Congrats to the graduates...
As for Ecuador, I´m trying to do more studying this week, along with see some of Cuenca if I am to be leaving next week. I had a good day on Saturday hanging out with other students - three girls from Ireland and one from California, so I feel like I´ve had a little social time. Sunday I tried to study all day but that isn´t that fun! I ended up walking to one mall, which was pretty small, and then going to the big mall with my host mother. It isn´t that I like malls so much (I don´t) but I do find it interesting to see what an Ecuadorian mall is like. We went to a store very similar to Target or Walmart, and what shocked me the most was the prices - there was a silver tea pot, for the table, not to put on the stove, and it wasn´t fancy, and it was $40! I think it would be cheaper at home, for one thing, and second, for a country with a GDP around $2300, I think, that seems incredibly expensive. Some foods are cheap, as is local alcohol (a liter of rum for $3), but many things must be totally out of reach for most Ecuadorians. But the store was busy (most of the stores in downtown Cuenca are closed on Sunday so it was like a ghost town - everyone must have been at the mall!) so it didn´t seem like no one could afford to shop there. Maybe on this trip I´m just looking at expensive, touristy places (like restaurants in Guatemala) but I´m just surprised that food in restaurants is cheap in Ecuador - cheaper than Guatemala - but things in stores are not. Cuenca doesn´t seem like a city where people can live on $2300, though. But my family keeps talking about how it is so hard to find a job. A lot of stores and restaurants have help wanted signs, but I guess that just like in the US, if you have a bachelor´s degree you don´t want to be a salesclerk.
There´s so much more but again I have spent the afternoon trying to find a good Galapagos cruise for a good price for the right dates...Since I want to go to Lima to see Fernando and then to Cuzco, Machu Pichu and maybe Bolivia, I may not be back in Ecuador until the end of my trip. Funny how at the start, I really wanted to stay in one place for a long time, but the reality is that without much Spanish and it not being the summer (ie there aren´t lots of other students), there isn´t much to tie me to staying here other than it being easy. And there doesn´t seem to be an obvious place for me to teach English, which is the only skill I can really offer (and I have no idea if I would enjoy it anyway). Sometimes it feels like August is so far away, and other times that I don´t have enough time to do everything here I want to do (which I suppose is to both travel and to find a place to stay for a month or so, volunteering).
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Last minute
Decisions decisions. 40 minutes ago I was ready to sign up for a Galapagos cruise leaving on Sunday. At this minute I am not so sure. This is kind of like deciding where to go to learn Spanish all over again. Not fun. And I have so many more interesting things to write about! I wish I either loved it in Cuenca or hated it...but its kind of an in-the-middle thing. And I'm not sure what to do next, or where to go...
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
So I didn´t really think about what the prison I visited today would be like, and the truth is that it didn´t look anything like how prisons in the US and portrayed in the movies. But in the end it was still a jail, and that alone was pretty intimidating! It is just for women, by the way. I went with the very nice volunteer coordinator at the school, and the jail is only a few blocks away. There were three police men standing outside. Once inside, the guy we spoke to spoke Spanish quite fast and I only understood a fifth or so (I´m frustrated with not being able to understand and speak as much as I think I should be able to, but thats for another entry and I am not studying as much as I should be). I did pick up that I could do whatever I want, but that giving English classes might not work, since after a few classes people wouldn´t show up. I instead should talk to the women first, and they´d all tell me that whatever they were "in" for, they didnt do it. He always was saying it was safe - no drugs, alcohol etc. There´s been 2 other English speaking volunteers, one who is giving poetry classes. The volunteer guy knew I didn´t understand much. He told me later that once a volunteer gets to know the women, the real story about the crimes comes out.
Then we walked around, saw the small library, the cells. The building itself is 2 stories and similar to the school - a covered roof, but transparent, and an inner courtyard. There were women downstairs eating lunch, and then we went to that area and I was introduced to a woman who spoke some English. She took me to the part outside, with a volleyball net. There were women all around sitting and talking, or knitting, but it was just a little strange because they weren´t there because they wanted to socialize, or had nothing better to do, or just to learn a craft: they had to be there. It wasn´t until the end of the conversation when she couldn´t remember the word "stealing" and was asking me what it was when I realized she wasn´t staff - she too was an inmate. She said "it wasn´t me, but I´m here" and seemed pretty ok with that.
I think that right now, that kind of volunteering would be too much. I just wouldn´t be able to understand much of what anyone said to me, and I think that I´m not able to get past the¨"its a jail part" when I´m still trying to learn how to understand and communicate. The volunteer guy said one of the first things the staff person there said was to always keep in mind that some of the women were going to be difficult to work with, and although I do want to teach English (its pretty much the only valuable skill I have for a Spanish-speaking person or organization), I think I imagine a room of 10 students, eyes shining, so eager to learn English they´re on the edge of their seats...and that might not be what it is like in the jail.
So for now I´m going to continue to obsess about whether there´s another place I´d rather be. While I like Cuenca as a city and it feels safe and is interesting, the fact is I don´t have any friends and there aren´t many students at the school until the summer, so I don´t forsee having friends in the near future. While that isn´t what I came here for, it would be nice... Maybe the problem is that I am coming straight from Guatemala, where (surprisingly?) there was a very strong, obvious community of English speaking long term residents/volunteers. I mentioned to another student here that Cuenca didn´t have that, and she said "do you want that?" And no, but...yes. I think I might. I just don´t have the language skills to have Ecuadorian friends, and besides family members of my homestay family, I don´t know where I´d meet them, anyway. I wandered through the university today and there weren´t tons of bulletin boards with activities and club meetings, like there are in the states. And even if there were things going on, I wouldn´t understand what people were saying. I guess I am thinking there are other places (most noteably Cusco, Peru and Quito) where there are large communities of ex-pats, or at least English speakers, and where my experience might be more than just taking classes and living with a family (although I guess that can be enough). Every so often I am realistic about volunteering options in other places, and between not wanting to work with kids and not speaking Spanish, I´m pretty useless. So maybe instead of settling in one place, I can spend a few weeks in different places and get learning Spanish in along with seeing new places. But then I won´t have the time I should be devoting to studying, since in the afternoon I´ll be doing sightseeing. I´ll have to think hard about it all this weekend. For some reason Bolivia continues to sound appealing. Maybe just because its much harder to get to from North America than either Ecuador or Peru. I´ve also invited myself to visit Fernando in Lima, and I think that could be very fun.
If anyone has any insights on Cuzco, Bolivia, or making friends let me know (the whole friend thing is a recurring thing for me when I´m living abroad - when am I going to learn that it isn´t easy?).
Then we walked around, saw the small library, the cells. The building itself is 2 stories and similar to the school - a covered roof, but transparent, and an inner courtyard. There were women downstairs eating lunch, and then we went to that area and I was introduced to a woman who spoke some English. She took me to the part outside, with a volleyball net. There were women all around sitting and talking, or knitting, but it was just a little strange because they weren´t there because they wanted to socialize, or had nothing better to do, or just to learn a craft: they had to be there. It wasn´t until the end of the conversation when she couldn´t remember the word "stealing" and was asking me what it was when I realized she wasn´t staff - she too was an inmate. She said "it wasn´t me, but I´m here" and seemed pretty ok with that.
I think that right now, that kind of volunteering would be too much. I just wouldn´t be able to understand much of what anyone said to me, and I think that I´m not able to get past the¨"its a jail part" when I´m still trying to learn how to understand and communicate. The volunteer guy said one of the first things the staff person there said was to always keep in mind that some of the women were going to be difficult to work with, and although I do want to teach English (its pretty much the only valuable skill I have for a Spanish-speaking person or organization), I think I imagine a room of 10 students, eyes shining, so eager to learn English they´re on the edge of their seats...and that might not be what it is like in the jail.
So for now I´m going to continue to obsess about whether there´s another place I´d rather be. While I like Cuenca as a city and it feels safe and is interesting, the fact is I don´t have any friends and there aren´t many students at the school until the summer, so I don´t forsee having friends in the near future. While that isn´t what I came here for, it would be nice... Maybe the problem is that I am coming straight from Guatemala, where (surprisingly?) there was a very strong, obvious community of English speaking long term residents/volunteers. I mentioned to another student here that Cuenca didn´t have that, and she said "do you want that?" And no, but...yes. I think I might. I just don´t have the language skills to have Ecuadorian friends, and besides family members of my homestay family, I don´t know where I´d meet them, anyway. I wandered through the university today and there weren´t tons of bulletin boards with activities and club meetings, like there are in the states. And even if there were things going on, I wouldn´t understand what people were saying. I guess I am thinking there are other places (most noteably Cusco, Peru and Quito) where there are large communities of ex-pats, or at least English speakers, and where my experience might be more than just taking classes and living with a family (although I guess that can be enough). Every so often I am realistic about volunteering options in other places, and between not wanting to work with kids and not speaking Spanish, I´m pretty useless. So maybe instead of settling in one place, I can spend a few weeks in different places and get learning Spanish in along with seeing new places. But then I won´t have the time I should be devoting to studying, since in the afternoon I´ll be doing sightseeing. I´ll have to think hard about it all this weekend. For some reason Bolivia continues to sound appealing. Maybe just because its much harder to get to from North America than either Ecuador or Peru. I´ve also invited myself to visit Fernando in Lima, and I think that could be very fun.
If anyone has any insights on Cuzco, Bolivia, or making friends let me know (the whole friend thing is a recurring thing for me when I´m living abroad - when am I going to learn that it isn´t easy?).
Monday, April 23, 2007
Trying to catch up
Where to start? First of all, I can´t believe this is my fifth week away!
Second, before the memory is lost forever (I hadn´t brought my camera), I´m usually pretty hard-to-impress when it comes to traveling and visiting churches. Almost every country I´ve been to has had a plethora...actually, that isn´t true, but they´ve all had plenty of some religious structure, whether it was wats, mosques, churchs or synagogues. And at this point I feel like a church is a church...and last week, I went to one of the most beautiful churches I´ve seen. It is the old cathedral in Cuenca, which has been restored with the help of the Spanish government and is no longer a house of worship (the "new" cathedral across the street was built in the late 1800s). Whether it was the pink painted columns inside or the lack of pews, giving it a more airy feeling, I was really, really impressed. The other people in the group thought it was really nice as well, and even the fact that I could hardly inderstand the tour guide didn´t matter.
I went to the cathedrals on a city tour with the school, on an afternoon with pouring rain (of course, on the day with the city tour!). We also went to a convent where the nuns never leave and no one can see them once they enter. They sell some creams they make, as well as supposedly good-for-you-health water that can be bought for $2. Our guide, one of the really good teachers at ths school, asked if we wanted to try it. I was the only one to decline, but the look on other people´s faces when they tried it confirmed that I had made the right decision. Only one person drank more than 2 sips, and he said it tasted "musty." I´d rather eat guinea pig again than drink musty tasting water, and I don´t really want to eat guinea pig again. We also went to a Panama hat factory/shop, where the guide was much easier to understand than the one at the old cathedral, restoring my faith in the fact that I have actually learned some Spanish (I think the cathedral guide had a lisp, and the others who spoke Spanish found her difficult to understand too). I sort of want to buy a Panama Hat (they are really from Ecuador, but were transported to the Panama Canal to be distributed for sale, hence the misnomer). I thought they´d all be really expensive, and some are $150, but you can also get them for $12.
I moved rooms on Saturday from one on the top floor to the middle floor. I´m not sure if it was a good move or not. The room and bathroom are bigger and connected, and the bed is certainly better, a main reason for the switch. But it also has a window and sliding glass door facing the street, which means light in the morning and sounds from the street. There was a dog barking at 2 am last night, and this afternoon the cow across the street (yes, even though I´m in a residential area of the third largest city in Ecuador) was mooing.
As for Cuenca, I feel like I am in Italy. The buildings are very European looking, the cars modern, the river cutting between the new (where I live) and old parts of the city flows quickly (April is the rainiest month). I really like it yet still think about going elsewhere. I think that life here is much easier than I expected it would be and I was hoping for a more different experience. I also really do want to volunteer, because otherwise I´ll spend all my afternoons either on the internet or watching TV (which either has subtitles in Spanish or is in Spanish, so it does help). But Cuenca is pretty well-off and I´m not sure there´s going to be an experience here that I´m interested in, although I am visiting a rehab center for women in jail tomorrow that might be the most promising place given my future career....
I like the family a lot (more on the weekend´s events soon) but one problem is, unlike the families in Guatemala, there´s no "dinner is at 7" - its variable, and sometimes really late. Last night I wasn´t hungry, luckily, but they knocked on my door at about 10:20, when I had already gotten in to bed. On Friday they had visitors from out of town and we had pizza. At 10:45. PM. Most nights it finishes around 10, but that doesnt work well with my going to sleep by 9:30 plan. I can get up a little later here since classes start later, but still.
Got to go...more soon.
Second, before the memory is lost forever (I hadn´t brought my camera), I´m usually pretty hard-to-impress when it comes to traveling and visiting churches. Almost every country I´ve been to has had a plethora...actually, that isn´t true, but they´ve all had plenty of some religious structure, whether it was wats, mosques, churchs or synagogues. And at this point I feel like a church is a church...and last week, I went to one of the most beautiful churches I´ve seen. It is the old cathedral in Cuenca, which has been restored with the help of the Spanish government and is no longer a house of worship (the "new" cathedral across the street was built in the late 1800s). Whether it was the pink painted columns inside or the lack of pews, giving it a more airy feeling, I was really, really impressed. The other people in the group thought it was really nice as well, and even the fact that I could hardly inderstand the tour guide didn´t matter.
I went to the cathedrals on a city tour with the school, on an afternoon with pouring rain (of course, on the day with the city tour!). We also went to a convent where the nuns never leave and no one can see them once they enter. They sell some creams they make, as well as supposedly good-for-you-health water that can be bought for $2. Our guide, one of the really good teachers at ths school, asked if we wanted to try it. I was the only one to decline, but the look on other people´s faces when they tried it confirmed that I had made the right decision. Only one person drank more than 2 sips, and he said it tasted "musty." I´d rather eat guinea pig again than drink musty tasting water, and I don´t really want to eat guinea pig again. We also went to a Panama hat factory/shop, where the guide was much easier to understand than the one at the old cathedral, restoring my faith in the fact that I have actually learned some Spanish (I think the cathedral guide had a lisp, and the others who spoke Spanish found her difficult to understand too). I sort of want to buy a Panama Hat (they are really from Ecuador, but were transported to the Panama Canal to be distributed for sale, hence the misnomer). I thought they´d all be really expensive, and some are $150, but you can also get them for $12.
I moved rooms on Saturday from one on the top floor to the middle floor. I´m not sure if it was a good move or not. The room and bathroom are bigger and connected, and the bed is certainly better, a main reason for the switch. But it also has a window and sliding glass door facing the street, which means light in the morning and sounds from the street. There was a dog barking at 2 am last night, and this afternoon the cow across the street (yes, even though I´m in a residential area of the third largest city in Ecuador) was mooing.
As for Cuenca, I feel like I am in Italy. The buildings are very European looking, the cars modern, the river cutting between the new (where I live) and old parts of the city flows quickly (April is the rainiest month). I really like it yet still think about going elsewhere. I think that life here is much easier than I expected it would be and I was hoping for a more different experience. I also really do want to volunteer, because otherwise I´ll spend all my afternoons either on the internet or watching TV (which either has subtitles in Spanish or is in Spanish, so it does help). But Cuenca is pretty well-off and I´m not sure there´s going to be an experience here that I´m interested in, although I am visiting a rehab center for women in jail tomorrow that might be the most promising place given my future career....
I like the family a lot (more on the weekend´s events soon) but one problem is, unlike the families in Guatemala, there´s no "dinner is at 7" - its variable, and sometimes really late. Last night I wasn´t hungry, luckily, but they knocked on my door at about 10:20, when I had already gotten in to bed. On Friday they had visitors from out of town and we had pizza. At 10:45. PM. Most nights it finishes around 10, but that doesnt work well with my going to sleep by 9:30 plan. I can get up a little later here since classes start later, but still.
Got to go...more soon.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Today I ate guinea pig
And I used to have one as a pet. Her name was Charlotte until I changed it to Chocolate. Or vice versa. She died when I was in fourth grade. But cuy is a specialty/delicacy here and as my brother said, when in Rome...I didn´t even know he knew that expression.
So cuy (they serve all parts of it, including the head) tasted like chicken. Why does every exotic animal taste like chicken? Maybe not every, but crocodile and I hear frogs legs. I actually do know why crocodile tastes like chicken (I learned in Australia. It is because they feed it chicken, and croc tastes like what it eats. That way when people try it, they think "Oh, this isn´t so weird, I will eat it again." I´ve always wondered what a crocodile who ate only chocolate tastes like...). It was more like dark chicken meat, and the actual cuy meat looked more like duck than red meat. The skin is pretty crispy. I guess that is to be expected from something roasted on a spit. Anyway, usually I´m a pretty big fan of all kinds of meat but I have to say, one time eating cuy was enough.
There´s a ecuadorian cocktail class tonight at school. I´ve already tried the national beer, Pilsner, and some pretty strong local stuff - think Moonshine. I prefer the peach juice we had at dinner last night, but when in Rome...
So cuy (they serve all parts of it, including the head) tasted like chicken. Why does every exotic animal taste like chicken? Maybe not every, but crocodile and I hear frogs legs. I actually do know why crocodile tastes like chicken (I learned in Australia. It is because they feed it chicken, and croc tastes like what it eats. That way when people try it, they think "Oh, this isn´t so weird, I will eat it again." I´ve always wondered what a crocodile who ate only chocolate tastes like...). It was more like dark chicken meat, and the actual cuy meat looked more like duck than red meat. The skin is pretty crispy. I guess that is to be expected from something roasted on a spit. Anyway, usually I´m a pretty big fan of all kinds of meat but I have to say, one time eating cuy was enough.
There´s a ecuadorian cocktail class tonight at school. I´ve already tried the national beer, Pilsner, and some pretty strong local stuff - think Moonshine. I prefer the peach juice we had at dinner last night, but when in Rome...
Thursday, April 19, 2007
On the road again...again
So even though I have been here for 4 days, I don´t want to just jump in to being in Cuenca, and it is going to take a few days to catch up to where I am now (and I won´t be able to write on Saturday, since I´ve got a wedding to go to. No, I don´t have friends. Don´t be silly. I´m going with my family to the wedding of one of the 25 or so nieces or nephews they have. That is what happens with 8 siblings on one side and 12 on the other! I can´t imagine.).
So back to leaving Guatemala. I had all morning to decide how to get to the bus station for my 2:30 bus. I had been planning to walk, since I´m tough. And cheap. But then I did a test ¨walk¨and decided it would be at least a half hour walk in 80 plus degree weather, with all my bags, through crowded streets (the main market was between my house and the bus). I was already imagining my sweaty back and front, since I´d have to wear my daypack in front, big backpack in back, and have my army duffel over one shoulder. So I decided to save my self about an hour of unhappiness and pay $2.50 for a taxi. A decision I think everyone but my dad would understand. I was jealous of the other student in my house, whose bag was the size of a backback we´d use for school - for his 3 month trip in South America. But then I thought that he must not have anything more than toothpaste and soap plus 2 pairs or underpants, and I wasn´t so jealous. If I was travelling as opposed to studying of course I would have packed lighter.
So I made it to the bus station and got in my front row seat. The woman next to me was about 50 and spoke English. She told me that Latin America was no more dangerous than anywhere else, like America, and it only got a bad wrap because it is smaller so when something happens there it is bigger news. Then she was very very concerned about how I had found a place to stay in Guatemala City for the night that I knew would be safe, how I was getting there from the bus station since a taxi wasn´t safe, and how she didn´t want ¨her people¨(her words, not mine) to have to drive into downtown to be picked up at the bus station. Umm, that sounds a little dangerous to me. I would never be worried about taking a public, metered, registered taxi in the US and the only downtown bus station I can think of not being safe is LA. So I found her a little contradictory. There is also construction on the highway and we had to stop about twice for 10 minutes each (but I think we were lucky and the waits can be longer). One interesting aspect was that at the places where there are stoppages, there were many people walking around selling drinks, nuts, other food and tourist items...quite entrepreneurial. The bus drivers (there were 2 on our bus for no aparent reason because one drove the whole way, and we weren´t stopping to pick up people, therefore needing a money-collecting guy) didn´t let those people on our bus. We arrived in Guatemala City about an hour and a half after the normal time. Which doesn´t really make sense since out stops werent that long, but maybe it meant we hit more traffic coming in to the city. I stayed in a house right by the airport that students from the school often stay at coming or going from Guatemala City. I spoke with an older couple from Oregon who had come to study Spanish for 7 weeks - very brave for 50+ in my opinion, and volunteered that I hadn´t spoken to anyone who had had a bad experience in Guatemala that everyone warns about. They sort of agreed, but the guy said they had been at the hostel since 2 pm and he had heard gun fire twice. I suggested it was firecrackers (which went off a lot in Xela, apparently it is a Guatemalan tradition for people´s birthdays) but he said he was pretty expert on guns and that it wasnt fireworks. But when I asked the people at the hostel about finding dinner, they told me about a restaurant 2 blocks away, where I walked alone, in the dark about 9 pm, with no problem. So just like Johannesberg, even in a supposedly very danger place ,there are safe areas.
Contrary to what I would have expected for a Latin American airline in a Latin American airport, the flight was in the air before the scheduled departure time (I didn´t think people of Spanish descent were noted for punctuality). While the Guatemala City airport was pretty basic, ther San Jose airport in Costa Rica where I changed planes was shiny new and very western, with a Schlotzky´s Deli - I haven´t ever eaten there, but its pretty American. I guess the airports reflect the economies of the countries - Costa Rica is the wealthiest Central American country, and the most expensive. I happily helped myself to samples of chocolate (dark!) cover nuts and dried fruits in a big gift shop, and a sample of coffee with my first Equal in 3 weeks (I think sugar substitutes are really expensive in Central America). My plane to Quito was boarding as I got out of the shop - again, early. The flight was shorter than I expected , less than 3 hours, and I didn´t realize Ecuador was so close to Costa Rica. The flight pretty much went by all of Quito (quite expansive) before turning right and landing, so it was good to have an overview of the city. Clearing customs, and checking my bags for my flight to Cuenca was efficient, leaving me with 3 hours until my flight to Cuenca, so I happily made my way outside the airport to take a metrobus, a bus with its own lane so quick, into Quito. I wanted to get an idea of what it was like, in case I found Cuenca boring. The benefit of Quito is the number of volunteer opportunities, a school that sounds like a good one, and a lot of places within weekend trip distance. But I´d also read it was polluted dangerous and not all that charming. What I saw wasn´t terrible at all (I´ve seen worse) but it was also Sunday, so I think the streets were quieter in terms of both cars and people than in the week, when maybe it is a mad house. I didn´t get down to the old city because I was confused by the bus system, but did walk past where the school I´ve heard about is located, and a little bit in the New City, where tourist facilities are concentrated. But I didn´t explore much. I was glad to just have a little chance to see what it was like. Back near the airport, I found a place to eat (worried that like in Guatemala, there would be no food on Sunday and I would have to go to bed hungry). I stuffed down my plate and rushed off to the airport since the boarding card said 4:15 for the 5 pm flight. Of course we weren´t called up until 4:35 or so...but after the earlier flights being early, I would have felt pretty stupid missing my flight. Which was quite empty and took about 30 minutes. And there I was in Cuenca! I was picked up by my host brother, about 23, and his cousin. We got to the house around 6, where the rest of the family was - another son 17, the father and mother. Their daughter is a year older than I am but lives in Southampton, England. The house is huge, with 3 stories, and for this week I have a room on the top floor, with sloping ceilings a-la-Doughty House, and my own bathroom. The other student, my age, from Norway, has a bigger room on the second floor and she is only here for a week, so I wonder if they will move me next week. The additional privacy on the third floor is nice, but the bed sags in the middle and the slopping ceiling makes it a little inconventient. We did get dinner after all, but not until about 9 pm - this family eats late!
Well, have to go to salsa class now, but I will probably be able to catch up more tomorrow. I´m sure you´re all anxiously awaiting (just kidding, I don´t really think that).
So back to leaving Guatemala. I had all morning to decide how to get to the bus station for my 2:30 bus. I had been planning to walk, since I´m tough. And cheap. But then I did a test ¨walk¨and decided it would be at least a half hour walk in 80 plus degree weather, with all my bags, through crowded streets (the main market was between my house and the bus). I was already imagining my sweaty back and front, since I´d have to wear my daypack in front, big backpack in back, and have my army duffel over one shoulder. So I decided to save my self about an hour of unhappiness and pay $2.50 for a taxi. A decision I think everyone but my dad would understand. I was jealous of the other student in my house, whose bag was the size of a backback we´d use for school - for his 3 month trip in South America. But then I thought that he must not have anything more than toothpaste and soap plus 2 pairs or underpants, and I wasn´t so jealous. If I was travelling as opposed to studying of course I would have packed lighter.
So I made it to the bus station and got in my front row seat. The woman next to me was about 50 and spoke English. She told me that Latin America was no more dangerous than anywhere else, like America, and it only got a bad wrap because it is smaller so when something happens there it is bigger news. Then she was very very concerned about how I had found a place to stay in Guatemala City for the night that I knew would be safe, how I was getting there from the bus station since a taxi wasn´t safe, and how she didn´t want ¨her people¨(her words, not mine) to have to drive into downtown to be picked up at the bus station. Umm, that sounds a little dangerous to me. I would never be worried about taking a public, metered, registered taxi in the US and the only downtown bus station I can think of not being safe is LA. So I found her a little contradictory. There is also construction on the highway and we had to stop about twice for 10 minutes each (but I think we were lucky and the waits can be longer). One interesting aspect was that at the places where there are stoppages, there were many people walking around selling drinks, nuts, other food and tourist items...quite entrepreneurial. The bus drivers (there were 2 on our bus for no aparent reason because one drove the whole way, and we weren´t stopping to pick up people, therefore needing a money-collecting guy) didn´t let those people on our bus. We arrived in Guatemala City about an hour and a half after the normal time. Which doesn´t really make sense since out stops werent that long, but maybe it meant we hit more traffic coming in to the city. I stayed in a house right by the airport that students from the school often stay at coming or going from Guatemala City. I spoke with an older couple from Oregon who had come to study Spanish for 7 weeks - very brave for 50+ in my opinion, and volunteered that I hadn´t spoken to anyone who had had a bad experience in Guatemala that everyone warns about. They sort of agreed, but the guy said they had been at the hostel since 2 pm and he had heard gun fire twice. I suggested it was firecrackers (which went off a lot in Xela, apparently it is a Guatemalan tradition for people´s birthdays) but he said he was pretty expert on guns and that it wasnt fireworks. But when I asked the people at the hostel about finding dinner, they told me about a restaurant 2 blocks away, where I walked alone, in the dark about 9 pm, with no problem. So just like Johannesberg, even in a supposedly very danger place ,there are safe areas.
Contrary to what I would have expected for a Latin American airline in a Latin American airport, the flight was in the air before the scheduled departure time (I didn´t think people of Spanish descent were noted for punctuality). While the Guatemala City airport was pretty basic, ther San Jose airport in Costa Rica where I changed planes was shiny new and very western, with a Schlotzky´s Deli - I haven´t ever eaten there, but its pretty American. I guess the airports reflect the economies of the countries - Costa Rica is the wealthiest Central American country, and the most expensive. I happily helped myself to samples of chocolate (dark!) cover nuts and dried fruits in a big gift shop, and a sample of coffee with my first Equal in 3 weeks (I think sugar substitutes are really expensive in Central America). My plane to Quito was boarding as I got out of the shop - again, early. The flight was shorter than I expected , less than 3 hours, and I didn´t realize Ecuador was so close to Costa Rica. The flight pretty much went by all of Quito (quite expansive) before turning right and landing, so it was good to have an overview of the city. Clearing customs, and checking my bags for my flight to Cuenca was efficient, leaving me with 3 hours until my flight to Cuenca, so I happily made my way outside the airport to take a metrobus, a bus with its own lane so quick, into Quito. I wanted to get an idea of what it was like, in case I found Cuenca boring. The benefit of Quito is the number of volunteer opportunities, a school that sounds like a good one, and a lot of places within weekend trip distance. But I´d also read it was polluted dangerous and not all that charming. What I saw wasn´t terrible at all (I´ve seen worse) but it was also Sunday, so I think the streets were quieter in terms of both cars and people than in the week, when maybe it is a mad house. I didn´t get down to the old city because I was confused by the bus system, but did walk past where the school I´ve heard about is located, and a little bit in the New City, where tourist facilities are concentrated. But I didn´t explore much. I was glad to just have a little chance to see what it was like. Back near the airport, I found a place to eat (worried that like in Guatemala, there would be no food on Sunday and I would have to go to bed hungry). I stuffed down my plate and rushed off to the airport since the boarding card said 4:15 for the 5 pm flight. Of course we weren´t called up until 4:35 or so...but after the earlier flights being early, I would have felt pretty stupid missing my flight. Which was quite empty and took about 30 minutes. And there I was in Cuenca! I was picked up by my host brother, about 23, and his cousin. We got to the house around 6, where the rest of the family was - another son 17, the father and mother. Their daughter is a year older than I am but lives in Southampton, England. The house is huge, with 3 stories, and for this week I have a room on the top floor, with sloping ceilings a-la-Doughty House, and my own bathroom. The other student, my age, from Norway, has a bigger room on the second floor and she is only here for a week, so I wonder if they will move me next week. The additional privacy on the third floor is nice, but the bed sags in the middle and the slopping ceiling makes it a little inconventient. We did get dinner after all, but not until about 9 pm - this family eats late!
Well, have to go to salsa class now, but I will probably be able to catch up more tomorrow. I´m sure you´re all anxiously awaiting (just kidding, I don´t really think that).
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Sorry!
I made it safely out of Guatemala and am in Ecuador, but I havent had time to use the internet past letting my parents know I am alive. I promise a long recap by the weekend. But I´ll just say this: I love the city, love the family, Ecuador is WAY more developed than I had excepted (this may be a partial function of coming directly from Guatemala) and I think this will be a fine place to spend 3 months...if I can improve my Spanish. Last night the family had an uncle over for dinner and I didn´t understand a word besides $100 dollars.
Miss you all and keep my updated on your lives!
Miss you all and keep my updated on your lives!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Inferma
So my stomach hadn´t been feeling normal all week, but it wasn´t until today that it really started feeling ¨bad.¨The other student in the house isn´t feeling well either so it must have been something we ate at home...that didn´t stop me from cleaning my plate at lunch though! But two people with bad stomachs in one house with one bathroom isn´t the best...I am looking forward to not having to worry about that in Ecuador. I have not really been sick while traveling except for one afternoon in Munich I vividly remember. I felt terrible, about an hour after boasting to my new friends that I had an iron stomach when they marveled at my ability to polish off a platter of pork and veal knuckle, a German specialty (at least one of the guys had ordered the same thing and hadn´t finished his plate...). but it was only for an afternoon. After lunch I lay down for a while - of course I couldn´t fall asleep since I sleep 9 hours a night - and since then I have felt much better. This afternoon I went to a strange little natural history museum with many stuffed animals, including that exotic species the chow chow (a dog breed similar to Cinny, but of course Cinny´s breed is much cuter), stuffed siamese pig twins, and many animal fetuses in large Mason jars. It was amusing for about half an hour.
Yesterday afternoon was boring and made me glad to be leaving, because it doesn´t feel worth the effort to find a place here to volunteer in the afternoons since I won´t be here that long. It would take a week just to figure out what to be doing, and by then I´d be gone...so I´m glad to go although at least here I knew I liked the school. I think that living with a host family of just one person could get tiresome, especially if I was the only student there some weeks...I hope the family in Ecuador will all eat together and it won´t be just me and one person, but I´ll just have to wait and see.
I´ve been acumulating books that I´m not really interested in reading. Yesterday I got a copy of a James Mitchner book missing both the front and back cover, so it was 2 quetzals. I´ve read Hawaii and Caribbean, and I think this one is about the Rocky Mountains (it is called Centennial) ...it will come in handy when I go on a long bus trip and don´t want to carry a lot of books with me - it weighs in at over 1000 pages. I always find his books hard to get in to at first but then enjoyable, although I admit the history of tropical locales is always more interesting to me than more temperate climates. They also had a book of his on South Africa, but at 24 quetzals it was a little too steep. For anyone who hasn´t heard of him, his books are fiction but I think he does a lot of research on the parts of the world he writes about first, so many facts are real even if the interactions between characters aren´t. For me its a good mix of learning a little but still being fiction, which I find more enjoyable than most non-fiction...
Tonight is a dinner party at school plus the talent show. I´m not holding my breath for too much excitement, but we will see.
I may not have a new blog until I´m in Ecuador (!!!), but you never know. I don´t leave Xela tomorrow until the afternoon.
I hope the auction was a great success and everyone had fun!
Yesterday afternoon was boring and made me glad to be leaving, because it doesn´t feel worth the effort to find a place here to volunteer in the afternoons since I won´t be here that long. It would take a week just to figure out what to be doing, and by then I´d be gone...so I´m glad to go although at least here I knew I liked the school. I think that living with a host family of just one person could get tiresome, especially if I was the only student there some weeks...I hope the family in Ecuador will all eat together and it won´t be just me and one person, but I´ll just have to wait and see.
I´ve been acumulating books that I´m not really interested in reading. Yesterday I got a copy of a James Mitchner book missing both the front and back cover, so it was 2 quetzals. I´ve read Hawaii and Caribbean, and I think this one is about the Rocky Mountains (it is called Centennial) ...it will come in handy when I go on a long bus trip and don´t want to carry a lot of books with me - it weighs in at over 1000 pages. I always find his books hard to get in to at first but then enjoyable, although I admit the history of tropical locales is always more interesting to me than more temperate climates. They also had a book of his on South Africa, but at 24 quetzals it was a little too steep. For anyone who hasn´t heard of him, his books are fiction but I think he does a lot of research on the parts of the world he writes about first, so many facts are real even if the interactions between characters aren´t. For me its a good mix of learning a little but still being fiction, which I find more enjoyable than most non-fiction...
Tonight is a dinner party at school plus the talent show. I´m not holding my breath for too much excitement, but we will see.
I may not have a new blog until I´m in Ecuador (!!!), but you never know. I don´t leave Xela tomorrow until the afternoon.
I hope the auction was a great success and everyone had fun!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
I´ve got nada
Nothing new except I remain sorry to be leaving, but maybe it is because I just have no idea what Ecuador will be like, and before I left New York, I had no idea what Guatemala would be like, and it turns out not to be too bad!
The first potential casualty of the trip was averted yesterday - the loss of mi sombrero. I left it on the shuttle to Xela on Saturday, but luckily I had chatted with the driver and it was a small company, not a big bus line. So I went to the office every day from Saturday to Wednesday, asking if my hat was there, and pretty much every day the really friendly Belgian owner, or another guy, would call the driver, who said he´d bring it by tomorrow. And then I sit around and ask the owner annoying questions like ï the San Francisco El Alto market really that interesting?¨and ¨Where should I stay if I have an early flight?¨and ¨where is a good but cheap restaurant.¨And I look at a copy of their Lonely Planet Guatemala. It was like a ritual for me in Xela. Finally yesterday the guy was like ¨why don´t you just walk up to the other office and pick it up?¨so I did, as well as buy my bus ticket for Saturday. The guy in the other office didn´t speak English - he looked at me blankly when I said I wanted a ticket for Saturday, but I didnt get that he didnt understand until he said ¨no English,¨but I was easily able to explain my needs in Spanish. A small transaction to be sure, but one that wouldn´t have worked so easily 2 and a half weeks ago.
I´ve been really hungry in Xela even though I don´t feel like my meals here are noticably smaller - well, maybe dinner is, but that doesnt explain being hungry at 4 pm. Dinner is also a half hour later. Happily, there´s a bakery in town that sells big flat cookies and small round, sweet rolls for 0.22 Q each, which is about...3 cents? I may be doing the math wrong, but either way it is a heck of a lot cheaper than at home. I guess if you shop in stores and markets here for food rather than go to a restaurant it is cheap, and I shouldn´t be complaining about it being (relatively) expensive in Guatemala for food. I think Ecuador, which was dollar-ized a few years ago, is going to be more expensive, but I dont know how much more.
The first potential casualty of the trip was averted yesterday - the loss of mi sombrero. I left it on the shuttle to Xela on Saturday, but luckily I had chatted with the driver and it was a small company, not a big bus line. So I went to the office every day from Saturday to Wednesday, asking if my hat was there, and pretty much every day the really friendly Belgian owner, or another guy, would call the driver, who said he´d bring it by tomorrow. And then I sit around and ask the owner annoying questions like ï the San Francisco El Alto market really that interesting?¨and ¨Where should I stay if I have an early flight?¨and ¨where is a good but cheap restaurant.¨And I look at a copy of their Lonely Planet Guatemala. It was like a ritual for me in Xela. Finally yesterday the guy was like ¨why don´t you just walk up to the other office and pick it up?¨so I did, as well as buy my bus ticket for Saturday. The guy in the other office didn´t speak English - he looked at me blankly when I said I wanted a ticket for Saturday, but I didnt get that he didnt understand until he said ¨no English,¨but I was easily able to explain my needs in Spanish. A small transaction to be sure, but one that wouldn´t have worked so easily 2 and a half weeks ago.
I´ve been really hungry in Xela even though I don´t feel like my meals here are noticably smaller - well, maybe dinner is, but that doesnt explain being hungry at 4 pm. Dinner is also a half hour later. Happily, there´s a bakery in town that sells big flat cookies and small round, sweet rolls for 0.22 Q each, which is about...3 cents? I may be doing the math wrong, but either way it is a heck of a lot cheaper than at home. I guess if you shop in stores and markets here for food rather than go to a restaurant it is cheap, and I shouldn´t be complaining about it being (relatively) expensive in Guatemala for food. I think Ecuador, which was dollar-ized a few years ago, is going to be more expensive, but I dont know how much more.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Gulp
Nothing interesting to report since all I´ve done since yesterday´s blog has been to eat diner, sleep and go to class. Today the activity was supposed to be a football game, but since no one signed up we are going to watch Maria Full of Grace, a movie about a columbian girl who acts as a drug mule by ferrying cocaine internally (hence the title of this entry). My teacher is the one who runs the activities this week and asked me for movie suggestions, and I suggested this one because I´ve been wanting to see it. So I for one am excited about the afternoon. I would have much rather gone to watch a futbol game than to play in one
I am a little sorry not to be staying longer here because at least the school and family here is a known and I know I like it, unlike Ecuador. But, I´m not really being social here, partly because it doesnt feel like it worth investing a lot since I know I will be leaving. I also dont really want to hang out with the American university students, who are young, and whenever I am out of the country and then around a lot or even just a few Americans, they are annoying (SA peeps, remember the girls in the internet cafe at the wash ñ´web?). It is funny how for me at least, Americans arent always so annoying when I am home and surrounded by them and therefore used to it (and being American and probably annoying myself). So maybe getting on to Ecuador, where I´m going to feel like it is worth it to make an effort to create a life for myself, is worth it. In any case I´ll be going on Sunday!
Last night the host mother was talking about how it works with the school - getting paid, getting students etc. As I suspected, she considers having students to be her job, but I do think she really enjoys it, so it doesn´t really matter that it is what she does for money in terms of my experience (unlike, I would say, the family in Antigua). I dont think she likes the school much - she said she always asks for more money - but when she doesnt have students in the house she gets depressed. While students are allowed to ask to switch families, the family cant say they want certain students to leave, and she talked about two American students (who, as she put it - and I hope I dont offend anyone by repeating this - had brown faces), one of whom wanted Doris to do something about the fly flying near her during dinner, and after Doris said she wouldn´t because she wasnt the housekeeper, one or two of the girls peed in the bed - but they wanted to stay for 2 more weeks with her! If I didnt have a ticket to be leaving for Ecuador I would have felt like she was trying to guilt me into staying longer in the house - although I would gladly stay in spite of that because I am comfortable there.
PS - I read a great article about how they convert the US school buses into chicken buses. If anyone else thinks it might be interested, see www.chickenbus.net. And I was right, they do put in new, longer seats! As well as a much more powerful motor with 6 manual speeds.
I am a little sorry not to be staying longer here because at least the school and family here is a known and I know I like it, unlike Ecuador. But, I´m not really being social here, partly because it doesnt feel like it worth investing a lot since I know I will be leaving. I also dont really want to hang out with the American university students, who are young, and whenever I am out of the country and then around a lot or even just a few Americans, they are annoying (SA peeps, remember the girls in the internet cafe at the wash ñ´web?). It is funny how for me at least, Americans arent always so annoying when I am home and surrounded by them and therefore used to it (and being American and probably annoying myself). So maybe getting on to Ecuador, where I´m going to feel like it is worth it to make an effort to create a life for myself, is worth it. In any case I´ll be going on Sunday!
Last night the host mother was talking about how it works with the school - getting paid, getting students etc. As I suspected, she considers having students to be her job, but I do think she really enjoys it, so it doesn´t really matter that it is what she does for money in terms of my experience (unlike, I would say, the family in Antigua). I dont think she likes the school much - she said she always asks for more money - but when she doesnt have students in the house she gets depressed. While students are allowed to ask to switch families, the family cant say they want certain students to leave, and she talked about two American students (who, as she put it - and I hope I dont offend anyone by repeating this - had brown faces), one of whom wanted Doris to do something about the fly flying near her during dinner, and after Doris said she wouldn´t because she wasnt the housekeeper, one or two of the girls peed in the bed - but they wanted to stay for 2 more weeks with her! If I didnt have a ticket to be leaving for Ecuador I would have felt like she was trying to guilt me into staying longer in the house - although I would gladly stay in spite of that because I am comfortable there.
PS - I read a great article about how they convert the US school buses into chicken buses. If anyone else thinks it might be interested, see www.chickenbus.net. And I was right, they do put in new, longer seats! As well as a much more powerful motor with 6 manual speeds.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sitting in the back of the bus is only cool in high school
So after 2 and a half weeks of being here, I finally felt comfortable taking a ¨chicken bus¨on my own. It was to a town called Zunil about 9 km south, and it has a pretty church and an idol called San Simeon that the townspeople dress in a different costume every 2 days. Hmm, they probably wouldn´t call him an idol because they are catholic...maybe he is a saint? In any case, the bus took about 30 minutes and cost less than 50 cents. As the bus went through one town, I saw a lot of people walking down the street together, the men in suits and woven hats, and wonder if it was a wedding because at the front of the group was a man and a woman, both young, holding hands. But she was in traditional Mayan dress, not white...The Mayan women all wear intricately woven blouses and shirts, and they either have a long colorful scarf with pom poms at the end that they wear over one shoulder, or have their ponytails sheathed in a woven tube that is long enough for them to wrap around their heads like a crown. I also find it interesting how in the States we need to buy baby backbacks and baby carriers, etc, and in other parts of the world (is Guatemala and Africa, at least), women have figured out how to carry their babies using a rectangular piece of fabric. In addition, we westerners need luggage carts, wheelbarrows etc and in other places, people use their heads at carry huge packages.
The bus passed by a place and the driver yelled out ¨banos!¨and I wonder if it was for my - the only non-Guatemalen on the bus - ´s benefit. But they werent natural baths, as their are further from Xela, but seemed like bathhouses where they have brought in water. It didnt really look like a place westerners would want to go.
On the buses, people seem to want to sit in the front. At one point, a family of three, with the father carrying a one year old, got on and they all decided to sit in the seat with me, even though there were plenty of open seats. Sure the seats are longer than in normal school buses, but I still didn´t think sharing it between 3 adults was that comfortable. When the seat in front of us opened up, I was wondering if they would move or if that would be rude, but they did move. Also, the baby was wearing a gold necklace with a Star of David pendent, but I dont think it was because they were Jewish. I´ve seen a lot of stores with the star on the sign, or cafes and tuk tuks with ¨shalom¨written on it, but I dont think it has anything to do with Judaism. I probably spelled that word wrong, I always do.
From Zunil you can hire a pickup truck to take you to the natural baths, but I wasn´t really interested and the pickup ride is relatively expensive - about $10. Instead I walked to what seemed to be the highest point in the town, which was a graveyard filled with tombs and tons of flowers. I wonder if it was because it is just after Easter or if there are always many flowers there. It was a good view of everything. Seeing tourists is always funny because they take pictures of things that locals are used to seeing all the time - like me taking a picture of huge bunches of onions that a man carries one at a time on his back. Then walking down I passed the only 2 other westerners I saw in the town, and I considered asking them where San Simeon was. I didnt, but at the bottom of that hill I turned around and they were motioning to me to come back up and go down a totally nondescript alley. So I found San Simeon after all, who is about 3 quarters lifesize and was wearing a cowboy hat. He had about 5 people attending to him - dusting him off, whispering in his ear, kissing him, clearing off the ash from the lit cigarette in a holder coming from his mouth, and arranging candles in his lap. It was amazing all the attention they were giving him, and I wonder whether he gets it all the time or I was just there at an opportune moment? The church in the town was pretty too, with lots of carvings on the outside.
Although I am really enjoying my time in Xela (all 2 days of it so far), I am going to go to Ecuador on Sunday and I´m excited. Maybe I will come back to Xela one day if I want to brush up on Spanish. I would want to stay with the same woman then, although last night I locked myself out of my room after dinner, which wasnt too fun. At first I thought Doris was mad (although I am the one to pay for the locksmith) but then she was saying it happens almost every week. I had a great sleep last night with my earplugs in and an eye mask on! It is a good thing I like sleep so much!
There is probably more to say but I cant think of it. I finally found a book I am excited about reading, but I dont really have the time since I go to sleep so early. It is called ¨The Historian¨and is by a woman who lives in Ann Arbor...I´ve seen raves and pans about it, so we´ll see.
Hasta luego!
The bus passed by a place and the driver yelled out ¨banos!¨and I wonder if it was for my - the only non-Guatemalen on the bus - ´s benefit. But they werent natural baths, as their are further from Xela, but seemed like bathhouses where they have brought in water. It didnt really look like a place westerners would want to go.
On the buses, people seem to want to sit in the front. At one point, a family of three, with the father carrying a one year old, got on and they all decided to sit in the seat with me, even though there were plenty of open seats. Sure the seats are longer than in normal school buses, but I still didn´t think sharing it between 3 adults was that comfortable. When the seat in front of us opened up, I was wondering if they would move or if that would be rude, but they did move. Also, the baby was wearing a gold necklace with a Star of David pendent, but I dont think it was because they were Jewish. I´ve seen a lot of stores with the star on the sign, or cafes and tuk tuks with ¨shalom¨written on it, but I dont think it has anything to do with Judaism. I probably spelled that word wrong, I always do.
From Zunil you can hire a pickup truck to take you to the natural baths, but I wasn´t really interested and the pickup ride is relatively expensive - about $10. Instead I walked to what seemed to be the highest point in the town, which was a graveyard filled with tombs and tons of flowers. I wonder if it was because it is just after Easter or if there are always many flowers there. It was a good view of everything. Seeing tourists is always funny because they take pictures of things that locals are used to seeing all the time - like me taking a picture of huge bunches of onions that a man carries one at a time on his back. Then walking down I passed the only 2 other westerners I saw in the town, and I considered asking them where San Simeon was. I didnt, but at the bottom of that hill I turned around and they were motioning to me to come back up and go down a totally nondescript alley. So I found San Simeon after all, who is about 3 quarters lifesize and was wearing a cowboy hat. He had about 5 people attending to him - dusting him off, whispering in his ear, kissing him, clearing off the ash from the lit cigarette in a holder coming from his mouth, and arranging candles in his lap. It was amazing all the attention they were giving him, and I wonder whether he gets it all the time or I was just there at an opportune moment? The church in the town was pretty too, with lots of carvings on the outside.
Although I am really enjoying my time in Xela (all 2 days of it so far), I am going to go to Ecuador on Sunday and I´m excited. Maybe I will come back to Xela one day if I want to brush up on Spanish. I would want to stay with the same woman then, although last night I locked myself out of my room after dinner, which wasnt too fun. At first I thought Doris was mad (although I am the one to pay for the locksmith) but then she was saying it happens almost every week. I had a great sleep last night with my earplugs in and an eye mask on! It is a good thing I like sleep so much!
There is probably more to say but I cant think of it. I finally found a book I am excited about reading, but I dont really have the time since I go to sleep so early. It is called ¨The Historian¨and is by a woman who lives in Ann Arbor...I´ve seen raves and pans about it, so we´ll see.
Hasta luego!
Monday, April 9, 2007
Should I stay or should I go?
I like it here in Xela and with my family so far, and I wonder if I want to stay another week. I think the hassle of switching the ticket, confirming with the school in Ecuador that it is ok (not that they would tell me I cant come if I dont come next week, but I kind of like the the family I am supposed to stay with at first - they live far from the school but near the university, and I think it will be posh living with my own TV and bathroom). Plus they have a kid a year older than me and the father is a civil engineer, which could be interesting to hear about. Anyway, I guess I will think a day or too more. The main reason to stay would be to have time to do daytrips to places nearby Xela. The school has them some days - there is an activity every day, but sometimes it is a roundtable discussion or a dance class, and in two weeks I could see more plus do those activities rather than striking out on my own and not knowing where exactly to get off the bus, etc.
The other student in my house is a 32 year old guy from Holland who quit his stock trading job last year and has spent the time traveling. I actually understand a little more Spanish than he does. The lady we are staying with, Doris, says a long prayer before every meal.
So I confess that one reason I was interested in coming to Xela is because all the guidebooks wrote about this place called La Luna that serves 7 different kinds of hot chocolate. Last night, I went with the guy from Holland and a girl from the states that we ran into at dinner last night that he knew. We each had a different kind and shared - mine was cinnamon, and it was ok. The ambiance of the place was great, with moon figures everywhere and it sort of looked like the exterior of the building although we were inside...anyway, I guess in the end I am not really a hot chocolate afficionado, because I feel that if I dont get back there, its not a big deal. I think I was expecting to think it was the most delicious thing ever, but in the end its just liquid chocolate.
My teacher here is Edy, who is 23. He studied law for a year but didnt like it. He had to pay 130 quetzals for the year (remember about 7.8 Q to the dollar). It sort of makes you wonder why in the richest country in the world we need to spend almost $40,000 a year on tuition alone. I understand what he says and like him, and he is going to teach me prepositions, which my other teachers sort of refused to do, one said because I wouldnt understand yet. This school is more formal and Edy and I made a plan for the entire week of what I will learn each day in class. I hope the Ecuador school is similar. He also talked some about the social history of Guatemala and the civil war - I think they make it a point here to teach students about politics of the country (although there is another school in town that is more formally a socialist-leaning school).
The afternoon activity was a hike up to some saunas. Only 4 students went and only one went in to the sauna. We were all a little out of breath and being hot doesnt make me want to get in a sauna to be hotter! Last night I didnt get to bed until about 10 and didnt use my ear plugs, and tonight I am hoping to sleep better. But I also have homework of a 45 line composition! But I havent written more than single sentences with different verbs, so it will be good for me to try to put something more complete together.
There are only about 12 students who study in the morning and a lot of the American university students who are here seem to study in the afternoon, although I dont see any here right now so maybe they go elsewhere or do independent research? They are in the internet cafe quite often too, using Facebook.
Friday night is a dinner at school and a talent show. I am 27 years old but have no talents to be displayed in front of a group. Oh well.
The other student in my house is a 32 year old guy from Holland who quit his stock trading job last year and has spent the time traveling. I actually understand a little more Spanish than he does. The lady we are staying with, Doris, says a long prayer before every meal.
So I confess that one reason I was interested in coming to Xela is because all the guidebooks wrote about this place called La Luna that serves 7 different kinds of hot chocolate. Last night, I went with the guy from Holland and a girl from the states that we ran into at dinner last night that he knew. We each had a different kind and shared - mine was cinnamon, and it was ok. The ambiance of the place was great, with moon figures everywhere and it sort of looked like the exterior of the building although we were inside...anyway, I guess in the end I am not really a hot chocolate afficionado, because I feel that if I dont get back there, its not a big deal. I think I was expecting to think it was the most delicious thing ever, but in the end its just liquid chocolate.
My teacher here is Edy, who is 23. He studied law for a year but didnt like it. He had to pay 130 quetzals for the year (remember about 7.8 Q to the dollar). It sort of makes you wonder why in the richest country in the world we need to spend almost $40,000 a year on tuition alone. I understand what he says and like him, and he is going to teach me prepositions, which my other teachers sort of refused to do, one said because I wouldnt understand yet. This school is more formal and Edy and I made a plan for the entire week of what I will learn each day in class. I hope the Ecuador school is similar. He also talked some about the social history of Guatemala and the civil war - I think they make it a point here to teach students about politics of the country (although there is another school in town that is more formally a socialist-leaning school).
The afternoon activity was a hike up to some saunas. Only 4 students went and only one went in to the sauna. We were all a little out of breath and being hot doesnt make me want to get in a sauna to be hotter! Last night I didnt get to bed until about 10 and didnt use my ear plugs, and tonight I am hoping to sleep better. But I also have homework of a 45 line composition! But I havent written more than single sentences with different verbs, so it will be good for me to try to put something more complete together.
There are only about 12 students who study in the morning and a lot of the American university students who are here seem to study in the afternoon, although I dont see any here right now so maybe they go elsewhere or do independent research? They are in the internet cafe quite often too, using Facebook.
Friday night is a dinner at school and a talent show. I am 27 years old but have no talents to be displayed in front of a group. Oh well.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Moving on
So getting to Xela caused me about as much stress as I expected - that was the main reason I was hesitant about going. It isnt worth talking about what happened, but suffice it to say that I was ready to go about 8 am and didnt leave until 2:30 pm. And I ended up going the most expensive but safest and easiest route. But happily I am here and happy to be here! I stayed in a hostel last night that wasnt very social, at least for me, and English wasn´t the language I heard most often (it wasn´t Spanish either) and besides, I have my 9 pm bedtime. I need to say that earplugs are an AMAZING invention and I can´t believe I have never traveled with them before!
My private room in the hostel was about 6 dollars, a little less than my dinner. So some things are cheap here and some things aren´t (ie I don´t find the food partucularly cheap considering that this is a very developing country. I understand it would be cheaper shopping for food in a market, but still in Asia you could get a dinner for a dollar). I also find it interesting how people choose to spend their money. For me, spending $1.25 more for my own room rather than sleeping in a bunk bed in a room with 7 other people is well worth it. But I didn´t order the sandwich last night with chicken because it was $1.25 more than without chicken. But I think a lot of people are the oppostite. Anyway staying in a hostel for even one night made me think that staying with a family in Ecuador will be most pleasant. At breakfast I saw someone pulling down her box of food and getting milk out of a communal fridge...I just have no interest in preparing my own food, especially in a shared kitchen.
So going from Antigua to Xela is sort of like going from Williamstown to Ann Arbor in terms of size difference (I think the only people who have been to both places that read this are my parents, so that doesnt help most people much). But I just had no idea what to expect coming here. I´ll have to think more of two cities to compare them to in terms of atmosphere. It definitely isnt as charming - the streets are narrower and the building colors not as pretty - but I find the central park attractive. The buildings surrounding it have big Corinthian columns and it is sort of European looking. I went to the school this morning and in about 5 minutes was registered, and 2 hours later came back to meet my family. This time it is just one woman, about 50. she has kids but they dont live here - some live in Europe. I really like her, and my room is huge (which doesnt matter) and there will be another student coming later, which I asked for. I am amazed at how much I understand or can say today compared with moving in with the family 2 weeks ago, but I guess that is to be expected. Maybe after 2 weeks of one-on-one lessons I should be able to say a lot more, but for now it is nice to have seen progress.
There aren´t many Easter celebrations here like in Antigua, but I´m tired of them anyway. On Friday night in Antigua the processions were more interesting than earlier ones because they had different floats that were lit up (each float was followed by someone pushing a generator). But I´ve had enough of them for a few years at least! But I guess I´ll be living in NYC next year if I haven´t had my fill and want to see the Macy´s Thanksgiving Day parade. It was cool this morning, but warm and sunny right now, which I wasn´t expecting because it is cooler here than in Antigua. I´m getting a little nervous about the weather in Ecuador, not because I dont want it to be cold but because I´m not sure I brought enough warm clothing. I´ll just have to wait and see I guess.
I´m excited for school tomorrow. There´s a lot of students at this school, which I wanted (especially with the 20 or so from the American university that are here all semester). The city also has a lot of activities that appeal to foreigners - yoga classes for about 2 dollars, lots of places that show movies every night. Similar to Antigua, but not as much focus on tourists as there. Walking around today I definitely didn´t see as many gringos, but people weren´t looking at me like I was unsual or out of place, either. It is a good balance. It is funny because it hardly feels like it is Easter here, although more stores are closed than would be on a Sunday I think. Here, Good Friday is more important than Easter Sunday. Maybe it is at home too and I just don´t know that.
I have to study more than I have been. The past few days when walking down the street I have been trying to talk to myself in Spanish (in my head of course, not outloud) and I think that will help, but I also just need to keep memorizing even though that isn´t the most fun kind of studying to do!
I feel like the blog has been boring, sorry.
My private room in the hostel was about 6 dollars, a little less than my dinner. So some things are cheap here and some things aren´t (ie I don´t find the food partucularly cheap considering that this is a very developing country. I understand it would be cheaper shopping for food in a market, but still in Asia you could get a dinner for a dollar). I also find it interesting how people choose to spend their money. For me, spending $1.25 more for my own room rather than sleeping in a bunk bed in a room with 7 other people is well worth it. But I didn´t order the sandwich last night with chicken because it was $1.25 more than without chicken. But I think a lot of people are the oppostite. Anyway staying in a hostel for even one night made me think that staying with a family in Ecuador will be most pleasant. At breakfast I saw someone pulling down her box of food and getting milk out of a communal fridge...I just have no interest in preparing my own food, especially in a shared kitchen.
So going from Antigua to Xela is sort of like going from Williamstown to Ann Arbor in terms of size difference (I think the only people who have been to both places that read this are my parents, so that doesnt help most people much). But I just had no idea what to expect coming here. I´ll have to think more of two cities to compare them to in terms of atmosphere. It definitely isnt as charming - the streets are narrower and the building colors not as pretty - but I find the central park attractive. The buildings surrounding it have big Corinthian columns and it is sort of European looking. I went to the school this morning and in about 5 minutes was registered, and 2 hours later came back to meet my family. This time it is just one woman, about 50. she has kids but they dont live here - some live in Europe. I really like her, and my room is huge (which doesnt matter) and there will be another student coming later, which I asked for. I am amazed at how much I understand or can say today compared with moving in with the family 2 weeks ago, but I guess that is to be expected. Maybe after 2 weeks of one-on-one lessons I should be able to say a lot more, but for now it is nice to have seen progress.
There aren´t many Easter celebrations here like in Antigua, but I´m tired of them anyway. On Friday night in Antigua the processions were more interesting than earlier ones because they had different floats that were lit up (each float was followed by someone pushing a generator). But I´ve had enough of them for a few years at least! But I guess I´ll be living in NYC next year if I haven´t had my fill and want to see the Macy´s Thanksgiving Day parade. It was cool this morning, but warm and sunny right now, which I wasn´t expecting because it is cooler here than in Antigua. I´m getting a little nervous about the weather in Ecuador, not because I dont want it to be cold but because I´m not sure I brought enough warm clothing. I´ll just have to wait and see I guess.
I´m excited for school tomorrow. There´s a lot of students at this school, which I wanted (especially with the 20 or so from the American university that are here all semester). The city also has a lot of activities that appeal to foreigners - yoga classes for about 2 dollars, lots of places that show movies every night. Similar to Antigua, but not as much focus on tourists as there. Walking around today I definitely didn´t see as many gringos, but people weren´t looking at me like I was unsual or out of place, either. It is a good balance. It is funny because it hardly feels like it is Easter here, although more stores are closed than would be on a Sunday I think. Here, Good Friday is more important than Easter Sunday. Maybe it is at home too and I just don´t know that.
I have to study more than I have been. The past few days when walking down the street I have been trying to talk to myself in Spanish (in my head of course, not outloud) and I think that will help, but I also just need to keep memorizing even though that isn´t the most fun kind of studying to do!
I feel like the blog has been boring, sorry.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Early to bed...
I had a nice lazy morning relaxing in bed and reading a guide book. But that was after going out at 3:40 am to check out the carpets for today, because the procession was going to start at 5am. I went to bed at 8:30 so getting up wasnt too hard, but I still consider 3:45 to be late night, not early morning, and it isnt really natural for anyone to be getting up then! I had heard there´d be tons of people on the street, but there was hardly anyone on my block which was a little scary. But after about 2 blocks I saw more people, and then around the main church where the procession was to start, you´d have thought it was 3 in the afternoon. All week there have been many food vendors camped out there (apparently they arent normally allowed). The food looked and smelled good, the be honest, but I wasn´t going to be eating. The new student in my family had said that he ate all kinds of food on the street on Sunday, and i bit my tongue about saying ¨You ate street food?!?! But the guide books say don´t do that!¨because I didnt want to feel like an old fogey (remember I follow guide books religiously). But then I had slight vinidication when his stomach wasn´t ok for a few days.
I´m hopefully headed to Xela tomorrow. I´m ready to leave this family. Mostly it is just the aunt and grandmother who eat with us, not the whole family as they said would, and the only things we ever talk about are what i did in school, the weather, and the processions. Since theres a procession every day there is something to talk about, but its not really interesting and I just usually eat and leave. Also I feel like a loser since the new guy goes to a discoteca everynight and they´re like ¨and you Andrea?¨and I say ¨No, sleep¨or ¨Homework.¨I dont really need a 60 year old Guatemalen woman making me feel like a social recluse. And sometimes I dont feel like tea, but they always put it out so i feel like I always have to drink it. But I´ll miss the bed.
The carpets this morning, some of them, were pretty spectacular. There was a huge, very pretty jungle one I really liked, and also one with an under the sea themes (I prefer the nonreligious ones). There was also a huge one with tons of vegetables that could feed a big family for a week.
Yesterday i went for the second time to Casa Santo Domingo, my favorite place in Antigua. It is a really fancy hotel on the grounds of an old monastery. Last week the king and queen of Spain were staying there, and I walked around the area outside the hotel looking for a missing travel agency.There were tons of people around in suits and shiny new black cars, and at every turn I expected them to tell me to turn around. But no one said anything about me being there. So Sunday I went in, and as soon as you go through the door you´re in this oasis of calm. They have about 6 huge brightly colored parrots, a modern art exhibition, and the ruins of an old church. It just feels clean and pretty. On Sunday I walked around the whole place without anyone charging admission, but yesterday they wanted 40 quetzals to go into the ruins area, which at $5 is pretty cheap considering that is what some big museums in the U.S. cost. But it was just nice to be in the grounds. Like many other places in Antigua, from the street it doesnt look like anything special.
Tonight I would like to see the candlelight procession and after that i am ok with never seeing another procession. They are always the same. I am really excited to get to Xela and see a new place.
I´m hopefully headed to Xela tomorrow. I´m ready to leave this family. Mostly it is just the aunt and grandmother who eat with us, not the whole family as they said would, and the only things we ever talk about are what i did in school, the weather, and the processions. Since theres a procession every day there is something to talk about, but its not really interesting and I just usually eat and leave. Also I feel like a loser since the new guy goes to a discoteca everynight and they´re like ¨and you Andrea?¨and I say ¨No, sleep¨or ¨Homework.¨I dont really need a 60 year old Guatemalen woman making me feel like a social recluse. And sometimes I dont feel like tea, but they always put it out so i feel like I always have to drink it. But I´ll miss the bed.
The carpets this morning, some of them, were pretty spectacular. There was a huge, very pretty jungle one I really liked, and also one with an under the sea themes (I prefer the nonreligious ones). There was also a huge one with tons of vegetables that could feed a big family for a week.
Yesterday i went for the second time to Casa Santo Domingo, my favorite place in Antigua. It is a really fancy hotel on the grounds of an old monastery. Last week the king and queen of Spain were staying there, and I walked around the area outside the hotel looking for a missing travel agency.There were tons of people around in suits and shiny new black cars, and at every turn I expected them to tell me to turn around. But no one said anything about me being there. So Sunday I went in, and as soon as you go through the door you´re in this oasis of calm. They have about 6 huge brightly colored parrots, a modern art exhibition, and the ruins of an old church. It just feels clean and pretty. On Sunday I walked around the whole place without anyone charging admission, but yesterday they wanted 40 quetzals to go into the ruins area, which at $5 is pretty cheap considering that is what some big museums in the U.S. cost. But it was just nice to be in the grounds. Like many other places in Antigua, from the street it doesnt look like anything special.
Tonight I would like to see the candlelight procession and after that i am ok with never seeing another procession. They are always the same. I am really excited to get to Xela and see a new place.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Gonna be a bright sunshiney day
So the rain of 2 days ago is gone and it is bright and sunny here. I'm wearing a tank top for the first time since I arrived - and sun screen of course! I pity the people in the procession today wearing purple nylon robes!
The teacher I had for the past 2 days has been much much better, and I've had fun with her. I told her today about this other blog I read...well, used to read. She is 26 and while sometimes it took me a long time to understand a grammer point she was trying to teach - she really didn't speak English - I did appreciate enjoying myself for 5 hours every day rather than feeling like I just wanted to leave. So maybe she wasnt the best teacher but I've gotten over my intimidation at learning Spanish. For today at least.
I've pretty much decided to go to Xela on Saturday. After classes here I don't really do much, and anyone who has ever traveled with me knows that isn't my style. I also stopped into the Christan school yesterday and it is way (its all relative) expensive and most people there were older looking - it was there break - and I think I've already met the 5 students there I'd be friends with. So I feel like I will gain more by going to a new place where there seem to be a few places that will make good afternoon trips. The school might take us, or it shouldn't be too hard to go on my own if necessary. The urgency I felt about getting to Ecuador has abated a bit, perhaps because I'm going to a new place for next week, or maybe because I'm feeling like 3 1/2 months there will be a long time and once I get there, those months there might sound like an eternity. But it will be nice to explore my temporary home, see what is happening at the university - there isnt one here and it has been a long time since I've lived in a place without one. I've studied or worked at a university most of my adult life.
Udpates from yesterday include:
Yes there are trucks on the street at 4 in the morning, I have to get up every night multiple times to pee and hear them then.
I falsely accused my watch of sabotaging me in the morning. Turns out it does beep for 20 seconds, but I can't hear it with the earplugs. I won't be able to wear them mornings I really need to wake up at a certain time. But for now, I've never been so well rested in my life and it feels pretty good! But I dont think I'll be going to bed at 9 pm every night in law school.
Not much more. Tonight people stay up all night making carpets to get walked all over tomorrow. I dont know if i'll be able to see them (the procession starts at 5 am tomorrow) but apparently there'll be tons of people walking around at 2 am tonight to see the carpets.
The teacher I had for the past 2 days has been much much better, and I've had fun with her. I told her today about this other blog I read...well, used to read. She is 26 and while sometimes it took me a long time to understand a grammer point she was trying to teach - she really didn't speak English - I did appreciate enjoying myself for 5 hours every day rather than feeling like I just wanted to leave. So maybe she wasnt the best teacher but I've gotten over my intimidation at learning Spanish. For today at least.
I've pretty much decided to go to Xela on Saturday. After classes here I don't really do much, and anyone who has ever traveled with me knows that isn't my style. I also stopped into the Christan school yesterday and it is way (its all relative) expensive and most people there were older looking - it was there break - and I think I've already met the 5 students there I'd be friends with. So I feel like I will gain more by going to a new place where there seem to be a few places that will make good afternoon trips. The school might take us, or it shouldn't be too hard to go on my own if necessary. The urgency I felt about getting to Ecuador has abated a bit, perhaps because I'm going to a new place for next week, or maybe because I'm feeling like 3 1/2 months there will be a long time and once I get there, those months there might sound like an eternity. But it will be nice to explore my temporary home, see what is happening at the university - there isnt one here and it has been a long time since I've lived in a place without one. I've studied or worked at a university most of my adult life.
Udpates from yesterday include:
Yes there are trucks on the street at 4 in the morning, I have to get up every night multiple times to pee and hear them then.
I falsely accused my watch of sabotaging me in the morning. Turns out it does beep for 20 seconds, but I can't hear it with the earplugs. I won't be able to wear them mornings I really need to wake up at a certain time. But for now, I've never been so well rested in my life and it feels pretty good! But I dont think I'll be going to bed at 9 pm every night in law school.
Not much more. Tonight people stay up all night making carpets to get walked all over tomorrow. I dont know if i'll be able to see them (the procession starts at 5 am tomorrow) but apparently there'll be tons of people walking around at 2 am tonight to see the carpets.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
When it rains, it pours
Note: I wrote this yesterday and things have changed. There might be some confusion in the verb tenses, sorry.
Apparently rain isnt supposed to come to Antigua until May (which they confusingly call winter even though we are north of the equator). But it rained Monday some, and since about 5 pm today it has been raining on and off hard...this isnt just a little drizzle. Fortunately I got home this afternoon right as the heavy rain started (after getting lost). If it rained during the night last night, I don't know, because I've been wearing earplugs. I dont know how late the "chicken buses" and trucks roar down my stret (remember I got to bed at 9pm) but its nice not to have to worry about noise. For some reason the alarm on my watch wont beep when it goes off in the morning, although it does when i set it for 4 minutes from the current time at night to test it...but I always wake up earlier than I need to anyway.
School was not good today. I dont like my new teacher and asked to switch. I am also getting overwhelmed with the fact that if I do learn this language, it will all be due to rote memorization. And while I can remember the first time I met/talked to each of my friends, what I wore to job interviews etc, when I look up a phone number, I need to dial the first 3 digits, then turn back and look at the last 4. My short term memory sucks. And we're doing verbs now, which means I have to remember both definitions and the irregular stuff, like o changing to ue, etc. I dont think French had those kinds of changes. Oh how I wish that the French has been more intrepid colonizers and that perfecting my French was a useful/practical skill. In West Africa maybe, but I dont think that is where my future lies.
I'm also getting intimidated by the fact that I am planning to do this for 4 months. After only a week and a half, 4 hours a day is really hard. Since it is one-on-one instruction, I have to be focused the whole time - we do have a half hour break however. So maybe even though I have meant this trip to be about learning Spanish, not traveling, it is more realistic to do 3 or 4 weeks of studying and then a week of travel in between. The Inca Trail anyone? I hear May and June are good times to go...
Back at mi case, because the other student is very tall, they got him a new bed, and I got one too. I now have a double with a good mattress - better than my bed at home even - and that alone makes me sad to lave! I'm sure I wont have as comfortable a bed any time in the next 4 months.
Isnt there a quote from some famous person (or maybe he is famous for the quote?) about stupidity being doing the same thing you did before and expecting the same result? That is kind of me and the bathroom light. If there us a trick to getting it to work, I havent figured it out. When I click the switch, the light flickers briefly but doesnt go on. So I have to flick it numerous times. Sometimes the light goes on after 7 times, sometimes it has taken 30 (yes, I counted. Its like a little game every time I need to pee at night. In the daytime I dont even bother). Maybe its a psychological experiment like the ones they do with rats and the bar they have to press to get a pellet (fixed versus variable schedules for you other psych major) and I should be smiling for the camera every time I try to turn the light on. At least I figured out the shower. There's one knob to turn for the water, and the first 1 or 2 showers I took were pretty cold. But then I read in the Lonely Planet (aka The Bible) that turning the knob more just increases the amount of cold water added, not the pressure. When I read it, though, it didnt even occur to me that that was the problem in my bathroom, but the next time I went to take a shower I gave it a whirl and voila, warmth! A good tip for future Central America travellers.
I continue to debate going to Xela - the second biggest city in Guatemala - or staying here for the third week. If I stay here, I'll probably go to a new school. I've even thought about the Christian school, because it seems the most professional and has a lot of students, supposedly not all missionaries. And to be honest, I might have more in common in terms of social interests with missionaries my age than with free-sprited backpacker in other schools. We'll see, because I've built up this Xela school in my mind to be a nirvana. It can't be that great for $160 a week including homestay, though.
Hopefully I'll like my new teacher more tomorrow and will find myself remembering more verbs. But why does Spanish have to use a v when they never really use the sound v? It confuses me, and I feel like even if I master vocab and conjugation that it will still be extremely difficult to ever understand spoken Spanish, especially at normal speed.
Apparently rain isnt supposed to come to Antigua until May (which they confusingly call winter even though we are north of the equator). But it rained Monday some, and since about 5 pm today it has been raining on and off hard...this isnt just a little drizzle. Fortunately I got home this afternoon right as the heavy rain started (after getting lost). If it rained during the night last night, I don't know, because I've been wearing earplugs. I dont know how late the "chicken buses" and trucks roar down my stret (remember I got to bed at 9pm) but its nice not to have to worry about noise. For some reason the alarm on my watch wont beep when it goes off in the morning, although it does when i set it for 4 minutes from the current time at night to test it...but I always wake up earlier than I need to anyway.
School was not good today. I dont like my new teacher and asked to switch. I am also getting overwhelmed with the fact that if I do learn this language, it will all be due to rote memorization. And while I can remember the first time I met/talked to each of my friends, what I wore to job interviews etc, when I look up a phone number, I need to dial the first 3 digits, then turn back and look at the last 4. My short term memory sucks. And we're doing verbs now, which means I have to remember both definitions and the irregular stuff, like o changing to ue, etc. I dont think French had those kinds of changes. Oh how I wish that the French has been more intrepid colonizers and that perfecting my French was a useful/practical skill. In West Africa maybe, but I dont think that is where my future lies.
I'm also getting intimidated by the fact that I am planning to do this for 4 months. After only a week and a half, 4 hours a day is really hard. Since it is one-on-one instruction, I have to be focused the whole time - we do have a half hour break however. So maybe even though I have meant this trip to be about learning Spanish, not traveling, it is more realistic to do 3 or 4 weeks of studying and then a week of travel in between. The Inca Trail anyone? I hear May and June are good times to go...
Back at mi case, because the other student is very tall, they got him a new bed, and I got one too. I now have a double with a good mattress - better than my bed at home even - and that alone makes me sad to lave! I'm sure I wont have as comfortable a bed any time in the next 4 months.
Isnt there a quote from some famous person (or maybe he is famous for the quote?) about stupidity being doing the same thing you did before and expecting the same result? That is kind of me and the bathroom light. If there us a trick to getting it to work, I havent figured it out. When I click the switch, the light flickers briefly but doesnt go on. So I have to flick it numerous times. Sometimes the light goes on after 7 times, sometimes it has taken 30 (yes, I counted. Its like a little game every time I need to pee at night. In the daytime I dont even bother). Maybe its a psychological experiment like the ones they do with rats and the bar they have to press to get a pellet (fixed versus variable schedules for you other psych major) and I should be smiling for the camera every time I try to turn the light on. At least I figured out the shower. There's one knob to turn for the water, and the first 1 or 2 showers I took were pretty cold. But then I read in the Lonely Planet (aka The Bible) that turning the knob more just increases the amount of cold water added, not the pressure. When I read it, though, it didnt even occur to me that that was the problem in my bathroom, but the next time I went to take a shower I gave it a whirl and voila, warmth! A good tip for future Central America travellers.
I continue to debate going to Xela - the second biggest city in Guatemala - or staying here for the third week. If I stay here, I'll probably go to a new school. I've even thought about the Christian school, because it seems the most professional and has a lot of students, supposedly not all missionaries. And to be honest, I might have more in common in terms of social interests with missionaries my age than with free-sprited backpacker in other schools. We'll see, because I've built up this Xela school in my mind to be a nirvana. It can't be that great for $160 a week including homestay, though.
Hopefully I'll like my new teacher more tomorrow and will find myself remembering more verbs. But why does Spanish have to use a v when they never really use the sound v? It confuses me, and I feel like even if I master vocab and conjugation that it will still be extremely difficult to ever understand spoken Spanish, especially at normal speed.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Religion, religion!...RELIGION!
Quickly:
There is another student at my house. He is 19 and from Suriname, but has lived in Amsterdam for the past 3 years with his sisters. He has been in Guatemala for a few weeks already so his Spanish is ok, plus he speaks about 4 other languages. And, get this: he is Jewish too. Who would have thought there'd be 2 Jewish students in the same family during Easter week in Guatemala? Not me. (He is really only half, but still).
So Semana Santa. I dont have time to explain too much, but before I got here I knew there'd be carpets. I pictured roll out the red carpet carpets. Then once I was here I heard they were made of sawdust. I didnt really understand, but figured it was sawdust plus glue or something. No. What they do is lay sawdust in a big rectangle on the street. Then they use stencils and colored sawdust to make a design on the carpet. Fleur-de-lis, crosses, animals, etc. Every "carpet" on the street is different and they dont do the same design every year (I guess it is families or friends who make each carpet). People stay up all night making them. Or, they are carpets of flowers, with long pine needles as a base. And flowers for the design (or vegetables). Then there is a procession. Yesterday it was from 8 am to 9:30 pm. It included many (a few hundred) men and boys dressed in the bright purple gowns plus white head things that looked like what sheiks were, with a purple band. By 5 pm they looked like they were just plodding along. Some talked on their cell phone, some walked hand in hand with a girlfriend, some carried a baby. I guess they didn't look that involved in it to me. And then came about 40 men carrying a big float with lifesize figured on top of Jesus and other people (I dont know my New Testament, sorry). Plus some flowers. Apparently it weighs 100 pounds on the shoulder of each man carrying it. There is a guy at the front of the "float" that is the Christ figure. He walks on the carpets. The ones that people stayed up all night making? Yeah, those. It ruins them. Then there's a band following the Jesus float, playing funeral marches and other songs, and then more floats. The bands walk on the carpet too. I saw people following and picking up the flowers, and apparently sometimes the carpets have bread on them as decoration and kids run to pick it up to eat it, and mothers pick up the veggies. It is amazing to me that in a poor country people would spend what must be a relatively large amount of money on materials for these carpets. I guess many dollars in the past 5000+ years have been spent on religion, and I'll just never really get it. The carpets are very pretty and are usually colorful, but the procession itself does nothing for me and I would rather walk on a crowd-free street looking at carpets than be in a mass of people straining to get a glimpse of the float. The carpets are supposedly the best on Good Friday.
More religion: I went to dinner last night with the girl I met from Sweden, the 2 girls I met at lunch yesterday, plus some people from their school including a 60-ish couple from Michigan. All the others except me and the Swedish girl were Christians, although not all th students at the christian school are. We prayed before we ate. The couple from Michigan wants to move here as permanent residents and do mission work. The British girl I met yesterday is living just over the border from Texas in Mexico and building a safe house/community center for former prostitutes with a friend. It was so nice to be with people my age and have fun talking about things! I am meeting some of them for a movie this aftenoon. It is also nice to have plans and not have to figure out what to do to fill the day without being too bored or lonely.
Hmm, I've distilled the Samana Santa stuff into something less interesting than it actually is. The churches have sawdust carpets, too. Last week one day each church had one, this week is the same. And there will be multiple processions on some days. All the people here means it feels a little safer to walk back to the house at night - last night was my latest night out. I got back around 9 pm! I think it will work out well to see friend in the afternoon, go home for dinner and then study until bedtime.
There is another student at my house. He is 19 and from Suriname, but has lived in Amsterdam for the past 3 years with his sisters. He has been in Guatemala for a few weeks already so his Spanish is ok, plus he speaks about 4 other languages. And, get this: he is Jewish too. Who would have thought there'd be 2 Jewish students in the same family during Easter week in Guatemala? Not me. (He is really only half, but still).
So Semana Santa. I dont have time to explain too much, but before I got here I knew there'd be carpets. I pictured roll out the red carpet carpets. Then once I was here I heard they were made of sawdust. I didnt really understand, but figured it was sawdust plus glue or something. No. What they do is lay sawdust in a big rectangle on the street. Then they use stencils and colored sawdust to make a design on the carpet. Fleur-de-lis, crosses, animals, etc. Every "carpet" on the street is different and they dont do the same design every year (I guess it is families or friends who make each carpet). People stay up all night making them. Or, they are carpets of flowers, with long pine needles as a base. And flowers for the design (or vegetables). Then there is a procession. Yesterday it was from 8 am to 9:30 pm. It included many (a few hundred) men and boys dressed in the bright purple gowns plus white head things that looked like what sheiks were, with a purple band. By 5 pm they looked like they were just plodding along. Some talked on their cell phone, some walked hand in hand with a girlfriend, some carried a baby. I guess they didn't look that involved in it to me. And then came about 40 men carrying a big float with lifesize figured on top of Jesus and other people (I dont know my New Testament, sorry). Plus some flowers. Apparently it weighs 100 pounds on the shoulder of each man carrying it. There is a guy at the front of the "float" that is the Christ figure. He walks on the carpets. The ones that people stayed up all night making? Yeah, those. It ruins them. Then there's a band following the Jesus float, playing funeral marches and other songs, and then more floats. The bands walk on the carpet too. I saw people following and picking up the flowers, and apparently sometimes the carpets have bread on them as decoration and kids run to pick it up to eat it, and mothers pick up the veggies. It is amazing to me that in a poor country people would spend what must be a relatively large amount of money on materials for these carpets. I guess many dollars in the past 5000+ years have been spent on religion, and I'll just never really get it. The carpets are very pretty and are usually colorful, but the procession itself does nothing for me and I would rather walk on a crowd-free street looking at carpets than be in a mass of people straining to get a glimpse of the float. The carpets are supposedly the best on Good Friday.
More religion: I went to dinner last night with the girl I met from Sweden, the 2 girls I met at lunch yesterday, plus some people from their school including a 60-ish couple from Michigan. All the others except me and the Swedish girl were Christians, although not all th students at the christian school are. We prayed before we ate. The couple from Michigan wants to move here as permanent residents and do mission work. The British girl I met yesterday is living just over the border from Texas in Mexico and building a safe house/community center for former prostitutes with a friend. It was so nice to be with people my age and have fun talking about things! I am meeting some of them for a movie this aftenoon. It is also nice to have plans and not have to figure out what to do to fill the day without being too bored or lonely.
Hmm, I've distilled the Samana Santa stuff into something less interesting than it actually is. The churches have sawdust carpets, too. Last week one day each church had one, this week is the same. And there will be multiple processions on some days. All the people here means it feels a little safer to walk back to the house at night - last night was my latest night out. I got back around 9 pm! I think it will work out well to see friend in the afternoon, go home for dinner and then study until bedtime.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
On the road again...
I love blog comments (hint hint). They're almost as good as getting emails. Thanks to the two people who write them!
So I wrote earlier about how sometimes the journey is more interesting than the destination. Well, yesterday I thought my journey was going to BE my destination...
I decided on Friday that I wanted to go to Lake Atitlan, which is supposed to be the most beautiful part of Guatemala. I've seen pretty lakes before - one in Chile I cant remember the name of, in Swizerland (also cant remember the name), so I was skeptical. I also was undecisive so didn't get a chance to book a 6 am shuttle to Panajachel (the sort of gateway town on the lake), from one of the many travel agencies, because I realized I might as well do it with my host family or I would feel bad. But then their office was closed, and neither parent was at dinner, so I couldn't do it. So I decided to take a direct Pullman (coach) bus to Panajachel that left at 7 am since I didn't need an advance ticket. I've been waking up early anyway, (I have no friends to go out with, so I go to sleep early too). So I was up around 6 and it was actually nice to walk through the city when it wasnt busy. The bus left around 7:05, and was supposed to be direct. I figured this meant that if you didn't get on at Antigua, you didnt get on at all. Not true. While the bus may not have detoured, it definitely picked up people along the way, who ended up having to stand in the aisle (all the tourists got on at Antigua, so none of us were standing). About an hour into the journey, the conductor guy (who collects the money, not the driver) yelled out to everyone to duck because there were police on the side of the highway. When I was on a "public bus" in Zambia to go to Victoria Falls, we actually got stopped by the police, who were claiming it was only one set for a person, not two..but they let us go without a fuss in a minute or too. So the whole "duck for the cops" thing was kind of old hat for me. And we didnt get stopped. One of the ladies who boarded the bus had a basket of tortillas and cooked veggie (and who knows what else) and was selling them to people on the bus before she hopped off.
Then about 1 hour 40 minutes in, we came to a part of the highway where all the cars were stopped. This is the Pan American Highway, by the way, which I think goes from Mexico (and the US?) to South America. In Guate it is one lane in each direction. So people were out of their cars and buses, but about 3 minutes later we started moving. Not too bad of a wait! Then 20 seconds later we stopped again. Aparently there is construction on the highway so 2 or 3 times where you have to wait for 20 minutes are not uncommon. And then some buses in front of us started turning around. And then we did, too. The conductor yelled out something, and a lot of the local people got off. But he didnt give any more information. I really had no idea if we were going back to Antigua or what. After about 10 minutes we turned off the main highway and squeezed our way through a small town. I felt comfortable that we were going the right way because other cars and buses were going the same way, including an armoured car. Anyway, once we made it past the town (which had many inhabitants standing on their "lawns" - I dont think it is every day that a parade of vehicles goes through the town) we hit a dirt road. And then started winding our way up and down through a canyon. In an old Greyhound bus. Awesome. I think I was more worried about a breakdown than anything else, because I dont think Greyhounds were built for dirt roads (good thing it isnt the rainy season). The conductor and driver actually stopped the bus a few times, got out and did something outside the bus. I'm not sure I would have wanted to know what! It was encouraging every time we saw a sign for "Panajachel" because it meant we were still heading there, but discouraging when we got to a sign pointing Pana to the right...and we went left. But finally, after 3 1/2 hours (instead of the supposed 2 1/2), we got to Panajachel! The worst part for me was not being sure if we'd have to go back that way (there were clearly buses and shuttles running in the opposite direction through the mountains, too).
In Pana I bought a shuttle ticket back to Antigua, to be sure I'd be able to get back, and then headed down to the down to catch a boat to Santiago Atitlan, which one book called the most interesting town on the lake. There are a few more, one which has multiple Spanish schools and a hippy-laid back-"'grass' is grown there" vibe which isnt me at all, so I wasnt really interested in going there. To get to Santiago, there's a public ferry that takes more than an hour, and "lanchas" which take half an hour, and are still public, but leave only when full. I headed to a lancha, which wanted way more than I expected to pay (50 quetzales round trip, at 7.8 to $1) so I said I didn't have that much (and meant it, as I was supposed to get change from the shuttle company later) and walked away. Without meaning to, that was a successful bargaining strategy because they brought it down to 40 RT. Anyway, I have to say that Panajachel, the lake itself and Santiago Atitlan would all fall under my category of "not nearly as charming/beautiful/interesting (pick your own positive adjective) as the books say they are." I do realize that you cant have the same standards as in the US or Europe, but I just didnt find them that appealing, and the lake wasnt a pretty color, nor were the mountains/volcanoes surrounding it green (maybe it was just the season). Anyway, I was done with Atitlan pretty quickly. I suppose that I wasnt appreciative enough that many indigenous people live there, and wear colorful woven clothing - the men in capri length shorts, the women in long skirts, but I dont know much about the Mayan culture so cant distinguish the differen "tribes" (I dont think they are called tribes). There are about 20 different Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala.
Back in Pana I killed time eating lunch slowly (18 quetzales, about $2.50 for a drink - don't know what it was, it was kind of like coconut milk, fried chicken, rice, veggies, potatoes and tortillas - not a bad deal! There's a place in Antigua also with a set menu for 18 Q that includes soup too, and I've eaten there twice..it is going to be hard to eat anywhere else when I know what I can get there, and the "menu del dia" changes daily) and looking at guidebooks in a used bookstore where I spoke with an Australian lady. She complained about being a permanent resident of Canada and having to go back every 5 years to keep that status. I guess I don't feel like it is that unreasonable for a country where you aren't actually living to ask you to do that every so often! She also complained that her partner couldn't get permanent residency in Australia, where they wanted to live, because the government decided he wouldnt be working and therefore wouldnt provide much tax revenue. Again, I think it might be within a country's right to decide who they want there (if one isnt an asylum seeker with nowhere else to go), plus she could have just married him. People are funny politically. I was kind of glad to have to leave the store to get to the shuttle.
Which left late. Fortunately, the highway was cleared by then - apparently it was a mudslide from the night before. There were 3 in the shuttle at first, all of us American, then we picked up two more people from another shuttle at a gas station, and one happened to be a an American college student (from Llyod's university!) studying at the school I have been thinking of moving to in another city for my third week. He is there with 23 other students from his school, and had nothing but good things to say about the spanish school, so maybe it is fate that I talked to him? So last night I was all set on moving to Xela (shay-la) for the third week, and even leaving on Saturday because I think I will have had enough of Easter celebrations by then (so much to say about that...another day though). But then today I met 2 girls (one American, one British) who are studying at a school here - a Christian school - and they are nice and I'm meeting them and others for dinner, and a girl I met the other day who I hung out with emailed me to say she's still in town. And all I really want is friends. While I think the quality of my school is ok, I made a bad choice to go to a small one. Yes immersion at my school is easier, but I dont know much Spanish and I'm more interested in having friends at the moment, because that is what will make me happier for now. So we will see. I keep going back and forth between wishing I wasn't in Guatemala for 3 weeks, and wishing I was here longer!
I have so much more to write about but I've struggled with this sticky keyboard enough.
So I wrote earlier about how sometimes the journey is more interesting than the destination. Well, yesterday I thought my journey was going to BE my destination...
I decided on Friday that I wanted to go to Lake Atitlan, which is supposed to be the most beautiful part of Guatemala. I've seen pretty lakes before - one in Chile I cant remember the name of, in Swizerland (also cant remember the name), so I was skeptical. I also was undecisive so didn't get a chance to book a 6 am shuttle to Panajachel (the sort of gateway town on the lake), from one of the many travel agencies, because I realized I might as well do it with my host family or I would feel bad. But then their office was closed, and neither parent was at dinner, so I couldn't do it. So I decided to take a direct Pullman (coach) bus to Panajachel that left at 7 am since I didn't need an advance ticket. I've been waking up early anyway, (I have no friends to go out with, so I go to sleep early too). So I was up around 6 and it was actually nice to walk through the city when it wasnt busy. The bus left around 7:05, and was supposed to be direct. I figured this meant that if you didn't get on at Antigua, you didnt get on at all. Not true. While the bus may not have detoured, it definitely picked up people along the way, who ended up having to stand in the aisle (all the tourists got on at Antigua, so none of us were standing). About an hour into the journey, the conductor guy (who collects the money, not the driver) yelled out to everyone to duck because there were police on the side of the highway. When I was on a "public bus" in Zambia to go to Victoria Falls, we actually got stopped by the police, who were claiming it was only one set for a person, not two..but they let us go without a fuss in a minute or too. So the whole "duck for the cops" thing was kind of old hat for me. And we didnt get stopped. One of the ladies who boarded the bus had a basket of tortillas and cooked veggie (and who knows what else) and was selling them to people on the bus before she hopped off.
Then about 1 hour 40 minutes in, we came to a part of the highway where all the cars were stopped. This is the Pan American Highway, by the way, which I think goes from Mexico (and the US?) to South America. In Guate it is one lane in each direction. So people were out of their cars and buses, but about 3 minutes later we started moving. Not too bad of a wait! Then 20 seconds later we stopped again. Aparently there is construction on the highway so 2 or 3 times where you have to wait for 20 minutes are not uncommon. And then some buses in front of us started turning around. And then we did, too. The conductor yelled out something, and a lot of the local people got off. But he didnt give any more information. I really had no idea if we were going back to Antigua or what. After about 10 minutes we turned off the main highway and squeezed our way through a small town. I felt comfortable that we were going the right way because other cars and buses were going the same way, including an armoured car. Anyway, once we made it past the town (which had many inhabitants standing on their "lawns" - I dont think it is every day that a parade of vehicles goes through the town) we hit a dirt road. And then started winding our way up and down through a canyon. In an old Greyhound bus. Awesome. I think I was more worried about a breakdown than anything else, because I dont think Greyhounds were built for dirt roads (good thing it isnt the rainy season). The conductor and driver actually stopped the bus a few times, got out and did something outside the bus. I'm not sure I would have wanted to know what! It was encouraging every time we saw a sign for "Panajachel" because it meant we were still heading there, but discouraging when we got to a sign pointing Pana to the right...and we went left. But finally, after 3 1/2 hours (instead of the supposed 2 1/2), we got to Panajachel! The worst part for me was not being sure if we'd have to go back that way (there were clearly buses and shuttles running in the opposite direction through the mountains, too).
In Pana I bought a shuttle ticket back to Antigua, to be sure I'd be able to get back, and then headed down to the down to catch a boat to Santiago Atitlan, which one book called the most interesting town on the lake. There are a few more, one which has multiple Spanish schools and a hippy-laid back-"'grass' is grown there" vibe which isnt me at all, so I wasnt really interested in going there. To get to Santiago, there's a public ferry that takes more than an hour, and "lanchas" which take half an hour, and are still public, but leave only when full. I headed to a lancha, which wanted way more than I expected to pay (50 quetzales round trip, at 7.8 to $1) so I said I didn't have that much (and meant it, as I was supposed to get change from the shuttle company later) and walked away. Without meaning to, that was a successful bargaining strategy because they brought it down to 40 RT. Anyway, I have to say that Panajachel, the lake itself and Santiago Atitlan would all fall under my category of "not nearly as charming/beautiful/interesting (pick your own positive adjective) as the books say they are." I do realize that you cant have the same standards as in the US or Europe, but I just didnt find them that appealing, and the lake wasnt a pretty color, nor were the mountains/volcanoes surrounding it green (maybe it was just the season). Anyway, I was done with Atitlan pretty quickly. I suppose that I wasnt appreciative enough that many indigenous people live there, and wear colorful woven clothing - the men in capri length shorts, the women in long skirts, but I dont know much about the Mayan culture so cant distinguish the differen "tribes" (I dont think they are called tribes). There are about 20 different Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala.
Back in Pana I killed time eating lunch slowly (18 quetzales, about $2.50 for a drink - don't know what it was, it was kind of like coconut milk, fried chicken, rice, veggies, potatoes and tortillas - not a bad deal! There's a place in Antigua also with a set menu for 18 Q that includes soup too, and I've eaten there twice..it is going to be hard to eat anywhere else when I know what I can get there, and the "menu del dia" changes daily) and looking at guidebooks in a used bookstore where I spoke with an Australian lady. She complained about being a permanent resident of Canada and having to go back every 5 years to keep that status. I guess I don't feel like it is that unreasonable for a country where you aren't actually living to ask you to do that every so often! She also complained that her partner couldn't get permanent residency in Australia, where they wanted to live, because the government decided he wouldnt be working and therefore wouldnt provide much tax revenue. Again, I think it might be within a country's right to decide who they want there (if one isnt an asylum seeker with nowhere else to go), plus she could have just married him. People are funny politically. I was kind of glad to have to leave the store to get to the shuttle.
Which left late. Fortunately, the highway was cleared by then - apparently it was a mudslide from the night before. There were 3 in the shuttle at first, all of us American, then we picked up two more people from another shuttle at a gas station, and one happened to be a an American college student (from Llyod's university!) studying at the school I have been thinking of moving to in another city for my third week. He is there with 23 other students from his school, and had nothing but good things to say about the spanish school, so maybe it is fate that I talked to him? So last night I was all set on moving to Xela (shay-la) for the third week, and even leaving on Saturday because I think I will have had enough of Easter celebrations by then (so much to say about that...another day though). But then today I met 2 girls (one American, one British) who are studying at a school here - a Christian school - and they are nice and I'm meeting them and others for dinner, and a girl I met the other day who I hung out with emailed me to say she's still in town. And all I really want is friends. While I think the quality of my school is ok, I made a bad choice to go to a small one. Yes immersion at my school is easier, but I dont know much Spanish and I'm more interested in having friends at the moment, because that is what will make me happier for now. So we will see. I keep going back and forth between wishing I wasn't in Guatemala for 3 weeks, and wishing I was here longer!
I have so much more to write about but I've struggled with this sticky keyboard enough.
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