Karin's Guatemala-trip
22nd Aug 2006First days of school, Guatemalan salsa-beer & much more.. Canīt believe Iīve only stayed here for two whole days, so much has happened!! Yesterday was my first day of school. Naturally got lost & went to the wrong school, filled in loads of papers, and didnīt start wondering until the teacher asked me to pay - Í had already payed for the whole time! So deeply embarrassed I finally found my way to the right school, where my teacher for the next 6 weeks, Jose, couldnīt stop laughing when I told him what have happened. The school is really nice, with a big courtyard, restaurant, nice Internetcafe etc. They have a lot of activities for the students (like salsa nights on wednesdays - gonna try that out tomorrow with a couple of other students) My teacher is really nice & funny, and laughs a lot..more often at me than with me, unfortunatelly, at my mix of english, spanish & french..itīs getting better though! I will be studying for four hours/ day, which is a lot, since most of the time weīre just speaking in spanish. The last half hour my head was so full of spanish I couldnīt think anymore..even started speaking swedish to my poor teacher! During the half hour break all the students meet up & chat, Iīve met a lot of new friends. Yesterday I went to a cosy little cafe with my Icelandic friend, Maria, where we tried out Guatemalan beer (yes, I hate beer, but Maria said that she had heard this is supposed to be increadibly good, so I gave it a try) It was like drinking a mix between salsa & hot & sour sause..groce! Again, the servents had a good laugh at the crazy foreigners. Today I went to another cafe with a swdish girl, a girl from Germany and Maria from Iceland, where we drank some huge raspberry-drinks which were reeeaaally good. Itīs amazing how cheap everything is here. The big drinks only cost about a dollar, 7 swedish crowns! Afterwards we went to a huge indoors-market where we were all stunned by all the colours, beautiful handmade weavings, paintings, sculptures carved out of wood, food & much much more. Didnīt buy anything though, even though everything seemed really cheap. I think itīs better to wait until I have exploared some of the other markets & can compare the prices. You also get things cheaper if you speak good spanish, and donīt act to touristy (which I havenīt really succeeded with so far running around like crazy with my maps, asking the very helpful people (sometimes to helpful - yesterday I had 10 different people arguing with each other about what way I should take to get back to the hotel) for directions. But Iīm getting there. One thing that is gonna take some time to get used to is the food, which is totally different from what Iīm used to. For breakfast Iīve had a lot of different fruits that Iīve never even heard of before, some kind of extremely sweet pourrage (not sure how to spell that..) and bread, without anything on them - no butter, no chease, nada. For lunch we usually eat some kind of soup, vegetables, beans & always tortillas (again, with nothing on them) and for dinner Iīve had some kind of pudding made out of corn served on palm-leaves. Very different, but itīs fun to try something new, and Iīm already getting used to it as well. Today I went to the bank to change some dollars into quetzales, and there were two fully armed guards in the door opening. They searched through my bag and everything! Doesnīt really make you feel a lot safer..but the students Iīve met so far at the school who have been here for a long time havenīt had any troublles so far. Itīs apparently a lot more safe in ANtigua now than it was a couple of years ago, but you still shouldnīt walk alone in the outskirts of the city, or after it gets dark, at around 7pm. As I said, Iīve met a lot of nice people here! I havenīt seen much of my hostparents, since they are very busy managing the hotel, but the sister & brother (theiīre both around 28 years old) have been really nice, and the sister always sits with me during the meals, just to chat. They donīt eat at the same time as me, I donīt really know why.. I also met a really funny guy from Jamaica, whoīs working at a perfume-store next to the school. Yesterday he had me try out all teh different perfumes and help him put prices on them, and then he gave me the one I liked the best! Heīs been travelling around in central & south America for 10 years!! Just working and travelling, itīs amazing..Iīm constantly meeting backpackers & people from all over the world with the most amazing travel-stories! Today I met some American guys staying at the same hotel as me who have been here for several years. Theiīre with the peace core, and have been volunteer working in a lot of small villages in Guatemala. They gave me a lot of advice on where to go and so on. Weīre all gonna go out tonight to a big, international bar tonight, so thatīs gonna be fun. Iīm glad Iīll have some company back to the hotel, itīs not safe walking alone during night time even if itīs only a 5 minutes walk. Yesterday night I had another interesting experience. At 8.30 pm, when I was in the middle of unpacking my stuff, all the lights in the hotel went of, and didnīt come back until 2 hrs later! So I had to use my cellphone-light to be able to get everything in order. This morning I asked my hostsister about it, and she told me they save electricity by turning of the lights a couple of hours each day. You never know when theiīre gonna do it though, so itīa nice surprise every day=) Tomorrow Iīm buying a flashlight..at least now I have an excuse for not doing my homework if I forget about it sometime or, like yesterday, fall asleep while trying to do it.. Now I gotta return to the hotel, gonna meet up with the americans in 20 mins. Oh, one more thing, if you would like to call me (yeeeee!!) you can call to my hostfamily in the evening or during lunchtime, when Iīm usually at home (lunch is at 12.30-1pm) Remember though, thereīs 7 hours difference compared to swedish time (that is, when itīs 1pm here, itīs 8pm in sweden) The phone number to my hostfamily is: 78321837 dunno if the country code is included or not..Iīll find out! You can also call to the school and ask for me. tel: 00 502 78327005. I finish class at 12.00pm, so if you give me a call at that time, or like 5 mins earlier, Iīll still be there. Llamame por favor!!=) Ok, now I really gotta go, hope youīre all doing great!! Thanks for writing on my message board, I really enjoy hearing from you all!! Me faltan mucho!! Gonna put up some more pictures soon too
|
| 1329 Words | This page has been read 91 times | View Printable Version |