My US Map

Check the bottom of the page for additional fun things. I just added a map where all the states I've ever spent at least 1 night in are marked. Quite a few actually. I was surprised.

The Last 20

The next to last set of photos are up. I got just a few more, mostly of folks I got to know. I don't know whether I'll put all of those up or not, but I need to get them out of the camera 1st and see what they look like.

ANYWAY, to start at the beginning of this group go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellobelle/821469221/in/set-72157600246988765/

Enjoy!

Mel

Likes and Dislikes about my Spanish Immersion Adventure

Liked and Will Miss	Didn’t like and Won’t Miss
the people. They are friendly and patient and seem to love their children very much	The noise - loud bangs at all times of the day and night; it’s like 4th of July ALL the time down here
friends I made here (mostly my friend, Miguel)	The noise, part 2 - they also drive cars around with loud speakers on them announcing public events or political party meetings or something like that
Most of the food	People spitting on the sidewalk; Come on, people, if you HAVE to spit, spit into the street
The yogurt	Dog shit on the sidewalk; again, people,if you’re not going to pick it up, make them go in the street!
The strawberry jam (& I'm not a strawberry jam fan)	Shrimp served with the heads either put back on or just ‘cleaned’ with the heads left on - No Thank You.
Living in the shadow of Volcan Agua - it’s so beautiful in all the weather and different times of the day	The cobblestones, altho’ I have to admit, I got pretty adept at walking a good pace over them after 2 or 3 weeks and they never grabbed my ankle more than just a tiny bit
How ‘not too sweet’ most of the sweet food is	Related to the cobblestones - the bad sidewalks, gaping holes waiting to break the ankle of an unwary pedestrian
granizadas de cafe - you would just have to try one to understand	The lack of money and how difficult the Antigua bureaucracy makes it to fix up much on the exterior of the buildings
cheap liquor/beer	lack of much of anything to do
Moza (see above)	the slow pace
the beauty in the ruins	the poor, poor doggies not taken care of
Parque Central	the veggie curry at Reilly’s
The lack of advertising EVERYWHERE	the rain, altho’ I think I could get used The 2nd floor patio at same to it
the papas fritas (potato chips - OMG)	the weird feeling knowing you're one of the rich people. It was something that I always remembered and I tried very hard not to be “some jerk with money”
the guacamole at Reilly’s	tuk-tuks and chicken buses (and their drivers)
the slow pace	Eggs and black beans EVERY morning for breakfast
the weather - the temps are practically perfect	Papaya - it’s waaay over rated as a fruit
The people of the Casa de Familia Ovalle; Maria Elena, Caty, Elizabeth, Christina y Hugo
THE COFFEE!!! - This should have been waaaay higher in the list. Don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner
Having a cook and a full-time housekeeper. I have become even more spoiled, (if that’s possible)
the nice Dutch guy that owned Thai Flor who told me I had beautiful eyes

That’s all for now, I’m sure I’ll be updating this as things occur to me. Signing off for now. The next time I post I will be at home and reflecting over it all. - Melinda

Check out my new pet below

Since my husband won't let me have a *real* llama, I have virtual pet llama now.

Meet Llamo the llama at the bottom of the page.

You can scratch him with the pointer or get some hay under the more tab and feed him if you want.

He's cute and he's purple.

Ok, I admit it! I'm a wuss!

Some of you reading already know about this, but my ear has been plugged up for almost 2 weeks now. It closed up on the way back up the mountain from the beach and I can't get it to open back up.

I went to a dr. here and while the drops dried out my nose nicely, they have done nothing to open my ear. I went ahead and started on Cipro last Friday evening and, no surprise there, it hasn't done a thing. Except for the fact that I'm feeling as good as I have since I have been here.

Needless to say, this has made hearing in class, shall we say, challenging! After an exhausting week of trying to hear the maestras in class, I woke up Sunday morning and decided if it wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg, I was going to come home a week early. Just the thought of having to spend 2 more weeks struggling to hear and not knowing exactly what is going on with my ear almost made me feel ill.

So, when I found out it would only cost $100 and there was room on the plane, I went for it. It must have been the right decision. As soon as I made it, I felt an enormous sense of relief.

School has been every bit as challenging this week and I'm not doing as much as I might have with as good as I've been feeling, just because it's so difficult to hear what anyone says to me, in English or Spanish.

So, ANYWAY, in 2 more days, I'm on my way home. The big adventure behind me.

As to what this will do to my Spanish credits, I decided about 3 weeks ago, that there was a good chance I wasn't going to get a passing grade for this. I don't think I can remember enough well enough to pass any kind of test, so I'll probably have to take the ind. study course, which is writing only. I think I'll be able to pass that at this point. At least I hope so.

But this has been a good experience in many other ways and has given me the confidence to know that I can negotiate around in a foreign country fairly well. In some ways, I can't wait to do it again, but probably not till next year!

Get your latest batch o' photos right here!

I just put up the latest batch of photos from the trip to the beach up in Flickr. You can start at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellobelle/771942849/in/set-72157600246988765/

Check out the 3 "clear as glass" photos. I fooled with the orientation on 2 of them, just to show how reflective the water was that morning.

Enjoy.

Don't be afraid to make comments in Flickr. I enjoy hearing what you have to say.

Cuatro de Julio - Gringo style

That was how the party was billed at the tourist hang-out, bar and restaurant, Monoloco, which is just around the corner from mi casa. No one really knew what that meant. For a while, I thought maybe it meant they were going to charge a cover, which they normally don’t do. That would *really* be gringo-style. Ultimately, it didn’t seem to mean anything different than the usual hanging about, drinking and talking.

There were several of us from our school that were partying there. I had planned ahead and brought my US flag scarf which I had rakishly tied around my head like a colonial woman’s white cap, so I was festively dressed with that and my red and white dress.

We ended up with 3 Brits at our table that someone in our crowd had befriended somewhere, as they were not attending our school. I thanked them for our country. It seemed the polite thing to do and avoided the whole touchy discussion of that little dust-up that occurred when we insisted on taking it.

We were also accosted later in the evening by a very drunk Norwegian wearing an American flag sticker, trying to “fit in” as he said. Which would have worked, as he looked very All-American boy-next-door until he opened his mouth, when this very heavily accented English emerged.

He was pretty funny, but stuck his foot right in it when he told me he always loved to see it when the “old people” came out to party! I told him he really knew how to win friends and influence people, but he didn’t get the joke. So, I told him that we “old folks” actually prefer the term “mature”. But none of it really mattered, as I’m sure he had no recollection of any of it the next day.

It was fun but nothing spectacular. It also wasn’t as crowded as many of us expected. But there were 3 other places in town that were having 4th of July parties. It was kinda odd thinking about the fact that they were celebrating a holiday that means nothing to them. Kinda like us ‘celebrating’ Cinco de Mayo.

So, that was my 4th of July holiday in Antigua!

Hasta luega!