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!

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!

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!

Next set of Monterrico photos are up

Here ya go, folks. Here's the latest batch of photos from last week-end's excursion to Monterrico. They start at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellobelle/742878250/in/set-72157600246988765/

Check out the cool-creepy pics of the mangrove roots!

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!!!

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.

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

Random thoughts on food and the rainy season

I've been really wearing out this week, but I realize I haven't posted any goings-on for several days, so I thought I would try and get something up.

I think I'm having a low energy week and this place takes quite a bit of energy to deal with the language and walking around (see rant on cobblestones earlier) and just being out of your comfort zone.

The food has been awesome. E has had some problems with his digestion but I seem to be perking along in that department just fine. We've found a restaurant that serves excellent local food very near the school and have been there twice. It's called Taquiza and it's kind of a mom's home cooking kinda place and Mom runs a tight ship. The bathrooms are srupulously clean and she has all these rules posted about when she will and won't serve beer and who she will serve it to. For instance, no beer after 11pm and no beer if you are in a school uniform.

The 1st time we went I had a marvelous veggie dish of chopped green beans and carrots with crispy pieces of tortilla in a really, really tasty green sauce with a bit of white cheese sprinkled over it. The next time I had basically the same dish, except instead of the veggies, it had chicken in it. We're probably gonna hit that place once or twice a week while I'm here.

Last night we went Peruvian and I had a rice and black bean cake stuffed with shrimp and more shrimp and sauce poured over it. E and I then split a chocolate thing that was incredible.

One thing that E and I have both commented on and like is the fact that you get reasonable portions served and not enough food to feed a family of six. You can have a meal and not be so stuffed you can't move or feel miserable.

More on food later, I'm sure.

The rainy season started Sunday. That means that the day starts out lovely and sometime in the afternoon it starts to pour down rain. It pours for a while, then it stops, the sun may or may not come out, then it rains some more later. After it gets dark, it gets a bit cool but not too bad. There is nothing over our room except the wood ceiling and the roof tiles, so you can really hear the rain when it pours hard. It was very nice falling asleep to it last night. Also, the electricity has gotten quite lumpy now that it's raining so much. It has blinked off and on several times while we've been here and yesterday afternoon it was off for about 2 hours. It really plays havoc with all the electronics.

Well, I'm really tired so I'm closing this for now. Hope to get a power nap in before dinner.

Your correspondent in Antigua - Mel

Cobblestones - quaint, atmospheric feature or ankle breaking hazard

Sunday, May 27, 2:30pm -

Again, the internet connection is up and down, so I’ll post this online after things improve.

It’s been rainy here. Last night it poured and today started out sunny early and then got cloudy and cooler with scattered rain.

The whole of Antigua proper is “paved” with cobblestones. Oh, that sounds very quaint and European, you might say, and I suppose it is in theory. In practicality, it makes for fillings- rattlling, bone jarring travel by any vehicle. I had considered the possibility of renting a scooter or a bicycle while I was here, but immediately dropped that idea as soon as we were driven into Antigua by our driver from the airport. Yet, people are driving everywhere; in cars, chicken buses, tuk-tuks, bicycles and motor scooters. I’m not even sure why tho’, you can walk from one side of Antigua to the other in under an hour.

Not only are the cobblestones brain bouncing to ride upon, they are very tricky to walk on as well, yet I see young Guate women walking down the sidewalks and across the streets in 3”-4” heels and not breaking their ankles. I’m amazed.

Not only are the streets treacherous, but the sidewalks make for an interesting stroll as well. They are very narrow in most places and we often have to walk into the street to pass people. Most of them are not in very good shape either. It just doesn’t seem to be a high priority of the owners of the property to spend money to repair the walk in front of their buildings. If I manage to not get an ankle sprain while I’m here, it will be a major accomplishment.

I have a theory as to why Antigua has not paved their streets and gotten rid of the cobblestones. Aside from the money it would cost, I think the cobblestones are probably more forgiving and easier to repair in case of earthquake. The cobblestones probably just shift around during an earthquake and don’t get too much worse than they already are. If some section gets too lifted up, all that would have to be done is take the stones out of that section, level it off and replace the stones. Voila! Ready to rattle your bones again.

The cobblestones are definitely one of the things that make Antigua, Antigua, but it’s one of the things I’m personally less than thrilled with.

More photos are up

I've posted a few more photos. I apologize for the random order. I'm still getting used to what I can do in Flickr and what I have to do before I upload them. I promise the next batch will be in a more logical order.

Saturday news - Week One

Saturday am aproximento son nueves menos cuarto (approx. 9:45)

We had a brief power failure last night and internet connectivity has been spotty since then, so I’m composing this off-line and will upload it when I can.

Well, we finished our 1st week here and I can tell I know more español now then I did on Monday, but I feel like a slow child, plus my spelling is for s**t. Tony and Diego, our teachers, are very patient with us however. Tony is the more serious one, but very kind. Diego, who is also our salsa dance teacher is more fun and joking all the time. We have a lot of laughs as we try and say things.

We are managing to communicate with the cook and the housekeeper here at Casa Ovalle but it is sometimes frustrating on both sides, but we all seem to keep a sense of humor about it. Right now, I’m waiting for Cristina’s laundry to be done, so I can start ours. Just like back home.

We are going to spend the morning at la casa while I finish the laundry and we see how much connectivity we can get. We’ll go out for lunch when we get hungry and maybe to an internet cafe (which are *everywhere*) to see if connectivity is any better. Then I want to do some shopping.

And speaking of shopping, I found this great purple cotton skirt for $10 US and an aqua blusa (blouse) for the *outrageous* price of $23 US the other night. In USA they would have easily run over $50 US, if not more.

Gonna go do stuff now, like make flash cards for nouns y verbos (verbs) and see if I can get this loaded on my blog.

Our field trip today

Today after the morning class and a light lunch at a crepes place, the school arranged a trip to a park in San Lucas. They brought a light picnic for us to eat, but most of our money that we paid to go on the trip goes to an organization that brings Guatemaltico children from Antigua and Guatemala City to this park for them to spend some time in a place of nature. There are swings and a trampoline for them to play on. They also have pens of goats and chickens and a dog that lives there. There is a house for them to be able to stay overnight.

One of the people at Casa de Lingua works with several different groups that do things like this and also arrange for poor Guatemala City children to come spend 2 weeks in Antigua and for poor Antiguan children to spend 2 weeks at a time in Guatemala City in order to experience city life.

Most of the explanation of this was in Spanish when we got to the park. I got the gist of that explanation, but the conversation that followed was lost on me. It concerned what some of the various countries represented by our group did in order to assist poor children and families.

It was an interesting trip, nonetheless, and I glad some of the money we give to the school goes to assisting them to assist these various organizations.

Antigua - Not for the directionally impaired

Reporting after an exhausting day to day. We left for class at 7:45am and returned home about 5:30pm. We had our regular morning class until noon. Went and found some lunch then returned to the school to watch a documentary on the civil war that the US helped the in power army operate against the poor and native Indian population. It was very sad and depressing and made me want to start saying I'm Canadian. Yet, no one seems to hold it against any of the Estadounidense (US citizens) that come here to enjoy their country. After that, we had a group salsa dance class. Then we walked slowly and sweatingly home.

There is a social gathering tonight at one of the cafes near the school. We'll see how tired we are after we get dinner.

Antigua is not very big and Eddie and I are both pretty good at figuring out where we are in relation to where we want to go and we have several well laid out maps, *BUT* anyone who has trouble negotiating their way around probably will get very frustrated here. Most of the streets do not have the names posted on the corners. In fact, many of them still have the old names which are not used any more and are not on the map except for a few of the streets at the edges of the main part of town. To top it off, many of the street corners have few distinguishing features to tell them from any other street corner. It's been a challenge to say the least.

That's all for now. - Melinda

First day of school

Hello again, everyone. Well, today we started at Casa de Lingua. It was a busy and tiring morning. We have two instructors; Tony and Diego. Diego will also be our salsa dance instructor. Class was from 8am until 12 noon. We had a brief break about 9:15 in order for one of the administrators to tell us about some of the events that are scheduled and give us a brief tour of the school.

The system is conversationally based. We started with the basics. Soy llame es Melinda. Soy es de Estados Unidos. a, be, ce, de, etc. There are 2 young women in the class besides Eddie and I. They are Canadian and are spending the summer traveling around Cent. Amer. I was very impressed. I don't think I would have had the nerve to do what they are doing at their age. However, I have to say, I think Eddie and I are having an easier time picking up what the teacher is saying and what we are supposed to say. Even with our old brains.

I will talk more about the school and classes later. Yesterday, I described where we are staying. Today I would like to talk about desayuno (breakfast). Casa Familia de Ovalle will serve you either breakfast or breakfast and dinner as part of your cost. We opted to go with just breakfast, but with the option to have occasional dinners here, which we will do tonight.

I don't know how dinner will be, but breakfast has been incredible. Yesterday and again today. There's enough food for 8 people. When we come to the table there are two kinds of breakfast cereal available, a pitcher of fresh, whole milk and a pitcher of orange juice. A large bowl of yogurt with maybe papaya mixed in and I like their yogurt here too, better than that awful stuff they sell in the states. A large bowl of pan (bread), at least 4 different kinds. Strawberry jam that is not too sweet. A small plate of what looks like lunchmeat and American cheese, which we haven't bothered with and another plate of white semi-soft cheese. That's just to keep you until Cristina can fix and serve the bowl of negros refritos (black refried beans) and eggs. Yesterday they were poached (I think) with a green sauce of some kind. Today they were scrambled with tomato. Oh yeah, yesterday there was a plate of tomatos and a plate of papaya. Today there was a plate of sliced pineapples.

It's a good thing we are walking, walking, walking everywhere or I'd end up being 3 times as big as when I left.