Advertisement
Published: February 21st 2006
We have begun learning to speak the language...
We arrived in Antiuga last Thursday and got ourselves situated, found our language school and host family, which are at complete opposite ends of town. Jeff and I are actually thankful for that, the walk is much appreciated after the meals we are fed. This morning alone I was served 2 banannas, 3 pieces of pinapple, a piece of papaya, 1 piece of melon, 2 pieces of bread all on one plate! plus a coffee and an orange juice. After we stuff our faces full of fruit, while our host family mother Dora watches us like a hawk, we make our way down to the spanish school about 15 min away. From 8 til 12 we have one-on-one lessons with a spanish teacher, by 12 I am unable to speak English let alone spanish... we have been experiencing continuous language farts lately.
We are going to be living in Antigua for about 2 weeks more, learning espanol and touring around. We are going to spend the weekend at this place called the Earth Lodge..it is located in between the two volcanoes that overlook the city. It is supposed to be like a beautiful ranch in the country just in between volcanoes...wow we are really roughing it right now. We will be spending the afternoon eating choco bannanas and reading spanish in the central park.
Antigua is known as a tourists haven. There are almost more tourists than there are Gutaemalans. It is the cleanest Central American town I{ve ever seen...it actually has garbage cans!!
Ok I ( Jeff ) am now tagging in with some more random thoughts... quite the team amanda and i...you will be able to tell it is me by the numerous typos and the stupid jokes
... ok guatemalans and their streets... the streets here are beautiful cobblestone streets but thats not what i wish to discuss... here{s a wierd thing... the address of the residences are all over the friggin map... it doesn{t just go 3 then 5 then 7... oh no trying to find an address here is needle in a haystack stuff...
also... who ever invented the idea of putting stop signs on the far side of an intersection? think that one through and commence head scratching...
Ok the people here... well firstly may i say something about the travellers... I have been to a few different countries... austarlia, greece, mexico ,holland etc... and let me just say that the travellers here are much more genuine , socially responsible human beings... last night i had a discussion with 2 young yanks who spent an hour ripping their own country... very strange... never had that happen before... in a 3rd world country people are here for a reason apparently and it takes a special kind of person to get off the beaten path and see what the world i really like...
the guatemalans... ok I am considered reasonably tall back in canada especially when standing next to my buddy marco or shane pisani ... sorry boys couldn{t resist! But here... well I feel like the big show.... on more than one occassion have i been caled the big gringo... i would be the yao ming of the GBA! The men , though tiny ( and i mean tiny... i helped unload a truck of building supplies last week and the four guys... well none of them over 5 feet no joke...) are immesnely strong.... many times amanda and i have seen women and men carrying either huge loads of wood on their backs on giant mounds of just about anything balanced on theri heads... truly amazing...
women here marry at an exteremely young age and it is not uncommon to see girls younger than the students i teach carrying around their own children ( kida like smiths falls! JK!)... all the mothers look so young and life is hard... you rarely see any women who look to be in their mid 20{s... due to health conditions etc... its like girsl go from 15 to 45 (not that thats old mom and dad!) over night...yet as we stated before... you can search the earth and never find a happier bunch of people...
Antigua is the safest city in antigua... and this weekend i discovered the reason... the tourist police! Now you have to understand something ... here in guatemala... there are armed guards everywhere... and by armed, i dont mean like canadian army armed! I mean shotguns! outside the banks... in armoured cars and last week in a supermarket... lets just say i made sure as to not stand reading the ingredients of the foor loop box for too long!
However, the tourist police... they are dressed in white tee shirts and green work pants... honest to god they look like gardiners! I hald expect them to go Brutus the Barber Beefcake some time and pull out the hedge clippers to teach the bad guys a lesson!
My spanish teacher is great... though i went through a mide life crisis when i discovered that my teacher is actually 5 years younger than me, the last 2 days have been great... told a few university "reading stories"... and hell we even discussed important topics like the state of professional luchadores (wrestling today!)... anyways enuff blabbering for today
we love and miss you all... and it looks like wayner and the boys might need a lil of my sniper skills over in italy so send him this address... Go canada!
jeff and amanda
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0412s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sarah Bridson
non-member comment
You're right your jokes are stupid
Hi Amanda and Jeff (gosh I feel like I should be going to detention for not saying Mr. Peters) Anyways, I noticed one line in your most recent journal that said it takes a special kinda of person to get off the beaten path. Well, let's just say there are two special people getting the job done. You guys are doing something amazing that is inspirational, and to say the least very cool. I love reading your journals and keeping updated. Continue to take care of yourselves and each other. I await the next journal. Oh and you're right Mr. Peters, your jokes are stupid but don't worry we're all used to it by now. Love, Sarah.