I haven't felt much like writing anything here because I've been in a ba-humbug Guatemala mood lately. Last weekend we stayed a night at a fancy pants hotel in Guatemala City as sort of a "get away" since they have a pool and a sweet buffet breakfast (uh, for $15 a pop). On the bus ride out to the city it started to hit me, this, like, What is wrong with this place?! feeling. Andres and I like to talk a lot about politics, history, ideas, people, culture, etc. and the night before heading out to the city I got an email about what's been going on with Jennifer Harbury's case in the Guatemalan courts. I've said it once and I'll say it again, that lady is some amazing human. But her story and efforts and the climate of all that really got me down. Then the bus ride the next day. Everything just seemed ugly and hopeless. Men without legs, women on drugs, poverty, litter, disgusting presidential candidate billboards, and the speeding "I hope it has brakes" bus I was on... just sort of culminated to this, What am I doing here (still)!?

The fancy hotel night was nice, breakfast the next day was like a dream, and then back to Antigua. It has been hard to shake these feelings lately - I think a mixture of homesickness, pregnancy hormones, baby/money/life stress, Guatemala, boredom (graduate school stuff keeps me busy enough but I get restless), and little silly frustrations. One of those "silly" frustrations is the fact we've been trying to get internet installed in our house for over a month now. The company, Claro, is such a joke. From the local sales guy to some lady in some office in Guatemala City somewhere, they have been lying to us repeatedly... We'll call you tomorrow... Installation in 3 days... Next Tuesday... For over a month! You would not believe how angry they make me. I have to consciously tell myself to Chill. Finally we decided to stop trying. Yesterday we found an ad for internet service in home in the Antigua area and the guy came to our house this morning. We have an appointment for installation on Tuesday. Like, majorly easy. And the guy, who we can't figure out is Guatemalan or ?, spoke perfect Spanish and English and was a spitting image of my fave tattoo artist from Seattle, Jaime, (minus the tattoos), maker of the sad tomato. Phew. Anyway, we learned a lesson... Claro is for chumps and local companies with cool dudes rule.

Tomorrow is Andres' birthday. I'm going to make his fave banana bread. Yesterday he decided to whip out his college math textbook in order to "practice math." I laughed a lot. He is really funny although he doesn't really know it. The other day we were talking about the impending birth in July and he said something about being born without electricity in the house. I was like, Huh? I don't know, it caught me off guard, but it is true. There was no electricity in the houses in Concepcion Huista in 1986. Then I said something about music, blah blah, and Andres says, My music is whatever was on the radio. Not that he wasn't a music lover, just that tapes, CDs, etc. were totally out of the picture. I immediately thought about all the album covers I've seen and owned. Then I ask him if he's ever received a birthday present, like a wrapped gift: No. Man, am I from another planet, as this last b-day I had was the first ever that I've never received a present. And of course, I noticed. Andres, obviously, has taught me a lot. And I'm glad that my pregnancy is infused with his simple, humble, genuine style. I'm glad our kid will be raised with it, too.