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

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!

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!

Dropping Down into the Home Stretch

I am at dos semanas (2 weeks) and counting. It was an interesting week in some ways. I’m still battling my ear that plugged up on the way back up the mountain to Antigua last Sunday. This has made being in class even more challenging. In addition to my sketchy comprehension of the maestras, I’ve had to contend with just the flat-out inability to hear them very well. And, of course, one of them was very soft-spoken. There is also the added issue of all the other conversations going on around me going into my ‘good’ ear and not being able to counter-act them by having another ear with which to listen. It was pretty exhausting dealing with it. I finally got so frustrated on Thursday, I bailed about an hour into class and went to the Casa Ovalle office and asked if they could get me in to see a doctor.

That was a mixed event. He was very through and spoke English pretty well, but all he could tell me was “Yep, that ear is plugged up” and gave me a “prescription” for some drops to squeeze up my nose. We decided that if nothing had changed in the ear by Sat I was to go ahead and start taking the Cipro I brought with me. Although, it doesn’t seem to be bacterial, since my nose mucus is clear. (Sorry if the discussion of nose discharge bothers anyone, but that is the fact of the matter and the way you determine infection.) So, ANYWAY, I decided to start the Cipro last night (Friday). I couldn’t see what waiting 8 hours would accomplish, since I had no indication anything is trying to break loose. The one plus of having to go to the doctor is that the whole visit costs me about $16.25US and the drops were $9US.

I’m not encouraged that this is going to make any difference either. I really don’t know what I’m going to do about flying home, if my ear is still plugged. All I know is that it’s going to hurt like hell!! I’m going to check out on the Web and see if there are any tips to help relieve the pain.

At this point, I’m just really tired of having to deal with issues with my body down here. I’m not even feeling particularly bad right now, but not being able to hear is driving me crazy!! And not knowing what to do about it concerns me.

On a bright note, after my horrible Thursday morning, I went to eat lunch at a very nice Thai restaurant around the corner from the casa. I was the only one in there and the owner was the one waiting tables. We struck up a conversation toward the end of the meal, when I told him I had been there twice before and really liked his food. He was so happy to hear I was a repeat customer.

He was German or Dutch, I couldn’t quite place his accent, but he asked me if I knew where my family came from. So I told him we weren’t really sure but it looked like I was mostly descended from Scotch, Irish and English, with a dash of Native Am. and Black thrown in for good measure.

He then said that I must have some continental European in there somewhere because I “had the most beautiful eyes”. I think I blushed. That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard in a long time from someone I didn’t know. I was so flustered it didn’t even occur to me to tell him that it was probably the tiny bit of Native American in me that gave me my nice eyes, as I think they all have very beautiful eyes. He’s probably not familiar enough with our indigenous population to know that, either.

ANYWAY, I was very flattered and it definitely made me feel better despite my stupid ear!

Next post, I’ll tell y’all about celebrating 4th of July in Antigua. It was a very multi-cultural event!

1st batch of pics of trip to la playa

I took so many, even after I edited out the not-so-good-ones, I still have 71. So, in order to not overwhelm anyone, I'm going to post them 20 or so at a time.

Here's the link for where they start:

http://flickr.com/photos/mellobelle/708660717/in/set-72157600246988765

Volcano pics are up!

Mi amiga, Crystal, climbed the volcano on Thursday and took my camera along so I wouldn't have to. I've posted the pics she came back with. The word is the pics can't do it justice. It was AMAZING!!

Being a girl of sound mind and tired body, however, she didn't traipse the last 300 meters on a skinny path across an active (and HOT) lava field for a closer look, so sorry all you fans of glowing lava pictures, there are none of those.

They start with http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellobelle/689459669/in/set-72157600246988765/

Enjoy!!

La Playa - Day 3

Date: July 1, 2007 9:25 AM


Hola mis amigos y amigas!

Yesterday was just one exciting event after nothing. I did manage to escape the confines of our luxurious jail briefly when I arranged (finally!) a driver to come pick me up and take me into Monterrico proper. It wasn’t much and it was hot as blazes but at least I got to see it.

More importantly, I managed to arrange today’s adventure. which was a dawn tour of the protected preserve that is down here. Yes, that’s right, yours truly, got herself up at 4:15 for a 5am pick-up to go tour around the preserve at dawn. And it was so worth it. With any luck I got some good shots. I certainly tried taking enough of them. But more about that later.

I spent about an hour and 1/2 in town. Crystal was feeling better, but wisely opted not to go as she wanted to stay close to a bathroom. I’m pretty sure there was another ‘major’ street there, but I wasn’t sure where it was and didn’t want to wander too far off the main street I was on by myself. I bought a necklace made from agate washed up from the sea. I gave that to Crystal, since she hadn’t felt like doing anything while we were here except sleep and I bought myself a Montericco t-shirt, which probably won’t fit after I wash it the 1st time. (They do not make anything with any hip room down here.)

I also bought Crystal some soda crackers just in case she went back to not being able to keep anything down. Those came in handy for her as an easy snack. I tried to buy myself a snack but together it was more than the small bills I had and the ‘big’ convenience store didn’t have change for Q100.

I felt better about being “trapped” at the resort once I had the opportunity to go and see and know that there wasn’t much I was missing.

The worst thing I saw was the 6 poor horses someone has so tourists can ride on the beach. They were out on the beach, standing on the hot, hot sand, no shade and no water for them to drink. I took some pictures, just because it was interestingly juxtapositioned with an upturned boat, but I felt really very sorry for them. I just don’t understand how someone cannot take care of animals that are providing you with a living. It reminded me of the poor donkeys on Santorini, standing in the broiling sun with no water to drink.

(Returning after a brief pause for desayuno (breakfast)) ANYWAY, I came back, we ate lunch and then retired to our room to relax while the heat of the day blazed on. It is pretty hot and humid down here at the beach. Think Florida in the summer. I napped for an hour or so. Crystal napped the rest of the afternoon. About 4 I finally got my suit on, slathered myself up with sunscreen and ventured out the lovely zero-edge pool that faces the beach. It’s great! You can hang on to the edge of the pool and stay cool in the water and watch the huge waves pound the beach. It’s the best of both.

I stayed at the pool until after the sun set, having my afternoon Bombay and tonic and wandered back to room around 6:30. Crystal was up but had been so for only about 40 minutes or so. She’s calling this her lost week-end.

We went to dinner and I bravely tried the grilled shrimp. I say bravely since I hadn’t eaten shrimp since my unfortunate episode possibly caused by shrimp not cleaned very well. Once again they served them with their heads on. A practice I do not get. The things look like giant sea bugs. Why on earth do you want to see their heads on your plate? If I decide to have any more shrimp (unlikely), I must remember to request “No cabezas de camerones, por favor”. I ate 4 out of 6 and they were very good and I’m not sick today, so I guess everything is fine.

i had a white Russian for desert. One of the best I’ve had, I must say. And Crystal and I retired to our bungalow and watched an episode of The Closer I had downloaded earlier in the week from our machine at home. (Gotta love technology sometimes!) Read some and went to bed because.......

I had to get my ass out of bed at 4:15 this morning in order to be picked up and taken back into Monterrico for our dawn excursion into the protected wetlands. Altho, they don’t allow development they do allow the shrimpers of Monterrico to continue to shrimp in the area and we saw a couple of boats doing so.

It was absolutely worth the early call to be out on the water as dawn broke. I took a ton of pics and will have them up real soon, I promise. I hope some of them turned out. There were dozens of white cranes I kept trying to get a picture of, so I probably have a bunch of foilage shots but no cranes because they were too far away. Lots of mangrove forests and swamp grass areas that made me think of the salt marshes around Tybee Island. The depth of this area also fluctuates with the tide but not to the extent of the Tybee marshes. These always have water, but certain times it is higher or lower depending on the tide.

Also, as it dawned and the sky lightened, the full moon was still visible in the sky opposite for a while. It would have made a great pic with the right equipment, but not my equipment.

So, now it’s all of 9:30am and we are here until 2:30 but it’s really too hot to be outside unless you are around the pool. So we’re just going to chill in our room until it’s time to go back to Antigua and I can get the lastest news posted.

It turned out to be not a bad week-end (at least for me, I’m not sure how Crystal feels about it. But she’s a good trooper.) I did find SOMETHING TO DO and also did a whole lot of nothin’. Which is a good thing sometimes, too.

Hasta luega!
mel

Well, being at the beach is just about better than being anywhere else, but.....

I’m typing this in our room at Dos Mundos Resort, Monterrico but no one will read it until we have returned to Antigua. At least, I think we’re in Monterrico. That’s what the sign said, but unfortunately, we aren’t actually *in* Monterrico. Turns out it’s about 2k down the beach. I thought that was closer to 3.2 miles, but some guy at the bar said it’s only about a mile and 1/2. Irregardless, I may try to walk down that way along the beach in the morning and see what I can see. Otherwise, my choice is to stay stuck here, where the only thing to do is hang around the pool and drink. Not a bad option, mind you, but I was actually hoping for just a bit more from our jaunt to la playa.

The hotel is as lovely as the one in Panajachel, but since they have only been open for 6 months they don’t have ANYTHING set up to do. No trips, no tours, no INTERNET!, no massages, no way to go to town. Nada, nothing. Those of you who know me, know I can be a slug along with best of the sloths, slugs and other creatures for whom sometimes moving at all is just too much damn trouble. But, damnit, there are things to see down here and I want to see some of them!

There is an ecological preserve nearby that you can arrange boat tours through. I probably can’t get down to the town early enough to arrange that. But, who knows, I may be up with the birds in the morning, since I’m sure I’ll be in bed early tonight, since THERE IS NOTHING TO DO HERE. There is not even a TV in the room.

I saw some kids go down the beach on ATV’s. If I can find that place, I may see about renting one of those thru Sunday. Oh yeah, did I mention that we are here until 2:30 on Sunday?

I wouldn’t mind taking a boat trip along the coast either, but I haven’t seen a single boat out in the water, so that may not even be an option.

And right now, I don’t even have my traveling buddy, Crystal, to be talking with. She fell under the weather yesterday afternoon and was feeling better until we drove down here and traveled on some truly horrible washboard roads right at the end. She has been sleeping since we got here and doesn’t even know yet about our lack of options.

The waves are incredible here, however. Really, really huge. That's partially the effect of the full moon but huge nonetheless.

I’m probably going to finish the ONE BOOK I brought with me, but I’m going to try and pace myself because have I mentioned THERE IS NOTHING TO DO HERE?

More later as I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time to write blog entries just not sure I’ll have anything to say in them because THERE IS NOTHING TO DO HERE!!!

The Lost Day

Hello all -

Well, I was felled again yesterday by more suspect food. After a delightful evening at Reilly's Irish pub with my friend Crystal, enjoying a couple of Bombay Sapphire gins and tonics and a very nice vegetable curry, (which I have had on another occasion), I was awakened at 2:30am by a very upset tummy. After repeated discussions about why it would be a terrible idea to go in and toss my curry (as it were), my stomach won the argument and the morning's activity was off to a not-so-wonderful start. I proceeded apace over the course of the remainder of the morning to advanced dry heaves and only after a prolonged nap and getting enough 7-up on my stomach did things settle down. (Not a ginger ale to be found anywhere. I will never leave the country again without, at least, some candied ginger on my person. For medicinal purposes, of course.) ANYWAY, all the so-called excitement lasted just about 12 hours, but I restricted my stomach to soda crackers and 7-up for the remainder of the day, just to show it who was really boss of it.

A not so fun 2nd day for my friend, who only arrived on Friday, but whom I am soooo grateful for being here and be willing to venture out to look for ginger ale and fetch back 7-up. It would have been soooo much more difficult for me to weather that little episode if I had been here alone. With any luck, that will be the end of any more sickness nonsense.

But today, which was a school holiday, (thank Dios!), Dia de Maestros (teacher's day), everything is mostly back to normal and we ventured out to have pedicures, sit in the park and people watch and do a little retail therapy.

After all the rain yesterday today was bright and beautiful all day. If I had to be sick, tho', yesterday was the day to do it, as it literally rained all day and into the evening. It would have not been a good day to be wandering around Antigua, so it was a good excuse for her to hang around the casa and have a low key day.

Things may slow down a bit more on the ole' blog as having been here now for 5 weeks, routine has mostly settled in. I'm pretty much shopped out and there is really not much else to do in Antigua, except for eat, drink and study español. So, not a lot to report on there.

Crystal and I will be going to the beach at Monterrico this next week-end, so I hope to get some good pics from there and some nice beach time, as well. Wish for no rain while we are there.

That's pretty much it for now.

Hasta luega,
mel

Ahhhh, surfing in my jammies once again

Hello all,

Hadn't posted anything since my "poor, poor, pitiful me" post earlier, so now since my wireless access has been restored at la casa I thought I should report in, albeit, briefly.

I've at least temporarily recovered from my bout of homesickness. Imminent arrival of mi amiga, Crystal, and going out with some folks from the school last night have both helped to relieve some of it. As much as I don't mind being alone, I truly am an extremely social creature and too much isolation is not good for my head. I must make sure I have enough social encounters down here to keep the homesickness demons away.

The weather has been marvelous here for the last 2 days as well. No rain! But probably some later today, if the map can be believed. It's been sunny and warm and the Volcan Agua has been very clear with just a cloud topping right at the top.

Well, I'm off to get another massage. For $25/hour, I've been getting one a week!

Later, y'all.

Alas, poor me!

I don’t want to make this post a pity party, but I’m afraid that’s what it’s going to be. So, if you don’t want to hear about my severe case of homesickness, you can stop right here.

Yep, that’s right, boys and girls, I’ve got a very serious case of the common homesickness. It appears to have set in yesterday morning. I thought I was better this morning but when I got to school I started with the weepies again for a few moments.

I really hate this, too. I’m not really one to succumb to this sort of thing which is why it has taken me by surprise and is annoying the fire out of me, as well.

I’m not really sure what to do about it, either. Yesterday, I was so miserable I hid in my room all afternoon after I got back from lunch and finished my 2nd book. I tried twice to work on my spanish and didn’t really do much except go through the flash cards, of which I apparently only remember nouns and only about 12 or 15 verbs. Arrrrrg!

Today I do feel slightly better and have made plans to go to dinner with one of the young girls from the school.

I think this has been brought on by a number of things: #1 was Eddie leaving on Sat. I enjoyed being on my own here for about 2 days and now I’m tired of it; #2 I’m just kinda tired of Antigua. Now don’t get me wrong, I still like Antigua very much. The people, in particular, are very friendly and nice, but I’m just tired of being here, of being in this room, of having to decide where to go eat, of feeling like I’m on vacation but I’m not (because I have to try and learn spanish); #3 The wireless has been out at la casa now for almost a week and I don’t know when it will get fixed. That makes it hard to just be able to get on whenever I feel like it (or when I’m feeling lonely); #4 The spanish is really NOT going well. I’m still struggling with things that were introduced our 2nd week and I can’t remember words almost as soon as I look them up. I’m getting very frustrated fighting with it every day, despite the EXTRAORDINARY patience of each and everyone of the teachers I’ve had.

I’m sure there are many more reasons, but those seem to be the ones off the top of my head. Crystal arriving this coming Friday will certainly help alleviate many of my symptoms, but I fear they will only come back worse once she leaves.

Anyway, that’s it for the pity party. I’m just pretty tired of doing this right now. Thank you for your indulgence if you got this far.

A few more photos

Mostly of a set of windows I really like:

If you don't want to go through all the pics to find the new ones, they start with this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellobelle/571271181/in/set-72157600246988765/

Spanish school - what's it like? (and more pics loaded

Date: June 16, 2007 12:05 PM

It was suggested to me that I write about what going to school is like. Well, it’s alternately great fun and one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done to myself, (except for trying to take algebra again).

The maestros (teachers) have for the most part been great. For some reason, the male maestros seem more easy going than the female maestras. The only one we’ve had that drove me absolutely crazy was a woman named Carla. She came bursting in to class the Monday we changed to her, rattling español a mile a minute, wouldn’t talk *at all* in English, and gave all her explanations of what she was trying to teach us in español. This was only our 3rd week. I wasn’t quite ready to not be able to understand a thing being said. Needless to say, I got real frustrated, real quick and when that happens, my brain flips a breaker and shuts down. She eased up on jueves y viernes (Thur & Fri), but I don’t know if that was because of the letter we wrote her miercoles noche (Wed night) asking her to please slow down and review what she had been talking about or if she had already planned on doing that.

Our favorito maestro has been Miguel. I’ve got a picture up of him on Flickr. He’s very sweet. He speaks slowly and is willing to tell us in ingles when we are not getting something. Interestingly, though, he’s also the one that gives a ton of homework. I spent about 4 hours doing his assignment 1 night. He also likes to talk about aspects of Guate culture and society and seems to enjoy hearing about how things work in EEUU. (That’s the Cent. Amer. abbrev. for the US-took us about 2 weeks to figure that out. We thought they were talking about the EU.) He wants to come to visit the US someday, so we gave him our address and told him he could use us as a sponsor if he needed to.

My spanish vocab and grammar have definitely improved, but I still have a terrible time understanding anyone when they speak unless they speak very slowly and happen to use the few verbs and nouns I can remember. I think that is the hardest part for me--remembering what something means. There are words I *know* I’ve looked up 3, 4, maybe even 10 times and I see it and I have no idea what it is! It’s very frustrating! Oh, to be 20 again and doing this. It would be hard, but I don’t think it would be as hard as it is now, with all those millions of brain cells gone that I’ve killed over the last 30 years.

There are 2 aspects of the school process that really frustrate me and to a degree make me angry. The 1st is the terrible copyediting job done on our workbooks. They have given us a handbook that explains stuff and has exercises and also a grammar and vocab workbook. They are both riddled with errors and exercises that are poorly explained, so that you have no idea what to do. For example, they give you a list of words to use in an exercise, say 10 sentences and 10 words we’re supposed to use to complete the exercise, but they will use 1 or 2 of the words more that once and 1 or 2 of them not at all. But no hint that some words may not be used. The worst editing is when the sentence is just flat-out wrong or so badly written you can’t even figure out what is supposed to go in there. A native español speaker would have no trouble figuring out what was wrong or what it was supposed to be, but it’s nearly impossible for a beginning student.

The other issue that I have been having, and I may have mentioned this in a previous post, is that I would prefer to cover less material more thoroughly. I feel like we get 2 or more new grammar concepts a week and I don’t have time to digest and understand 1 before we are moving on to the next one. This is being reflected in the tests I’ve been taking. I have asked them to test me approx. every 2 weeks, so I can gauge my progress and when I return I have some benchmarks to show UK, but I’m not doing very well on the tests. I don’t seem to be able to anticipate what will be asked plus the problem of memory that I spoke of earlier dooms me to not get very many things correct. At this point, I am sincerely concerned that UK will not pass me based on the exams. If they take into account the volume of work along with the exams, they might pass me. I try not to worry about it too much, but being the overachiever that I can tend to be, I hate not doing well. I’ve already decided that if I fail I’m going to enroll in the ind. study spanish and start it right way because my reading and understanding has gotten so much better, I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble with it. (Hey, if my friend Allan can pass it, I’m pretty sure I can. -- Hi, Allan, if you’re reading this.)

All in all, tho’ I like the school and really like the people associated with it. They are the most incredibly patient people I think I’ve ever met.

And that’s what school and my learning process has been like.

Hasta luega, chicos y chicas!

mel

He's Gone-like a steam locomotive rolling down the track

Date: June 16, 2007 11:47 AM

Well, got Eddie off this morning at 9 am. His flight isn’t scheduled to leave until 1 but there is construction on the road between Antigua and Guate City. Between that and the fact that yesterday was payday, traffic was anticipated to be heavy, so Rosenna at the school’s travel dept. suggested he leave pretty early. I’m just a little bit homesick for the pups and cat and being back in familiar circumstances.

ANYWAY, he’s gone and it’s a little strange to think about being along in a foreign country. I’m certainly used to being on my own in the US and Antigua has become very familiar to me, but it will be interesting to see how much I had been relying on Eddie to help me figure things out. The other thing that is making this a little strange is I’m back to being the only one in the house again. I don’t think there are any other guests expected until Crystal gets here next Friday. After the muchchacha (housekeeper), Cristina, and Elizabeth, la cocinera (cook) leave, I’ll be here by myself. There is a guy, Hugo, who comes on Sabado noche to be here overnight and there is another guy on Sunday, but essentially it’ll be just me. I’m sure it will be fine, but I have some retail therapy (terapia al menudeo) planned for later today just to help me transition.

I’m going to go out here in just a little bit to the Internet cafe and download this blog entry and one other, plus some pics and answer some email, then I’m going to bring the laptop back to the house and go back out for some of the above mentioned terapia al menudeo. I’m going to try to get as much done before lunch and then plan on staying in this afternoon and working on my Español and some flash cards.

Yes, unfortunately, the wireless de casa is still mal(broke,sick, bad). Looks like it will be Lunes or later before it gets fixed. No surfing in my pajamas until it’s fixed. Plus, I have to think ahead about what I want to do at the cafe de internet so I’m not wasting a lot of time typing things that I could have done before I get there, such as these blog entries and uploading pics and such.

So, I’m going to end this entry and write one more to upload. See ya in the next post.

Melinda

Nope, not yet. Still no earth moving for me.

I’m writing this offline as the wireless in la casa seems to have gone kaput for the moment. We visited an internet cafe earlier this evening and I posted a quick note just to let everyone know we were ok. This is being written later the same evening about 9:30 Antigua time. I’ll post it online next chance I get.

As a matter of fact, we were completely clueless about the whole thing at the time. We were walking back from lunch at our new favorite restaurant, La Taquiza, or Mama’s Place as we have taken to calling it. Eddie noticed before I did that there were people stirring around in the street more than usual and then someone from one of the shops asked us, “Do you feel it? We’re having a tremor.” Well, no we weren’t, as a matter of fact. The only way I could tell was by looking at the electrical wires strung along the street that were swaying. (Actually, E said later he felt it a little, but I never did. I'm not sure I could tell a tremor from just awkward walking along the cobblestones.)

Turns out it was a 6.8 at the epicenter, which was right off the Pacific coast of Guatemala very near where my friend Crystal and I are going to go to the beach when she arrives. A little place called Monterrico.

There was some damage in outlying areas and some earthslides in places from what we learned from the Internet, but nothing around here.

I appreciate everyone’s concern but you can quit worrying now. We’re fine.

No, the earth still didn't move for me

Just a quick note right now, as we are checking in from an internet cafe due to wireless fu at la casa.

We are fine. No, we didn't feel anything *AGAIN*, as we were out on the street.

More news later, I promise.

So, did the earth move for you, too?

Well, I forgot to mention this last week, but we actually had a temblor terremoto (an earthquake tremor). It wasn't all that exciting. Just like all the other ones I've felt in my life, by the time I decided that's what it was, it was finished. The paper said it was a 4.7 centered more south of here, toward the Pacific coast. There wasn't any damage or very minor. I didn't actually feel anything move, but the house was creaking a bit. I initially thought it was Cristina, the housekeeper, doing something in the hall outside our room. So, a bit of excitement, but not too much.

Antigua has a lot of ruins because of all the earthquakes they have experienced over the years. They don't seem to ever tear any of them down, either. I suppose that is why the sidewalks and inhabited buildings are nearly all in rough shape. They spend what money they have on keeping the inside of the casa in good shape and in some of the restaurants, not even that, so much. I guess if you think it can all fall down tomorrow, you don't spend a lot of time, money or effort to repair all the cracks and chunks that fall out. Only those that could be dangerous or interfere with usability.

That said, the inside of our casa is spotless. Cristina cleans, mops and dusts everyday. This house is cleaner than ours at home. There are the random cracks and one or two places where the white plaster walls have been stained by water but mostly it's fine. There is some minor maintenance that could be done, our towel (toalle) rack is loose on one side and I have to plug and unplug my bedside lamp to use it, but it adds to the home feel. Not everything in our house works, either.

When I first arrived, I think I described Antigua as both beautiful and icky. The icky was primarily due to how run down and rough so many of the buildings look and how rough the sidewalks are. Altho' letting the dogs crap on the sidewalk adds to the icky factor, as well. I have gotten used to the run down look after nearly 4 weeks and don't notice it nearly as much. But it's still very beautiful, especially since I have gotten to see it under so many conditions.

Español continues to kick my butt. I don't know whether I'll ever be fluent, but I can understand and interact a bit more every week. Of course, then the school hits me with something else new and different that I have no reference for. I do wish we could slow down. I would rather learn less more throughly than more less well, but I don't really have a choice at this point.

All I gotta do is pass.

Later,

From Antigua,
mel

Random things I've learned so far

Rap music in español is not an improvement.

I can get tired of eggs and beans for breakfast.

Papapya doesn't have much taste.

After 3 weeks I've almost learned how to walk on cobblestones and uneven sidewalks, watching for, and avoiding, holes that will break my ankle, dog poop and drivers who aren't watching where they are going.

I am now illiterate in 2 languages, as my English seems to be deteriorating, but I don't have enough español to replace it yet.

Chicken bus drivers are completely loco.

I've figured out at least 2 things you do with crema.

I'm just as bad with numbers en español as I am en inglés.

Rainy season isn't too bad as long as it's warm.

Rainy season can be cold.

It doesn't rain *every day* during the rainy season, nor does it rain all day, mostly.

Antiguans are very patient and mostly good-humored people. They never seem to get annoyed with the people slaughtering their language in attempts to communicate.

It's as beautiful here as it is heartbreakingly poor.

The Guatemalteco's who live in the countryside are as bad as our hillbillies about trashing some spectacular scenery with their garbage.

OTOH - Antigua, which is pretty run down, is surprising clean of trash, dog poop notwithstanding.

If anyone keeping up with this blog has any questions they would like to ask about our experiences here, please feel free to either post a comment on the blog or email me at mellobelle@gmail.com

Later, chicos,
mel

A little boy who wants to shine my feet. . .

Well, I'm feeling more like myself today. I'm still taking an easy on the old stomach and not giving it too much to do. It appears to not like that too much as I've been hungry a lot of the day. "What? You can't exist on some soda crackers and a half bowl of soup?"

We'll go find some nice vegetarian food for dinner and see how it copes with that.

On to telling about our vacation adventure from our vacation.

We decided to take a week-end trip to Panajachel which is where Lake Atitlan is. The school got us 2 nights at a nice, but not too nice, hotel and transfers on a shuttle both ways with a stop on Sunday at the market at Chichicastenango. All for $110/each. Pretty good deal.

The adventure starts with the trip to Pana. A full van picks us up at school. There are 9 people already in the back, so Eddie and I get to sit up front with the driver. Oh, great! We're crammed in like sardines, but at least we can get to the seat belts and they actually work. This is a Good Thing as the drivers in Guatemala are crazy! Passing into oncoming traffic, who, fortunately either slow down or get over in the breakdown lane, when there is a breakdown lane. Passing on hills and around curves. Tailgating. OMG! More than once or twice, I buried my head in my hands convinced we were all going to die.

Understand, too, Guatemala is very, very hilly. And I'm not talking hilly like around Central Kentucky which are really more rolling. I'm talking hilly like Eastern KY and W. VA. These are serious hills we are going up and down. Sometimes there are guardrails and sometimes there are not. What there are, are steep drop-offs into nothingness. Which is where I was convinced we were going to end up.

But it was fine........we arrive in Pana and while we were suppose to get taken directly to our hotel, our driver had other plans. He pulls up at a hotel just inside the town of Pana and tells everyone to get out. This is where he is leaving us. Even tho' we keep saying the name of our hotel. We manage to get a tuk-tuk (more on those later) and he takes us right over to the hotel. So, no problemo, except we spend more money on transportation that was already supposed to be paid for.

The other problem at the moment was the fact that it was COLD! I hadn't thought to bring my jacket. Hey, it's the tropics, right. No one told me that the rainy season also means the chilly season. I figured, sure, it'll rain, but it'll be a warm rain. WRONG! I'm freezing! Not only that, I hadn't brought any of the right clothes. No long sleeves, only 1 pair of long pants.

The next order of business then becomes looking for a jacket or a long sleeve shirt. That becomes an interesting exercise as clothes in Guate are not made for people of my size. I finally find a fairly heavy natural dyed wool jacket for a very reasonable $50. It wouldn't have been my 1st choice, but I was cold and not really into comparison shopping.

We get that taken care of, we go see the lake. (Ok, actually we go see the lake then I decide I can't stand walking around without something warmer to wear.) And we stroll the main street looking at our choices for dinner, which are wide and varied. Everything from food off of carts, (I don't even like doing that at home) to a very expensive, obviously best place in town. We chose something in between. My main criteria was reasonably priced food and a bar. I needed a drink after the day's adventures. We have already gotten spoiled by the prices in Antigua and have figured out that Pana is charging resort prices. Granted, resort prices in Guate are not what they are in the States but it was obviously several quetzals more than in Antigua. We also figured out that the closer you got to the lake, the higher the prices. We mostly ate at the other end of the street.

We eat. We look some more. We go back to the hotel, which is very nice. (I'll be posting more pics soon, I promise) Very tropical looking with natural wood everywhere and a lanai all the rooms open onto. It rained some more that night (surprise) but the sound of the rain hitting the roof was very cozy and made for good sleeping. The room was spartan but clean and Eddie said the shower had a good supply of hot water.

The next morning I'm still in a bit of a grumpy mood. (No, you Mel! I don't believe it.) I don't have the right clothes with me. It's raining, STILL. It's cold, STILL. And the internet cafe right at the entrance to the hotel is having connectivity problems. SIGH! We go find a place further down the street, but they won't let us use our own machines, so we go farther down the street and find one that does. We both get online for about an hour. I go out to the Well and bitch to some of my online friends about what a sucky time I'm having so far.

Since it's still raining when we get done, we decide to get a massage at a place that advertises $25/hour massage, which is less than half what we pay in the States. While we're doing that, the rain stops. YEAAAAA! I feel pretty good afterward *and* it's not raining. Things are looking up.

We find a Uraguayan restaurant for lunch, which was more interesting sounding than in actuality, but OK ,and while we eat lunch (and fend off the roving entrepreneurs), THE SUN COMES OUT!!

Ok, I'm feeling waaaaay better now. We go down and check out the lake in the sun and I finally understand why Pana is so popular with both Guates and other tourists. The lake is incredibly beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains on every side and they are incredibly green. I only wish it had been a less windy day. I had really wanted to take a boat ride, but the water was really rough. Someone had told us that it got like that in the afternoon and we wanted to take a ride in the morning, but, of course, it had BEEN RAINING.

We decide to do a little shopping because I want to pick up somethings for folks back home and I also still wanted to get some more appropriate clothes for me. When the sun came out, it immediately got warmer, so I changed my shirt, but I only had shorts or dresses with me and both seemed too chilly to wear.

The problem with shopping in places like Pana and also in Chichi is that you can't casually browse. As soon as you show the slightest interest in anything, the vendor starts to put the hard sell on you. I get real tired of that, real quick. Aside from the jacket, I only bought a tye-dyed shirt, mostly because it was long sleeve and it fit. If it shrinks any, I'll be finding a friend who might want it. Not only do you have the vendors who have fixed locations giving you a hard sell at any casual interest shown, you have roving capitalists who have a variety of things hanging off them they want to sell you. Textiles, jewelry, little woven dolls. These roving vendors are often young children and when you say no, they come back with "¿por que?", "why not?" or "It is for my school". Yeah, right! You can't sit at an open air restaurant without 3 or 4 or 10 of these vendors approaching you while you eat. More about that in a moment.

One of the things I really hated about Pana was the number of stray, ill-fed, ill-kept dogs running around. It was really heart-breaking. We've seen a few in Antigua but nothing like the number we saw in Pana. And these didn't seem to be pets that were just allowed to run loose, these were poor perros that were obviously not cared for in any way nor fed. Many were showing their ribs. I saw one dog scavaging the remains of someone's chicken dinner, crunching on chicken bones that could very likely kill him later. All the female dogs showed they had given birth, probably multiple times. It was very depressing. Surprisingly, we saw very few cats, but they probably only come out at night.

We heard what were obviously animals running along the roof at the hotel and when I asked what they were, the clerk said probably cats, so I'm sure they are probably in the same condition as the dogs, but more feral, as cats tend to do when not cared for.

On Sunday, we were shuttled to Chichicastenango, which frankly I could have skipped. After the near constant approach of sellers in Pana I was distinctly not in the mood for more shopping. The reason that tourists are taken there is because Chichi has the largest market on Sunday of any town in the region.

oh, boy.

Again, it was confusing when we arrived, as our driver drops us, with our luggage, in front of some huge hotel and tells us to walk back a half block to wait for a blue van at this gas station that will take us back to Antigua. It will be there in 5 minutes. 30 minutes later, this blue van drives by and disappears around the end of a row of buildings. One of our traveling companions goes to check and waves us to come. Sure enough, this is our ride back to Antigua. I'm glad these people were there and figured it out, as I'm not sure whether I would have realized where we had to go. They take our luggage and tell us to be back at 1:45. Great! It is 9:30 now. We've got 4.5 hours to kill and I could care less about shopping at this point.

We walk into the market and it's huge, crowded and noisy. We are immediately assaulted by roving vendors. I realize that these people are just trying to get by and by their standards, we are rich Americans, but after the 1st 10 or 20 or 50 people, I start wanting to yell at them to go away and leave me alone, so I can buy or not. The worst and also, most heartbreaking, are the young shoeshine boys. Apparently, shoeshining is a growth industry and everybody starts at the bottom at 5 years old. No, I don't want my shoes shined, for the 100th time. I don't care if you think they need it. I also don't like the very conflicted emotions all this brings on me. Sadness I can't do more mixed with hostility at the people for annoying the fire out of me with their constant assault on me.

We walked straight into the market until we found a place to get coffee and a snack. Stayed there until we just couldn't stand sitting at the table any longer and then ventured out to walk around for about another hour. For my Deadhead friends, think the largest Shakedown street you've ever seen and then multiply it by 500 and add live animals, fresh meat, hardware and other mundane items and you have an idea of what the market at Chichi was like. For all you others who don't have a clue what I just said, think the largest flea market you've ever gone to and multiply by 100 and add artisan textiles, fresh meat and live animals and you've got the idea.

I couldn't take it any more after an hour, between the assaults by vendors and just the crowds. Despite my going to many Dead shows, I actually hate being in large crowds. I start to get very claustrophobic and have to get OUT. We find a 2nd floor internet cafe and I dash up the stairs and dive into it. It's more expensive than Antigua, Q8/hour verses Q6 here, but I go for it. It's still only about $1/hour. I kill about 1/2 hour there, while Eddie goes back out to wander around. When he comes back, we walk to the other end of this floor and have coffee and beer at this restaurant. Being on the 2nd floor only slightly slows the wandering capitalists down, but anything is a relief. We kill maybe another hour and half, where I have a cheese sandwhich, which is a possible suspect in my recent unpleasantness, and finally leave when boredom and small chairs start to get the better of us.

We go find ice cream and wander back to the vans where we hope to catch an early one leaving. No such luck. We are the last van to leave for Antigua and have another E-ticket ride back home. Although, to his credit, this driver wasn't as bad as the one on Friday. La casa never looked so good. I was so glad to get "home".

For all of you who don't recognize my reference in my title to this piece, that's a line from a Grateful Dead song, Mexicali Blues, by John Perry Barlow. It seemed appropriate.

Montezuma's revenge for having too much fun!

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but right now I'm sick. I got sick last night with you-know-what. On top of which I think I'm getting a cold. I've taken some Imodium and am waiting to see if things clear up but I'm thinking I'll have to break into the Cipro tomorrow evening if things aren't looking up.

Right now, I'm not having very much fun.

Will post more later after I feel better and tell you about the mixed review I give our trip to Panajachel and Chichicastenago.

Please write if you are keeping up via this blog as it makes me feel connected to home.

Love,
mel