Day 4: 5% is way more than 4%

Objective: Work on Spanish, make authentic Guatemalan meal/dish and research Spanish culture and its influence on Guatemalan culture.

Dear Reader,
               I love food, like really really love it, but who doesn't? Food is a beautiful tingling sensation upon ones tastebuds. Its a scintillating rush of flavor that provides one with energy and satisfaction. I was lucky enough today to make some brilliant Guatemalan food. It was a dish called Mixtas, often served in food trucks around Guatemala. It was a relatively easy dish to create, involving only hotdogs, guacamole, salsa and a tortilla and though it wasn't the large traditional meal I'd envisioned us making (at some point we decided a large traditional meal would take too much effort, patience and actual experience being in a kitchen), I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

             That afternoon Kit and I went together to Publix to pick up the necessary items for the Mixtas. We elected to make our own salsa and guacamole to make the experience more authentic, thus we filled our grocery basket with tomatoes, chopped onions, avacados, cillantro in addition to the necessary hot dogs and tortillas. When we arrived at Kit's house we both quickly got to work in the Kitchen with me cutting up cillantro and Kit dicing tomatoes. Together we then scooped out the avacado from its skin and placed it into a bowl with chopped onions, cillantro and a few tomatoes. I then seasoned it with garlic powder, salt and pepper. After we created the guacamole, we went on to make the salsa repeating almost the same process. The remaining diced tomatoes were placed into a bowl with onions, cillantro and were seasoned with salt and pepper. Finally we warmed up the hotdogs and the tortillas and went to work with fixing our creation. We both each placed one hotdog in a tortilla with some guacamole and some salsa. The mixta was surprisingly very good and I found myself quickly eating and enjoying the whole thing (I'd not eaten any food that day, so that Mixta was nothing short of a blessing at that point). I'll admit I had low expectations for this dish. The dish felt like something a stressed out mom would make if asked by her kids what dinner was and she didn't see anything in the fridge, but I digress the Mixta was delicious and I would recommend it to anyone, ailing mothers included.
           
                  I also did Spanish today. Little by little I see myself getting better and garnering a better understanding of the language, but I guess Duolingo doesn't see it that was as my success has been demoted from 5% fluent to 4% fluent. I won't lie, it broke my spirits slightly. Something about Duolingo's optimistic observation that I was 5% fluent in Spanish made me proud. It had me wondering that maybe I won't be completely useless in Guatemala. Therefore the demotion to 4% percent really had me wondering once again how to forge bonds and connections in Guatemala with limited resources. While the demotion did affect my spirits, it did not stop my determination to improve and eventually get better. The saying has always been, "practice makes perfect" and slowly I'm starting to believe them.
Sincerely,
Journey White
PS: This was suppposed to have been posted on Friday, but a combination of sleep desperation and forgetfulness caused me not to post it until today.