About 4.5 years ago I took a trip to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Of the places I saw in the three countries I enjoyed my time in Guatemala the most. I remember feeling like the country had a ton to offer within a very small space. Ancient ruins, colonial cities, jungle, mountains, small towns, massive cities, a mix of modern conveniences and old school indigenous culture -this was the abundance I was hoping for and found here.
Within that framework, Guatemala City was the big scary city that everyone told me not to go to, and yet after spending just a night or two I remember wishing I could have seen more.
Well I'm back, staying not too far from where I stayed last time. I was hoping some of the scenery, the chaos, the feeling of it being slightly dangerous would have passed or changed. Like maybe in the 5 years "Guate" would have matured and settled down a bit. But it seems as lively as ever.
What has changed is me. In my years of growing up, in my having adapted and grown accustom to some of the things I'm seeing here because of other travel experiences, I've found that I look on this city much differently than before.
Perhaps it is my purpose here, already in less than 2 days I've realized how different it is to try to set up a new life somewhere as opposed to just traveling.
Perhaps it is the other massive cities I've been to, this one barely even ranks now in comparison to some of the cities I saw in South America.
Perhaps it is just the fact that I've changed enough that things feel easier now.
Regardless Guate seems like an OK place.
I am living in the most commercial area, a few blocks away are several malls, chains restaurants, fancy hotels etc.
I work at a school that is basically it's own little village compound. A campus including what feels like alley ways to different areas of child development such as the early learning section and the high school area.
In between home and work, is a 30 minute bus ride (estimated by Google to be a 2hour walk). The ride twists through some neighborhoods but mostly takes long traffic congested routes through neighborhoods that look much tougher than the area I am in. While riding home today I tried to compare it to South American cities but found the comparisons fell short. There were street side stands, auto garages, corner stores etc, but somehow it looked different to me, more Mexican than Peruvian I guess. Even a lot of the language is Mexican Spanish vs South American Spanish, which requires me to drop words I've been using and replace them with the ones I learned in high school and college.
That being said the biggest hassle so far is the pollution and traffic and that feels very much like South America. All the buses and trucks are spewing out dark smoke and numerous times I've had to cough it out. The air near the roads is thick with it, and because traffic is a huge reckless pain, pedestrians like myself often wind up on the curb waiting for our 15 second chance to run across the street.
As for work and the apartment. Well there is a strange smell in my room I can't figure out, and apparently we do have cockroaches, but otherwise the apartment seems really nice. The school too is a beautiful complex half indoor half outdoor with wonderful well maintained grounds.
For professional reasons I won't be writing much about the school, but I will try to bring up some cultural things when I see them.
I can say for now that it seems like I will be working very hard. And will probably be exhausted on many nights mostly from the mental stress of remembering to maintain a million procedural things that have nothing to do with teaching directly but create an environment in which high standards are upheld. So yeah.
I may also not have as many photos as before, around until I settle in... who knows, maybe I will buy a cheap camera and take it every where.
