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.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Oh, yeah! Photos
I've finally got some photos up on Flickr. Click on the link under my profile, to the right. There is a set for Antigua. Or you click on the title of this post and it will take you there as well. Let me know if that doesn't work for you.
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
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
Monday, May 21, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Well, here we are!
Hello, everyone -
We are here-Antigua, Guatemala. My nervousness about this whole adventure has diminished somewhat now that we have arrived and settled in. I'm sure it will start up again when we start class Monday morning.
The flights here were uneventful and I even managed to snag a emergency exit row on the long leg from Atlanta to Guatemala City. Loads of room for my legs, which made the trip so much less an endurance trial.
I was impressed almost immediately after getting thru customs with the fact that the luggage carts were free. I guess the airport authority hasn't figured out how to gouge the tourists yet by nickle and dime-ing them for every small thing.
We found our driver with no problem, but managed to somehow pick up a couple of helpers with our carts on the way to our car. Even though I said "No, Gracias", they stepped right in to "help" put the luggage in the car. They were disappointed though, since I didn't ask for assistance, I didn't feel any obligation to tip. I suppose that's a little "Ugly American" of me, but I find that sort of thing annoying. If I had needed and requested their help, I would have been glad to give them a few bucks.
So, after the airport adventure, we got to have the driving to Antigua adventure, which was mostly an adventure getting out of Guatemala City and a bit more exciting arriving into Antigua. The middle part was not too bad. We think drivers in Lexington and our urban areas are bad, but American drivers have nothing on the rest of the world. Cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, if they want to come into the lane you are occupying, they just start over and hope you let them in or they force their way in. We almost rear-ended several different vehicles and came very close to wiping out a young man on a motorcycle. Fortunately, he changed his mind at the last minute and decided we were too close even for his comfort. I'm always surprised when I don't see any accidents, but there never seems to be any. I guess when everyone drives crazy, it balances out and everybody manages to stay out of everybody else's way.
It took about an hour to get to our casa. The Casa de Familia Ovalle is where we will call home for the next 4 weeks and I'll be a not-so-swinging single for 5 more. It's an interesting house. Somethings I like about it and somethings I'm not crazy about.
You come into a roofed over foyer right off the sidewalk. Beyond that is an open courtyard with a covered hallway along the left. Our room and 1 other are right off of this hallway. Straight ahead from the courtyard with the doorway off the hallway to the right is the sitting room, which has the wireless router in it and where I will probably be doing most of my computer stuff. While the Casa does have this wireless, unfortunately they have placed the router on the floor in the corner, so it doesn't broadcast very far. We're hoping after we get to know our hostess, Maria Elena, a little better, we can suggest and offer to help get the router mounted up in the corner of the room.
Anyway, more about the Casa, right behind the sitting room as you move back into the house is the dining room. It is an ok size, but very dark. Behind that is the kitchen. As you come to the kitchen door, the hallway once again opens up to another open air courtyard with some wood slat chairs and a table. I tried to sit there this am to work on the computer but no signal. Too bad as it's a very pleasant spot. There is another room beyond the kitchen which is a small guest room, but it is very dark with only 1 window which looks out on the courtyard. There are stairs off this courtyard on the left.
The stairs curve around to the right and at the landing there is the laundry room. You continue up and right before the top is the room of our live-in caretaker, Cristina. She takes care of our room and cooks our breakfast. Since she speaks no English, it has been very interesting communicating so far. But I'm sure as our Spanish improves, that will become easier. At the top of the stairs is a rooftop patio, with a covered seating area. It overlooks 1 of the 3 volcanos surrounding Antigua. I've already spent a lot of time up there. It is very comfortable.
The house is very nice and fairly comfortable. Right now, we are the only guests so it feels like our home. My only serious complaint is that our room is kinda dark with the only windown looking out to the hallway. It also has a curtain over it that doesn't provide much privacy when our light is on. I'm going to shop today for an attractive cloth that I can put up to fix that. We need to see whether we can fix one of the bedside lamps so that we can have some light other than overhead spots, which are pretty glaring.
Our only other window is in the bathroom and it looks out into the second courtyard, so we can slide the window partially open a tiny bit for ventilation but too much and anyone coming down the stairs can see into our bath.
Our room doesn't have a dresser but does have a gigantic closet with tons of shelving, so we can make that work. We also have our own small refrigerator that we can keep some things in. However, it takes more that 24 hours for ice to freeze even in tiny ice cube trays. They're just not too big on ice most places outside the US.
That's it for now. I'll tell you later about the huge breakfast we just ate. And the coffee is incredible!
We are here-Antigua, Guatemala. My nervousness about this whole adventure has diminished somewhat now that we have arrived and settled in. I'm sure it will start up again when we start class Monday morning.
The flights here were uneventful and I even managed to snag a emergency exit row on the long leg from Atlanta to Guatemala City. Loads of room for my legs, which made the trip so much less an endurance trial.
I was impressed almost immediately after getting thru customs with the fact that the luggage carts were free. I guess the airport authority hasn't figured out how to gouge the tourists yet by nickle and dime-ing them for every small thing.
We found our driver with no problem, but managed to somehow pick up a couple of helpers with our carts on the way to our car. Even though I said "No, Gracias", they stepped right in to "help" put the luggage in the car. They were disappointed though, since I didn't ask for assistance, I didn't feel any obligation to tip. I suppose that's a little "Ugly American" of me, but I find that sort of thing annoying. If I had needed and requested their help, I would have been glad to give them a few bucks.
So, after the airport adventure, we got to have the driving to Antigua adventure, which was mostly an adventure getting out of Guatemala City and a bit more exciting arriving into Antigua. The middle part was not too bad. We think drivers in Lexington and our urban areas are bad, but American drivers have nothing on the rest of the world. Cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, if they want to come into the lane you are occupying, they just start over and hope you let them in or they force their way in. We almost rear-ended several different vehicles and came very close to wiping out a young man on a motorcycle. Fortunately, he changed his mind at the last minute and decided we were too close even for his comfort. I'm always surprised when I don't see any accidents, but there never seems to be any. I guess when everyone drives crazy, it balances out and everybody manages to stay out of everybody else's way.
It took about an hour to get to our casa. The Casa de Familia Ovalle is where we will call home for the next 4 weeks and I'll be a not-so-swinging single for 5 more. It's an interesting house. Somethings I like about it and somethings I'm not crazy about.
You come into a roofed over foyer right off the sidewalk. Beyond that is an open courtyard with a covered hallway along the left. Our room and 1 other are right off of this hallway. Straight ahead from the courtyard with the doorway off the hallway to the right is the sitting room, which has the wireless router in it and where I will probably be doing most of my computer stuff. While the Casa does have this wireless, unfortunately they have placed the router on the floor in the corner, so it doesn't broadcast very far. We're hoping after we get to know our hostess, Maria Elena, a little better, we can suggest and offer to help get the router mounted up in the corner of the room.
Anyway, more about the Casa, right behind the sitting room as you move back into the house is the dining room. It is an ok size, but very dark. Behind that is the kitchen. As you come to the kitchen door, the hallway once again opens up to another open air courtyard with some wood slat chairs and a table. I tried to sit there this am to work on the computer but no signal. Too bad as it's a very pleasant spot. There is another room beyond the kitchen which is a small guest room, but it is very dark with only 1 window which looks out on the courtyard. There are stairs off this courtyard on the left.
The stairs curve around to the right and at the landing there is the laundry room. You continue up and right before the top is the room of our live-in caretaker, Cristina. She takes care of our room and cooks our breakfast. Since she speaks no English, it has been very interesting communicating so far. But I'm sure as our Spanish improves, that will become easier. At the top of the stairs is a rooftop patio, with a covered seating area. It overlooks 1 of the 3 volcanos surrounding Antigua. I've already spent a lot of time up there. It is very comfortable.
The house is very nice and fairly comfortable. Right now, we are the only guests so it feels like our home. My only serious complaint is that our room is kinda dark with the only windown looking out to the hallway. It also has a curtain over it that doesn't provide much privacy when our light is on. I'm going to shop today for an attractive cloth that I can put up to fix that. We need to see whether we can fix one of the bedside lamps so that we can have some light other than overhead spots, which are pretty glaring.
Our only other window is in the bathroom and it looks out into the second courtyard, so we can slide the window partially open a tiny bit for ventilation but too much and anyone coming down the stairs can see into our bath.
Our room doesn't have a dresser but does have a gigantic closet with tons of shelving, so we can make that work. We also have our own small refrigerator that we can keep some things in. However, it takes more that 24 hours for ice to freeze even in tiny ice cube trays. They're just not too big on ice most places outside the US.
That's it for now. I'll tell you later about the huge breakfast we just ate. And the coffee is incredible!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Haiku for the morning
Couldn't sleep this morning. As the rain moved in at dawn, the birds still woke up and did their morning song. This came to me.
Even in the rain
The birds sing, greeting the dawn
Happy for the day.
Even in the rain
The birds sing, greeting the dawn
Happy for the day.
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