This is the third time that I have had the privilege of visiting Jalapa, Guatemala. This time, however, is a bit different. Both of the previous times that I came, I was with a group of people from the US so I could always speak English, and generally knew the people I was with. This time I am flying solo, which after a semester of French makes my communication in Spanish not so good (which just makes me frustrated and angry). Despite this, I am very much enjoying myself. The weather is perfect here. The temperature is currently 68 sunny with some clouds with no humidity, and at night it rains. It has been a long two days.
I had meant to post each day, however we didn't get wireless internets until yesterday. My international phone service (courtesy of Cincinnati Bell which sucks) wasn't working so I now have a Guatemalan phone number and month's worth of service ($6.00). I have been unable to communicate outside of Guatemala for two days, so let me catch you up on what's been going on. These are from my journal entries, I'm going to post them as close to as they are with things I need to add in brackets.

Monday June 15:
Let me begin with the cliché that this has been a long day!...[unimportant stuff about time]. I woke up at 4:30 this morning to get ready for my 7:15 flight from CVG to MIA, in order to have all of my baggage checked and go through security and have time leftover. [In the check in line, I had my bags checked and was waiting for my tags to print. A rude bald man with a monk's ring of hair and Hitler 'stache cut to the front of the line and tried to self check his bags. He was within 20 minutes of his flight leaving, so he couldn't check his bags. He then called the clerk who was getting my tags ready over and she had to schedule him a new flight and check his bags. Old people are truly douche bags to people younger than them! Young people are so disrespectful in their eyes, but cutting 30 people in a line and holding it up because you can't get your saggy old ass into the airport 20 MINUTES before your flight, is perfectly okay.] After this aggravation, I made it through security to my gate, and boarded the plane.
Everyone from the NKy area knows that the Cincinnati airport is a Delta hub. I was on an American Airines flight though, because Delta can't have a monopoly in an airport wink wink. My plane was tiny. I had to bow my head to get through the doorway, and slouch to walk down the aisle. It was a 2 and 1 seater (2 seats on one side of the aisle and 1 on the other). I was on the 1 side because I thought I would have more room. WRONG!!! The flight was completely booked, and the man in front of me decided he would lean his seat all the way back so that I couldn't put my knees behind the seat; I had to keep them splayed. This was only worsened by the fact that I also could not stretch my feet because the overhead was full, so I had to keep my carry on under his seat, and if I put my legs into the aisle the [soulless] ginger flight attendant from Dallas would yell at me. Our flight took the coastal route to Miami, so I couldn't sleep because of the constant turbulence.
Finally I got to Miami. I had a bite to eat [$12.00 for chicken tenders]. I also made some observations about airport people. There are always the nicely dressed rich [in my flight Latin] people, the normal traveler like myself, hippy freaks, and rude people. Everyone who flies can fit in this category. The rude lady was the best though. As I was in line for my food, there was a large black woman in front of me. The place was busy so they had one guy that all he did was to bag and shout orders. He calls this lady's order and she asks him if one of the burgers was with no cheese. He tells her he thinks so, but apparently it was not. She starts yelling at him like it was his fault, shoving the receipt in his face asking him if it says "no cheese," and stamping her feet. Apparently she "be allergic to cheese [even though she ordered a cheeseburger]," [she was so angry she couldn't even conjugate her verbs haha.] I boarded my flight 2 hours later and left for Guatemala City. This flight was also completely booked, but it was much more comfortable, as it was a 3 and 3. The only complaint that I have was that the man next to me kept putting his hairy arms over the arm rest and his arm kept rubbing mine [gag, stranger arm hair]. I slept for the first hour of the flight, and when I woke up I saw a cruise ship on the Gulf of Mexico which is kind of cool.
I made it to Guatemala City and Joaquin, his wife Sonia, and daughters Cyndi and Nelly picked me up at the airport. [I thought it was odd that his girls were with him as it's in the middle of the school year here. All the schools are closed because of swine flu.] They asked me if I could eat and I said yeah sure that they could choose a place. Nelly chose Pizza Hut. It's very weird going into an American chain restaurant in another country. It's cleaner, has better service, and a nicer ambiance. It's almost comical in a way that as we sat ate our pizza we were serenaded by the music of Rihanna, Outkast, and Amy Winehouse (not many people here speak English why?). After lunch we went grocery shopping and then took the 3 1/2 hour trip from the capital to Jalapa. When we got there we went to Joaquin's parents' house. His dad reminds me so much of my grandpa Virgil. His expressions, his glasses, his voice, how he talks. It's almost like his Guatemalan twin. We had a traditional Guatemalan dinner [black beans, eggs, tortillas, and a spicy cilantro/onion/chilli salsa] and then went to another grocery store. Finally we went to the apartments where they live, and I'll be staying.

Tuesday June 16:
We visited a bunch of possible teachers, and 2 possible directors for the school here. It was fun. We talked to one lady for 2 hours. She says I remind her of her son who is studying Chemistry in the capital he's 18. Joaquin's dad had to go to the hospital for pains in his kidneys. I hope everything turns out okay.
This morning we went to the central market, which was very crazy, and busy. I got a wireless modem, and a new phone SIM card with a Guatemalan number and a month of service for Q50. Money goes far here.

I'm going to conclude each blog post with a weird thing I saw that day I currently have 2 things to record. On Monday when we went to the grocery store in Jalapa, we walked through the meat section. One section was Carne de Reyes (Meat of Kings), which is meat from bulls killed in bull fights. In the case you found the usual meat cuts, but towards the back of the refrigerator I saw two packages of criadillos. Yes two packages of veiny bull testicles. On Tuesday I saw two Chinese restaurants ran by Chinese families, and a white van with an Indian family. It's true you can find Asians living everywhere, even in the heart of rural Guatemala.

     One of my closest friends once told me that "language is a virus." Changes in language or desensitization to it can cause major problem. A great example of such changes making an impact like this is Nazi era Germany; people such as gypsies, the mentally ill, those with physical/mental defects, homosexuals and gypsies were coined "undesirables" of "unfit." As a result millions of people were wiped off of the face of the earth. Language can also be manipulated into a tool for indoctrination, of propaganda; so today as read in my political science book (The Other World by Joseph Weatherby) I was shocked to read his take on conservative views towards developing nations.

     In a text book, meant to educate there was a blatant change in language to manipulate peoples opinions.

    
" A fundamental element in conservative value systems is the belief that one of the keys to human development lies in providing those with special strengths and abilities the freedom to pursue their individual interests without constraint." 

      Hmmmmm according to Weatherby this sounds like a select or "master group" is favoured in conservative policy.

"...a Greek sophist named Thrasymachus argued that it is the natural right of the strong to take more than their equal share of what the world has to offer...Over the intervening years, these ideas, which have become known as the Doctrine of Thrasymachus, have provided the rationale for a variety of conservative ideologies that often argue --in social Darwinist, survival-of-the-fittest terms-- that protecting the special positions and abilities of those who have risen avove the common masses is necessary for the evolution of the human species and the grandeur of humanity."

      SOCIAL DARWINISM!?!? Social Darwinism is the principle the Nazis, and eugenists used to forceably sterilise thousands of people. This idea is furthered when Weatherby notes that the "fit" have special positions saved for them because of their superiority to others. That sounds like racism, when it later insinuates that such positions are given to most caucasians. The ridiculousness continues.

"From a conservative perspective, substantial inequility in the distribution of wealth creted by expanding economic output is viewed as natural, necessary, and just. Human beings are viewed as unequal in essence: the poor are poor becaus of shortcomings within themselves, often considered to stem from race, gender of class."
 
       Weatherby has finally blatantly stated that the conservative ideology is fueled by prejudice and racism. This is in stark contrast to the warm and fuzzy liberal ideal (spelled s-o-c-i-a-l-i-s-m) of,

"...human beings are considered equal in essence... Liberals advocate peaceful, step-by-step reforms, often based on programs to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor... [however] established powers will always be able to keep ahead of and nullify all reform efforts."

     Heaven forbid a big greedy, racist, warmonger conservative try to keep the paycheck they worked for and then strike down the reform to take it away. Everyone loves socialism, especially democratic "established powers". What is the point of so much opinion in this book the purpose of a college education is just that: to educate. Not to indoctrinate young people on political views. I understand that in going to a large public university I would be a minority, but seriously how can such propaganda be called an objective look into the developing world?