Revue Magazine, “Guatemala’s English-language Magazine”, had a call for submissions for photographs of Guatemala. (Thanks Daniele for passing this info along)
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I made the January issue.
Revue’s Website
http://revuemag.com/
Revue’s January Issue (see p17)
http://files.revuemag.com/pdf/Revue2010-01.pdf
So I’m now back in Paxton MA at Mom’s house. The temporary Plan A was to stay in NYC to look for a job down there. Sounds good in theory, but I can’t help it, NYC is just way too expensive.
I hope everybody had a good Christmas and New Years. I had Christmas here in MA, and just like every other day since being back, drove around and visited a ton of people. It was good though. It’s good to be back and see the fam.
I’m still thinking about what to do next. Everything is still up in the air. Application for a scholarship, recording IDP hours, & temp jobs while applying to “real jobs”. This is what I’m working on right now.
Patience is the big word here.
I wasn’t too sure what was going on for New Years. I was up here in MA and still hadn’t had a chance to talk to all of my friends in the area about the big night because I had been so busy being brought to visit everybody else in the northern hemisphere.
Turns out that I woke up one morning to recieve an emal from Caitlin that a car had been rented and that she and Yulho would be picking me up later that day. It was supposed to be a secret, but since there were other variables involved in this (going to a doctors appointment and picking my mom up from work), we needed to stay in touch up until the actual ‘secret kidnapping’ occurred.
We then drove back to NYC in good time and arrived at Otto’s just a little past 11pm. Just in time for Otto and Mia to unveil their amazing birthday dinner for Carrie and Caitlin.
We then proceeded to eat and do our Secret Santa game. Mia had gotten me a metrocard. Very nice.
I then had a very relaxed New Years with Otto, Mia, and Carson Daily. We did manage to polish off a decent amount of champagne. It was good.
Having more family parties to attend back at home, I then hopped on a Fung Wah and peaced out to Boston the following morning.
The trip has taken a turn. I am now back in the States.
There were many motivating factors for the return. My girlfriend left, I was without a place to live, my bank statements were scary, and my job was coming to an end. Curious about the stability of my work situation, I had asked Thomas about the length of time that he foresaw me continuing with the project. “Oh, probably about 2 weeks”. This was the sort of answer that I had been prepared to hear. The work was interesting, but did not seem like any sort of a long-term situation. I asked in the morning and had been given a point blank answer. My plans were left splattered on the wall directly behind me . Later that day I was checking flight prices and by nightfall I had a ticket back home (thanks Otto). rrrapid fffire dddecisiones… well, not quite, the gears had been turning for a week or so, but when the time came to act, I had to do it fast.
Because of the timing of the situation, I felt that I needed to make things happen quickly. I either had to fly out within the coming days or had to wait out Christmas in GT and fly back in January. Though the second option seemed tempting, I was forced to conclude that it was not quite realistic. To get to January would cost bastante dinero if I were to remain in Guatemala. I would need to find a new apartment and, more importantly, some sort of an income to pay for it. Funds were (and remain) dangerously low and would most likely not have withstood a final month… especially with those assholes at Citibank taking money out every month for my student loan.
So I am back now. So what’s next? Ha, that’s what they all ask. Hmm… we will see. The adventure is not over, it has merely (and hopefully temporarily) changed location. I keep saying it, but it is about remaining positive throughout the ride. It’s a rollercoaster. Keep your eyes wide open and try not to panic on the falls. I do have my temporary panic attacks now and again, but for the most part find that I am not overly worried [yet] about what may be on the horizon.
The past few weeks have reinforced yet again how lucky I am to have such great friends. Upon returning, I walked into Otto’s house to find a small surprise party. Thanks guys. During the party, I also found that there were many vacant couches available to me throughout Brooklyn and Queens.
I decided to take up the first offer and ride out a week and a half on Otto’s couch. During this week and half, I made the transformation into a homebody and became suprisingly domestic. I became the wife that Otto never had. “Are you coming home for dinner tonight?”, “Hey, don’t you need to be at work right now?”. It was good though. Hours of avatar and lots of polished Otto cooking. I was productive though… When I wasn’t around the house, my time was mostly spent going to Pratt reviews as a way of fishing for jobs. I received a few potential bites but am not getting overly excited about anything just yet.
Plan B? I have also debated furthering my bartending education by applying to barkeep jobs in NYC. What else? Teaching English in Asia? Bookstore in NYC? Bagel shop in Puerto Rico? We will see. The plans are changing by the hour. I can see to a few days past Christmas and then everything becomes opaquely foggy. Anything is possible. This is the mentality right now.
Vamos a ver…
*Fingers are crossed*
So now in Melissa´s absense I find myself homeless once again. My “keychain” now consists of a swiss army knife and a little screwdriver tool… no keys though. I have since moved out of the “Industrial Totoro” apartment (as Otto has labeled it) and am now temporarily living in “the tower”, one room at the top of a small two story building in Thomas´s little compound.
Fede´s "Industrial Totoro" apartment. Lived here with Melissa for a few weeks. Lived on the 1.5th floor with the orange band and round windows. The architect (who lives on the top 1.5 floors ) is a friend of a friend, so we ended up getting an awesome deal on the place. I will post more documentation of this place when I have a chance.
If I don´t find a place in a few days then I have considered going into hobbo mode. Just take my laundry bag and string it from a stick…
Vamos a ver…
So she left. After a year in the GT, Melissa decided to go home. Since she finished her part of the work on her project in Antigua, she was here without a job…
Anyways, so she has flown back to the FAR east. There is a 14 hour time difference between Taiwan and GT. Hmm… ahora todo esta un poco mas complicado. Anyways, its all about the positivity and making things work. She will be flying back to the US in 2.5 months for a little visit…
This has all had a big impact on my plans. Fresh plans are in the process of germination. Things will develop as they devolop…
So I am finally updating the site to say that I am still alive. I realize that there has been substantial downtime on patchesweaver… not to worry, things are fine.
If you did not recieve the flyer via email, please check out the info on my photography show by going to the “proyectos” page and then to “La Galeria”. The show opened on Nov 28th and will be up for 10 -14 days.
I am also currently doing part time work for the Gallery owner Thomas. I am doing some preliminary schemes for what basically equates to a modern castle (i´m picturing ronchamp, not disneyland).
Unfortunately, my applications to the southern hemisphere yielded little more than responses like, “thank you for applying, we really don´t have work right now, but if you make it down here, we will be glad to give you an interview”… Seems somewhat promising, but not a positive enough response to fly down there…
Access to a computer is now a bit more difficult and expensive, but I am going to try to do a few retroactive updates to fill everybody in and to keep a good record of what has happened over the past few months.
After some serious eating during my time traveling around, I`ve decided to get back into ejercisio. It took me a while, but I`ve finally come to the conclusion that it was not my pants that were changing size over the past year or so. It`s been too long since I`ve seriously exercised, so I`m starting up again.
I`ve started running every afternoon. I start in Antigua, run through San Philipe, and to the center of Jocotanango… and then turn around and run back. I`m guessing its about a 2 – 3 mile run. This is now a daily routine. The first week has been difficult between the bus fumes and multiple mild heart attacks, but there`s already been signs of progress.
So last weekend was a very good reminder that I still have a long way to go with Spanish.
There are a few things that one must know before I tell the story. There are 2 families involved in this story: (1) Ana Lucia`s family and (2) Otto`s family. Ana Lucia is the daughter of a friend of Marti`s. She`s offered to show me around a bit. The other important thing to know here is that my Spanish is exponentially worse when I`m on the phone (especially because there`s always a car or a motorcycle driving right next to your ear)…
So that being said… Last weekend I was taking some site construction photos in Tono`s house. I recieved a call from an unrecognized number, answered the call, and was told “Hola, soy Lucia”. I said hi and said I was sorry for not calling her back during the week, I had been very busy with work in Guatemala City. “I`m here with my family (followed by a few unrecognizable sentences in Spanish) Do you want to meet for lunch? (more cryptic Spanish) ok, see you in 20 minutes, Adios”. I was basically done with what I had to do so I figured it`d be good to meet for lunch. After a little walking, I realized that I didn`t know exactly where the restaurant was so I called back Lucia. Her mother answered. I began talking to her and then randomly saw Daniel, a kid from the office. I told Lucia`s mother that I`d just met my friend and that I`d call her back in a minute. I talked to Daniel for a minute, said goodbye, and then called back Lucia`s mother. After alot of repeating and talking really slowly, her mother was able to communicate what the name of the restaurant was, what it looked like, and what street it was on. She said that they would meet me at the front door.
I went to the restaurant and waited outside. While I was waiting, I saw some of Otto`s family walking down the street. It was Robert, his parents, his wife Chinita, and their daughter Silvia Lucia. I waved and they came over to talk. I was really suprised to see them and asked them what they were doing in Antigua. They said that they had just seen a show and asked if I was hungry. I said thank you but I had just spoken to a friend of mine and was waiting for her, we were going to eat lunch. They said “ok, next weekend then”. I said ok and that it was good to see them. I then got back to waiting. After waiting for a good 20 – 30 minutes, I called back Lucia`s mother. I wanted to make sure that I was waiting in the right place. “We`re on our way back to Guatemala (followed by lots of Spanish) your friend (Spanish) lunch (Spanish) party at Marti`s next weekend (Spanish). Completely confused, I said “ok, well sorry we couldn´t meet up this time, next time”. “Ok” Lucia`s mother said “Adios”.
So at this point I was totally confused and a bit annoyed that Lucia`s family had taken off without giving me a call. After wandering around and thinking really hard for about 20 minutes I came to the conclusion that maybe there weren`t two families involved, maybe there was only one…