Monday, Oct 5, 2009

No internet access on Sunday. I changed families on Saturday. The new family, Felix & Fransisca Gonzales live much closer to the school, buteh accomodations are not as good. I now have to share a bathroom and the food is no where near as good. Granted I have only had one breakfast (corn flakes) and one lunch (broccoli dipped in pancake batter and fried and a little tomato sauce on the side). I look forward to supper tonight, if it sucks too, I will start to eat out... The pictures are of my view, my bedroom, the guatemalteco bathroom (too short for me), the regular bathroom and the entrance to the bathroom.
Class is still good. I think I am having Spanish overload. I keep forgetting things I just learned (5 minutes ago). I think the secret is to learn a little, use it for a while, then return to learn a little more, etc. Only 4 more class days.

A Beautiful Bouquet for my Beautiful Wife

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009

I got to sleep in this morning, I woke up at 6:35... I was up, dressed, and out of the house by 7. I did not pack enough cargo shorts, so I was off to the "paca" to try to find a pair. The "paca" is a pick-up truck that comes to town every Wednesday and Saturday to sell used clothes from the U.S. They sell every thing for Q5, purses, jackets, pants, shirts, infants, chicldren, women, men, etc. They are intended for the poor people, but a couple of savvy business people figured out they can buy items for Q5 and sell them in their store for Q15 to Q50.
The people (mostly women) are like wild dogs on a bone, don'y get in their way they will bite... After being pushed, pulled, and shoved around by a bunch of 4'6" women, I called it quits without finding anything.
Next was breakfast, a banana smoothie and a homemade apple danish for Q23 (a little less than $3) and waited for yoga class. Q30 ($3.75) for one and a half hour yoga class with one instructor and only four students. The photos are of the yoga studio and both entrances.
Next is horse back riding, I think or maybe a swim, who knows???

Friday, Oct. 2, 2009

School, as usual, was great. I know 2 words very well; error (obviously error) and otra vez (again). Those are the 2 I hear about every other sentance...
The teachers & administrative staff at San Pedro Spanish School are great. If ask about something, it becomes their life ambition to help you with it. I really like my host family and their house, but it is so far away. When I asked if I could switch, I had three different "all over it". When I asked the shuttle to the airport on Saturday morning, I got a similar response. Selvin, the fellow who seems to run everything, sat down with me to figure out which shuttle, when & where, and arranged everything for me. Now THAT is service.
The pictures are of a couple of plants that grow around the school. They are like weeds here, but house plants at home.

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009, updated

The contrast is amazing. Beautiful country side and overcrowded little town, there are some rich people, and many poor people. To continue the contrast, lots of trash and lots of flowers. For the most part people seem to be happy and friendly. The only crime comes from the tourists who either won't, can't, or don't leave. They say if you leave something expensive lying around, it will walk off, but no one breaks in and steals. And there is no violent crime at all.

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

For breakfast we had a plain omlet (2 eggs, powdered milk, & chicken bullion) with 5 or 6 slices of tomato and a bowl of very runny, very milky, very bland oat meal and a glass of water.
For lunch for we had a half of a chicken breast (bone in) covered in a sort of BBQ sauce, but it was made with soy sauce and some sort of sweetener, with a pile rice, a bowl of chicken noodle soup (spaghetti noodles) and a little salad of sliced lettuce and shredded carrots, the dressing for all of the salads so far have been a wedge of lime...
Class is progressing well. Everyday I realize, more and more, how bad my spanish was. The pronunciations were about half wrong. Clemente, my teacher, is setting me straight though. I will post more pictures shortly.
My teacher, Clemente, went with me to get a cell phone today so I could call home more often. Everyone seems to have a "trac-phone" of sorts, no contract, you just buy minute cards and load them on to your phone. My phone was the cheapest they had, it cost $20 and came with 130 minutes per-loaded, plus another $12 dollars to buy an extra 300 minutes (special for the day). The minutes count as 2 if you call the states. So, I really got 215 minutes plus the phone for $32...

Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009

School is going great. I wish I would have paid better attention in english class though because I really have to struggle when they start talking about verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.
There is no activity tonight after conversation club, but there is a soccor game tonight at 8. All of the schools have soccor teams and they formed a little league and Wednesday is game day. My teacher, Clemente, invited me to go watch. It is only about a 20 minute walk away. Everything seams to be a 20 minute walk away. Yet, it is another chance to practice my spanish.
At lunch today, I could understand about half of the conversation between the host mother and the 2 Swiss guys (their spanish is very good), but I seem to be about a sentance behind.