Tortillas and crushed hopes...

First of all, let us rejoice; weekends once again have meaning for me. I can't WAIT to sleep in tomorrow morning, I'm already in bed in my pajamas and it isn't even ten yet. (Side note: way too live it up in Antigua on a Friday night, Shawn).
Today was a good day. I learned a lot in school, so much so that I'm pretty sure I have a small, bleeding tear in my brain. The trip we were supposed to have to the ocean this afternoon was cancelled because it was "freezing" out (Actually it was like 55 degrees out. Too cold for swimming mayhaps, but a walk on the beach would have been nice :) They needed to come up with another activity so one of the students suggested that they teach us how to make tortillas. Que bueno! So for today's educational segment on Guatemala, we'll be talking about tortillas!
Tortillas are one of the main staples of a Guatemalan diet. In the house that I'm staying at, we have tortillas at least once a day, usually twice. They're served fresh in a small basket and covered with towels to keep them warm. Many women make their own tortillas daily, however there is also a woman called La Mujer de Tortillas (The Tortilla Lady) who makes hundreds of tortillas in her house every day and then sells them out of a pick up truck in bunches to the other families in the pueblo.
The tortillas that are eaten here are authentic corn tortillas, the only ingredients are corn, water and a little bit of lime for flavoring.
To make the tortillas, you first need to buy the corn. The markets here sell three types of corn: negro, blanco y amarillo (black, white and yellow. The black is what we usually consider blue in the US). You can buy the corn in cobs and then dry them (like Indian corn) or you can buy a bag of already dried kernels. The kernels are then boiled in water with a little bit of lime. They're rinsed and then rubbed together to remove the shells. Afterwards, they're ground together and mixed with a little water to form a dough. The dough is shaped into little balls which are then patted down into flat disc shapes. It's important to keep your hands moist during this step or else the dough sticks to your hands and the tortillas rip. After they're patted down, they're ready to be cooked. It's typical to cook over an open flame here, most homes have an area with an open wood fire pit. The fire is built up and a large clay pan is placed on top. Lime and water are sprinkled over the pan to keep the surface non-stick. Once the pan is very hot, the tortillas are placed on top. They don't take long to cook, maybe two minutes on each side, then they're placed in the basket.
You can eat them with any fillings that you like. Today we had black bean paste, guacamole and radishes which was delicious!!

After class I took some more pictures around my house. Here's a better shot of Paulie, who has to be the loudest parrot I've ever met.

And I had to put this pic up for my mom. This house has a plexiglass (clear fiberglass?) roof so there's a TON of natural light. They actually built planter boxes around the inside walls of the house. This is the hallway from the living room to the bedrooms. Sadly, they aren't putting them to very good use, but they have a few plants here and there. Oh, what I could do with this kind of set up...

So I've been going back and forth for a while on what I wanted my living arrangements to be. You may recall that originally I asked for a home stay, but then the director encouraged me to take a free upgrade to an apartment instead. Once it was time for my trip, he informed me that the apartment wasn't vacant yet so I would need to stay with a host family for about a week. Well, I was told today that the apartment will be ready on Sunday and I can move in then if I wanted to. I wasn't sure what the best choice would be since there are big benefits to both. Staying with the family would give me more opportunities to speak Spanish, plus all of my meals are covered so its cheaper. The downsides are I dont have a lot of privacy here and I end up staying in my room anytime I'm home (which also means my chances for speaking are limited to meal times). I'm also lonely since there arent any other students staying here. I dont have many opportunities to socialize and I dont really want to walk around Antigua alone. (Not that it's overly dangerous, but I'd rather err on the side of safety). The apartments offer much more space, plus they have TVs. I'd have a bunch of students around me to hang out and explore with. The downside is I wouldn't have free meals, nor would I have to speak Spanish all the time like I do now, but I still think I have enough time during class to practice. Anyway, I decided to take the apartment. Soooo I had to tell the family that I was leaving. I swear this lady has me bugged, she seems to know exactly what I do and say all day. She sat with me for dinner and told me all about how the economy has been hurting her family and how she isnt getting enough people to rent her rooms. So of course then I tell her that I'm leaving in two days and she got really upset. She was like, "When I heard you were staying for four weeks I thanked God for the blessing." She gets an A+ for guilt trips. But it was too late to change my mind anyway, I had already accepted the apartment. At least now I know that if I end up hating the apartments I have some place to return to! I got to talk to Mom, Kayla and Lauren today. Lauren tried to share her screen with my via Skype so I could catch up on my shows (hulu doesnt work here! Boo!) but the connection was too crappy for the video to come through. Instead she had to give me a play-by-play on all of my shows for the last week. Good thing she and I watch all of the same programs :D