Friday, December 9, 2005

For the past two weeks, we actually had routine. We set an alarm every night, went to bed at a decent hour and got up at a 6:30 (ish) every morning. It's been a bit weird. We really looked forward to the weekends. Language school is work. I mean, don't get all riled up, I know it's not work like, well, you're probably doing. We're sitting in a shady spot across from a nice person, drinking free tea and practicing a language we really want to learn. But one-on-one classes are a unique experience. It's tough being the only student because we have to pay attention every single minute. There's never a chance to let our attention wander, and four hours is a long time. If we're doing an exercise with twenty sentences, we have to do every single one ourselves. Even during the more relaxed times when the teacher is telling a little story about Guatemala, we still have to focus our entire brains on it if we want to understand their Spanish.

We're not feeling sorry for ourselves, but after months of not even knowing what day it is, let alone caring, we have really been looking forward to taking a break from this schedule business. And it's funny. I have had so much information given to me that my brain has gotten confused and doesn't know what to do with it, and now I feel like I know less Spanish than I did when I started. I used to have the present tense down pat, but now that I have the past perfect and imperfect and the simple future and future, even when I try to say something in the present tense, my brain scrambles around so much for verb endings that I end up not being able to say anything at all. I'm hoping this will pass though, because I'm used to things like that taking a while to sink in and then waking up one morning and understanding.

So while we're waiting for that to happen, here are some tidbits of our two weeks in Antigua:

Guatemala is a small country and it has a deeply-worn gringo trail. So even way down in Antigua we've seen a few of the people we rode with on the tourist mini-bus to Flores. And while I was over at the Funky Monkey checking my e-mail, Michael ran into Julien in the Parque Central. You know Julien, the one who we didn't go to Bethel with. He and Michael spent an hour or so juggling in the park. Michael didn't understand why this news excited me so much, but I really wanted to know what happened to Julien because I figured that's what would have happened to us if we hadn't come in to Guatemala the dumb way. It was like a real live Choose Your Own Adventure book, where we could actually go back and find out exactly what would have happened if we had chosen to turn to page 27 instead of page 32.

But it was kind of anti-climactic. Julien couldn't find anyone else to share the lancha to Bethel, but they gave him a discount and he crossed alone. From Bethel he took a bus to Flores, which he didn't like much. Yawn. Now that I'm well-showered and not thirsty, I'm glad we had the howler monkeys and the Quiché girls and the nice guys with the gun and the truck and the sunset hour of swimming with Gaia, though I still feel I could have done without the tarantula. Julien didn't seem to care one way or another about the choice we'd made and what the result had been.

In Antigua we've seen lots and lots of kids working and they are a sharp contrast to the kids who are just kids. We ate at a nice restaurant one evening and saw a family - two parents and a little boy - eating, when another little boy came up with an armful of necklaces. The parents just gave him the quick "no" headshake and he went on to the next table. Their son did not bat an eye. There are tiny children hard at work shining shoes or selling trinkets in Antigua and sometimes they go up to parents with children who don't have to do that, and I wonder how they feel about that.

Sometimes we've seen a little boy shining the shoes of another little boy his own age. No difference between the two except the shoeshine boy is skinnier and dirtier and might not have been able to eat if the other boy hadn't scuffed up his shoes. Despite the two weeks of school, my Spanish is not sufficient to ask what the shoeshine boys think of the situation. I wonder how much they think about it, if at all, this invisible difference that separates them from other kids. I don't think I'm going to get used to seeing these kids out working, but I guess I prefer not to get used to it.

My birthday passed on the weekend between our two weeks of school. I can't believe I'm thirty years old. Michael woke me up with a pair of amber earrings from Mexico. I was not surprised to see them because when we were in the market at San Cristobal I had stopped to admire some earrings and Michael blurted out, "Whatever you do, don't get any amber earrings!" Anyway, they are lovely. After that we went to breakfast at Cafe Condessa where I had an amazing quiche Lorraine. Then Michael surprised me with an afternoon at the spa... massage, facial, manicure and pedicure. He is so sweet. Still, thirty. That is something to think about

We have decided to go home for the holidays. Michael's sister is graduating from college and really wants Michael there. Since his father offered to buy the tickets, we really had no reason not to go, and then since the graduation is so close to Christmas... so we'll fly to Charlotte for a few days and then I'll go up to NYC to spend Christmas with my grandfather, and then we'll fly back to Guatemala City on Dec. 28th.

Since we are flying into the same place we flew out of, the use of a plane will not be cheating. The fact that in three and a half hours we can backtrack what it took us over one hundred hours to do by bus is a bit disconcerting, but it's ok because the journey is the destination.

So, right, we're going home to take a vacation from our vacation. (Sushi! Indian food! Couch! My Super Sweet Sixteen!) But first we're going to Chichicastenango to do a little Christmas shopping.


HOURS OF SPANISH CLASSES: 40

 

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View of Volcan Agua from our route to school.

Ismael, 8 and Carlos, 5 - taking a break from looking for shoeshine customers.

At the spa.

Antigua hosts he most beautiful McDonald's in the world.

I finally got the nerve to take a pic with Dr. Simi!!

December 7th is the Fiesta de La Virgen de Inmaculada Concepción which Guatemalans celebrate with La Quema del Diablo (Burning of the Devil) when they burn their garbage and unwanted items in this street. This girl seems to be burning her homework.

Brand new ten Quetzal notes, in serial number order.

My friend Zack in NYC bought a copy of Thong... fitting, since I workshopped the story in his writing group! Thanks, Zack!