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.