Pepsi is bigger than Coke here.

More appalling news from Gaza: Israel sent in ground troops. Call, fax, or email your representatives, people. It takes ten minutes. Not going to make a difference in the short run, but in the long run people need to be way more engaged about this issue.

¨The UN has warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis, and believes 25% of more than 400 Palestinians killed by Israel so far were civilians. Israel says about 80% of those killed were Hamas militants. Four Israelis have been killed by rocket fire from Gaza.¨

Several were killed while at prayer yesterday, FYI. This is particularly terrible, though the whole thing is insane.

Anyway.

I fell into conversation yesterday with two people who worked at a restaurant where I ate. Found out that Zona 13, where I spent the first day, is home to many former Central American presidents, one Nicaraguan president in particular. Not sure who it was but I looked up all the post-Samoza folks, and it seems likely that his person is way shadier than any of the Zona 1 people that everyone warned me about.

Spent some time at the National Palace and the Cathedral. Bought a candle in a plastic container outside the Cathedral. Went back to my hotel, lit it, started reading Anna Karenina, promptly fell asleep. Woke up this morning with black phlegm and black soot under (and in) my nostrils. I guess the container melted and the candle burned down to the desk it was on. And so, in this way, I have already left my mark on Guatemala.

Spent much of today on a bus to Quetzaltenango (Xela), where I will be studying. My taxi driver from Zona 3 to Zona 1 asked me how to pronounce our new president´s name, and I told him, and we agreed that he is better than Bush. Then we both had a hearty laugh, probably not about the same thing.

Xela is really sunny. That´s all I can say so far. When I knocked on the door of my hotel for tonight, I was greeted by a twenty-something American with weird-beard who appears to have been cultivating his personal odor for the better part of his adulthood. He just sort of opened the door and walked away in his too-good-for-shoes bare feet, leaving me in the doorway sort of peaking inside for a front desk. He´s one of those guys who is so laid back that you start to worry; clearly he had not heard the news about the ground invasion into Gaza! I have never understood why these people come to countries where procuring drugs is so much dodgier than it is in the suburban U.S. I´m sort of worried that the hippy and crust-punx contingent from America will be in full effect, but if the good people of Xela can handle it, then I suppose I can as well.

This Internet cafe is really awesome, because the lady who works the desk is also in all the adverisements on the front door. Remember those heady days of the late-90´s when an Internet cafe would serve coffee? I remember when that stopped in Chicago, but apparently the no-coffee-at-the-cafe rule is worldwide. Or at least hemisphere-wide.

One final note: can anyone explain to me why people paint the bottoms of their trees white? It´s huge here in Guatemala, but it´s something I´ve noticed in the States my whole life, but I have never been able to figure it out.