Ok, I am no longer stagnant. But I am still in Pana. Pajaro and I were going to go off to Huehuetenango today because I have a friend working in an orphanage there, and hes got family, but he partied way too hard this weekend and is now passed out in his house. (Or so I imagine, after seeing him yesterday) ;) I, on the other hand, partied a little bit... then fell asleep, as per usual. So while that boy is sleeping off some form of migraine, I am off doing productive things, like learning "tortillar" literally, "to tortilla." Yes that is correct, I was buying tortillas at the tortilleria next to my hospedaje and asked Leti, the 17-year-old who works there all day every day, if she needed help. She said yes and I started "helping" the next day. And by helping, I mean tossing tortilla dough all over the floor and making semi-rounded shapes that only vaguely resemble tortillas. I feel like a toddler messing with play dough, whereas Leti and her little sister simply clap their hands together a couple of times and have a perfect tortilla that they throw on the griddle. EVERY female in this country knows how to tortillar, and seeing a gringa wildly throwing dough about cracks them up. Leti has taken to hiding me behind the door whenever a customer shows up so they don't stick around to stare. Another new endeavor here is my goal to speak some Kakchiquel, otherwise known as Mayan. A ton of people here speak both languages, Kakchiquel and Spanish, so I've enlisted the help of Leti and a couple others to teach it to me. So far this is what I know; "Utz awatch? Utz mahtiosh. Tabana utzil, ha, mana." Woo hoo! And you know what that means? It means; "How are you? Great, thanks. Please, yes, no." I rock. Story time! I was hanging with Pajaro (that means "bird", did I mention that?) and he asked me if I was wearing the same shirt as yesterday. I said "no, I have shirts that are PARECIDOS" (similar). Sadly, the word "Parecidos" is quite close to "PareciTos", which of course means Paracites. So I told him that I have parasitic shirts. Fantastic. A couple quick notes for those of you who may not know and may well care: My mother is now in China! She left the states a couple weeks ago and just spent 9+ days wandering about Mongolia with yaks and yurts and other amusing things that start with "y." And now she is back in Dalian, China getting ready to start filling childrens' heads with lots of knowledgeable things. There she shall be for two years (at least). I'm so proud. Next: My best friend Julie just now moved to Okinawa, Japan! She's chillin on some military base with her friend from Bellingham and is going to simultaneously look for a job there and also in Russia, which I believe is where she's headed next. Excellent. Ok, that's enough for me right now. It is definitely time to go search out some food. Later later--->Natalie