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Published: March 4th 2009
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I can hardly believe that 4 weeks have since passed since I arrived in Guatemala. I have one more week left of school before I continue the rest of my Central American journey, first around Guatemala and then continuing south towards Nicaragua & Costa Rica.
In my attempt to cover as much of the grammer as possible during the time that I had. I slowly started to increase my hours, first from 4 to 5 hours, then from 5 to 8 hours per day. Why I chose this amount of torture, I will never know - but it certainly has been a very exhausting experience.
Trying to speak in Spanish with other students at a more advanced level than you or with locals not wanting to help you or speak slowly can be a very stressfull experience. I learnt this all to well after the end of my second week in school. It came in the form of a Frenchman who sat next to me in ‘Café 2000’ as I sat there watching the movie ‘Australia’. As we completed the usual opening questions (in Spanish, of course!) of Hello, what is your name, what do you do, where do
you study…blah blah blah!! I soon got to realise that he actually wasn’t a student, but someone working in a village about an hour outside of Antigua. At first he was insistent on correcting me and telling me to stop talking in the present tense (ie “I eat”) when I was trying to describe the past
“Duh!!” I said. “I know that, but I haven’t learnt the other tenses yet!” - Men! 😞.
Nevertheless, he seemed harmless enough, so in for a penny, in for a pound - I don’t know why, but I said yes to a drink! I discovered that he was the only foreigner in his village and as a result had no choice but to learn Spanish fast. He fixed violins and taught people how to play (I think?) - How much call there was for that line of work in a small village outside of Antigua - I am not sure, but hey we all have to make a living somehow! We ended up in a small bar called ‘Café No Se’ - a very grungy bar with a piano & trumpet player playing the blues to a group of very bored looking
people. We were accosted by a very drunk Scottish ecologist (never met one of those before) in Antigua working on a conference or project who proceeded to interrogate the Frenchman on being “French”; and the barman for being “pro-American” - Needless to say it was all going to end badly for someone. It didn't take long for me to realise that the Frenchman didn't have very much to say after all and was content to sit at the bar & brood over his beer, chain smoking his entire packet of cigarettes. I downed my drink & used that as my cue to say “Adieu” & I made my getaway back home for the night.
Chichicastenago During my third week, I went with my school to the town of Chichicastenango for their weekly Thursday & Sunday markets. The town is approximately 2 hours from Antigua (not too far from Lago de Atitlan) and has since been made famous because of the markets themselves. I wasn’t there long enough to see anything else but was told that really, there wasn’t that much to see to begin with. The place has now become a tourist junket for anyone wanting to get the
tres maestras en Chichi...
Angelica, Vicki & Stephanie usual assortment of things like paintings, weavings and carvings - but it is has long since stopped being a bargain. I could get the same things in the artisan markets in Antigua, cheaper than what I was being offered in Chichi. In essence it was a wasted journey - And I’d rather wish that someone had told me prior to going so that I would have saved myself the 4 hour return journey & the lost classes….but hey Ce la vie! I did buy myself a very nice, very colourful ‘cubrecama’ (bed cover) to remind me of Guatemala, when I eventually get home and have to drag myself back into the office…..😞.
8 hours of torture I was progressingly nicely in my classes during my third week & was mananging to have small conversations with my host family & the shop owners - but this wasn’t enough for me!! So I asked to increase my hours from 5 to 8 hours for the remaining 2 weeks that I had left in Antigua. This essentially meant that I had classes from 8 - 12pm & 2 - 6pm every day.
That fourth week was absolute torture! My week
passed by in one giant blur. I would complete 4 hours of classes, run back home to have lunch & have a 30 minute break before heading back to school for a further 4 hours. I would drink 3 cups of coffee a day to keep myself from falling asleep and was no longer able to form sentence structures after the 6th hour with my teacher. By the end of the 8th hour my brain was fried and I could do no more. I couldn’t even speak English by this stage let alone remember how to say hello in Spanish. As soon as class was over - I would drag myself back to the house to rest some more before dinner only to drag myself out again for some drinks & dancing with the other students.
By Friday evening, the end of my 8 hours felt like I had won the lottery. I had exceeded capacity and could take no more. I went home in a blur and did not want to speak to another person for the rest of the evening. I barely had time to remove my backpack before crashing out, almost falling asleep before my head
hit the pillow….My rest, however, was very shortlived! (A mere 2 hour nap time) It was Friday night after all! I spent the rest of the night out to dinner with some of the students (albeit in a rather stupefied state) - another cup of coffee (this time with a bit of alcohol mixed in) wouldn’t kill me….It was only 4 cups today….
What did I learn?...................Ummm. I don’t remember! (Just kidding…)
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