Advertisement
Published: December 14th 2009
Hi There,
Well, I´ve been here about 2 months & have learned lots of Spanish but make TONS of mistakes everytime I open my mouth and have a very hard time understanding locals, kids, well basically a lot of people that don´t speak as clearly as my teachers and as slowly as other students. To help solve this problem I have been listening to talk radio in Spanish and trying to watch Spanish movies when I get the chance.
Willie will be here in just a few days. He will spend 15 glorious days with me. We will begin our adventure in an incredibly beautiful city called Antigua. It´s pretty much geared towards tourists and middle/upper class Guatemaltecos so it´s much more expensive than the rest of Guate but is still less expensive than the US. Our hotel room will cost $22 a night, so that´s not too bad. After a few days we will head off to Tikal to visit some of the Mayan ruins, then we will head off to the georgeous Lake Atitlan for Christmas. Then we will spend a week here in Xela together. My teachers can´t wait to meet him & I can´t wait
to introduce them. I will be sure to post pictures.
On December 12th the Catholic church celebrated Our Lady of Guadelupe. It was very beautiful. The central park was filled with manger scenes including live goats, pictures of the Virgin, and the local children were dressed in traditional clothing. The boys also had drawn on mustaches. I´m not really sure what that was about but they were very cute. There was lots of live music and I watched a marimba band play that was very good.
Earlier I went to a ¨museum¨ of the weaving tools that are used to make traditional Mayan suits ¨Traje¨that are used for special occasions. This museum was located in the back of someones house. It was very small but actually the experience was pretty cool because I got to try out the weaving loom. The technique they used was pretty complicated for beginners like me but was also fun.
Yesterday I saw my first movie at the Cine in Xela. I went with 4 other students & we saw Scrooge in Spanish without subtitles. It was a fun time & I will definately go back to this theater. It costs about
$3 for new movies which is pretty expensive for locals (my teacher tells me). Right now they are playing New Moon in English w-Spanish subtitles. Hopefully, Willie and I will see this together. Well, that´s all for now.
Until next time........Your Friend, Tamara
Advertisement
Tot: 0.15s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0415s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mary Ann
non-member comment
Thanks for the update.
Dearest Tamara, As always, it was great to hear from you and to hear about your Spanish progress and most current adventures. The photos are really great to see. The weaving you were doing looked amazing. I remember meeting an older woman who had woven a likeness of former President Eisenhower (sp.?) that was so fantastic it looked like a photograph. And I am so happy for you that Willie will be there soon (in fact, I think he's there now! Yay!). It sounds like you have wonderful plans. I've stayed in Antigua, which is just a beautiful little "city." Again, thanks so much for the update. You are doing so well (the heck with the mistakes!). Listening to Spanish radio and watching Spanish TV will help because they speak clearly, but fast, so that should really help your hearing adjust. I look forward to your next update. Much love to you and Willie. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Mary Ann