This pic is the view from my host home of the Volcán de Agua (also known as Hunahpú by Mayans).
Sunday 7/21, my 1st full day in Antigua:
Well the other night (in my last posting), when I said I was
looking for an international restaurant, I ended up at a REALLY good steak
joint not far from where I was staying.
Got me an 18 ounce porterhouse with a baked potato and salad followed by
a cappuccino and Crème Brule with fresh strawberries for about US$20. That was the last meal I had to buy during
the week because my host family provides me with all 3 daily meals.
Day 1:
I’m enrolled at the Don Pedro de Alvarado Spanish School in
Antigua GT. My instructors are Corina (4
hours in the morning) and Bette (2 hours in the afternoon) I like them. I originally thought I would do 4 hours of
study a day but decided to change it to 6 hours, 8am to noon and 2pm to 4pm.
In the morning sessions of day 1 Corina was already trying
to teach me masculine/feminine/neuter genders of words and sentence
construction, without me learning that the words meant, so it was more that I
was being a parrot and repeating the sentence.
Not good! The afternoon session was
pronunciation of the alphabet and numbers, which was ok. I AM a little frustrated that I don’t feel
that I’m learning as easily as I used to. I was always a very quick study and
found learning easy. Not so much now it
seems. I don’t know if it’s my sedentary
lifestyle or just old age setting in. I
won’t let it discourage me though and will continue plodding along. Maybe at some point it will all just start to
click. I told them both that it wasn’t
what I expected to learn but I guess I wasn’t forceful enough to get the
curriculum changed. My host, Rene told me that if I need help he is always
available so that’s a bit of a boost.
I am living with a local family, Rene and Sysse Darce-Pineda
and they have a really nice house a 5 minute walk from the school. He is a musician (percussion mainly) and in
several bands here in GT. She is a stay
at home mom (11 year old daughter and 1-1/2 year old son…a surprise…) and she
sings in one of his bands occasionally. Three
other students are staying there as well and I like them too. Two of the have been here almost a month and
are leaving at the end of the week. All
three are from CA. We all have nice
private rooms with bath. We eat our 3 daily
meals with the family and Sysse is a marvelous cook!
Day 2 & 3:
I got more frustrated as days 2 and 3 went on and I was not a
happy camper! They are teaching me as if
I’ve learned Spanish somewhere and want to get better at conversational
Spanish. When I first arrived at the
school I told the office that I could as for a beer (cerveza) and the bathroom
(baño) and that was about it. I do
understand some common phrases like “how are you”, “my name is”, etc. I also told them I just wanted to learn the
basics for the time being so I could travel.
When I sat individually with my 2 instructors what I wanted to learn as
well. But most of the instructors here,
and I’ve learned it’s the same in the other dozen or so Spanish schools here in
Antigua, are not fluent in English. They
are not even proficient. I was teaching
them more English than I was learning Spanish!
I reiterated on both days what it was that I wanted to learn, and that I
wasn’t getting what I wanted. Finally at
the end of the morning session of day 3 I sat them both down and told them
again exactly what I wanted to learn. After
that conversation I was sure that they were now completely sure of what my
goals were and I was ready to get to work.
I'm looking for very basic “How do I…?”, “How much..?”, “Where is…?”, “I
want a (bus/train/plane/boat) ticket for…”, etc. so I can travel and ask and
look for things. I told them I’m not
looking for conversational Spanish right now.
I just want to be able to put a few words together and be understood. I don’t need all the “middle words for
example I’d like to ask where a particular hotel is and just say “Dónde hotel
(hotel name)”. In conversational Spanish
they would say “Dónde está el Hotel (hotel name)”. I just want to be understood and while it may
be broken Spanish the person that I speaking to will know what I’m talking
about. Later, as I move around the
Spanish speaking countries, I’ll pick up the verbs and pronouns and all
that. But for now it’s just emergency
and traveling Spanish. At least I’ll be
able to operate. Starting me off with
conversation Spanish at an intermediate level was not what I wanted because
it’s too much for me to try and learn in a short amount of time. They both said that they had some beginning
Spanish books and would bring them on Thursday.
Day 4:
Well they still didn't completely understand what I was
looking for Thursday morning but were closer to what I wanted in the way of
learning Spanish. I explained it one
more time to Corina and she finally understood. So the day because productive. I told Corina that on Friday I would have the
days of the weeks, months of the year, and numbers through 1000 down pat and
she could quiz me. Now…onward and upward!!!
Thursday July 25th was Antigua Day so there was a
parade down the streets and passed in front of the school so we all went out
and spent an hour enjoying it.
Day 5 (Friday 7/27)
I haven’t really mentioned it but I’ve had a real problem
with my knees, especially the left one, walking the very uneven streets and
sidewalks and climbing the tons of steep stairways since I got here. My knee problems are a double Navy injury
(1st injured in ’70 and reinjured in ’71) that I’ve lived with all these years
and have worn braces of several types over the years when I needed them.
Anyway I woke up Friday morning and couldn’t bend my left knee. Had a lemon sized cyst behind it. Went to a local Ortho Doc and had it x-rayed,
drained with a syringe, and was fitted with a knee brace with side stays so my
knee to keep it from moving laterally (sideways). I was ordered to bed until Monday with ice
and elevation so my host mom has been taking care of me, brining my meals to my
room. Depending on how I do on Monday
the school has offered to send my instructors to the house until I can handle walking
the streets again. We’ll see. I hope it doesn’t come to that! So I’ve been watching lots of movies and TV
episodes on my laptop to pass the time.
I’m almost finished with all 6 years of the Soprano’s. If I need more my daughter Carrie gave me all
11 years of Frazier, all 6 years of Oz, and all of Nurse Jackie too when I was
in Orlando for Christmas. Plus I have
about 150 movies on my 1terabyte external hard drive. It’s like I’m falling apart now. A couple days in the hospital in Orlando with
BP problems and the flu after New Years and now this. Up until now I’ve never
had any health problems since moving to Belize.
I guess I have to stay there from now on and let everyone come to visit
me! So it’s Sunday and I’ve been here a
week and haven’t really had the opportunity to go exploring yet.
As always practice peace.
Fatboy In Belize in Antigua GT out!!!
