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