trying to put necklaces on us, something on Madi’s head. They were sweet girls, but we didn’t buy.
After breakfast we went to the fabric store and got Madi a yard of cloth for her desk at school. We also bought a pencil holder for her desk.
It was almost time for Cali to come home when we returned. The girls wanted to stay in, which was fine.
Madi speaks: We never have school on Fridays. I’m so bummed about that because I love school! I have to wait three days to go back. The good part is that mom and I are going to hang out on Fridays. We were trying to look for a cover for my desk. We saw a cover that would fit it perfectly. The girl said it was 15Q. Mom confirmed the price with her three times. We decided on two pretty ones and when we went to pay, the girl said 30 dollars or 300Q (which mom says aren’t close to being the same amount). It wasn’t an accident, she really knew what she was doing. When mom said no and we started walking, her price got a bit lower each time. In the end she said 80Q, but we decided to buy from someone else because we didn’t like her methods. We decided to buy one metre of cloth from the cloth store and drape it over my desk. That way I could choose exactly the colors I wanted and it is still very Guatemalan. The woman was very nice at the cloth store. (Kier you have to do that to your desk when you come down). I had nerds for breakfast because I didn’t like the lemonade. Poor mom tried to drink it, but it was too huge. There was a little boy who crawled under the bench to sell us keychains. He was really cute, and we liked the one bag keychain, so we bought one. Then we went looking for my pencil holder. We went to one store and saw a wooden one, but it dull and black. They wanted 30Q for it. We then went to a pottery store and saw some little cups. They wanted 85Q for that, which wasn’t a good price. We went back to the wooden store, then the pottery store, then ended up getting a little basket that opens, but the lid is sewn on. They started at 20Q, then they said 10Q, but then mom gave them 15Q instead. I’m excited to put it all on my desk. Then we went home. I waited for Cali’s tuk tuk and gave her the money for the week to give to Jonathan. We watched a bit of Mall Cop, did some of our work. Tonight we are having macaroni and cheese with tuna and corn for supper because that’s my favorite meal! Tonight we are having movie and popcorn night, I can’t wait.
Cali’s Frog Blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun, because I went to school again in a tuk tuk. I got to pay Jonathan some money today because it was Friday. I took a rake to school today. I didn’t think it would fit in the tuk tuk, but mom said she knows a bicycle can fit, so a rake should, too. On the way to school there was a dog in the middle of the road. We almost ran over him, but he turned really fast. I started to giggle. Jonathan thought that was funny. Today we put some green paper over our desks and then some plastic paper because it’s so dusty here. We decorated the green paper before we put the plastic on. I put a picture on mine that’s very pretty. I also put two flowers and a beautiful Quetzal (bird and money here). You should see it, it’s beautiful. I tried to open the glue. I did it too much that it exploded on my hands. The reason that happened is because we live so high up here, bottles with air get bigger and then explode on hands, just like it happened to me. I had to go to the bathroom to wash the glue off my hands. In my class we wrote things down in cursive. I know how to write in cursive now, it’s a lot of fun to make the letters all loopy and connected. After the writing, we ate. I had pizza, toasted corn snacks, and chocolate pudding. Outside we played lava monster. Since we all live by the volcanoes, this is a good game for us to play. This is how you play. We had a house which was in a forest, and we were all 4 years old. My name was Katie, my friend kept her real name. The lava monster lived in the park. We tried not to touch him because if we did we would get burned and turn into a lava monster, too. Then we came inside because that’s what we do when the bell rings. Then we went to the computer labs. We watched part of Barbie and the Diamond castle, without the sound, because we aren’t allowed to have that. Then we played on Barbie.com, Polly’s wheels. We played Balletgirl dressup, manicures, and make-up girls. Beside me other people were playing Phineus and Ferb (sp?). Then we had English. The English teacher was late so we colored pictures in our notebooks to wait for her. When she got there, we colored more so the teacher could think about what we were going to do. I asked her, “Do you know what we are going to do today?” She said, “No, I have to think about that.” We ended up learning our numbers and doing more spelling. The drawings I drew were a sunset, a dog picture, a dog picture, a dog picture, and a bunny picture. I named all the boy bunnies George because somehow they looked the same.
When the bell rang I came home in the tuk tuk with my rake, that I didn’t use all day. Madi was waiting for me. She gave me the money and I gave it to Jonathan. I showed mom how I can do all my writing in cursive now. Now we are blogging, and later I hope we can find a movie on tv that is age appropriate. We will have supper and go to bed like all of you. That’s how my day went today. P.S. I love all and I really really miss you so much. Really that’s no lie, I miss you and love you. I love you all and hope you have a jolly, jolly winter.