Happy Holidays and New Year!
It does feel a bit odd to experience the Christmas Season around here. It's beautiful during these days of the windy season and long-sleeved shirts are only necessary in the evenings when the air carries the faintest touch of a real chill. Ninety something percent of the local population here has never seen snow.
The locals are excited for Christmas and so am I. I'm very excited for Christmas to come, and go, so the people can take their lights down. Very popular here are 'music lights'. These are Christmas lights with a built in loop of Christmas songs that emit in high-pitched terrible beeping tones that sound like the ringtone from the first, and worst, cell phone ever. There is an (unused) option to have the lights go with no music, which is great, but there is also the option to play the loop in double-time, not so great. As I sleep, at the Mirador, I can hear a mixture of two sets of music lights. In fact, muddling up Frosty and Rudolph may be better than each alone. As I write this on 21 Dec, I think I can manage four more nights and trust these people to dismantle all their noise-making decorations promptly on Christmas Day.
___________
I feel as though at times I'm being unfair to Guatemala here at The Reprieve Report by speaking about the country with a voice that doesn't match my real attitude. I write a lot about the funnyisms, sillyisms, oddisms, frustratisms, et ceteraisms, of the land and I may exaggerate certain things (though not much). While it seems like a completely different world from the land of my upbringing, I absolutely love it here. The differences make it fun and it's simply more free and less rigid. It's a dirt poor country in an extreme environment but there is happiness in the people that would rival that of people anywhere, rich or poor. You learn a ton daily simply by virtue of your presence here. The landscape is stunningly beautiful and seems to magically change if you walk, or just wait, ten minutes. After three months around this Lake Atitlan, I'm scratching the surface of a real knowledge base of its contours and villages happy to succumb to its temptation to stay and make a life here. I encourage anyone thinking about visiting to do so. I can help with arrangements around the lake and the rest of the country has plenty to offer all very affordable and not nearly as dangerous as books and the internet make it seem.
I'm also excited to pass into a new year 'overseas', which I've never before done.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, happy other holidays and a very healthy New Year!!
It does feel a bit odd to experience the Christmas Season around here. It's beautiful during these days of the windy season and long-sleeved shirts are only necessary in the evenings when the air carries the faintest touch of a real chill. Ninety something percent of the local population here has never seen snow.
The locals are excited for Christmas and so am I. I'm very excited for Christmas to come, and go, so the people can take their lights down. Very popular here are 'music lights'. These are Christmas lights with a built in loop of Christmas songs that emit in high-pitched terrible beeping tones that sound like the ringtone from the first, and worst, cell phone ever. There is an (unused) option to have the lights go with no music, which is great, but there is also the option to play the loop in double-time, not so great. As I sleep, at the Mirador, I can hear a mixture of two sets of music lights. In fact, muddling up Frosty and Rudolph may be better than each alone. As I write this on 21 Dec, I think I can manage four more nights and trust these people to dismantle all their noise-making decorations promptly on Christmas Day.
___________
I feel as though at times I'm being unfair to Guatemala here at The Reprieve Report by speaking about the country with a voice that doesn't match my real attitude. I write a lot about the funnyisms, sillyisms, oddisms, frustratisms, et ceteraisms, of the land and I may exaggerate certain things (though not much). While it seems like a completely different world from the land of my upbringing, I absolutely love it here. The differences make it fun and it's simply more free and less rigid. It's a dirt poor country in an extreme environment but there is happiness in the people that would rival that of people anywhere, rich or poor. You learn a ton daily simply by virtue of your presence here. The landscape is stunningly beautiful and seems to magically change if you walk, or just wait, ten minutes. After three months around this Lake Atitlan, I'm scratching the surface of a real knowledge base of its contours and villages happy to succumb to its temptation to stay and make a life here. I encourage anyone thinking about visiting to do so. I can help with arrangements around the lake and the rest of the country has plenty to offer all very affordable and not nearly as dangerous as books and the internet make it seem.
I'm also excited to pass into a new year 'overseas', which I've never before done.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, happy other holidays and a very healthy New Year!!
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