I’m not sure where to begin! Arriving in Guatemala City was a lot like arriving in Trinidad in one sense….people and vendors and beggars and taxis were everywhere! The culture here is so different it makes the similarities stand out. The roads are…roads. Not freeways, even the freeways! There was traffic everywhere Sunday since it was Election Day. The cars are usually older, and no one really uses air conditioning. Why would they when it’s only 75◦ outside? The same little shops line the roadways, people walking everywhere, and most of the roofs are corrugated tin. Houses are jammed together, and the humidity is 85% on a good day!
(the fountain in "Central Park")
Then there are the differences….The country is incredibly beautiful. Rivers, mountains, and the beautiful volcanoes in the background. The climate is great…75 for a high in the day and 65 for a low at night. What makes the heat or the cold is the humidity. (the fountain in "Central Park" ) It is comfortable when the temperature is 75 if you are standing still in the shade, but if you walk or do anything, especially in the sun, it is so humid that you begin to sweat just because there is no evaporation. And a humid 65 feels cold due to the dampness that is everywhere at night.
My family is very nice. The mother is Consuela, and she is very nice. Her husband
had surgery Monday, so we have not really met him yet. She has three daughters. One is very friendly, has three older children, and does a lot of the cooking. Actually, all the daughters cook…a lot! There is a lot of family around to feed. I’m still not sure who lives here all the time, but the family is very welcoming and nice. They take in several students at a time, and Sunday night an American family (Greg and Kristi) who are living in Cuba came to study as well. The family has two daughters, and they are dolls! Lexi is 2 and a pistol, and the baby is as happy as she can be. Here is my house....I have the room next to the "garage" which is the front door!
School started Monday, and the professors IMMEDIATELY diagnosed me as a beginner….might have something to do with the French words I was throwing in. And that has proven to be a real problem, especially since the student they paired me with also speaks French. He is from Sweden, and is a student of American History (?). His name is Martin and he’s 32. Today, we had a substitute instructor who also spoke French! Martin just looked at him and said “Don’t go there…trust me…we’ve already been!” Martin’s English is amazing. He has just a bit of North Carolina there, since he lived for a year as an exchange student in Raleigh. But if I say anything else in French…he may kill me and tell God I died!
School is only in the mornings, and I’ve found my way around enough that I’ve found a WI-Fi café. So below are some pictures of what I’ve seen so far in Antigua.
Then there are the differences….The country is incredibly beautiful. Rivers, mountains, and the beautiful volcanoes in the background. The climate is great…75 for a high in the day and 65 for a low at night. What makes the heat or the cold is the humidity. (the fountain in "Central Park" ) It is comfortable when the temperature is 75 if you are standing still in the shade, but if you walk or do anything, especially in the sun, it is so humid that you begin to sweat just because there is no evaporation. And a humid 65 feels cold due to the dampness that is everywhere at night.
My family is very nice. The mother is Consuela, and she is very nice. Her husband
had surgery Monday, so we have not really met him yet. She has three daughters. One is very friendly, has three older children, and does a lot of the cooking. Actually, all the daughters cook…a lot! There is a lot of family around to feed. I’m still not sure who lives here all the time, but the family is very welcoming and nice. They take in several students at a time, and Sunday night an American family (Greg and Kristi) who are living in Cuba came to study as well. The family has two daughters, and they are dolls! Lexi is 2 and a pistol, and the baby is as happy as she can be. Here is my house....I have the room next to the "garage" which is the front door!School started Monday, and the professors IMMEDIATELY diagnosed me as a beginner….might have something to do with the French words I was throwing in. And that has proven to be a real problem, especially since the student they paired me with also speaks French. He is from Sweden, and is a student of American History (?). His name is Martin and he’s 32. Today, we had a substitute instructor who also spoke French! Martin just looked at him and said “Don’t go there…trust me…we’ve already been!” Martin’s English is amazing. He has just a bit of North Carolina there, since he lived for a year as an exchange student in Raleigh. But if I say anything else in French…he may kill me and tell God I died!
School is only in the mornings, and I’ve found my way around enough that I’ve found a WI-Fi café. So below are some pictures of what I’ve seen so far in Antigua.
Here is one of the most beautiful churches in Antigua, and I live just behind it.
There are many modes of transport here.....
More later. Love you all.
4 comments:
Ah, good, some pictures! I'm glad everything is going so well. I understand about the French - even though I only took one semester of Italian, compared to 6 years of Spanish, it was just enough to permanently confuse me!
Hey! it sounds beautiful! Im glad to hear that your family is nice. Keep taking pictures.. they look great! Its great to hear from you!
First of all, Ì'm only 31, thank you very much! I don't turn 32 for another two and a half weeks, mas o menos.
And second, I don't study American history, at least not professionally. My focus of interest so far has been Sweden during the 17th and 18th centuries. But quite frankly, the English language is what interests me the most right now, screwed up as it is. What, graduate sometime soon, like this century, I hear you say? Naaaah.
Apart from that, you're right about everything. I'm as dumb as bat shit and I'm gonna tell God you died. At pilates. Or from too much Indian food. Which reminds me, I had better get out of here and meet up with you so we can have supper. I'm hungrier than three-legged dog with an appetite for cats.
(OK, I made that one up. I ain't right.)
Reality check: When I visited Antigua in the early 90's, the plaza in front of the yellow church in your photo was full of protestors - Indios from the mountains - women, children, families - come down to camp on the cobblestones, to wait for their voices to be heard: "end the disappearances, end the injustice, end the death squads, to let us live in peace on our ancestral lands." Last week, I heard on the news that the Guatemalan government kept records of the people they murdered during the 'scorched earth' years - good news for those left alive; to finally know what happened to their loved ones. If you have a chance, go visit one of the squatter settlements on the steep hills outside Guatemala city. See what greed for land and natural resources has done to destroy a once beautiful, proud people, the Queche tribes of Guatemala. Who deserves happiness at such a cost?
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