Rumblings in our tummies...

C:well actually there has been more rumblngs in meagan´s tummy than mine.

M: Although it is getting better I think I may have overindulged in our mom´s food. She thinks that I eat as much as the boys which I can and being a CPC (clean plate club) memeber for life I ate a whole lot and got myself sick for the first time this trip. I´m sure its not the last. Enough about that, we have been enjoying small town life and spent the entire weekend just reading and relaxing. Last week we went to a neighboring pueblo´s annual fair....

C: it was my first fairia (sp?) and it was very cool. lots of really loud musica vivo and people in funny costumes. i must say that i am continually amazed at how cool and committed the people of this region are to wear their traditional dress, the women look so great in all the colours and patterns of the different cortes and i have no idea how the men pull off wearing white pants and keep them clean. i can´t keep myself clean in various earth tone colours. It looks like we may end up being here in San Pedro for another two weeks. i really need to pick up some more spanish (I´m horrible) and therefore i also need meagan to get a whole lot better to cover my inabilities on the road.

M: We have spent some quality card playing, drinking/thinking about swimming time with Leslie and Andrew some folks from Queensland. Good fun was had by all celebrating the day of Australia my second and best thus far. The lake is actually a great place to bathe as long as the wind is blowing in the right direction otherwise it is mud/trash soup. We took our little brother Balbino swimming for his first time and he is 9!!!

C: Balbino was shit scared to begin with but in no time he was stroking with the best of them and would give any golden retriever a run for it´s money. tomorrow we continue the lessons and by the end of our time here i´m sure that he´ll be accepted in to the australain olympic team like the whole of our ex eastern block weightlifters and pole vaulters.

we hope you are all well and it has been great to hear from so many of you!!!

Rone - thanks for the well wishes and hopefully i can catch up with you bro sometime in the not too distant future. if we got a date together would you wann come along??

Alpal - keep putting them away my son. hopefully by the time i{ll get back the streets will be clean and there willbe no chance of me getting beaten up.

kenny - you still in the office??

No hablo espanol

C: we{ve thrown ourselves into spanish school and are doing well. actually i´m struggling, but meagan is doing well.

M:I don{t know about doing well in with spanish but I do know that we are eating well. Our host mom prepares all sorts of wonderful vegetarian food. She says, "La comida...es...muy...moderna" she speaks very slowly and loads. We really lucked out with her and her husband, son, and Maria. Our house just down the street is very comfortable. We have been avoiding all "busy" places and spending time studying, swimming off the rocks in Lago Aititlan, and attending school activities. I have four hours and courtney has 5 hours of one on one study with a teacher. Last night was salsa lessons at the school and courtney tore it up and I nearly fell out the window. We have also had some other fun times at La Iguana...

C: We had the chance to pretend we were back at camp/college/knopwoods and went to a cross dressing bbq. when we find a internet cafe that lets us upload photos we will be sure to show you one of me dressed as kathy roses granma. meagan was well porportioned......

Speaking of balls... the photos from the hiking were when we thought we would hike up volcan agua - i was panting like a dog, meagan was okay. we ended up befriending some people who gave us a lift home in the volunteer fire fighters truck.

best run and go to a presentation at school, hope you are all well.

take care

Antigua!!!

Courtney: We are now in Antigua! My favourite thing is the fact that i can eat fresh tortillas and avocado and lime for 40 cents!!!!! We made it safe and sound mum, i know you have been worrying, but we made it. The most terriffing part was the constant "National Security is now at Code Orange" annoucements in the Chicago airport. Nothing like trying to keep a population scared... and then i decided that taking the bus from the airport to the bus station to get to antigua would be really easy... "look meagan, the book says it´s just up this road on this bus..."

but the bus station was not there...

Meagan: Quick fix jump in a taxi right? time spent lost meant a solid traffic jam, just like LA, outside of Guatemala City. Not a worry how can you not have fun in a retired school bus with a pounding bass. To be perfectly honest I fell asleep but I´m sure Courtney loved my drool on his shirt. Today has been lovely and relaxing enjoying pupusas (fried up tortilla stuffed with cheese and topped with cabbage, yumm), walking around, and hiking up to a large cross with a view of the city.

Tomorrow we´re taking our adventurous booties where no normal travel agency goes....

Courtney: don´t worry parents, it wont be a problem. So we plan on being here for a few days, then heading to Lago Atitlan for some much needed spanish schooling. After that we are heading Norte. We´ll keep you all up to date. Not much else to add, hope you are all well, take care and much love from Guatemala!!

thanks for the comments everyone

Braddes - can you possibly give sveno another address and say i changed it?? No they were high in the trees.
Karen - Laugh it up, hope you are well, let us know what is going on in your life right now
Carmody - right at home pal... very little chance i will be home, but let me know if you want some advice, it´s the least i could do.
Combe - what the heck are you doing out in the burbs? don´t go inciting any race riots
Touche - any advice?? email me, my address hasn´t changed. i may end up that far down.
Mum - Never fear mum, we´ll be alright and remember... i´ll always call if im broke.
Christine - We will do our best to find the best Margaritas in Central America
Lorie - Brilliant to hear from you, hope you like the pics!
Shea - what the heck???!!! you have to be in touch!!!! if we could meet up that would be great!
The Beautiful Becky - you are always blog worthy.

As ready as we'll ever be

In the past fourty eight hours we have dined on duck, squirrel, and venison... and some thought we were vegan. We shall see how we do down south. I still have no desire to eat cheese which probably won't be an option soon. Well enough about nutrition. In less than 24 hours we will be in Guatemala!!! Personally I'm clocking in a few pounds heavy (thanks to my mom, dad, sister, and grandma's fabulous cooking) and so are our bags at a frightening 42lbs. each. Oy vey our aching backs, I think with a little work we can par it down a bit. We cannot wait to begin Spanish lessons. Our plans are to arrive in Guatemala City 2:30ish tomorrow afternoon, hop a bus to Antigua for a night or two. Next stop is San Pedro La Laguna for 2 weeks of Spanish lessons and a homestay. I did one week there towards the end of the trip last Feb. and loved the structure and incorporation of culture into lessons and school activities. I also adored my teacher, Letty, her daughter, and her parents; I am hoping she is still there. We will be posting most likely as soon as we arrive to a internet cafe in Antigua so ya'll (mostly our mums) know we are safe and sound. After that we hope anyone out there thats reading or even if you're not write your comments on the blog because we love hearing from you. Thank you Becky for getting the comments started. We visited Becky in the big city, in a BIG building, with loads of security. We had to wear a name tag to get through the turnstiles then a metal detector, the works. After a 46 or 47 story elevator ride in which my ears popped we arrived at an office door where you had to use an electric key to open the door which was automatic, no woman power needed. Behind the frosted glass sits Ms. Becky, I can imagine the best damn receptionist in the world. For those that know her I am sure you all agree. Because the building is elliptically shaped, the walls are not flat and you could not hang pictures. The walls were decorated with cut outs of retired Latin American money in all sorts of intricate pictures... pretty wild and this was my first time visiting an office building. Now here comes the good stuff, we took the L (whats a visit to chicago without a ride on the infamous L) to wrigleyville for the most amazing meal at Chicago Diner. Anyone in the area who appreciates good vegan food must eat there. It was fantastic with great meals, wine and raw mango cherry cheesecake. We were a bit tipsy from our wine and still had time before our train back to IN so we did the most obvious... drink MARGARITAS. Whew a great time was had by all but we were missing the queen of the drink herself Ms. Stine Schwastenberg (We did have some killer margis whipped up NYE by Stine in MN though.) After our drunken L ride back we gave Becky lots of hugs, got on the train, and I passed out and drooled on Courtney's pants the whole way home. What a great night. In conclusion of that story we want to extend a great big thanks to our hostess Becky for showing us such a good time.

Again please, please, please, write comments about anything and everything or just to say hi, we would love it.

Squirl huntn

Squirl huntn, originally uploaded by Meagan and Courtney.

today we went squirl huntn

Enough fun for now

So far we've been having enough fun for now. The weather has been cooler than I'm used to but at least it hasn't been too far below freezing (32F/0C) too often. Since leaving California I headed up to Detroit to say farewell to good 'ol Gogo and catch up with Shannon, Julie, Brian, Matty P (starring in the new Rocky Movie), Kerri and out of no where Scotty Fullbright. It was a CIC reunion at it's best. Had a blast cruisin' in a limo and hitting the town, a far cry from my past 9 months.

After Detroit I've been with Meagan and her family in NW Indiana, home of big red juicy squirrels (more to come soon) and had a great Christmas with her family. I was spoilt, received a bunch of presents and ate way too much. After Christmas we quickly headed up to Minnesota, like Meagan mentioned and we treated to a lot of fun and unique experiences. It was an awesome time. We watched (I officiated/ticked off bib numbers) a biathlon race, ate meat, went skiing, shovelled a driveway, ate meat, drank some good wine, went ice fishing, ate meat, were treated to a traditional MN wild rice soup, watched Nate eat some meat, dressed Jenna up in hunting garb, had numerous snowball fights, ate some more meat, went sledding (this was a lot of fun), Spent NYE with the Big Olaf crew talking about old times and ice cream, and then we can't forget the "Wild Game Feed" where we ate more meat. I officially ate more meat in that 5 days than I have in the past 5 years. That is not an exaggeration. I think I ate everything that has ever dared to fly or jump around in the mid-West. I had a great time and will post some photos soon.

Now I am preparing for a visit to IU home of cool people (Emily and Stephen) and Brad Wales. We'll see how that goes. We also have a few loose ends to take care of before we leave so I best get on my way and try to take care of one or two of them. I hope that you will all enjoy looking at this blog and following it along over the 7 months at least, it'll be a lot better when we get some pic's up for y'all. Take care and a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me to enjoy the past few months!!

A blog is born

Whoa we have blog... I feel really nerdy. perfect thats precisely what I am. Well here we go 13 days to lift off. We are currently stationed in Valpo preparing for the trip, visiting family and taking care of loose ends. We want to send a thank you up north for a fabulous time in the great state of MN. Stine, Lars, and Nate took excellent care of us and we ate more meat than we had in years. I love the Midwest there is no doubt about that.