20 days...No make that 1 day since last earthquake

Sometimes it is nice to be around an Australian. They have not had the opportunity, in some cases, to experience some earthly delights such as: Snow, Squirrels and now and Earthquakes- more like a tremor, but still counts. Not to say I am some experienced seismologist with my own portable Richter scale, but I have experienced one - Virginia no less- before as well as in Chile, where they occur everyday.
We were at home, playing a game when the whole place started vibrating, not unlike one of those coin operate beds in a hotel of ill repute- or in some cases not much different than the places we have stayed in during the course of our travel. It took us some time to figure out what was going. Sam, smiling warily was astonished. It lasted for 30 to 40 seconds and after it was all said and done, it felt like we had just stepped off a boat or trampoline. No one panicked in the house and our Guatemalan mother just kept cooking. Turns out it was a 5.0 on the Richter scale, but only a 2.0 in Xela. However, it was felt, according to the papers, all through Guatemala. Kinda makes you appreciate what you are walking on.
There you have Xela, predictable, mysterious and down right confusing. No one was at all nervous, most didn´t even feel the tremor, and life continued forward. That is the general conscious here in Xela.
It is a city not that unfamiliar to me since it contains all the familiar symptoms of a deeply religious city within a religious country: Shops on Sunday are closed, bolted and deserted. Xela really practices as God does and rests on Sunday. Lots go to the church, but mostly, as we what we have perceived, go to the local chicken restaurants (think KFC style, but in Spanish) scattered around town. I have asked, why chicken on Sundays?, which I have received these less than satisfactory answers: Because, no one has time to eat chicken during the week, I don´t know, smiles.
Another familiar symptom of a religious place is that every third word implies or has the connatotation to the Divine. Every third word is a reference to God, Christ, or something to that matter. We bought bread today and on the bag was oration to God. I guess even buying bread, you are performing some type of penance. Cars have stickers across their windshields, bumpers, seat coverings all displaying some type of message that God or Christ is doing something to guide them or come back. Apparently, the more pizazz and ornate ( or shall I just call it tacky) the more Jesus is with you.
Finally, the one area that brings so much amusement to me is young teenage relationships. Bound to cultural values, lack of privacy and religion, teenagers come up with some hilarious places to show their affection: at the entrance of front doors, in the bushes of some park, in between two cars with the bumpers of each practically kissing the teenagers as they kissed each other- I guess the missed the taste of braces, or my personal favorite from last night, underneath the counter while I was trying to return a pepsi bottle. While not as bad as the repressed release of the Chilean long embrace- interlocutors would hug for 45 minutes while simultaneously kiss, procreate, start a family right here on the train platform, and grow old together- it still has the same feeling.
Aside from the typical linguistic differences that anyone will find within cultures that are separate but speak the same language. For example US English to Australian. There are some peculiarities here that stand out:
They say Buen Provecho- Enjoy, in English in reference to food- yet they say it after the food has been served. In traditional Spanish buen provecho is something a waiter would say when he has handed out all the plates and is wishing you good tidings with your beans and tortillas. Yet here, it is at the end, confusing to say the least. My inquires to the derivation of the saying has proved fruitless- I am prety sure the answer can be located next to the chicken quandary.
In traditional Spanish, we learned that Coche means Car. Again here there is a different meaning, Carro= Car and Coche= Pig. This could have some hilarious, but embarrassing consequences. This why learning outside of school is so important, book Spanish sometimes has no bearing on real life.
There are more phrases, verbs and collocations, but I chalk these up to regional dialect. However they still prove to be my undoing sometimes.