yesterday (saturday) was lovely, exciting and at times a bit freaky. it all started with an early start to say goodbye to a new found friend, allan, who was off from our casa to greener pastures in san pedro (a place near and dear to my heart) before heading back to the US. after walking him to the bus office and waving him off we struggled up the hill to our casa for some much needed breakfast. mine was quicker than normal as i had an appointment to meet a group from my school for a trip to fuentas georginas, a group of thermal springs that flow from the volcano. it was lovely. it was hot. it was heaven on my yoga beaten body. while soaking away the clouds rolled in...
*this means something different at altitude than it does where we all come from. at altitude, 2700 meters, the clouds are not up above but below, in front and all around. it was eerily beautiful. the steam off the pooling water added to the effect.
...surround us was a flora that could only be described as 'jurassic', with leaves that defy the description of large and could be, if needed, used as an umbrella for two! aside from my group of 7 all others were from guatemala city or xela, out for the day to relax with the family or a romantic time with their special person(s). after 4 odd hours of soaking, chatting and all around chilling out we decided to head back to the city. i was hoping for a chance to catch a nap before my second futbol experience.
nap successful. waking up refreshed and ready to go, after a quick bite of course.
having purchased the tickets earlier in the afternoon due to the popularity of the match and not wanting to miss-out we only need to 'pre-game' it before heading to the stadium. it was pandemonium, it was wild it was CRAZY. people everywhere. food vendors. jersey vendors. scalpers. and did i mention crowds and crowds of people everywhere! we entered the stadium to the sound of drums, horns and cheers (it was still 45 minutes still game start). the smells of bbq making me salivate likening me to pavlov's dogs, i was cool with it though they smelled AMAZING! coming up from under the stands, looking up, shocked by the crowds above. i was shocked and wondering where the heck we'd be sitting. as it turned out all the aisles were filled with people using them as seats. so in order to get to the top row (standing only) we had to get through many a guatemalteco who were unreasonably angry at the interruption regardless of the fact that they were sitting in the bloody aisle!
the crowd was in full form. energy was high. shouting was loud and fireworks a plenty. the game was much more interesting than last weeks, with goals, yellow cards and even a few red cards. the ref was making such shitty calls that a mass of SWAT dressed police on the field to escort the blind refs off amid cans, bottles and even fireworks being thrown and shot respectively to the field.
when it was all said and done the score was tied 2-2 and the crowd was happier than last week but not by much. xela still sits in first place and it is my hope that next week we can take it to the next level and win.
today no hangover but also no studying, lets hope i can get on that. wish me luck.
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