Dinner time

My first night I had dinner at a restaurant called Papazitos. No exactly local cuisine but since I'm vegetarian and love me some pasta it seemed like a good spot. The restaurant itself was pretty small but lovely none the less. I was the only non-local in the joint sitting at a small table in the corner.

When I was there, there was a big family that basically took up 80% of the restaurant. I would have to say there were about 12-14 adults with a few kiddos sprinkled in-between. There was also a small family of 5 sitting at a different table and I have to say that amount of affection that each family showed towards each other was so amazing. A father brushing hair out of his daughters face, husbands rubbing the backs of their wives, arms around friends, etc. I was watching culture at it's finest and it was beautiful. Growing up in Canada and living a large part of my adult life in the US it is much different!

So, I ordered fettuccine pomodoro with some Pepsi light although I was a little jealous when I saw the other table order grapette! That looked tasty! The menu was in English and Spanish so that made it easy! But I made it through the ordering process in Spanish up until one point where I didn't understand the waiter. So, I say, "No entiendo," I don't understand and he said, "Would you like some garlic bread?" Ahhh, si, gracias. :) My meal here cost 82 quetzales which is about $11 US which isn't toooo bad for dinner.

The churches of Antigua

Here are just a few of the churches in Antigua. Note that a lot of them barely have the outside walls still standing due in part to the earthquakes.

Out and about in Antigua

So, I think I got up around 5:30am on my first day despite the fact that I didn't go to bed until well after midnight! But I was excited. Thankfully Monday was a holiday (Army Day) so I didn't have classes and was able to explore on my own ALL day!

I will say that I was a BIG dork when I stepped out from the school grounds and into the cobble street roads. The sky was crystal clear and the day was just beginning. I had this AMAZING sense of freedom, of power, of gratitude when I stepped out. It literally brought tears to my eyes (this is where the dork part comes in). :) Everything was just beautiful and I could do whatever I wanted!! And what I wanted to do was explore!

I just wandered around aimlessly for hours and hours. I was astonished at the amount of old churches (many in ruins from earthquakes that hit the area).

Not only did I love the door below but it also served as a landmark since it was on the same street as the school:


If you've never been to Antigua there is a huge central park (Parque Central) in the middle of town. It was always filled with locals, school children, little kids and tourists alike. One of my favorite parts of parque central were the numerous amount of ice cream vendors! For only 2 quetzales (about 25 cents) you could get yourself a nice little ice cream cone! At one point I looked around and I could have sworn that EVERYONE had an ice cream cone and I thought to myself, man, this sure is the right place for me!

Here are some pics from the parque:








After walking around for a while I noticed that I was completely starving despite the tasty ice cream cone and I was in search for some real food. I found this really cute little restaurant called Luna de Miel that served fresh crepes. I ordered spinach and mushroom crepes with a diet coke. This was my first opportunity speaking in Spanish and I think I did pretty well until she asked me if I wanted a cup (la taza) with my pop. At this point I didn't know what a taza was, luckily pointing works fabulous when there is a language barrier!



Now, I have to warn you that buying anything on the street can be a bit of a pain in the butt. I asked to take the picture of the mom and baby below and then she pulled out a scarf for me to buy. Of course, I went ahead and bought the scarf (35 quetzales/$5 US which I didn't know at the time was expensive, I guess the average is 18 quetzales/$2.50 US) and took another picture to boot. :) The pain is that once some of the "vendors/locals" see that you've bought something they basically all come to you to sell you more stuff. No, gracias works fine and you just have to keep on walking. :)


So, one of my biggest gringa blunders of the day was not, in fact, over paying for a scarf but accidentally paying to use the bathroom! You might wonder to yourself how someone accidentally pays to use the bathroom but I'll explain that to you! I was walking around the grounds of yet another church when I saw a sign for a museo and a servicio. Not going to lie, I didn't know what servicio meant at this point either. So, I see a sign for 2 quetzales thinking it was either the museo or a servicio, whatever that was. I pay the lovely lady her money and she hands me a wad of toilet paper. Again, I'm not going to lie it took me a minute or two before I figured out what just happened. I kind of stepped back and looked around confused until I saw people going in and out of the bathroom/servicio with their wad of toilet paper. Whoops!!! Unfortunately, I didn't have to use the servicio so the toilet paper went into the purse for future use. :)

One of the coolest things I purchased for my trip was a gorilla pod. It's like a mini-tripod that can wrap itself around things so it's quite handy. Here is a picture of my gorilla pod is use:

La escuela

Well, I just have to say that the school I'm staying at is absolutely gorgeous!! The grounds are one big garden with little mini-apartments and classes in-between the beauty. I will be staying here for two weeks straight with classes during the week from 8-4pm. The school is called San Jose el Viejo and you get some info here if you're so inclined, http://www.sanjoseelviejo.com/! I paid $275/wk for my Casita and $120/wk for full-day of one-on-one classes.

Here are some pics I took in and around the school:


- Here is a view from the school. The front of the school gates are the yellow building on the right.


- This is the view of the main school area. You can see part of the classes along with the side of the old church that is right next to the school.


- This is the San Jose church that is located next door.


- A view of the little classrooms.


- I was upgraded to a Fountain room the first week and it was gorgeous!

Took the long road

I finally made it to Guatemala and let me tell you, it wasn't easy. Well, it wasn't really hard but it wasn't easy either. I was flying out of Dallas to Mexico City and then onto Guatemala City.

To start, my flight out of Dallas was late so the three hour layover I thought I had in Mexico City was now down to an hour and 20 minutes. When I landed in Mexico City the flight attendent said I had to go through immigration, then customs, then the check-in counter. So, I rush to immigration to see a MASSIVE line. At this point I'm thinking, I've got to get to the front of this line or I'm screwed. Time to practice my Spanish. Me, con permiso, con permiso, excuse me, excuse me, habla espanol? habla espanol? Let me tell you, not a lot of folks spoke english or at least wanted to with me! Luckily, I was able to make my way to the front and get permission to stay in Mexico for 180 days, sweet.

From here I don't really know where I'm supposed to go. I ask another person and they say gate 31. Only the other side of the airport!! I hoof it there only for them to tell me I'm in the wrong place, that I need to go to F3. Panick attack ensues because I know at this point I have no idea where efe tres is and that I'm going to miss my flight. So, onto F3 by way of my asking about 5 people, donde esta efe tres? So, I finally make it there just as the airline worker was leaving saying my flight was closed. Of course.

After being escorted to the back of the airport in some small room I was finally able to get on a 9:45 flight. It was 1:20. But I'm happy, I'm going to be in Guatemala tonight, no worries. I can roam the airport and practice my Spanish.



Well, I didn't really practice my Spanish so much as lay in a corner and sleep for the majority of that time. One of my observations was that there must have been a serious futbol game on because the crowds in front of the tv screens were enormas! Even the airline person helping re-ticket my flight was interrupted a few times by the cheers on the tv. It was pretty funny, that and wondering how much $64 pesos was in American dollars for guacamole it was pretty uneventful. I did manage to get a kick out of my snickers chocolate bar by evidence of this photo:



Next up, mi primero dia in Guatemala (my first day in Guatemala for you gringos and I probably said it wrong just to show my gringaness)!

Adios,

Yessica

About two weeks till Guatemala

So, in about two weeks I will be on my way to Antigua, Guatemala for a two week vacation/Spanish education trip. This will be my first solo trip pretty much anywhere so needless to say I'm slightly terrified!!

The reason I picked Antigua, Guatemala was that it was recommended to me by a co-worker for not only being a great city but for being a great place to learn Spanish.

The thought of seriously becoming bi-lingual came to me about eight months ago and the thought is still lingering despite the reality of just how hard this goal is! So, I'm giving it my all! I've been studying on my own since the decision was made so this will be my first real shot at formal education. I will be taking Spanish classes 6 1/2 hours per day for the full two weeks with one-on-one instruction. Let's hope I learn something besides hablo un poco de espanol and no entiendo (I speak a little of Spanish and I don't understand)!

I do have an appointment to meet with a tutor (after three previously failed attempts) in a few days so hopefully she's good and can help me prepare for the trip so that terrified feeling isn't so intense!

Stay tuned!