Mexico! Day Dos

2nd Day!

We walked our way around the city, browsed a popular bookstore, ate several delicious meals, spent the afternoon reading on our B&B's rooftop terrace while drinking tinto veranos (red wine + fresca + lime = yum), and visited a local movie theater to watch a documentary on the Zapatista movement!

Church on the hill at one end of town.

View from the church.

Woo! Enjoying the view!

But also sunny...

Our favorite promenade!

So pretty. So full of good food and drink.

Cute kiosk café in the Zócalo.

Palace off of the Zócalo.

View from the church at the other end of town!

Two thumbs up to San Cristóbal.

Fact: San Cristóbal has a freakishly large number of VW brand cars.

See what I mean?

Tinto verano on the rooftop terrace!

Mexico! Day Uno

Leeah and I just got back from our mini-vacation to Mexico, and we had so much fun!

Every six months we have to leave the country of Guatemala because of our visas, so -- darn -- we are forced to take a little vacay time. :) Last Thursday, after taking a 4 a.m. taxi, catching a 5 a.m. shuttle (which in Guatemala time means it doesn't actually leave the city until 6:30 a.m.), and spending about 10 hours driving, we arrived in San Cristóbal de las Casa, Mexico!

San Cristóbal is adorable -- it feels much bigger than Antigua and much less touristy -- and it has a very European flair to it. With brightly colored buildings, lots of pedestrian walkways, and cobblestone streets that didn't ruin our shoes the way Antigua's do, we definitely could have stayed a while longer. Not to mention the fact that San Cristóbal has cheap wine and beer in abundance -- something Antigua is lacking. We also liked that about the place. :)

1st Day!

We make it to the border!

After a good 45 minutes, they finally stamp our passports to let us out of the country. Every other person in our shuttle just breezed through Migration, but they stared at our passports for 20 minutes, told us that we might need to pay 1,000 Q since we had renewed our visas in the capital (which makes no sense, since that's perfectly legal), and then said that if we went and made photocopies of a bunch of pages of our passports, we could go through fine-free. So, we ran through the streets of this random border town, found a librería that made photocopies, and ran back to Migration. Finally, stamped. Phew.

San Cristóbal's Zócalo (central park) at night. These fake little trees covered in light bulbs were all over the place!

We found them very amusing.

You can tell it's Day 1 because Leeah and I are actually following the rules at the B&B. They lock these doors at 9 p.m., locking the kitchen and free internet access inside. By the next day, we were squeezing through the "windows" and climbing inside hehe.

Roxy Is Visiting In June!

Most exciting news EVER, people:

Roxy is coming to visit in less than a month! She'll be here for the weekend of Quinceañeras, and then I'm taking a week of vacation so we can travel around Guatemala together!

Exactly one year ago, Roxy and I became random summer roomies gracias a the NYU Office of Residence Life, and I gotta give ResLife credit. They got it right, and we had such a fun summer.

Roxy and I share a love of weekend morning yoga classes, pommes frites at all hours of the night, wine, accidental trips to Staten Island, random trips to see the ballet at Lincoln Center, the sound her phone makes when it receives a text, cowboy boots, Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights and Ghost (pure coincidence that Patrick Swayze appears in both), and Spanish-speaking countries (she just got back from four months in Cuba) -- just to name a few.

In the entire course of our friendship, we've only actually been in the same city for six weeks. That's weird to realize. However, after dozens of emails and phone calls and Gchats and discussions of eventually rooming together again in New York City, we've just sort of realized: this is one of those happened-upon friendships that really sticks. :)

SO excited to see her three weeks from Friday!

When You Give a Kid a Birthday Present...

...Well, at NPH, you really shouldn't.

There is an unofficial, yet pretty strong policy at NPH that volunteers should not give presents or cake or special outings to a child on their birthday. I know, you're thinking, "How mean! These kids are orphans." So let me explain.

To begin, volunteers have a hard time earning the kids' respect. We think that our year here is such a long time and that the kids are going to remember us forever because we are making such a big difference in their lives. Well, we're wrong.

Over the span of their lives at NPH, these kids see volunteers come and go left and right. After a couple of years, we all blend together. They may be disadvantaged children, but they aren't stupid. They will ask, beg, and plead for things from you, and they'll manipulate you if you left them. And it's hard to not let them. When your options are to a) buy them the 1 Q lollipop and hear them tell you you're their favorite or b) say no and hear them pout and talk smack about you when they think you don't understand their Spanish, of course a) is the easiest way out. Who wants to feel like the kids aren't completely in love with you?

But a) is bad. The kids here think (and who can really blame them?) volunteer = rich = will buy me/make me/give me whatever I ask for = and so will the volunteer after her, and the one after her, and the one after her. Choosing a) does absolutely nothing but reinforce that.

An incredibly important part of being a volunteer here is teaching the kids that I am here to share my time with you and my talent with this organization. If I was only interested in sharing my money with you, I could just as easily write a check from the comfort of my 2-storey, air-conditioned home in the States. That's not why I'm here.

So when one of my girls has a birthday, she gets a birthday note (that stationery set I brought from home really came in handy!) and a big hug haha -- that's it. It doesn't sound like much, but I can remember being 13 and loving personal notes that told me I was nice or smart or mentioned some inside joke with a friend (heck, I still love notes like that).

Celeste is obsessed with asking me about Nueva York (New York City), hence the hand drawn skyline on her birthday card hehe.

So folks, the verdict is that cakes may be delicious, but blue-and-white striped birthday notes last forever -- especially when the girls adorably tape them up to the inside of their lockers. :)

No Toman Mas El Agua

"No toman mas el agua del chorro. La planta de purificación de agua no esta funcionando bien."

Do not drink the water from the tap anymore. The water purification system is not working correctly.

You mean the tap water I have been drinking every single day for the past five months?

Great.

When the Girls Steal Your Camera

Video. While shopping for Quinceañera high heels. Running through the streets of Guatemala City. Ambushing each other while they buy shoes. This is 6 minutes of  pure 15 year-old goofiness, so enjoy. :)


High Heel Shopping with the Quinceañeras from Carrie Daut on Vimeo.

High Heel Shopping with the Quinceañeras

Yesterday afternoon, Sharon and I joined the Quinceañera trip to the capital (we drove all the way to the capital!) so the girls could buy their high heels for the big day in June. Fifteen 15 year-olds. One small shoe store. Hundreds of shoes. None in the right sizes, of course. Had to find the perfect pair. Couldn't buy something similar to someone else. "I want them, but they are killing my feet." Hours later and "Come on, you've literally tried on every pair in the store."

Yes Mom, I had an epiphany revealing what I put you through during all those years of prom and Homecoming dance shopping. Sharon and I left the store exhausted and muttering, "Vaya. Solo quiero hijos." That's it. I only want sons.

Ok, but seriously, we had a great time. We crammed everyone into an NPH van (I was practically sitting on laps and squishing to death two of my girls), drove an hour to the capital in the pouring rain, and spent the afternoon at an outlet shoe store in Zona 3.

For the girls, it was a huge event. They got to leave school early, take a trip to the capital, and pick out any shoes they wanted (the outlet store donated every single pair of shoes to the girls -- pretty cool). It was pretty funny to see which girls knew within two seconds that they wanted the black stilettos with the jewels (Conchita will grow up to be a very efficient, yet stylish, shopper) and which needed to spend two full hours trying on literally every single pair before they found "the ones" (Irma, I had no idea you were so picky).

Everyone ended up with a pair they loved, and it was pretty adorable to watch the same girls I'm used to seeing run around in their school uniforms or lounge around in their PJ's put on a pair of heels and grow up about five years right before our eyes. :)

And there's a video coming soon!