Viernes 03/03/06 (I’m changing the dates from mm/dd/yy to the Guatemalan standard dd/mm/yy, but subtly on a day like today when nobody’d notice, crafty huh?)

Hoy es la dia tres de clase de espanol. I’m definitely learning a lot in Spanish class, but I’m really gonna have to spend some study time this weekend memorizing vocabulary. I’ve been pretty much just writing the new words down and focusing my evenings on the verbs and sentence structure, so vocab is my weak spot, although a lot of it is fairly obvious. My homework this weekend is to review the things we’ve covered so far, which are; llamarse, ser (origin), estar (animo), tener (familia), estar (localizacion), ser (descripcion), quien, gustar, tener, querer, ¿A que hora…?, y conecer plus all the vocab, which are a list of commonly used words, emotions that go with “estar”, family relationships, places and locations, physical descriptions, articles of clothing, days of the week, food (separate lists of staples, vegetables, and fruit), states of being that go with tener, months, and times of the day and year. It seems like a lot and it is, but I think it’s manageable. I don’t have a lot of other obligations right now, but I am hoping to get out for a little morning exploration both days over the weekend and tomorrow I’ll need to wash t-shirts and socks early enough in the day so the sun will dry them in the courtyard. I want to be well prepared with the topics we’ve covered the past few days because alejandra has already warned me that we’ll start in on piling on present tense verbs Monday, and I anticipate that’ll be some work, although pretty valuable stuff.

After class, I went to the Bagel Barn and checked my email and posted the first few days worth of this blog. I think I’m gonna have to resign myself to the Bagel Barn being the best wireless connection in town. I think I can maybe just upload and download email in the park during the day, even if the glare makes visibility difficult, and stop by the bagel barn every so often to upload this… we’ll see. I was happy that I’ll be able to post photos along with the text, I really wasn’t sure that the connection would be strong enough. As it is, it was strange being online and able to see the screen and able to get to web pages without losing waiting for minutes and usually losing the connection along the way. I was able to pay a little more attention to my chess move with bruce, than I have been, I was able to check in with grace, and I was able to read my emails instead of just downloading them for later viewing, which was a luxury, but not crucial. What I didn’t do was spend anytime clicking on any of the enticing headlines, I think I’m just gonna go ahead and let the world get along (or not) without me for awhile, I don’t really need to keep up on what’s goin’ on out there. let me know if anything big happens.

After that, I finished my book in the park, was hoping to run into jaron and nyama, I was going to give her the graham greene book, but I didn’t see them__ they might’ve already left town, I’ll carry it with me on my walk today though, just in case. I was so engrossed in the book, that I almost missed the procession carrying the jesus statue, but noticed the music just in time to walk over as it passed. I wished I had my camera, but I’ll remember next week, I think they do it every Friday during lent.

I came home and answered a few emails, which I’ll try to send off tomorrow from the park, or at least sometime this weekend. Then I went over to the burrito place and had a burrito and a beer. I watched Spanish subtitled Saturday Night Fever on the TV, and marveled at how young John Travolta used to be… time flies. I learned that according to the subtitles anyway, the Spanish for “far out!” is “fabulosa!” The movie didn’t hold my interest for too long though, or perhaps I would’ve added more words to my Spanish vocab list, instead I ended up talking with a Canadian couple who have been traveling since September and are about to head home. They encouraged me to check out san pedro when I get a chance, so I probably will__ my itinerary being pretty open to suggestion these days.

I had thought of going over to a bar after that, but the conversation kept me at the burrito place longer than I’d expected and so I just headed back here, deciding to save the bar for Sabado en las noches.

hasta pronto mis amigos.

Sabado 04/03/06

Alright, it’s really Sunday afternoon, but I didn’t get around to writing yesterday. I had a nice relaxing Saturday though. Headed out early, anticipating a sunny walk, but found it raining, which almost caused me to change my plans, but as it turned out the rain was a gentle misty kind of precipitation and simply felt like being sprayed by a refreshing full body spritzer. I wore my jacket because it was cool beneath the overcast sky, and a bit damp due to the sprinkles, but I had a very comfortable walk. I explored the southeast part of town, which I’d neglected until then. It’s home to a number of churches, which are majestic despite their dilapidations. First I found La Iglesia y Convento de Santa Clara which was built between 1702 and 1734, it has a beautiful little plaza in front of it with a raised walk and a fountain connected to a long row of centuries old cement wash basins that are still used for doing laundry. I wish Venice had something like it, it would save me from having to lug my duffle bag up to the Laundromat at Lincoln & Rose (or really, I guess it would just save michelle from having to lend me her car), as it is, we have a similar, but less ancient, rippled cement sink here in our own courtyard, where I’ve been discovering the simple joys of hand laundering__ brings out the amish in me. It helps to only have a few garments, thereby necessitating frequent launderings. The weather here is well suited to solar powered line drying, but I wonder what people do during the rainy season. Speaking of which, I didn’t take many photos on my walk because of the rain today, but I couldn’t resist snapping this shot of a horse and carriage out front of the convent.

From there I continued walking South, kind of aimlessly, because I hadn’t really read up on this stuff before heading off. I pretty quickly found La Iglesia de San Francisco, which was built in the 16th century and is also in pretty bad shape, but nevertheless still impressive. I bought some cashews and strolled around, I think I’ll go back some other day and spend more time there. Neither church survived the 1773 earthquake, which wrecked most of Antigua and brought an end to the city’s time as colonial capital__ rather than rebuild, the capital was moved to Guatemala City.

After that, I headed home, by way of Parque Central, where I stopped to relax and read up a bit on what I’d just seen. Once home I worked on my Spanish for awhile and then headed back out to explore. I walked North this time, because I had read that there is another little town a kilometer or so away and that there’s a hill with a good view of Antigua. The day being overcast, I wasn’t going to bother climbing the hill, but I wanted to check it out and also see what the other town (Jocotenango) was like. I had a nice walk and it was good to get out of Antigua a bit, but there wasn’t much of interest aside from more Guatemalan scenery, which was pleasant enough in itself, but not demanding of comment__ or maybe I’m hurrying through this a bit to get back out and wander around some more.

After that walk I headed back up to Parque Central and had lunch at a nice little restaurant with a pretty courtyard. The rain had let up for awhile, but I sat beneath the roof anyway. I had Tortillas Fundado con queso y ajo__ which, probably not surprising to most of you, was an interesting and enjoyable variation on the cheese sandwich.

After Lunch, I went back to my room, optimistically did a little laundry, although the rain soon returned, and finished my homework (mi tarea). Then I read for awhile and fiddled around with the new flash intro for my website, which I’d started last week in Venice, but hadn’t had time to finish.

In the evening, I walked over to the bar down the street and ordered a beer and was agreeably surprised to find that they were having a special deal, where they provided a complimentary small bottle along with the normal sized one__ so that was nice and kept me there for awhile longer than I’d planned. It’s a nice place for a beer and the people are friendly and it draws a sort of international travelers kind of crowd. I can see myself becoming a bit of a regular there, but I don’t think it will particularly help my Spanish studies much, there are quite a few English speakers there to distract me.

After the bar, I came back and went to bed, which explains why I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon. This evening I’ll try to write today’s entry, but now I’m off to look for some lunch (el almuerzo, don’tcha know).

Domingo 05/03/06

Happy birthday Brandon! Geez loueeze, you must be fifteen, where does the time go?

Sundays are big market days here in Antigua, so I wandered around, mostly just checkin’ it out, but keepin’ my eyes open for the perfect (or close to it) pair of flipflops. Not much to choose from, but that’s ok. Snacked on an bocadilla aguacate con tomate y lechuge. Got a little lost within the covered part of the market, but I’m starting to get my bearings in there… the trick is that you move away from the fish section and look for the shoe section and then you’re home free.

After the market I headed over to the park and downloaded my email, it took me three tries because I kept losing the signal and each time I have to start from scratch because the server doesn’t wipe the emails until the whole group has been downloaded… which is probably a good precaution, but makes it tough with temperamental connections. I think I’ve finally figured out that the bench to the southeast of the central fountain is the best place to sit for a good connection__ I’ll keep experimenting. Tomorrow I think I’ll go to the bagel barn, so I can upload this and post the new index page, etc for the website, I feel negligent still having the one advertising the show up there.

Spent some time copying down Spanish vocab words in the park and then came back here and read lonely planet for awhile, beginning to make plans for post-Antigua adventures. I don’t think I’ll stick around here after the end of the month. As tempting as the holy week/easter festivities sound, I think I’ll be better off getting on with seeing some of the rest of Guatemala… a month will be plenty of time for now in Antigua… I can always come back.

I caught up with yesterdays blog entry and then headed off in search of food. I wanted to try out a restaurant that lonely planet had mentioned. It was over in the southeast part of town that I had wandered to yesterday, but I decided to take a little different route so as to check out a few streets I hadn’t seen yet. It was a nice walk and a found what looks like a good bookstore just before I got to the restaurant, so I browsed around there a bit. Then went to the restaurant, but it was closed___ I don’t know if that’s a permanent thing or just Sundays or just today… hours do seem to be kinda random around here, and I can hardly complain about that. I decided to head over to ceviches mex (the burrito place by me) but I paused to write a note to myself about the bookstore. As I was writing it, I suddenly heard nyama’s voice behind me. It was good to see her, although I felt bad for not having the graham greene book to give her___ I think it was the first time I’d wandered the town without it since I’d finished it. Anyway, we talked on the street for awhile and then went into a restaurant which she’d already been to and knew that not only did they have good food, but also scrabble. So I had a burrito and a couple beers while we played a game of scrabble, it was a lot of fun.

After scrabble, I walked nyama back to her place and then began heading home, but almost immediately ran into the street procession, blocking the road like a slow moving ninety car freight train. It was worth the wait though, with Guatemalan roman legions, dressed in rag tag armor, walking rhythmlessly along in scattered and distracted formation, stopping to chat with friends or taking calls on their cell phones__ actually, the two, whom I saw talking on cell phones weren’t the romans they were the clergy, some dressed in royal purple, pointy-hooded cloaks that made them look frighteningly klan-like. The big float was carried precariously by twenty-five or thirty men and boys, it kinda tottered back and forth as it went, but they held tight and forebore bravely___ the float itself was magnificent with Christ carrying the cross as an angel looks on, both of them surrounded (appropriately from a Guatemalan perspective) by flowering corn stalks, one of the smaller floats was carried solemnly by black clad women, who seemed to take there duty much more seriously than the men (who seemed to be having quite a bit of fun getting to be the center of attention, and doing their spiritual duty all at once). This was all accompanied by a thick cloud of incense, and the music from a tuba heavy brass band marching (ok, wandering) to the beat of a snare drum, followed by (and somewhat drowning out) a man pushing a noisy electrical generator (to light the floats) on a three wheel cart spewing out puffs of black smoke that mixed surprisingly well with the incense. It was fantastic__ very carnivalesque in every way (oh, except I guess carnival was supposed to be over last week__ well whatever, these people seem to know what they’re doing). At the end came the municipal workers dressed in matching yellow shirts and armed with brooms and shovels, cleaning up the path and throwing la basura either directly into a dumptruck, or into the front shovel of a slow moving back hoe, which was bringing up the rear. It was wonderful, I can’t believe I went out without my camera. From the sounds of it though, I should have lots more chances even if I do skip town before holy week. Sum it up to say, these people know how to throw a lent!

By the time the parade was gone, I’d somehow gotten turned around, and it took me a little while to find my way, which was complicated by the sense of urgency I felt to pee after having my two scrabble enhancing beers. But, it all turned out fine in the end and I found my way back, peed, have typed this, and still have plenty of time to study a bit before bed.

Buenas noches.