|
Story time? My alarm goes off at 4:30am except this particular Wednesday morning I hit a few rounds of snooze and finally made it to my feet around 5:00. I get ready and order an Uber to the gym as goes the morning routine. I don’t blend in very well here (shocking… I know) so if someone speaks English they immediately (and correctly) assume that I do also. The driver introduces himself in English and we begin a conversation. By the time we arrive at the gym he has given me his number in case I wanted a ride anywhere or if I wanted to join his group for a game of soccer sometime. After a few minutes at the gym I realized my headphones were still in the back seat of the Uber. Conveniently enough I had his number and quickly shot him a message. Thankfully he returned to the gym and I got my headphones back, but this was just the beginning. After I finished my workout I ordered another Uber back home. Usually I would walk, but as I woke up a little late this morning I needed to make up some time. This round would be a Moto-Uber. Yes, Uber on a motorcycle. Cheap and fast? Absolutely! Super safe? Well.. I’ve made it this far. He picks me up and just a few minutes later we run into what appears to be a police checkpoint (two police officers standing next to their police motorcycle). We are stopped, asked to get off the bike, and patted down. Whilst being frisked I also noticed the other officer snapping a quick picture. I should mention here that I was the only one that spoke English and I was navigating with the best Spanish I could muster. We are asked to show ID, of which I only had my Virginia drivers license, so I hand it over. He then asks if I have my passport and I inform him that I do not. They follow-up with asking if I have a picture of it. I actually did have a scan and showed them on my phone. Unfortunately, they wanted a picture of the visa stamp and I only had a picture of the main page with my picture and info. After a couple minutes of the four of us just standing there, they sent us on our way. Needles to say, I now have a picture of the visa page in my passport! At this point I knew that I would miss the bus that picks up teachers for school so I let them know that I would get there on my own (not an unusual occurrence for teachers). I got to my apartment, took a shower, and then realized that I was so hungry because I didn’t have time to do breakfast like I typically would. So I had a great idea. I was already getting another Uber to school so I would just get one to McDonald’s which is on the way and then another from McDonald’s to school. The plan worked out great up until I had to get the Uber from McDonald’s to the school. The wait time (due to the morning city traffic, which I did not consider) would have put me at school after the start of first period. Slight panic began to set in as I realized that this may not have been a great idea after all. I canceled the Uber and attempted to order a moto which are usually faster due to their ability to weave in and out of the stopped traffic (like I mentioned cheap and fast… safety is.. well moving on). The wait time for the moto was also too long. I was about a mile away and first period started in about 17 minutes. I stood there for a minute before understanding what had to happen. I took a couple bites of my biscuit, tucked the food bag, tightened the straps on my backpack, and started a run for it. I am proud to say that I made it to class with time to spare and you wouldn’t even know if it wasn’t for my heavy breathing and storytelling. After a successful first period I moved into my planning period and took a deep breath feeling like I had already lived a full day and it wasn’t even 9:00am. I’m learning about all sorts of Guatemala through direct experience!
|
